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The following article by Wu Ta-yeh is a response to questions posed in the last issue of T’AI CHI about correct breathing and the Yang "short form" allegedly being diluted for political reasons.

Question 1.: What is the proper relation of breathing to movements? Which is correct: natural or reverse breathing?

Answer: No book on Taichichuan published before 1943 mentioned matching breathing with movements. None of the family members of the five major schools teach such matching. These schools include Chen family, Yang family, Wu Chien-chuan family, Hao family, and Sun family. The family members include all their living descendants: the many Chen family descendants; Wu Chien-chuan’s son, daughter, grandsons and great-grandson; Yang Cheng-fu’s son; Hou Wei-chen’s grandson, and Sun Lu-tang’s daughter. Matching breath with Taichichuan movements is definitely not classical.

The first author who described Hu (to exhale, expel, or extend) and Shi (to inhale, suck in, or contract) in certain Taichichuan self-defense movements was Li I-ju (1832-1892). Li’s only student was Hao Ho, who later became the founder of the Hao school. Hao was also known as Hao Wei-chen. Hao’s son, Hao Yueh-ju (1877-1935) quoted Li’s saying in his own writing. When the founder’s grandson, Hao Shao-ju, republished his father’s writing in the 1960’s, he added a note saying that Hu and Shi in this context refer to the opening and closing and storing and issuing in Taichichuan, and are different from the ordinary exhalation and inhalation of air. He warned specifically that readers must not have such misunderstanding. (See Wu Style Taichichuan by Hao, p. 5) Since Hao is the only pupil of Li I-ju, the explanation of the Hao family member should be more plausible than explanations of outsiders. Hao Shao-ju added this explanation obviously because of the misinterpretations of Li’s statements in later years. In fact, even if Li’s statement is misinterpreted as ordinary breathing of air, it applies to certain self-defense movements and not to the continuous, one-person exercise.

The first book recommending matching movement and breath was published by Yearning K. Chen in 1943. Yet, in that book, the author says, "inhalation and exhalation are interchangeable. Whenever you cannot inhale any more, you exhale; and vice versa." This means no perfect matching. He also mentioned shorter breathing in certain movements, and this means artificially uneven breathing. On the other hand, he emphasizes natural breathing. For two decades, no other book recommended matching. In the 1960’s and 1970’s, there was a long but unsettled controversy on whether breathing and movements should be matched and how to match them.

It may be noted that when Yearning K. Chen first recommended matching breathing with Taichichuan in 1943, he did not mean Taoist breathing. In his book, he first introduced the matching of inhalation and exhalation with movements, somewhat like Western calisthenic breathing exercises, and then tried to apply it to Taichichuan. Only one Chinese book on Taichichuan, published in 1972, described Taoist breathing. Taoist breathing appears to have received more attention in the West, and is included in at least four English Taichichuan books, published in 1971, 1977, 1980, and 1981. All of these are very recent.

In the main text of our book manuscript, "Taichichuan Exercise: A Comprehensive Tutelage," jointly prepared with my wife, the recommendation is that beginners, as well as most of the advanced students, should completely ignore their breathing in doing Taichichuan. During walking, jogging, eating, or talking or doing home work, one does not think of his breathing. If you are relaxed and natural, your brain will automatically adjust the rate and depth of your breathing to your activities without your paying attention to it. When Taichichuan emphasizes naturalness, this is one aspect of it. Unnatural matching may even be harmful to your health in Taichichuan, the pace of which is not so regular as jogging. If you just "pay a slight attention to your lower abdomen," a phrase quoted from Tung Ying-chieh, you will gradually and automatically train yourself in the natural diaphragmatic breathing.

There are too many things to concentrate on in Taichichuan, not only on your external forms and movements, but particularly on your internal feelings, the strength application, the flow of energy, your spirit, your atmosphere, etc. If you concentrate your attention on breathing, you will have to sacrifice many basic features which are inherent to the exercise. By relying on the automatic adjustment of breathing by your brain, you can free your mind to attend to the many other details with an aim of reaching a higher stage of Taichichuan kungfu.

In sitting mediation, there are proponents of natural and reverse breathing. By reverse breathing, it means that, when you exhale, you lower your diaphragm and expand your abdomen; when you inhale, you raise your diaphragm and contract your abdomen. Reverse breathing, which must be artificially manipulated, is definitely not suitable to the continuous movements. One may experiment by continuously applying reverse breathing and at the same time doing Taichichuan movements seriously, just for three minutes and see how you feel. Anything which is unnatural is not compatible with Taichichuan.

In the appendix of our book manuscript, however, is a "note on breathing in Taichichuan," where all problems on breathing are examined, including partial natural and partial reverse breathing at the same time. These are reserved for the very few advanced students who want to understand more or to do experiments and try to match breathing and movements in selected postures. A study of the forms of those authors who recommend complete matching shows their forms, adjusted to the breathing rate, have to be modified to such an extent that they are almost not recognizable, even though they are basically derived from Yang’s postures. Such series may become more breathing exercise than Taichichuan. The appendix is too complicated for publication in a popular periodical. The conclusion suggests that it is preferable to correctly do your favored breathing exercise separately from your daily Taichichuan so that you do not need to compromise but reap the full benefits of both.

Question 2: Is the Yang short form a diluted form created to teach the Manchu government?

Answer: The main theme of the question appears to be simple and is a question on facts, and could be easily answered. But the way the question is posed involves some confusion in concepts which complicate the answer.

In one of the Taichichuan classics, it says: "First seek to stretch and extend; later seek to be compact. Then it will be refined and impenetrable." Hence the extended form is the first course, and the compact form is the advanced course. Yang Cheng-fu’s uncle, Yang Pan-hou (1837-1892), who was the best fighter in the Yang family after his father, the founder, taught his vigorous compact form to both the Chinese and the Manchus under Manchu rule. Because of the difficulty in performance, very few of his students learned it well. Yang Cheng-fu (1882-1936) taught his extended form in the Republic after the overthrow of the Manchu Dynasty, when the Manchus lost all of their privileges. Most of them even lost their identity and adopted Chinese surnames. Yet his forms were more vigorous in the early years when he taught in Peking than what he taught in South China when the Republic was already 20 years old.

If the term "short form" used in the question means that the limbs are less extended so that the form looks shorter, the above fact shows that the compact form, more oriented for fighting, could not have been created with a purpose to cheat the Manchus. In the 19th century, when the Yang family taught in Peking, the military powers of the Manchus were waning, and after 1864, when Chinese generals and soldiers had suppressed a revolution which lasted more than 20 years, major military powers were transferred to the hands of the Chinese. There was no fear of the Manchus using Taichichuan to kill their countrymen. When the minority ruling government wants to kill, they use weapons, not bare hands.

From some unknown origin, the term "short form" is also used in the United States to designate some shortened or abridged series. Any abridged series can be either extended or compact, and the term "short form" should not be used to distinguish an abridged series from a regular series. It is not the form which is short, but the series which is shorter.

None of the Yang family members has designed a shorter series. In fact, Yang Cheng-fu even designed a Taichi Changchuan, meaning long chuan (fist). All shorter series were developed long after the death of Yang Cheng-fu, the third generation of the Yang family, and none is recognized or taught by Yang’s son, Yang Shao-chung. So, there is no such thing as "Yang short form."

The first short series, composed of 37 postures, was designed by Cheng Man-ch’ing during the second world war, with the purpose of saving the teaching time. Cheng is a southerner and the series was taught in South China. Because of the war, it never went to North China where most Manchus settled. In fact, his series is popular only in Taiwan and the United States and is not taught on the mainland anymore. The title of his book published in 1950 is Cheng’s Taichichuan," not "Yang’s Short Form." The same title is used in his later Chinese books.

The second short series, called "Simplified Taichichuan," and composed of 24 postures, was developed in mainland China in 1956 for further popularizing the exercise. To meet the increasing needs of those people who want to learn more than 24 postures, another series of 48 postures was designed and published in 1979. It is called "48-Posture Taichichuan." Other shorter series include Sung Chichien’s 64 postures, 1970, Taipei; Lee Ying Arn’s 56 postures, "Modified Taichichuan," 1971, Hong Kong; and the 64-posture series compiled by a committee and published in Taiwan in 1977. All these are derivatives of Yang Cheng-fu’s basic postures but all admitted their modifications. This includes Cheng’s series. There are other unpublished, shortened series being taught in recent years in the United States.

In fact, one cannot even judge the length of a series by the number of postures. The same, regular Yang Cheng-fu series is divided into 81, 85, 108, 128, 158, or 180 postures, depending on the preference of the author. The reason is that one complicated posture may be divided into several postures. The 64-posture series of Taiwan also takes 20 minutes.

The vigorousness and effectiveness in self-defense of a series does not depend on its length. You have to compare the "real forms," the movements, the application of strength, etc. In fact, there are extra long series taught in recent years which take one hour or more to finish. But none is self-defense oriented and most are even weaker and less sophisticated than the so-called "short form" which is popular in the United States. In fact, whether a series is too weak depends more on the teacher than the series itself.

One term, "diluted form," needs some clarification. It is obvious that when Yang Pan-hou, an elder brother of Yang Cheng-fu’s father taught Taichichuan to the Manchus, he could not have diluted his nephew’s forms. The nephew was nine years old when the uncle died. But there has been much change in the way Taichichuan is taught and practiced, especially in the 20th century, after the Republic was formed. The trend is to reduce the emphasis on self-defense and increase the emphasis on health maintenance and health promotion. To popularize it, the vigor is reduced and the speed is slowed down. If this means dilution, then, there has been such a trend, but it happened after the Manchu rule.

Among Yang Cheng-fu’s disciples, there are persons who teach very seriously with balanced emphasis on the application of the integrated supple strength as well as on relaxation. Parallel sets done with speed and vigor are also taught to the advanced students. On the other hand, there are others who emphasized mainly relaxation, without much consideration of applying strength. You may say that these are differences in emphasis taught to different people for different purposes. But the reader who posed the question may consider the latter a dilution of the former. It is a matter of definition.

Answers to the first question about breathing may not be all agreed upon. Expression of views from other authors would throw more light on the problem. When the merit of a "short form" is considered, one should ask:
1. What is the meaning of the "form"?
2. Which one?
3. Taught by whom?

Wu Ta-yeh teaches in Palo Alto, CA.