WU TAICHI HISTORY
Wu Chuan Yu, a Manchurian military officer in the Yellow Banner camp at the Imperial Court in Beijing, created the Wu Style of Taichi. Yang Lu Chan, the inventor of the Yang Style of Taichi, was the Imperial Guards’ martial arts instructor at the time, teaching Taichi Chuan. Wu Chuan Yu became one of his disciples in 1850. He was a student of both Yang Lu Chan, and his son, Yang Ban Hou. It was decided that Wu Chuan Yu should be made a disciple of Yang Ban Hou rather than his father for political considerations.
In his martial practice, Yang Lu Chan was known for being gentle and slow. Wu Chuan Yu mastered the soft ‘soong’ (鬆) manner of fighting, perfecting Taichi Chuan’s neutralising technique, allowing him to utilise the other person’s energy against them. Yang Ban Hou, on the other hand, was known for his harsh, aggressive Taichi technique. Wu Chuan Yu’s abilities in the area of quietly “neutralising” harsh energy when assaulted were stated to be remarkable, which is a key ability of good Taichi Chuan practise as a martial art.
Wu Chien Chuan, his son, was the second Wu Style Taichi Chuan master. His contribution to the development of the Wu Style was enormous. Wu Chien Chuan tweaked his father’s martial arts forms. He used a smaller circle and came up with a number of new applications.
Wu Chien Chuan co-founded the famous martial arts school, the Beijing School of Physical Education, in 1924 with colleagues Xi Yiu Seng, Yang Shou Hou, and Yang Cheng Fu. As Taichi Chuan became available to the general public for the first time, this had a significant impact on its practise.
In 1928, Wu Chien Chuan relocated to Shanghai. He was elected to the Shanghai Martial Arts Association’s Board of Directors. He went on to become the supervisor of the prestigious Ching Wu Sports Association’s Taichi Chuan branch. In Shanghai, he founded the first Chien Chuan Taichi Chuan Academy in 1935. Wu Ying Hua, his daughter, and Ma Yueh Liang, her husband, were named deputy directors of the Chien Chuan Association in Shanghai.
Wu Kung Yi was the Wu Chien Chuan’s eldest son. He was a key figure in the spread of Wu Style Tai Chi Chuan throughout the Orient. The epic match between Wu Kung Yi and White Crane Kungfu master Chen Ke Fu in Macao in 1954 greatly increased the reputation and fame of Wu Taichi. Wu Kung Yi replied to the debate sparked by a Hong Kong newspaper about the validity of Taichi Chuan as a martial art by accepting a challenge to fight another type of martial art. He revealed Wu’s Tai Chi Chuan to be a strong martial art system.
Many martial arts fans from Southeast Asia wrote to grandmaster Wu Kung Yi after the incident, urging him to teach Taichi in their countries.
In response to the increasing needs of greater class sizes and older beginning level students, Wu Kung Yi made modifications to the beginning level forms taught by his father. His “square” forms are distinguished by clear sectional instructions for each move in the form sequence, more compact “small circle” body movements, and slightly higher stances with the feet relatively closer together than other styles of Taichi Chuan. Wu Kung Yi also developed new pushing hand forms based on smaller circles, the most famous of which is the “four corner” method of basic pushing hands. Throughout Asia, Master Wu Kung Yi advocated this new segmented form, the 108 Form, which was more intricate and smaller.
