Tianshan Pai (Tien Shan Mountain Kung Fu)
天山派A northern kung-fu style that Wang Chueh-Jen began teaching in Taiwan in the late nineteen forties. His students dispute the ancient origin he claimed.
Quick Facts
ChinaCharacter & Origin
Training
Who It Suits
Organisation & Competition
What the style is built from
Editorial rating on a 0–3 scale, based on how much room each area gets in ordinary training.
Catalogs & Databases for Tianshan Pai (Tien Shan Mountain Kung Fu)
About Tianshan Pai (Tien Shan Mountain Kung Fu)
Tien Shan Pai, 天山派, meaning the school of the Tian Shan mountains, is according to English Wikipedia a northern kung-fu style that stresses rhythm, power released from the whole body, coordination of hands and feet, high kicks, low sweeps, locks and throws. It is associated with Wang Chueh-Jen, 王玨錱, from a wealthy family in Sichuan Province. According to Wikipedia, Wang trained soldiers of Chiang Kai-shek's army, settled in Taiwan, began teaching his curriculum in the late nineteen forties and taught until his death in 1990. He himself claimed it was an ancient style of more than sixty generations. According to Wikipedia, some of his senior students, on the other hand, state that it is an eclectic system which he was the first to teach as a whole. His student Willy Lin writes in his own article that Wang founded the style in the late nineteen forties and that it has no sixty-five or sixty-six generations. According to Wikipedia, Willy Lin left Taiwan for Brazil in 1968, came to the USA in 1970 and opened his first school in the Washington area in 1971. In his own words, he was the one who named the system Tien Shan Pai in the USA in 1971.
History
The International Tien Shan Pai Association states that Wang's father Wang Ting Yuen was a well-known kung-fu master in Sichuan and that Wang took over the style from 62nd-generation grandmaster Ho Ta-Sun. English Wikipedia cites a 2007 Chinese book according to which the style has more than eight hundred years of history, with foundations in 1190. Willy Lin, however, writes that according to Xinjiang Wushu Association research on Tian Shan mountain there was no temple. Jonathan Pett Miller admits in a 2004 Inside Kung Fu article that no documents exist proving the system's origin. According to him, Wang was born around 1910.
Technique
English Wikipedia states that Tien Shan Pai emphasizes low and steady side steps and quick hidden steps meant to confuse the opponent. According to it, paired exercises and forms in pairs serve to practice timing and judging distance against a moving opponent. According to Wikipedia, Wang also taught the internal arts taijiquan, xingyiquan and baguazhang. According to the International Tien Shan Pai Association, he developed a way of fighting that he called radar style, 雷達式打法.
Training
Pett Miller states that many of the forms Wang taught were not Tien Shan Pai forms, and that one of the first in the syllabus was Chu Chi Chuan, created for the Central Kuoshu Academy. According to him, students of lower grades learn basic forms in Huang's curriculum such as Mei Hua Chuan, plum flower fist, and Yen Hsing Jian, swallowtail sword. According to Green, the Central Martial Arts Institute in Nanjing was founded in 1927 and was divided into a Wudang branch, that is taijiquan, baguazhang and xingyiquan, and a Shaolin branch, and Pett Miller places its founding in 1928.
Ranks and progression
The International Tien Shan Pai Association lists students who earned a black sash, and the degree expresses the black sash degree. According to Pett Miller, Huang reserves Tien Shan Pai forms for advanced students who reached the 1st degree black sash. The organization does not describe grades below the black sash.
Competition
According to the International Tien Shan Pai Association, many of Wang's early students fought in full-contact lei tai tournaments. English Wikipedia states that Wu Ming Jer won the lightweight division of the full-contact Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau tournament in 1957. Willy Lin writes that in 1964 Wang was one of the coaches of the Taiwanese team that demonstrated kuoshu at the Olympic Games in Tokyo, and that the team included four of Wang's students including him.
Today
The International Tien Shan Pai Association is based in Baltimore and led by Huang Chien-Liang, 黃乾量, who calls himself the 64th-generation heir. According to Wikipedia, he shows a sword Wang gave him, its scabbard inscribed about the 64th generation. According to Wikipedia, Willy Lin lives in Seattle and teaches privately. The Jing Ying Institute calls him the first to bring the style to the USA.
Did you know
English Wikipedia says the fictional Mount Heaven Sect school from wuxia novels bears the same Chinese name 天山派 and relates to the style only by name. According to Wikipedia, Wang co-founded the Chung Hua Kuoshu federation with master Chen Pan-Lin.
Frequently asked questions
Is Tien Shan Pai an ancient style?
Wang Chueh-Jen claimed so, but his student Willy Lin writes that Wang founded the system in the late nineteen forties, and other senior students call it an eclectic system.
Who brought Tien Shan Pai to the USA?
According to Wikipedia, Willy Lin, who opened his first school in the Washington area in 1971.
Does Tien Shan Pai have belts?
The International Tien Shan Pai Association awards black sashes with degrees and does not describe lower grades.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.