Yang Family/Yang Style Yang Style is the most popular style of all styles of so called Tai Chi popularly practiced today. In reality the art as it is practiced today by most people has lost all that had made it true Tai Chi and really should not even be called by that name anymore. Yang Lu Chan studied Tai chi under Chen Chang Xing for about 20 years. He later moved to Beijing (then called Peking) the capital of China to teach his art. His students were mostly royal family members, generals and ministers. The art was then called Soft Quan (绵拳), meaning soft style martial art. As the capital of China and residence of the Royal court, Peking was also the capital of Chinese martial arts. The Royal family had a large army of bodyguards and successful business people followed the suit. All major martial art schools had their footholds in Peking. Yang quickly earned himself a nickname which said a lot about his art and accomplishment: Yang the Undefeatable. Yet even the undefeatable had to bend to aristocrat life styles and business interests. The fact that his students were mostly aristocrats and high class people was a double-edged weapon. On one hand, it was the best advertisement which made him the single most sought after martial art teacher. On the other hand, he had to tailor his art to suit his students. He reformed the Chen Old style form he learned from Chen Chang Xing. He omitted the difficult moves which required great strength, flexibility and solid basic training. He also completely omitted Fa Jin and the function of Dan Tian as the engine of body movements. This new form was slow, soft, open, smooth and graceful, and did not require the performer to have good strength, flexibility and all the basic training. It was whole-heartedly welcomed by the aristocrats and high class people. It became the trend for the wealthy but it ceased to be a martial art. The form was recreated again and again by his sons and grandsons. In 1933, his grandson and the head of Yang family third generation Yang Cheng Fu published his final book. The form in this book has 37 different moves and arranged in 85 steps, meaning besides the 37 moves there are 48 repeated moves of those 37 moves. The various differently arranged Yang style forms practiced today are all based on this form, as short as 8 step, 16 form, 24 step and as long as 108 step and even 118 step. They all share the 37 moves or some form of the 37 moves. There are three reasons that make some longer and some shorter. 1. Some short forms were arranged for the convenience of teaching making it easy for beginners such as the eight step form. 2. The number of repetitions makes them shorter or longer and… 3. Some of the moves are broken into two separate moves. For example, “Single Whip Downward” is one move in some forms but two moves in others, “Single Whip” and “Move downward.” “Turn around and Tame the Tiger Left and Right” in some forms is divided into 2 moves “Left Tame the Tiger” and “Right Tame the Tiger.” The 85 step form not only omitted the difficult moves it also greatly reduced the degree of difficulty of the retained ones. For instance, in Chen style “Move downward” the performer should lower his/her body till the left leg is completely straightened and resting on the floor while the right leg is also completely resting on floor but the knee should bend till calf and thigh touch and his/her torso should be kept straight and upright all the time while lowering or rising up. All the moves that contained Fa Jin are either omitted or the Fa Jin part is omitted. You don’t see the spiraling movement anymore and you don’t see the sloshing body anymore. All the elements that made Tai Chi a highly effective martial art is not there anymore. It is no longer a martial art. How about its health benefits? Do the modified forms keep the health benefits it is supposed to bring to its practitioners? The answer is what you would expect, little to none. Compared with the complete training which contains a great deal of body conditioning and basic drills the health benefits come from playing the form are minimal. It takes around 25 minutes to complete the 85 step form. But if you use the same amount time to do basic training, the health benefits are at least 10 fold. I will talk about the health benefits in details later. The Qing Dynasty aristocrats believed that they were the noble people and noble people were above any physical activities including sports. Their motto was “Jade body (their body) never labor.” The fact that these “jade bodies” whole heartedly welcomed the reformed Tai Chi form told it all. Thanks to Douglas Baker, I recently read a book by a Tai Chi master, who studied since early 1970s first under Zheng Man Qing (1902-1975, a highly accomplished student of Yang Cheng Fu, Zheng who taught Tai Chi in New York City after 1965.) and then under a highly accomplished student of Zheng Man Qing. He briefly talked about Qi and its sensations. He said after so many years of practice he felt some tickling and swelling. That is all he knows about Qi. His book doesn’t talk about any other health benefits that you all know after just a couple of years of practice. There were different opinions within Yang Family and the different opinions resulted in obviously different outcomes. Yang Lu Chan’s son, Yang Ban Hou did not agree with his father’s approach and never separated his practice and his teaching. Unfortunately (but expectedly) very few students stayed with him although he was the most accomplished one in the family. Even more accomplished than his father in terms of the martial art aspect. At that time the Peking martial art community agreed with the saying that Yang Lu Chan broke into Peking martial art community but Yang Ban Hou conquered it. When they said “conquered it” they meant physically. Yang Lu Chan’s other son, Yang Jian Hou followed his father’s suit and was very successful economically. By the time his son Yang Cheng Fu took over, they had established such a successful business that being their students was a must for “well to do” people. Obviously, the Yang family did not teach their students what they practiced. They kept the real thing secret, not only to their students but ironically to themselves as well. The third generation of the Yang family already did not have as much as the second generation did. The fourth generation and after have zero knowledge of real Tai Chi. Thanks also to Douglas Baker I recently read a book by Yang Ban Hou, the best of the Yang family. His book is much better than his son’s, the one published in 1933. I don’t know with what Yang Lu Chan broke into and Yang Ban Hou conquered Peking martial art community but I am certain it was not with the moves in the form we practice today or what practicing these moves would result in. To be continued.... |
