Wu Style Taijiquan
The Wu style of Taijiquan originated with Quan You ( 1834-1902 ) who was a military official in the Manchurian army of the Qing ( Ching ) dynasty. Quan You had learned Taijiquan from Yang Lu-Chan ( 1799-1872 ) who was employed by the Manchurian army as a martial arts teacher.
It was Yang Lu-Chan who brought Taijiquan to Beijing from Chenjiagou, the Chen family village in Henan province where the art had been held by the Chen clan since at least the mid 1600's. Many of Yang's students were high ranking officials in the army or members of the royal family. Of Yang's students at that time there were three Manchurians who received the essence of Yang's teachings. Wan-Chun, who reached high levels in the use of hard internal energy, Ling-Shan who was noted for his use of soft energy and Quan-You, who was highly skilled in the use of neutralizing or transformational energy. Because Quan-You was only a low ranking official, his name was not inscribed on Yang Lu-Chan's tomb stone as one of Yang's students, but instead was recorded as a student of Yang Ban-Hou ( 1837-1892 ), one of Yang Lu-Chan's sons.
Wu Jian-Quan and the Southern School
Quan-You had three primary disciples : Ji's son Wu Jian-Quan ( 1870-1942 ), Wang Mao-Zhai ( 1862-1940 ) and Guo-Fen ( aka Song-Ting ). Wu Jian-Quan maintained a close relationship with the Yang family in Beijing and trained extensively with Yang Lu-Chan's grandson Yang Cheng-Fu ( 1883-1936 ). Wu Jian-Quan revised the art he had inherited from his father to some degree, due in part to his close association with the Yang family.
In 1928, Wu Jian-Quan moved to Shanghai in South China, where in 1932 he founded the Shanghai Jian-Quan Taijiquan Association for the purpose of popularizing Wu style Taijiquan. Wu Jian-Quan's efforts were very successful. Wu style Taijiquan soon became the most popular style in Shanghai. Because Shanghai was an open seaport, Wu style Taijiquan soon spread to Hong Kong and other areas, eventually arriving in Hawaii and Canada. Wu Jian Quan's daughter Wu Ying-Hua and son-in-law Ma Yueh-Liang continue Wu Jian-Quan's traditional teachings in Shanghai today.
The Hong Kong School
Wu Jian-Quan's two sons, Wu Gong-I and Wu Gong Zao established another branch of Wu style Taijiquan in Hong Kong which led to the spread of the system throughout Asia with additional schools in Macau, The Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia and eventually Canada.
The Northern, or Beijing lineage
It is said that Wang Mao-Zhai, who was a highly skilled martial artist in Beijing, pursued Quan-You for three years in an effort to learn Taijiquan. During this time, he reportedly learned only one posture from Quan-You, the Golden Pheasant stands on one leg. Impressed by his sincerity and perseverance, Quan-You then taught him the rest of the Wu style of Taijiquan. After twenty years practice, Wang Mao-Zhai's achieved high skill in the art.
Wang Mao-Zhai's primary disciple was Yan Yu-Ting ( 1887-1982 ). He was a well-respected and active teacher in Beijing for many years. He held the vice-chairmanship of the Beijing Martial Arts Association at the time of his death at age 95. Yang Yu-Ting is noted for his emphasis on the standardization of postures and for his popularity as a teacher who passed his art on to many students in Beijing, including Wang Pei-Sheng, Li Jing-Wu and Li Bing-Ci.
Wang Pei-Sheng, who is noted for his expertise in self-defense applications of Wu style Taijiquan, is actively teaching in Beijing today. In his book Wu Style Taijiquan ( Zhaohua Publishing House, Beijing, 1983 ), Wang Pei-Sheng presents the 37 posture abridged form of Wu style Taijiquan which he developed in the early 1950's. He has many students in Beijing including Leng Xin-Fu and Liu Chang-Jiang, both of whom are the author's teachers.
As mentioned previously, Quan You, who was the originator of Wu style Taijiquan had another highly skilled disciple named Guo-Fen ( aka Song-Ting ). Little is known about this man other than that he passed his art down to Dong I-Chen, who in turn taught Liu Chang-Jiang, one of the author's teachers. Liu Chang-Jian believes that Dong I-Chen possessed superior understanding of the esoteric, internal aspects of Quan You's teachings. Neither Guo-Fen nor Dong I-Chen are well known in Beijing, but their genealogical closeness to Quan You is significant.
Characteristics of Wu Style Taijiquan
Perhaps the most significant aspect that distinguishes the Wu style of Taijiquan is its emphasis on the application of nei gong ( internal work ) in developing the postures. Borrowing from traditional Chinese medical theory, the chi is guided by the " I " ( mind- intent ) to travel throughout the body along the well known acupuncture vessels and the outward postures are developed through the concentrated use of the mind in visualizing the connecting and separating of vital points through the body. A colorful and varied catalog of images and metaphors assists the student in accomplishing this inner work.
Movements in the Wu style of Taijiquan are relatively small and compact, emphasizing the manipulating of connective tissue in opening and closing the joints rather than employing the expansive postures which characterize the Yang school. This concentration on inner movement helps to encourage an internal rather than external focus, hence, Wu style Taijiquan is studied as an internal art even in the initial stages of training.
Characteristics of the Beijing Wu School
While Wu Jian-Quan was spreading his version of his father's art in South China, Wang Mao-Zhai and Guo-Fen continued Quan You's tradition in Beijing. Because Wu Jian-Quan modified the posture sequence and, to some extent, the individual postures themselves. It may fairly be stated that the southern Wu school is that of Wu Jian-Quan, while the northern or Beijing school is that of Quan-You, his father. Following the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949, Wu style Taijiquan in Beijing was not subject to outside influences, and so a degree of consistency was maintained in transmitting the art from teacher to student. This uniformity was vigorously encouraged by one of the style's foremost exponents, Yang Yu-Ting, who was teaching actively for about 40 years. Consequently, most practitioners of Beijing Wu style Taijiquan today execute the postures very much as Yang Yu-Ying did, at least from the standpoint of outward appearance.
Specific qualities which distinguish the Beijing Wu style are as follows :
David F. Dolbear has been fortunate to have studied Beijing Wu style Taijiquan since 1980 from Leng Xin-Fu, Liu Chang-Jiang, Lu Sheng Li, Zhu Xilin and their teacher, Master Wang Pei-Sheng
Entire contents Copyright © 2008 David Dolbear, Syracuse, N.Y.. All Rights Reserved.