• GENERAL
  
• WUDANG SANFENG
  
• ZHAOBAO
  
• CHEN
  
• YANG
  
• WU (Wu Yuxiang)
  
• WU (Wu Jianquan)
  
• SUN
  
• HULEI
  
• OTHERS INTERNAL STYLES
  
  • XINGYI QUAN
  • BA GUA ZHANG
  • LIU HE BA FA
    
• WEAPONS
  
  • SWORD
  • SABER
  • SPEAR
  • STICK

YANG STYLE TAIJIQUAN

ORIGINS  |  LINEAGE  |  CHARACTERISTICS  |  ROUTINES  |  INTERNAL ROUTINE (of Wei Shuren)   |

CHARACTERISTICS

For a general introduction to tai-chi chuan, see INTRODUCTION AND CHARACTERISTICS

The following features can characterize the Yang style:

• shü zhân: comfortable and spread out
• dà fäng: natural and graceful
• qïng rôu: light and gentle
• lián mián bù duàn: continuous and soft, without breaks
• zhöng zhèng: vertical
• yuán mân: roundness and qi richness
• huï hóng: radiant
• dà dù: magnanimous
• hún hòu: simple and vigorous
• níng zhòng: calm and heavy
• hé shùn: linked and fluent
• zí rán: natural
• jiân jié: concise
• lián guàn: coherent
• gäng rôu nèi hân: hardness and softness are both in the interior (not showed obviously)
• shën cán bù lù: what is deep is hidden, not displayed
• róu hé huân màn: gentle and slow
• yóu söng sù shôu: it begins with relaxation
• gäng róu xiäng jì: hard and soft are entangled
• wú míng xiân fä lì he zòng tiào dòng zuò: There are no evident energy emissions, nor jumps with forward thrust
• jiân jié yì xué yì lián: concise and easy to learn and practice

It is actually not easy to highlight the features that typically characterize a style without comparison to the other styles. Many features are common among the different styles of taiji quan (tai chi chuan), although displayed in varied degree.

If, for instance, we compare the present Yang style with the Chen style, the Yang style lacks the Pao Chui typical of Chen style; regarding to the "fä lì" (energy emission), in the Yang style it is not displayed during the routine and exhibited only in martial applications, while it is present in the Chen style routine (except in the Hun Yuan by master Feng Zhi Qiang). Its pace is more homogenous and the postures more spread out. The Yang style has less breaks than the Chen one, and it also avoids the need to xù (accumulate – see in the near future the characteristics of the Chen style).

There is a mistaken belief that the Yang style is more focused on health than on fighting. In its origin the Yang style was actually an improvement of the Chen one. That is, an improvement of the martial techniques (although perhaps, according to other theories, the Yang style would originate from the Chen and Wudang styles, the latter one originating from Zhang San Feng). A different matter is the efforts of the Chinese Government to spread out the practice of the Yang style of taiji quan for health enhancement, which is indeed true, and that, since then, many people have focused their practice on the health aspects, leaving aside the martial applications… and exporting to westerners only this side of the style.