Discovering Wu Tai Chi - the Unknown Style
In April 2006, the Wushu Scholar team travelled to Shanghai to visit some of the masters living today in this vast, sprawling modern metropolis. One of the most memorable was Master Chen Guo Fu, a teacher of Wu style Tai Chi.
There are two styles known as 'Wu' in the west. The variant we were privileged to film was the rarer of the two, also known as Hao style. Founded by Wu Yu Xiang and passed on through the Hao family, this style is not widely known in the west, certainly in comparison with Yang or Chen styles. For ease, throughout the article we will refer to this style of Tai Chi as Wu/Hao.
A comparison of Tai Chi styles
The five Tai Chi styles officially recognised by the Chinese government and studied by Master Chen all share a common heritage. However, slight differences exist between the way in which they are performed.
- Yang - big and open movements. Looks extremely soft externally, no hard or fast movements. The most popular style of Tai Chi today. (RELATED VIDEO: Yang Tai Chi)
- Chen - features a number of hard and fast movements. Also appears extremely physical and strong.(RELATED VIDEO: Chen Tai Chi>
- Sun - features stepping and movements from Xing Yi and Bagua, incorporated from the other arts studied by Sun Lu Tang, the founder.
- Wu - Features a slight incline of the body to many movements, and although still based on Yang Tai Chi, it is slightly smaller and more compact.
- Wu/Hao - the rarest of the five major styles. Extremely small foot movements, high and short stance and very precise hand positions. Arms rarely extend fully.(RELATED VIDEO: Wu Tai Chi)
Master Chen has dedicated most of his life to practising the highly compact Wu/Hao style. Of all tai chi styles he has studied, he believes this one is the most practical and correct.
"All of the other style books we see were written by students, not the masters themselves. The first Wu/Hao style master was a scholar, and studied hard from the Chen master. He could accurately write down the principles and now it is the book which many others base their theory of Tai Chi on."
It is the style that Master Chen practices himself, teaches to his students and, for him, the one that best exemplifies the Tai Chi principles.
Power
The first thing an observer will notice about Wu/Hao tai chi is the compactness of the style. The arms are rarely extended, the feet hardly more than shoulder width apart and the stance upright and conservative.
In many styles a beginner starts by learning big, open movements. Power is long and expansive. As the stylist becomes more proficient they can begin to contract the movements so that power is generated over an ever decreasing distance. At the pinnacle it appears that the hand or body barely moves, even though it may deliver a devastating blow. This is the fa jin that many Tai Chi stylists talk about.
Wu/Hao Tai Chi takes this principle and puts it at its core. Although the creator, Wu Yu Xiang, learnt from both the Chen and Yang families, he took the large movements that he had learnt and began to contract them until he could contain the essence and power of the movement in a much tighter frame. With Wu/Hao style, the stylist only trains this short range, focussed power generation.
Wu/Hao style is also extremely internally focussed, noticeably more so than some other styles. Master Chen explained to Wushu Scholar that during the form, if you extend your arms and limbs to their fullest at every opportunity, you are 'giving away' your energy. By constantly conserving your energy, it can build over time. This doesn't necessarily mean that the energy and blood flow doesn't reach the hands for example, but simply means that it isn't lost or trapped in the arms by locking the joints.
Footwork
Footwork in Wu/Hao style is equally compact. The feet are rarely placed more than a foot's width apart, and the stylist never extends their knee past the toes of the forward foot.
Turning is based around minutely small circles. With the feet never far apart, many foot movements place the feet close together and involve equally small shifts of weight between the feet.
For example, in one turning manoeuvre resulting in a 180 degree about-turn, the practitioner first draws their front foot back, placing it behind his other foot so that the heel of the standing foot and the toes of the moving foot are almost touching. From here, the practitioner turns.
The benefits of this small footwork are obvious ? in fighting, an inch can mean the difference between victory and defeat. Smaller footwork can create much needed openings or spaces for avoiding strikes, creating openings or wrong-stepping an opponent, with the necessary speed.
Wu/Hao style uses some similar footwork to Sun style Tai Chi (in fact, Sun Lu Tang learnt Tai Chi from a member of the Hao family, and was thus influenced by Wu/Hao Tai Chi when developing his own style of Tai Chi). Sun Tai Chi incorporated a number of movements from Xing Yi, noticeably the 'following step', where the back foot follows the lead foot. Wu/Hao style also has this element; in many of the striking movements the rear foot will travel forward to become the forward foot of a cat stance as the strike is delivered.
In all cases, the practitioner uses a strict 'heel-toe' rule, placing the heel down first before gently rolling the weight forward and placing the toe down.
Body balance
In many styles of Chinese martial arts, certain patterns or movements will feature a lean or bend of the back. Often this is intimately linked with that style's method of power generation, or perhaps just a particular move with a specific application.
In Wu/Hao style the upper body, from the waist to the shoulders, is kept as one upright unit that does not lean from side to side or backwards or forwards. The reason is to ensure that the weight can be transferred quickly and evenly and to complement the small and measured footwork. When practising the footwork, the practitioner should concentrate on using the legs to shift the body along like a cloud in the wind, without wobbling, changing height or leaning.
Hands
The hand positions often appear very loose and unconstrained. In one sense, they are, because Wu/Hao Tai Chi aims to be soft and pliable in the wrists and does not force the hands into stiff or angular positions. However, the hand positions incorporate a myriad of practical martial applications and principles. For example, in a number of moves you can see a 'rolling' of the hands across each other. This rolling movement, despite looking soft and gentle, is actually a lock or break to the elbow to counter an incoming punch. While the movement is smaller and less explicit than other styles, the principle is still there.
Swords and other weapons
Although many Tai Chi styles often include a wide range of weapons in their syllabus, Master Chen believes that many of these are not part of the core of Tai Chi.
"I only practise Tai Chi sword?practising Tai Chi sword requires internal energy, similar to Chinese calligraphy. So Tai Chi, the sword and calligraphy are all well suited to each other."
Master Chen explained that the first requirement for the sword is that you must hold it loosely, and hold it with the fingers. The reason for this is to ensure you allow the qi to reach the tip of the sword.
"In fact when you train Tai Chi, you should feel qi come to your tip parts of your finger. If you feel that, then your qi can go through the sword and reach to the tip of the sword."
Another reason for the loose grip is to allow the sword to change direction easily if it is struck hard. If the sword is held stiffly, it will be difficult to change direction if an opponent aims to strike directly against the blade. However, with a loose grip, the practitioner can change the direction of the sword and avoid having the sword knocked from their hands. (RELATED VIDEO: Wu Style Double Swords)
The sword itself is hard, not wildly flexible as you may see in many wushu shows where the sword can bend to over 90 degrees. In fighting, the sword has an advantage over some other weapons (especially long range weapons) because it can be brought quite close to the body to defend.
Regarding some of the other popular esoteric weapons, Master Chen told us briefly of a style brother of his who knows a Tai Chi 'brush' pattern (using a large calligraphy brush). However, on these types of weapons, including fans, he was refreshingly humorous:
"The sword is a weapon. A scholars weapon. The fans are just dancing tools. Like the Emperor Qianlong in the films uses a fan - it's just to make the story interesting and funny."
