Chen Pan-Ling's T'ai Chi Ch'uan
This is an article reprinted from the October 1989 issue
of T'ai Chi Magazine. It is an interview at A Taste of
China
with Huang, Chien-liang of
Owings Mills
,
MD.
He hosts the
U.S.
Kuoshu tournament annually and is
the sole 64th Generation heir to the
Tien Shan
Pai system.
While relatively little is known about it in the West, the
Chen Pan-ling style is very highly regarded in
Taiwan
, where its creator developed it after a long and illustrious martial arts
career in main land China
.
Left: Huang, Chien-Liang in Raise Hands, Chen, Pan-Ling Style. Middle: Chen,
Pan-Ling. Right: Step Back To Ride Across The Tiger's Back.
Noted for its emphasis on chan-ssu jing, or twisting energy, the style is a
combination of Chen, Yang, and Wu styles in a middle or medium frame. It was
developed to make it easier for the public to learn, while retaining its roots
as a martial art.
The style is taught by a number of teachers in the West,
and one of the chief instructors is Huang Chien-liang who learned it in
Taiwan
from Chen Kim-pao, who was a good friend of Chen Pan-ling, who died
April 7, 1967
.
The form, Chen Pan-ling created has 6 sections and 99
movements, which can actually total more than 100, depending on the way the
movements are counted. Huang said it can be performed in 15 to 20 minutes.
"The reason he created this style" Huang said, "is to have
the main frame from the old Chen form combined with the Yang and Wu techniques.
He selected those techniques that would provide the most exercise benefit and
yet were practical for self-defense application."
Because of this, many of the movements will be readily
recognized by Yang and Wu stylists.
Left: Cloud Hands, Chen, Pan-Ling Style. Middle: Right Heel Kick. Right: Brush
Knee Palm Strike
Among the distinctive aspects of the style, in addition to its chang-ssu jing,
is that the movement "An" differs from some styles in that it is a push down
instead of a push forward.
In other moves that involve a push forward, the wrists
start out being straight and the fingers pointing forward. Huang said the
purpose is to have the fingers touch the opponent first and cause him to tense
up, where upon he could be uprooted with peng energy.
Huang said that in training beginners in the form, Chen
would teach the principal movements-Peng, Li, Ji, and An-separately in the
beginning from both sides so students would have a practical sense of the
movements for self-defense. Chen Pan-ling was himself a highly regarded martial
artist.
After the students knew both sides of these basic
movements, he would combine them into the form with all the other movements,
linking them together.
"He was a nice person, from what I know of him from my
teacher. But he had to be satisfied that you are doing well with a movement
before he would teach you the next one," Huang said.
Huang added that, generally, if you learn from an old-timer
in the martial arts, "if he sees that you don't practice, he will never teach
you the new thing. You have to show him that you have practiced. And such
teachers will never give you a correction if you do not practice."
Chen studied with several prominent martial artists in
China
, including Yang Shao-hou of the Yang family and Wu Chian-chuan of the Wu
family.
Even when he was an expert at these styles and many other
martial arts, Huang said, Chen Pan-ling went to stay at the Chen family village
for three years to get a better understanding of the Chen style, which provided
him with the framework for his style.
Only a middle posture
"In most T'ai Chi Ch'uan styles, when you begin training,
you have at first a high posture. Later you have a slightly lower or middle
posture and then for further training a lower posture."
"But in this style there is only the middle posture, no
high no low. It was felt that this would be easier for people to practice,"
Huang said.
Despite his intentions to seek acceptance by people, Huang
said that the style doesn't sacrifice anything in terms of self-defense.
Because of Chen's stay at the village, that influence
created more of an emphasis on chan-ssu jing from the Chen style, which requires
combining the legs, waist and torso for the twisting energy.
The old Chen style, Huang said, is not the way we often see
it now. "It is too physical. The old Chen style was soft. That is why they have
two routines-one soft and one hard."
"Now people create a new style and a lot of people put in a
lot of hard movement in the first routine now. At an early time, according to my
teacher, the Chen's first routine was soft and the second routine emphasized the
hard," Huang said.
Developed in the early 1950s
The Chen Pan-ling style was developed between 1950 and
1955, Huang said, shortly after Chen arrived on
Taiwan
following the communist take over of the mainland.
He had begun studying Shaolin from his father when he was a
very young boy.
He was the last disciple of Lee Choon-yi, one of the great
Hsing-yi masters, who came out of retirement to teach him. Chen also learned
Bagua Chang from Tung Lian-chi and Chen Haiting.
He learned T'ai Chi Ch'uan from Wu Chian-chuan, the famous
Wu stylist, and Yang Shao-hou, the famous Yang stylist.
Chen Pan-ling graduated in 1921 as a civil engineer from
Peking
University
. While at the university, the martial arts headmaster, Si Yi-sheng, taught him
until he had to confess that Chen could learn no more from him. At that time, Si
was very famous in
Peking
.
Chen Pan-ling established several Kuoshou (or martial art)
schools that went on to capture national championships. In 1941, he was named as
supervisor of martial arts texts in an effort to standardize the Chinese martial
arts.
In the late 1940s, Chen became the vice president of the
Central Kuoshou Institute, the highest Chinese martial arts institute in
China
.
With the outbreak of the civil war in 1949, he left for
Taiwan
.
Chen has written a number of books in Chinese on martial
arts and one on T'ai Chi Ch'uan.
He has numerous students in
Taiwan
and elsewhere, including his son Chen Yen-ching, who teaches part-time in
Taiwan
. Others who teach are Chen Kimpao, Tu Jian-tang, and Huang Yi-shen.
Huang said that standing meditation was an important part
of Chen's teaching to develop internal energy.
At the beginning of T'ai Chi Ch'uan, practitioners do a
standing meditation called huen yen chuang. The hands are relaxed and kept in
front of the body near the tan t'ien.
The thumb and index finger are straight and the inside of
the palm is kept smooth to enable the chi to flow not only to the thumb and
index finger but also the three other fingers. The three other fingers are held
staggered, like tile on a roof.
Huang, who has also trained extensively in Taoist
meditation with Liu Pei-chung, said standing meditation can be done for up to 30
minutes, although, in the beginning, it can be done for 5 to 10 minutes before
doing T'ai Chi Ch'uan and another 5 to 10 minutes after the end of practice.
Meditation aids absorption
"We always say the internal style can cultivate internal
energy. But a lot of the time, we don't do a good job with it."
"After finishing T'ai Chi Ch'uan, we don't do standing
meditation and lose a lot of benefit because the body hasn't completely absorbed
the energy."
"That's why you need to meditate after T'ai ji Ch'uan... to
make sure your body absorbs all that you have worked on."
Huang said he teaches according to the Taoist method of
meditation since T'ai Chi Ch'uan is originally from the Tao and according to the
I Ching, the traditional teaching of T'ai Chi Ch'uan, he said, didn't involve a
lot of talk.
"The teachers expect you to practice a lot. When the time
comes for them to explain certain knowledge, they will explain it to you, one
step at a time. That's why it takes a long time to learn from an old master."
"Now it is completely different. People talk a lot and
explain a lot, and students don't practice as much. There is too much
concentration on talking."
"Sometimes we feel the quality is not as good as in
previous times because of this."
Practice needed to build chi'
"No matter whether you study T'ai Chi Ch'uan or kung-fu, if
you do not spend enough time practicing, then you cannot build up all your ch'i."
"You still need to spend a lot of your time to work on
building your ch'i stronger."
Huang said his own Yang style teacher is Wang Chueh-jen,
now in his 80s, and a famous internal and external martial artist.
He can still do soft and hard styles, including acrobatics
involving rolling on the floor. This ability to do the acrobatics, Huang said,
is because of Wang's internal development.
Huang said he studied with Wang for 10 years before being
taught advanced material.
"I had to learn from him for 15 years before he picked me
out as a disciple. He wanted to make sure that he knows everything about me. He
has many, many students, but I am his only disciple since he moved to
Taiwan
some 40 years ago."
Huang, who is 42, has been involved in martial arts for 29
years and with T'ai Chi Ch'uan for 23 years.
He has been teaching in the
U.S.
since 1973 and goes back to
Taiwan
frequently to meet with his teachers.
He said he writes them and also calls them about once a
month to discuss fine points of practice. He says he is still learning many
things from his teachers.
His teaching repertoire, in addition to the Yang style and
Chen Pan-ling style, includes Bagua and Hsingyi as well as many external styles.
T'ai Chi Ch'uan, Huang said, is basically cat walking and
crane stepping. He explained that the crane always picks his foot up carefully
and then puts it down slowly.
Now, he said, people put out their right foot and right
away bend the knee and shift weight. "They shift their weight too fast. But if
you shift the weight too fast, you can fall into a trap and fall down."
The T'ai Chi Ch'uan principles say that whenever you strike
somebody, the power comes from the heel controlled by the waist and extends out
to the hands.
"But if your weight is too far forward too fast, how are
you going to control your balance? You can turn the waist, but you will have no
root."
Real T'ai Chi Ch'uan, he said, is also cat walking. That
means walking soundlessly and lightly so you can be alert to danger.
Huang said he has trained with different masters who taught
in different ways. But the purpose in the end is the same thing because in T'ai
Chi Ch'uan you cannot completely be soft. "You have to know how the soft
contains the hard."
Fa-Jing training needed
You have to practice the form faster, he said, and also you
have to train in fa-jing, explosive energy.
"If you do not train in fa-jing, when you strike the
person, you have no power. The so-called fa-jing is the same thing as inches
power. T'ai Chi Ch'uan is the same as training in inches power," he said.
To train in fa-jing, Huang said, a student at first trains
empty hand to develop the technique. This can mean repetitions of up to 1000 a
day.
The idea of 1000 repetitions is common in China and Huang
said it means that at first you start with perhaps 30 times each side every day
and every week you increase the number of repetitions until one day the student
does it 1000 times.
"First you have to develop the skill in the technique as
well as coordination."
Then, he said, students train with a bag. "Many go to hit
the bag right away and don't do it right. They haven't gotten the technique
right. They are tense."
"In T'ai Chi Ch'uan, or any kind of martial art, it is
required to sink (relax). That is how the power gets out to the hand. For
instance, if you are punching somebody, all the tension may be in the arm."
Relax to release power
"But if you can relax, the power comes out the end of your
fist. All the power reaches to the end."
"If you have your distance right, and the T'ai Chi Ch'uan
principles right, and your technique right, then you can train on the bag-the
hard bag and then the water bag."
The hard bag is a 400-pound bag. Then after a year, the
student will work with a 1000-pound bag.
Finally, he will work with a water bag, which is soft so
that he can go from soft to hard and from hard to soft.
"That's why we say soft can contain hard and the hard can
be soft. Then, when you need to be soft, you can be soft, and when you need to
be hard, you can be hard."
Huang will also have his students do their T'ai Chi Ch'uan
form fast in two ways, depending on how advanced they are.
"After they learn the basic form, I correct it and show how
to meditate. Then I teach them the fa-jing and self-defense. They will learn T'ai
Chi Ch'uan principles and the 13 principles of self-defense."
"Then I will let them practice the form soft at first and
then faster later. Then later I will let them do the form soft and slow again."
"When they do either fast or slow, the shoulder must sink
and the ch'i flow and the spirit must be concentrated."
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