Here is Chen Yun-ching showing some mixed movements from his father’s martial arts. I contiue to be impressed by these clips and I hope that James Sumarac continues to put more of them out.
Chen starts with a shaolin movement similar to taiji’s press (ji). Notice the blending of vertical with horizontal movement. This is an ideal time to apply press to your opponent. If he tries to attack with a vertical movement, you can use sticking, adhering, and following to neutralize his movement and then follow it back into his body for press. With the type of movement Chen is showing here, you can borrow that vertical energy and then express it horizontally with the press. Good stuff.
Next he shows CPL taji’s “grasp the bird’s tail.” Finally! I’ve been waiting for this to pop up. Now I can show how CPL’s version is different from other types of Yang style. First off, notice that the movement begins with “play pipa” which is used to bridge the gap and initiate contact with the opponent. Normal Yang style doesn’t have “play pipa” in this position near the beginning of the form. Notice how each of the movements is punctuated by rollback. The sequence is like this : play pipa — rollback — wardoff — upper rollback — press — push (an). Please note that push has its own version of rollback at the beginning of the movement. So wardoff is the glue that binds the other movements together. Yang then yin, then yang again, then yin, again, etc.
There are many things I could talk about with grasp the bird’s tail, so let me just emphasize one more point. See how Chen does this and several other movements to the four directions? This is a basic silk reeling exercise for CPL taiji. Yes, we use grasp the bird’s tail as a silk reeling exercise. And with this demo, we can finally show how it’s done. Notice how the body moves with each motion. That’s the silk reeling.
The demo ends with some bagua motions that begin to show some of the silk reeling inherent in that style, as well. Notice that the flavor and execution are slightly different from the taiji. I can’t wait to actually study this version of the bagua. Hopefully that will happen soon.
11 responses so far ↓
1 Buddy // Dec 28, 2007 at 8:06 am
I have his bagua and taiji vids from James…not certain I like the quality of his movement.
2 Dave Chesser // Dec 28, 2007 at 8:40 am
I like what I’m seeing on youtube better than the DVDs. I thought his bagua sword form was really good, and this basics clip is not bad either.
The DVDs could use some work. They need a voice-over covering important details, some close-ups, and applications. I thought they were fairly bare-bones.
3 John Kavanagh // Dec 28, 2007 at 4:34 pm
Happy New Year to you all…
I mus say that I concur with reservations on the DVD’s…I did ask James Sumarac if CYC was carrying a leg injury on some of these and he conceded this is the case- it’s pretty obvious from some of them that his mobility is compromised. In so far as I can remember - they were also done in a rush to get something out before the first series of seminars in US and other places…There is on the taiji dvd a reasonable version of form and sword form on what looks like a rooftop and looks like slightly older footage than the footage shot ‘beside the fire’ indoors…
One the one hand, they don’t overly impress…and this can indeed be a real stick to beat the CPL system with…on the other, I sort of admired CYC for putting out material with the odd stumble and awkwardness in it- we are all human after all and a lot of it was done in one or a series of long takes and no effort was made to re-shoot etc…Humility or naivety?
My own conclusion is that they are a record of the moves- what else could they be- no effort at presentation or explanation…and in fact, the pole form at the end of the ba gua dvd is pretty poor also, but again, it’s an example of a sequence…
I’m also led to believe- and I don’t want to offend anyone here as I don’t know for certain..but CYC prefers his fathers’ Shaolin material and concentrates his own work on this…And I’m also told by someone who trains in Taiwan with CYC that his father’s system has about 60 forms both weapon and open handed. If this is so its quite a burden to maintain at any decent level…
There is some controversy surrounding the ba gua dvd as it appears to show some differences in emphasis to what his father and older Taiwan hands remember as being taught in 70’s shortly after CPL’s death…but in so far as I can establish, the taiji form is unaltered…
Also, the reports from his seminars indicate that CYC is an EXTREMELY nice man who gave enormously to any students practicing his father’s forms and was apparently visibly moved to find such an interest in his father’s work esp in US. I believe he is an enormously generous and tireless teacher also to those who manage to make it to the longer seminars.
I did ask one person who is close to the brothers to ask about CPL’s ba gua teachers and how the changes were developed and was told that CYC doesn’t know who is father’s ba gua teachers are which is all the more astonishing given that these have been in print for donkey’s years- if that’s a real answer to the question…
One of the sad realities is that we don’t yet have in either dvd or video format that I’m aware of a decent series on CPL’s or in WSJ’s taiji, xing i or ba gua. I’m biased of course in that I love the taiji form.
It would do it and the people practicing it a tremendous service if someone could put some material down for purchase or viewing…
But all credit to James Sumarac who also seems a very open man- for starting put material out there…At least the You Tube footage looks very interesting indeed….One question I have - CYC stands extremely high for what is a medium form- would any of you learning this form in Taiwan comment on this?
Just curious if any of above rings bells, makes sense or can be supported or refuted….?
Thanks and best wishes to you all- John
4 Dave Chesser // Dec 28, 2007 at 6:01 pm
John,
Thanks for the comment. I believe the DVDs are basically a review tool for people that attend the seminars. Perhaps in the future we’ll see something more comprehensive.
I also applaud Chen and James for their work in trying to preserve this stuff. There’s lots of it, that’s for sure.
As for the height of the form, CPL’s taiji book clearly states that this form should be done in large, medium, and small frame formats. But you rarely see that in the people who practice it.
5 Dave Chesser // Dec 28, 2007 at 6:57 pm
BTW, I’m glad that Buddy brought up the DVDs because otherwise, we wouldn’t have known that CYC had an injury when those were filmed. That does explain a lot.
Second, the changes in the bagua wouldn’t bother me so much. For newbies to bagua, maybe the story would be different.
CYC’s specialty is shaolin, but then look at the clip of his father doing the shaolin. It looks like good stuff, no? Besides, the shaolin system is the largest branch of CPL’s system, so it’s perhaps good that CYC’s specialty is that part.
6 Darius // Dec 28, 2007 at 9:09 pm
Just one comment about the form though - CPL doesn’t actually say that you should do the form in large, medium and small formats. He wrote in his book that his is a medium frame form (ping2 jia4), that should follow the specific requirements of the technique being practiced, i.e. when high is called for it should be high, when low is called for it should be low. Thus, the form takes as its departure point a middle-level, but moves both in the realm of high and low depending on the function and requirements of each movement. That’s one of the unique characteristics of CPL’s taiji: it uses much more vertical spiraling than other forms in the small/medium Yang and Wu lineages. You can see a hint of this in Chen Yunchao’s form, but in my mind the videos of Wang Shujin demonstrate this quality much more clearly.
Cheers,
Darius
7 John Kavanagh // Dec 28, 2007 at 10:11 pm
Hi Darius,
Thanks for that- have you seen Chen Yunchao’s form in person…I’m assuming there is no footage available of it?
- John
8 darius // Dec 28, 2007 at 11:12 pm
sorry, I meant Yun-ching …
9 Dave Chesser // Dec 28, 2007 at 11:15 pm
Darius is correct about the level varying. I was wrong about CPL saying the form should be done as large, medium, and small frame. However, it is my opinion that the form should be done in those three formats. It opens up the training possibilities.
10 Buddy // Dec 29, 2007 at 12:58 am
The single exercises, I’m wondering if they are what my teacher calls the little nine heaven of CPL taiji. He taught us several of these and they are indeed repetitions of single movements (grasp bird’s tail, brush knee, repulse monkey, etc).
11 Buddy // Dec 29, 2007 at 12:59 am
Maybe Marcus can comment?
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