Henning, Stanley, "The Origin of the Name Taijiquan", Taijiquan Journal 2, No. 1, (2001) pp 6 - 7.
https://www.scribd.com/document/1624059 ... enning-Biohttps://www.scribd.com/document/3835694 ... IdentifiedToday’s widespread Song Taizu 32 Form Changquan [Long Boxing named after the firstSong Emperor]; 24 Qitanma [throws and grapples]; 8 Shanfan [rapid turning moves; 12 Duan[close hitting]; and Soft Zhang’s Duanda [close hitting]; all have their strong points and arewell known. Yngchuan [place in Anhui Province] Wang Boyan [author] has recorded themovements of each style and composed essential formulae for them in the same manner asShaolin Staff and Yang Family Spear.”The styles listed in this concise entry are among those mentioned in General Qi Jiguang’s
New Book of Effective Discipline
(1561). General Qi used techniques from these styles todevelop his own 32 form set to train his troops in Yiwu, Zhejiang. This 32 form set appears tobe the foundation for Chen style Taijiquan. In other words, if this manual were ever toresurface it could provide us with valuable insight into the most prominent Ming styles as wellas well as the origins of Taijiquan. The significance of this information further piqued mycuriosity. Who was this Wang Boyan from Yingchuan, Anhui – who was so knowledgeable inthe techniques of boxing?Early in 1995, I was pursuing Professor Ma Mingda’s introduction to the People’s PhysicalCulture Press edition of Qi Jiguang’s
New Book of Effective Discipline,
wherein I noticed thata prominent official and compatriot of Qi’s, Wang Daokun (
), played a major role ingetting Qi’s training manual published. [2] Noting that Wang Daokun’s surname (
) was thesame as the unknown Wang Boyan’s, I decided to check out Wang Daokun’s biography. Myeffort was made easier by his importance as a “Jinshi” or holder of the highest degree in theChinese bureaucratic examination system.I was excited to find that Wang Daokun was also from Anhui (Shexian) and that his literarystyle name, Boyu (
) was strikingly close to Wang Boyan’s given name, Boyan (
).Furthermore, Wang Daokun was indeed responsible for training citizen soldiers of Yiwu,Zhejiang (
) to participate in General Qi Jiguang’s anti-pirate operations. [3]Based on the striking coincidences associated with the names and places of origin of WangDaokun and Wang Boyan, plus Wang Daokun’s close association with Qi Jiguang’s trooptraining program and publication of Qi’s
New Book of Effective Discipline
with its chapter onboxing, I concluded that the actual aouthor of
Essential Manual on Boxing
must in fact benone other than Wang Daokun.During a visit to Chengdu in February 1996, I was able to compare notes on this subject withone of China’s top physical education historians, Professor Kuang Wennan of the Sichuan