It is often said that if you give a man a fish you will feed him for a day but if you give him a rod and show him how to fish he will be able to feed himself for the rest of his life, providing of course that he doesn't overfish or pollute the water. So perhaps even this is insufficient, a higher level of understanding is required for the man to be truly self sufficient.
Most modern martial arts follow these two formulae, At the beginning levels they show people techniques for fixed scenarios which will rarely ever happen in reality, this is like giving the man a fish. At the higher levels , once they have reached the much coveted black belt they become like the man who has been given the rod and now knows how to fish in a lake. As they progress through the Dan grade levels they learn how to fish in rivers, seas and finally the ocean and catch bigger and bigger fish. But at the end of it all they have only learnt how to fish. Fishing becomes problematic when there are sharks in the water, so the only solution for the majority is to play it safe and keep to their own fishbowls.
Unlike most martial arts Taijiquan does not concentrate on techniques. From the very beginning the aim of the art is to understand the method. The method is easy to rationalise but hard to incorporate. People find it much easier to attach to techniques, something concrete that can be practised. But within each technique is the same method, without an understanding of the method the technique is not Taijiquan. Any technique that is practised using the method is Taijiquan, whatever anybody says.
There are some who think that only the movements in the empty Hand Form comprise the totality of Taijiquan techniques. This is not the case, many techniques exist that come from the weapon forms, the Nei Kung training and from specialist inside the door training. From my own personal experience techniques have manifested themselves in accordance with the situation just by utilising the method.
The method is hard to learn, it requires a great deal of dedication, practise and study. It requires much body conditioning and thus daily practise is a prerequite. The Hand Form provides a basis for the correct posture and smooth continuous movement; the Internal Strength, the foundation of resilience and power ; the pushing hands, an understanding of the method; the practise of techniques the utilisation of the method; the weapons , a deeper understanding of the method.
There is a syllabus, but knowing the syllabus does not confer knowledge of the method. It is possible to know all the techniques, all the pushing hands styles, all the weapon forms, all the nei gung and still be ignorant of the method. Knowledge is not understanding. There are those who who can do it but cannot explain it, there are others who can explain it but cannot do it, there are very few who can do it and also explain it, even fewer who can pass it on. It also seems that nowadays there are very few who really want to learn it.