Finny wrote:Were they reeling silk while Yang pulled silk?
Chen Fake standardised the expression of body mechanics of Chen style."Silk reeling" is originally the name of a Shaolin set of exercises originating in Buddhist rites to please the "Silk God". The "silk reeling" today is a name of simplified exercises aimed toward beginners that was created by Chen Xiaowang by the request of the communists.
"Silk pulling" though is an older concept as far as we speak about Tai Chi Chuan.
Steve James wrote: I'm not sure that the Chen people needed to label their art "Chen style." Other people called what the Chens did "Chen style." Now, the point at which others start to call what the Chens did tjq is a separate issue, as is the issue of when the Chens started calling their art taijiquan.
Ma Yueliang amongst others claim that the Chen style that Yang Luchan learned was lost and that the Chen style today was created upon something called "Chenquan" which was a variant of local Shaolin. I tend to believe this version. Some people say that Chen style is Yang style mixed with Shaolin. But probably it was the other way around, that the new Chen style that Chen Fake introduced was originally Chenquan Shaolin infused with Yang Tai Chi.
And all of the Chen style practitioners and Chen Wangting believers will probably hate me now for stating such a politically incorrect thing. But there are just as much proofs that points to this version as that Yang Luchan would have modified his "Chen style" into Yang.
Personally I don't care where the truth lies, on either side or in between, I am not a proponent for any of the camps. But what Yang Luchan learned was neither the Chen or Yang style commonly seen today. Both of them were created to please the masses as well as the government as a "health exercise" which would make the people strong.
But still, this doesn't mean that "all" Yang or "all" Chen should have been lost. There are still things preserved, scattered all around and in circulation, from others than Yang Cheng Fu and Chen Fake, also infused in different ways in many of the modern schools. But you won't find all of the older principles and methods collected into one single system.