Legend One:  The Taoist Cheng San Fung, Master of the Three Peaks, was inspired to create the Taiji Quan form from observing the fighting between a crane and a snake.  He noticed the soft movement of the snake was very effective in warding off the attack of the hard strike.  Notice how soft the Taiji movement is. Legend Two:  Cheng San Fung, of the Ming dynasty (1600 AD) has a dream in which the immortal warrior taught him the Taiji Quan.  After one night of dream learning, he achieved mastery and used the Taiji to defeat the bands of bandits that surrounded his monastery. Legend Three:  Chan village originated the Taiji Quan from their ancestor who was a small Ming general. Upon retirement he created Taiji based on another great Ming General's booklet on the Art of War.  This claim gives rise to the idea that the oldest version of Taiji is from the Chan village.
	Yang Style: It is true that master Yang was a serf with the Chan family. and learned the art secretly until his master died and his widow was the same age as Yang.  Master Yang went to Peking (Beijing) to seek his fortune.  He was introduced to the imperial family of the Manchu 13th prince. He was hired as the martial instructor for the prince's personal bodyguard.  Master Yang used to carry a small spear and was honored with the title of "undefeatableYang".  His family was able to pass down the art to the present day.
	The Chen style is too compact and vigorous and can cause damage to beginners.The Chen family assimilated all the arts they practiced and created their own version of the predominant art Cannon Pounding (Pao Chui), derived from the original Shaolin Cannon Pounding art. Sung Tai Zhu Chang Chuan formed a major part of this new art and there were elements from Shaolin Red Fist in it.
	The Wu style is also good for beginners but it tends to have a tilted forward stance. Wu Jian Quan style Taijiquan is second in popularity only after the Yang style of Taiji Quan. It is in fact representative of the Yang style Small Frame which was developed and taught by Yang Lu Chan, the founder of the Yang style, for the students in the Imperial Court
	The Dan Tao School's Taiji Quan is from the lineage of Master Ham King Koo who from the age of eight had studied it with an imperial ex-official in the 1900's.  It is a proto-Taiji form which comes directly from the very first generation of Yang Lu Chan himself.  Master Koo always referred to the form as the Primal  Wudang Neigong Taiji Quan.
	Dragon Style Taiji Quan: one of the oldest Taoist forms that has become  like the Panda of China.  Its rarity is due to the difficulty of finding a teacher, and also competent students to carry the lineage forward.  The Dragon Style is the proto taiji, the Great Grand Mother of all Taiji forms.  Its emphasis is on the opening of the Eight Minor Energy Channels of the body.
	The Wudang Taiji Quan is very complex  and you  would probably not find a teacher of this style..  The Wudang style has much jumping and stamping as well as many low crouch positions.

Special thanks and reference material from Peter Lim's homepage.  Many of the above passages were quoted from his source.
updated May 31, 2000
updated June 1, 2000 thanks to Sue for her correction.
 back to home page