A 'Taiji Zen Garden' Is The Quiet Peaceful Place Your Mind and Soul May Have Been Waiting For

About six centuries ago, a Taoist monk named Zhang Sanfeng was meditating in the mountains of northwest China when he witnessed a surreal fight scene. A hungry crane had swooped down on the ground and was attacking a snake, per RisingMoonTaiChi. While the crane attacked, the snake displayed defensive postures, twisting and bending to protect itself from the assault by the bird’s beak. The fighting scene prompted him to invent a “soft fighting” art form that could depict the battles a human goes through while on a spiritual path.

Called “Tai Chi,” the ancient art of movement represents the balance between Yin and Yang, the fundamental energies of duality that Taoism talks about. Lately, gardeners have been taking inspiration from this concept to distribute elements of Tao in their garden spaces. Jet Li, the Chinese actor and martial artist, has even created a full-fledged garden inspired by Tai Chi, sometimes called “Taiji,” as he described on Facebook. “Last week, I visited the Taiji Zen Garden in Hangzhou and saw my ‘Zen Tree’.  This is the tree I dedicated last year at the opening of the Garden.  It’s nice to see how beautifully things grow when we provide the right environment,” Li exclaimed.

What is Tai Chi?

According to Harvard Health, “Tai Chi” is akin to “meditation in motion” or “medication in motion.” It is a set of exercises intended to relax the body. The University of Tennessee describes that the word “Tai” refers to “Supreme,” and “Chi” means boundary. Clubbed together, the phrase Tai-Chi is used to illustrate a power that has no boundary, that is boundless.

Unlike other workouts or physical exercises, this form focuses more on relaxing the muscles than tensing or stressing them. The joints are not fully extended or bent, and the connective tissues are not stretched. The exercises, such as shoulder circles or rocking back and forth, are often accompanied by gentle breathwork or energy work. As the purpose of these exercises, a garden inspired by Tai Chi is created to evoke feelings of relaxation, serenity, and Zen.

Tai-Chi in gardening

Ideally, a tai-chi garden should whisper, hum, and echo the words of ancient Taoism. The essence of Taoism lies in the balance of yin and yang, the dual forces of nature. It is often interpreted by monks and spiritual seekers as the marriage of light, dark, hot and cold, action and inaction. When thinking about designing a taiji garden, you can take cues from this piece of understanding to sprinkle your space with the vibes of Tao-like equilibrium whilst evoking the feel of a Chinese cup garden.

Basic elements of a Tai Chi/Taiji Garden

If a taiji garden were likened to a painting, it would consist of elements like raised beds, berms, terraforms, soothing fern-like plants, ground covers, and flowering shrubs. When crafting furniture or supporting bolsters, wood is the best material. Wood smells of nature and provokes a sense of mystery. For fragrance and aesthetics, consider blocking patches to grow orchards, vegetable gardens, flower meadows, or water bodies

Think geometry

When planning the design, take into consideration the principles of balance and mystery. Architects dig into geometry concepts like the golden ratio to align the features of a garden masterpiece in divine proportions. And remember to design it in such a way that your garden receives a bear hug from the sun, because Tai Chi is best practiced in a place where there is a bounty of pure golden sunshine.

“To open the spiritual path towards a state of inner peace advocated by this ancestral art of Tai-Chi-Chuan, bio-based architecture and edible landscape merge in a single gesture, like the body and the mind, to represent a new showcase of Chinese Energetic and Martial Arts by interpreting this ‘Supreme Ultimate Boxing,’”  described Amazing Architecture.

Plan the color palette

Daryl Gannon Landscapes, an award-winning garden design and landscaping company based in Herne Bay, Kent, also shared some images of a Tai-Chi-inspired garden they had designed for a client. The pictures, shared in an Instagram carousel, showed elements like rustic tiles, wooden ledges, cushioned chairs, and slender planters. The entire setting seemed to be dipped in the color palette of greys, browns, and whites, adding to which there were pops of bright mango yellow, the green of the bushes and leaves, the tawny of the floor tiles, and the bursts of red and white in flowers.