TAI CHI

Introduction to Yang Style Tai Chi

Ma s t e r Si mon Wong
INTRODUCTION
PREFACE
W
hen people
ask me the
d i f f e r e n c e
b e t w e e n
Karate and Kung Fu, I often
quip, with all due respect, that
Karate is stiff and Japanese and
Kung Fu is loose and Chinese.
Several months into my Kung
Fu training at the Yellow Dragon
Centre it was emphasised that I
should begin to learn Tai Chi as
well, as I was getting too rigid. I
was learning fairly well about the
economy of movement - a block
and strike in one - but I needed to
become more like a supple reed,
and not like a brittle wood which
does not bend but breaks. While
part of what makes Yellow
Dragon Fist Kung Fu unique is
that it incorporates elements of
Yang Family Tai Chi, clearly I
was becoming unbalanced. I had
been seeking overall balance in
my hurried life when I very first
came to the Centre. Now it was
time to balance what I was
learning inside the Centre.
The Tai Chi class began
similarly to the Kung Fu class.
We closed our eyes, and with the
scent of incense buoyed along by
the breeze and trickling water
from the aquariums around the
room and our feet on the wood
warehouse floor, we began our
Chi Kung breathing (legs gently
bent, arms around a tree). We
tapped into something so soft and
simple that it's overlooked by
many people. I do not know how
many breaths I have left, but
hopefully more than I can count.
All of my breaths (from the
stomach through the nose) now
add to my health and don't
borrow from it - and that is a hint
of eternity.
Imagine doing something as
slowly, slowly as possible.
Whether we think of it as kinetics
or aesthetics, the timeless Tai Chi
walk gives us a much better
understanding of the balance,
grace and power of our own
gravity and energy. With the
outside world moving so fast,
internal equilibrium comes from
slowing down at times. Knee-
jerk movements can be necessary
(indeed Kung Fu teaches us new
instincts in this sense), and from
them we learn that unthinking
movement is possible. But so
refreshingly clear yet focused is
the mind and body that we can be
moving at a barely discernible
speed without thinking about it at
all. As the years and world flash
by it becomes more and more
important to lose oneself at times
in the slowness of one's actions.
Sifu Wong's most impressive
movement, I believe, is a pushing
of the arms straight out in front
as he steps. The sound he gets
from the air is as a master to a
wind instrument.
With the Yang Family form we
try to float in and carve out the
air around us. We can only
attempt to get Sifu's sound out of
the air by totally relaxing and
then snapping forward. And we
can only correctly arrive at this
rather sudden movement by
warming up internally with these
slow beginnings. Forget about
muscle and lungs, heaving and
deliberate. Breathing out from
the stomach through the nose at
the same time that we step, with
our tendons whipping forward is
true power and not mere
exertion.
The Yellow Dragon arts
practiced in a balanced
environment are in part what
good music should be: tight but
loose.
Dr Clinton Orr Ph.D.
Graduate of Cambridge
University, Tai Chi and Kung
Fu student of Master Wong for
many years.
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INTRODUCTION
The origins of Tai Chi
A
ccording to one
well-known story,
Tai Chi Chuan
was the invention
of the Taoist martial artist Chan
Sang-Feng, inspired by
observing a battle between a
crane and a snake over a morsel
of food. Each time the crane
lunged for the snake, it would
coil back out of reach. Each time
the snake extended itself in a
counter-attack, the bird
would step back and
sweep the attacker
away with its wings.
According to various
commentators, Chan
Sang-Feng was a Taoist
monk of the Wudang
temple in western China,
and may have lived at some
time from 970 to 1450 AD.
Others have maintained that
there was no such individual, and
different Tai Chi schools and
styles have their own favourite
theory or founder legend. In any
case, it is almost certainly not the
case that Tai Chi Chuan was the
invention of any one historical
or mythical figure. What Chan
Sang-Feng did, if it was he, was
rather to draw upon and bring
together a number of ancient
traditions of martial arts, exercise
systems, and methods of spiritual
cultivation.
Of these we can point in
particular to the hard style
Kung Fu fighting systems of the
Buddhist monks of the Shaolin
temple, and the chi kung
techniques of breath control and
of marrow washing and sinew
training. By the time of Chan
Sang-Feng,
these chi gung techniques had
been developed by the Shaolin
monks and by Taoist masters, in
Wudang mountain and
elsewhere, to a very deep level.
They were practices that went
beyond strengthening the body -
they were intended to envigorate
the chi, prolong life, and aid the
ultimate goal of achieving
enlightenment. Again, the chi
gung and Kung Fu systems have
their own legendary origins - in
the Buddhist tradition, they are
traced back to the arrival from
India of Da Mo (Bodhidharma in
Sanskrit) at the Shaolin temple in
the sixth century AD. Although
the Da Mo story suggests the
influence of Indian yoga and
meditation practices, it is also the
case that there are earlier
mentions of indigenous Chinese
exercise systems, sometimes
based on the movements of
animals, and traditionally
reaching as far back as
the fabled Yellow
Emperor.
Coming back to
more recent history,
all the main styles of
the art we now know
as Tai Chi can be traced
to Chen village in Wen
county, Henan province.
Chen village, like many in
China, was so called because all
its inhabitants shared the
surname Chen, and the Chen clan
guarded their Tai Chi jealously
from outsiders. Although the
tradition is that Tai Chi was
taught to the Chen villagers by a
master trained in the lineage of
Chan Sang-Feng, and the
similarities between Tai Chi and
Wudang internal arts seem to
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bear this out, there are others
who believe that Tai Chi was
indigenous to Chen village.
Whilst Chen style Tai Chi still
exists today, and is nowadays
taught outside the family village,
it was the development of the
new Yang style Tai Chi from the
Chen heritage that brought Tai
Chi to prominence in China, and
later generations of the Yang
family who brought the art to the
west.
Yang Style Tai Chi Chuan
T
he system
taught in this
book is a version of
Yang style Tai Chi
Chuan, of which
M a s t e r
Wong is a sixth generation
master. Although the style has
developed, and variants of it
have diverged as it has been
passed down through six
generations, it is still
recognisably the creation of its
founder Yang Liu-Sim (also
called Yang Lu-Chan, Yang Fu-
Kui). Yang Liu-Sims teacher
was Chen Chang Xin of Chen
village. According to one story,
Yang Liu-Sim (1799-1892) was
a poor farmers son who
obtained work as a servant in
Chen Chang Xins household
after hearing of the power of the
Chen family martial art. Yang
persuaded Chen Chang Xin to
teach him the art when, after
spying on the master training his
students at night, he was able to
demonstrate a higher level of
skill than any of the official
pupils. After years of study, Yang
returned to his home village of
Yung Nien where he acquired a
reputation as Yang the
invincible, defeating all
challengers yet baffling them
with the softness of the style. On
the basis of this reputation, Yang
was invited to teach at the
imperial court in Peking, where
he had the chance to test his style
against the greatest fighters from
all over China, and, so they say,
remained undefeated.
Master Wongs lineage stems
from Yang Liu-Sims third son,
Yang Kim-Hou (also called Yang
Jian-Hou), who with his brother
Yang Ban-Hou continued to
teach the imperial court and
maintain their fathers legacy.
Yang Kim-Hous third son Yang
Cheng-Fu was another renowned
fighter who did much to
popularise Tai Chi in his travels
within China, and was also
invincible. In his public classes,
Yang Cheng-Fu taught a
simplified version of the original
Yang form, evenly paced and
without flying kicks and the
strength explosions (Fa Jing) that
are the summit of Tai Chi combat
training. This form is the
ancestor of most of the Yang
style Tai Chi taught today. Yang
Cheng-Fus oldest son was Yang
Shou-Chung (also
Yang Chen-
Ming), who
taught his
fathers style
widely from
his base in Hong Kong
and established the
International Tai Chi Chuan
Association (ITCCA). Master
Wongs teacher was Master Chu
King-Hung, one of Yang Shou-
Chungs three closest disciples
and his successor as head of the
ITCCA.
Darius Sokolov MSc
Graduate of LSE and Tai Chi
and Kung Fu student of Master
Wong for many years.
YELLOWDRAGON TAI CHI FAMILYTREE
CHEUNG SAN FUNG
(960 - 1126AD)
VARIOUS TAOISTS
DETAILS UNCERTAIN
CHEN CHANG-XING
(CHEN STYLE) (1771 - 1853)
YANG LIU-SIM
(YANG STYLE) (1799-1872)
YANG KIM-HOU
(1839-1917)
YANG CHEN-FU
(1883-1936)
YANG SOW-CHUN
CHU KIM-HING
MASTER SIMON WONG
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YANG CHEN-FU
CHU KIM-HING
&SIMON WONG
This family tree includes only the main proponents of the style that we have knowledge of and is not
intended to be comprehensive.
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Stand relaxed, with your feet shoulder width apart and legs slightly bent. Your back should
be straight with your hands relaxed and placed on your waist.
Turn your head slowly to the left then to the right, while keeping the rest of your body straight and facing
forward. Repeat 10 times.
2
From the same position this time lower your head forward bringing your chin toward your
chest, then slowly lift your head up and backward. Repeat 10 times.
WARM-UP EXERCISES
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Next, in the same stance rotate your head slowly in a circular motion clockwise 10 times then
anti-clockwise 10 times.
T A I C H I
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C
hi Kung is
an ancient
system of
deep breathing
exercises. Its history
can be traced back
over 3000 years to
ancient China.
Through the
development of
Chi Kung,
many seemingly
impossible tasks
can be achieved.
These Chi Kung
exercises will
cause ones
h o r m o n e
secretion to
a c c e l e r a t e,
e n h a n c i n g
ones health, energy
and sexual prowess.
With prolonged
practice one will be
able to enjoy
warmth, prolonged
life and regain
youthfulness.
Holding the Tai Chi Ball
S
tand with your feet shoulder
width apart, arms relaxed at
your side. Your back should be
straight, knees slightly bent with
your head facing forward
(imagine being suspended by a
string from the top of your head)
and your body relaxed.
Slowly raise your arms in front
of you to shoulder height, with
elbows pointing out but down
slightly. Your palms should be
facing inward toward your chest,
with your fingers open slightly.
The posture should resemble
someone hugging a large tree.
It is important to keep the
shoulders relaxed as beginners
will naturally hunch their
shoulders using the shoulder
muscles to hold the posture. This
should be avoided and the whole
of your body should be kept
relaxed.
Once standing in the correct
posture you should then
concentrate on your
breathing. Keep your
mouth closed with your
tongue touching the roof
of your mouth (this is to
allow the chi to circulate
freely round the body).
When breathing in you
should breathe from the
stomach area and not the
chest. As you breathe in
the stomach is inflated and
when you breathe out the
stomach deflates.
This allows the breath to
reach the dantien area
(located a couple of inches below
the navel).
This exercise should initially
be be practiced for a couple of
minutes, increasing the more
you practice.
CHI KUNG BREATHING EXERCISES
WU CHI
By using the Yin to help the
Yang, and the Yang to help the
Yin, this exercise moves the
chi and the blood throughout
the whole of the body, and
builds the store of chi in the
dantien.
Men should begin with the left hand just below the
belly button with the right hand on top, women
with left hand on top of right. Breathe as
previously described.
From here bring your arms outward and upwards,
breathing out.
Move your arms up past the chest...
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and begin to extend the arms from the elbow... ...until completely straight.
Move your arms inward, breathing in as you do
so...
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...and back down towards the dantien...
...until back in the starting position.
The exercise should be done 7 times.
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EXERCI SES
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TRACING CLOUDS
A continuous flowing
movement that will gently
exercise the wrists and spine,
whilst aiding balance and co-
ordination.
Start in a position with feet parallel, shoulder width
apart. Bring your left arm out to the left side, palm
facing you. Your right arm should be in front of
your body, palm facing down. Your weight is
shifted slightly onto your left leg, and your hips
turned 45.
Begin to move your left arm down slowly. At the
same time bring your right arm up, turning your
palm to face your body.
As your arms move, follow your right hand with
your eyes and begin turning your body slowly to
the right.
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Continue this movement... ...turning your hips 45 to the right, shifting your
weight slightly onto your right leg. Your right arms
moves out to the right side of your body, palm
facing you, with your left arm moving in front of
your body palm down.
From here the movement is repeated in reverse,
turning your body to the left side whilst moving
your right hand down and your left hand up.
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Now repeat the movement a further 6 times.
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SHORT FORM
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1a
Begin with your feet together.
1b
Bow (right hand fist, left hand palm)
2a
Open feet to your left, shoulder width
apart. Make sure your feet are parallel. 2b
Bring both arms up slowly...
TAI CHI SHORT FORM
2c
...keeping them relaxed...
2d
...until level with your shoulders, fingers
pointing downward.
2e
Now begin to lower your arms, with
fingers pointing upwards. 2f
As your hands pass your chest, bend your
knees slightly.
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3a
Your right hand now comes around in a
small clockwise circle and makes a fist. 3b
Bring your left hand across to grip your
right wrist, with just the toe touching the
ground.
3c
...at the same time moving your left foot
next to your right 3d
At this point most of your weight is on the
right foot.
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4a
Now step forward and outward with
your left foot. 4b
You should step so that your left foot is
shoulder width from your right, and the
same distance forward.
4c
As you step, your left arm moves out in
front of your body, slightly bent with palm
facing you; your right arm moves to the right side
of your body, palm facing the floor.
4d
Your weight should be centred, your
front leg bent so that your knee is over
your toe, and the back leg slightly bent.
Make sure that your shoulders are straight.
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5a
Shift your weight onto your left leg...
5b
...turning your hips 90 to the right, with
just the toe of your right foot touching the
ground.
5c
As you turn, your hands come together...
5d
...holding the ball in front of your body.
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5e
Now place the heel of your right foot
where the toe had been, and transfer your
weight forward.
As you shift your weight, your left foot turns in
45.
6a
From here turn your hands so that the
left palm is facing up, the right palm facing
down.
6b
Your hands now move into the left side of
your body... 6c
...as if you were pulling something
toward you.
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TAI CHI FORM
APPLICATIONS
Block punch
From form: move 2
Opponent punches, left arm. Bring your right arm up...
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TAI CHI FORM APPLICATIONS
...block, hitting the bottom of your opponents arm
with the back of your hand to deflect the punch.
Jab with fingers into chest.
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Wrist Lock
From form: move 3
Opponent grabs your right arm with their right
arm.
Move your right arm up....
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and place your left hand on top of their hand,
gripping tightly.
Bring right hand underneath opponents arm.
and apply downward pressure onto opponents
wrist.
As opponent goes down, bring your knee into their
face.
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We hope you have enjoyed this free sample!
The complete book is 130 pages and includes the
following:
*The complete Yang Style Tai Chi form - 32 moves
*8 Chi Kung Deep Breathing Exercises to increase your energy,
strengthen bones and keep intenal organs healthy
*4 Tai Chi Chi Kung Exercises to improve balance, co-ordination and
health
*15 self defence applications from the Tai Chi form
The book is available in 3 formats:
1) a download from our website in PDF format
2) high quality CD-ROM version, including the Tai Chi Form Video
3) printed version
for details of how to order,
click here to go to our website
M
aster Simon
Wong is a
distinguished
practitioner of both the
internal and external
Chinese martial arts. He
is known and respected
throughout the martial
arts community. Through
his teacher Chu King-
Hung, he traces his
lineage in Tai Chi Chuan
directly back to Yang
Cheng-Fu, the founder of
the modern version of
Yang Style Tai Chi Chuan.
In this book Master Wong presents a Yang Style form,
illustrated by numerous photographs and explained by
means of step-by-step written instructions, though
without unnecessary technicalities.
Also, he introduces the student to the self-defence
applications of the form, again in a way which is practical
and easy to understand. Master Wong has an exceptional
talent for making complex matters simple and accessible.
This book is the result of his many years experience. It
will be a valuable asset to all practitioners of Tai Chi
Chuan, particularly those who do not have regular access
to a teacher.
www.yellowdragon.co.uk
Dr. R. W. Dyson is a graduate of Durham University,
professional academic & author. He is a Tai Chi, Chi Kung &
Self Defence Instructor under Master Wong, holds a 3rd Dan in
Karate and is a practising Buddhist.