The Wu Taijiquan is the second most popular form of Taiji Quan in the world today, after the Yang Taiji Quan. This style of Taijiquan was founded by Wu Quán yòu (1834-1902), who learned from Yang Luchan and Yang Pan-hou. Quán yòu was a military officer in theYellow Banner in the Forbidden City, Beijing and also an officer of the Imperial Guards during the Qing Dynasty. At that time, Yang Lu Chan (1799–1872) was the martial arts instructor in that banner camp, teaching Taiji Quan. In the camp, there were many officers studying with Yang Luchan, but only three men, Wan Chun, Ling Shan and Quán yòu (全佑) studied diligently and trained hard enough at Taiji Quan to become disciples.
The Wu style’s distinctive hand form, pushing hands and weapons trainings emphasise parallel footwork and horse stance training with the feet relatively closer together than the modern Yang or Chen styles, small circle hand techniques (although large circle techniques are trained as well) and differs from the other t’ai chi family styles martially with Wu style’s initial focus on grappling, throws (shuai jiao), tumbling, jumping, foot-sweeps, pressure point leverage and joint locks and breaks, which are trained in addition to more conventional Taiji Quan sparring and fencing at advanced levels.
Curriculum
Wu Taiji Quan 108 Taolu – square form (for beginners)
Wu Taiji Quan 108 Taolu – round form
5 Single Hand Methods
Taiji Double Hand Methods
Application of all movements
13 Taiji Push Hands Methods
- Cross over the elbow
- Erect elbow
- Flat elbow
- Crossing hands
- Winding as high as top of the head
- Winding over the top of the head
- Brush the Knee
- Lifting the handle of the kettle
- Minor entwining of the wrist
- Major entwining of the wrist
- External adhering of the elbow
- Internal adhering of the elbow
- Up & Down
Taiji Quan Stepping
- side stepping
- seven star stepping
- da kao stepping
- nine palace stepping
- da lu stepping.
Taiji Quan Weapons
- Taiji Sword
- Taiji Sabre
- Taiji Spear
- Spear training exercises
24 Taiji Nei Gong