The Major Styles Of Tai Chi

Today Tai Chi ranks amongst the most popular martial art form in world and is been practiced by people around the world for many health reasons. Over time, Tai Chi has evolved many different styles to reflect growth in martial art arena. Essentially there are six Tai Chi styles that derive their names from their founders. Read on as we introduce all the six Tai Chi styles and their salient points for your perusal.

Chen Style: The first popular Tai Chi style is Chen style, which is comprised of two main principals. It teaches the traditions of the Tai Chi by Chiang Fa. The technique of Old Frame of Chen Tai Chi was essentially derived from Chen Chiang-hsing and his disciple, Chen Gen-yun. While, the New Frame was created by Chen You-heng, another promising student of Chiang Fa. Interestingly the Old Frame of Chen Style is very similar to the New Frame Chen Style, however it is not conceptualized on 13 postures of the Yang and Wu styles.

Yang Style: Yang is another major style of Tai Chi. It was developed by Yang Lu-chan, who was born in 1799. After learning the about Tai Chi from his teachers, Yang Lu-chan learnt new techniques of Tai Chi from Chen Chiang-hsing. Eventually, Yang opened a school of Tai Chi and taught the art of Tai Chi to the Imperial court. Gradually, Yang came to be known as ‘Yang the Unsurpassed’. He taught about Tai Chi and its style to his three sons before dying.

Wu or Hao Style: The third style of Tai Chi was introduced by the Wu family. It was actually originated by Wu Quan-yu, a student of Yang Lu-chan and his son. This style mainly is comprised of fluid movements that can be easily performed even while wearing the restraining attire of the Imperial Court. For many years, people could hardly make out any differences between the Yang and Wu styles of Tai Chi.

Sun Style: The Sun Style of Tai Chi was inspired both from the Yang Style and Wu Style of Tai Chi. Li I-yu was Wy Yu-xiang’s bright student and he passed his teachings to his student, Sun Lu-tang. Sun Lu-tang was the master of Hsing-I Quan and also learnt Chen Ting-hua. He indeed combines the useful elements of his teachings and created a new style of Tai Chi called Sun Style.

Wu Ch’uan-yü and Wu Chien-ch’uan Style: Wu Chien-ch’uan or Wu Jianquan is a modern style of Tai Chi. Developed by Wi Jianquan, this Tai Chi style is one of the softest styles of this martial art. Wu Jianquan was taught about Tai Chi from his father, Wu Ch’uan-yu, who was a very senior student of Yang Lu-ch’an and Yang Pan-hou. This style is comprised of smooth movements like jumps.

Apart from the above-mentioned Tai Chi styles, there were competition styles and modern styles. All these styles were developed to make Tai Chi more effective and popular. Tai Chi practitioners also used variations in these styles and they continue to do so today for mastering the art of Tai Chi.