Chen style tai chi chuan
What is Chen style tai chi chuan?
Chen style tai chi chuan is the oldest and parent form of the five traditional family styles. Chen-style is characterized by Silk reeling (chán sī jìn; 纏絲勁), alternating fast/slow motion and bursts of power (fa jin; 發勁).
Contemporary t'ai chi ch'uan is typically practised for a number of widely varying reasons: health, external/internal martial art skills, aesthetics, meditation or as an athletic/competition sport (sometimes called "wushu tai chi"). Therefore, a teacher's system, practice and choice of training routines usually emphasizes one of these characteristics during training. The five traditional schools, precisely because they are traditional, attempt to retain the martial applicability of their teaching methods. Some argue that the Chen tradition emphasizes this martial efficacy to a greater extent.
Chen Family Taijiquan (Tai Chi Chuan) is the original form of Taijiquan, a centuries old form of Chinese gongfu, health, and spiritual cultivation system. Taiji gongfu was created combining ancestral Northern Chinese self defense and classical martial methods with Buddhist and Daoist meditation and cultivation methods along with the knowledge of traditional medicine and energy circuits in the body.
History origin
The availability and popularity of Chen-style t'ai chi ch'uan is reflective of the radical changes that occurred within Chinese society during the Twentieth century. In the declining period of the Qing Dynasty, the emergence of a Republican government and the policies of the People's Republic of China, Chen Tai Chi Chuan underwent a period of discovery, popularization, repression and finally internationalization.
During the second half of the 19th century, Yang Luchan (杨露禅; 1799–1872) and his family established a reputation of Yang-style t'ai chi ch'uan throughout the Qing empire. Few people knew that Yang Luchan first learned his martial arts from Chen Changxing in the Chen Village. Fewer people still visited the Chen village to improve their understanding of Tai Chi Chuan. Only Wu Yu-hsiang (武禹襄; 1812–1880), a student of Yang Luchan and the eventual founder of Wu (Hao)-style t'ai chi ch'uan (武/郝氏), was known to have briefly studied the Chen Family small frame system under Chen Qingping (陳清平 1795–1868). This situation changed with the fall of the Qing empire when Chinese sought to discover and improve their understanding of traditional philosophies and methods.
In 1928, Chen Zhaopei (陈照丕; 1893–1972) and later his uncle, Chen Fake (陳發科, 陈发科, Chén Fākē, Ch'en Fa-k'e 1887–1957) moved from Chen village to teach in Beijing. Their Chen-style practice was initially perceived as radically different from other prevalent martial art schools (including established tai chi "traditions") of the time. Chen Fake proved the effectiveness of Chen-style t'ai chi ch'uan through various private challenges and even a series of Lei tai matches. Within a short time, the Beijing martial arts community was convinced of the effectiveness of Chen-style t'ai chi ch'uan and a large group of martial enthusiasts started to train and publicly promote it.
In our Handan Taizu Academy,there are professional chen style Tai chi masters who also know other styles.The students can learn Tai chi here in peaceful Handan city.
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