Wu-style tai chi should not be confused with Wu (Hao)-style tai chi.
| Wu-style tai chi | |
| Aka: | Ng-style tai chi |
| Date Founded: | late 19th century |
| Country: | China |
| Founder: | Wu Jianquan |
| Head: | Wu Kuang-yu 5th gen. Wu |
| Arts: | Tai chi |
| Ancestor Arts: | Yang-style tai chi |
| Notable Pract: | Wu Quanyou, Wu Gongyi, Ma Yueliang, Wu Yanxia |
Wu-style tai chi (Chinese: c=吳氏太极拳|p=Wúshì tàijíquán) is one of the five main styles of tai chi. It is second in popularity after Yang-style,[1] and the fourth-oldest of the five major tai chi styles.[2] It was developed by Wu Quanyou and Wu Jianquan.
Wu Quanyou was a military officer cadet of Manchu ancestry in the Yellow Banner camp (see Qing Dynasty Military) in the Forbidden City, Beijing and also a hereditary officer of the Imperial Guards Brigade.[3] At that time, Yang Luchan was the martial arts instructor in the Imperial Guards, teaching tai chi, and in 1850 Wu Quanyou became one of his students.[2]
In 1870, Wu Jianquan was asked to become the senior disciple of Yang Banhou, Yang Luchan's oldest adult son, and an instructor as well to the Manchu military.[4] Wu Quanyou had three primary disciples: his son Wu Jianquan, Wang Maozhai and Guo Fen.[5]
Wu Quanyou's son, Wu Jianquan, grandsons Wu Gongyi and Wu Kung-tsao, and granddaughter Wu Yinghua were well-known teachers.
Wu Jianquan became the most widely known teacher in his family, and is therefore considered the co-founder of the Wu style by his family and their students.[6] He taught large numbers of people and his refinements to the art more clearly distinguish Wu style from Yang style training.
Wu Jianquan moved his family south from Beijing (where an important school founded by other students of his father is headquartered, popularly known as the Northern Wu style) to Shanghai in 1928, where he founded the Jianquan Taijiquan Association (Chinese: 鑑泉太極拳社) in 1935.
Wu Gongyi then moved the family headquarters to Hong Kong in 1948, while His younger sister Wu Yinghua and her husband Ma Yueliang stayed behind to manage the original Shanghai school.[7]
Between 1983 and her death in 1996 Wu Yinghua was the highest-ranked instructor in the Wu family system. Her descendants continue teaching and today manage the Shanghai school as well as schools in Europe:
Wu Gongyi's children were also full-time martial art teachers:
The Wu style's distinctive hand form, pushing hands and weapons trainings emphasize parallel footwork and horse stance training with the feet relatively closer together than the modern Yang or Chen styles, small circle hand techniques (although large circle techniques are trained as well) and differs from the other tai chi family styles martially with Wu style's initial focus on grappling, throws (Shuai jiao), tumbling, jumping, footsweeps, pressure point leverage and joint locks and breaks, which are trained in addition to more conventional tai chi sparring and fencing at advanced levels.
1st Generation
2nd generation
3rd Generation