Book 'Wu Style Fast Set' by MYL now in English

[cdobe]

I got an interesting email by Gerald Sharp today, who studied with Ma Yuehliang and Wu Yinghua in Shanghai. He now has published Ma's book on the fast form in English. I ordered a copy. Does anyone know the Chinese version ?


Here's the email text with a link

Wu Style Taijiquan Fast Set, by Wu Ying Hua, Ma Yueh Liang, Shi Mei Ling; Translated by Gerald A. Sharp, Yang Shuyi, Yang Ying

Price: $29.95 (Paperback in Plastic Binder, with over 225 original line drawings featuring Ma Yueh Liang; 118 pp. 8 1/2" x 11")

Click this link to order yours today:
http://www.chiflow.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=chiflow&Category_Code=19


This is the first time the Wu Style Taijiquan Fast Set has been translated into English, and fulfills the wishes of the late Ma Yueh Liang that it be done. The Wu Style Taiji Fast Set is Wu Style's original form that was created by Wu Quan You, Wu Jian Quan's father, from his studies with both Yang Luchan and Yang Banhou, and which further served to develop both Wu's Slow Set and the Wu Style System.

Comprehensive information on the mental and physical considerations for practice, and explicit information on the use of fa jing (explosive force) are provided. Included are the original line drawings (225 in all) featuring Ma Yueh Liang, Wu Jian Quan's son-in-law, not to mention detailed directions for practice of this lengthy, combative form.

This is not a rehash of the Slow Set, but is a completely different and unique form, with text that presents new and insightful information based on Taijiquan principles for developing internal strength, training to use momentum and centrifugal force, as well as explosive intensity.

Additionally, Get Your Choice of Any of Our Chi Flow Shirts Free with All Orders $100 or More! Just follow your order with an email telling us your sizing needs, and your shirt of choice.

[CaliG]

I'd like to see that, let me know what you think.

I'm a big fan on that form. Before I learned that form I used to think something was missing from TJQ, like the type of intense training you get from other CMA styles like Xinyi and Xingyi with their fajing, but once I learned that form I started to realize that there is nothing missing from TJQ.

G

[cdobe]

I'll keep you posted.It will take some time until I can review the book, though. The postal delivery within my country has become extremely slow lately

[taijiren]

Wu Style Taijiquan Fast Set, by Wu Ying Hua, Ma Yueh Liang, Shi Mei Ling; Translated by Gerald A. Sharp, Yang Shuyi, Yang Ying

Price: $29.95 (Paperback in Plastic Binder, with over 225 original line drawings featuring Ma Yueh Liang; 118 pp. 8 1/2" x 11")

Wow, talk about mark up! I believe my teacher was selling the chinese version for $1 each after he picked up a stack of them in China years ago....

-Alvin

[stma]

Publishing prices in the US are more substantial than in China. You are also paying for his time and effort in translating and formating the book. If you factor in a 40% discount for retailers, that doesn't leave much of a margin.

[CaliG]

Wu Style Taijiquan Fast Set, by Wu Ying Hua, Ma Yueh Liang, Shi Mei Ling; Translated by Gerald A. Sharp, Yang Shuyi, Yang Ying

Price: $29.95 (Paperback in Plastic Binder, with over 225 original line drawings featuring Ma Yueh Liang; 118 pp. 8 1/2" x 11")

Wow, talk about mark up! I believe my teacher was selling the chinese version for $1 each after he picked up a stack of them in China years ago....

-Alvin

They call that a round eye tax.

[cdobe]

I received the book yesterday. The content itself is very good. They did a good job to translate the text into comprehensible English, unlike the other books about Shanghai branch Wu style, especially the English Tui Shou book is hard to read. Additionally, they added some further explanations and notes to clarify some movements. If for example there's some detail you could easily overlook or if there's an oral teaching from Ma that the author remembers, it's added below the original text. The illustrations are those typical drawings after photos with arrows that indicate the next movement.
The book itself is on usual paper, as if printed out at home. It's in a plastic binder with transparent plastic sheets on the front and on the back.

CD

[stephen yan]

chen 14th generation had two famouse masters :chen you ben and chen chang xing .chen you ben had higher position and more rich in the village , he mixed old taoist 13 posture soft hand with the tai zu chang quan from tong bei and formed his new 13 posture form and late on most village people follow to learn the new form including chen chang xing's decendents ,the form was the one tang hou saw as the 1st set of 13 posture. but luckly chen chang xing did change ,he passed the old taoist 13 posture soft hand to yang lu chan ,who brought the art to beijing .his two sons and two grandsons and wu quan you and wu's son all practised the original taoist 13 posture soft hand . lu chan's 2nd son jian huo also changed it to middle fram form ,which only tian zhaolin's line still keep the art , lu chan's grandson yang chun pu changed it to his style which is the porpuler yang form and he was regarded as yang style founder . wu jian quan also changed from the original taoist 13 posture soft hand to wu style and was regarded as wu style founder . but yang founder's old brother shao huo didn't bother to learn his brother's one ,still practise the original taoist 13 posture soft hand , wu tu nan learned from shao huo ,but unfortunatly tunan didn't passed down ,he left a couple photoes of the form. in 1914, wu jian quan and yang chun pu both demonstrated the original taoist 13 posture soft hand , wu kept the original taoist 13 posture soft hand ,called fast form , yang lost the original taoist 13 posture soft hand .

[CaliG]

chen 14th generation had two famouse masters :chen you ben and chen chang xing .chen you ben had higher position and more rich in the village , he mixed old taoist 13 posture soft hand with the tai zu chang quan from tong bei and formed his new 13 posture form and late on most village people follow to learn the new form including chen chang xing's decendents ,the form was the one tang hou saw as the 1st set of 13 posture. but luckly chen chang xing did change ,he passed the old taoist 13 posture soft hand to yang lu chan ,who brought the art to beijing .his two sons and two grandsons and wu quan you and wu's son all practised the original taoist 13 posture soft hand . lu chan's 2nd son jian huo also changed it to middle fram form ,which only tian zhaolin's line still keep the art , lu chan's grandson yang chun pu changed it to his style which is the porpuler yang form and he was regarded as yang style founder . wu jian quan also changed from the original taoist 13 posture soft hand to wu style and was regarded as wu style founder . but yang founder's old brother shao huo didn't bother to learn his brother's one ,still practise the original taoist 13 posture soft hand , wu tu nan learned from shao huo ,but unfortunatly tunan didn't passed down ,he left a couple photoes of the form. in 1914, wu jian quan and yang chun pu both demonstrated the original taoist 13 posture soft hand , wu kept the original taoist 13 posture soft hand ,called fast form , yang lost the original taoist 13 posture soft hand .

Any idea why the style didn't get passed down to the Wu Gong Yi's students? Just curious.

[Shanghaijay]

I received the book yesterday. The content itself is very good. They did a good job to translate the text into comprehensible English, unlike the other books about Shanghai branch Wu style, especially the English Tui Shou book is hard to read. Additionally, they added some further explanations and notes to clarify some movements. If for example there's some detail you could easily overlook or if there's an oral teaching from Ma that the author remembers, it's added below the original text. The illustrations are those typical drawings after photos with arrows that indicate the next movement.
The book itself is on usual paper, as if printed out at home. It's in a plastic binder with transparent plastic sheets on the front and on the back.

CD

I hope for Gerald's sake he did the right thing and got permission from the Ma family to re-publish the book and honors the family's copyright. I have the original book in Chinese and it is copyrighted and has an ISBN number.

Jay

[stephen yan]

wu gong yi and wu gong zao all learned , but wu gong zao in jail for many years , not long after he got out of jail , he died ,so he didn't teach the fast form (brought to bei jin by yang lu chan , the original taoist 13 posture soft hand ).wu gong yi formed his form and only taught his own form not even his father's form ,not the fast form of his grandfather which learned from yang lu chan and yang ban hou ,the situation was similar to yang chun fu's ,which he didn't teach his father yang jian hou's middle fram form and his grandfather yang lu chan''s fast form after he formed his form .

[CaliG]

wu gong yi and wu gong zao all learned , but wu gong zao in jail for many years , not long after he got out of jail , he died ,so he didn't teach the fast form (brought to bei jin by yang lu chan , the original taoist 13 posture soft hand ).wu gong yi formed his form and only taught his own form not even his father's form ,not the fast form of his grandfather which learned from yang lu chan and yang ban hou ,the situation was similar to yang chun fu's ,which he didn't teach his father yang jian hou's middle fram form and his grandfather yang lu chan''s fast form after he formed his form .

Thanks, I don't know anything about the Hong Kong Wu but this subject to comes up from time to time.

It sounds logical to me that if someone has their own forms they're probably going to focus on teaching those rather than the forms they did before they changed them.

Good times,

G

[cdobe]

Here's my take:

We don't really know what exactly Quanyou, Wu Jianquan and the next generation learned and practiced. If anyone claims to know it, please prove it. The fast form as practiced in Shanghai can, to my knowledge, only be traced back to Ma Yuehliang. So it may very well be the case that the fast form is Ma's unique expression.
In Hongkong lineages there's also a fast form. It is often said that this was just the slow form speeded up, but that's not correct. It is an advanced form that has some different transitions and the expression of Fa Jin in it. Some parts of the form have a very similar feeling to it as the Shanghai fast form. It also releases into a more Yang style like Single Whip (although the emphasis is still on the posture in Ma Bu, while the Gong Bu is more transitional, whereas it's the opposite in Shanghai's fast form).
The accounts of Wu Jianquan's old performances (faster, more circular, more martial intent, leaps, stomps and low stances) suit both versions of a Wu style fast form that I know (Not necessarily everything that is presented as a fast form on youtube ).

CD

[CaliG]

For what it's worth, I have been told that Wu Gong Yi did know and do the fast form when he left Shanghai.

[cdobe]

For what it's worth, I have been told that Wu Gong Yi did know and do the fast form when he left Shanghai.

I have seen his daughter's fast set performance. It's not the same as Ma Yuehliang's. Unfortunately both of Wu Jianquan's sons were already dead when Ma made the Kuai Quan public. So we will never get to hear their viewpoints.

CD