one thing i never really understood about the various so-called "emperor's" styles, such as emperor's long fist, palace bagua, etc and so on and so forth.
if these styles were truly taught to royalty because they were so darn effective, what's the point?
that is to say, if i'm a royal figure, when am i actually going to have to fight anyways? don't i have bodyguards for that purpose (Yin Fu was personal bodyguard to royalty, etc)? when will i even have time to train hard enough to become proficient at these styles? don't i have administrative duties to perform and other things to worry about without devoting many hours per day to my style?
i'm not talking about yang taiji or baji, which was taught to royal bodyguards and sometimes royalty themselves, i'm talking about so-called styles that were/are speciifically for imperial families etc... it's almost as if these styles' lineage was created to lend them credibility, as if it came from "on high" it would be more credible or respectable or even "better" than the "lowly" styles founded in less "impressive" locales...