Wu Style Tai Chi
吳式太極拳The second most widespread family style of tai chi, marked by a slightly inclined torso, compact small-frame movements and a focus on push hands.
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About Wu Style Tai Chi
Wu style tai chi chuan is, after the Yang style, the second most widespread family branch of tai chi. Its beginning is bound to Wu Quanyou, an officer of the Manchu banners in Beijing who studied under Yang Luchan and later under his son Yang Banhou. The style was arranged into its present shape and given its name only by his son Wu Jianquan, who taught publicly in Beijing from 1914, moved to Shanghai in 1928 and founded there in 1935 the Jianquan Taijiquan Association, which still exists. The hallmark of the style is the slightly inclined torso. The principle called xie zhong yu zheng, slanted yet upright, means that the spine stays in one line with the supporting leg even though it is not vertical. The frame is small and compact, the movements are finer than in the Yang style, the feet point more nearly parallel and the weight shifts smoothly without long lunges. The system places exceptional emphasis on push hands, that is on paired practice, and on neutralisation: instead of stopping the opponent's force it leads that force on past the axis. The curriculum includes a slow form of roughly one hundred and eight postures, a fast form, work with the jian sword, the dao sabre and the spear, and an extensive tuishou programme. The style must be distinguished from the so-called Wu (Hao) style, which is transliterated the same way but written with a different character and descends from the family of Wu Yuxiang. A publicly known moment in the school's modern history is Wu Gongyi's 1954 match in Macau against a white crane practitioner.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.