Does anyone have any experience in these styles and is willing to contribute some contrasts and comparisons?
Does Wu(Hao) have the following step as well?
Danke.
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Does anyone have any experience in these styles and is willing to contribute some contrasts and comparisons?
Does Wu(Hao) have the following step as well?
Danke.
Hey Braden:
As you know, Sun Lutang learned taijiquan from Hao Weizhen, who in turned had learned from Li I-yu, who was taught by his uncle Wu Yu-hsiang, compiler of the "taijiquan classics" of the Yang, Wu and Wu Jianquan lineages, who was in turn a student first of Yang Luchan and then of Chen Qingping.
If you haven't compared them before, the taijiquan of Hao Weizhen and his progeny differs markedly from that taught by Wu Yu-hsiang and Li I-yu. The latter shows its roots in the Chen family style, with some Yang influences apparent. The form taught to Sun by Hao Weizhen (and taught in still further-altered form by Hao's son and grandson)differs even more.
Hao style (I really don't think it should be called Wu/Hao, any more than Cheng Man-ch'ing's taijiquan should be called Yang style)diverged a little more into northern and southern Hao lineages. I've studied a little of the "northern" Hao lineage, which came to the U.S. through a student of Hao Weizhen's surnamed Li, whose "grandstudent" Jimmy K. Wong is teaching a lot of students in the Dallas, TX area. The southern Hao lineage comes through Hao Yue-ru, whose adoptive father Hao Shao-ru is the one depicted in the drawings of the form found in Jou Tsunwa's book "The Dao of Taijiquan" (in turn copied from a book on the Hao style published in China, part of a series coordinated by the late Gu Luxin). One of Hao Shao-ru's senior students, highly regarded for his taiji skills, currently teaches in Cupertino, CA. Liu Jishun's students maintain a website at www.wu-haotaichi.com, which is pretty informative. If you look at the demonstration Liu gives at that site, you'll see the follow-step. In fact, to my eye, the chief difference between the northern and southern lineages is a small difference in how the follow-step is done. But that follow-step is a key point in tuishou.
I happen to like the Hao style and how it structures and balances the body. It's not particularly dramatic, but I find it easier to follow the principles of the "taiji classics" doing the Hao form than I do with the Sun form. That's not to disparage the Sun form, but simply to note that the xingyi and bagua influences in Sun's creation don't always meld well (in my limited experience) with the taiji. But then I'm one of those who believes that the physical principles of these three internal arts differ in some significant respects, and that it takes a lot of intelligent and correct practice to execute one art well, let alone another art or arts that include some radically different principles.