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Post by chefying on Oct 29, 2014 15:40:25 GMT
This panel talked mainly of when Taiji was introduced into PingYao (it was the Yang School of Taiji) in the 1930's by Zhang, the master of a PingYao local, An Wen Fu (picture top left corner of the panle). It then describes how Tien, in nearby city of Taiyuan, learned Yang Style Taiji from Mr Yang, etc. After all that, I could not find a link between all other characters mentioned and both Zhang and An Wen Fu.
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Post by chefying on Oct 29, 2014 15:46:34 GMT
The left panel merely states that as time passed, Taiji had developed into five major schools, being Chen 陈, Yang 杨, Wu 武, Wu 吴 and Sun 孙. The right panel discusses the Chen Family school of Taiji. The Chen Style Taiji is an old style, and is separated into the Old Stance and the New Stance. The Old Stance was created by Chen Wang Ting 陈王廷 in the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, and originally was of five Sets, and is also known as 15 Movements.
The New Stance is split into two styles. One style is created by Chen YouBen 陈有本 (martial artist from ChenJiaGou 陳家沟). The villagers of ChenJiaGou refer to this style as “Minor Circle Fist” 小圈拳, thus rendering the Old Stance as “Wide Circle Fist” 大圈拳.
The second style of the New Stance stemmed from Chen QingPing. 陈青萍, a disciple of Chen YouBen. Chen Qing Ping’s variation on this New Stance (became popular and) spread out from the town of ZhaoBao 赵堡(Chen QingPing lived there), hence this variation became known as the ZhaoBao Stance.
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Post by chefying on Oct 29, 2014 15:53:25 GMT
The upper panel discussed the Yang 杨 Family style of Taiqi, the lower panel is about the Wu 武 Family Style. The Yang Style Taiqi was founded by Yang LuChan 杨露禅 who learn Taiqi from the Chen Family in ChenJiaGou. The people at that time referred to Yang’s variation as Zhan Mian Chuan 沾绵拳 (touching cotton fist), and Ruan Quan 软拳 (soft fist) as well as Hua Quan 化拳 (dissolving fist).
Yang LuChan’s grandson, Yang DengFu 杨澄甫 further revised the Yang Style and it began to be known as the Yang’s Wide Stance Style 杨式大架子. The distinctive features of the Yang’s Wide Stance Style are that it has clear spreading moves, its movements flow smooth, has hidden strength in its apparent soft moves, natural dips and rises. It trains the steps from loose to gentle, and accumulates the gentleness to create firmness; it is the combination of gentleness and firmness that naturally expresses grandeur. It is these graceful moves that are characteristic of the Yang Style.
I understand that old man Yang learned Taiqi from the Chens, but the Chens did not teach him. The Chens would teach the sons but not the daughters, the daughters-in-law but not the sons-in-law. This was to prevent non-Chens from learning their Taiqi. (Daughters-in-law are married into the Chen family, hence they qualify to learn.) The lower panel discussed the Wu 武 Family style of Taiji. During the end of the Qing Dynasty, Wu YuXiang 武禹襄 of Hebei Province, learned Taiji from Yang LuChan 杨露禅. Wu managed to fathom well Yang’s ideas of Taiji, after which he then studied the Chen Family’s New Stance Taiji. Wu also managed to obtain the “Taiji Fist Manual” 太极拳谱 from WuYang District 舞阳县. In this way, Wu practiced his Taiji incorporating “Ten Critical Physical Points” 身法十要 with great success, thus creating the Wu Style Taiji.
The distinctive features of the Wu Style Taiji are its precise movements, compact postures, relaxed movements, strict foot positioning and clear distinction between the feigned and the actual.
Note:- This panel did not explain who wrote the “Taiji Fist Manual” but I think it was the Chen Family who did it. Also, I am not too sure about my translation of the last part "clear distinction between the feigned and the actual" - are they talking about the strikes? If I were fighting, I would not want my feigned movements to be clearly defined. The whole point of the feigned movements is to distract the opponent and then attack him unawares.
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Post by chefying on Oct 29, 2014 15:56:48 GMT
Forumer yenchin had this comment on the TaiJi panels.
The "official" story of how Yang Lu Chan learned Taiji is that he basically peeked on Chen Chang Xing (陳長興), a master of Chen Taiji, teaching his students. Later when Yang was discovered, Chen was not angry, instead asked his students to test Yang. They were all defeated, Chen was happy and accepted him as his disciple.
The novel "Fist Stealing" (偷拳), also known as "The Cicada Suprisingly Steals the Style" (驚蟬盜技), written by Bai Yu (白羽) is based on this story. I think there are some other works (movies, series) out there too but I'm not sure (the latest being "Taichi 0"?? Haven't watched it.)
Of course, this story is also not without flaws like how someone learns a martial art without personal guidance, why the Yang Style is quite different from Chen Style, and Chen's questionable origins of his Taiji adding in the mystery. But anyways...
The "clear distinction" is to describe the weight bore upon the feet. A characteristic of some Taiji styles is the emphasis on the distribution of the body's weight mainly falling on one foot, as opposed to most martial arts which are roughly in a 3:7 distribution. The purpose is that the weight is now much focused in a center, enabling the body to act around this center like a circle, or, Taiji.
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Post by chefying on Nov 9, 2014 10:35:53 GMT
During the end of the Qing Dynasty, a Manchurian from Hebei Province by the name of Quan You 全佑 initially learned the Yang Style Wide Stance Taiji from Yang LuChan 杨露禅, then learned the Yang Style Minor Stance from Yang LuChan’s second son, who is known for his gentle, fluid style.
It so happened that Quan Zhuo’s son, with the given name JianQuan 鉴泉, adopted the Chinese surname Wu 吴.
Wu JianQuan continuously disseminated his Taiji without bias, and this style became well known. In time, there were some modifications to the Wu style and people began to refer to it as the Wu Style Minor Stance, which is the present day Wu Style Taiji.Meanwhile, the bottom panel said thus:- During the end of the Qing Dynasty, there was a man from the Province of Hebei by the name of Sun Lutang 孙禄堂 who liked martial arts. He first studied XingYi Style 形意拳 then the Eight Trigram Palm 八卦掌. He studied diligently and practiced hard, and had a deep understanding of the fighting styles. In the early days of the Republic, he started to learn Taiji. Sun Lutang analysed the advantages of the various schools of fighting arts and amalgamated them, creating the Sun Style Taiji Style. He also wrote the books “The Study of Taiji Fighting Style” 太极拳学.
The distinctive points of Sun Style Taiji is that its strikes and retreats follows each other, lively and rounded sweeping moves, agile moves, constant change in direction of activity and the antagonistic expansive and contractive moves. As such the Sun Style was given the sobriquet KaiHe HuoBu Taiji 开合活步太极拳 – roughly translated as Expansive and Contractive Lively Footing Style of Taiji.
A book by the name “Sun Style Taiqi” 孙式太极拳 was published in 1957.
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Post by chefying on Nov 9, 2014 10:38:57 GMT
With reference to the above post, forumer yenchin made this comment:
There is a story behind this. Based on accounts from Wu JianQuan's son in law, as well as the semi-fictional novel, Legends of the Gallant Heroes of Recent Ages , Wu QuanYou was almost an equal to Yang BanHou (Yang LuChan's second son), causing the Yangs to worry about having competition in teaching Taiji. Therefore they used some methods, such as Yang LuChan requesting Wu to be Yang BanHou's disciple, as well as Yang LuChan whispering "the great secret of Taiji" to Yang BanHou in front of his students before passing away to ensure their monopoly.
Wu QuanYou was aware of the Yangs' concerns and refused to accept students besides teaching his son. However, "something happened" (account from son in law) when he was 60 and he decided to teach from that day.
In the novel, it is written that one day Wu QuanYou was helping some friends in a dispute and some hoodlums ganged up on him. They couldn't fight him in a fair manner so they tossed lime sand in Wu's eyes and eventually Wu was beaten badly. While at his sickbed waiting to die, a taoist visited the family, telling Wu JianQuan that another taoist sent him to give Master Wu a medicine. When the elder Wu heard this at his sickbed, he was delighted and said Zhang SanFeng has sent him a special cure. The elder Wu climbed up, did some worshiping to thank Zhang SanFeng and the masters of his lineage, then took the medicine and recovered. After that, the elder Wu did not refuse to teach students as he felt this was his purpose of surviving the incident.
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Post by chefying on Nov 9, 2014 10:49:35 GMT
I have tried and failed to trace how Taiji - at least, Zhang Sanfeng's primordial version of it - left Wudang and ended up in the hands of the Chen Family. So I did the next best thing, which was to chart the split of Taiji into the present day Five main schools. I based my chart on Wikipedia and I eliminated most of the names not mentioned in the preceding panels of description in the Ping Yao Martial Arts Museum. This lineage chart places emphasis on who taught who, and which "generation" linked to whom. The emphasis is not so much on time span. Unfortunately, I did not have space to make annotations on the chart.
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Post by chefying on Nov 9, 2014 10:50:57 GMT
Another panel in another room showed these figures who were PingYao men well known for their martial arts ability. Their preferred fighting styles varied.
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Post by chefying on Nov 9, 2014 10:51:55 GMT
This panel talked about various activities of martial arts practitioners in PingYao.
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Post by chefying on Nov 9, 2014 10:55:14 GMT
One of their activities, of course, was the Armed Escort Agency. The one of the photos shown was also displayed in one of the Armed Escort Agency museums. This panel talked about the development of martial arts in PingYao itself. In the last thousand years, PingYao have attracted many types of martial arts forms from all external areas to enrich its own development. In the recent years, there are more than twenty types/schools of martial arts in existence in PingYao, with a total of more than four hundred sets of shadow boxing currently being practiced. The more influential types/schools of martial arts practiced include:-
Chang Quan 长拳 Long style Bagua 八卦 Eight Trigrams Xing Yi 形意 Form-Will Tong Bi 通臂 Connecting Arms TaiJi 太极 Great Ultimate BaWang 霸王 Overlord Style Hong Quan 红拳 Red Fist (sic)
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Post by reinafu on Nov 10, 2014 19:04:28 GMT
Thank you very much for this very interesting and enlightening thread !
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Post by chefying on Nov 11, 2014 14:43:58 GMT
Thank you very much for this very interesting and enlightening thread ! Most welcomed! I had a great time there.
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Post by chefying on Nov 13, 2014 8:56:18 GMT
This is the blurb about Chang Quan 长拳 - Long Style. Chang Quan is one of the more prominent school of martial arts practiced in PingYao. In the long development of Chinese martial arts, Chang Quan had always held a position of importance.
In the recent history of PingYao's martial arts, Chang Quan was made popular by Wang Zheng Qing 王正清, a native of the village of Nan Liang 南良 in PingYao. Chang Quan is so influential that there is a PingYao saying that goes, "The source of Ping Yao's martial arts is Nan Liang" 平遥武术出南良.
The movements of Chang Quan are wide and expansive, sinews smooth and bones (aligned) straight, extending and striking further away (than other schools of martial arts) - these are its distinctive features.
Shadow boxing sets include Liu Tui 六腿 (Lit. Six Legs), Mian Zhang 绵掌 (Lit. Soft Palm), Shi‘er Tan Tiu 十二弹腿 (Twelve Springing Kicks), Da Hong Quan 大红拳 (Lit. Big Red Fist ), Xiao Hong Quan 小红拳 (Lit. Small Red Fist), Xin Quan 信拳 (Lit. Trust Fist), etc.
Trust Fist belongs to the Chang Quan Style, and in PingYao, it is rarely practiced. Trust Fist in PingYao has a history of about 200 years. It was initially brought to PingYao by Nan Liang villager Wang Zheng Qing. Wang learned this in Beijing from Jia DianKui 贾殿魁 who was the martial arts instructor to Qing Dynasty Emperor Dao Guang 道光.
Trust Fist shadow boxing set has eight repetitions, hence it is also known as "Eight Repetitions Trust Fist".
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Post by chefying on Nov 13, 2014 8:57:59 GMT
The more influential types/schools of martial arts practiced include:- Chang Quan 长拳 Long style Bagua 八卦 Eight Trigrams Xing Yi 形意 Form-Will Tong Bi 通臂 Connecting Arms TaiJi 太极 Great Ultimate BaWang 霸王 Overlord Style Hong Quan 红拳 Red Fist (sic) Chang Quan had just been covered, and Bagua style had been covered in the beginning of this thread. Much had been said about Taiji in the past few posts, so that leaves the remaining four schools of martial arts to discuss :- Xing Yi 形意 Form-Will Tong Bi 通臂 Connecting Arms BaWang 霸王 Overlord Style Hong Quan 红拳 Red Fist
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Post by chefying on Nov 13, 2014 9:04:03 GMT
Before I go on, forumer yenchin had this to say of the murky origins of the Taiji style.
"There's too much hearsay and lost, mixed up history in various arts. Even up until the early Republic there was still a lot of stuff confusing people, such as this story of the "Song Style Taichi" (宋氏太極):
It is claimed that before Zhang San Feng, a Taoist in the Tang Dynasty called Xu XuanPing (許宣平) already had a fist style which he called the "3 ages 7" (三世七) because it had 37 stances. The names of the stances, as well as the philosophy of the fist were similar to the Taichi we know. This style was passed down to the Song family. On the other hand, there was another pre-Zhang style Taichi called the "Pre-Heaven Method" (先天法) created by a Li Tao-Zi (李道子), which was passed down to the Yu family.
The descendants of the Yu visited Li's hut annually, however, after a couple of generations Li's whereabouts were unknown. The Yu and Song family were friends for many years.
A member of the Yu family, and a member of the Song family was visiting Mt. Wudang when they met a crazy taoist. The taoist asked Yu "Are you my disciple's great grandson?" Yu was angry, and threatened to hit the taoist. The taoist asked him to do so and Yu was easily defeated but not hurt. The taoist asked Yu if he knew some members of the Yu family. The names he cited were all in the great-grandfather generations, so Yu was intimidated and knew that this taoist must be Li and bowed in submission. Li further taught Yu on his martial arts. And Yu's arts were fully accomplished.
Yu and Song were friends of another five people with the last names Yu, Zhang, Zhang, Yin, Mo. They went to Mt. Wudang to visit Li again but he was long gone. Instead, they met another taoist (I believe you've guessed it by now): Zhang SanFeng and improvised their martial arts with him.
This story was claimed to be the personal experience, recorded by Song YuanQiao, the friend of Yu LianZhou. And passed down through the Song family and first revealed in the Republican Era by a "descendant of Song YuanQiao". I guess this indicates that Jin Yong didn't mention about Zhou ZhiRou having Song QingShu's son (or was it.....Zhang WuJi's, perhaps?)
So far there are no other history records to verify this story and some people suspect that it was made up during the Republican era. Personally the idea of the real life "7 Heroes of Wudang" fantasizes me."
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