Ch'ang Style Taijiquan- Another Semi-Grappling Style

[Sri Hanuman]

A few months back, I picked up a 1987 print of Ch'ang Style Tai Chi Chuan by Chi-Hsiu D. Weng. After leafing through the pages, reading the introduction, and seeing some of the applications, my curiosity was piqued adequately enough to do a bit more digging.

For starters, the author, Daniel Wang, was apparently a Judo black-belt prior to his introduction to Taijiquan by Ch'ang Tung Sheng (常東昇) in 1968. Second, both the author, and the founder of the style, (Ch'ang Tung Sheng) were big proponents of Shuai Jiao (Chinese fast-wrestling.)



It seems that Ch'ang started out as a Shuai Jiao practitioner and learned Taijiquan later in life. He and General Li Ching Lin (李景林) modified the form to remove any stances or techniques that would leave the practitioner exposed to Shuai-jiao takedowns.

As far as Taijiquan styles go this one is relatively recent, having been pieced together and systemized around ~late 1930s. I definitely like what I've seen in terms of applications, which place emphasis on seizing and takedowns, not unlike Judo (for obvious reasons.) For the CMA realist who is not a fan of arm waving hippie crap, definitely a Taijiquan style worth exploring.

For more info please see links below.

Links:
http://www.changshuaichiao.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chang_Tung_Sheng
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li_Jinglin
http://www.combatshuaichiao.com/grandmaster.html
http://www.thepeacefuldragon.com/changstyle.shtml

Book:
Ch'ang Style T'ai-Chi-Ch'uan, Chi-Hsiu D. Weng, c 1987

Video:
YouTube - Chang Tung Sheng taichi

[Diesel_tke]

That's pretty interesting! Since the main difference is application rather than actual form changes! That's cool because all you would have to lern is his different application principles.

Chang Tai Chi is almost identical to Yang style Tai Chi Chuan. However, what really separates Chang Tai Chifrom Yang style and other styles of Tai Chi and makes it a unique Tai Chi style in its own right is the application of the movements.

[Diesel_tke]

I wasn't able to watch the video when I was at work, so I watched it when I got home. Something pretty interesting is that the form he does is very similar to the Chen Pan Ling 99 form that I do! He is a lot more flourishy, but this is very close.