The Characteristics of Yang Shou Chung's Taiji Kung Fu and Structure
There are at present three main ways to assess Yang Zhen Ming's kungfu:
Yang Zhen Ming's own written works and photographs, the kung fu of his major students and oral records, a video of Yang Zhen Ming practicing taiji.
His major work is 《雙人圖解太極拳用法及變化》 and contains pictures of him pushing hands, the book also contains pictures of Yang Chen Pu, indicating his attitude towards tradition.
With regard to his push hands, his disciple Zhang Shi Xian 張世賢 notes in the preface to 《雙人圖解太極拳用法及變化》, " Master Yang's (Shou Chung) family learning was deep, and his kungfu was profound. The heaviness of his attacks, the stability of his legs, far exceeded that of normal people. And each part of his body could be used to attack at will; where he was attacked, that was the root for fajin; sending someone several feet away, that was easy for him. As for sparring, the speed of his hands and the multitude of his variations, were totally out of the normal."
Ma Hui Huan remembers: "Teacher Yang did not have any superfluous movements when teaching, he especially emphasized the point that each movement has a purpose. He often stated, do not covet the things that look good but are not useful. Sometimes when he asks us to test applications, there were no additional movements, you push upwards, and without seeing him move, you fly away. You feel that his hands are very heavy, and full of power"
Xie Bing Zhong 謝秉中 and Ngai Bing Lang 倪秉郎 wrote in their book 《拳以載道》 also detailed the time when Yang Shou Chung was living in Yuen Long, on the rare occasion when he demonstrated his Taiji, "Hitting his stomach or attacking his chest would lead you to fly to another place, pressing his throat with a small movement led you to be forced away".
Yang Zhen Ming's Kung fu can also be seen from a video of him demonstrating the Taiji form.
This was placed on YouTube, and was later spread through the internet. There was a lot of discussion about it, and it became an import source of information on Yang Zhen Ming's kung fu. When doing my own research on Yang Zhen Ming, I watched and rewatched this video many times.
After this was placed on the internet, and as this was markedly different from the style currently taught by many Yang Style practitioners, many people began to cast doubts onto its authenticity. I, personally, went to find out the truth from his student Ma Hui Huan, who authenticated this video. In addition the book 《拳以載道》 also makes mention of how this video is genuine. Thus we can agree that this video is of Yang Shou Chung.
According to the person who introduces this video Wang Zi He 王子和, the video was recorded in 1976, and was recorded in his apartment. At that time Yang Zhen Ming was over sixty years old. His stance was stable, and he was in good health. One can experience the maturity stage of the art. Thus it is an important record for anyone who wants to study the art.
I wish to approach this from three angles, the first is from the explication of the traditional principles of Yang Taiji, the second is from the explanations of his disciples, for this Ma Hui Huan devoted a lot of time and energy, and third from Yang Zhen Ming's own major writings and also based on this video. These three sources demonstrate, when one researches his art in detail, there are the following characteristics:
1. Traditional and Heroic 古朴沉雄
Taiji's traditional and simple style is determined by its underlying principles, tradition and simplicity is also a state of mind.
The Taijiquan of Yang Chen Pu deleted the flowery and strived for the simple, Yang Zhen Ming summarized it in this way, "The Spirit is Large, the Stance is beautiful" “氣魄大，架勢美”. Although it is as light and soft as the wind, and floats like the clouds, it still sinks into the ground and has roots, and is solid like a mountain. Only if you sink and are powerful can you be expansive, when you look at a person practicing you observe his Qi, if the Qi does not sink then the form is not refined."
Yang Zhen Ming's form has a vast and expansive posture, yet is humble, it has the inherited flavor of Yang Chen Pu. For the single whip posture, the essence of Yang Taiji is that the Qi pervades the eight directions, amidst the undulating movements it contains a heavy power. When Yang Zhen Ming demonstrates the single whip posture, he rotates from left to right, he translates the complex into something simple, it is natural and clear, and the opening and closing movements are in the balance. It is like an old tree bursting into flower.
2. The Rhythm of the Qi is full of life 氣韻生動
Practicing boxing should not be dull and lifeless, if your practice is lifeless, it is better not to practice at all.
When Yang Zhen Ming is demonstrating his Taolu, it is brimming with vitality, it looks casual, but is actually filled with concentration, and filled with life. When some people practice, it is form is measured and proper, but it is weighed down by dead energy, the outer form is very like Yang Chen Pu, but it is empty inside. What is the root of life? It is vitality, one should feel more and more alive, the more one practices and not that one becomes more and more soft and collapsed.
The essence of Yang Taiji, is to use "Sinking and Stillness to convey passion" “沉靜表現激情”. We can sense this kind of passion from the Taiji of Yang Shou Chung. For instance when he shows "the white crane spreads its wings", with one upward movement all the Qi rises, and it conveys to the observer the feeling of spreading the wings to ascend to the heavens and it also has the stillness of leaving no tracks in the snow. It complete shows the naturalness of the Taiji method, the way achieving one's intention and combining it with the form.
3. Full of Expanding Energy / Tension 富於張力：
Taiji is a martial art, only with an expanding energy is it threatening.
When the best artists practice, there is tension in the midst of relaxation. The eight types of jin of Taiji, there is not one that does not contain an expanding energy within. Expansive energy comes from power that arises from relaxation, relax with relaxation there is expansion.
Only when one is centered can one have expansive energy, the true kind of centeredness is the centeredness of the meridiens, there are those who only seek the balanced posture of the external body, although it is straight, it has become hard and ossified. In Yang Zhen Ming's taiji there is a current of centered Qi, although the outer body rises and falls, but the is full of expanding energy, and there are no protruding or sunken areas, and no deficient parts. If one likens it to a ball on the water, although it rises and falls, it remains shiny and round in its nature.
Yang Zhen Ming, when performing the brush knee step “摟膝拗步”, completely demonstrates the complete expanding energy which characterizes Taiji. The movement forward and backward of the hands and feet are balanced, the top and bottom correspond to each other, like an arrow on the bow, cocked but not released. It is unmoving like the mountain, when one touches it, it is like touching electricity.
4. Receiving and Sending freely 收放自如
For a certain point of view, Taiji is an opening and closing style of boxing. Sun style Taiji is famous for its opening and closing movement, and places an extreme emphasis on this aspect of Taiji. Every movement of Yang taiji also contains within it this opening and closing aspect, and where there is open and close, there is receiving and sending away.
The postures of Yang Taiji have a large frame, open and confident, but has the characteristic of an exquisite method of closing, at every turning point, it is the closing action that leads into the expansion, and it is through receiving that one is directed into an open position. In diagonal flying 斜飛式, the pose stretches to the edge of the sky, for raise hands and step forward 提手上勢 the hands are as close as in front of your eyes. When he demonstrates apparent close-up 如封似閉 there is a receiving contained within the opening of the body, and there is extension within the leading of the movement, the breathing and qi field is akin to the ocean receiving the hundred rivers.
Receiving and sending out freely, only then can one grasp the opportunity and control the situation / positioning, controlling the opportunity and situation is attacking Taiji's key point. Yang Zhen Ming feels "One needs to study controlling the opportunities and situation in both push hands and sparring. Controlling the opportunity and situation, means differentiating between clockwise and anticlockwise, front and back, strength and weakness. Once you control the opportunity and situation, then you move on to direction, whether it is up or down, or front or back, proactively use the direction to control the opponent." The opportunity and position as well as the sensitivity is trained via daily practice of the Taiji form.
5.There is a fullness in issuing force 勃發充盈
Traditional Yang Taiji is a high level fighting technique due to the fact that it has an advanced method of training neijin, in using the slow to incubate the fast, using relaxation to enhance tension, from the extreme softness one achieves the extreme hardness, one is able feel a overwhelming force within a gentleness.
Yang Zhen Ming's boxing style is filled with a mighty issuing Qi field, from beginning to end, this ball of energy does not leak out. It uses the external boxing form to cultivate the formless internal Qi, to stimulate the 100 bones (bone marrow), to strengthen the body and the mind. From the “翻身撇身捶” to Step parry block punch,“進步搬攔捶”、step forward lift right leg“上步右起腳”、left right strike tiger“左右打虎勢” this small set of movements is achieved with one breath of Qi, obtaining the opportunity and controlling the situation, one should demonstrate the ability to be heavy enough to break the clouds.
6. Nimble like Floating on the wind 靈澈飄颯
The principles of boxing state that the intention and the Qi should be able to change nimbly, ethereal clarity 空靈澄澈 is a level of Taiji that one should aspire to. Once you remove all points of tension from the body, and let go of the knots in your thinking only then can you reach this level.
There are those who practice, once the begin to move they are cautious, with each blow they hold back, restraining their arms and feet, without any life, without any vitality. They euphemistically call this "everything is in its right place" “合乎法度”, they call themselves martial artists but in fact they are slaves to the boxing. One needs to be natural in order to be nimble, Yang Zhen Ming states "when ever you practice boxing, be it the fast and the slow, the height when lifting the feet, tilting forward or leaning back, the emptiness and solidity, the heaviness and lightness of the breathing, and glancing up and down and left and right: they are all in accordance with the center, and do not stray from what is natural to the body"
When one observes Yang Zhen Ming, within the tension there relaxation, in relaxation there is tension. This is contained in each movement, the beginning and ending points are clear, and there are no gaps to be found. It arises out of the rules but breaks the rules, and has the feeling of the sky horse treading across the sky, floating on the wind at will. When one first sees it, it is like an elegant poem, detailed but delicate and graceful, those who do not understand the practice cannot understand the subtleties. The beginning and turning points all express the intricacies of "opportunity" and "positioning". From the set of “回身右蹬腳”、“雙峰貫耳”、“上步左蹬腳”、 “轉身右蹬腳”、“進步搬攔捶”、“如封似閉”、“十字手” the rising and falling movements are manifold, and the spacing and direction are difficult to master, Yang Zhen Ming's performance lifts the heavy as if it were light, like the willow in the breeze, and is a good interpretation of the agility of Yang Taiji.
In summation, Yang Zhen Ming loyally inherited his fathers work, and his boxing is unnaturally like his father's with long bridges and wide stance, the spirit is directed within, although there are a few movements which may differ externally, but the internal Qi is the same. Before Yang Zhen Ming, there were no steps to record the form of the boxing for later generations, that is why his boxing is so precious.
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