5 Section Taijiquan
Lots of 5 stuff in 2023!
Listen while you read…
During 2023, there will be quite a bit of activity around 5 Section Taijiquan.
In the past couple of years, I haven’t done much with the program as some twenty workshops were cancelled due to fear around the SARS-CoV-2 virus—people couldn’t travel or even gather for in-person taijiquan events. In my personal practice I don’t use the 5 Section curriculum so much (with the exception of the Wuduanjin, or 5 Section Brocade, which I practice frequently). So, to be perfectly honest, I’ve been a bit out-of-touch with the program.
Recently, however, I’ve begun teaching two weekly beginners’ classes near where I live—something I haven’t done for a good twenty-five years or so. I’ve been instructing these classes in three parts: 1. Five Words of Self Composure and Wuduanjin-derived core-principles 2. The 5 Section Solo Yang form 3. Sensing-hands. This has reconnected me with the 5 Section Taijiquan Program and, I must say, it’s giving me a whole new appreciation and enthusiasm for this work.
Festival and Masterclass
Probably, the biggest 5 Section Taijiquan news for 2023 has to do with this summer’s 5 Section Taijiquan International Festival and Masterclass which will highlight the program’s presence internationally after some forty years of development and spread. The Festival and Masterclass, be held in Winchester, England, is a seven-day, all-inclusive event, (July 1-7) where you can meet, eat, and train together with taijiquan enthusiasts and experts from around the world! It will be attended by many of my top students who have mastered the 5 Section Taijiquan curriculum to a high level. This international festival has long been a dream of mine and I see it as a major milestone in terms of what the Masich Internal Arts Method has to offer the taiji-world at large.
5 Section Website
The Festival & Masterclass event provides a spark for other projects as well. For example, we are currently working on a 5 Section Taijiquan International website which I hope will see the light of day within the next couple of months. I would like to see the website emerge as a touchstone for all taiji players involved with the 5 Section Taijiquan Program. The site will include an ‘Events’ section that teachers everywhere can use to promote their programs and events; a ‘Forum’ for folks to discuss all things 5 Section; a ‘Groups’ section so that people can see where in the world they can learn 5 Section Taijiquan; and much more, including study resources.
Study Resources
Hopefully, the buzz and activity around the program will also prompt the completion of the two-volume 5 Section Taijiquan book-set which will act as an ultimate guide for students and teachers alike. The 5 Section Taijiquan videos that I made in past years will also likely migrate, in digital form, to the website ‘Resource’ section as well. Various handouts and other reference materials are also in the offing.
Wuduanjin on ZOOM
In April and May I will be offering three 2-hour Online ZOOM Sessions presenting the full 5 Section Brocade, or wuduanjin. The 5 Section Brocade contains the basic core-principles training needed for improving your practice, your health, and your understanding of taijiquan. Focus will be on clear practice guidelines, core-principles concepts, and the underlaying theory and structure of 5 Section Taijiquan. This class will be great for students and instructors alike. It is offered for free to anyone registered for the entire 5 Section Taijiquan Festival and Masterclass in July.
‘Tai Chi Chuan & Oriental Arts’ article
I will be submitting an article on the subject of 5 Section Taijiquan to the Tai Chi Union of Great Britain’s journal ‘Tai Chi Chuan & Oriental Arts’ for publication before the July festival. I attach a first draft portion of it below (without illustrations) for my loyal Substack readers!
Hope to see and practice with you this year!
Sam
The 5 Section Taijiquan Program: A comprehensive beginner’s program or preparation for traditional training?
Forms and practices from the 5 Section Taijiquan program have been adopted by taijiquan schools throughout Europe, the Americas, and even in Asia. This modular program has been designed to meet the needs of contemporary recreational taijiquan groups and to prepare committed students for traditional full-curriculum taijiquan training. Wuduan Taijiquan, as it called in Chinese, has been designed to be flexible and fun, following the premise that students who enjoy the learning process will stay around to take on more difficult challenges.
In the early days of the spread of taijiquan in the West, an issue had emerged that affected many teachers of the art. Traditional taijiquan forms were very long—usually around one-hundred movements or so—making it difficult for newcomers to commit to practice and training. The problem had been identified long before in Asia and approaches had already emerged to deal with the matter. The Cheng Man-ch’ing (Zheng Manqing) thirty-seven movement routine as well as the Beijing-government twenty-four movement ‘Simplified Taijiquan’ form created in 1956, represented two of the first attempts to actually design curriculum to accommodate the specific needs of a particular populace in a given era. In both cases, a short form edited down from traditional Yang-style Taijiquan was used along with other traditionally taught material that included sword and push-hands material.
Not everyone tried to solve the short-form problem with the ‘Zheng’s 37’ or the ‘Beijing 24’ however. Many instructors with a background in traditional taijiquan styles would offer up, as a basic introduction to taijiquan, the first ‘section’ of their long form—from ‘Raise Hands’ to the first ‘Cross Hands.’ Others would simply make up their own short form by pasting together a few sequences such as ‘Grasp Bird’s Tail’ left-side followed by the right-side variation.
While this served the interests of those eager for a ‘taste of taiji,’ it made it difficult for students who wanted to take on taijiquan as a larger traditional study as it remained unclear how as to how one could progress from beginner to intermediate to advanced stages of the art after having learned the initial form. It is from this set of problems: the need for a basic introductory recreational form; and that it also serves an entrance into larger traditional curriculums that the 5 Section Taijiquan Program was born.
The 5 Section Taijiquan Program began it’s development in the late 1980s in Vancouver, Canada, a hotbed for taijiquan Chinese martial-arts generally owing to it’s large multi-generational Chinese community. In its early stages, the program was shaped by a small collective of taijiquan instructors known as ‘The Tai Chi Group.’ Directed by Sam Masich, the early efforts of the group included input from both Master Liang Shouyu and Dr. Yang Jwing Ming.
After exploring various possibilities, it was agreed that of all short-form approaches attempted thus far, the Beijing Simplified 24 Taijiquan form came closest to satisfying the basic prerequisites of what the group had envisioned. Aside from its previously mentioned attributes, ‘the 24’ had the added advantages of being practiced worldwide, connecting to the other People’s Republic of China standardized forms and having much educational material already published and available. These seemed to be very good conditions for creating a large, cooperative, and good willed community of individuals.
A problem with the 24 was that not all of the movements are really simplified; for example, several of the transitions between forms, the complex angles and difficulty level of the kicks, and the two forward-stepping ‘Push Down and Stand on One Leg’ movements (better known as ‘Snake Creeps Down’ and ‘Golden Rooster Stands on One Leg’) are probably better described as intermediate-level skills.
It was decided to further edit the Beijing form, removing more difficult movements that tend to frustrate beginners, while still retaining the five-section structure and accessible and standardized feel. This led to the development of the ‘5 Section Taijiquan Solo Barehand Form (Yang-style)’ which can be described as an edited version of Simplified 24 Taijiquan. The rest of the program developed over time with important input from both Masters Liang and Yang as well as Eston Hospedales, Chantal Fafard, Trude Smoor, and others.
Since taijiquan training includes much more than solo-barehand routines, development continued with barehand-partner, solo-sword, and partner-sword versions of the five-section choreography as well as a Chen-style variation. These four other routines were developed as a representation of the overall art so that a beginner could experience a wide range of taijiquan practices. Importantly as well, the 5 Section Taijiquan Program could also function as a preparation for full curriculum training in any traditional style.
To be continued…