Taijiquan
01 · Historical Records
Wu-style Taijiquan is one of the five great schools of Taijiquan in China. Its framework was fixed in Shanghai by the master Wu Jianquan, and its transmission has continued to the present day for more than 150 years. It is one of the schools of Taijiquan that went abroad earlier and spread into Southeast Asia, and it is of great significance for disseminating the outstanding traditional culture of the Chinese nation and promoting cultural exchange between China and foreign countries.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Practitioners are based in Shanghai and radiate to all parts of the country and even overseas. Wu-style Taijiquan is characterised by a compact work and frame, relaxation and natural stillness, unceasing continuity, and strict postures. Each movement seems to pause without stopping and to extend without yet extending; the limbs are coordinated in close accord, the substantial leg changes, every joint is threaded through, the circles turn at the joints, and the distinctive lightness and calm steadiness of Wu-style Taijiquan are displayed. It emphasises the naturalness of body and mind; the frame is played relaxed without slack, the inner and the outer are joined, the upper and the lower follow each other, and cultivation and practice are carried out together, showing movement characteristics that are even, tranquil and unceasingly continuous. The boxing is performed at an even speed; from the raising of the first posture to the closing posture it must not be interrupted. Because of its distinctive body method, its movements have posture and meaning and have qi and power, displaying the distinctive rounding force of Wu-style Taijiquan. It holds that boxing principles should be grasped through pushing hands. Pushing hands has a great many postures and centres on neutralising, using no strength to defeat strength and slowness to master speed, moving a thousand jin with four ounces; the hands are light and deft, neutralising without striking and keeping stillness without rash movement, in accordance with the theory of yin and yang of Taiji. The footwork is based chiefly on the chuan-character step pattern, and the body posture holds the upright within the slanted. The Wu-style Taijiquan system is complete and combines body use with application, and includes three parts: the boxing frame, weapons and pushing hands. The boxing frame includes the traditional long-form boxing (also called slow boxing) and the traditional fast boxing; the weapons include the Wu-style taiji saber, the Qiankun sword, the Seven-Star sword, the Wu-style taiji paired swords, the Wu-style taiji twenty-four-spear, the Wu-style taiji sticky-pole and so on; pushing hands include the thirteen-form pushing hands and lively-step pushing hands, the former being used to experience within a fixed set the application of Taijiquan postures, and the latter having the training of footwork as its purpose. It is suitable for young and old alike, has the effect of strengthening the body and building health, and is suitable for promotion as a national fitness programme.
The traditional long frame and fast frame
The Wu style preserves both a slow long frame of even unbroken movement and a fast frame expressing its rounded power.
The Wu sabre, Qiankun and Qixing swords
The weapons syllabus covers the Wu taiji sabre, the Qiankun and Qixing swords, paired swords, a twenty-four spear and the sticky pole.
Thirteen push-hand methods and moving-step push hands
Push hands has thirteen fixed methods for feeling technique and a moving-step form for footwork, both based on yielding rather than striking.
The character-chuan step and slant concealing straightness
Its step is mainly the chuan-shaped stance with the body slanted yet upright, weight transferring through the solid leg in small circles.
Wu Quanyou, Wu Jianquan and the Jianquan society
Codified by Wu Quanyou and his son Wu Jianquan, the style has three transmission branches from the Shanghai Jianquan Taijiquan Society founded in 1935.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The foundation of Wu-style Taijiquan lies in Beijing. Wu Quanyou (1834—1902) studied Yang-style Taijiquan under Yang Luzhan and his son Yang Banhou, and his son Wu Jianquan (1870—1942) then revised and fixed it, forming a school of its own. In 1928 Wu Jianquan travelled south to Shanghai and was engaged to teach at the Jingwu Physical Culture Society and the Shanghai National Arts Institute; in 1935 he founded the Jianquan Taijiquan Society. Wu-style Taijiquan thus took Shanghai as its main base and spread to Nanjing, Hangzhou, Changsha and Guangzhou, as well as to Hong Kong, Macao and Southeast Asia; the Shanghai Jianquan Taijiquan Society is its protecting unit.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Taijiquan · Taijiquan · Taijiquan · Taijiquan · Taijiquan · Taijiquan · Taijiquan · Taijiquan · Taijiquan.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Wu-style Taijiquan is transmitted through the master-and-disciple mode; at present the lines of transmission mainly in active use are the direct line of Wu Quanyou, the line of Wu Quanyou's disciples and the line of Wu Quanyou's students — three branches. Its transmission in Shanghai is rigorous and orderly, has preserved the original appearance of Wu-style Taijiquan, and observes the tradition; it has already reached the sixth generation. At present Wu-style Taijiquan is in good condition of continued existence and has a broad mass base. Wu-style Taijiquan fuses martial arts, qigong and Chinese medicine into a single whole, tracing upward the Way of the "unity of heaven and humanity" and following downward the principle of "combining body use with application". It embodies the philosophical thought of traditional Chinese culture and has a high historical and cultural value.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Yang Zhenhe 01-0041
- Han Huiming 01-0042
- Wang Xian 01-0043
- Zhu Tiancai 01-0044
- Yang Zhenguo 03-1207
- Chen Zhenglei 03-1209
- Diweichuan 05-2537
- He Youlu 05-2538
- Sun Wanrong
- Chen Peiju
- Chen Xiaoxing
- Luan Xinchun
- Li Jianfang
- Yao Zhiping
- Chen Bing
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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