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phantom
02-15-2001, 10:53 PM
Same as topic. Thank you for any insight that you could give me on this.

Esteban
02-15-2001, 11:07 PM
Hi,

imo, all the styles, families, variants, and branches of taijiquan share in common the attempt to use the theory of the taiji to construct their quan. All the shapes, forms, and movements are derived from that idea. Different practitioners have approached it differently, and have arrived at different results. But, there is no "supreme ultimate" shape or form. Each style has its advantages and disadvantages for different practitioners. Each style has its own personality or flavor, but all use the same fundamental (as seen in the taiji diagram) principle. IMO.

Best,
Esteban

Mr. Nemo
02-16-2001, 02:08 AM
Some principles are in all tai chi styles I've ever come across - such as soft overcoming hard, movement with intention instead of muscular force, and so on.

Others have more subtle differences. For instance, the upper body is held upright while in most Yang style stances, whereas in wu style the torso is tilted much of the time, like in wu style brush knee.

Sho Pi
02-17-2001, 08:49 PM
All the branches of the 5 main Tai Chi families do share teh 13 basic forms. Tai Chi is sometimes called 13 form fist (or something close to that). It is how they manifest themselves that might be a little different.

:)

Water Dragon
02-18-2001, 02:14 AM
From my personal experience, ALL arts share the same basics. It doesn't matter if it is Taiji, Mantis, Baji, or Boxing. Power generation is extremely similar. You start running into differences when you start discussing strategy, which is the application of basics.

Although there are many styles, they all depend on the strong beating the weak and the slow falling to the quick. These are not related to the power that must be learned -- Taiji Classics

neijiachuan
02-20-2001, 11:50 PM
From what I have been taught, not just limiting to Taiji, but as far as the internal arts go. Xingyi, Taiji and Bagua are just different ways of applying the same force. Likewise with the 5 family styles of Taijiquan.

neijiachuan

brassmonkey
02-21-2001, 06:44 AM
I remember reading somewhere about a guy who had studied both Yang and Chen style for a good amount of time who noted that the classics of each respective style had some conflicting principles. So I would imagine the division would fall between Chen and Yang,Wu, Wu(Hao), Sun, etc. Tho I'm sure depending on your lineage even interpretation of the same Classics maybe different.