ZhaoBao/HuLeiJia taiji and DaoYin ex. pt. 3

Form Variations

Links to parts 1 and 2 of this series.

I was sort of saving this for later, but it came up on EF so I’ll post my thoughts on the lineage of this stuff here.

I can’t speak for what is on the mainland, but here in Taiwan, where zhaobao ends and huleijia (also known as hulingjia) begins is not clear at all. I’ve been doing lots of research on this and I’ve found that the names are being used more or less interchangably by some people and that really muddies the waters, so to speak. Some people are even calling it “wudang zhaobao chen shi huleijia.” I guess that covers all the bases.

From my preliminary research, I would say that we are dealing with two branches of the same art. Wang Jin-rang must have brought it here and taught it to several people. Then Du Yu-ze must have picked it up and combined it with his lao jia and xiao jia training. I say this because I find it hard to believe that two versions of the same art were brought by two different people from the mainland in 1949. Only six people brought Chen style to Taiwan in 1949. What are the chances that Zhaobao and HuleiJia got brought here by different people? Seems like a slim possibility to me.

Also, I’ve seen the form many times and the Wang Jin-rang — Xiong Wei branch do the form very differently from Du’s students. The Wang-Xiong branch do the form with more coiling shenfa and whipping fajing. The Du branch makes more use of pengjin structure and shaking fajing.

Compare Adam Hsu’s video (he was Du’s student) to this one and you will see the difference clearly:
http://homepage.mac.com/adaigo/iMovieTheater12.html

Finally, most of the Wang-Xiong lineage refer to their art as “zhaobao” and most of Du’s students call theirs “huleijia.” Confusion sets in when they are discussed on message boards and the names are used interchangably. I get confused because all of it (xiao jia included) gets referred to as “xin jia,” which is NOT the same as the xin jia from the mainland. The two have nothing in common. Making matters worse, the huleijia also goes by the name hulingjia. Yes, researching this has been a joy.

The obvious rejoiner to what I’m saying is that we may be seeing the famous different “frames” of huleijia being emphasized by different people. That’s possible and would explain the difference to some extent. But I would like to throw some more info into the mix.

I have found only one person in Taiwan who says that he is teaching only huleijia taiji through the so-called 10 levels. Most everyone that practices the huleijia (Du’s branch, remember. I think the distiction is valid.) are practicing it AFTER they have learned the lao jia and usually the xiao jia. In Adam Hsu’s case, this may not hold. I’ve never seen him claim to do xiao jia. So they practice this as an advanced frame of Chen style, not something separate, nor do they do 10 different levels of training in huleijia.

The Wang-Xiong branch referred to as zhaobao teach their version of this art as a first taiji form after the student has mastered the daoyin exercises. Xiong then teaches the student Yang style, and finally Wu (Hao). So they don’t do ten levels of training either. As a side note, this Chen-Yang-Wu progression is the same as that proposed by Jou Tsung Hwa of “Taiji Farm” fame in his book “The Dao of Taijiquan.” I think he got this idea from Xiong.

So in conlcusion, I think we are seeing two different frames or versions of what was brought here in 1949. I agree they have some similarities in that the form is basically the same as the Chen style. But they are done very differently and serve different purposes in the respective curriculums.

I’d be very curious to discuss this with anyone who is interested. Please use the comment section below. Thank you!