Lessons from Wu Style: The Square Form

[Dan Bixler]

I remember Master Chen Zhonghua said on one of his videos that he teaches a mechanical or structure-based Taiji vs. sensitivity based Taiji. He said most Taiji being taught is sensitivity based. I think Master Hwa's Taiji is more structure based, but still very different from Practical Method.

I don't really remember him saying that, though it seems plausible he did. IMHO, both are needed. Tai Chi is very subtle. Balance keeps affecting your structure all of the time. You can't really learn to understand how to keep structure and balance in a purely intellectual manner. Learning "correct postures" is also not enough. You need to learn how to feel it from the inside. So understanding balance and structure in Tai Chi is based on your own awareness and sensitivity. No teacher can teach you what is absolutely correct by adjusting your posture. If you are not constantly aware of and feel your alignment, you will lose it. IMO, awareness and sensitivity comes first and is always most important, because if you don't know how to feel what is correct from inside, you will never get "alignment", "posture" and "mechanics". I appreciate CZH's enthusiasm and generosity as a teacher, sometimes though I have a feeling that it could easily become a bit shallow and external, with the main focus on external shapes. But then again, I have only seen clips from what he does and I don't know anything about his position when it comes to things as internal awareness.

Bao, I agree with you and CZH probably does too, but I'm bad at explaining it. So here is his explanation of what I was trying to say. If you don't want to watch the whole video, fast forward to about 7:17.



This whole series is awesome in my opinion. For anyone interested in a great overview of what CZH teaches in Practical Method, this is a good place to start. Chen Zhonghua explains it far better than I can. Keep in mind though, that this series is 9 years old, so he may explain some things a little differently now. I don't want to put any words in his mouth or cause misunderstanding.

[MostlyWu]

At a certain point, Wu style got so popular in Hong Kong that a teaching method was devised that was very, " by the numbers". IMO, it might've gone a little to far, but i think that Wu Gong Yi(and others in the club) wanted to preserve the salient points in the form, and not have it drift off as they had seen with other styles(maybe even their own?), where after while you 27 variants.

In general, the "square form" is not really very square when done well. It simply looks square(though even there some go too far) when taught to beginners, to help keep uniformity and preserve key points in each form. Once the entire 108 sequence is learned, and learned well, "flow", or "circularity" is definitely a characteristic that needs to be inherent in a good quality Wu style form. I do know that Sifu Eddie Wu, and his aunt and uncles, never wanted a stop/start nature in a quality form. They simply insisted on accuracy of body part placements, timing, and coordination, before the mind/chi elements were added in, which smooth the edges of a beginner's form.

[wayne hansen]

Please don’t sell the Wu form short
I came to it from the yang style and started making it circular from the start
At the end of the year my teacher stated she would teach the circular form next
I spent the time inbetween with other students re squaring it
I sort out 3 other teachers to delve deeper into the square form
I later learnt the circular and the circular continuous form
The last form I have not seen anyone else do
Each form has its own value
Dont sell any of them short