Wu Style Tai Chi
Yongnian County is located in the southern part of Hebei Province and is under the jurisdiction of Handan City. Yongnian Wu's Tai Chi originated during the Daoguang period of the Qing Dynasty. It was created by Wu Yuxiang, a native of Guangfu East Street, Yongnian, Hebei Province, and has a history of more than 160 years. Wu Yuxiang, whose name was Heqing and whose courtesy name was Yuxiang, was born in 1812. He loved martial arts and practiced Hongquan with Yang Luchan, the founder of Yang's Tai Chi. Later, he studied with Chen Qingping from Wen County, Henan Province, and practiced Chen's new frame. After practicing for more than a month, he learned all the theories and methods. Through his brother Wu Qiuying, he found Wang Zongyue's "Tai Chi Boxing Manual" and a book "Tai Chi Boxing Outline Diagram" in Yandian. After returning home, he and his nephew tried it out. After practicing one move at a time, he achieved physical knowledge and achieved miraculous results. On this basis, Wu Yuxiang also created Wu's Tai Chi, which is different from Chen's new frame, and summarized the Tai Chi theories that were called classics by later generations, such as "Tai Chi Boxing Interpretation", "Tai Chi Boxing Thirteen Lines of Gong Secret Interpretation", "Body Methods Eight Essentials", and "Tai Chi Boxing Four-Character Secret". Wu's Tai Chi combines the old and new Chen's forms, and Yang Luchan's "big movements" with Chen's "small movements". When practicing, it emphasizes opening and closing, emptiness and reality, moving the qi with the heart, and moving the body with qi, and attaches importance to body techniques. Its movements are concise and compact. Although the posture is small, it is not cramped. The movements are slow and steady. The hands do not exceed the toes, and when closing, they are not close to the body. The left and right hands each control half of the body, and do not cross each other. The forward and backward rotation of the chest and abdomen always remains centered. The footwork is strict, distinguishing between emptiness and reality, and is small and flexible. When taking a step, the toes touch the ground first, then the heels touch the ground, and the whole foot is slowly lowered and stepped flat. In the bow step, the front leg knee must not exceed the toes, and the back leg should not be straight and raised. Its body techniques mainly include holding the chest and pulling the back, wrapping the crotch, protecting the nap, lifting the top, hanging the crotch, sinking the elbows, and keeping the tailbone centered. The boxing postures emphasize the starting (starting action), the continuation (the link between the previous action and the next action), the opening and closing, and the emphasis on "folding when going back and forth, and switching when advancing and retreating". The movements are continuous and smooth, and the virtual and real conversion of internal strength and the "internal qi transfer" are used to control the external form, with "the spirit should be restrained", "first in the heart, then in the body", "use the heart to move the qi, use the qi to move the body, the mind moves the body, the mind moves the qi, the mind moves the qi, the mind moves the force, and the mind and force are not separated", so as to achieve the unity of the mind, qi and form. Wu's Tai Chi is small and compact, and its shape resembles a dry branch of an old plum, but it contains opening, closing, hiding and appearing in stillness. When it opens, it opens everything, and when it closes, it closes everything. The spirit of power is hidden in the body, showing ease on the outside, consolidating the spirit on the inside, opening and closing, switching, gradually disappearing and appearing, which is different from Yang's Tai Chi. For more than a hundred years, Wu's Tai Chi, as an excellent cultural treasure of the Chinese nation, has been increasingly loved by people all over the country and the world.