Yang Family Tai Chi Chuan Association 10th Anniversary

Needle at Sea Bottom

By Sara Olsen
Needle at Sea Bottom is not just the name of a posture in the Yang Form. It is an example of how myth and fact have blended throughout China’s long history to become accepted as history. Accounts of events and figures from the earliest Neolithic years were not recorded in writing until much later. The exploits of great mythical and historical figures preserved for centuries in spoken tales made their way into written records in many different versions. One of the earliest myths, the story of Great Yu concerns events over 4,000 year old.

Martial Arts Moral Code

LOOKING THROUGH THE LENS OF SCIENCE AT THE TEN ESSENTIALS OF TAl CHI CHUAN

Written by Holly Sweeney

Yang Chengfu’s Ten Essentials insured that the practice of Tai Chi Chuan would improve people’s health. It is impossible to overstate the importance of these Ten Essentials in identifying the elements that make Tai Chi Chuan a healthful practice. Without the Ten Essentials, it is doubtful that Tai Chi Chuan would be recognized allover the world as a unique exercise system that offers special benefits to those who practice it.

Ten Essentials of Tai Chi Chuan

Part I

Looking at: “Practice continuously and without interruption”

Smooth continuous movement is probably the most recognizable characteristic of traditional Yang Style Tai Chi Chuan. Anyone who has ever witnessed Yang style Tai Chi players remembers this distinctive quality of their practice.

What is the benefit of “practice continuously and without interruption” from a scientific viewpoint? There are unique results that occur as a result of applying this principle from the Ten Essentials. Slow, smooth, continuous movement produces at least two special conditioning effects for nerves, muscles, and tendons. To understand the conditioning that occurs, we first have to learn about the functional properties of nerves, muscles, and tendons.

Yang Style Tai Chi Chuan Twenty-Character Motto

“Extend the elbows outward; leave a hollow in the armpits. The elbows pull down the tops of the shoulders, connect the wrists and carry along the fingers”

Looking Ahead: Tai Chi Chuan In 2002 And Beyond

An Interview with Masters Yang Zhenduo and Yang Jun
Conducted, and translated, by Jeremy Blodgett

 

JB: At the Taiyuan competition this summer we got to see many Yang style practitioners, but some practiced quite differently than we do. Why are there so many different types of Yang style Taijiquan now?

A Brief Biography of the Yang Family (II)

Yang Shao Hou

Yang Zhao Xiong was born in 1862 and died in 1930. Also named Meng Xiang, and later called Shao Hou, most just called him “Mr. Big”. From very young he studied with his father and his uncle. He learned the greater part of his skill from Ban Hou. His nature was forceful and he would stand up for injustices suffered by others. Shao Hou enjoyed sending people flying, rather like his uncle’s style. When he was young he taught the middle frame established by his father, but later changed direction. He developed a form that was high with small movements done in a sometimes slow and sometimes sudden manner. His releasing of energy (fajin) was hard and crisp, accompanied with sudden sounds. The spirit from his eyes would shoot out in all directions, flashing like lightning. Combined with a sneer, a sinister laugh, and the sounds of “Heng!” and “Ha!”, his imposing manner was quite threatening. Shao Hou taught students to strike quickly after coming into contact with the opponent, wearing expressions from the full spectrum of emotions when he taught them.

Students with fewer skills passed difficult times with him, therefore he didn’t have many of them. Shao Hou had a son called Zheng Sheng that later studied with Yang Cheng Fu.

A Brief Biography of the Yang Family (I)

By Master Yang Jun, 6th Generation of the Yang Family

Yang Style Tai Chi Chuan is one of the gems in the realm of Chinese Martial Arts. Ever since the founder of Yang Style Tai Chi Chuan Yang Lu Chan, his sons Yang Ban Hou and Yang Jian Hou, his grandsons Yang Shao Hou, Yang Chengfu, and the fourth generation (great-grandsons) Yang Zhen Ming, Yang Zhen Ji, Yang Zhen Duo, and Yang Zhen Guo have all worked together to research, change, develop and spread Tai Chi Chuan. It has become extended and graceful, carefully structured, relaxed, gentle, and flowing, while still maintaining the martial arts aspects. It is also a method for improving health and curing illness. Tai Chi Chuan is loved by tens of millions of practitioners, spreading Tai Chi Chuan at home and abroad. It has become the most popular of all Chinese martial arts, providing a remarkable contribution to health of mankind.

This article is a biography of the Yang Family, allowing even more Tai Chi Chuan lovers to understand the history of Yang Style Tai Chi Chuan.