I just watched a DVD on Chen Taijquan over the weekend. For some strange reason, I got really inspired to see what the form looked like. I have read books on Chen-style for a while now, but never got round to finding out what it looked like.
There appears to be some bad blood between the Yang family and Chen-style Taijiquan. For example, back in the 1930s, Tang Hao et al published a thesis saying that Taijiquan was created by Chen Wangting. To the Yang family, this was almost blasphemous since it denied the existence of the Grand Patriach Zhang Sanfeng. Also, Yang historians found that the Chen family had apparently faked a marital arts genealogy to substantiate their claims of origin. References include Dan Docherty 'The Complete Tai Chi CHuan", ZHao Bin "Genuine Yang Taijiquan" (in Chinese).
Just to clarify, Yang-style practitioners never denied that their art came from Chen village, but they are adamant that Yang Luchan learnt his art from Chen Changxing. The rest of the Chen family practised a different art, a hard style, and they in fact ostrasised Chen Changxing for teaching Taijiquan.
ANyway, maybe because of that, I never got down to understanding Chen-style Taijquan. When I watched the DVD, I was blown away. The form demonstrated by Chen Zhenglei was simply fantastic. When I tried one of the standing exercises, more out of fun and curiosity that anything else, the feeling of qi circulating in a spiral manner in my body, from my hands to my toes was my strongest ever when practising a Taijiquan form.
I could go on for a while but I have one conclusion to make: If i had to choose a style all over again AND had a competent instructor for that style, I would have chosen Chen Taijiquan. Coming from a Yang stylist, I think that is quite an admission
There appears to be some bad blood between the Yang family and Chen-style Taijiquan. For example, back in the 1930s, Tang Hao et al published a thesis saying that Taijiquan was created by Chen Wangting. To the Yang family, this was almost blasphemous since it denied the existence of the Grand Patriach Zhang Sanfeng. Also, Yang historians found that the Chen family had apparently faked a marital arts genealogy to substantiate their claims of origin. References include Dan Docherty 'The Complete Tai Chi CHuan", ZHao Bin "Genuine Yang Taijiquan" (in Chinese).
Just to clarify, Yang-style practitioners never denied that their art came from Chen village, but they are adamant that Yang Luchan learnt his art from Chen Changxing. The rest of the Chen family practised a different art, a hard style, and they in fact ostrasised Chen Changxing for teaching Taijiquan.
ANyway, maybe because of that, I never got down to understanding Chen-style Taijquan. When I watched the DVD, I was blown away. The form demonstrated by Chen Zhenglei was simply fantastic. When I tried one of the standing exercises, more out of fun and curiosity that anything else, the feeling of qi circulating in a spiral manner in my body, from my hands to my toes was my strongest ever when practising a Taijiquan form.
I could go on for a while but I have one conclusion to make: If i had to choose a style all over again AND had a competent instructor for that style, I would have chosen Chen Taijiquan. Coming from a Yang stylist, I think that is quite an admission
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