Re: "What Makes Taijiquan, Taijiquan?"
Posted: Thu Mar 26, 2009 1:18 pm
Where did you get that picture of me after I ate a squeeze tube of wasabi?
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mixjourneyman wrote:
Where did you get that picture of me after I ate a squeeze tube of wasabi?
edededed wrote:There may be some truth in what Jou said... but on the other hand:
1. The Yangs (after Luchan) only learned the Yang form
2. Ma Yueliang (of Wu Jianquan style) was one of the best taiji fighters of his generation
3. WHICH Chen style (as we know now, there are more than one)?
Tom wrote:johnrieber wrote:jou tsung hwa really pushed that whole cat-thing as being a key metaphor for explaining good taiji behavior to humans/primates.
Why does Jou Tsung Hwa continue to command respect as a teacher/practitioner and an explicator of taijiquan principles? I never had the opportunity to meet him or study with him. Was he really that good?
Besides a metaphorical nod to Zhang San Feng, Jou only ever acknowledged Yuan Tao as a teacher.
Yuan Tao did not teach Chen style. Yet somehow Jou "learned" Chen to the point where he felt qualified to teach it . . . and then somehow absorbed enough of the essence of other styles to dismiss Wu Jianquan's taiji as a flawed lesser derivative of Yang style, and Sun as a hopeless hodgepodge.
Was Jou really that good? Or was it the fact that he was Chinese that glossed over the gaps in his personal training history and the leaps of faith required to cross the chasms in his reasoning offered in support of the prima facie asininity of his assertions about taiji styles and training?
His theories were simple though sometimes controversial. The practice of taiji should follow the evolution of the art. Chen Form(s) should always be studied first, its principles understood and mastered. Only then should the Yang Form be studied, for only by mastering Chen could Yang be truly understood. The final stage of evolution was expressed in the Wu/Hao Form, which internalized the principles to its subtlest nuances. Beyond that was pure mind method. These, the “four classic forms,” as he considered them, comprised the heart of his taiji study and teachings. At the same time he made no secret of how he felt about the forms outside of these four. The Wujianquan Form was a less advanced derivative of the Yang Form. The Sun Form was a redundant hodgepodge of the three internal arts. Weapons forms were often learned too early in a student's taiji education -- a waste of time that could be better spent in practice and understanding of the principles. All other variants were simply a distraction from the originals.
http://www.taichifarm.org/Teachings_of_Jou_Tsung_Hwa.htm