Yang Family Tai Chi Discussion Board

I would like to make a stage with Master Wu Ma Jiang Bao. Anyone that have practiced with him?

Wushuer did you know him or his lineage?

I'd like to know suggestions and comments how to start with Wu Style Taijiquan. This is my 6th year of YCF style practice so just at the first step of a long way. I would like to touch the Wu style cause is so related to Yang style. Is it right? Is this the right Master?

Thanks a lot
Cheers.
G.

G.M.,
Ma Jiang Bao is the son of the late Ma Yueh-liang and his wife, the late Wu Ying-hua, of Shanghai. Wu Ying-hua was the late master Wu Chien-ch'uan's daughter, which makes Ma Jiang Bao Wu Chien-ch'uan's grandson. Wu Chien-ch'uan was a close friend and colleague of the late masters Yang Shao-hou and Yang Ch'eng-fu, and the popularizer of what is today known as Wu style T'ai Chi Ch'uan.
Ma Jiang Bao is a competent and caring teacher, I have met him and his late parents, if you get the opportunity to study with him you should jump at it! I believe that he teaches mainly in Europe...
Best of luck,
Polaris

Thanks a lot Polaris.
Yes he have a school in Germany. Hope he will come to my country (italy) on of these days. There is a stage here in may of one of his instructors but I didn't like too much the way she practise (for what i see on her web site..looks a like a new age stage...hmmm).

Ciao
G.

G.M.,
I'm glad that was helpful.
One of the many reasons that dealing directly with the T'ai Chi families is usually the best way to go is that you can expect very practical instruction and avoid the "New Age" trap. However, New Agers are all over the place anymore...
Cheers,
P.

Sure. One of the most important thing i always keep in mind is to stay in the way. I mean is so easy to change our way of practice and to go away from the principles. For that every stage i do require a lot of energies, trying to focus my whole body to feel every thing i learn without losing a watchful mind to grab all i can. I do few stages but Wu Style and Ma Jiang Bao are really interesting.

Sorry for my bad english.
Cheers
G.

Sorry, I have not met the Master or anyone from that branch of the Wu family.
I studied under what would be the Masters cousins I believe, Wu Yan Hsia, Wu Tai Sin and their nephew Wu Kwong Yu (Eddie).
I would have to agree with the idea that if you can get instruction under this master, you should run, not walk, to do so. I have heard many excellent things about him and would love to have the chance to study under him myself.
Be prepared, your YCF experience may give you more problems with Wu style than help. I say this from experience, having come the other way from Wu style to YCF style. The frames are entirely different, as are most of the applications and theories.
If you go for Wu style instruction the best advice I can give you is this:
Empty your mind of anything you think you know about TCC. This is a whole different flavor of TCC and you will be asked to do things in an entirely different way. Some of the precepts that are written in stone in YCF style TCC are not even in existance in Wu style.
If you can clear your mind of these things and accept what you are being taught as different but still correct, than you will have avoided the trap I fell into for the last two years while training YCF style.
Good luck. I really do hope you get to experience Wu style under this master.

Oh, and the lineage given earlier in this thread is completely correct.
If this lady you speak of studied under the Master Wu Ma Jiang Bao and has his permission to teach, you will be receiving the genuine art. Her personal tastes may lie in the new age direction, this is not unusual, but her teaching of Wu style TCC will be accurate and training under her would likely be the only way to get genuine Wu style in your area.
I'll tell you what. I studied under one of Wu Kwong Yu's (Eddie's) Disciples for about two years that I really did not like. Still don't. She was abrasive, rude, crude, and about as new age as you can get.
Let's just say, we didn't like each other very much.
The Disciple I started training under had to move elsewhere for a while and this lady took over.
I hated it.
In fact, I can honestly say this girl was single handedly responsible for the collapse of the Academy I attended. All but about six of the students who attended the Academy quit, flat out, after just a few months due to her awful, awful personality.
But some of us perservered and we did learn genuine Wu style TCC under her instruction.
Why did we stay?
For the art we loved. No other reason.
When our first Disciple returned he rebuilt the Academy. Some of the old students returned, most did not, and we moved on.
I don't regret training under this person, because I was not there for her, I was there for me. I wanted to learn and keep going forward with Wu style TCC, and so was willing to put up with this socially ignorant, awful to be around person for a good long time rather than not keep up with the art that I had learned to love.

Anyway...
My advice is, if you are interested in Wu style and have a path to the art that is as pure as this one sounds....
You really should go for it.
Otherwise, stick with the YCF Center you are with now and keep up with your training in this wonderful aspect of TCC.
Either way, you're getting the genuine article from two different, but equally legitimate branches of the TCC tree.

Good luck and good practice.

[This message has been edited by Wushuer (edited 04-24-2003).]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR><font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Polaris:
<B>G.M.,
Ma Jiang Bao is the son of the late Ma Yueh-liang and his wife, the late Wu Ying-hua, of Shanghai. Wu Ying-hua was the late master Wu Chien-ch'uan's daughter, which makes Ma Jiang Bao Wu Chien-ch'uan's grandson. Wu Chien-ch'uan was a close friend and colleague of the late masters Yang Shao-hou and Yang Ch'eng-fu, and the popularizer of what is today known as Wu style T'ai Chi Ch'uan.
Ma Jiang Bao is a competent and caring teacher, I have met him and his late parents, if you get the opportunity to study with him you should jump at it! I believe that he teaches mainly in Europe...
Best of luck,
Polaris</B></font><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR><font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by TaijiRen:
</font><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Hi there, Master Ma Jiang Bao's Mother, grandmaster Wu Ying-hua is one of the best Taijiquan Players and Teachers I have met. I bet Master Ma Jiang Bao could be a good teacher too. To me, his Father, Master Ma YuehLiang may be the best Push-Hand player I have met(I have more than 30 years expericence of Taijiquan). If I am not wrong, Ma Jiang Bao is a health professionals, he is a doctor in China (M.D.).