wayne hansen wrote: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.