Wu Chien-ch'uan
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- This is a Chinese name; the family name is Wu
 |
This page contains Chinese text. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Chinese characters. |
Wu2 Chien4-ch'üan2 (Wade-Giles), or Wú Jiànquán (pinyin), 吳鑑泉 (1870-1942), was a famous teacher of the soft style martial art of T'ai Chi Ch'uan (Taijiquan) in late Imperial and early Republican China.
Wu Chien-ch'uan was taught martial arts by his father, Wu Ch'uan-yu (Wu Quanyuo, 吳全佑, 1834-1902), a famous student of Yang Lu-ch'an, (楊露禪, 1799-1872), and Yang Pan-hou, (楊班侯, 1837-1890). Both Wu Chien-ch'uan and his father were hereditary Manchu cavalry officers of the Yellow Banner as well as the Imperial Guards Brigade, yet the Wu family were to become patriotic supporters of Sun Yat-sen.
At the time of the establishment of the Chinese Republic in 1912, China was in turmoil, besieged for many years economically and even militarily by several foreign powers, so Wu Chien-ch'uan and his colleagues Yang Shao-hou (楊少侯, 1862-1930), Yang Ch'eng-fu (楊澄甫, 1883-1936) and Sun Lu-t'ang (孫祿堂, 1861-1932) felt a need for the benefits of T'ai Chi Ch'uan training on a national scale. They subsequently offered classes at the Beijing Physical Culture Research Institute to as many people as possible, starting in 1914. It was the first school to ever provide T'ai Chi instruction to the general public. Wu Chien-ch'uan was also asked to teach the Eleventh Corps of the new Presidential Bodyguard as well as at the nationally famous Ching Wu martial arts school.
As a result in the change of focus for T'ai Chi teaching in his time from a mostly secret military art to a discipline made available to the general public, Wu Chien-ch'uan modified the teaching forms he learned from his father somewhat. Wu Chien-ch'uan's changes to the initial forms shown to his students included smoothing overt expressions of fa chin, jumps and other abrupt time changes in the training routines in order to make those forms easier for the general public to learn. These modified elements were preserved and taught in various advanced forms and pushing hands, however.
Wu Chien-ch'uan moved his family to Shanghai in 1928. In 1935, he established the Chien-ch'uan T'ai Chi Ch'uan Association (鑑泉太極拳社) on the ninth floor of the Shanghai YMCA to promote and teach T'ai Chi Ch'uan. What he taught has since become known as Wu style T'ai Chi Ch'uan and is one of the five primary styles practised around the world, the others being Ch'en style T'ai Chi Ch'uan, Yang style T'ai Chi Ch'uan, Wu/Hao style T'ai Chi Ch'uan and Sun style T'ai Chi Ch'uan.
The Chien-ch'uan T'ai Chi Ch'uan Association schools have subsequently been maintained by Wu Chien-ch'uan's descendants. He was succeeded as head of the Wu family system by his oldest son, Wu Kung-i (Wu Gongyi, 吳公儀, 1900-1970), in 1942. Wu Kung-i moved the family headquarters to Hong Kong in 1949. Today the Association still has its international headquarters in Hong Kong and is currently managed by Wu Chien-ch'uan's great-grandson, Wu Kuang-yu (Wu Guangyu, 吳光宇, born 1946), with branches in Shanghai, Singapore, Malaysia, Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom and France.
Several of Wu's disciples also became well known T'ai Chi teachers. Prominent in that number were the senior disciple, Ma Yueh-liang (馬岳樑), Wu T'u-nan (吳圖南) and Cheng Wing-kwong (鄭榮光).
[edit] Family tree
This family tree is not comprehensive.
LEGENDARY FIGURES | Zhang Sanfeng* circa 12th century NEI CHIA | Wang Zongyue* T'AI CHI CH'ÜAN | THE 5 MAJOR CLASSICAL FAMILY STYLES | Chen Wangting 1600-1680 9th generation Chen CHEN STYLE | +-------------------------------------------------------------------+ | | Chen Changxing Chen Youben 1771-1853 14th generation Chen circa 1800s 14th generation Chen Chen Old Frame Chen New Frame | | Yang Lu-ch'an Chen Qingping 1799-1872 1795-1868 YANG STYLE Chen Small Frame, Zhao Bao Frame | | +---------------------------------+-----------------------------+ | | | | | Yang Pan-hou Yang Chien-hou Wu Yu-hsiang 1837-1892 1839-1917 1812-1880 Yang Small Frame | WU/HAO STYLE | +-----------------+ | | | | | Wu Ch'uan-yü Yang Shao-hou Yang Ch'eng-fu Li I-yü 1834-1902 1862-1930 1883-1936 1832-1892 | Yang Small Frame Yang Big Frame | Wu Chien-ch'üan | Hao Wei-chen 1870-1942 Yang Shou-chung 1849-1920 WU STYLE 1910-1985 | 108 Form | | Sun Lu-t'ang Wu Kung-i 1861-1932 1900-1970 SUN STYLE | | Wu Ta-kuei Sun Hsing-i 1923-1970 1891-1929
Note to Family tree table
Names denoted by an asterisk are legendary or semilegendary figures in the lineage, which means their involvement in the lineage, while accepted by most of the major schools, isn't independently verifiable from known historical records.
[edit] References
- Wile, Douglas Lost T'ai-chi Classics from the late Ch'ing Dynasty State University of New York Press, Albany, 1996. ISBN 0-7914-2653-X
- Wu Kung-tsao. Wu Family T'ai Chi Ch'uan (吳家太極拳), Hong Kong, 1980.
