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Nei chia (內家, pinyin nèi jiā "Internal Family") denotes the internal, or "soft style" family of Chinese martial arts, in distinction to the wei chia (外家, wài jiā) or "hard style" school, which is associated especially with Shaolin Ch'üan (Shaolinquan) and its many derivatives. Traditionally, the three arts of T'ai Chi Ch'üan (Taijiquan), Pa Kua Chang (Baguazhang) and Hsing-i Ch'üan (Xingyiquan) are regarded as internal, although other styles also claim the designation.
The internal/external distinction was described in documents in the possession of T'ai Chi's Yang family from at least the second half of the 19th century, and was definitively categorized in the 1920s by the Chinese philosopher and martial artist Sun Lutang 孫祿堂 (1861-1932), although the principles of the internal school are certainly much older. According to Sun's classification, the principles defining an internal martial art are:
- Using the mind to coordinate the leverage of the body in relaxation is emphasized in distinction to brute strength.
- Internally develop, circulate and express ch'i (氣, qì).
- External movement principles applied from Taoist ch'i kung (氣功, qì gōng, also known as nei kung, 內功, nèi gōng or Tao Yin, 導引, dǎoyǐn).
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