Finny wrote:So I'm not a taiji guy, but I've always had an interest and so have read a bit through the years (including a couple of decades here)
It seems to me that I've heard effectively two (or three) different theories or versions of TJQ history, and I'm curious as to whether my impression is accurate, and what the opinions of folks here are.
It seems to me that the two competing theories are:
1. That the Chen family created TJQ, taught YLC, who then popularised it in Beijing. Not sure where/when Zhaobao fits into this theory - an early parallel branch?
2. That YLC developed his original TJQ by adding some things picked up from the Chen family - Yang style as 'original' TJQ.
Is that an accurate understanding of the history of TJQ?
One of the teachers I studied with for 10 years was very knowledgeable (TCM/CCM practitioner, author on acupuncture study guide for many schools in UK and USA
) and he indicated that when the 1950s came around, there were opportunists on all sides seeking to ewwrite the historical background at all costs. That being said, here is just a small inkling about understanding based on my teacher's explanations and the 'truth' of the era.
1. What we know about taijiquan today comes from the Yang variant (Luchan) ONLY because he reached the Northern capital first before Chenjiagou family (Chen style)
2. Chen Family art was the original. In the 1950s and before many people had no idea of what we called taiji, was because it was a village folk heirloom. Ynag changed that on all levels.
3. Through Yang Luchan's Beijing journey, his version became the norm and therefore more popular and because of that, Chen Family art was seen as the usurper!
4. Zhaobao style/variation is actaully a Chen template so called because of Zhaobao town is close to Chen village where a Chen family married into the village and that art merged with a similar folk system hence the changes reflecting that level and degree of synthesis.
5 Yang LuChan was taught by a Chen family member. We will never know why Yang chenged the external points of Chen art at that time! Sal Cannizaro! a sometime contributor to this forum, has shown that Chen style borrowed elements/postures from Taizuchangquan (along with a stated Li Family
) so why not Yang Luchan integrating elements from Hongquan to solidify his 'skill' at that period of history!
The information is out there and we just have to separate the wheat from the chaff! One lucky thing I learned from my teacher was the distinction between 'styles' and that is an excellent objective part of instruction in the assessment criteria for ascertain the veracity of a point of view. Anyone looking at Zhaobao will see a Chen style overlay with some very interesting postural characteristics (e.g. as if the whole routine was done on a "Dragon on Ground" motif (hugging the ground seen in the duration of the form) keeping in mind that an early part of Yang training involved similar posture under a low table and exiting and raising oneslef without falling over!