TaiChiNotebook is almost ten years old! I posted the first blog entry—on 32-sword—in July 2014. I was at the beginning of my journey, studying traditional Yang and Chen style Tai Chi at a local school. I was just discovering the modern forms, starting with 24 and 32-sword, and I had begun practicing with Chinese people in my neighborhood. Over the years I have published more than two hundred posts on more than two dozen forms, spanning four of the five major styles of tai chi. The Notebook has become an iceberg! With nine-tenths of its content buried in the archives of the blog. Saturday morni ..read more

[See my previous post introducing Wu-style Tai Chi] Each of the major styles of Tai Chi has a traditional long form, and all of the long forms follow the same deep logic. The Wu-style long form tracks the Yang 108 quite closely, so if you know the 108, the sequence of the Wu is easy to learn. Outstanding video instruction on this form is available from Master Amin Wu. Here is a video of the whole form, demonstrated by Master Wu. Her instructional series, very reasonably priced at just $20, consists of eighteen segments of about 12-15 minutes each. Purchase the series on Vimeo. The instruction ..read more

Before I left for China in 2017, I tried to tell my Chinese friends where I’d be going. This was, as always, a challenge, since I speak almost no conversational Chinese (only Taijiese!) and only a few of them speak any English at all. Shopping in Chongqing But the biggest stumbling block was a complete surprise. I managed to say I would be going on a boat—on the Yangtze River. This drew an absolute blank. What river? Never heard of it. The Chinese don’t call it the Yangtze River! Changjiang, literally “long river,” is the Chinese name for what Westerners call the Yangtze. The Yangtze is indeed ..read more

I started learning Wu-style Tai Chi a few years ago, but it wasn’t until this year that I really started to feel I was getting the hang of it. I love it! The Wu name comes from 吴全佑 Wú Quán yòu (1834–1902), who trained with Yang Luchan. Wu also studied with Yang Luchan’s oldest son, 杨班侯 Yáng Ban Bān Hóu (1837–1892). The style is characterized by a leaning posture and unique footwork. The feet are parallel, both pointing straight to front. In bow stance, with the feet in this position, you naturally lean forward so your nose is above your knee. However, the leaning posture is not maintained th ..read more

Continuing the Yang and Chen style comparison project (scroll down for the first and second posts in this series), the third video starts with the second set of Cloud Hands and finishes with 收势 Shōu Shì (Closing Form). Again, I am an old lady; there are no drop-splits to be seen in this video! But you can see that the two forms continue to track each other closely. One disparity occurs at the very end, where Yang does 搬拦捶 Bān Lán Chuí opposite the final occurance of pounding the mortar. Also, nothing in Chen corresponds to the final Yang 如封似闭 Rú Fēng Sì Bì (Like Sealing as if Closing). So I h ..read more

Continuing the Yang and Chen style comparison project (see the first post in this series), the second video starts with the Single Whip before the first Cloud Hands and finishes with the Single Whip after Fair Lady Works the Shuttle. This segment was considerably more difficult to make than the first. For one thing, the movements are more challenging physically; most of the kicks occur in Part 2. I am an old lady; I don’t kick high and I certainly don’t do double jump kicks! I have modified 踢 二 起 (Tī Èr Qǐ) to a slap kick. But also, the two forms diverge more dramatically in some places. Ther ..read more

I’ve just completed a study comparing the Yang and Chen styles of Tai Chi. The two styles look and feel quite distinct, but the one (Yang) is derived from the other (Chen) and retains much of its essential content. In an earlier post on this subject I made reference to a very clever video in which the Yang and Chen traditional long forms are shown side-by-side, with Chen Zhenglei performing Laojia Yilu and Yang Jun performing the Yang 108. In that video, the alignment between the two forms is achieved entirely through very skillful video editing after the fact. The two separate videos have be ..read more

This year, I have acquired a couple of books that I can recommend. One is an instructional manual by Chen Zhenglei for Laojia Yilu and Erlu. I’ve been using it as a review of Laojia Yilu, in connection with a video project comparing the Yang and Chen traditional long forms. Chen’s Tai Chi Old Frame One & Two In this book, every movement of the form is described in careful detail, with multiple photographic demonstrations by the author (a grandmaster of such eminence that I don’t need to cite his credentials). You certainly could not learn this rather difficult routine by studying Chen’s b ..read more

I first learned this beautiful sword form in 2016. It is unusually dramatic and theatrical, having its origin in a hugely popular song and both television and film dramas, the latter dating back to 1931. This time around I found the following video on sword flowers (剑花 jiànhuā ) very helpful: For more about this form, names of the movements, lyrics of the song, and links to instructional and performance videos, see these earlier posts: Yi Jian Mei Taiji Jian Yi Jian Mei: Names Yi Jian Mei is not without its detractors. Some say it is not even Tai Chi Sword, but I think this over ..read more

Continuing from The Sword of Li Jinglin (2), chapters 6-11 of the treatise (I am using the Brennan Translation) describe how training progresses from solo practice to two-person sparring sets and then to free-sparring. Here, Li Tianji demonstrates a two-person sparring set in Wuhan in 1984 (that’s Li with the dark shoulders): Solo practice involves studying and practicing the thirteen sword techniques. To prepare for solo practice with a sword, a student should first be proficient in empty-hand internal arts. The same principles apply. Those of us who only ever practice solo sword forms have ..read more