Sometimes choosing the path of defending oneself is right

Kilik · Post by **Kilik** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 3:52 am

Sometimes choosing the path of defending oneself is right

A site with photos of Chen Fa Ke, the last Chen style master, and clips of his grandson-
http://www.taijigongfu.com/gallery.html

about Chen Fa Ke-

(1887-1957), seventeenth generation descendant of Chen clan, famous Chen style Taijiquan master, Chen Chan XIng's Great grandson . Chen became famous in his hometown for victories in lei tai (free fighting) competitions held in the county and for defeating opponents armed with spear and sabre while Chen stood barehanded( after he rejected the post offered to him by Han Fuju, local warlord). In 1929 , through Chen Zhaopi's recommendation , Chen Fa Ke left Chenjiagou and went to Beiping ( today's Beijing) to teach Taijiquan . Very modest, used to say about himself "No Good" and for this reason became known as "Chen No Good". Many times challenged by martial arts practioners ( including Bagua and Chinese wrestling experts) , defeated them in great style, without hurting anybody

Chen Wangting, Ninth Generation member of the Chen Family, served as a professional soldier for the Ming Dynasty fighting rebel forces. He was exposed to a variety of battlefield martial arts, which were more important militarily before the gun appeared on the battlefield. Despite his background and perseverance, in 1644, Chen ended up on the losing side. Rebel forces began to gain an upper hand, and soon thereafter the Ming Dynasty fell. It is then that Chen Wangting likely retreated to Chen Village and developed the comprehensive martial art and internal training system we now call Chen Style Taijiquan.

A third branch was headed up by another fourteenth generation member of the Chen family named Chen Youheng. Chen Youheng developed what many see as the first New Frame of the style. This New Frame was not a watering down of Chen style by any stretch of the imagination. Instead, it was viewed as an even more martial rendering of the style adapting to the ever changing face of military hand-to-hand combat. This approach was exemplified by his offspring, Chen Jishen and Chen Zhongshen who were recognized as warriors who successfully stood up to the Taiping rebels during the reign of the Emperor Hsien Feng. Some accounts credit Chen Zhongshen specifically with adding further developments of a "Big Style" that emphasized a martial prowess, and made the style more practical and adaptable to battlefield considerations.

Henan and its neighboring North China provinces of Hebei, Shandong, and Shanxi were home to a strong martial tradition, for a variety of historical and social reasons. First, they lay in the path of repeated waves of barbarian invasions from the north, the latest of which ruled from Beijing as the Manchu, or Qing (Ching), dynasty. Second, the area was riven by clan and sectarian rivalries which often turned violent. Third, the region was rife with banditry and crime. Barriers to class mobility and the practices of polygamy and female infanticide had created a huge surplus of destitute, single, and alienated young men; to many of them, the attractions of a swashbuckling life of crime and pillage proved irresistible.

http://www.grtc.org/articles/martialcivil.html

also
http://www.chinafrominside.com/ma/taiji/ch...ingmanuals.html
http://www.chinafrominside.com/ma/taiji/FZQinterview.html

QED · Post by **QED** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 8:05 am

Kilik, the Philosophy sub forum is intended as a debating forum and, as per the debating rules

3. When you start a new topic in a debate subforum, it must state a clearly defined question(s) for debate

I have moved it into Random Ramblings.