Lessons from Wu Style: The Square Form
Posted: Sat Feb 24, 2024 6:53 pm
Happy lantern festival!
A genius of the Wu school invented the square form. It clearly hearkens back to basic training sets such as Tantui, Lohan Shiba Shou, Shaolin Ershi Quanfa, San Zhan, Gong Li Quan, and so forth. The concept of a "Square Form" can best be described as a very "karate-like" performance. If you have ever seen a heian shodan form you will know what I mean. The movements are singular, straight-line, and change along corners, much like the concept of a square with a line, then a turn on a dime to complete another movement on another angular line:
For reference, here is how the Wu style has shown the Square form. I picked this video completely at random, I believe there is one of Grandmaster Eddie Wu online, and others, but I just picked this one randomly;
I speculate that the genius Hong Junsheng created Practical Method by applying the square form logic to Chen style. I didn't ask anyone in the PM school about this but the idea might have some merit as it was Hong Junsheng who created practical method and Grandmaster Hong first learned Wu style with Liu Musan (刘慕三). Liu Musan, who was from Wuxi, was a senior disciple of Wu Jianquan, who was known to teach the square form to beginners. I will here let Grandmaster Chen Zhonghua explain the purpose and merits of the square form applied to Chen style Taijiquan:
Master Chen describes this as a "beginner's way". This concept has found its way into numerous branches of Chen Fa-Ke Xinjia, most notably Hong Junsheng's branch. However, even in our neck of the woods we teach certain parts of the form as "square" first. For example, in the opening move, we count "one" (raise hands up to the right) "two" (move to the left) "three" (down), " four" (turn to the right), "five" (raise again), "six" (to the left again), "seven" (turn over), "eight" (turn to the right), "nine" (push), then "ten" (lift up knee), and so forth. Later on the student will smooth them out. However, our method is vastly different and not as intentionally square as the practical method form.
From my experiences studying this way, and also as I learned the Wu style square form many years ago, and also from listening to Master Chen Zhonghua, I highly reccomend this way of teaching beginners. I urge everyone to either go and learn Wu style square form or practical method to understand this awesome training technique. This is like a technology; today, we have advanced technology for teaching Tai Chi, it is the "square form".
Here is one way I have applied the logic of a square form to teach difficult moves; Here is a difficult move from a kungfu fan form I have squared up to make it easier to teach:
Another way to do this might be to separate out moves from the form and turn them into drills, such as this drill for "White Snake Sticks Out Tongue":
For myself, I cannot wait to move back to Canada and learn Wu style or Practical Method Chen style to better understand this amazing development in Tai Chi technology!
What about you guys? Do you think a square form has merit? Or, do you disagree -- Should the beginner not waste time practising something he will not use, and just go directly to the source? What are your thoughts? Would you consider "squaring" your form to make it easier to teach and learn?
Please share!
A genius of the Wu school invented the square form. It clearly hearkens back to basic training sets such as Tantui, Lohan Shiba Shou, Shaolin Ershi Quanfa, San Zhan, Gong Li Quan, and so forth. The concept of a "Square Form" can best be described as a very "karate-like" performance. If you have ever seen a heian shodan form you will know what I mean. The movements are singular, straight-line, and change along corners, much like the concept of a square with a line, then a turn on a dime to complete another movement on another angular line:
For reference, here is how the Wu style has shown the Square form. I picked this video completely at random, I believe there is one of Grandmaster Eddie Wu online, and others, but I just picked this one randomly;
I speculate that the genius Hong Junsheng created Practical Method by applying the square form logic to Chen style. I didn't ask anyone in the PM school about this but the idea might have some merit as it was Hong Junsheng who created practical method and Grandmaster Hong first learned Wu style with Liu Musan (刘慕三). Liu Musan, who was from Wuxi, was a senior disciple of Wu Jianquan, who was known to teach the square form to beginners. I will here let Grandmaster Chen Zhonghua explain the purpose and merits of the square form applied to Chen style Taijiquan:
Master Chen describes this as a "beginner's way". This concept has found its way into numerous branches of Chen Fa-Ke Xinjia, most notably Hong Junsheng's branch. However, even in our neck of the woods we teach certain parts of the form as "square" first. For example, in the opening move, we count "one" (raise hands up to the right) "two" (move to the left) "three" (down), " four" (turn to the right), "five" (raise again), "six" (to the left again), "seven" (turn over), "eight" (turn to the right), "nine" (push), then "ten" (lift up knee), and so forth. Later on the student will smooth them out. However, our method is vastly different and not as intentionally square as the practical method form.
From my experiences studying this way, and also as I learned the Wu style square form many years ago, and also from listening to Master Chen Zhonghua, I highly reccomend this way of teaching beginners. I urge everyone to either go and learn Wu style square form or practical method to understand this awesome training technique. This is like a technology; today, we have advanced technology for teaching Tai Chi, it is the "square form".
Here is one way I have applied the logic of a square form to teach difficult moves; Here is a difficult move from a kungfu fan form I have squared up to make it easier to teach:
Another way to do this might be to separate out moves from the form and turn them into drills, such as this drill for "White Snake Sticks Out Tongue":
For myself, I cannot wait to move back to Canada and learn Wu style or Practical Method Chen style to better understand this amazing development in Tai Chi technology!
What about you guys? Do you think a square form has merit? Or, do you disagree -- Should the beginner not waste time practising something he will not use, and just go directly to the source? What are your thoughts? Would you consider "squaring" your form to make it easier to teach and learn?
Please share!