Taiji School

Taiji School

Contents

The Taiji School (simplified: 太极门, traditional: 太極门, pinyin: Tàijí Mén, jyutping: taai3 gik6 mun4) was the school of Taiji Fist, an internal fist art whose reputation stood very high in Hu Fei’s time (SIDE ch. 1). It was divided into a Southern Branch at Wenzhou (南派), to which Zhao Banshan of the Red Flower Society belonged, and a Northern Branch at Guangping Prefecture in Zhili (北宗), led by Sun Gangfeng; as Chen Yu put it, the two were “the same school but different lineages” (同派不同宗) (SIDE ch. 3, 4).

Overview

Branches

The Guangping branch descended from a shizu surnamed Sun, who had three disciples: Sun Gangfeng, the eldest and later zhangmen; Chen Yu’s father, the second; and Lü Xixian, the third and strongest, who never got on with the others (SIDE ch. 4). Zhao Banshan of the Wenzhou branch was a senior of the whole school; Sun Gangfeng had once gone to Wenzhou to fight him, and came away with Zhao’s name fixed in his mind (SIDE ch. 3, 4).

Rules

Each branch had its own rules, and both forbade teaching the school’s inner secrets to Manchus (SIDE ch. 4).

History

The murder of Lü Xixian

Lü Xixian became an instructor in a prince’s household in Beijing. When Prince Ding (定王爷) pressed him for the secrets of Taiji Fist, Lü withheld them and resigned. Chen Yu, sent by the prince, went to Lü’s house at night with three men while Lü lay ill, threatened Lü’s young son with a jian to make Lü reveal the formulas and killed the boy, and then wore Lü to death with “Cloud Hands” (云手) (SIDE ch. 4).

Sun Gangfeng, unable to deal with Chen Yu himself, cut off his own left hand and wrote a letter in its blood, which Lü’s small daughter carried to Zhao Banshan in the Hui regions, asking him to avenge her father (SIDE ch. 4).

Reckoning at Shang Family Fort

Zhao Banshan tracked Chen Yu, who had entered Fuk’anggan’s service, to Shang Family Fort in Shandong (SIDE ch. 3). He overpowered Chen with a single “Cloud Hands” when Chen struck first with “Jade Maiden Weaves the Shuttle” (玉女穿梭), and laid out the case before the company (SIDE ch. 3, 4). He then recited the Chaos Rings Formula (乱环诀) and the Yin-Yang Formula (阴阳诀) that Chen had killed to obtain, and explained them; as Chen tried them against him, Zhao drained his strength until his arts were ruined and he begged for his life (SIDE ch. 4). Zhao asked Sun Gangfeng to spare him, and Sun, thanking Zhao for cleansing the Northern Branch’s house, left the choice to Lü’s daughter, who went after Chen with a knife. Fleeing, Chen seized the hall door, which Old Madam Shang had heated red-hot from outside, and died on it (SIDE ch. 4).

Zhao’s exposition of the formulas was heard by everyone in the hall, and Hu Fei drew on it for years afterwards (SIDE ch. 4, 8, 9, 11).

Martial arts

  • Taiji Fist (太极拳): the school’s art. He Sihao, an imperial bodyguard, fought with Taiji Fist and Taiji Dao (SIDE ch. 1). Every move of the school’s Taiji work was a circle (SIDE ch. 4)
  • Chaos Rings Formula (乱环诀) and Yin-Yang Formula (阴阳诀): verses on the art, which Zhao Banshan said were not great secrets within the school (SIDE ch. 4)

Notable members

  • Zhao Banshan: Wenzhou branch; master of Taiji Fist, Taiji jian and hidden weapons (SIDE ch. 3)
  • Sun Gangfeng (孙刚峰): zhangmen of the Guangping branch (SIDE ch. 4)
  • Lü Xixian (吕希贤): Guangping branch, the strongest of its three brothers; killed by Chen Yu (SIDE ch. 4)
  • Chen Yu: Guangping branch, who called Lü Xixian shishu; traitor (SIDE ch. 3, 4)

Relationships

  • Fuk’anggan: Chen Yu served him (SIDE ch. 3, 4)
  • Eight Trigrams School: Old Madam Shang threatened to have her son leave the Eight Trigrams School for the Taiji School (SIDE ch. 3)

See also

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