The Heritage Of Tai Chi
Continued
From
Page 1
by Chia Siew Pang
&
Goh Ewe Hock
One day the grandmaster explained why he had broken one of the strongest family
traditions by teaching an outsider the secrets of the art. He had realized that by restricting the art to family members, tai chi would eventually decline in vitality. Family members would not have any incentive to practice well or to introduce new techniques since even those with less than perfect mastery of the art were far better than most practitioners from other schools of martial art. He reasoned that if he taught a talented and skilled outsider, like Yang, he would ensure that the essence of tai chi would not be lost to the world. Further, tai chi would remain a vigorous and vital art as not only would it be practiced by many but also the family members would have to practice hard in order to avoid being beaten by their own art.
The tradition of selecting hardworking and dedicated students to pass on the knowledge of the art began with Yang and has persisted. Often masters would not accept payment from such students, whose only obligation was to learn the art well and, in turn, pass on their knowledge to other deserving students.
Thus Yang Lu-ch'an fulfilled his greatest desire and was personally instructed by the grandmaster for several long years. This grandmaster remained critical of the standard of the art practiced by members of the family. At one of the annual competitions held among members of the Chen family, he noted that none of the younger members was able to defeat an old man like himself. It was pointed out that this was because he had so much more experience and practice. Since the proficiency of an exponent was related to the amount of practice and as age did not impair one's ability in the art, they were confident that when they reached his age they would equal or better his skill.
Then the grandmaster dropped his bombshell: 'If I can produce someone younger than myself, who has acquired sufficient skill through thoughtful and diligent practice, to defeat all of you, what would you all have to say then?'
This statement was received with much laughter. The grandmaster's claim was treated with some derision when the family discovered that this superman was none other than their servant, Yang
Lu-ch'an. Laughter turned to disbelief as, one after another, members of the Chen family were beaten by Yang. Gradually, their feelings hardened into anger as they realized that not only had their grandmaster trained an outsider, he had done it so well that he could defeat all members of the family. They felt cheated and betrayed.
'Yang Lu-ch'an will go forth and teach the world tai chi. If you all do not practice well enough, you will soon find that others will be better than you in your own art. Although I have broken our
family tradition by teaching an outsider, I have ensured that the knowledge of the art will not die but will blossom and develop over the years.'
With those words, the grandmaster personally escorted Yang out of the village and gave him his blessings to spread the knowledge of tai
chi. Yang lost no time in fulfilling his teacher's wishes. He had to establish tai chi as an effective martial art system before he could attract any good students to his school. In order to do this, he wandered all over Hopeh Province, taking on all challengers. In his first year he carried a flag that proclaimed he was the best martial art exponent and challenged anyone who disputed this claim. The flag was displayed in taverns, marketplaces and other public places. It soon attracted many challengers for all serious martial art practitioners are proud of displaying their skill. Furthermore, a proven martial art exponent in those days could earn an honorable and comfortable living by providing escort service for the richer merchants and travelers or by teaching his art.
Yang Lu-ch'an was never defeated in any of his bouts. He continued in his travels for a total of three years. His flag, by this time, recorded all his past victories and he called himself the 'Unbeatable Yang'. He also claimed that he practiced the martial art system, tai chi chuan - 'grand ultimate fist'. Despite all these claims, the number of challengers dropped. So Yang went to Beijing and started a school of tai
chi. Here he teamed up with two other 'soft' or 'infernal' martial art schools (Hsing I and Pa
Kua) and together they challenged, defeated and expelled all other martial art schools from Beijing. For a very long time afterwards, only these three schools of martial art were taught in Beijing.
Following Yang's death, his version of tai chi, now known as Yang tai chi, was taught mainly by members of his family. His
grandson, Yang Cheng-fu, formalized the teaching of tai chi into a set of 81 moves which took a student some time to learn and about 15-20 minutes to complete. One of his better students, Cheng
Mun-ch'ng, updated this version by weeding out the more repetitive and impractical moves. He retained the essence of the art by neither introducing any new moves nor attempting to change Yang Cheng-fu's interpretation of the art. Thus the basics of Yang tai chi as taught by the originator Yang
Lu-ch'an were preserved, and today, this version of tai chi is the one which most closely resembles the original form. It is this version which was taught to Chia Siew Pang by Cheng Mun-ch'ng and which is presented in this manual.
(Tai Chi - Ten Minutes to Health)
We have described briefly the evolution and development of one of the more popular forms of tai
chi. This version has stood the test of time. Today, it is still widely practiced in many parts of the world. However, it is not the only version of tai chi that has developed over the years. In attempts to improve upon what they have learnt, several have introduced their interpretations of the art; the result has been the development of many schools of tai
chi. Among the better known versions are Chen tai chi, Wu tai chi and Sun tai
chi. Many later versions introduced modifications to the original system. Sun
tai chi, for example, incorporates some of the techniques of other 'soft' martial art systems. All this reflects the rich heritage and versatility of the ancient art.
See
Also
Tai Chi For Health
|
Master Chia first
learned tai chi in 1933 from Master Li Yue in Kwangtung. In 1936 he studied the art under Master Cheng
Mun-ch'ng. Not as generally well-known as his tai chi skills is the fact that Master Chia is an accomplished physician trained in administering traditional Chinese medicine.
Dr Goh is a medical practitioner, trained in western medicine and specializing in community medicine.
Dr Goh lives in Sydney where he conducts small private classes in Yang's tai chi.
