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Wu-style T'ai Chi Ch'uan
Wu-style tai chi ( zh, c=吳氏太极拳, p=Wúshì tàijíquán) is one of the five main styles of tai chi. It is second in popularity after Yang-style, and the fourth-oldest of the five major tai chi styles. It was developed by Wu Quanyou and Wu Jianquan. History Wu Quanyou was a military officer cadet of Manchu ancestry in the Yellow Banner camp (see Qing Dynasty Military) in the Forbidden City, Beijing and also a hereditary officer of the Imperial Guards Brigade. At that time, Yang Luchan was the martial arts instructor in the Imperial Guards, teaching tai chi, and in 1850 Wu Quanyou became one of his students. In 1870, Wu Jianquan was asked to become the senior disciple of Yang Banhou, Yang Luchan's oldest adult son, and an instructor as well to the Manchu military. Wu Quanyou had three primary disciples: his son Wu Jianquan, Wang Maozhai and Guo Fen. Wu Quanyou's son, Wu Jianquan, grandsons Wu Gongyi and Wu Kung-tsao, and granddaughter Wu Yinghua were well-kno ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wu Yanxia
Wu Yanxia or Wu Yen-hsia (1930–2001) was a Chinese tai chi teacher of Manchu ancestry. Biography She was the daughter of Wu Gongyi (1900-1970) from whom she learned tai chi. She also helped teach her father's students. Wu Yanxia was the younger sister of Wu Ta-k'uei and Wu Daqi, and married Kuo Hsiao-chung, who was also a disciple of her father. She held the position of senior instructor of the Wu family from 1996 to her death in 2001 and was succeeded by her cousin Wu Daxin. Wu Yanxia moved to Hong Kong from Shanghai in 1948. In an interview late in her life, she mentioned that she had often seconded her older brother Wu Ta-k'uei at his many challenge fights in those years. She mentioned applying first aid to injuries resulting from the fights, and that she was "fearful that someone would be killed and there would be big trouble for the family" because her brother was "young and overly fierce". She attended to the affairs of the Jianquan Taijiquan Association whil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yang Luchan
Yang Luchan ( zh, c=杨露禅, w=Yang Lu-ch'an, p=Yáng Lùchán), also known as Yang Fukui (1799–1872), was an influential Chinese practitioner and teacher of the internal style tai chi martial art. He is known as the founder of Yang-style tai chi, the most popular and widely practised tai chi style in the world today. History Yang Luchan's family was a poor farming/worker class from Hebei Province, Guangping Prefecture, Yongnian County. Yang would follow his father in planting the fields and, as a teenager, held temporary jobs. One period of temporary work was spent doing odd jobs at the Taihetang Chinese pharmacy located in the west part of Yongnian City, opened by Chen Dehu of the Chen Village in Huaiqing Prefecture, Wen County, Henan. As a child, Yang liked martial arts and studied Changquan, gaining a certain level of skill. One day Yang reportedly witnessed one of the partners of the pharmacy utilizing a style of martial art that he had never before seen to easily ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wu Ta-k'uei
Wu Ta-k'uei or Wu Dakui (1923–1972) was a Chinese Wu-style tai chi teacher of Manchu ancestry. Biography The oldest son of Wu Gongyi, he was born in Beijing, raised in Shanghai (where he was first taught tai chi by his grandfather, Wu Jianquan) and spent most of his adult life teaching in Hong Kong. Wu Ta-k'uei was active in the resistance to the Japanese invasion of China, yet he later taught martial arts in Japan after the war. Wu Ta-k'uei was reputed to be a fierce fighter, and known as always ready to accept a challenge match. He is reported to have never been defeated, and to have been famous for badly injuring and taunting his opponents in those matches. An attested story circulated about Wu Ta-k'uei was about a fight that started in a Hong Kong dockside bar between an unarmed Wu Ta-k'uei and "over 30" stevedores armed with clubs and boathooks. The dockworkers eventually fled to a local police station for protection from the enraged Wu. Interviews with dockworkers ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New Zealand
New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of island countries, sixth-largest island country by area and lies east of Australia across the Tasman Sea and south of the islands of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga. The Geography of New Zealand, country's varied topography and sharp mountain peaks, including the Southern Alps (), owe much to tectonic uplift and volcanic eruptions. Capital of New Zealand, New Zealand's capital city is Wellington, and its most populous city is Auckland. The islands of New Zealand were the last large habitable land to be settled by humans. Between about 1280 and 1350, Polynesians began to settle in the islands and subsequently developed a distinctive Māori culture. In 1642, the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman became the first European to sight and record New Zealand. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shi Mei Lin
Shi Mei Lin is a teacher of Wu-style tai chi. She is the adopted daughter of Wu Yinghua and Ma Yueliang, who were both famous teachers of Wu-style tai chi. A Wushu and tai chi champion in the 1970s and 1980s, she toured with Chinese Wushu teams internationally, including the United States in 1974 when she was part of an elite Chinese Martial Arts Delegation that also included Jet Li (Li Lianjie). She is a graduate from the Beijing Sports and Cultural University in Chinese Martial Arts and was a member of the Shanghai Wushu Team. In later years she coached Wushu in Shanghai and later the Taiwanese Wushu Team in 1994. She is the current head Wushu Taolu coach of the New Zealand Kung Fu Wushu Federation. The NZKWF is New Zealand's representative for Chinese Martial Arts to the International Wushu Federation (IWUF). Shi Mei Lin often represented Wu-style tai chi with Grand Master Ma Yueliang and Grand Master Wu Yinghua at martial arts demonstrations, competitions and conferences i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Netherlands
, Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The Netherlands consists of Provinces of the Netherlands, twelve provinces; it borders Germany to the east and Belgium to the south, with a North Sea coastline to the north and west. It shares Maritime boundary, maritime borders with the United Kingdom, Germany, and Belgium. The official language is Dutch language, Dutch, with West Frisian language, West Frisian as a secondary official language in the province of Friesland. Dutch, English_language, English, and Papiamento are official in the Caribbean Netherlands, Caribbean territories. The people who are from the Netherlands is often referred to as Dutch people, Dutch Ethnicity, Ethnicity group, not to be confused by the language. ''Netherlands'' literally means "lower countries" i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ma Jiangbao
Ma Jiangbao (31 October 1941 – 12 October 2016) was a well known teacher of Wu-style tai chi. He was the third son of Wu Yinghua and Ma Yueliang. Biography In 1986 he came with his father Ma Yueliang to Europe to teach Wu-style. Ma Yueliang returned home after four months, while Ma Jiangbao took up residence in Rotterdam. He taught, and his students still teach, in many countries in Europe as well as in South Africa and Japan. Wu-style was created by a Manchu named Wu Quanyou (1834–1902). Wu was a student of Yang Luchan, (founder of the Yang style), and Yang Banhou. Wu Quanyou's son, Wu Jianquan (1870-1942), loved martial arts from his youth and studied under the tutorship of his father. After 1912 he continuously developed the teaching of tai chi at the Beijing Sport Research Society, gradually refining his father’s style. His two sons, Wu Gongyi and Wu Kung-tsao, were his first students. Ma Jiangbao's mother, Wu Yinghua, was Wu Jianquan's eldest daughter. She started s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Europe
Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east. Europe shares the landmass of Eurasia with Asia, and of Afro-Eurasia with both Africa and Asia. Europe is commonly considered to be Boundaries between the continents#Asia and Europe, separated from Asia by the Drainage divide, watershed of the Ural Mountains, the Ural (river), Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Greater Caucasus, the Black Sea, and the waterway of the Bosporus, Bosporus Strait. "Europe" (pp. 68–69); "Asia" (pp. 90–91): "A commonly accepted division between Asia and Europe ... is formed by the Ural Mountains, Ural River, Caspian Sea, Caucasus Mountains, and the Black Sea with its outlets, the Bosporus and Dardanelles." Europe covers approx. , or 2% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface (6.8% of Earth's land area), making it ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hong Kong
Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the world. Hong Kong was established as a colony of the British Empire after the Qing dynasty ceded Hong Kong Island in 1841–1842 as a consequence of losing the First Opium War. The colony expanded to the Kowloon Peninsula in 1860 and was further extended when the United Kingdom obtained a 99-year lease of the New Territories in 1898. Hong Kong was occupied by Japan from 1941 to 1945 during World War II. The territory was handed over from the United Kingdom to China in 1997. Hong Kong maintains separate governing and economic systems from that of mainland China under the principle of one country, two systems. Originally a sparsely populated area of farming and fishing villages,. the territory is now one of the world's most signific ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jianquan Taijiquan Association
The Jianquan Taijiquan Association ( zh, c=鑑泉太極拳社) is a well known school teaching Wu-style tai chi. It was founded in 1935 by Wu Jianquan in Shanghai, and in the beginning operated out of the Shanghai YMCA. In 1937 Wu Kung-tsao opened a school in the British colony of Hong Kong during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) in response to the ban on Chinese martial arts instituted by the Japanese. In 1942, when Wu Jianquan died, his oldest son Wu Gongyi became head of the Association, eventually moving its headquarters to the Hong Kong school where it has continued uninterrupted to this day. In English the Hong Kong branch and its subsidiaries call themselves "Wu's T'ai Chi Ch'uan Academies." Wu Jianquan's daughter Wu Yinghua and his eldest disciple Ma Yueliang led the branch in Shanghai after 1949. The Shanghai school fell under the ban on "feudalistic practices" with the beginning of the Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shanghai
Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowing through it. The population of the city proper is the List of largest cities, second largest in the world after Chongqing, with around 24.87 million inhabitants in 2023, while the urban area is the List of cities in China by population, most populous in China, with 29.87 million residents. As of 2022, the Greater Shanghai metropolitan area was estimated to produce a gross metropolitan product (GDP (nominal), nominal) of nearly 13 trillion Renminbi, RMB ($1.9 trillion). Shanghai is one of the world's major centers for finance, #Economy, business and economics, research, science and technology, manufacturing, transportation, List of tourist attractions in Shanghai, tourism, and Culture of Shanghai, culture. The Port of Sh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wu Yinghua
Wu Yinghua (1907–1996) was a famous Chinese teacher of Wu-style tai chi. She was born in Beijing and died in Shanghai. She was the eldest daughter of Wu Jianquan, the best known teacher of Wu-style tai chi. Her older brothers were Wu Gongyi and Wu Gongzao, also well-known tai chi practitioners. Biography Wu Yinghua began studying tai chi at age nine, and by age seventeen, she was a full-time teacher in her father's school. In 1921, she was invited to teach tai chi in Shanghai. In 1928, her father followed her to Shanghai and she became his teaching assistant. In 1930, she married Ma Yueliang, who was Wu Jianquan's senior disciple. In 1935, Wu Jianquan founded the Jianquan Taijiquan Association (鑑泉太極拳社) in Shanghai. Wu Jianquan died in 1942. After the Cultural Revolution, it became possible around 1980 to teach tai chi publicly in China again. About this time, her brother Wu Gongzao was released from prison and moved to Hong Kong. Wu Yinghua and Ma Yueliang, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
