Wu Family Tai Chi - Master Wei Xiaotang

[Bob]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3giFDj1bee4

鄭榮光(吳鑒泉之入室弟子) Wu Style Taiji Sword by Zheng Rong Guang (Inside disciple of Wu Jianquan)



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_AU2AOCaEU

鄭杜燕庭女士 (鄭榮光媳、鄭沛錤妻) 演示鄭榮光吳家太極劍
Cheng Wing Kwong Wu Style Tai Chi Sword Performed by Mrs Cheng To Yin Ting who is Cheng Wing Kwong's Daughter-in-law / Cheng Pui Ki's wife.

[wayne hansen]

Some nice clips there
I hope someone cleans up the older ones
I would love to know the source of the Wu weapon forms
Clearly not the same source as the yang

[Bob]

Probably in the early 1990s I learned a long form of taijiquan that opened very close to the way it is done in the first clip and had the flavor of the second clip (I still practice it) - At that time I was told it was the taijiquan form of Liu Yunqiao and called a Yang form. However a few years later I made the remark that that Yang form seems to have some Wu style postures and flavor and was told that indeed it was probably a combination of Yang and Wu style taijiquan. Who can really say for sure what occurred - Liu Yunqiao learned his taijquan form from Warlord Zhang Xiangwu (Bailewen's teacher in Xi'an) along with the taijiquan sword and 13 posture taijiquan dao - Maybe people added things in or subtracted things out - who knows for sure but I do have a book in my pile from the 1980s (kinda hippie like) with a Chinese master out of Chicago who has pictures of his entire form and states that it is a combined form of Wu and Yang style taijiquan.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vNHHq4VXK4

There are many ways that the long form was traditionally practised. High and low, short and long postures, fast and slow, over a small table and many others. One was the one of practising the form just by standing in a high qi-ma-bu stance. This kind of way of practising makes it possible to focus on the movement of Qi better and easier than while moving the whole body. It's not an easier way of practising and requires internal connection developed prior to the training, development of Qi and proper angles of execution of the various techniques.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSpo3OMdlyg

Xiu zhan ,a master of taichi,his father is also a famous taichi master,who is the student of Wang Maozhai,the founder of wu style taichi kungfu.if you like this kungfu ,email me!
email: [email protected]

[wayne hansen]

The book you are thinking is most likely HH Liu
I think it’s called technique of power
Thinking of the Square form my student Richard was Ma,s sons first non Chinese student in Holland and he learnt the square form so it was in Ma,s line

[Steve James]

From what I've been told, the square Wu form is a teaching device useful for teaching many students in a standardized way. It was common in HK Wu/Ng family practice, but not in Shanghai. I don't know about Malaysia or Beijing. Anyway, the point is that it's a 'learning' form leading eventually to the round form -or practicing in the round way.

Imo, it's hard for people to learn to do the form 'round' or circular, anyway. So, most start doing it in a square way -deliberately or not.

[wayne hansen]

When I first learnt Wu it was at SW Uni
This was a Malaysian line
I started the course in the second semester
Apart from having to catch up on the moves I had missed I thought they were very stiff and square so I was rounding out the moves
It wasn’t until we finished the form and the teacher informed us that the following year we would learn the circular form
I think the square form is a great method of teaching and a rear gem
I later learned the square form from scratch under two more teachers as well as revision from my first teachers brother
From my last Wu teacher I learned 3 forms
The Square
The Circular and
The Circular Continious
I have never seen anyone else do this form although I have see parts of it in some CTH schools
Both the Square and Circular Continious are essential for application

[MostlyWu]

The guy in the first post isn't doing a Wu style that I recognize. Nothing like Chu Minyi's form, nor Cheng Wing Kwong(just above), nor others that I have seen do the form who trained with WCC. The Repulse Monkey is Yang style'ish, as is the angled back foot, as is the upright posture, among other things.

I can't speak to the earlier Wu style (say 1910-25, give or take), but by 1931 the style would've been more like what Cheng Wing Kwong practiced above, and what Wu Ying Hua practiced (as shown in multiple video clips, and books), if not exactly that.

I agree with others that it is more of a Yang variant, though I'm not qualified to opine on that too much. Maybe even a hodge podge. Certainly don't see Wu style in there.

[wayne hansen]

Don’t forget Wu is a Yang varient
I thought the same about Repulse but he is pushing off the back leg like Wu not the front like Yang

[MostlyWu]

As I understand it Wu taught the square form and let others develop their own circular form
The square form or 123 form is the most rigid in tai chi
Not only is the above form very Yang Style but there are a lot of moves missing
As for Chen being the starting point we must ask did the others change or was it Chen that deviated
I learnt Wu in very deep stances it was Eddie Wu who was known for his high stances

It was Eddie Wu's grandfather, Wu Gong Yi, who changed the form into the higher, shorter stances. Sometime in the mid 50's, I think. At that time, he also broke down the form into very clear, precise bits, so that the form wouldn't drift and morph into something unrecognizable once you got further away from the source. I was told this was done partly out of necessity, as the Wu style became very popular in HK and SE Asia during the 1950's, and WGY was concerned as to how to respond to the demand and still keep the quality high.

The higher stances of WGY are quite clearly shown in the 1980 "Gold Book". Since he died in 1970, the photos of his forms would predate that. I am guessing somewhere around the early 60's. As I said above, however, my information is that the changes to the form came in 50's.