Wu Ch'uan-yu
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- This is a Chinese name; the family name is Wu
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Wu Ch'uan-yu or Wu Quanyou (吳全佑) (1834-1902) was an influential teacher of T'ai Chi Ch'uan in late Imperial China. He is credited as the founder of the Wu style T'ai Chi Ch'uan. Wu Quanyou was not his birth name as he was of Manchu descent and would have been named by his family in Manchu, which Quan You is a Chinese transliteration of. Late in his life, he was awarded the name "Wú" (吳) by the Imperial Court, which approximated the pronunciation of the first syllable of his Manchu family name. The name has been used by his descendants ever since and subsequently he was known as Wu Quanyou.
Wu Quanyou was a military officer in the Yellow Banner camp (see Qing Dynasty Military) in the Forbidden City, Beijing and also an officer of the Imperial Guards Brigade during the Qing Dynasty. At that time, Yang Luchan (楊露禪) (1799-1872) was the martial arts instructor in that banner camp, teaching T'ai Chi Ch'uan. In the camp, there were many officers studying with Yang Luchan, but only three men, Wan Chun (萬春), Ling Shan (凌山) and Quan You (全佑) (Wu Quanyou) studied diligently and trained hard enough at T'ai Chi Ch'uan to become disciples. They received a true transmission of Yang Luchan’s martial art. However, they were unable to become Yang Luchan's disciples, because Yang Luchan taught T'ai Chi Ch'uan to two men of very high status in the military; they were Shi Shaonan and General Yue Guichen.
These two men officially asked Yang Luchan to teach them and this post for Yang Luchan would have been considered very prestigious indeed. The practice of T'ai Chi Ch'uan was also very popular amongst the princes and courtiers for its therapeutic qualities, but many of these students did not have the required discipline to reach a level where they could become disciples. They are likely, however, to have represented the majority of Yang Luchan’s students.
At that time Wan Chun, Ling Shan and Quan You were middle grade officers in the banner camp and because of their rank, they could not be seen as fellow classmates with nobility and high grade officers. As a result, they were asked to become disciples of Yang Banhou (楊班侯) or Yang Pan-hou, Yang Luchan’s oldest adult son and an instructor as well to the Manchu military.
When Quan You retired from the military, he set up a school in Beijing. Ling Shan wrote down a history and Wan Chun was never known to have had any students.
Wu Quanyou’s Beijing school was quite successful and there were many who studied with him, he was popularly known as Quan Sanye (全三爺) as a term of respect. His disciples were Guo Songting (郭松亭), Wang Maozhai (王茂齋), Xia Gongfu (夏公甫), Chang Yuanting (常遠亭), Qi Gechen (齊閣臣) (see Wudang Tai Chi Chuan Lineage) etc. Quan You’s skills in T'ai Chi Ch'uan were trained to a very high level and as a result he was considered to be a leading exponent of Yang's T'ai Chi Ch'uan. Wu's skills were said to be exceptional in the area of softly "neutralising" (化勁, hua jin) hard energy when attacked, which is a core skill of good T'ai Chi Ch'uan practice as a martial art.
Wu Quanyou's son, Wu Jianquan (吳鑑泉) (1870-1942) also became a cavalry officer and T'ai Chi Ch'uan teacher, working closely with the Yang family and promoting what subsequently came to be known as Wu style T'ai Chi Ch'uan in Beijing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong.
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[edit] Family tree
This family tree is not comprehensive.
LEGENDARY FIGURES | Zhang Sanfeng* circa 12th century NEI CHIA | Wang Zongyue* T'AI CHI CH'ÜAN | THE 5 MAJOR CLASSICAL FAMILY STYLES | Chen Wangting 1600-1680 9th generation Chen CHEN STYLE | +-------------------------------------------------------------------+ | | Chen Changxing Chen Youben 1771-1853 14th generation Chen circa 1800s 14th generation Chen Chen Old Frame Chen New Frame | | Yang Lu-ch'an Chen Qingping 1799-1872 1795-1868 YANG STYLE Chen Small Frame, Zhao Bao Frame | | +---------------------------------+-----------------------------+ | | | | | Yang Pan-hou Yang Chien-hou Wu Yu-hsiang 1837-1892 1839-1917 1812-1880 Yang Small Frame | WU/HAO STYLE | +-----------------+ | | | | | Wu Ch'uan-yü Yang Shao-hou Yang Ch'eng-fu Li I-yü 1834-1902 1862-1930 1883-1936 1832-1892 | Yang Small Frame Yang Big Frame | Wu Chien-ch'üan | Hao Wei-chen 1870-1942 Yang Shou-chung 1849-1920 WU STYLE 1910-1985 | 108 Form | | Sun Lu-t'ang Wu Kung-i 1861-1932 1900-1970 SUN STYLE | | Wu Ta-kuei Sun Hsing-i 1923-1970 1891-1929
Note to Family tree table
Names denoted by an asterisk are legendary or semilegendary figures in the lineage, which means their involvement in the lineage, while accepted by most of the major schools, isn't independently verifiable from known historical records.
[edit] References
- Wile, Douglas Lost T'ai-chi Classics from the late Ch'ing Dynasty State University of New York Press, Albany, 1996. ISBN 0-7914-2653-X
- Wu Kung-tsao. Wu Family T'ai Chi Ch'uan (吳家太極拳), Hong Kong, 1980.
