Chen Jin Ba Gu Shi San Shi
(Stretching Tendons And Bones Thirteen Postures)

Stretching Tendons And Bones Thirteen Postures (Chen Jin Ba Gu Shi San Shi) is a form for stretching practice. It offers a complete system to stretch every parts of the body. When people practice it, the most important thing is keep the body relax. People should do everything slow because fast movement can easily hurt the body. People can repeat each movement over and over again, usually at least three times. Every time when people finish this form, they should do kicking practice, it is called swing legs (Liu Tui). There are seven kind of kicks. This practice can help people to relax, recover, and reduce the chance for injury. It is very important for stretching practice. People always said: if you just practice stretch but not swing legs, you are a rash guy.

This form belongs to Tantui (Spring Leg) style. Grand Master Wang Peisheng studied it from his Tantui Master Zhang Yulian about seventy years ago. In YCGFA-NAH, we teach this form.

Stretching Tendons and Bone   |  Tantui  |  Taizu Changquan   |  Pile Standing

Tantui
(Spring Leg)

Master Zhang Yulian was very famous martial arts master with Tantui - Spring Legs. His nick name is Gou-Tang Zhang because he had excellent skill of Gou and Tang, which are two special weapons in Tantui group. He was the oldest brother of seven famous martial arts blood brothers in Beijing. When he was young, he did a lot of security and police work. His qing gong was really good. He could pass over a high wall and go up the roof of a big house very quickly. He was a Muslim. In the old days, Chinese Muslims always kept some high level techniques secret. Tantui is a big and a very famous style which includes many things. It was separated to two styles, Jiaomen (Muslim) style and Shaolin style. But the famous sentence said: "From Nanjing to Beijing, the best Tantui skills come from Jiaomen." This kind of gongfu needs people with very good basic kungfu, so the training is very rigorous. Grand Master Wang Peisheng studied Tantui from 13 years old. When he joined Master Zhang's group, many young kids were in it. They practiced diligently and always demonstrated in many places. The main things in the style are Ten Section Spring Legs' Kickings which is the prime skill of this style, Six Short Forms, Ten Section Cha Quan forms, and Gou, Jue, Tang, Dei - four kinds of special weapons. Master Wang studied all of these. Studied with Master Zhang gave Master Wang really rigorous basic gongfu training. It produced big benefit for his whole lift.

In YCGFA-NAH, we teach Ten Section Kicking Skills of Tantui. It is the most important part of Tantui style.

Stretching Tendons and Bone   |  Tantui  |  Taizu Changquan   |  Pile Standing

Taizu Changquan
(Taizu Long Fist)

Zhao Guangyin was the first emperor of Song Dynasty (960 - 1279). Out of respect he was called Song Taizu, which means the great founder of the Song Dynasty. When he was young, the country was in turmoil; and many kings and warlords carved up the country. Zhao and his elder sworn brother Chai Rong led a revolted together. Zhao was a highly talented general with superior martial arts skill. He and Chai led their army against the other generals in the war. Finally they won several major battles which save them control of the whole country. They built a new a kingdom called the Zhou Dynasty with Chai as the new emperor. In the war, Zhao's martial arts skill earned him a good reputation. Most people, especially the generals and soldiers, trusted him. After Chai died, the people dethroned Chai's son and made Zhao became the new emperor. Thus, the Zhao Dynasty changed to the Song Dynasty.

People said Zhao made a bare hand martial arts form called the Thirty-two Posture Long Fist Form. It is usually called Taizu Chang Quan (Long Fist) out of respect for him. This form is for training the techniques of external gongfu. It is spread wide and far. But it has gone through many changes over its more than one thousand years history. People have added to it, reformed it, and even made their own forms with this famous name. Today there are many different forms with this name making it impossible to know which one is the original.

From the Song Dynasty, there were two important concepts in martial arts, Chang Quan and Duan Da. Chang Quan means long form, where many techniques are linked in a form. It is very artistic and good for developing the practitioner's basic gongfu. Duan Da means short form, which is to combine a few techniques and practice them repeatedly. It is for training fighting techniques. In traditional training, people practiced the long form first. During that time, they do not practice fighting techniques. There main focus was to develop their basic gongfu. Then they take each technique from the long form and study how to use it; this is called Chai Shou. Usually their understanding is the purpose rather than hard practice. Finally, they combine some single techniques together, called Duan Da. This practice is for real fighting training. Some people even think Chai Shou and Duan Da are similar, so Chai Shou is included in the Duan Da.

The form in our group is a little bit different from the others. In our form both Chang Quan and Duan Da ideas are included. All thirty-two postures are linked to make a long form, but it can also be separated into eight sections. Each section is just like a Duan Da. There are four postures in each section and one of them is a kicking skill. When you study this form, you can practice each section separately. When you can do each section well, then link them together and practice it as a long form. Then you can go back to study the applications with short combinations. This approach can help you master a long form easily and improve your understanding of fighting skills.

Grand Master Wang got this form from the Taoist monk Wang Daoyi about fifty years ago. In YCGFA-NAH, we teach this form.

Stretching Tendons and Bone   |  Tantui  |  Taizu Changquan   |  Pile Standing

Zhanzhuang
(Pile Standing)

Zhan means Standing. Zhuang means a pile, post, or pole. Zhanzhuang or Pile Standing means stand with a fix posture, like a pile, for a length of time. Practicing Zhanzhuang is traditional, popular, and useful way for developing internal thing in tradational Chinese martial arts. Almost every style teaches some kind of such practice. There are two kind of Zhanzhuang practice. One is Jing Zhuang where the practitioner holds the same position until done. The outside movement may not be changed during that time. The other is Dong Zhuang where the practitioner holds the same position for of most the time but can do some simple and slow movements during that time.

Practice Zhanzhuang can give you many benefits. Besides health bemefits, it also develop your rooting, internal force, relaxation, focusing the mind, moving Qi, and many others. In YCGFA-NAH, we practice and teach several different Zhanzhuang methodes.