LEARNING TAI CHI CHUAN: THEN AND NOW
***Gin Soon Chu: Classical Yang Family Tai Chi Chuan Lineage Master
Shigong Gin Soon Chu, the second disciple of Yang Sau-Chaung/Yeung Shou-Zhong, brought the lineage curriculum of Classical Yang Family Tai Chi Chuan to the United States in 1969. For those who do not know it yet, Yang Sau-Chaung was the oldest son and heir of the legendary Yang Chengfu who almost single-handedly introduced Tai Chi Chuan to China in the 1920s until his death in 1936.
I do not know what else Yang Chengfu taught but he did conduct seminars in different places.
From the information I gathered, there were students who studied the solo fist form (sometimes called 108) like Chen Weiming, Fu Zhongwen, Tung Yinjie, Wang Sudong. Chen, Fu and Tung possibly studied the Dao/Broadsword #1and the Jia/Sword #1 also. Chen Weiming claims to have studied the Yang Family Tai chi chuan Chang Chuan/Long Fist with Yang Chengfu. There were others who studied one form or another but we do not have a way of verifying now. I do not have any evidence of what the famous Cheng Man Ching, who trained with Ye Damy in the 1930s in Shanghai, studied with Yang Chengfu. I have not seen any credible evidence about it so far.
The complete Classical Yang Family Tai Chi Chuan lineage curriculum Gin Soon Chu taught included:
1. Solo Fist form/108 (Medium Frame, Tiger Style)
2. Tai chi walking (forward, backward, sideward, zigzag)
4. Dalu/Great Pulling
5. Staff-Spear (single and paired)
6. Broadsword form #1, Broadsword form #2, Broadsword Form #3
7. Sword form #1, Sword form #2
8. Push Hands (stationary and walking, one hand, two hands, Broken Flowers, etc.)
9. Fajing/Discharge of Jing/ 28 methods starting with Ting Jing/Listening
10. Sanshou/2-man fighting
11. Tai chi chuan Chang Chuan/Long Fist
A version of Tai chi Fast form based on Yang Family sets was also taught by Vincent F. Chu but I do not know where it came from.
For several decades Gin Soon Chu promoted the rare family system in Boston. That’s where I found him in 1985. He was a very private person, refusing interviews, and working in almost relative obscurity in his school. But I saw that he carried the authentic lineage transmissions, the only master to do it. Four years later I left my family, moved to Massachusetts and studied with him for the next 13 years. I could be wrong but as far as I know, while there have been other masters who taught parts of the Yang Family Tai chi chuan, only Gin Soon Chu taught this complete curriculum. His disciples are now carrying the lineage tradition around the world.
Here is a rare video of Gin Soon Chu, the last Yang Family Tai chi chuan master chosen by Yang Sau-Chaung himself. Thanks to Manny Maramara for his technical expertise in clearing and preserving these valuable archives for generations to come.
Gin Soon Chu 1st Section
***Wang Sudong: student of Yang Chengfu
I found this old video of Wang Sudong, one of the students of Yang Chengfu. The video is from when he was in his 80s. I have seen films of several masters — Fu Zhongwen, Tung Yingjie, Cheng Man Ching — and watched them repeatedly. I compared their versions of the solo fist form that they were supposed to have studied with Yang Chengfu.
From my available information, I gathered that Yang Chengfu changed the solo fist form when he decided to simplify it. He developed a simplified version to make it accessible. It was the Solo Fist/108, Large Frame, Crane Style: Straight back, narrower stances, slow.
He removed some kicks, jumps, and smaller movements. This could probably have been done before and after his stay in Shanghai sometime in the 1930s. I do not know the provenance — what year or period it was taught — of this form of Wang Sudong.
Understandably, for a variety of reasons, we often tend to avoid, for one reason or another, criticizing our Tai chi chuan ancestors. We respect them to the extent that we are almost afraid to say anything negative about them. They are called disciples, implying a close relationship with the teacher, but what did they actually study with Yang Chengfu? Were they Inner Gate disciples, who were tutored in private over the years, or just ordinary seminar students who attended a public lesson with 20 or 50 others? Did they learn the form in a seminar with 20 or more classmates or in a private one to one lesson? I do not know if any of them actually learned as an indoor disciple or just an ordinary student in a workshop setting. You know the difference. Many classes — usually crowded — are taught with somebody leading while the rest of the rest of the class follows the person in front. I’ve gone through that arrangement too back when I started studying Tai chi in the 1960s.
From this distant vantage point, we tend to presume from a few facts that the old masters like Chen Weiming, Fu Zhongwen, Tung Yinjie, Wang Sudong, and others spent hours with their master Yang Chengfu learning the arcane methods of the art and even exaggerate the length of time they studied, from hours to years. Cheng Man Ching was a case in point. I appreciate his valuable contribution to Tai chi chuan but honestly, Did he study for 10 or 7 years as some people say or did he study for at most 4 years, from sometime in 1932, when he was introduced to Yang Chengfu, to Yang’s death in1936? The best information we have is that Cheng Man Ching studied Yang Family Tai chi chuan with Ye Damy at the Wudang Tai chi chuan Society in Shanghai in the 1920s before he met Yang Chengfu in 1932. Why this information was not revealed by Cheng is a matter of speculation. I will appreciate any information on the matter.
Here is a rare video of Wang Sudong performing a version of the Large Frame, Crane Style, Yang Family Tai chi chuan. This version of the form has the same movements as I can make out as the traditional form, except for some of the kicks, the movements and directions. His White Crane Airs Its Wings is different. His rear foot also steps up. And there are apparently some movements added. Was it the version that Yang Chengfu taught in the 1920s or the form he taught in the 1930s before he died? It is known that Yang Chengfu simplified the Yang Family Tai chi chuan form to make it more accessible to the public in the 1920s. He taught different versions of it at seminars in China. When he settled in Shanghai in 1930 sometime, he revised the form again. A matter for speculation: What version(s) did Chen Weiming, Tung Yingjie, Fu Zhongwen and other students study?
The form in this video is one of the best versions of the early form that I’ve seen. It is indeed a valuable record of Yang Family Tai Chi Chuan from those early days.
Wang Xudong Taiji
