Yang Style 37 Form Tai Chi

Author: Zhao Youbin
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2004-07-01
Features: The Yang-style 37-form Tai Chi Chuan was conceived and created in the spring of 1997. Tai Chi Chuan is a precious martial arts cultural heritage of China, known for its rich dialectical thinking, unique health benefits, and elegant human movement. It has been widely promoted and developed in society. Yang-style Tai Chi Chuan is one of the outstanding forms among the many Tai Chi styles. Its founder was Yang Luchan, with a history of nearly two thousand years. His sons, Yang Banhou and Yang Jianhou, and his grandsons, Yang Shaohou and Yang Chengfu, as successive masters, made epoch-making contributions to the status and development of Tai Chi Chuan in Chinese martial arts. Especially Yang Chengfu, the master, who combined the experience of three generations of ancestors, researched and standardized the 85-form Tai Chi Chuan, which has become a model for contemporary and future generations to inherit the Yang-style Tai Chi Chuan. Its movement characteristics and style are clear techniques, regular movements, uniform speed, smooth and continuous, distinct between solid and empty, soft and flexible, displaying elegance in gentleness and embodying grandeur in tranquility. Therefore, combined with its ease of learning, Yang-style Tai Chi Chuan has become a popular form suitable for all ages and the most widely practiced Tai Chi Chuan in China. The 37-form Tai Chi Chuan we will introduce is a combination of non-repeating movements from the traditional 85-form Tai Chi Chuan, arranged in order. The purpose of simplification and revision is: 1) Shorter duration, with a set practice taking 4 minutes for the fast and 8 minutes for the slow, which is beneficial for mastering the basic skills of Yang-style Tai Chi Chuan in a short time and laying a foundation for further learning the 85-form Tai Chi Chuan; 2) It can serve as a performance and competition routine for Yang-style Tai Chi Chuan. The characteristics of this routine are: A) Its practice characteristics and style are consistent with the traditional routine; B) The requirements and principles of the movements are consistent with the traditional routine; 3) Movements are compact, content is focused, arrangement is smooth, and layout is reasonable, summarizing the movements of the traditional routine while aligning with national competition requirements. "The charm is endless, like willows swaying in the spring breeze; When practiced gently and beautifully, it flows like clouds and water." This is a poem on Tai Chi Chuan composed by the renowned Yang-style Tai Chi master Zhao Youbin. Indeed, Tai Chi Chuan is beautiful. The routines look simple but contain elegance in nature, like a flowing landscape painting or a lyrical poem, known as "living sculptures" and "flowing music." Practitioners of Tai Chi Chuan can reach a state of tranquility and joy, enjoying health through beautiful movement—this is the unique charm of Tai Chi Chuan. Yang-style Tai Chi Chuan, with its many advantages, has been accepted by more enthusiasts and has become one of the most widely spread styles domestically and internationally. To achieve good fitness effects and a higher level of practice, in addition to mastering the Tai Chi Chuan routine, one must also focus on the principles of Tai Chi Chuan. Summarized, the key principles are: 1) Hollow and spiritual top progression, where the head is upright, and the spirit is vibrant, with a natural sense of emptiness without force, allowing the spirit to be lifted; 2) Containing the chest and arching the back, where the chest is like a straight pillar and the back like an arch, relaxing the chest and back muscles, and with a straight body, the Qi naturally sinks to the Dantian; 3) Loosening the waist and tightening the buttocks, where loosening the waist gives strength to the legs, stabilizing the lower body, and tightening the buttocks ensures a central posture, with loose and flexible waist and hips, creating a continuous and round movement. As the boxing saying goes, "If something is not achieved, it must be sought in the waist and legs." 4) Differentiating between solid and empty, Tai Chi Chuan considers this the essence, such as when the rhythm of the whole body is on the right leg, the right leg is solid and the left leg is empty. At the same time, one must understand that the solid leg should contain emptiness, and the empty leg should contain solidity, so that the body can rotate effortlessly; 5) Lowering the shoulders and dropping the elbows, where the shoulders are not raised, and the elbows are not prominent, allowing the Qi to not float up, with relaxed and flexible arms, balanced and heavy. Throughout the routine, one must also achieve: 1) Coordination between upper and lower parts, seamless and continuous, where movement is as if motionless, and stillness is as if still, coordinating hands, feet, waist, and head as a whole, with seamless transitions from start to finish, like the endless flow of the Yangtze River and the Yellow River; 2) Achieving internal and external integration, using intention without force. Internal and external integration means that when the movement opens, the mind follows, and when the movement closes, the mind follows. This achieves spiritual and physical harmony. Using intention without force means that every joint in the body is open and relaxed, without the slightest stiffness. When intention reaches, Qi reaches, and when Qi reaches, strength reaches. If Qi and blood flow continuously, practiced daily, over time, true internal strength will be achieved. In summary, Tai Chi Chuan has many principles to master, and one must gradually understand and feel them through practice, eventually grasping the essence of Tai Chi Chuan. Just as the great Tai Chi master Yang Chengfu once expressed the realm of Tai Chi Chuan by borrowing lines from the "Preface to the Poem of the Red Cliff": "Vast and boundless, as if meeting emptiness and wanting to be empty, yet not knowing its direction; Floating and ethereal, as if standing alone, transforming into a immortal and ascending to the heavens."
(Note: The original text contains some inconsistencies and repetitions, which have been corrected for clarity in the translation.)