by Graham Barlow
Here I trace the path along which the 'Old Yang' or 'Quanping Yang'* style of Tai Chi Chuan practiced in the Yongquan Tai Chi Chuan Association comes down to us today. The Founder and Technical Director of the YTCCA is Sifu Raymond Rand. Along the way we'll also see where we get our Buk Sing Choy Lee Fut from, and our Northern Shaolin Dragon Sword and 2-man form.
Sifus Newman, Robertson,
Kerr and
(seated) my teacher Sifu Rand
Sifu
Rand began training in the Chinese Martial Arts,
specifically Tai Chi Chuan, Chi Kung, Shao Chao, Chin Na,
Dim Mak and Choy Li Fut (Pak Sing) in January 1976, with
Master Lam Kam Chuen. Prior to this he had three years
experience in Ten Shin Shinyo Ryu (Ju Jitsu) and some six
months in Wing Chung.
Sifu Rand has written a book on Tai Chi Chuan, which is
available from Crowood Press. Click
here
for more information on this book.
Master Lam Kam Chuen
Sifu Rand was taught by Master Lam Kam Chuen. Master Lam
was born in Hong Kong just after the war in 1948 and began
training at the age of 12. His teachers included Yim Sheung
Mo and Lung Tse Cheung.
Master Lam performing the
Tai Chi Chuan
posture known as Snake Creeps Down.
Master
Lam studied Yang style combat Tai Chi Chuan, Iron Palm, I
Chuan, Choi Li Fut, Northern Shao Lin, Chi Kung,
traditional Chinese weapons and much more. Master Lam was a
martial arts instructor to the Royal Hong Kong Police and
is qualified in Traditional Chinese Medicine, specialising
in bone setting, herbalism and the use of Chi and Chi Kung
to cure ailments. Master Lam came to England in 1975 and
began teaching both privately and for the ILEA (thanks to
the help of a Yoga teacher named Beryl Heed who became one
of his first students). In 1977 he opened his first clinic
in this country and began to practice as a Chinese doctor.
Gradually a small group of private students developed and
in 1982 Master Lam founded the Lam Tai Chi Association to
help spread Tai Chi Chuan and related arts. Master Lam is
an expert in Zhan Zhong (Jam Jong- to stand like a tree)
Chi Kung and in 1995 made a 5 part documentary for Channel
Four TV called Stand Still be Fit. Master Lam has published
several
books
on Zhan Zhong Chi Kung, his own Short Form and Feng Shui,
on which he is also a leading authority.
Master Lam created the Lam Short Form, which along with the
much shorter Yongquan form, is the main Tai Chi Chuan form
taught within the Yongquan Tai Chi Chuan Association. We
also teach the original long Yang form, from which the Lam
Short Form was derived.
Master Yim Sheung Mo
While Master Lam was taught by both Lung Tse Chung and Yim
Sheung Mo, Sifu Rand remembers it was Yim Sheung Mo who
Master Lam talked about as being his primary teacher when
it came to Tai Chi Chuan. Yim Sheung Mo was by all accounts
a quiet man. He was a disciple of the famous Master Ku Yu
Chang, “the King of Iron Palm”, but never
bragged about being the student of such a famous teacher.
Of these two famous disciples of Ku Yu Chang, Yim Sheung Mo
was the older, being closer to the age of Ku Yu Chang, and
a good 20 years older than Lung Tse Chung. It is said that
Yim Sheung Mo's style remained closer to that of Ku Yu
Chang, while Lung Tse Chung's differed slightly because he
was swapped as an exchange student with Tam Sam, the famous
founder of Buk Sing Choy Lee Fut. (This also explains how
the Buk Sing style of Choy Lee Fut came into our lineage.)
Yim Sheung Mo
(left) performing
the Northern Shaolin two-man form
that we still practice today.
Most
lineages (Northern Shaolin schools in Yim Sheung Mo's
lineage) have Yim Sheung Mo learning his Tai Chi Chuan from
Ku Yu Chang, who in turn learns it from General Li Jin
Ling, who was a student of Yang Chien-Hou (Yang Lu-Chan's
third son) and also famous for his Wudang Sword skill. Ku
Yu Chang also studied with and learned with many of his
contemporaries, including learning Tai Chi Chuan from Sun
Lu Tang, and this has often erroneously resulted in people
confusing Ku Yu Chang's Yang and Sun styles together
(see
here
for an example). However, the confusion arose because he
learned
two
styles of Tai Chi Chuan - the Yang style from Li Jing Lin
and the Sun style from Sun Lu Tang. These two styles look
very different, and it's his Yang style that has been
passed down to us through Yim Sheung Mo, Master Lam Kam
Chuen and Sifu Raymond Rand. Ku Yu Chang is also the source
of the Northern Shaolin Dragon Shape Sword form that we
practice within our association.
Li Jin Ling learned his Tai Chi Chuan from Yang Chien Hou,
son of the famous Yang style founder, Yang Lu Chan. The
story goes that Yang Chien Hou was the only person who
could defeat Li Jin Ling with a sword, so he immediately
asked to become his student.
What can be said for certain is that the 'Old Yang' form we
practice in the YTCCA is the one taught by Yim Sheung Mo
because of his students who have spread over the world and
opened Kung Fu schools.
One such student of Yim Sheung Mo,
Master Chan Kwok Kai,
moved to South America and set up a Kung Fu school there
and heads the
Kai Men Association.
Pictures of him doing Tai Chi Chuan and a
short video
clip
of their form reveal that they practice the same long Yang
form that we do, albeit with the movements performed
slightly differently. Despite the differences their form
still has the characteristic diagonal NE and NW angles for
the opening moves, instead of the more common N, then E
then W directions of the Yang Cheng Fu lineage forms.
Another student of Yim Sheun Mo is
Sifu Wing
Lam,
who moved to San Francisco in 1976.
Videos
of his Yang Tai Chi Chuan form also reveal it to be the
same form that we practice, but again with the movements
performed slightly differently to the way we do them.
Master
Ku Yu Chang
Ku
Yu Chang was a very famous Chinese martial artist. He
gained the nickname “King of Iron Palm” for his
famous iron palm skills, and was placed as one of the
winners in the 1928 First National Wushu Contest, held in
Nanjing. (Incidentally, there seems to be no common
agreement about who won this particular competition, since
it was stopped before the closing matches were played out
due to excessive injuries. In short, it was just too
dangerous. Therefore the last contestants remaining
were all declared winners.)
Ku Yu Chang
demonstrating his famous Iron Palm by breaking
a stack of bricks with a single palm strike. Notice that
there are
no spacers between the bricks! This is tremendous feat,
which probably hasn’t been replicated
since.
After
the competition Ku Yu Chang was appointed as one of 'the
Five Tigers of the North who went South', he, with the
other four masters, were to open National Martial Art
Schools and teach Chinese Martial Arts to the masses. One
of the main objectives of Nationalist government during the
1920s was to unify China. It developed the motto:
"A Strong Mind and
a Strong Body builds a Strong
Country".
Part of their plan was to use martial arts to strengthen
the populace. This resulted in the creation of Kou Shu. For
more information on this historical development see the
article 'Disappearing weapons in Chinese Martial Arts' by
Sifu Damon Smith on the
Yongquan
site).
If you're intersted then much more extensive information on
Ku Yu Chang is available
here from
the Kung Fu Online discussion forums. And
here,
and also
here.
At the Republican capital in Nanjing Ku Yu Chang had the
opportunity to expand his knowledge and skill from other
kung fu teachers, including studying Hsing-I, Pa Kua and
Tai Chi Chuan with Sun Lu Tang. He also had important
exchanges with Tam Sam, one of the five Southern Tigers of
the Choy Lee Fut style. They reportadly had a bout of which
no one is certain of the victor. Since then Choy Lee Fut
sets of Tam Sam's lineage incorporated Northern Shaolin
sets into their curriculum and vice versa.
In the end Ku Yu Cheung became a master
of seven different Kung-Fu styles including: Beishaolin
taught to him by Yin Kai Wun, Chaquan, taught to him by his
father and Zhensheng, Hsing-I and Bagua, taught to him by
Sun Lu Tang, as well as Tai Chi, Baji and Wudang Sword
taught to him by Li Jinglin.
General
Li Jing Lin
General Li Jing
Lin, famous
for his Wudang sword skill.
So,
this brings us on to General Li Jing Lin (1885 - 1931). He
was a very high ranking government official. Along with
President General Chang Chih Chiang, he decided that the
two most important styles of Chinese Martial Arts were
Shaolin and Wudang and so these were the styles to be
taught in the government schools by the Five Tigers. He was
famous for his swordsmanship. He studied martial arts with
Sun Lu Tang, and was a contemporary of Yang Cheng Fu but
learned his Tai Chi Chuan from Cheng Fu's father Yang Chien
Hou. (Note: some schools have him as a student of Yang Ban
Hou instead.) It is often speculated that his straight
sword form was the one that was incorporated into the Yang
family tradition as the Yang style straight sword form,
rather than it being of Chen family origin.
Unfortauntely, his Wudang sword style is very rare these
days. This is probably due to its reputed
complexity.
Master
Yang Chien Hou
Yang Chien-Hou,
third son of Yang Lu-Chan
The
third son of Yang Lu Chan, Yang Chien Hou (1839-1917) was
credited with creating and practicing the 'middle frame' of
the Yang style. His elder brother Yang Ban Hou practiced
'small frame' and had a much more aggressive temprament,
thus keeping few students. Yang Chien Hou was a more
popular teacher, since he wasn't as harsh in his training
methods as his brother, but compared to his son Yang Cheng
Fu, who popularised Tai Chi Chuan when he standardised the
various different forms into one 'large frame', he still
had very few students.
The story goes that Yang Chien Hou was the only person able
to defeat General Li Jing Lin with a sword, so General Li
immediately asked to become his student. More stories about
Yang Chien Hou are available
here.
There
are various lineages descended from Yang Chien Hou (and
Yang Ban Hou) and they all have forms that look different
from each other, and from ours. The only conclusion I can
come to is that the exact choreography of the form wasn't
considered important during his lifetime, so students were
taught on a more individual basis depending on what they
needed to learn. Of course, forms surviving from the Yang
Chien Hou lineage have all had to be passed on by more than
one person to reach the current day, so it's also possible
they have been modified or altered by the people that
passed them on as well. Since no photoghic record of Yang
Chien Hou's form exists we'll never know for
sure.
Master
Yang Lu-Chan
'Yang the invincible'
Yang Lu-Chan,
founder of the Yang style of
Tai Chi Chuan, and known as 'Yang the
Invincible'.
The
origins of Tai Chi Chuan are to be found in the Chen
village (Chenjiagou)
in Henan province in China, but it was an outsider to the
village, called Yang Lu Chan (1799-1872), who made it
famous. Lu Chan, who became known as 'Yang the
invincible', brought the art from rural obscurity into
the public-eye in the 19th Centuary. Lu Chan had trained in
the Chen village for a good number of years (estimates vary
from between 9 - 40 years) before returning to his home in
Yongnian, then moving to Beijing. In Beijing he came to the
attention of the Emperor. He was reputed to have trained
the Emperor's troops, which indicates the respect with
which his art was held, and defeated all challengers
earning his ‘invincible’ nickname.
At this time Tai Chi Chuan, (then known as 'Long
Boxing' or 'Cotton Fist'), was first and foremost
a fighting art. By all accounts the martial aspects
were retained by Yang Lu Chan's two sons (Yang Ban-Hou and
Yang Chien-Hou) after his death.
The
Future
All
these people in this article have played a part in passing
on the rich and lively heritage of Chinese arts taught by
the YTCCA. I feel proud to play a tiny part in keeping
these arts alive and take inspiration from the great
Masters of the past, and also the great teachers of the
present.
* Our 'old yang' style of Tai Chi Chuan bears no relation
to the 'old yang' taught by Erle Montaigue, or any of the
other 'old yang' or Quanping (also written 'Guanping') Yang
styles that don't come from Yim Sheung Mo.