Wu-style tai chi

History

Wu Quanyou was a military officer cadet of Manchu ancestry in the Yellow Banner camp (see Qing Dynasty Military) in the Forbidden City, Beijing and also a hereditary officer of the Imperial Guards Brigade. At that time, Yang Luchan was the martial arts instructor in the Imperial Guards, teaching tai chi, and in 1850 Wu Quanyou became one of his students.

In 1870, Wu Jianquan was asked to become the senior disciple of Yang Banhou, Yang Luchan's oldest adult son, and an instructor as well to the Manchu military. Wu Quanyou had three primary disciples: his son Wu Jianquan, Wang Maozhai and Guo Fen.

Wu Quanyou's son, Wu Jianquan, grandsons Wu Gongyi and Wu Kung-tsao, and granddaughter Wu Yinghua were well-known teachers.

Wu Jianquan became the most widely known teacher in his family, and is therefore considered the co-founder of the Wu style by his family and their students. He taught large numbers of people and his refinements to the art more clearly distinguish Wu style from Yang style training.

Wu Jianquan moved his family south from Beijing (where an important school founded by other students of his father is headquartered, popularly known as the Northern Wu style) to Shanghai in 1928, where he founded the Jianquan Taijiquan Association (鑑泉太極拳社) in 1935.

Wu Gongyi then moved the family headquarters to Hong Kong in 1948, while His younger sister Wu Yinghua and her husband Ma Yueliang stayed behind to manage the original Shanghai school.

Between 1983 and her death in 1996 Wu Yinghua was the highest-ranked instructor in the Wu family system. Her descendants continue teaching and today manage the Shanghai school as well as schools in Europe:

• Ma Hai Long is the current head of the Shanghai Jianquan Taijiquan Association.
• Ma Jiangbao (1941-2016) lived in the Netherlands and taught traditional tai chi throughout Europe.
• Her granddaughter Dr. Jin Ye lives and teaches in England.
• Her adopted daughter Shi Meilin now lives and teaches Wu-style tai chi in New Zealand, with students also in France and The United States.

Wu Gongyi's children were also full-time martial art teachers:

• His son Wu Ta-k'uei was active in the resistance to the Japanese invasion of China, yet he later taught tai chi in Japan after the war.
• His younger brother, Wu Daqi, supervised the family's Hong Kong and southeast Asian schools for many years and opened the family's first Western Hemisphere school in Toronto, Canada in 1974.
• His daughter, Wu Yanxia, was known as an expert with the tai chi jian (sword).
• His cousin, Wu Daxin, was also known as a weapons specialist, particularly with the tai chi Dao.

Tai chi lineage tree with Wu-style focus

Training

The Wu style's distinctive hand form, pushing hands and weapons trainings emphasize parallel footwork and horse stance training with the feet relatively closer together than the modern Yang or Chen styles, small circle hand techniques (although large circle techniques are trained as well) and differs from the other tai chi family styles martially with Wu style's initial focus on grappling, throws (Shuai jiao), tumbling, jumping, footsweeps, pressure point leverage and joint locks and breaks, which are trained in addition to more conventional tai chi sparring and fencing at advanced levels.

Generational senior instructors of the Wu family tai chi schools

1st Generation

• Wu Quanyou (吳全佑, 1834-1902), who learned from Yang Luchan and Yang Banhou, was senior instructor of the family from 1870–1902.

2nd generation

• His oldest son, Wu Jianquan (1870-1942), was senior from 1902–1942.

3rd Generation

• His oldest son, Wu Gongyi (1900-1970), was senior from 1942–1970.
• Wu Gongyi's younger brother, Wu Gongzao (1903-1983), was senior from 1970–1983.
• Wu Gongyi's younger sister, Wu Yinghua ({1907-1997), was senior from 1983–1997.

4th Generation

• Wu Gongyi's daughter, Wu Yanxia (1930-2001) was senior from 1997–2001.
• Wu Gongzao's son, Wu Daxin (1933-2005), was senior from 2001–2005.

5th Generation

• The current senior instructor of the Wu family is Wu Ta-k'uei's son Wu Kuang-yu (born 1946).

References

• Tina Chunna Zhang, Frank Allen (2006). Classical Northern Wu Style Tai Ji Quan. Blue Snake Books.

References

1. Yip, Y. L.. (Autumn 2002). "Pivot". Insight Graphics Publishers.
2. Wile, Douglas. (1995). "Lost T'ai-chi Classics from the Late Ch'ing Dynasty (Chinese Philosophy and Culture)". [[State University of New York Press]].
3. Wu, Kung-tsao. (2006). "Wu Family T'ai Chi Ch'uan ({{lang". Chien-ch’uan T’ai-chi Ch’uan Association.
4. Yip, Y. L.. (Autumn 1998). "A Perspective on the Development of Taijiquan". Insight Graphics Publishers.
5. Zhang, Tina. (2006). "Classical Northern Wu Style Tai Ji Quan". Blue Snake Books.
6. Philip-Simpson, Margaret. (June 1995). "A Look at Wu Style Teaching Methods". Wayfarer Publications.
7. Li, Liqun. (October 1998). "A Remembrance of Ma Yueh-liang". Wayfarer Publications.
8. Cai, Naibiao. (2006). "In Memory of Wu Daxin". Via Media Publishing.