Formosa Neijia

If you learn a mixed style of taiji from a lineage that does TJC, XYQ, and BGZ, then is the taiji possibly redundant?

I think it helps to take into account the style you’re learning and who you’re learning it from.

Styles like the CPL form and Sun style were created by people that had a mixed background to begin with. CPL studied XYQ, BGZ, TJQ after he had mastered the shaolin taught to him in childhood. The only person he ever baishi’ed to was Li Cun-yi.

CPL intended his taiji form to be mixed right from the start by taking an old Yang form and mixing in lots of silk reeling from Chen with a few Wu postures. Many of the power generation methods are greatly influenced by his xingyi work — from his time with Li. So the CPL form had mixed influences right from the beginning.

If you get the CPL form from the Hung Yi-xiang or Wang Shu-jin lineages, then you have their added input on the shenfa and applications — still more influence from bagua and xingyi.

When the teacher of the CPL form is a specialist in bagua and xinyi, then you get even more of a mix.

So the result is a taiji style that has lots of bagua and xingyi influences, certainly nothing wrong with that, at least IMO.

The problem is when people start thinking the three styles are all the same thing. They really aren’t.

You’ll see this if you go out and “unpack” the CPL taiji by looking at other Yang stylists, preferably people that specialize in Yang taiji. I recommend Yang style specifically because that was the base taiji art of CPL and his form is basically a Yang form. You’ll find that they emphasize different energies and applications and have a very different feel to them. Doing this will greatly broaden your horizons and show you that these three arts aren’t all the same, they just have similarities.