Professional Documents
Culture Documents
By Peter Wu Shi-zeng
The name of Chen Fa-ke (1887-1957) is renowned in Taijiquan circles, particularly among the Chen stylists. One could ask How truly proficient was Chen Fa-kes skill in Taijiquan? Some would reply they are unsure. Some would say he must have been very good as he was a famous Taijiquan master. As for querying how his skill compared with other T ijiquan masters of his generation, I believe few could answer this question. a This article is intended not only to reveal more about Chen Fa-ke as a famous master in the history of Taijiquan, but more importantly to provide a richer and more accurate picture of the heights attainable in T ijiquan as a martial art. a Due to limited experience most people have a narrow view of the highest levels of Taijiquan. Their understanding is restricted to what their teachers have shown them and observing demonstrations by famous Taijiquan practitioners. They may believe they have seen the best in T ijiquan, whereas they have probably seen only a fraction of what is a attainable. Once people become aware of the levels reached by Chen Fa-ke they are not as easily satisfied, but inspired to practice harder and pursue a greater degree of excellence.
should be taken seriously. You cannot take it lightly just because youre training with someone you know. Once taking it lightly becomes a habit you will be disadvantaged when facing the enemy. Even when training with family the cousin would not relent the tiniest amount, often throwing his opponents so hard they would injure themselves and bleed. After training hard for three years Chen Fa-ke found that the lump in his belly had virtually disappeared and his fitness had improved. His health and strength had become normal for a boy of his age. Meanwhile his martial skills had progressed unnoticed. One day, in order to test how much progress he had made he invited his cousin to practice push hands. His cousin laughed and said, Well, all but one of the young men of our family have experienced my skill. Previously you were too delicate and dared not push hands with me. Now that you have become stronger and sturdier, you should be able to withstand my strikes and throws. It is now time for you to get a taste of my push hands skill. Following this conversation they took position. His cousin tried three times to advance and throw Chen Fa-ke using fajin. On each occasion he was instead countered and thrown back by Chen Fa-ke. Not until the third time did his cousin suspect that Chen Fa-kes skill had surpassed his own, yet he wasnt fully convinced. He was upset at losing, and as he was leaving he grumbled, Every generation in your lineage produces masterhand practitioners, probably by passing down secret techniques. Even hopeless ones like you who are not as good me can now defeat me. There is no point for any of my lineage to practice this art, for we dont know the secrets. Chen Fa-ke informed Hong Jun-sheng, In fact, my father had not been home those previous three years, so he could not have taught me any secret family techniques. My skill was purely the result of three years hard work. Through these incidents we can see the importance of hard training. Diligent and consistent practice is important to become stronger and make greater progress in our techniques. We cannot conclude from this story that there are no secrets in Taijiquan, but rather that secrets are relatively unimportant. It is true that for those three years his father could not have taught him any secrets. However, prior to this period Chen Fa-ke would have become aware of his fathers training methods and principles, he just had not put in the necessary effort to properly train them. Moreover, during the three years of his hard training he had also trained with his uncles, who would have reinforced the authentic principles of Taijiquan. T claim there are no secrets is simply to state that Chen Fa-ke did not know any principles o or techniques unknown to his cousin. All martial artists in the Chen village were practising the traditional Chen style martial art. Chen Fa-ke had progressed quickly and achieved a great understanding of Taijiquan through his determination to work hard, firstly by spending more time, and secondly by training with feeling. In contrast, once his cousin had achieved a certain level of skill he was satisfied with his ability. Unlike Chen Fa-ke he didnt train as much nor did he truly put his heart into it, thus he was eventually surpassed by him. For the normal Taijiquan practitioner like one of us it is certainly not sufficient to train hard. It is first essential to learn the correct techniques, following with hard training will lead us to success. My Chen style teacher Hong Jun-sheng always said, We have to train T ijiquan a the smart way. We need to use our brain. First we learn to train correctly, then we put in the hard effort.
Many sensational combat tales have been passed down to us about Chen Fa-ke. These stories could provide material for many excellent and exciting movies and television series. Yet, if we talk about something fanciful it may prove fascinating but we cannot learn much about real Taijiquan. We need to ascertain the truth about Chen Fa-ke to stimulate interest and lead students to pursue the true principles of T ijiquan. Also, if we try to emulate fictitious exploits a we may lose confidence in our art and give it up from a falsely perceived inadequacy on our part. Only if we can discern which of the stories are true can we be inspired to train hard in the right direction. I will therefore introduce some stories about Chen Fa-ke which are not just fables. I have selected each story according to three sets of criteria to ensure a high degree of credibility. 1. The story has been passed down by a direct student of Chen Fa-ke or by a family member. This person must either have witnessed the events in person, or have had them directly related by Chen Fa-ke. Also, the person must be deemed a reliable and trustworthy source. The martial art techniques depicted must all be consistent with the principles of Taijiquan. We can thus explain how they work and be able to learn from them. The martial art skills demonstrated in the story are those we deem Chen Fa-ke must have possessed, because many different people have purportedly witnessed him using these same skills in different situations.
2. 3.
For each story I mention I will provide some explanation, to allow readers to decide for themselves if the story is believable. I will first mention a story in the next section which has been reported in many books and newspapers.
By analysing this story I wish to show that it cannot relate to true events. In 1928 Chen Fa-kes nephew Chen Zhao-pi was teaching in Beijing. Many people came to challenge him and test his skill in Taijiquan. Among these challengers were the powerful and famous Three Heroic Li Brothers who were keen to try him. Chen Zhao-pi was worried he would lose against them and sully the reputation of the Chen family. He quickly sent for his uncle Chen Fa-ke to defend their family honour. When Chen Fa-ke arrived in Beijing he was taken to meet the brothers. It was a summer evening and all three brothers were at home. Chen Fa-ke was left waiting in the courtyard while Chen Zhao-pi went inside to speak to them. The eldest brother sat in an armchair drinking tea. Chen Zhao-pi suffered great fright and broke into a sweat when he saw the opponent, who looked tall and strong. He thought, Uncle had better win this fight, for if he comes to harm I will be in deep trouble with the family. When the Li brother saw Chen Zhao-pi hesitating he demanded, Do you come willing? Chen Zhao-pi replied, Dont you want to see the Chen family martial art? Li shouted in response, Well! slamming down on the table and propelling the tea bowls and pot into the air. Li moved away from his armchair and stood waiting like an iron tower. At this point Chen Fa-ke dashed into the house. As Chen Zhao-pi was trying to move away, he heard his uncle shout Hah!, the sound he made when exerting internal power. The next he knew the iron tower was violently thrust away and thrown against the window sill, breaking the window. The other two Li brothers just stood in shock. As Chen Fa-ke was preparing to leave he asked, Who want to try again ? The Li brothers slunk away like cats. This tale of Chen Fa-ke seems to be very facinating. One day when I was chatting with Master Hong Jun-sheng he told me it is just a fable. Master Hong was a practical person, yet he had no doubts about Chen Fa-kes skill and abilities. He believed it is sufficient for us to learn from Chen Fa-kes example of self-discipline in training, without recourse to fantastic stories. According to Master Hong there are several unreliable aspects to the above story. Firstly, Chen Fa-ke was invited to Beijing by Chen Zhao-pi for totally different reasons (more on this later). Secondly, Hong and other students of Chen Fa-ke had never heard of this story. Thirdly, there is no record of any persons called The Three Heroic Brothers in Beijing during that time. Finally, Chen Fa-ke was a friendly person, he did not behave like a rogue and get involved in street-fights. Hong was a very practical person. He did not like others to make up the story about Chen. Hong felt the decent Chen Fa-ke was good enough for us to model and there is no need to add on other unreal stories. I will begin to depict some of the more reliable deeds of Chen Fa-ke below.
Chen Li-qing was about nine years of age she and her father happened to meet Chen Fa-ke in the street. Chen Fake mentioned going to Beijing, and his plans to gather students and some relatives in the evening at the Chen family Shrine for a farewell party, and also practice T ijiquan. Knowing she was too young to be allowed to attend, Chen Lia qing used a tree at the back of the shrine to help climb over the wall and hide herself under the altar table before the a adults were due to arrive at evening. She came out to watch when the T ijiquan demonstrations commenced. After a number of students had finished their performance Chen Fa-ke also performed. When he stamped his foot, dust and sand fell from the roof with a cracking sound. His fa-jin made the flames of nearby lanterns to flicker and crackle. As a finale Chen Fa-ke practiced push-hands with his students. His fa-jin threw some students flying up the wall and falling down. This was the only Chen Fa-kes demonstration that Chen Li-qing saw but was very impressed. She had never seen his ability demonstrated as normally everyone practiced T ijiquan in their own courtyard. Chen Li-qing has a described her fathers skill to me. He practiced small-frame T ijiquan with very good skill, but he was not as good as a Chen Fa-ke who practiced large-frame Taijiquan. The two styles are come from different streams. I believe that Chen Li-qing would have no reason to be biased in favour of Chen Fa-ke. She told me that Chen Fa-ke was the most skilled of his contemporaries at the Chen village. She also said that from the generation of Chen Chang-xing to that of Chen Fa-ke, their particular lineage was the most prominent in T ijiquan skill as well as having a high moral a standard!
and his footworks were completely wrong in order. Lius elbow joint was sprained in a pull drill by Chen, and the pain lasted over a month even after applying medicinal paste. The students were so intimidated that they dared not practice push-hands with Chen. Chen laughed and said to them, The injury was caused by my inadvertent mistake of not being aware of Lius slight ding- jin (resistant force). Just relax and follow the movements. I will pay more attention, and it should be all right. It is unacceptable to hurt people when teaching push-hands. Liu and the students were mollified and continued their study.