У стиля тайцзицюань У (Хао): история и особенности

Chinese martial art

Wu (Hao) style tai chi (s=武(郝)式太极拳) is one of the five primary styles of tai chi. It was created in the mid nineteenth century by Wu Yuxiang, a member of a wealthy and influential family in Yongnian, Hebei, China. Wu trained for approximately ten years with the founder of Yang style tai chi, and then for over a month with a Chen style master. Wu also obtained a manual on internal martial arts that formed the core of what are now known as the tai chi classics and include Wu's own writing on the subject. From these sources Wu and his family developed their own style, and may also have developed much of the cultural and intellectual foundation of tai chi as well. This Wu style (武, Wǔ) is the third oldest among the five major styles – Chen, Yang, Wu (Hao), Wu (吳, Wú), and Sun – but is the smallest and least well known of the five, in part because Wu Yuxiang and his family had no need to teach professionally. It is best known for its small and medium frame forms, as well as its emphasis on the core tai chi concept of "open close" or "kai he" (開合, 开合), and so is also known as Kai He tai chi (開合太極拳).

Wu Yuxiang began training with Yang Luchan, the founder of Yang style tai chi, in the early 1840s after Yang returned to Yongnian from his years in the Chen village. Among their many properties the Wu family were the landlords of Chen Dehu's pharmacy and clinic, where Yang offered instruction in what he then called "soft boxing" (軟拳), "cotton boxing" (棉拳), or "neutralizing boxing" (化拳). But in the early 1850s, Wu and his family introduced Yang as martial arts instructor to a prominent family in distant Beijing, where Yang was invited to take up a teaching position at the palace of Prince Duan. Wu then found his way to Chen Qingping, a master of Chen style and Zhaobao tai chi, in Zhaobao village where he trained with Chen for over one month (per writings left by Wu's nephew and grandson). After approximately ten years of training with Yang, Wu was likely able to quickly master a great deal from Chen, gaining further depth and insight.

In the early 1850s Wu's eldest brother Chengqing (武澄清, also known as Wu Qiuying, 武秋瀛; 1800 1884) was serving as a government official in Henan, when he obtained a manual on the principles of internal martial arts. In the writings of the next generation, this was tersely reported as having been received at "a salt shop", with the assumption that any reader would understand the context of that statement. Salt merchants were wealthy and of equal social status with an official like Wu Chengqing. At least one scholar speculates that the owner of that shop may have been a fellow book collector who had learned of the Wu family's interest in the topic, and was seeking to curry favor with Chengqing who among other things was in charge of tax collection. Authorship of the manuscript was attributed to a Wang Zongyue of Shanxi, about whom no information is available in verifiable historical records. (Some have suggested Wang Zongyue could be a pseudonym of Wu Yuxiang or another Wu family member, but the writing style is different and the mundane salt shop story – as opposed to, say, claiming an immortal sage found it in an enchanted cave – lends believability as well.) Wu Chengqing passed the manual on to Wu Yuxiang, who discussed it with his friend and teacher Yang Luchan. Yang agreed it was important. Over the following years, Wu and his family applied the lessons of this text to the development of their art and created a body of written work around it, which together became known as the first version of the tai chi classics. Wu's nephew and top disciple Li Yiyu (李亦畬; 1832–1892) contributed several texts to the final collection. Wu's older brothers Chengqing and Ruqing (武汝清; 1803 1887) also wrote on the topic after they retired from government service, though those works along with more by Li Yiyu were not made public until the 1980s and 1990s, so have been called "lost classics". Wu likely also shared his writings with Yang Luchan, and with Yang's son Yang Banhou, who Wu tutored (probably in literacy as well as tai chi). Although the Wu and Yang lineages appear to have drifted apart by the next generation, in the early twentieth century Yang Chengfu's disciples began to publish their own versions of these texts with their own additions, and began to call them the "tai chi classics".

The term "taijiquan" (the Chinese name of tai chi) may have first appeared in the Wu/Li family's mid nineteenth century writings, perhaps drawn from the Wang Zongyue text which begins with the words "Taiji is born from Wuji; it is the mother of Yin and Yang". As the Wu family had no need to promote their art, it was left to the Yangs to bring this to the public first. But with different priorities, especially as the two families drifted apart (or worse) by the second generation, they often felt no need to mention each other at all which is why few knew of this. Yang family tradition tells us only that imperial court scholar Weng Tonghe used the term "taiji" (tai chi) in a poem to describe a performance by Yang Luchan. It is not clear if that was an additional influence on the name, or if the new name was already in use there, along with the earlier names "Thirteen Postures" (十三式), "Long Boxing"(長拳), and "Soft/Cotton/Neutralizing Boxing" (軟/棉/化拳). Written evidence that the Yang family had started using the name taiji for their martial art first appears in a later text, possibly completed in 1875 by Yang Luchan's son Yang Banhou (who had been tutored by Wu Yuxiang), or no later than the first decade of the twentieth century by one or more of Yang Banhou's disciples.

This branch currently uses the name "Wu (Hao) tai chi" or "Wu Hao tai chi" (武郝太極拳). The founder, Li Shengduan (s=李圣端; 1888 1948), of Xingtai, Hebei, was a disciple of Hao Weizhen and was an accomplished scholar. Descended from China's Hui people, he was not related to Li Yiyu. His most prominent disciples were Ma Rong (马荣; 1912 1965), Chen Gu'an (s=陈固安; 1913 1993), and Wu Wenhan (吴文翰; 1928 2019). A scholarly lineage from the start, Li's disciples authored many books and articles on tai chi and related subjects, in addition to training many disciples and students of their own. Chen Gu'an wrote a book on the 108 posture form he standardized for this lineage and another on the Wu (Hao) style staff. Wu Wenhan wrote a book on Wu (Hao) style applications and edited a comprehensive collection of classic works on tai chi — from Li Yiyu's copy of the Wang Zongyue classic through major early twentieth century writers of all tai chi styles — as well as over 200 articles on the history and theory of the art. Wu Wenhan also researched and released in 1993 previously unknown works by Wu Yuxang's eldest brother Wu Chengqing. Those texts, along with other "lost classics" by Li Yiyu, Wu Ruqing, and Yang Banhou first revealed to the public between 1985 and 1993, expanded our understanding of the original history and thought of the founding generations and the tai chi classics. This lineage continues to thrive in China, and is represented worldwide by Texas based Grandmaster Jimmy K. Wong (王國强, 王国强, Wang Guoqiang, Wong Kokkhang), a disciple of Chen Gu'an and Wu Wenhan. Their schools practice a small frame 108 posture long form standardized by Chen Gu'an plus several small frame simplified forms, as well as straight sword, saber, staff, and other aspects of the art. Small and slightly built, Li Baoyu surprised many challengers, defeating all opponents in and out of the ring including several gangsters. Thrust into a hardscrabble life at an early age, martial arts provided strength and stability, and his prowess earned him the nickname "Spirit Hand (神手) Li". He established a flour milling business and raised a family, but his many storied martial adventures continued on throughout his life. His most famous student was Dong Yingjie. He coached Dong through a nationally celebrated victory against a British boxer in Nanjing — as the story goes, Li was originally slated to fight that match, but a Chinese gangster working for the British consul temporarily blinded him by throwing lime powder in his eyes — and then taught in Suzhou, Hangzhou, Nanjing, Hebei, Shanxi, and elsewhere, his fame attracting requests for training even from the central government. Known for his Vajra Palm (金刚掌), Tai Chi Yin Wind Palm (太极阴风掌) and Extend Peng Draw Lü Rotation (伸掤收捋旋转圈) techniques, he trained several disciples, including Shi Fengchun (石逢春), Li Wanquan (李万全), and his good friend the Daoist adept Li Jianxing (李见性) who was also a master of traditional Chinese medicine. Li Baoyu's friend and student Dong Yingjie included that form, along with fast forms Dong developed in part by incorporating postures and principles he learned from Li, in the advanced curriculum of Dong family tai chi taught today in over twenty countries around the world. More about these forms is in the Characteristics section below.

The tai chi classics of the Wu (Hao) style include a list of thirteen important points for every practitioner to keep in mind. Wu Yuxiang compiled the first eight, the "body methods" (身法, shēnfǎ), while Li Yiyu added the final five "essentials" (要領, Simplified 要领, yāolǐng). All Wu (Hao) lineages agree on the importance of this list for each and every movement, though some list them in a slightly different order. Following is a translation of the list as taught by Liu Jishun, grandmaster of the Hao family lineage.

Wu (Hao) style tai chi is based on principles shared with other styles, especially Yang style. For example, Yang Chengfu's "Ten Essential Points" are quite similar to the Wu (Hao) style "Thirteen Important Points" listed above, and in fact Wu Yuxiang has been named as the source of the Yang essential points list by some writers in the Yang style lineage. Chen style masters also teach these essentials with a few additional points, most notably the concept of internal spiral energy paths. Like Yang style, Wu (Hao) style focuses on "pulling silk" (抽絲勁, 抽丝劲, chōusījìn) rather than the Chen style "reeling silk" (纏絲勁, 缠丝劲, chánsījìn), and Wu (Hao) shares with Yang the focus on "sinking qi to the dantian" (氣沉丹田, 气沉丹田) rather than the Chen emphasis on dantian rotation (丹田運轉, 丹田运转). But all tai chi styles contain all of these principles, varied only by emphasis. and the similarities with Yang style weapons forms noted above, as well as similarities and differences on fundamental principles such as the Wu (Hao) style's focus on shifting and sinking vs. the Yang style's focus on shifting and twisting, though both styles contain all of those internal principles, just as all styles require the practitioner to clearly distinguish between "empty and solid" (虛實, 虚实, xūshí) weighting during those movements. This is not to say that Wu (Hao) style masters haven't from the beginning also taught the four directions "péng lǚ jǐ àn" and the four corners "cǎi liè zhǒu kào" (採/采挒肘靠), at least in the context of pushing hands, as they have for example in the Pushing Hands Ditty (打手歌) transmitted by Li Yiyu, through more recent works such as Yao Jizu's chapter on pushing hands which shows the continued importance of the four directions and four corners by beginning with a basic push hands set in the pattern of "péng, lōu, zhǒu, àn". Yet for Wu (Hao) stylists, the most fundamental concept is "kai he". Other styles of tai chi and other internal martial arts also give attention to the importance of opening and closing in all movements, but Li Yiyu was the first to specifically call it kai he in his "Treatise on the Diagram of Substantial/Insubstantial and Opening/Closing", and Wu (Hao) masters have uniquely made this concept their central focus. But when Li Yiyu's student Hao Weizhen began spreading the art to the broader public, he refined his teaching for practical application by replacing "zhuǎn" with "kāi".