Yang Family Tai Chi Discussion Board

Greetings All, Hard hats indeed! Just my 2 cents, but at least this is a worthwhile discussion, I feel, of what we all do and how we try to do it. Ron, And thank you for explaining the reasons why you don't lean! You are not alone in your opinion, although your fears as regards leaning are unjustifi...

Greetings all, Darn, a lot of the points we are debating are only misunderstandings on a two dimensional message board! In person they would be as easy as 1, 2, 3 to demonstrate for you guys... Ron first, The head is suspended in the Wu style lean, directly up from the spine. It isn't vertical relat...

Ron, The reference to "not leaning" is a common misconception from many people who may only see small bits, a few photos here and there or an inexpertly trained "practitioner" or two, of the Wu family curriculum. Since the major styles of T'ai Chi all have inclinations of the tor...

Greetings, The term "Double weighted" as I understand it, is only tangentially related to weight distribution. One can have all of one's weight on one leg, but still be double weighted. Conversely, one may be 50-50 in weight distribution, as in Horse Stance, yet be completely single weight...

Louis, Audi, Thanks, that is helpful. Wu Baoxiang with those characters isn't listed as a disciple of Wu Chien-ch'uan, but I'm pretty sure that the person in the photos is, and a senior disciple at that. So either the list I have is incomplete (always a possibility!) or it is someone else. I'll try ...

Hi Louis, Does your book specifically identify the gentleman with the glasses as Wu Baoxiang? I've seen him in other photos as well, and he was very highly ranked in the Wu family system apparently. I've been meaning to find out his name for a while. I will have an opportunity in a couple of weeks t...

As Jerry says, it is all in how you count the moves. The number 108 was used in the old days just because it was easy to remember. The number itself is pretty arbitrary. The Ch'an Buddhist rosary, the nien chu, had 108 beads, and people would go over the forms in their head or say the form names out...

Louis, Are the photos set in a small courtyard, and are we looking at the two of them Pushing Hands in front of two low (4' or so) stone walls that right angle into each other behind them? Also, are there one or two potted plants (they look like hibiscus) about the same height as the wall up against...

Louis, I haven't heard of Wu Baoxiang before, but the combination of arts that he studied does ring a bell. After moving to Shanghai in 1928, Wu Chien-ch'uan was appointed the supervisor of the T'ai Chi Ch'uan division of the Ching Wu Athletic Association. Ching Wu was founded in 1909 by Hou Yuan-ch...

All, Yes, I find YZD's forms to be a quite solid representation of YCF's version of TCC. I often use quotes of YZD, things he has said in various magazine interviews as examples for my students of how a traditional, respectable teacher and practitioner will present themselves. Not just for what he s...

R.K. & W., The report on Ma Jiang-bao is interesting. The Hong Kong Wu style doesn't emphasize turning from the waist at all. At first, their torsos stay unitary and all movement is led from different combinations of the ball and socket joints in the hips. Later, there is a limited flexion in th...

Well, Bart Saris is the most famous European student of Ma Jiang-bao, which makes him orthodox Wu style, and has the reputation of being a good, friendly teacher. This means his lineage comes through the Shanghai branch of the Chien-ch'uan T'ai Chi Ch'uan Association. Not all disciples of the Wu fam...

In 1914, Wu Chien-ch'uan was asked by Yang Shao-hou and Yang Ch'eng-fu, through an intermediary, Hsu Yu-sheng , if he would care to teach at the school they were setting up under the auspices of the new Nationalist govt. in Beijing. Wu Chien-ch'uan accepted, and Sun Lu-t'ang also joined the faculty....

Denise, There is a story of a student who wanted to study with a famous teacher. When the fellow was granted an interview with the teacher he began to rehearse how much he already knew about the subject in question and how he was sure that he'd work very hard and learn the entire subject forward and...

Wu Chien-ch'uan was only 3 years old in 1873, the year Yang Lu-ch'an passed away.