Yang Family Tai Chi Discussion Board

This is some of the latest I have heard on the Yang family taiji spear it is very new information and I have found some links on the internet to confirm some of this information.

There is a Yang Taiji spear form that was taught to a few select students at the Nanjing Military Academy back in the 1920's and early 1930's. The academy had two divisions. One was the Wudang division that was directed by Yang Chen Fu. This was at a time when Yang Chen Fu had not finalized his taijiquan for the public. His taijiquan form at the time had more obvious coiling, much different than what is passed down in our current generation. One of those who learned and recorded the spear was Jiang Yueh Kueng, a martial artist from Hangzhou China, his notes still exist today with Madame Gao Fu in the Seattle area. Some information can be found- at http://www.wuji.com/jiangyukun.htm

In Hangzhou China, a student of Jiang Yueh Keung is Zhu Liang Feng. He carries on this tradition,and in America, Zhu Liang Feng's student Xianhao Cheng in Philadelphia Pa.
(www.taiji-outfits-gifts.com) teaches this form and has several hand written notebooks of Jiang Yeuh Kueng as well.


The spear form that was taught may have not had a name. What was recorded and practiced today is called 24 Yang spear.
http://www.geocities.com/ho_man72/24taijispear.html

matt



[This message has been edited by mls_72 (edited 04-02-2004).]

Good post mls_72. thank you for the info. Its worth checking out.

There is some information on the staff/spear
in Yang Chengfu's earlier book. Unfortunately the pictures are very faint in the copies you can buy today. I will see if I can post some information on it this weekend.

Chip Ellis, who studied with the Dong family, has done some work on the spear/staff forms shown in Yang Chengfu's earlier book. Here is a link to scans of the photos, which are way better than I can manage with the copy I have: http://www.chipellis.com/Pictures/Spear ... ar_set.htm Here is an essay by Chip on the Yang tradition spear: http://www.chipellis.com/Writings/TAIJI%20STAFF.pdf
His site, chipellis.com, has a lot of good stuff. Check it out

[This message has been edited by JerryKarin (edited 04-04-2004).]

Dong family solo spear is very similar to what the Fu Zhong Wen people were doing. That is single techniques basically put together in one form which they call "13 techniques". It is different from the 24 yang spear performed by Jiang Yueh keung's students.

The two person techniques of sticky spear amoung the Fu Zhong Wen people, Dong family, and Jiang Yue Keung's people is primarily the same.

matt

13 and 24 are also the numbers used in the two Wu family spear forms. They came through the Yang Pan-hou lineage, according to my Sifu.

Here is a link to a video of the late Ma Yueh-liang performing the 13 posture spear, which, with a few small differences in directions and other emphases, is essentially the same as the form I have been taught:

http://knave.stanford.edu/wutaiji/13spear.mov

good video. the resolution was a little weird but I could still see the form performance rather well.

Yeah, I know what you mean about the resolution. I'm glad that wall was behind him!

-P.

I have not been able to watch that Wu style taiji spear form in windows media player, quicktime, or real one player.

I havent seen the 13 wu spear form ,but my friend and former college professor Dr. Jon Shear teaches the 24 Wu taiji spear. It bears no resembleance to the 24 yang spear I am talking about here.

matt

Polaris,
Wow. Great link.
I've only ever seen one of the Toronto school students do the 13 posture form before.
I learned almost all these forms as individual practices for the spear, but at the Detroit school, at least eight years ago, we did not have a spear class in it's own right.
I may be able to thread this form together, there's only one posture I wasn't familiar with.
Thanks.

It should play in Quicktime (that's what my machine uses).

The 24 posture Wu family spear is much more complex than their 13 posture form, as it uses both ends for strikes.

There was a spear style called Yang Family 24 Flower Spear. But this is not the same as the Yang Taiji Family. They are not related at all. In fact this 24-spear predates Yang, Luchan by at least 250 years.

General Qi Jiguang published his book "New Book on Ji Xiao." In this book of a massive 18 volumes, he included the Yang Family 24 Flower Spear. The book was published back in 1562 during the Ming Dynasty.

("Spring and Autumn of Chinese Martial Arts -5000 Years"; Kang Gewu, 1995 PLum Publishing; Santa Cruz, CA)

("Taijiquan History and Development", Peter Lim Tian Tek; 2001, Wudang Martial Arts Center, www.angelfire.com/art/maa )