417 Wall St, Los Angeles CA 90013
417 Wall St, Los Angeles CA 90013
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417 Wall St, Los Angeles CA 90013 …On Taiji Quan:
…On the Martial Path:
When most people think of taijiquan (tai chi chuan), the first image that comes to mind is one of individuals moving in slow, peaceful silence, their minds and bodies in a state of meditative relaxation. The powerful strikes and skillful parries of “Yang the Unsurpassable,” the foremost martial artist of Beijing in the mid-19th century, are a far less common association. Yet taijiquan (tai chi chuan) is no less a martial art than a systematic method for promoting health, relaxation, and meditative calm. In the United States today, the “civil” aspect of taijiquan (tai chi chuan) (health, meditation, and relaxation) has generally been emphasized. Indeed, some practitioners have completely neglected the martial aspect of the art. Yet this reveals more about the preferences – some would say the errors – of modern practitioners than it does about the limitations of the practice. For taijiquan (tai chi chuan) explicitly aims to balance the civil and martial aspects of human existence, developing both to their highest potential simultaneously. Even for practitioners who are not primarily interested in building martial skills, focusing exclusively on the civil aspects of taijiquan (tai chi chuan) is contrary to the spirit of the art. In the words of Yang Chengfu, the turn-of-the-century martial arts genius from whom many of today’s most popular taiji forms are descended: “Learning self-defense applications is indispensable in taijiquan (tai chi chuan). Students who are primarily interested in exercise must also study applications.”  Yang Lu-Ch'an According to legend, the originator of Taiji Quan was a thirteenth century Taoist monk named Chang San-feng. Chang invented a soft-style martial art that developed internal energy to catalyze natural body movements, and is credited with authorship of the oldest of the Taiji Chuan classics. The style of Taiji Quan practiced at Great River descends from Yang Lu-ch’an, a nineteenth century martial artist of legendary skill. In his time, Yang became the foremost martial artist in Beijing (earning the sobriquet “Yang the Invincible”), and was retained by the ruling Manchu princes as their martial arts teacher. For political reasons, Yang kept his original Taiji Quan form secret. However, he created a public form that has become the most widely-practiced Taiji Quan form in the world. This public form was popularized in the United States by Cheng Man-ch’ing, a fourth generation master who condensed (from 108 to 64 movements) the form he learned from Yang Lu-Ch’an’s grandson, Yang Ch’eng-fu. One of Cheng Man-ch’ing’s senior students was Robert Smith, from whom Great River Director Scott Rodell learned Cheng’s form. Rodell also studied with two of Cheng’s other senior students, learning sword and push hands from Master T.T. Liang, and san shou and push hands from Master William C.C. Chen. Continue reading “A Brief History of the School’s Lineage” » Only the spelling. There are two major systems for the Romanization of Chinese characters. The older Wade-Giles system transliterates the three Chinese Characters for this art as T’ai Chi Ch’uan. This is often misspelled without the appostropies, which are used to indicate the “T” is pronounce as a t and not a d, for example. The more contemporary pinyin system transliterates these three characters as taijiquan. This system has the advantage of not confusing words such as qi (energy) with the ji in taiji, which are written ch’I and chi in the Wade-Giles system, simply by forgetting to use the appostrophy. The pinyin system has been the internationally accept system for many decades now and is the standard for international organizations, libraries, etc. the short hand, Tai chi, is a bit of a misnomer because it simply refers to the Chinese symbol we know as the yinyang symbol. The quan in taijiquan literally means fist of martial art. Taijiquan means the art based on the ideas of alternating yin and yang, yield releasing power etc. By Scott M. Rodell  Master Wang executes ji (press) Circa 1965 Yang Lu Chan is undoubtedly the most well known Chinese martial artist in the world. The story of his obtaining the secret art of taijiquan in the remote village of ChenJiaGou and his fame as “Yang the Unbeatable” (Yang Wudi) are common stories amongst taiji players the world over. Yang Lu Chan’s reknown comes as little surprise when we consider that the art he created – Yang Style TaijiQuan – is the most popular form in the world today and is practiced all around the globe. What is more surprising is that he made a little known Chinese family art into a common exercise practice in America in less than one hundred years. The familiar story of Yang Lu Chan being challenged by the Emperor’s Head Guard presented him with the opportunity for lasting fame overnight. It also offered ruin as quickly if he lost. Yet to prevail would not mean peace, for the Imperial Guard would have lost face and could never have let the Yang family rest. The Master reasoned the only way out, preserving his reputation as “Unbeatable” yet avoiding retribution, was to fight to a stalemate. To do this Yang felt a fighter’s skill must be three time greater than his opponents. History records that the bout did indeed end with a draw. Continue reading “Yang Family Taiji Quan – The Hidden Tradition” » By Ferne M. Horner It’s 6:00 a.m., I am dragging through some warm-up exercises before I start my daily Taiji practice. “Why am I doing this?” I ask myself. I could have slept another half hour, I need to wash my hair, those goons at the office will probably be on my case again today, this hurts. Why am I doing this? Here’s why I’m doing it and will keep on doing it no matter how much it hurts. On March 30, 1995, I had a stroke. I subsequently spent ten days in the hospital (five of them in intensive care), and was away from work and Taiji for four months. I’m one of the lucky ones. |
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