Forms/ Styles
Chen Style
The Chen family style (陈氏 Chen shi taijiquan) is the oldest and parent form of the five main tai chi chuan styles. It is third in terms of world-wide popularity compared to the other main taijiquan styles.
Chen style is characterized by its lower stances, more explicit Silk Reeling (Chan Si Jing) and bursts of power (Fa Jing).
Many modern tai chi styles and teachers emphasize a particular aspect (health, aesthetics, meditation and/or competitive sport) in their practice of tai chi chuan. The five traditional family styles tend to retain the original martial applicability of tai chi teaching methods. Some argue that Chen style schools succeed in this to a greater degree.
Yang Style
Yang family style (楊氏) tai chi chuan in its many variations is the most popular and widely practised style in the world today and the second in terms of seniority among the primary five family styles of tai chi chuan.
The Yang family first became involved in the study of tai chi chüan in the early 1800s. The founder of the Yang style was Yang Lu-ch'an (楊露禪), aka Yang Fu-k'ui (楊福魁, 1799-1872), who studied under Ch'en Chang-hsing starting in 1820. Yang's subsequent expression of tai chi chuan as a teacher in his own right became known as the Yang style, and directly led to the development of the other three major styles of tai chi chuan (see below). Yang Lu-ch'an (and some would say the art of tai chi chuan in general) came to prominence as a result of his being hired by the Chinese Imperial family to teach tai chi chuan to the elite Palace Battalion of the Imperial Guards in 1850, a position he held until his death.
Yang Chengfu in a posture from the Yang style tai chi chuan solo form known as Single Whip cir. 1931.
Wu (Hao) Style
The Wu or Wu (Hao) style (武氏 or 武/郝氏) of t'ai chi ch'uan of Wu Yu-hsiang (武禹襄, 1813-1880), is a separate family style from the more popular Wu style (吳氏) of Wu Chien-ch'üan. Wu Yu-hsiang's style was third among the five t'ai chi ch'uan families in seniority and is fifth in terms of popularity.
Wu Yu-hsiang was a scholar from a wealthy and influential family who became a senior student (along with his two older brothers Wu Ch'eng-ch'ing and Wu Ju-ch'ing) of Yang Lu-ch'an. There is a body of writing attributed to Wu Yu-hsiang on the subject of t'ai chi theory, writings that are considered influential by many other schools not directly associated with his style. Wu Yu-hsiang also studied for a brief time with a teacher from the Ch'en family, Chen Ch'ing-p'ing, to whom he was introduced by Yang. His most famous student was his nephew, Li I-yü (李亦畬, 1832-1892), who also authored several important works on t'ai chi ch'uan. Li I-yü had a younger brother who was also credited as an author of at least one work on the subject of t'ai chi ch'uan, Li Ch'i-hsüan. Li I-yü taught Hao Wei-chen (郝為真, 1842-1920), who taught his son Hao Yüeh-ru (郝月如) who in turn taught his son Hao Shao-ju (Hao Shaoru, 郝少如) Wu Yu-hsiang's style of training, so that it is now sometimes known as Wu/Hao or just Hao style t'ai chi ch'uan. Hao Wei-chen also taught the famous Sun Lu-t'ang. Hao Yüeh-ru was teaching in the 1920s, a time when t'ai chi ch'uan was experiencing an initial degree of popularity, and he is known for having smoothed out (in the sense of under-emphasising jumps and snap kicks, etc.) and standardized the forms he learned from his father in order to more effectively teach large numbers of beginners. Other famous t'ai chi ch'uan teachers, notably Yang Ch'eng-fu, Wu Chien-ch'üan and Wu Kung-i, made similar modifications to their beginning level forms around the same time.
Wu Yu-hsiang's t'ai chi ch'uan is a distinctive style with small, subtle movements; highly focused on balance, sensitivity and internal ch'i development. It is a rare style today, especially compared with the other major styles.
Wu Style
The Wu family style (吳氏 or 吳家) t'ai chi ch'uan (taijiquan) of Wu Ch'uan-yü (Wu Quanyou) and Wu Chien-ch'üan (Wu Jianquan) is the second most popular form of t'ai chi ch'uan in the world today, after the Yang style, and fourth in terms of family seniority. This style is often confused in the West with the Wu style of t'ai chi ch'uan (武氏) founded by Wu Yu-hsiang. While the names are distinct in pronunciation and the Chinese characters used to write them are different, they are often romanized the same way. in 1850, Wu Ch'uan-yü (吳全佑, 1834–1902) was a military officer cadet of Manchu ancestry in the Yellow Banner camp (see Qing Dynasty Military) in the Forbidden City, Beijing and also a hereditary officer of the Imperial Guards Brigade. At that time, Yang Lu-ch'an (楊露禪, 1799–1872) was the martial arts instructor in that banner camp, teaching t'ai chi ch'uan.
Master Wu Jianquan
Sun Style
The Sun family style (孫氏) T'ai Chi Ch'üan was developed by Sun Lu-t'ang (孫祿堂, 1861-1932), who was considered expert in two other internal martial arts styles: Hsing-i Ch'uan (Xingyiquan) and Pa Kua Chang (Baguazhang) before he came to study T'ai Chi. Today, Sun style ranks fourth in popularity and fifth in terms of seniority among the five family styles of T'ai Chi. He was also considered an accomplished Neo-Confucian and Taoist scholar, especially in the I Ching. Sun learned Wu/Hao style T'ai Chi Ch'üan from Hao Wei-chen (郝為真), who was Li I-yü's (李亦畬) chief disciple. In creating Sun style, Sun Lu-t'ang was said to have used Bagua's stepping method, Xingyi's hand and waist methods, and Tai Chi's continuity of movement.