Northern Wu Style Tai Ji Quan

  吴    History of Northern Wu Style Tai Ji Quan

by Tina Zhang

 Northern China gave birth to many styles of martial arts, most notably the internal martial arts of Tai Ji Quan, Ba Gua Zhang and Xing Yi Quan. These arts were invented and developed in North China. Many martial artists were trained, gathered, challenged, and exchanged skills in the northern part of China. Especially in Beijing, where the royal family hired the most famous martial artists to guard and train the officials in the palace.

Northern Wu style Tai Ji Quan history is a part of the history of Tai Ji Quan that originated with members of the Chen family. The Chen's lived in Chen Family Village, Chenjiagou for generations in Henna Province. Chen Wang Ting invented this boxing style with softness, circularity, and internal force. They kept their boxing within the family until the time of Chen Chang Xing (1771-1853), who accepted Yang Lu Chan as a student. The Chen family kept a low profile and practiced inside of the village until Chen Fa Ke began to teach in Beijing in 1928.

Yang Lu Chan (1799-1872) was from Yongnian County, in Hebei Province. He went to Chen Village in search of livelihood. He learned Chen Style Tai Ji Quan from Chen Chang Xing. After his returning to his hometown, Yang passed the art on and was eventually appointed martial arts instructor to the imperial banner battalion in the capital. He revised the original Chen family form, making it gentler in order to be able to teach it to more people and founded the Yang Style Tai Ji Quan. 

When Yang Lu Chan taught Tai Ji Quan in Beijing, Wang Chun, Ling Shan, and Quan You were his three top students. Wan Chun had the hardest Fa Li, Ling Shan threw people the farthest, and Quan You had the best neutralizing skill. Later on Quan You developed his own Tai Ji Quan style, called Wu Style Tai Ji Quan. 

In the Wu Style Tai Ji Quan lineage, we respect Quan You as the first generation. The second generation were, Quan You's son Wu Jian Quan and Quan You’s senior disciple Wang Maozhai who led the art to two separated locations and created the southern and northern groups of Wu Style Tai Ji Quan.

Northern Wu Style Master Wang Mao Zhai was a very famous fighter and considered the best in Beijing at the time. He became famous on the strength of his fighting skill and was widely respected within the community but totally unknown to the outside world until Mayor Yuan Liang became his student. When Yang Cheng Fu opened the door to the public, he became the most prolific Tai Ji Quan teacher in history and led the way for other public instructors of the art. He, Chen Fa Ke, Wu Jian Quan and Wang Mao Zhai were the leading public teachers of their time.

The founder, Wu Quan You

Great Grandmaster Wu Chuan You (1834-1902) was the founder of Wu Style Tai Ji Quan and was born in Da Xing County, Beijing. He was a Manchurian and a member of the Imperial Guard in Beijing. He learned Tai Ji Quan from the founder of Yang Style, Master Yang Lu-Chan. Chuan You‘s area of specialization was neutralization. He also studied with Yang Lu Chan’s son, Yang Ban Hou. Through decades of training, he became a very well-known master who had the true skills of Yang family Tai Ji Quan. Based on the principles of Tai Ji Quan and the influence of studying with Ban Hou, he founded his own style of the art – The Wu Style. 

There are no images of Quan You but a picture of the imperial guards shows what he must have looked like as one these guards in the nineteen century or late Qing Dynasty. Quan You was one of the very best martial artists of his time. He had the characteristics of softness in appearance and strength on the inside and he loved to help people in their time of need. Legendary stories that have been passed down from earlier generations tell us that Quan You had both high skills of martial ability and the virtue true of martial art. He was a generous man with moral concepts melded into his skills. He never used his strength against weak people, but instead always showed his kindness to others. Quan You is known to have punished those who were evil and had done injustice to others and was known as a brave man who was always ready to help the needy. 

One day, Quan You walked to the farmer’s market where he saw a soldier take food from a vendor and then not want to pay the merchant. When the vendor asked the soldier to pay him, the soldier started to beat the small man. Quan You came to stop the soldier, but the soldier thought Quan You looked too gentle to know how to fight, so he threw a punch and followed with a kick to Quan You. The soldier suddenly found that he himself was like a praying mantis trying to knock down a tree and he fell down to the ground without Quan You having moved an inch. Quan You told the soldier that one never should use his martial skills to mistreat innocent people.

In Quan You’s time martial artists often challenged each other with or without a notice. Among these men due to its softness the Wu Style was often mistaken as a weak martial art. One afternoon, Quan You was reading in his room when he was informed that an unknown guest had come to him. Quan You came to the courtyard to greet the man. The guest lowered his body as if to bow to Quan You, and Quan You returned the salute, but at that moment, the guest was suddenly up in the air, falling backward and landing outside the guest room’s door. All the people in the room were shocked by this surprise exit, but the truth was that the guest had used a martial technique known as “the steel fist” to attack Quan You’s belly when he was pretending a bow to Quan You. Quan You had in turn used the Tai Ji Quan skills of neutralizing and redirecting power from the guest to efficiently combine defense and offense. 

Quan You had three primary disciples: His son Wu Jian Quan ( 1870-1942 ), Wang Mao Zhai ( 1862-1940 ) and Guo-Fen Great Grandmaster Wu Quan You (1834-1902) was the founder of Wu Style Tai Ji Quan. He was a Manchurian member of the Imperial Guard in Beijing. He learned Tai Chi Chuan from the founder of Yang Style, Master Yang Lu-Chan. Quan You ‘s area of specialization was neutralization. Quan You had three primary disciples : He's son Wu Jian Quan ( 1870-1942 ), Wang Mao Zhai ( 1862-1940 ) and Guo-Fen.  Wu Style Ji Quan developed into two branches in Beijing, one from earlier students of Chaun You, and the other from students of Wu Jian Quan. Wu Jian Quan modified the forms taught to him by his father. He utilized a narrower circle and created many new ways to apply the form in a practical manner. In 1924, Master Wu Jian Quan, along with colleagues, Xi Yu Sheng, Yang ShaoHou and Yang Cheng Fu, founded a famous martial arts school. This had an important effect in the practice of Tai Ji Quan as it became available to the general public for the first time.

Yang Yu Ting (1887-1982) is Wang Mao Zhai's primary disciple. He was a well-respected and active teacher in Beijing for many years. He had a superior understanding of the internal aspects of Quan You’s teaching  which he acquired through studying the arts with Wang Mao Zhao. He held the vice-chairmanship of the Beijing Martial Arts Association at the time of his death at age 96. Yang Yu Ting is noted for his emphasis on the standardization of postures and for his popularity as a teacher who passed his art on to many students in Beijing, including Wang Pei Sheng, Li Jing Wu and Li Bing Ci.  More about Yang Yu Ting.

Wang Pei Sheng, (1919-2004) who is noted for his expertise in the self-defense applications of Wu style Tai Ji Quan. In his book Wu Style Tai Ji Quan ( Zhaohua Publishing House, Beijing, 1983 ), Wang Pei Sheng presented the 37 posture form of Wu style Tai Ji Quan which he developed in the early 1950's. He had many students in Beijing.

As mentioned previously, Quan You, who was the originator of Wu style Tai Ji Quan had another highly skilled disciple named Guo Fen.  Little is known about this man other than that he passed his art down to Guo Hong Jun and Li Wen Qi.