Solo Barehand Chen-style Form

5 Section Taijiquan Solo Barehand Form

(Chen-style)

(Wuduan Chen-shi Taijiquan)

Intermediate Level, 23 Forms

Contemporary histories of taijiquan recognize Chen-style as the parent of later emerging schools of taijiquan, especially the ‘Yang’, ‘Wu’, ‘Hao’ and ‘Sun’ styles. The 5 Section Taijiquan Chen-style Solo Bare-hand Form presents several distinctive aspects of Chen taijiquan—deep stances, changes of tempo and ‘diagonal’ energy.

Principled taijiquan practice permits many stylistic variations. For training and analysis purposes, it is possible to group the many approaches into two broad categories of energetic expression: ‘square’ (zheng) and ‘diagonal’ (yu). Comparing the actions of pushing forward squarely onto something and diagonally edging in toward something in order to pressure illustrates the contrast between these two types of expression. All traditional forms of taijiquan train both zheng and yu energy, but how these energies are prioritized varies among systems. Unlike Yang and other styles, which tend to start the training process with the square orientation, Chen-style taijiquan first focuses attention on diagonal ways of moving and expressing force.

Study of the Wuduan Chen-shi Taijiquan is yet another way to explore taijiquan ‘core-principles’. It can help to prepare taijiquan players for the study of traditional Chen-style taijiquan and also for the lateral aspects of Yang and other styles. For taijiquan players who would like to experience Chen taijiquan without having to make a commitment to fully learning the style, the 5 Section Taijiquan Chen-style Solo Bare-hand Form is an ideal sampler.