What Is Wu Style Tai Chi?

Wu Style Tai Chi

Wu style tai chi is named after the Wu family of tai chi teachers and it is the second most popular form of tai chi chuan practiced in the world. It is also considered to be the fourth generation of style in terms of evolution after the Yang style, which makes it a newer and more contemporary style of internal martial art.

Wu Ch'uan-vu was a military officer cadet of Manchu ancestry who served in the Forbidden City of Beifjieng. In 1850 he linked up with Yang Lu-ch'an (1799-1872) and asked to be trained in tai chi chuan. After twenty years of study Yang, one of the most seminal and famous teachers of the art asked Wu to become his senior instructor.

Wu Chien-ch'üan became the founder of the Wu style after refining the Yang style. He moved his practice to Beigjing to Shanghai in 1928. In 1936 he founded the Chien-ch'uan T'ai Chi Ch'uan Association. Almost all of his descendents became full time wu style tai chi teachers with the last teacher, Wu Ying-Hua carrying on the family tradition until her passing in 1986. All in all there are five generations of Chinese relatives from the Wu family that have been teaching their namesake style of tai chi in both their native land and to Westerners interested in mastering the discipline.

The Wu style has a distinctive form especially when it comes to the position of the hands. The hands seem to push away the air and there are more parallel stances in the form routine. Yet another characteristic of the wu style of tai chi is that there are more horse training stances in it as well as small circle hand techniques. Other movements that are different from the Yang movements of tai chi include grappling, tumbling, jumping and footsweeps.

The incorporation of some of these features into the form routines have caused many to compare it to the Sun style of Tai Chi. This makes sense because e for a while Wu collaborated with a teacher name Sun Lu Tang in Shanghai to come up with his unique namesake form of Tai Chi.

Perhaps one of the biggest differences between wu style tai chi and other forms is that the routine puts a lot of emphasis on putting one hundred percent of the weight of the body on one leg. This is to achieve "yin and yang separation." The leg supporting all of the body weight is known as yang. The yin leg would be the one that is supporting no weight at all.

It is also standard when practicing the wu style of tai chi to imagine and maintain a straight line that runs the length of the spine from the top of the head to the heel of the rear foot when the foot is positioned. In other styles of t'ai chi this leaning is balanced by the pushing off of hands but in the wu style of tai chi it is intended to increase strength and balance.