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The
Origin of Wu's Style Taijiquan
Wu （吴）
Yinghua
The origin of Taijiquan:
It is said that Taijiquan originated at Chenjiagou Village in Wenxian
County Henan Provinve, and its founder was Chen Wangting. Chen Changxing,
who was a successor of Chen's family, imparted Taijiquan to Yang Luchan.
Yang Luchan went to Beijing to teach Taijiquan, which made Taijiquan
be known by the earthlings gradually. Various schools with different
styles of Taijiquan were formed step by step; they are Chen's, Wu (吴)'s,
Wu (武)'s, Sun's and Zhaobao styles.
Wu （吴） Quanyou (1834 - 1902), who was a Manchu, initiated Wu's Style
Taijiquan. Wu Quanyou had learnt the big frame of Taijiquan from Yang
Luchan (1799 - 1872). Following Yang Luchan's order, he became a disciple
of Yang Banhou, who was Yang Luchan's second son, to learn the small
frame of Yang's Style Taijiquan, in fact, he was taught by Yang Luchan
himself. After years' hard work, he became a master being good at softness.
Wu Jianquan (1870 - 1942) was Wu Quanyou's son. He liked to practice
Wushu as a child. He was good at riding and shooting, and could do the
difficult action hiding himself under the abdomen of the horse. Guiding
by his father, his attainments of Taijiquan increased steadily. In 1912,
Xu Yusheng (1879 - 1945), who was one of the disciples of Yang's Style
Taijiquan, established a Sports institute in Beijing, and asked Yang
Shaohou, Yang Chengfu (1883 - 1936) and Wu Jianquan to teach Taijiquan
there. From then on, Taijiquan opened to the public and was known by
people who were out of the Wushu circle. As an event of sports, it benefited
the society.
Master Wu Jianquan continued to develop his teaching, revise and modify,
and enrich Taijuquan passed though by his family, removing the repeated
and actions of jumping from the slow frame, and made the frame more
soft and regular. Hence, the routine reformed by him became one that
is stretching and continuous, and accordance with the theory of Yin
and Yang, with more evident characteristics. As a result, a school of
him was formed, and it comes down. There was another kind of frame -
fast frame that maintains the body, hand techniques of jumping and applying
power, which is for the further exercises.
The frame of Wu's Style Taijiquan is knit, relaxed, calm and natural,
that presents its exclusive style: being agile, smart, round, and its
actions being coherence. When practicing push hand, it demands that
the practitioner's body keep upright and comfortable, the hand techniques
be varied, exquisite, continuous and soft, calm and without rushed actions.
As for large deflecting with moving steps, it is flexible and agile,
whatever you stick or leave the opponent. Lan Cai Hua is a kind of free
sparring, which is superb; when we start, it should be like a chopping
river, which can not be described by words. Moreover, there are many
traditional events of weapons in Wu's Style Taijiquan, such as Taiji
sword, Taiji sword duel, Taiji broadsword, Taiji Spear 13 (big spear),
Taiji sword and broadsword, Taiji Spear and Sticky- pole, etc.
Master Wu Jianquan moved to Shanghai in 1928 and taught Wu's Style Taijiquan
there. He established Jianquan Taijiquan Society in 1935. In 1939, he
set up Jianquan Hall, which was a place for the fans of Wu's Style Taijiquan
to practice, at the tenth flour, Young Men's Christian Association,
Xizhang Road, Shanghai. Master Wu died in 1942, which was a great loss
to Wu's Style Taijiquan. After his death, Wu Yinghua and Ma Yueliang
were responsible for the society. The Taijiquan Society has spread to
many nations and areas internationally, such as Singapore, Philippine,
Canada, Hong Kong and Macao, etc. There is a Taijiquan Club in UN, where
Wu's Style Taijiquan is taught. At the present, Taijiquan spread worldwide,
to serve the people over the world and is practiced everywhere.
