The other night I was going to the "satisfy and welcome" with my child's instructors at her high school. We were offered our kid's schedule, and we were asked to follow their day-to-day regimen. A statement would signify the shift from one duration to the next.
Kuo transferred to San Francisco around 1965. He had lots of trainees. Some of his trainees, particularly his Shaolin students were incredible athletes and did exquisite Shaolin forms. I remember them doing their beautiful types early in the morning. Their athletic capability was remarkable, showing amazing versatility, grace and flow. They were poetry in movement.
Numerous thought Chang San-feng was a Shaolin monk who chose to leave the abbey to become a Taoist hermit. On Wu Tang (Wudang) mountain, he quit the difficult combating style he had learned and developed a new art based upon softness and yielding. One story informs how he had a vision in between a snake and a crane (although some say it was a magpie, an eagle or a hawk). In theory, the crane ought to have had a simple time eliminating the snake, however in Chang's vision, the crane would attempt to assault the snake's head, and the snake would avert and hit the crane with it's tail. When the crane would try for the snake's tail, the snake would bite the crane. This resulted in the discovery of the fundamental t'ai chi ideas of evading, yielding and attacking.
Next, I attempted to relieve the guilt by getting How-To drawing books from the library. It was during this time that I researched art lessons in our area. I likewise checked out the outstanding Rainbow Resource catalog for art curriculum. I quickly got 2 new sort of guilt: Can't Afford Lessons Regret and Don't Wish To Teach Whole art history Curriculum Guilt. Excellent! I had discovered an outstanding art history kids art and gratitude course that even integrated art abilities, but I was not going to utilize it. In this season of our homeschool career I hesitate to teach an entire art course, even when a week. Committing to that and then falling behind on it or, even worse yet, teaching art while shirking our phonics would result in totally new type of regret.
Like his pal Kuo, Tchoung traveled around and tried other martial artists. Tchoung would visit him if he heard that master was expected to be great at push hands. According to Laurens Lee: "He was popular in t'ai-chi ch'uan push hands in Taiwan. During that duration of time, there was a statement in Taiwan's martial arts field: 'Big Tchoung can not be moved, and Little Tchoung can not be pressed off balance.' Big Tchoung described eagle-claw master Tchoung Fu-sheng, and Little Tchoung referred to Tchoung Ta-tchen." There are numerous trainees and teachers of the Tchoung system in Canada and the USA.
One Chinese trainee, who was captured up in this, informed me that while things altered, the anti-old and anti-intellectual Made, Anti-Western Concepts", not teaching standard education, continued up until around 1977, when the political climate changed again. This is much behind I would have thought. Another observer told me there is a whole generation of ignorant Chinese due to the political choices of that time, now lots of Chinese of that generation feel cheated by an absence of appropriate education. However that is another story however it parallels the martial art story also.
Tchoung studied ch'i kung at China's O'mei Shan (Emei Shan) abbey in 1942. Tchoung also studied the "Nature School of Boxing" with Hsiung Chien-yuan of Hangchow. He was a popular swordsman and studied numerous systems of sword. Teaching numerous approaches to his followers.
Kuo passed away at the age of 96 back at his home in Inner Mongolia. I was undoubtedly fortunate to have actually studied with and experienced the Chinese National Treasure, Grandmaster Kuo Lien Ying. He is among the last generation of irreplaceable "Genuine" t'ai chi ch'uan masters.