Yang TaijiQuan Story
Last week my wife and I started taking Yang-family Taiji Quan (Tai Chi Chuan) from Shrfu Jia at Hebei Martial Arts.
Jia told us the legend of how Yang LuChan learned the art, and I thought I'd write down a short summary in my own (less-than-adequate) words...
Legend says that Zhang Sanfeng was a legendary Daoist immortal that lived on WuDang Mountain around 800 years ago (1300's to 1400's). One day he saw an eagle attacking a snake -- no matter how hard the eagle tried to grab the snake, though, the snake would counter the move with soft power and would win. The eagle reminded Zhang of the external/hard martial arts, with their hard strikes and grabs. When he saw that the softness of the snake always overcame the hardness of the eagle, he thought that maybe the other martial arts had been wrong -- that a softer martial art might be more powerful. So Zhang created Taiji over 800 years ago, but no one is sure if that story is true.
Some instead claim that the Chen family created Taiji around 600 years ago.
However Taiji was created, it came to be passed down only through the Chen family in Chen village, Henan Province. They guarded the art feircely and would not teach anyone from outside their family.
Eventually one of the Chen students became a merchant and started selling goods in another town, quite far away. One day the merchant got into a fight with a thief and threw him very far.
A man named Yang Lu Chan heard about the fight and went to meet the merchant. He told the merchant that he'd never seen Kung Fu so powerful, and he asked what it was.
The merchant said it was "Cotton Fist" Kung Fu, and told Yang LuChan that he couldn't teach him because his knowlege of the system was very limited. Yang would have to go to Chen Village to learn more.
So Yang LuChan packed up and set out for Chen Village -- three weeks journey away. When he got there, he requested again and again to get the Chen family to teach him, but they refused. The Chen family told Yang LuChen that they only taught members of the Chen family.
But Yang LuChen did not give up. When he was nearly out of food and completely out of money, in the middle of winter, he went to the Chen house and sat at a door to the house for several days. Finally, one day, just has he Yang was about to run out of food, one of the Chen family members noticed him and, thinking Yang was a homeless man, offered him a job as a servant.
Yang accepted, and wisely did not tell the man his real name. Yang worked as a servant in the Chen house for two years, slaving away during the day and secretly watching the Chen family train at night. He would practice secretly in his room at night.
One night Yang heard the Chen Grandmaster practicing a spear form and he pulled himself half up a wall to watch. The form was amazing, and Yang couldn't stop himself from yelling "Great!" he was so impressed.
The Chen family heard him and immediately realized he had been stealing their secrets. They started to chase Yang, and Yang Luchen ran away. The Chen family knew Chen Village better than Yang, though, and they used a short cut to catch him.
The Chen Grandmaster threatened to cut off Yang's tongue to keep him from telling their secrets and threatened to cripple him (using accupuncture) so he couldn't show their forms. Yang begged not to be punished, and eventually begged and promised his way into continuing to serve the family.
Yang learned from the Chen family for two more years, studying directly from the family Grandmaster. When the grandmaster died, Yand left Chen Village and moved back to his home.
Eventually Yang taught the Wu (Hao) family Taiji. Later, after accidentally killing a man in fight, Yang ran away to Beijing. He ended up teaching the nobles his new Yang system of Taiji.
Some people say that the reason Yang Taiji is so different from Chen is because Yang LuChan had to simplify the art for the nobility. Other people say that Yang LuChan felt that Chen style needed new forms.
No one knows the truth, though.
Jia told us the legend of how Yang LuChan learned the art, and I thought I'd write down a short summary in my own (less-than-adequate) words...
Legend says that Zhang Sanfeng was a legendary Daoist immortal that lived on WuDang Mountain around 800 years ago (1300's to 1400's). One day he saw an eagle attacking a snake -- no matter how hard the eagle tried to grab the snake, though, the snake would counter the move with soft power and would win. The eagle reminded Zhang of the external/hard martial arts, with their hard strikes and grabs. When he saw that the softness of the snake always overcame the hardness of the eagle, he thought that maybe the other martial arts had been wrong -- that a softer martial art might be more powerful. So Zhang created Taiji over 800 years ago, but no one is sure if that story is true.
Some instead claim that the Chen family created Taiji around 600 years ago.
However Taiji was created, it came to be passed down only through the Chen family in Chen village, Henan Province. They guarded the art feircely and would not teach anyone from outside their family.
Eventually one of the Chen students became a merchant and started selling goods in another town, quite far away. One day the merchant got into a fight with a thief and threw him very far.
A man named Yang Lu Chan heard about the fight and went to meet the merchant. He told the merchant that he'd never seen Kung Fu so powerful, and he asked what it was.
The merchant said it was "Cotton Fist" Kung Fu, and told Yang LuChan that he couldn't teach him because his knowlege of the system was very limited. Yang would have to go to Chen Village to learn more.
So Yang LuChan packed up and set out for Chen Village -- three weeks journey away. When he got there, he requested again and again to get the Chen family to teach him, but they refused. The Chen family told Yang LuChen that they only taught members of the Chen family.
But Yang LuChen did not give up. When he was nearly out of food and completely out of money, in the middle of winter, he went to the Chen house and sat at a door to the house for several days. Finally, one day, just has he Yang was about to run out of food, one of the Chen family members noticed him and, thinking Yang was a homeless man, offered him a job as a servant.
Yang accepted, and wisely did not tell the man his real name. Yang worked as a servant in the Chen house for two years, slaving away during the day and secretly watching the Chen family train at night. He would practice secretly in his room at night.
One night Yang heard the Chen Grandmaster practicing a spear form and he pulled himself half up a wall to watch. The form was amazing, and Yang couldn't stop himself from yelling "Great!" he was so impressed.
The Chen family heard him and immediately realized he had been stealing their secrets. They started to chase Yang, and Yang Luchen ran away. The Chen family knew Chen Village better than Yang, though, and they used a short cut to catch him.
The Chen Grandmaster threatened to cut off Yang's tongue to keep him from telling their secrets and threatened to cripple him (using accupuncture) so he couldn't show their forms. Yang begged not to be punished, and eventually begged and promised his way into continuing to serve the family.
Yang learned from the Chen family for two more years, studying directly from the family Grandmaster. When the grandmaster died, Yand left Chen Village and moved back to his home.
Eventually Yang taught the Wu (Hao) family Taiji. Later, after accidentally killing a man in fight, Yang ran away to Beijing. He ended up teaching the nobles his new Yang system of Taiji.
Some people say that the reason Yang Taiji is so different from Chen is because Yang LuChan had to simplify the art for the nobility. Other people say that Yang LuChan felt that Chen style needed new forms.
No one knows the truth, though.