The Tai Chi Classics is a corpus of old texts in classical Chinese ascribed to various past masters, both mythical and historical.
Together they form the original theoretical framework of Taijiquan. Some of the most important texts are of murky origin and diffucult to date. Sometimes the same text is ascribed to different authors. Sometimes the contents are shuffled around by well-intentioned editors. This is what will happen, when manuscripts are copied and passed on over generations.
There
is both great honour and clout to gain by being able to claim direct
heritage of the originial source of Taijiquan, so various groups have
been trying to promote different origin stories of the Classics. Here is an article by Douglas Wile that sums up the history and introduces the latest twists of this ongoing discussion.
If you want to dig deeper into translation considerations and literary context of Classics, Lee Fife has written a comprehensive introduction to the the Classics including translations and commentaries. You can find it here.
Similarly,
Barbara Davis has written a brilliant comprehensive introduction to the
Classics, also with translations and notes. That one you'll have to buy for yourself.
Most of texts are quite short, compressing much information into relatively few characters, and are probably meant to support an oral tradition, which is hard to find anywhere today.
This is why they can be difficult to translate, and different translations will vary, reflecting the individual translator's interpretation of the principles and their general understanding of Taijiquan. Very often, the translations are accompanied by extensive commentary, adding another layer of interpretation on the original text.
But to get as close as
possible to the original meaning of the text, I think it is better to
compare different translations of the actual text and avoid the
commentaries altogether.
About
a handful of the Classics are more prominent than the rest. Below are multiple translations of some of those - without
commentary. The translations have been very slightly edited in order to facilitate comparison.
Zhang San Feng - Treatise on Taijiquan
Five translations of the text next to each other
Translations by Paul Brennan, Douglas Wile, Lars Bo Christensen, T.T. Liang, and Waysun Liao.
Five translations of the text next to each other
Translations by Paul Brennan, Douglas Wile, Lars Bo Christensen, T.T. Liang, and Waysun Liao.
Explanation of the Thirteen Movements
Five translations of the text next to each other
Translations by Paul Brennan, Douglas Wile, Lars Bo Christensen, T.T. Liang, and Waysun Liao.
You can find more translations of the Classics in various places on the internet - for example here, here, and here.
Just be sure to distinguish clearly between the actual Classics and the commentaries.
