Bhassler wrote:Chen Chang Xing died in 1853. YLC was born in 1799, so if he was 52-53 by the time he went to Beijing, that means CCX was already dead. The story I heard was that CCX's wife was younger, and after CCX died, the local village fellas didn't like YLC living in the house with CCX's widow, so got together and politely told YLC to fuck off and not come back. Which also explains why YLC felt he had to change the art to something reflecting his own understanding that wouldn't immediately be tied back to Chen village.
I'm not into the pseudo-history aspect of gongfu and the constant Batman-esque movie reboot style of competing origin stories that seem so prevalent these days, so I haven't researched it. It could be total nonsense, and I wouldn't care if it was. It's still just as plausible as most of the other theories that are bandied about lately.
Note: most of the "story" about YLC being in Chen village comes from a novel, including the story of being a servant and he had to leave because the widow, etc etc.
His age doesn't jive with this popular novel story. There are no, so far, know fact about YLC being at Chen village, etc etc
But yet, he learned something that became TJQ.
Okay, so what was Yang style first called? It was called ROU QUAN.
And, as reported by myself and other people, both the Yang Lao Jia and the Chen Yi Lu Lao Jia follow the Tong Bei Rou Quan form, both in movements and in posture names.
Tong Bei founder, Dong Cheng learned Shaolin Rou Quan (Rou means flexible, and includes the Chan Yuan Gong (Which is same as silk reeling) and Luohan 13 Postures (which is same as well the 13 Postures) and Shaolin Hong Quan, Pao Chui, TZ Chang Quan from 2 Shaolin teachers and he learned Taoist 6 Harmony spear (the same one as in XYQ from Ji LongFeng) AND
Taoist Shanxi Qigong (also named 13 Postures) from Song Xi Nei Jia Quan style (from Shanxi/Shaanxi, where it still exists today, and they practice TZ Chang Quan forms too, even Shanxi Hong Quan style does the TZ Chang Quan set) and mixed it all together to make Tong Bei in the 1500s. So from Chen Wangting's time to the 1700s, Chen ChangXing's time.
And aren't all these things the roots of Chen (and Yang) in the first place? they were all mentioned in the various Chen Family papers from hundreds of years ago.
This Tong Bei Rou Quan was obviously passed over time in Chen village to Chen ChangXing, and it is what supposedly Jiang Fa taught (fake story? Since Chen Wangting knew Dong Cheng and traded info with him. Jiang Fa and Li JiYu, his boss, practiced MoGou Shaolin Hong Quan and other Shaolin material from the 1500s).
This Tong Bei Rou Quan form was taught to YLC with some Chen stuff mixed in (small frame? Big frame? mixture?)
Maybe later Chen FaKe Chen style used the Yang form as a frame?
egardless, everyone doing TJQ is really doing Tong Bei Rou Quan, which ties everything together, since it first used what is now called soft (flexible) TJQ principles.