Wang Shu-chin, who later took over the leadership of the Chung-nan lineage of bagua
and hsing-i from Chang Chao-tung, had during his youth, been sent by Chang to represent
him in a meeting to bring taiji (tai chi) ‘back to the basics,‘ and to participate
actively by injecting into it elements of both xingyi and bagua.
In 1929, this ‘new’ style of taijiquan was ‘created’ by the taijiquan organizing
Committee of the National Martial Arts Academy in Nanking. In formulating what they
called ‘Orthodox (cheng-tsung) taijiquan’ (also called tsung-ho, or Comprehensive,
taijiquan) the committee, working with the fundamental principles of the internal
arts, took the combative components of the five styles of taijiquan then prevalent,
the Chen, Yang, Wu, Sun, and Wu (Hao) styles.
The great masters of each of these styles who gathered together to establish this
form were attempting to return the art of taijiquan to its original ‘combat art’
form.
This form the new Wu (five-forms unified in to one) taijiquan was born.
The main special characteristic of orthodox-taijiquan is that none of its postures
contains any useless movements (in terms of combat applications). Wang Shu-chin played
a very active role as a member of that committee, and was instrumental in infusing
the fundamentals of both hsing-i and bagua into the 99-pose long form.
(Indeed, even today, students in Wang's lineage first study taijiquan, and only after
they have mastered it are they allowed to progress first to hsing-i and then to bagua.)
Widely accepted, the 99-pose form was taught (and even slightly adapted) by a number
of teachers, including the famous Ch'en P'an-ling. It is also well known that this
form of taijiquan took all the best defensive and offensive movements of the five
main styles, eliminating all the non-martial elements. The most obvious special characteristic
of orthodox-taijiquan is that it was created in such a way that the postures and
techniques themselves, when performed correctly, facilitate the emergence of a great
inner power; that is, they help the participants ' issue inner force. '
Furthermore, since orthodox-taijiquan contains both defensive and offensive elements,
when an opponent's attack is absorbed by your spiral (circular) movement, the qi
flowing through his body begins to dissipate.
What started out as a defensive posture is at the same time an attack that brakes
the flow of qi in the opponent's body.
To see some video clips of this form, click on the pictures on the right side
