Health
Yang ChenFu
At the beginning of the 20th century
another important Taijiquan trend came into being in Beijing.
Most of its members lived in the YongNian district of the
Hebai province. For this reason they were called YongNian
Pai. As they originally lived in the north they were also
called BeiPai or the Northern school.
In 1911 the last Chinese emperor, Yuan
ShiKai, was poisoned. His reign only lasted 81 days. His
bodyguard Song ShuMing lost his job and started teaching
Taijigong of Taiji 37 in Beijing. From all over the country
wushu masters came to study with Song ShuMing or if they
could they would send their family students to go and study
his techniques. One of them was Wu JianQian, a family student
of the Yang family.
Later on some students started introduce
certain elements in their own wushu technique. They started
to create different forms and called it Taijiquan. Wu JianQian
for example created Wu style Taijiquan and Yang ChenFu created
Yang style Taijiquan.
In fact the real founders of Taijiquan are Wu JianQian
and Yang ChenFu; the generations before them were wushu
fighters. Yang ChenFu was the first one who changed the
wushu techniques into health exercises. He thought of the
slogan ‘Practise Taiji for a better health and a long
life.’ This turned the practice of Taijiquan into
a very popular pursuit. Thanks to Yang ChenFu Taijiquan
(and especially the Yang style) is now known all over the
world. |