He Youlu

01 · Lineage & Regional School

At the age of nine he began learning the family's Taijiquan from his father, He Shiying, and came to master and command the routines, weapons and technical theory of He-style Taijiquan. Within the regional tradition and school record of Taijiquan in Wen, Henan: He-style Taijiquan originated in Zhaobao Town, Wen County, Henan. At first it was transmitted only within the He clan; from the third generation of heirs it began to accept disciples from outside the clan, and its range of transmission spread from Zhaobao Town to Wen County, Jiaozuo, Zhengzhou and Kaifeng, and, as heirs moved their residence, it spread far to Shaanxi, Sichuan, Hubei and overseas. He-style Taijiquan is one of the schools of Taijiquan. It was created in the late Qing dynasty by He Zhaoyuan, a native of Zhaobao Town in Wen County, Henan, and is transmitted in Wen County, Henan Province.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

Male, Han ethnicity, born in January 1964 in Wen County, Henan Province. He is a He-style Taijiquan master. His postures are upright, relaxed and soft, light, agile and rounded, and flow naturally, and form practice, pushing hands and free sparring are unified as one. He is the author of the He-style Taijiquan Manual and The Thirteen Postures of He-style Taijiquan, among other works. He has also produced instructional video discs including He-style Taijiquan: Boxing, Sword, Sabre, Staff and Pushing Hands. He actively disseminates He-style Taijiquan, taking on disciples and teaching the art, and his students are to be found in China and abroad. Within the documented technical tradition of Taijiquan in Wen, Henan: He Zhaoyuan was born into a family of Chinese medicine practitioners. As a boy he studied literature, learned medicine and practised boxing at the same time, and studied Taijiquan under Chen Qingping. Later he enriched and reformed the boxing he had originally practised by drawing on the principles of the Yijing, of Neo-Confucian learning and of Chinese medicine, enriching and perfecting the boxing frame, the theory of the boxing method and the methods of practice, so that it formed a system of its own and created a boxing style in which the frame is played with lively steps and rounded circles and which is supple and natural. Because this style gives prominence to theoretical guidance and stresses the unity of body use and application and the matching of technique with principle, it is called "boxing that carries principle and frame" (da li jia). The theory of He-style Taijiquan is found chiefly in works such as the Essentials of Taijiquan, the Nine Essentials and the General Ballad on the Body Use of Taijiquan; and it has a system of practice sets covering bare-hand sets, weapon sets, pushing hands and combat. The bare-hand sets include the traditional 72-form and 18-form; the weapon sets include the saber, the sword and the staff; pushing hands is divided into fixed-step pushing hands and lively-step pushing hands, and its sets thread the principles of the Yijing through the boxing postures. It aims to imitate their form, to take their meaning and to apply their principle. Playing the frame in this way is commonly called "playing the boxing" (shua quan), and this is a distinctive feature of He-style Taijiquan. When the frame is played, the spirit and intention flow naturally, the postures are rounded and lively, the breathing is smooth and the footwork is agile. By the methods of yin-yang change it gathers the force of the body's opening and closing, forming the infinitely varied techniques and methods of the boxing, so as to achieve the effect in combat of being smooth as fish, sticky as glue, soft as cotton and hard as steel. He-style Taijiquan was at first transmitted only within the He clan. He-style Taijiquan pursues a dynamic balance of yin and yang in which the outward form is neither excessive nor deficient, the inner and the outer correspond to each other, and everything is supple and natural. It uses bodily experience to comprehend the wisdom condensed from the universe, nature, society and life, and it is a concrete embodiment in practice of China's traditional thought on the unity of heaven and humanity. He-style Taijiquan enriched both the boxing method and the theory of Taijiquan, valuing technique and principle alike, and carries a rich cultural content of martial arts. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "The theory-bearing frame and playful boxing": He Zhaoyuan enriched his art with the Yijing, Neo-Confucian and medical theory, producing a live-stepping, rounded and natural style called the theory-bearing frame, its practiceSuCheng playful boxing. "The seventy-two and eighteen forms": The system includes bare-hand sets of 72 and 18 forms, sabre, sword and staff routines, and fixed- and live-step pushing hands, all threaded through with the principles of the Yijing. "The essential discourses": Its theory is set out in the Essential Discourses on Taiji, the Nine Essentials and the General Song of Substance and Function, seeking a natural yin-yang balance. "He Zhaoyuan's medical and Yijing background": Born into a medical family, He Zhaoyuan studied letters, medicine and boxing, learning taiji from Chen Qingping; the art stayed within the clan until the third generation opened it to outside disciples.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

National representative bearer of Taijiquan (He-style Taijiquan), a fifth-batch national intangible cultural heritage project.

04 · Associated Heritage Item Dossier

05 · Fellow National Bearers Lineage

National representative bearers recorded under the same item code, ordered from the first to the sixth batch. Batch order is not a teacher–student relationship.

06 · Archival Sources & Bibliography

1. He Youlu · National Representative Bearer Archive