Quigga wrote:...
Saying that only Chen style TJQ with no or few references to the actual history of MINDBODY conditioning is protected is just another attempt to press the Great Cultural Revolution forward.
Huh? Tang Hao references a poem by CWT
Wangting also left us a free-verse poem, which begins thus: “I sigh for years past, oh those days of battle vanquishing hordes of bandits, so many moments of risk and danger. I was bestowed with imperial favor – meaningless. Now I am old and weary, and I have ended up with only a copy of the Daoist Yellow Courtyard Classic as my companion. When boredom sets in, I create boxing sets. When busy, I plow the fields. In my free time, I teach some students and grandkids, then I leave it to them to become dragons and tigers in their own time…”
The Yellow Courtyard Classic is a 1700 year old Daoist text on meditation and physiology. Tang Hao also writes "Comparing the Chen Village’s Long Boxing set and Cannon Boxing set with Qi Jiguang’s thirty-two postures, there are a full twenty-seven posture names that are similar: LAZILY PULLING BACK THE ROBE, SINGLE WHIP, GOLDEN ROOSTER STANDS ON ONE LEG, ..."
What Tang Hao presents is a syncretic creation of taijiquan. "With his thinking influenced by Daoism, he adopted Qi’s tested methods, using already established ideas to create boxing sets. It is clear that his descendants have carried on his work."
CWT synthesized daoyin, martial arts, daoist meditation, and breathing techniques into a single system. Douglas Wile juxtaposes the evolutionary/syncretic development of taiji by CWT with the mythological one man developed it from a dream zhang Sanfeng version. FWIW.