Wu Style Tai Chi
吳式太極拳Family branch of taijiquan from Wu Quanyou and Wu Jianquan, with an inclined yet inwardly upright posture. On China's national list since 2014.
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 Wu Style Tai Chi
About Wu Style Tai Chi
The Wu style is a family branch of taijiquan, founded according to China's national intangible cultural heritage portal by Wu Quanyou (1834–1902), a Manchu from Beijing's Daxing district. He studied under Yang Luchan and his son Yang Banhou. His son Wu Jianquan (1870–1942), who removed repeated and jumping movements, arranged the style into its present form. In 1928 he left to teach in Shanghai while Wang Maozhai stayed in Beijing, hence the saying "Wu in the south, Wang in the north". The competition rules describe the style as light and calm, compact, with an inclined posture that stays upright inside. Weight shifts onto one leg and movement is slow, smooth and balanced. The main empty-hand routines have 83 positions, shorter routines 37 and 16. Training includes an extensive pushing hands programme, standing and health exercises, and weapons: sabre, sword, spear and sticky pole. Since 2014 the Wu style has been on China's national list of intangible cultural heritage, and taijiquan as a whole on the UNESCO list since 2020. Beware of confusion with the Wu (Hao) style of Wu Yuxiang, which is written with a different character in Chinese. A well-known event from the style's modern history is the match of Wu Gongyi against a white crane master in Macau in 1954.
History
Per China's national intangible cultural heritage portal, the Wu style was founded by Wu Quanyou (1834–1902), a Manchu from Beijing's Daxing district. He studied taijiquan under Yang Luchan and his son Yang Banhou, both large and small frame, and thus laid the style's foundation. After his death in 1902 the style was developed by his student Wang Maozhai and his son Wu Jianquan (1870–1942). Wu Jianquan reworked the family form, dropped repeated and jumping movements and fixed its present shape. He taught in Beijing from 1912 per the national portal, other sources give 1914. In 1928 Wu Jianquan left to teach in Shanghai while Wang Maozhai stayed in Beijing, hence the saying "Wu in the south, Wang in the north". The first academy of the style arose in Shanghai in 1935 according to one symposium's organisers, while another source gives 1936.
How it differs
The Wu style arose from the Yang style, as Wu Quanyou learned the large and small frame from Yang Luchan and Yang Banhou. After him the line split into Wu Jianquan's southern Wu in Shanghai and Wang Maozhai's northern Wang in Beijing. Per the national portal it differs from Chen in tempo: Chen alternates fast and slow movement and uses spiral silk reeling, whereas Wu is slow, smooth and balanced. The routines differ too: Chen has the large, small and new frame, Wu old routines of 83 positions and shorter ones of 37 and 16 positions. Beware of confusion with the Wu (Hao) style of Wu Yuxiang. It is spelled the same in Latin script, but in Chinese with a different character (吴 versus 武). Both are on the national list, Wu (Hao) since 2008 and Wu Quanyou's style since 2014.
Technique
The 1993 competition rules describe the Wu style as light and calm, compact yet open, with a stance shaped like the character 川 and an inclined posture that stays upright inside. Typical are shifting the weight onto one leg and slow, smooth, balanced movement. According to the national portal, the empty-hand routines include Wang Maozhai's old frame with 83 positions, Yang Yuting's routine with 83 positions and Wang Peisheng's routines with 37 and 16 positions. The weapons are the sabre, sword, spear and the sticky pole zhan gan. According to the symposium organisers, the feet are placed parallel and closer together than in the modern Yang or Chen style. One instructor describes how in pushing hands the body leans and the rear leg serves as a counterweight, while the line from head to heel stays straight.
Training
Wu style training includes, per the national portal, the standing exercise taiji zhuang, the internal exercise taiji neigong and the health exercises Qiankun wuji gong and Qubing jianshen xiao gongfa. Pushing hands is practised in several circular one- and two-person drills, in four-direction and four-corner exercises, and as da lu, lan cai hua and taiji sanshou. According to UNESCO, taijiquan is passed on in families or by the master–student bond, sealed by the baishi ceremony.
Ranks and progression
We found no system of grades or exams specific to the Wu style in the sources. A discussion forum says Chinese wushu has nine duan grades in three levels of three, but we have not been able to find an official Chinese Wushu Association source. Progress in the style is thus set mainly by the routines from pushing hands to taiji sanshou, which the national portal describes.
Today
The State Council added the Wu style on 3 December 2014 to China's national list of intangible cultural heritage, in the fourth batch, as part of the item Taijiquan alongside the Li, Wang Qihe and He styles. Responsibility for the inscription lies with Beijing's Daxing district, Tianjin's Wuqing district, Hebei's Renxian county and Henan's Wen county. UNESCO inscribed taijiquan as a whole in December 2020 on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The International Wu Style Tai Chi Chuan Federation was founded in Toronto in 1995. A 2023 meta-analysis of 24 randomised trials found that tai chi lowers the risk of falls in older people by roughly a quarter, but it does not assess the Wu style separately.
Did you know
In January 1954 in Macau, on a ring built over the Estoril swimming pool, Wu Gongyi of the Wu style fought white crane master Chan Hak Fu. According to the Macau government, nine-year-old Lei Man Iam watched the match, which drew him to martial arts, and he later became a Chen style champion. The national description places the origin, formation and development of the Wu style in Beijing's Daxing district. According to one symposium's organisers, Wu Jianquan, son of the Manchu Quan You, took the Han surname Wu, hence the style's name.
Frequently asked questions
Who founded the Wu style, and where?
Wu Quanyou founded the Wu style in Beijing's Daxing district, and his son Wu Jianquan, who taught in Shanghai from 1928, arranged it into today's school.
Is the Wu style the same as Wu (Hao)?
No. The Wu style comes from Wu Quanyou and is written with the character 吴 in Chinese, the Wu (Hao) style from Wu Yuxiang with 武. Both are separate items on China's national list of intangible heritage.
Is Wu style tai chi suitable for seniors?
The style includes health exercises. A 2023 meta-analysis of 24 studies found that tai chi lowers the risk of falls in older people by roughly a quarter, but it did not assess the Wu style separately.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.