into old and new styles. The old style was carried on by Chen, Chang-xing (陳長興) and the new style was created by Chen, You-ben (陳有本).
The old style successor Chen, Chang-xing, then passed the art down to his son, Geng-yun (耕雲), and his Chen relatives, Chen, Huai-yuan (陳懷遠) and Chen, Huamei (陳華梅). He also passed his taiji outside of his family to Yang, Lu-chan (楊露禪) and Li, Bo-kui (李伯魁), both of Hebei Province (河北). This old style is called Thirteen Postures Old Form (Shi San Shi Lao Jia, 十三勢老架). Later Yang, Lu-chan passed it down to his two sons, Yang, Ban-hou (楊班候) and Yang, Jian-hou (楊健侯). Then Jian-hou passed the art to two of his sons, Yang, Shao-hou (楊少侯) and Yang, Cheng-fu (楊澄甫). This branch of taijiquan is popularly called Yang Style. Also, Wu, Quan-you (吳全佑) learned from Yang, Ban-hou and started a well-known Wu Style.
Additionally, Chen, You-ben passed his new style to Chen, Qing-ping (陳清萍), who created Zhao Bao (趙堡) Style Taijiquan. Wü, Yu-rang (武禹襄) learned the old style from Yang, Lu-chan and new style from Chen, Qing-ping, and created Wü Style Taijiquan. Li, Yi-yu (李亦畬) learned the Wü Style and created Li Style Taijiquan. He, Wei-zhen (郝為禎) obtained his art from Li Style and created He Style Taijiquan. Sun, Lu-tang (孫祿堂) learned from He Style and created Sun Style.
All the abovementioned styles are popular in China and Southeast Asia. Among them, Yang Style has become the most popular. In the next section we will discuss the history of the Yang Style.
1-3. History of Yang Style Taijiquan
Yang Style history starts with Yang, Lu-chan (1799-1872, 楊露禪), also known as Fu-kuai (福魁) or Lu-chan (祿纏). He was born at Yong Nian Xian, Guang Ping County, Hebei Province (河北，廣平府永年縣). When he was young, he went to Chen Jia Gou in Henan Province to learn taijiquan from Chen, Chang-xing. When Chen, Chang-xing stood, he was centered and upright with no leaning or tilting, like a wooden signpost, and so people called him Mr. Tablet. At that time, there were very few students outside of the Chen family who learned from Chen, Chang-xing. Because Yang was an outside student, he was treated unfairly, but he still stayed and persevered in his practice.
One night, he was awakened by the sounds of “heng” (哼) and “ha” (哈) in the distance. He got up and traced the sound to an old building. Peeking through the broken wall, he saw his master Chen, Chang-xing teaching the techniques of grasp, control, and emitting jing in coordination with the sounds heng (哼) and ha (哈). He was amazed by the techniques and from that time on, unknown to master Chen, he continued to watch this secret practice session every night. He would then return to his room to ponder and study. Because of this, his martial ability advanced rapidly. One day, Chen ordered him to spar with the other disciples. To his surprise, none of the other students could defeat him. Chen realized that Yang had great potential and after that taught him the secrets sincerely.
After Yang, Lu-chan finished his study, he returned to his hometown and taught taijiquan for a while. People called his style Yang Style (Yang Quan, 楊拳), Soft Style (Mian Quan, 綿拳), or Neutralizing Style (Fa Chuan, 化拳), because his motions were soft and able to neutralize the opponent’s power. He later went to Beijing (北京) and taught a number of Qing officers. He used to carry a spear and a small bag and travel around the country challenging well-known martial artists. Although he had many fights he never hurt anybody. Because his art was so high, nobody could defeat him. Therefore, he was called “Yang Wu Di” (楊無敵), which means “Unbeatable Yang.” He had three sons, Yang, Qi (楊椅), Yang, Yu (楊鈺) (Ban-hou, 班侯), and Yang, Jian (楊鑑) (Jian-hou, 健候). Yang, Qi died when he was young. Therefore, only the last two sons succeeded their father in the art.
There are a few stories about Yang, Lu-chan:
1 One time, when Yang was at Guang Ping (廣平), he was fighting a martial artist on the city wall. The opponent was not able to defeat him and kept retreating to the edge of the wall. Suddenly he lost his balance and was about to fall. At that moment, Yang approached him from several yards’ distance, grasped his foot, and saved his life.
2 Yang was good at using the spear. He could pick up light objects by using his spear to adhere to the object, then tossing it up into his hand. He was also good at throwing arrows with his bare hand—he could hit the target accurately while on horseback without using a bow.
3 One rainy day, while Yang was sitting in his living room, his daughter entered from outside, holding a basin of water. When she opened the screen, she suddenly slipped on the wet step. Yang saw this and jumped up, held the screen with one hand, and caught his daughter’s arm with the other. Not a drop of water splashed from the basin. From this anecdote one can see how quick his reactions were.
4 One day, Yang was fishing at a lake. Two other martial artists were passing by and saw him. They had heard of Yang’s reputation and were afraid to challenge him, so they decided to take the opportunity to push Yang into the lake and make him lose face. To their surprise, when their hands touched his back, Yang arched his back and bounced both of them into the lake.
5 When Yang was in Beijing, a famous martial artist was jealous of Yang’s reputation and challenged him. Yang politely refused. However, the man insisted. Yang said, “If you want to fight me, you can hit me three times first.” The man was delighted and hit Yang’s stomach. Yang suddenly uttered the “ha” sound with a laugh. Before the laugh was finished, the challenger was already on the ground, bounced many yards away.
Yang’s second son was Yang, Yu (1837–1890), also named Ban-hou. People used to call him “Mr. The Second.” He studied taijiquan with his father since he was very young. Even though he practiced very hard and continuously, he was still scolded and whipped by his father. He was good at free fighting. One day he was challenged by a strong martial artist. When the challenger grasped his wrist and would not let him escape, Yang, Ban-hou suddenly used his jing to bounce the challenger away and defeat him. He was so proud he went home and told his father. Instead of praise, his father laughed at him because his sleeve was torn. After that, he trained harder and harder and finally became a superlative taiji artist. Unfortunately, he didn’t like to teach very much and had few students, so his art did not spread far after he died. One of his students, called Wu, Quan-you (吳全佑), later taught his son Wu, Jian-quan (鑑泉), whose art became the Wu Style Taijiquan. Yang, Ban-hou also had a son, called Zhao-peng (兆鵬), who passed on the art.
The third son of Yang, Lu-chan was Yang, Jian (AD 1842–1917), also named Jian-hou and nicknamed Jing-hu (鏡湖). People used to call him “Mr. The Third.” He also learned taiji from his father since he was young. His personality was softer and gentler than his brother’s and he had many followers. He taught three postures—large, medium, and small—although he specialized in the medium posture. He was also expert in using and coordinating both hard and soft power. While using a dust brush, he used to spar with his disciples who were good at sword and saber. Every time his brush touched the student’s wrist, the student could not do anything but bounce out. He was also good at using the staff and spear. When his long weapon touched an opponent’s weapon, the opponent could not approach him, but instead bounced away. When he emitted jing, it happened at the instant of laughing the “ha” sound. He could also throw the small metal balls called “bullets.” When he had a few balls in his hand, he could shoot three or four birds at the same time. The most impressive demonstration he performed was to put a sparrow on his hand. The bird could not fly away because when a bird takes off, it must push down first and use the reaction force to lift itself. Yang, Jian-hou could sense the bird’s power and neutralize this slight push, leaving the bird unable to take off. From this demonstration, one can understand that his listening jing and neutralizing jing (see Chapter 3) must have been superb. He had three sons, Zhao-xiong (兆熊), Zhao-yuan (兆元), and Zhao-qing (兆清). The second son, Zhao-yuan died at an early age.
Yang,