charles wrote:windwalker wrote: it would be interesting to read or hear of the accounting of YLC stay from a chen family member perspective.
For a while, Zhu Tiancai - his mother's name is Chen - had a sort of touring seminar. It was somewhat of a "canned" presentation in that the format and content was repeated at each location. As part of the formal lecture segment, he discussed the history of the Chen family art. That touches on Yang Luchan. I'll summarize the notes I took on the subject from this part of his lecture. How accurate his view is, I don't know. You asked for an account by Chen family members, so here is one:
ZTC stated that there are lots of movies about how YLC learned TJQ. The only fact is that YLC learned TJQ from Chen Village. Also true is that YLC first tried to learn Chen TJQ on his own without instruction.... A Chen family member owned a pharmacy in YLC's home town and YLC worked for him. When the family member retired, he returned to Chen Village and took YLC with him. YLC was in his 20's at that time.
At that time, there were many schools of Chen TJQ in Chen Village and villagers could choose from any number. As a servant, YLC had no right to study with them. At that time, one could see TJQ practiced openly everywhere in Chen Village - it was not taught in secret. YLC watched other people and practiced on his own.
YLC's friends, villagers who did practice Chen TJQ, would use YLC to practice on, to try techniques they had learned in class. Being a quick study, YLC learned many of the techniques and practiced by himself. One night an instructor saw YLC practicing by himself...eventually asking YLC to join the class.
YLC trained for 7 years, at which point his (retired) boss died and Village elders "freed" him, at which point YLC returned to his home town teaching Lao Jia.
This is an interesting variation of the story that very well could be closest to the "true" story......Some questions that would be interesting to get an answer on, as in the story YLC as working in the pharmacy practiced boxing "by him self and without instructions" but yet when his employer retired he let YLC follow him back to his home village, I feel that it actually seem that YLC got boxing instructions from his employer and later the employer thought YLC was good enough to come with him to the village to further his study?.....What kind of boxing did they practice in the village and what boxing did YLC practice before coming to the village? Since the Chen village is not too far away from the Shaolin temple one could suspect they practiced a or a couple of Shaolin boxing variations? And as previous stated YLC had already some knowledge in Hongquan(a Shaolin boxing style?)...The story says YLC was 20 years old when he came to the village, so another question that would be interesting to get an answer on-- how many years did YLC work in that pharmacy? did his boxing knowledge up till he left for the Chen village solely come from his employer whether he sneak peaked on his practice or learned hand on?