Yang Family Tai Chi Discussion Board

I keep hearing about other forms of Yang Style Taiji that were allegedly taught by Yang Shou Zhong to Ip Tai Tak, Gin Soon Chu and a few others and they are calling it Snake style and Tiger style and various animal styles. Now my sifu knows nothing about this but he was not a student of Yang Shou Zhong he was a student of Tung Ying Jie.

Are there other animal forms of Yang style Taijiquan that were taught by Yang Chengfu to Yang Shou Zhong and then to others?

This is where I first saw this and what caused me to check it a bit more and then lead me to post the question

http://www.iptaichi.org/

http://www.iptaichi.org/snakestyle.htm

I will say from my POV it does not seem likely that Yang Shou Zhong taught anything called Snake style or system but tnen I am in the Tung line not the Yang Shou Zhong line.

This page has a reference to a book _Tai Chi Chuan Revelations: Principles and Concepts_ (p. 172) by Ip Tai Tak which is said to contain more information about the animal forms.
http://www.ritaichi.com/FormsofTaiChiChuan.htm

I'd be interested to hear what you find if you get a chance to research it.
-Jamie

One would imagine that if someone claims he learnt Yang styles animal forms from a Yang family that it would be present in the lineage! Apparently not so in the real world as far as logic is concerned.

While I'm no expert, I have done a couple workshops with John Ding (also a disciple of Ip), who described the difference of Crane, Tiger and Snake the same way as Robert Boyd does at his website. Essentially, high, medium, low. It is interesting though, that Robert Boyd continues with this --

"The Snake Style of tai chi requires great flexibility of the spine, hips, rib cartilage and internal muscles of the abdomen and upper thoracic ribs and back. The serpentine movement of the snake style moves the center of gravity using 'core' muscles. These core muscles strongly root the foot at the completion of each posture, sending powerful jin energy through the spine to the hands. The result, over time, is the legendary 'iron in cotton' phenomenon that gives speed, power and sensitivity to the hands and arms. This is the key to the successful use of tai chi in self-defense." --

-- as it seems to me that is what all Tai Chi Chuan should be about and as it is described in the Classics.

I also remember learning that for each frame height (ie- high, middle, low), there are three frames sizes (large, medium, small). If you were to work with all of the combinations possible, there would be 9 variations of form. An example might be Low Posture/Large Frame or Middle Posture/Small Frame. I can't remember where I learned that now, but it always made sense to me.

Aidren

This is now making more since if you call it low, medium high or equate it to large, medium and small frame.

And from what I understand John Ding was Ip Tai Tak’s number 1 disciple so I think I will go with his thought on this

Now I will have to see if I can find a copy of Ip Tai Tak’s book

Thanks everyone for the help



[This message has been edited by T (edited 03-04-2008).]