At one time I brought a book commonly referred to as the taiji classics translated in English and Chinese feeling I could use them as talking points with my teacher...
He looked at it, and laughed
explaining that in some cases what was written, was not written by people who could do it, or written by others, not quite right. He mentioned that trying to follow it would tend to lead one in the wrong direction. His philosophy was to learn through the practice itself.
As in Chen style there are many yang style derivatives some quite famous Wu, Sun, Tung, ect. others not so much....
Each method developed by very public teachers going on to become styles themselves.
Others such as my teacher not...
In his group there were some who didn't practice any type of form, just basic development movements, and push hands...
The form he taught "solo exercise" was quite different from what some might consider the standard despite being named or referred to by the same name...ie 24 step, 88 ect. old 6 roads,,, due to his influence ..
After awhile he no longer referred to our practice as "yang" style feeling it was too different out of respect for the yang family, he just called it "taiji".
It was said he was influenced not only by his teacher "un-named" but also by 5 noted masters in Beijing at the time...
Some of them known in the west quite famous....His practice very hands on,,,not much on theory, his way of teaching...
At one time he mentioned "now I will train you as I was trained"
He asked me to attack him any way I wanted, got tossed out in the process
made for a long morning on cold winter Beijing day...