What Do We Mean by “Internal”?
When people speak of the Chinese internal arts—Tai Chi Chuan (Taijiquan), Bagua Zhang, Xing Yi Quan, Liu He Ba Fa, and certain schools of Qigong—they are referring to practices that place the mind’s attention deep within the body. Whether approached as methods of self-defence or as lifelong tools for maintaining health, these arts share a set of guiding principles that encourage the smooth circulation of energy, or Qi, throughout the entire system.
What Makes a Martial Art “Internal”?
Internal martial arts differ from more “external” styles in a fundamental way. Instead of relying on muscular strength and brute force, they train the body to be at once soft and powerful, relaxed yet structurally dynamic. Power arises not from tensing muscles but from coordinated, whole-body movement—an approach rooted in a long, subtle science.
Where external systems might emphasise strong major muscle groups, internal practitioners learn to cultivate awareness of the fascia—the connective tissues that bind the body into a single, integrated unit. Over time, this produces an elastic, spring-like quality: the body moves like water coursing through a hose, or like a strand of pearls coiling and uncoiling. The result is strength paired with unusual flexibility and resilience.
The Internal Traditions
Tai Chi Chuan (“Supreme Ultimate Fist”), Bagua Zhang (“Eight Trigram Palm”), Xing Yi Quan (“Form-Mind Boxing”), and Liu He Ba Fa (“Six Harmonies, Eight Methods,” often called “Water Boxing”) each embody these qualities, though in different ways. Every system has its own methods, tactics, and flavour, yet they are united by their foundation in whole-body connection. Because of this shared base, there is a significant overlap in how they move, generate power, and approach both health and combat.
This isn’t to say that internal arts are automatically superior to external ones. Rather, they emphasise different things at different stages of training. Many external stylists begin with hardness and gradually discover softness as they mature. In contrast, internal arts start from softness—sometimes so much so that beginners may not even notice the martial intent beneath the slow, gentle motions of Tai Chi. This softness is what makes Tai Chi so accessible and enjoyable for people who practise it solely for its health benefits, never venturing into its combative side.
Power Hidden Within Softness
Yet the gentle appearance can be misleading. With consistent training of breath, posture, and mental intent, a Tai Chi practitioner may eventually uncover a coiled, dynamic, and even explosive type of strength. When needed, this power can be expressed at full speed without losing the underlying softness. In this sense, internal and external paths sometimes converge: both can lead to the cultivation of internal power, efficient energy use, and the capacity for sudden, focused force.
Beyond Combat: Other Internal Arts
These same qualities appear in non-martial internal practices such as Qigong. Here, the primary aim is not fighting but using the mind and intent to guide Qi through the body for health, vitality, emotional balance, and sometimes spiritual well-being. Because these practices also rely on internal awareness and the movement of Qi, they too belong to the family of internal arts.
At the heart of all these disciplines lie shared principles and a philosophical foundation rooted in Yin and Yang, and ultimately in Wu Ji (Wuji)—the undivided state represented in the well-known Tai Chi symbol. For this reason, these practices can be thought of collectively as the Tai Chi Internal Arts, different paths leading toward the same depth of understanding and the same source of internal power.
