Where did Chen style taijiquan originally come from?
The Chen family came from Shanxi province and settled in Henan in what is now known as Chen Village (Chenjiagou). Nine generations latter, they created Taijiquan. Some people postulate that they had some input from outside, possibly from xingyiquan, which was popular in the Chen’s place of origin. Others claim that there was substantial input from a visiting Wudang monk. Since a lot of historical evidence was destroyed during the Cultural Revolution, I don’t think we will ever be able to prove to the satisfaction of a historian which theory is correct, and I suppose it only really matters if you engage in ancestor worship. For practical purposes, whatever history you believe in, taijiquan today can all be traced somewhere along the line to Chen Village and the other villages that neighbor it.
