In the five major styles of Taiji we find two Wu styles, one is shown above and the other, the style of Wu Quan You (1834-1902), will be reviewed in a future issue. Current historical data recognises all Taijiquan systems tracing their origin from the Chen Style of Chenjiagou.

Chenjiagou, the ancestral home of the Chen family is in Wenxian County, Henan Province, Central China. From Issue 3, Volume 3 we learned that Yang Lu-Chan travelled to Chenjiagou and learned martial arts from the 14th generation master Chen Chang-Xing (1771-1853). It was on his return to his own home that he took lodgings with the Wu family and so the seeds were sown for a further variation. Unlike the Yang style there are no books and very little documentation on this, perhaps the least known of the five major styles.

I do not know of any UK schools using the credentials of Wu Yu-Xiang, however there are several schools using a third generation practitioner of Wu style as their reference - Hao Wei-Zhen. Hao was of course the teacher who intorduced Sun Lu-Tang to Taijiquan.

The Wu Yu-Xiang family tree

Yang Lu-Chan (1799-1872)

Chen Qing-Ping (1795-1868)

Wu Yu-Xiang (1812-1880)

Li Yi-Yu (1852-1892)

Hao Wei-Zhen (1849-1920)

Sun Lu-Tang (1861-1932)

These are variously known as Wu Style, Li Style, Wu/Li Style, Hao Style or Wu/Hao Style and completely separate Sun Style.

While Yang Lu-Chan lodged with the Wu family Yu Xiang and his two brothers availed themselves of tuition on Yang's martial expertise. I cannot find the duration of their association but the Wu brothers were already experienced martial artists. We do know Wu Yu-Xiang subsequently decided to travel to Chenjiagou and take instruction from Yang's teacher Chen Chang-Xing.

The Beijing Institute of Physical Education

In its 16th volume, published in 1993, they made historical references to the Wu family. In the article they mentioned that Yu-Xiang's brother Wu Cheng-Qing in the year of 1852 was appointed as the governor of Wu Yang Country, Henan Province. The two brothers made the journey to Henan together and the route to their destination would take them close to Chenjiagou, the village home of the Chen family.

Here they hoped to make the acquaintance of their teacher's master, Chen Changxing. Their priority of course, was to elaborate on their Taijiquan training that had begun with Yang Lu-Chan. However this plan was not realised because when they arrrived in the town of Zhaobao they learned that Chen was seriously ill and that they would be unable to obtain an audience with him. Chen died the next year, aged 84.

During the stay in Zhaobao they made contact with another member of the Chen family, Chen Qing-Ping who had made Zhaobao his home.

Chen Qing-Ping (1795-1868) learned his Taiji from his paternal uncle, Chen You-Ben. According to the journal mentioned above the Wu brothers spent one month in Zhaobao learning Chen Qing-Ping's art. In Dan Docherty's book, he gives the date of the three Wu brothers' association with Yang Luchan as 1850 and now we have them in 1852 spending one month in Zhaobao. This obviously cannot be the whole story of their learning curve.

Taijiquan historians will know that the style of Zhaobao is recognised now as one of a number of styles peripheral to the five major ones. The Chen Style of Chenjiagou is referred to as the old frame, while Zhaobao is recognised as new frame.

The foregoing information is not to look at the Chen family. It's simply an attempt to show the influences that came to bear on Wu Xiang and the style that bears his name and influence. As with all attempts to construct Taijiquan's history we encounter a paucity of available information. It would appear that Wu's Taiji was a synthesis of what he gleaned from Yang Lu-Chan and Chen Qing-Ping. At this time Yang would have been practising the old frame of Chenjiagou.

There were two versions of the new frame created. The first was by Chen You-Ben and the second by his nephew Chen Qing-Ping. The characteristics of the new frame was to become known as Big Circle Boxing.

Throughout Taiji's development various teachers used this or similar terminology to describe their routine. In addition to the preface Big and Small, we can find references to High, Medium or Low Frame and maybe these variations arose because of the physical limitations of their creators or perhaps it was simply a technique to bring the art of Taijiquan to a wider audience.

Wu family Taiji was contained within the family during his lifetime and it was his succssor and nephew Li Yi-Yu (1852-1892) and Hao Wei-Zhen (1849-1920) who were to go public with the style under various names.

Wu was a scholar and a member of the Chinese literati who went on to write material and articles that have become classics of Taiji. He also took possession of the now famous writings attributed to Wang Zongyue (more about these works later).

The routine is to be governed by strict body techniques, compact forms, slow smooth transitions, clear distinction between empty and full steps. The trunk should remain upright for all transmissions whether moving forward, backward or turning; vital energy controls the external form. Forms should be well defined and dynamic. A clear illustration of compactness in the routine is the use of the upper limbs, each arm is required not to move past the centre line of the trunk and the hands should never extend beyond the feet.

In the "Tao of Tai-Chi Chuan" by Jou Tsung Hwa, he records that each posture of the Wu style has four states:

Start, Connect, Open and Close. Each of them exemplifying a particular phase of the Taiji principle. 1. Start, describes the change from Wu Chi to Taiji. 2. Connect, describes moving from Taiji to Yin-Yang. 3. Open, refers to Qi rising from the body to the fingers. 4. Close, refers to the Qi following the reverse path.

There is no reference historically to Wu's prowess as a fighter, or as an expert in pushing hands, although it would be wrong to presuppose he was not skilled in these areas. What is clear from the information that has been collated was his great interest in correctly interpreting the Taiji Classics. In addition he left his own collection of anecdotes for posterity.

The collection of works by authors know and unknown have been and still are a source of fascination for Taiji practitioners. If there existed no mystery surrounding them and their discovery, someone would have had to invent one. Indeed one wonders if the so-called location of the documents calls for a large stretch of the imagination.

The official story, according to the Journal of the Beijing Institute, that Wu Cheng-Qing sometime during his stay in Wu Yang County came across the now famous Taijiquan Textbook. He subsequently handed his discovery to Wu Yu-Xiang. Wu Yu-Xiang took the book and dedicated himself to the study of it and he went deep into the study of the classics guide to the practice of Taijiquan and made it a more refined art.. The nephew Li Yi-Yu claimed his uncles stumbled across the valuable documents in a salt cellar. On a trip to China, from a Chinese source, a far more likely, yet unfounded theory was expounded to me that Wu Yu-Xiang was himself the author of the hitherto undiscovered information but because of his intellectual and literal background he wished to avoid embarrassment to his teachers from a less educated and humble circumstances.

Last November Master Liu Jishun made a first visit to his students Ugur Osman and Andrew Harris. Both have been training Taijiquan and other Chinese martial arts for many years. Andy has trained some Yang style with me and Ugur and I came across each other in China in 1991. They both promote and support the Chin Woo Society of Shanghai and they were students of the late Jifu Huang who introduced Ugur to Master Liu in 1991.

On December 3rd it was announced Ugur and Andy were to be awarded discipleship into the Wu Hao Family Style of Taijiquan. They are the first western students to be awarded the privilege of the lineage. I mentioned Master Liu in the last issue, and I am pleased to be able to reproduce a lecture given by him in Sunnyvale, California on Wu/Hao style Taijiquan.

Partial excerpts from a public speech.

Wu (Hao) style is one of the five main Taijiquan styles in China. It places much emphasis on the torso and its internal requirements. Some Taijiquan students might just have the misconception that only internal requirements are important, not the external form yet the truth is that all Taijiquan study starts from external and works into internal requirements.

Advanced study of Taijiquan requires not only much investment of time and energy but also a good understading of these certain requirements. Wu (Hao) style retains well-documented theories and its precepts are based on these theories.

There are five key words in Wu (Hao) style theories. The first one is "jing" (calmness or stillness) or "{xin gui jing" (keep the mind calm). We will elaborate on this today.

I always remind my students to be calm during the practice. True Taijiquan calls for a truly focused state of mind and only when one is calm can one focus the mind. Only then can one have the clearest grasp of one's own sensitivity (or feelings) and identify that all parts of the body are relaxed and comfortable. This feeling must be very clear to you because it alone ensures that your movements follow the Taijiquan requirements.

There are some common quotes in Taijiquan theories. For example: "If one part (of the body) moves, all parts (of the body) move." If your hands move, your legs and your body have to move in synchronicity.

Furthermore: "There has to be continuity between movements (in practising the forms)". The two principles (one part moves, all parts move and continuity between movements) can strengthen our body's functioning. Whilst practising the forms, as soon as our hands move (which are like the branches of a tree), we must ask ourselves where the root is and whether this root is also moving in harmony, otherwise the tree will fall.

As we move we have to ask if we have good support from the foundation. This is also the meaning of "if one part moves, all parts move." These principles sound simple, but are not easy to maintain throughout the entire form, especially when you also need to maintain evenness.

To sum up, we have to be "jing" (in a very calm state of mind), so that we have a clear sense of all the parts of our body. Then we use "yi" (mind) to direct all our moves, so that we have full control of each and every move. This full control is referred to as "qi shi" in Taijiquan, such as whether one has large or small qi shi. For example: if one starts with 30lb of force (at the beginning of the form), one should maintain this level of force throughout the form.

It is like a boat floating on water, you need to maintain a constant level in the water. You cannot have ups and downs, which are considered undesirable in Taijiquan. Consider Wu (Hao) style's "yun shou" (cloud hand) where the whole body has to move in coordination in all aspects: upper to lower, external to internal.

To be continued in the next issue.