TIAN SHOU LIN
Master Tian Shou Lin was the aodopted son of Yang Jian Hou who is pictured below . Tian Shou Lin lived and studied within the Yang family household
Yang Jian Hou 1839-1917
February 28, 2005
Present Day Tian Family members
With Master Yao again today, pictured above in white next to Grandmaster Tian. We continued to revise and then expand upon the medium frame form.
The typical low postures of this form are, apparently the way that Yang Jian Hou and Tian Shou Lin always performed their postures. This means that your backside more or less drops down in a long low posture to a level not far off being level with your knees. It is a definate hip opener.
The single whip posture is somewhere between modern day Yang famly large frame and the Wu Style 50/50 weighted single whip posture. It in some way explains how Wu Chien Chuan developed that variation in his form.
No new pics as the bloody machines here are not recognizing the digital camera. When I work out another method to upload I will post some.
Tomorrow we are off to meet Master Tian in Fuxian which is in the south of Shanghai. ciao CRC
February 26, 2005
Arrival
The flight in
Virgin flight 250 to Shanghai was pretty good. The highlight of the flight being a spectacular view view at 36 thousand feet of the Siberian tundra east of Ekaterinaberg.
It was like a scene from a re-run blade runner, gas plumes from Russian oil facilities belching plumes of fierce light up into the sky below us.
Our first encounter with the Tian family
After a10 hour flight we finally arrive and are immediately greeted in the airport lobby by Mr Yao, the first disciple of Master Tian. We are taken to the Great Wall Hotel in Northern part East Shanghai.
We get 10 hours sleep and are up at 7.a.m local time followed by an hour of standing practice and half hour of Nei Gung and then breakfast. Shanghai time is (8 hours ahead of London ).
This means we are having breakfast at at roughly 1a.m. Mr Yao is not due to teach us until 2pm Shanghai time so we decide to check out the local area and end up walking 7 kms into the Bund which is in the centre of Shanghai. After ignoring the time difference we later realise why we suddenly feel shattered. We had just walked for 3 hours and 7 k at 3 a.m GMT. Idiots!
Well, we get back to the hotel just in time for Mr Yao to arrive and begin our first session. We have a language problem but Jan (my traveling companion) and Mr Yao's daughter helped to translate some of the ideas and information about the form we are learning.
So - at today's training it was explained to us that we are learning the Middle (medium frame) Yang family Tai Chi Form. This form pre-dates the popular large frame that was popularized by Yang Cheng Fu in Shanghai during the 1920's.
Learning Tai Chi
Mr Yao explained that in Beijing around in 1866, the Founder of Yang style Tai Chi Chuan never taught the essential martial (attacking and defending) aspects of Tai Chi outside his immediate family and people chosen by him. These people were called inner door or (inside the door students).
We were then shown a basicYang Style Nei Gung (internal exercise) to teach the circular and spiralling aspects of the form.
Hopefully I will get the opportunity soon to post some photos of some postures, once I have found an internet café with a USB port.
Today, I found some people exercising outside their business premises (on the pavement) but they spotted me with the camera and made off at great speed.
until later zaijian from Shanghai
February 23, 2005
Countdown to Shanghai
Preparations
Its Thursday 24th Feb and we are now in making final preparations for the Shanghai trip, checking the stills and video cameras and making sure we havent bought the wrong film stock!
Packing our clothes I make a last minute check to ensure that Chinese dictionary and Language CD. is not forgotten.
Other essentials include passport/visa, money and the Timeout guidebook to Shanghai(!).
One of the big obstacles we do face is the language barrier - our hosts do not speak English.
At some point in the trip we intend to hire a translator so that we can develop a more fluid dialogue with our teachers.
What we hope to learn
There are varying methods involved in the learning of Tai Chi Chuan. There is:
a) verbal instruction
b) visual example
c) direct feeling / touch
d) direct mind to mind transmission.
The first one will be tricky for sure but once the training is underway the universal language of the body should carry us over the border to the deeper levels of the teaching.
If I were a beginner practitioner then I should be terrified at the prospect of stumbling about with my beginner Chinese - but Ive enough experience under my belt to I have studied Yang family Tai Chi since 1985.
Although I am nervous this Im also exhilarated at the prospect of what in effect is a personal retreat involving the daily intensive learning and application of Yang Jian Hou's original middle frame set.
Ill be posting more about the material we hope to learn on setting foot in Shanghai (and finding my way to the nearest internet café!).
About the hosts - the Yang Family
In order to put the trip in perspective I thought it might be useful to present a narrative outlining the lineage of the Tian family from Yang Lu Chan to the present day.
The Tian family has kept a particularly low profile within the Tai Chi world. Note that Yang Lu Chan was the founder of Yang Style Tai Chi Chuan and as can be seen from the lineage list below - the family has a very direct link to the founder.
The middle son of Tian Shou Lin is Tian Ying Jia who followed in his fathers footsteps as a Tai Chi practitioner.
Tian Family Lineage
Yang Lu Chan 1799-1872
Yang Jian Hou 1839-1917
Tian Shou Lin 1891-1960
Tian Ying Jia 4th generation grandmaster
YaoGuo Qing Master Tian's primary student
Tian Bing Yuan Grandson of Tian Shou Lin
Heres an excerpt taken from an article by Tian Ying Jia and Yao Guo Qing
Tian Zhaolin was a Yang style taiji direct descendent of the family. Tian Zhaolin's father passed away when he was an infant. As a young boy of eight years, he had to sell fruit to support his mother and two sisters. Yang Jianhou, the son of Yang style founding father Yang Luchan, noticed him on his walks to the palace where he taught. He recruited him as his student and also provided maintenance for young Tian's impoverished family. Thus, from the age of 13 years and on, Tian Zhaolin learned taiji from Yang Jianhou and subsequently from Jianhou's sons Yang Shaohou (1862 1930) and Yang Chengfu (1883 1936). These teachers were exceptional and profound taiji grand masters. Tian Zhaolin became one of the most senior non-family students of the Yang family; more senior than any yet known to the west.
Master Tian Yingjia chose Mr. Yao Gouqing as his door-entering student and passed the complete Yang style taiji transmission to him. Today they both live near Shanghai.
Tomorrow we should be setting foot in Shanghai and making our way to our hostel. As soon as I get my bearings and stave on this damn cold thats bearing down on me I will be posting our first impressions of Shanghai and our first meeting with the Yang family. May it be an auspicious one!
