The Wu family style (吳氏 or 吳家) t'ai chi ch'uan (taijiquan) of Wu Ch'uan-yü (Wu Quanyou) and Wu Chien-ch'üan (Wu Jianquan) is the second most popular form of t'ai chi ch'uan in the world today, after the Yang style, and fourth in terms of family seniority.
This style is often confused in the West with the Wu style of t'ai chi ch'uan (武氏) founded by Wu Yu-hsiang. While the names are distinct in pronunciation and the Chinese characters used to write them are different, they are often romanized the same way.
History:
in 1850, Wu Ch'uan-yü (吳全佑, 1834–1902) 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. At that time, Yang Lu-ch'an (楊露禪, 1799–1872) was the martial arts instructor in that banner camp, teaching t'ai chi ch'uan.
In 1870, Wu Ch'uan-yü was asked to become the senior disciple of Yang Pan-hou (楊班侯, 1837-1890), Yang Lu-ch'an’s oldest adult son, and an instructor as well to the Manchu military.
Wu Ch'uan-yü's son, Wu Chien-ch'üan (吳鑑泉, 1870-1942), and grandchildren: grandsons Wu Kung-i (Wu Gongyi, 吳公儀, 1900-1970) and Wu Kung-tsao (Wu Gongzao, 吳公藻, 1902-1983) as well as granddaughter Wu Ying-hua (Wu Yinghua, 吳英華, 1906-1996) were well known teachers. Wu Chien-ch'üan 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.
He taught large numbers of people and his refinements to the art more clearly distinguish Wu style from Yang style training. Wu Chien-ch'üan 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 Chien-ch'uan T'ai Chi Ch'uan Association (鑑泉太極拳社) in 1936. Wu Kung-i then moved the family headquarters to Hong Kong in 1948, his younger sister Wu Ying-hua and her husband, Ma Yueh-liang (Ma Yueliang, 馬岳樑, 1901-1999), staying behind to manage the original Shanghai school. Between 1983 and her passing in 1996 Wu Ying-hua was the highest ranked instructor in the Wu family system. Her sons continue teaching and today manage the Shanghai school as well as schools in Europe.
Wu Kung-i's children were also full time martial art teachers: Wu Ta-kuei (Wu Dagui, 吳大揆, 1923-1972) was active in the resistance to the Japanese invasion of China, yet he later taught t'ai chi ch'uan in Japan after the war. His younger brother, Wu Ta-ch'i (Wu Daqi, 吳大齊, 1926-1993), supervised the family's Hong Kong and southeast Asian schools for many years and opened the family's first western hemisphere school in Toronto, Canada in 1974. Wu Kung-i's daughter, Wu Yan-hsia (Wu Yanxia, 吳雁霞, 1930-2001), was known as an expert with the t'ai chi chien (sword), while her cousin, Wu Ta-hsin (Wu Daxin, 吳大新, 1933-2005), was also known as a weapons specialist, particularly with the t'ai chi tao
(sabre).
Training: The Wu style's distinctive hand form, pushing hands and weapons trainings emphasise 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 t'ai chi family styles martially with Wu style's initial focus on grappling, throws (shuai chiao), tumbling, jumping, footsweeps, pressure point leverage and joint locks and breaks, which are trained in addition to more conventional t'ai chi sparring and fencing at advanced levels. Although historically derived from the Yang style, the Wu style has a unique appearance to observers and shares some features with Sun style due to the long collaboration between Wu Chien-ch'üan and Sun Lu-t'ang.
Another significant feature of Wu style training is its routinely placing the body's weight 100% on one leg; "yin and yang separation". The leg that supports 100% of the body weight is actually the yang leg, as this leg is "full". The yin leg is that which has no weight on it, it is "empty". It is also common in Wu style to maintain a straight line of the spine from the top of the head to the heel of the rear foot when it is at an angle to the ground; an inclined plane alignment intended to extend the practitioner's reach. Other styles of t'ai chi (with a few notable exceptions) train this leaning occasionally in their forms and pushing hands, but not as systematically as the Wu style does.
Generational senior instructors of the Wu family t'ai chi ch'uan schools:
1st Generation
Wu Ch'uan-yü (Quanyou, 吳全佑, 1834-1902), who learned from Yang Lu-ch'an and Yang Pan-hou, was senior instructor of the family from 1870-1902.
2nd generation
His oldest son, Wu Chien-ch'üan (Wu Jianquan, 吳鑑泉, 1870-1942), was senior from 1902-1942.
3rd Generation
His oldest son, Wu Kung-i (Wu Gongyi, 吳公儀, 1900-1970) was senior from 1942-1970.
3rd Generation
Wu Kung-i's younger brother, Wu Kung-tsao (Wu Gongzao, 吳公藻, 1903-1983), was senior from 1970-1983.
3rd Generation
Wu Kung-i's younger sister, Wu Ying-hua (Wu Yinghua, 吳英華, 1907-1997), was senior from 1983-1997.
4th Generation
Wu Kung-i's daughter , Wu Yan-hsia (Wu Yanxia, 吳雁霞, 1930-2001) was senior from 1997-2001.
4th Generation
Wu Kung-tsao's son, Wu Ta-hsin (Wu Daxin, 吳大新, 1933-2005), was senior from 2001-2005.
5th Generation
The current senior instructor of the Wu family is Wu Ta-kuei's son Wu Kuang-yu (Wu Guangyu, Eddie Wu, 吳光宇, born 1946).
