Taiji Videos

[Taijiman]

Came across a youtube profile with tons of great old kungfu clips and figured I'd share some of the more interesting taiji videos. Pulled out lots of old famous masters and some lesser known old timers... found reps of the 5 major styles Anyone else got any good clips they've found? Maybe some of the lesser known styles?



Yang
Chen Manching, student of Yang Chengfu who went on to develop his own version of Yang style:

Fu Zhongwen, one of Yang Chengfu’s top students:

Dong Yingjie, a student of Yang Chengfu and founder of what some now call “Dong family Taiji”:

Nui Chnming, a student of Yang Jianhou who latter became one of Yang Chengfu’s disciples:

Sun
Sun Peng, Sun Lu Tang’s grandson:

Sun Jianyun, daughter of Sun Lu Tang:

Wu (Wu Jian Quan)
Wu Yinghua:

Wu (Wu Yu Xiang, aka Hao style)
Hao Shaoru, direct Hao family descendant:

Chen
Chen Zhaokui:

Tian Xuchen, student of Chen Fake:

Lei Muni, another Chen Fake student:

Du Yu Ze, student of Chen Fake’s father, Chen Yanxi:

 

[Xue Sheng]

Thanks for the clips.

 

[terryl965]

Very nice find thanks

 

[dmax999]

I find it amazing that you listed 4 students from Yang Chengfu that did the forms completely different from each other. It really makes you wonder if anyone has it right, or if it even matters if you have it right. Then the problem I always have with videos like this, did they just have a bad day and mess up on a couple moves?

 

[Dronak]

Wow, good find. That user does have a lot of videos. There are too many for me to look at now, but I'll bookmark it for when I want to go back and see what's there. If others are interested, the user's page is http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=DPGDPG -- you can get to all the videos from that page.

 

[Xue Sheng]

I find it amazing that you listed 4 students from Yang Chengfu that did the forms completely different from each other. It really makes you wonder if anyone has it right, or if it even matters if you have it right. Then the problem I always have with videos like this, did they just have a bad day and mess up on a couple moves?

Not really all that amazing actually.

Yang Chengfu changed the old family style to what we see today as traditional Yang style. And then Chengfu changed his Yang form several times during his life.

I once heard someone I would consider a Tai Chi master say that you learn from your teacher and then you change the form to make it more yours. So after years of training it no longer looks exactly the same.

Tung Ying Chieh also studied Hao style so there is some influence there and I believe Cheng Manching was a Traditional Chinese medical doctor so he of course would change it to fit his view.

Yang came from Chen

Zhaobao comes from Chen

Sun came from Xingyi, Bagua and Hao style

Hao comes from Chen and Yang

Wu comes from Yang

There are a lot of changes in Tai Chi history and some are drastic.

 

[Xue Sheng]

Yang Shou Zong (Yang Sau Chung) this is Yang Changfu’s oldest son doing Traditional Yang Style Taiji, forgive the quality it is a very old film.

 

[charyuop]

This little story comes from the book of Dr Yang, don't know if true or just one of those myth told to students, but it hides a good lesson in it (I think applyable to any MA)...

A Master was teaching Tai Chi to his students. After several years the Master told his student his training was complete and that he wanted him to leave and keep studying to come back to him not before 3 years. After 3 years the student goes back to the Master and a little ashamed tells him that he cannot recognize certain parts of the forms as he was taught to him by the Master. The Master looking a little upset told the student that was bad and to go away for 3 more years to study more. After 3 years the student comes back and tells him Master that he is sorry, but now almost half of the form doesn't look like what he had taught him. Once again the Master not happy told his student to go away and study for 3 more years. After the 3 years have passed the student goes back to his Master and without the courage of looking him into the face says how sorry he was because now nothing in his form was like what he had taught him. The Master starts smiling and tells the studend "ok, student now you can walk your path, your training is over".
I don't know why, but I love this story very much

 

[dmax999]

All this about changing the forms for one reason or another brings me to a question. Are people who do Tai Chi now better then a couple generations ago, or is it consistantly worse?

I would think with the number of people practicing Tai Chi that it is obvious that a couple of them teaching today are better then the old teachers of years gone by. I have heard claims that CMC had amazing skill compared to others, but his changes are considered bad by the Yang family now. So even if we did have people advance Tai Chi greatly would they even be recognized as being better?

Just some random thoughts.

 

[Taijiman]

All this about changing the forms for one reason or another brings me to a question. Are people who do Tai Chi now better then a couple generations ago, or is it consistantly worse?

I think there's a lot of people out there that develop good form basics, but most just don't bother completing their training. Stopping at the form, or stopping at basic push hands. I'm not sure how many there were like that in the past... I know there were defenitely some (just look at the old Wu taiji vs. White Crane clip). Watching a person's form is only looking at one part of their overall training of course