Welcome to the Chen Style Taijiquan Practical Method Blog!
Chen Style Taijiquan was born of neccessity of war over 400 years ago. In order to protect the family, the village and the township, the Chen Family Masters had kept it a secret from the outside world for many years till 1928 when 17th generation standard bearer Chen Fake took the art to Beijing for reasons that we cannot reveal here.
Because of the nature of a single person linear transmission (one person in each generation is transmitted the full deal), Chen Fake’s departure from the Chen Village historically altered the path of Chen Taiji transmission. In a way, the Chen Style no longer resided in the Chen Village. Thanks to the modernizaiton of China, history is kept again. Today, not only the Chen Village continues to be the source and major center for this art, many other places such as Beijing, Jinan, Zheng Zhou, Xi An, New York, London are all important transmission grounds for this art. Indeed Chen Style Taijiquan has become international and it is not lost at all.
I have the good fortune of learning the original choreography of this art from grandmaster Hong Junsheng when I was a young man in China. Throughout my life, this art and the teachings of Hong Junsheng have guided me over difficult times and have always served me well. I cannot embezzle any of it. Like grandmaster Hong, I have an obligation to pass it on to the future generation.
Chen Style Taijiquan Practical Method is an inheritance and continuation of the original Chen Fake teachings. The choreography is kept intact while some of the detailed applications are added in order to make the form and application identical. Thus the title Practical Method. In a way, this particular form is the combination of two. When Chen Fake taught, he taught a form that was not entirely the same as the way applications are done.
I am very pleased that my students and disciples are taking on the immense task of hosting this blog site to present my teaching materials to the world. I hope that practitioners of Chen Style Taijiquan world wide will benefit from this blog. I also welcome participation and contribution from readers and viewers in any form or method. I will personally monitor this site so as to ensure that I will learn from your input and your experiences.
Thank you very much and have fun!
Sincerely,
Chen Zhonghua
