Wu Style Taiji Quan - History

History

Wu Ch'uan-yu (吳全佑, 1834–1902) 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 Lu-ch'an (楊露禪, 1799–1872) was the martial arts instructor in the Imperial Guards, teaching t'ai chi ch'uan, and in 1850 Wu Ch'uan-yu became one of his students.

In 1870, Wu Ch'uan-yu was asked to become the senior disciple of Yang Pan-hou (楊班侯, 1837-1890), Yang Lu-ch'an’s oldest adult son, and an instructor as well to the Manchu military. Wu Ch'uan-yu had three primary disciples: his son Wu Chien-ch'uan, Wang Mao Zhai and Guo Fen.

Wu Ch'uan-yu's son, Wu Chien-ch'uan (吳鑑泉, 1870-1942), and grandchildren: grandsons Wu Kung-i (Wu Gongyi, 吳公儀, 1900-1970) and Wu Kung-tsao (Wu Gongzao, 吳公藻, 1902-1983) as well as granddaughter Wu Ying-hua (Wu Yinghua, 吳英華, 1906-1996) were well known teachers.

Wu Chien-ch'uan became the most widely known teacher in his family, and is therefore considered the co-founder of the Wu style by his family and their students. He taught large numbers of people and his refinements to the art more clearly distinguish Wu style from Yang style training.

Wu Chien-ch'uan moved his family south from Beijing (where an important school founded by other students of his father is headquartered, popularly known as the Northern Wu style) to Shanghai in 1928, where he founded the Chien-ch'uan T'ai Chi Ch'uan Association (鑑泉太極拳社) in 1935.

Wu Kung-i then moved the family headquarters to Hong Kong in 1948.
His younger sister Wu Ying-hua and her husband, Ma Yueh-liang (Ma Yueliang, 馬岳樑, 1901-1999), stayed behind to manage the original Shanghai school.
Between 1983 and her death in 1996 Wu Ying-hua was the highest-ranked instructor in the Wu family system. Her sons continue teaching and today manage the Shanghai school as well as schools in Europe:

• Ma Hai Long is the current head of the Shanghai Jianquan Taijiquan Association.
• Ma Jiang Bao lives in the Netherlands and teaches traditional Taijiquan throughout Europe.
• Her adopted daughter Shi Mei Lin now lives and teaches Wu Style Taijiquan in New Zealand, with students also in France and The United States.

Wu Kung-i's children were also full time martial art teachers:

• Her son Wu Ta-k'uei (Wu Dakui, 吳大揆, 1923-1972) was active in the resistance to the Japanese invasion of China, yet he later taught t'ai chi ch'uan in Japan after the war.
• His younger brother, Wu Ta-ch'i (Wu Daqi, 吳大齊, 1926-1993), supervised the family's Hong Kong and southeast Asian schools for many years and opened the family's first western hemisphere school in Toronto, Canada in 1974.
• Her daughter, Wu Yen-hsia (Wu Yanxia, 吳雁霞, 1930-2001), was known as an expert with the t'ai chi chien (sword).
• Her cousin, Wu Ta-hsin (Wu Daxin, 吳大新, 1933-2005), was also known as a weapons specialist, particularly with the t'ai chi tao (sabre).