Wu/Hao style T'ai Chi Ch'uan

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The Wu or Wu (Hao) style (武氏 or 武/郝氏) of T'ai Chi Ch'üan of Wu Yu-hsiang (武禹襄, 1813-1880), is a separate family style from the more popular Wu style (吳氏) of Wu Chien-ch'üan. Wu Yu-hsiang's style was third among the five T'ai Chi families in seniority and is fifth in terms of popularity.

Wu Yu-hsiang was a scholar from a wealthy and influential family who became a senior student (along with his two older brothers Wu Ch'eng-ch'ing and Wu Ju-ch'ing) of Yang Lu-ch'an. There is a relatively large body of writing attributed to Wu Yu-hsiang on the subject of T'ai Chi theory, writings that are considered influential by many other schools not directly associated with his style. Wu Yu-hsiang also studied for a brief time with a teacher from the Ch'en family, Chen Ch'ing-p'ing, to whom he was introduced by Yang. His most famous student was his nephew, Li I-yü (李亦畬, 1832-1892), who also authored several important works on T'ai Chi. Li I-yü had a younger brother who was also credited as an author of at least one work on the subject of T'ai Chi, Li Ch'i-hsüan. Li I-yü taught Hao Wei-chen (郝為真, 1842-1920), who taught his son Hao Yüeh-ru (郝月如) who in turn taught his son Hao Shao-ju (Hao Shaoru, 郝少如) Wu Yu-hsiang's style of training, so that it is now sometimes known as Wu/Hao or just Hao style T'ai Chi Ch'üan. Hao Wei-chen also taught the famous Sun Lu-t'ang. Hao Yüeh-ru was teaching in the 1920s, a time when T'ai Chi Ch'üan was experiencing a large degree of popularity, and he is known for having smoothed out (in the sense of under-emphasising jumps and snap kicks, etc.) and standardized the forms he learned from his father in order to more effectively teach large numbers of beginners. Other famous T'ai Chi teachers, notably Yang Ch'eng-fu, Wu Chien-ch'üan and Wu Kung-i, made similar modifications to their beginning level forms around the same time.

Wu Yu-hsiang's T'ai Chi is a distinctive style with small, subtle movements; highly focused on balance, sensitivity and internal ch'i development. It is a rare style today, especially compared with the other major styles. While there are direct descendants of Li I-yü and Li Ch'i-hsüan still teaching in China, there are no longer Hao family members teaching the style. The last inheritor to learn under Hao Shao-ju currently living is Liu Jishun, who has many students around the globe but only two disciples in the United Kingdom.