Imperial Yang Style Taiji History

A quick note about The Imperial Yang Style Taijiquan:

Often when you read about this style, you will be told something like:

"Yang Luchan was pressured into teaching his style to the imperial family, and so he chose to teach them an inferior version of the art."

This is another example of how official histories of martial arts are generally just propaganda. It's cut from the same cloth as the silly story of "how Yang Luchan learned Chen Style through a hole in the fence." (I'll write a series of posts about history and propaganda soon.)

Yang Luchan, by all useful accounts, was thrilled to teach in the imperial household, because it meant good money. He taught them the more comprehensive earlier system with many different forms.

What most people learn now is the "Public" system, which has only one central form. (This isn't necessarily bad: The Public form is a beautiful concentration of the essence of the rest of the system, a sort of "short form" of the whole system.)

Imperial Yang Style Taiji

I've been getting a lot of questions about the Funei ("Imperial") Yang version of Yang style Taijiquan.

This is what I know.

I've reviewed a series of four videos, in Mandarin, on this style.

I'm very excited about Imperial Yang Style, because it has the same forms as the Indoor Yang Style, and so it's the first solid proof that I didn't just make the whole thing up.

According to these videos, which you can buy here (I have no financial connection to this website, but they're great people and one of the best sources for Chinese martial arts information), the Imperial Yang Style has exactly the same set of forms as the Indoor Yang Style that I learned.

The sequence of movements seems to be almost identical in the three forms on these videos.

The presentation is a little different: The frame is a little more conservative, which isn't necessarily bad.

There is also a lot more White Crane in the movements, such as Crane Hook Hands in unusual places. Taiji, like most Daoist styles, has a heavy dose of White Crane as its foundation, so this isn't surprising. (I've mentioned before that White Crane is the "lost mother style.")

The hand movements in general are more expressive, like many Daoist styles. The teacher's hands seem tight rather than loose, which would be bad, but I may simply not understand what I'm seeing. (The most important mantra for a martial arts seeker is "I don't know everything." Repeat 500 times per day for successful results.)

Here's a demo of this version of the Wisdom Fist/Clever Hammers form:



I'm posting video clips of the demonstrations of these forms on youtube here.

How to be a Hermit... In a City.

A lot of the traditional Daoist texts talk about retreating to mountain caves and so forth, in order to escape from the social constructs that limit your cultivation.

Most of us don't have this option. What do we do?

Actually, if you read the less popular (and, in my opinion, more useful) texts, you will find quotes such as:

"If you retreat to a mountain cave, you will become known as a famous hermit, and soon your cave will be surrounded by prospective students and hangers-on. If you retreat to a large city, however, you will become invisible."

That's it. You can be a hermit anywhere, but it's easier to do so in a big city where no one knows you, than in suburbia.

Same Form, Different Day

One of the challenges of teaching the Daoist martial arts is that your students necessarily go through a phase of structure rather than expression, and you have to join them there. Let me explain.

In order to learn a form, for example, you must first learn the form exactly. "Put your foot exactly here, and your arm exactly here," and so forth. The problem is, the Daoist martial arts are about personal exploration and expression. At some point, you have to let go of the mechanics and explore the intent. From this point on, your form will never be exactly the same each time you perform it.

As a teacher, I'm constantly forced to do the form mechanically so as not to confuse my students. Occasionally, I will have a student who "gets it" and I can explore the form with them. With my other students, I have to constantly repeat the form exactly, or they will become confused.

One of the best things a teacher can develop is "senior students." They can teach the basics for you, and you can show up later to develop the more interesting stuff.

The Four Hooks of Taijiquan

The White Crane Hook Hand is one of the most misunderstood hand gestures in Yang Family Taiji. Perhaps because it only appears in the Public Form in Single Whip. I'm going to skip over its striking applications today and just discuss its hooking applications.

There are a lot of different versions of this posture: Some people hold the arm completely straight, and some bend the elbow. Some hold the Hook Hand way above their head and the Wing Hand low, and some hold them both at shoulder level. In the medium and small forms, it is essential that there be a distinct bend in the armpit and the elbow joints. This is why:

The purpose of this hand in Single Whip is to hook -- not to hit, as some people would like you to think. It is there to hold something in place while you do the rest of the movement. There are four ways it can do this:

1) Grab
Simply, grasping with the fingers.

2) Wrist Hook
Using the wrist to hook over whatever you are controlling, as in Praying Mantis. The reason it looks different from a Mantis hook at all is because it also includes #1.

3) Elbow Hook
Holding it in the crook of your elbow and pressing your forearm and upper arm around it.

4) Armpit Hook
Holding it in your armpit and pressing your forearm down on it.

It's important to note that while the last two might seem inelegant, they are much more likely in a real fight. In a real fight, as soon as the adrenaline starts pumping through your veins, all your fine motor skills depart in favor of more powerful gross motor skills, so you can forget about using your fingers. (Also, you may have blood or sweat on your fingers, or you may actually have had your fingers cut off. It's called a fight for a reason.)

Now you can see why the bends in the armpit and elbow are necessary.

The Syllabus of the Indoor Yang Style, Part 1

I get a lot of requests from seekers about the teaching structure of the Indoor Yang Family Taiji system. Here it is for all you seekers out there.

Note that this is a list of the forms only. Push Hands, which is really the center of the system, is not listed here. It has a separate syllabus.


1. The Large Frame Form, 大架拳 (Dà Jià Quán)
2. The Old/Medium Frame Form, 老架拳 (Lăo Jià Quán)
3. The Small Frame Form 小架拳 (Xiăo Jià Quán)
4. The "Long" Form, 太极长拳 (Tàijí Cháng Quán)

The above are always taught in this order. The next forms are taught in between the above main forms. They don't absolutely have to be taught in a particular order, but they build on skills from the different versions of the main form and so are more appropriate in the following order:

5. The Post-Heaven Methods, 后天法 (Hòu Tiān Fă)
6. The Little Nine Heavens Form, 小九天 (Xiăo Jiŭ Tiān)
7. The Wise Hammers/Wisdom Fist 智捶 (Zhì Chuí)
8. The Pressure Point Striking ("Dim Mak") Form


Other forms that may be taught include;

* The Taiji Ball Movements
* The Straight Sword
* The Sabre
* The Spear
* The Staff
* The Thirteen Cinnabar Gongfa Movements

and a few other, less well known weapons such as the walking stick and knife.

The Three Frames of Indoor Yang Family Fist

I've had a lot of requests to explain the reason for the three different frames in the Indoor Yang Family Style. Simply:

The Big Frame teaches basic body mechanics, conditions the body, and trains the instinctive patterns somewhat.

The Old Frame / Medium Frame teaches skill and superior body mechanics in a more combative Santi stance.

The Small Frame is almost entirely done in the manner you would use the applications to fight. You have to look closely to see the body mechanics in play, since they are so small. The Wu style is essentially this form slowed down.

These forms are the backbone of the system, and are supported by the "Long" Frame, the "Wisdom Fist", and the other forms in the system.

An Example of Verbal Yielding

I get a lot of questions about how on earth you would use your yielding skills in a conversation. Here's an example.

(A quick note: I live in the buckle of the Bible Belt. In this argument I'm taking the stance of tolerance towards homosexual people. It doesn't matter if you agree with me or not. What matters is that this is a good example.)

Someone says to you, "I believe homosexuality is an abomination against God, because it says so in the Bible." (Push)

You differ. how do you handle it?

You could:

1) Get angry and yell, "You're wrong!" or "You're just an ignorant bigot." (Push back)

2) Leave. (Disengage)

3) Say something like "I don't believe that the Bible actually says that." (Parry)

or

4) Say "I agree." (Yield) "That part of the bible also states that a man should have multiple wives. How many wives do you have?" (Roll Back and fajing)

As you can see, in #4 you yield by agreeing, and use your opponent's momentum (his assertion that the Bible is irrefutable) to trap him.

This kind of response is usually easy against narrow-minded people, because they like to speak in sweeping absolutes, and as we know, our universe is not made of absolutes.

Perhaps next time, for the sake of fairness, I will add a counter move for our fundamentalist anti-gay opponent.

The Martial Arts Don't Teach You How to Fight?

This is a type of question I get a lot from new students who have a background in fighting;

"What does Taijiquan do against a jab?"
"What does Karate do in ground fighting?"
...and so forth.

The answer to both these questions is "nothing." A Taijiquan practitioner would (or should) know what to do against a jab, but that is fighting, not martial arts.

Before you start writing hate mail, give me a chance to explain.

Jab, cross, enter, grapple, etc. is basic fighting. With a few exceptions, basic fighting looks the same everywhere in the world and has done for a long, long time.

The "Martial Arts" build on basic fighting. They assume you already know how to fight. Either your teacher would teach you basic fighting, or you would arrive at your teacher's door already knowing how to fight.

The martial arts teach you clever tricks to make your basic fighting superior. That's what the word "art" is doing in there.

So, Taijiquan's clever tricks, for example, work against an attack that has a certain amount of body weight committed to it. Jabs don't have body weight behind them, so Taiji wouldn't work against them even if you were fast enough to respond. A good Taiji practitioner would deal with a jab the same way a boxer would, then continue to fight until the opponent throws a committed attack.

Fights don't happen the way applications happen in the classroom. Most martial artists never study real fighting, so they don't know how their art fits into it. This is why you hear so many stories about proficient martial artists who fail in a street fight. Your martial art didn't fail you; your teacher failed you.

Push Hands: The Brute, Part 2: The Sudden Jerk

One of the most common techniques The Brute will use is a sudden backward jerking pull. The Brute's technique isn't skillful or elegant, but it will often work simply because their practitioner is playing Push Hands, not Jerk Hands.

Here are some traditional responses to this technique that you can practice. I don't think any of these will be appropriate in a push hands tournament, but they are all correct applications.

All of these techniques start with the obvious: Yield. Take a step in the direction your opponent is pulling you. Do this on your own terms, rather than stumbling.

For the sake of description, I'm assuming your opponent has grabbed your right wrist with his right hand and yanked you somewhere to his right. (I'm assuming your opponent is male just for writing convenience, not sexism.)

PICTURES WILL BE ADDED LATER.

Response 1: The Elbow / The Shoulder

If your opponent pulls you toward his body rather than to one side, take a step toward him (yield) and apply your elbow to their centerline. If necessary, you may turn your body and use your shoulder.

Response 2: The V-Arm Lock

As soon as your opponent grabs your wrist, put your left hand on top of his, trapping it. When he pulls, take a step forward and roll your right hand in a clockwise direction and point it downward. (This is in Needle at Sea Bottom.)

Response 3: The Arm Drag

As soon as your opponent grabs your wrist, put your left hand on top of his, trapping it. When he pulls, take a step (or two) past your opponent and drop your weight, essentially punching your right hand towards the floor. (This is in Step Up, Plant Fist.)

WARNING: Make sure your right knee isn't forward. If it is, your opponent's elbow/shoulder/spine may break across your knee. (This is the actual original application.)

Push Hands: The Brute, Part 1

I mentioned in a previous post that there are certain types of people who come to push hands gatherings and ruin them for everyone. One of those types I call The Brute.

The Brute is the person who comes, sometimes alone but usually with a group, and exercises his ego by shoving people around using Li, or brute force. They usually win because their opponent isn't skilled enough to react to their sudden, jerky movements. A high level Push Hands practitioner would have no problem putting them down as soon as they stiffen up, but we're not masters, are we?

There are several ways you can deal with The Brute:

Bad
1) Get angry and use brute force back.
2) Ask them not to come back to any more gatherings.
3) Refuse to participate with them.

Better
4) Patiently explain to them that you could also use brute force, but that the point of Push Hands in Taijiquan is to learn to use yielding skills, and that they are disrupting the afternoon for everyone.

Here's the best option:

5) Set aside your own ego, and take the opportunity to learn from them.

There's a saying in Taijiquan circles: Leave your ego at the door.
This isn't some altruistic principle. The skills you learn in Taijiquan are negated by your ego, so it is necessary to set it aside just to learn.

In this series, I will explore option 5 and show you the correct techniques to deal with The Brute.

Competitive Push Hands

I’m not a big fan of competitive Push Hands in practice. Here’s why.

Competitive Push Hands rewards those practitioners with bad technique. Someone with stiff technique will use their Li, or brute strength to push or pull their opponent off balance. For a master, it would be easy to knock this person off their feet, but since almost no one these days has a high level of yielding skill, it looks as though the brute is more skillful.

In theory, I like Push Hands competitions because they bring together people from different schools and backgrounds and they let people escape their isolated little bubbles of education. Unfortunately, almost everyone forgets the most important rule of learning Taijiquan: Leave your ego at the door.

The Old Three Techniques

The second stage of push hands that I was taught is called "The Old Three Techniques."

It consists of:

Lu (Roll Back),
An (Push), and
Zhou (Elbow).

It's a simple game of rock-scissors-paper:

Respond to Push with Roll Back.
Respond to Roll Back with Elbow.
Respond to Elbow with Push.

Following from the Primary Two Techniques (Respond to Push with Roll Back, then apply Push), this provides the next level of complexity in training. You practice each level of complexity until it is subconscious before moving on. This is the point of these exercises; training your instincts.

Crouching Tiger, Coiling Dragon, Layoffs

···In Daoism, there is a type of situation called “Crouching Tiger, Coiling Dragon”.
···These situations are ones in which you have the greatest opportunity and also the greatest risk.
···The meaning of the name is that the tiger may be crouching and ready to spring, or it may be crouching because it has been subdued. Likewise the coiling dragon.
···A lot of people are finding themselves in these situations these days. Losing your job is an excellent example. When you lose your job, you can probably only see the situation as bad. How am I going to pay my rent? But consider the other side of the coin.
···Your job sucked. How do I know this? All jobs suck. As long as you are working for someone else, you are on the losing side of the arrangement. Businesses keep you in these subservient roles by subjecting you to unnecessary rules and hardships. You have to schedule your entire life around your work schedule. And consider that if companies paid their employees what they were worth, they wouldn’t make any profit.
···Here you have an opportunity to:
······Get a less sucky job.
······Go back to school and train to get a better job.
······Wake up and realize that you should be working for yourself.
···Think about that last one. You should view any job you have as an unfortunate and temporary situation you were forced into until you find a way to make money on your own. Jobs don’t offer financial security, and they don’t have to honor your retirement contract.
···So, it’s up to you: Are you a springing tiger or a tame one?

Swine Flu and Responsibility

···Just a quick thought.
···I know everyone is tired of reading about the “swine flu”, but it does give us an opportunity to think about responsibility in Daoism.
···Unless you have an immune disorder, your health is your responsibility. Healthy people don’t get sick.
···If you get sick, it means you haven’t been taking care of your health. I know society teaches us to believe that sickness comes from outside sources, but that’s not really true. If your national security isn’t in place, you are inviting invasions, and the same is true of your immune system.
···Go to your nearest independent health food store, and at least stock up on vitamin C. It’s cheap, it’s safer than water (no one has ever drowned in it), and if you take a lot of it your immune system will be much stronger. It’s more effective than anything the Western medical system has ever come up with.

I Love Video Games...

I love video games. The chance to create an entirely new identity, learn new skills, and enter an exciting new world is a thrill.

The problem is, you spend hours, days, weeks, years playing these games, and that time is gone. Forever. Imagine if you spent that time upgrading your real-world skills.

Your 5th level thief is improving her lockpicking skills? I know how to actually pick locks.

Your 7th level fighting priest is perfecting his kung fu? I am an actual fighting priest.

Join me in the most up-to-date online multiplayer role-playing game: Real Life. The learning curve is a little steep, but the graphics are awesome.