Classical Northern Wu Style Tai Ji Quan The Fighting Art of the Manchurian Palace Guard

by Zhang, Tina Chunna; Allen, Frank

• ISBN13: 9781583941546
• ISBN10: 1583941541
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-08-18
• Publisher: Blue Snake Books

Summary

Here is the original, rarely seen Tai Ji Quan developed by Yang Lu Chan's best Imperial Palace Guard student, Quan You, over 150 years ago. While other styles branched off into sport, health, and meditation, Quan You's disciples preserved the traditional ways. This book covers the principles, characteristics, and essentials of the Wu method, along with its famous masters. The entire classical form is illustrated step-by-step, and includes weapons skills.

Author Biography

Tina Chunna Zhang has experienced Chinese martial arts and dance since her childhood in Beijing, China. She moved to the U.S. in the 1980s. She has studied and trained with famous internal martial arts masters both in China and in the U.S. She is a fifth-generation practitioner of Northern Wu Style Tai Ji Quan, training directly under Master Li Bing Ci. She won gold medals in sparring at the Summer Bash Chinese Martial Arts Championships in 2001 and 2002. She has continued to participate and win numerous medals in martial arts tournaments in China and in the U.S. every year. Tina actively teaches Classical Northern Wu Style Tai Ji Quan and ba gua zhang at the Wu Tang Physical Cultural Association internal martial arts studio and various sports clubs and fitness gyms in New York City.

Frank Allen has studied and practiced the internal energy arts since 1973. He was an early student of Master B. P. Chan, from whom he learned the internal martial arts of ba gua zhang, xing yi quan, and tai ji quan, as well as the healing art of qi gong. Frank began to study with Master B. K. Frantzis in 1976 and over the next two and a half decades studied Frantzis’s internal martial arts, including Wu Style Tai Ji Quan, nei gong, and Taoist meditation. He has also studied the internal martial arts with Master Jiang Jian Yee. In 1979 Frank founded the Wu Tang Physical Culture Association in New York City, with branches in Southern California, Middletown, New York, and Frankfurt, Germany.

Table of Contents

Preface	xiii
Introduction to Tai Ji Quan	1	(12)
A Short History of Tai Ji Quan	3	(4)
Tai Ji Quan As a Health Art	7	(3)
Tai Ji Quan As a Martial Art	10	(3)
Northern Wu Style Tai Ji Quan	13	(14)
Famous Northern Wu Style Tai Ji Quan Masters	14	(10)
Characteristics of Northern Wu Style Tai Ji Quan	24	(3)
The Principles of Wu Style Tai Ji Quan	27	(8)
The Hand Positions and Stances of Northern Wu Style Tai Ji Quan	35	(4)
The Classical Form and Applications	39	(82)
Northern Wu Style Tai Ji Quan Form	43	(55)
Push Hands	98	(6)
Principles, Techniques, and Skills in Northern Wu Style Tai Ji Quan Fighting	104	(17)
The Classical Sword Form	121	(62)
Northern Wu Style Tai Ji Quan Sword	126	(57)
Tai Ji Quan Treatise and the Classical Trigrams	183	(4)
The Practice of Northern Wu Style Tai Ji Quan	187	(10)
Chinese Terminology for Tai Ji Quan	197	(4)
Acknowledgments	201	(1)
About the Authors	202