Commonly known as the GuanDao, the weapon of General Yu of the Three Kingdoms fame，the Spring And Autumn Falchion is classified as a long weapon. Traditionally very heavy,there are now lighter versions that weight less than 2 kg.
The Chen Taiji routine is made up of thirty phrases that run like a poem. The main applications of this weapons They are chop, cut, pierce, parry, thrust, intercept, press, push, slice, block and swing in figure-8 form. Here is a clip by Ni ShiQing ( 倪世清）, a disciple of Chen Zhenglei. Ni …

This is a post by our guest blogger, Silkreeling who is also a keen player of Chen Style Taijiquan
Recorded during the 3rd Chenjiagou Taiji GongFu Competition in June 08, this clip showcases few of Master Chen Zhenglie’s better known disciples. They are Zhang Dongwu, Wang Haijun, Chen Bin, Fu Nengbin and Chen Juan.

In the Laojia Routine 1, Brush the Knees is a relatively simple move on the surface. However the shifting of weights between the legs and the sinking of the “gua”  are not obvious to many.  For beginners, they are usually taught to cup their hands somewhere near their left knee. Ask yourself, did you shift your weight when doing this ?
Whille we may like to grasp someone knee and destablises him/her, you may like to go for the waist and lift the person up.

Let discuss the next form in Old Frame Routine 1 – Diagonal form. Based on my experiences, this stroke will requires you to spend some effort before you could make it look smooth and elegant. Well, you haveto do it thrice in the routine so you will get lots of practise.
It has a Big Waist movement where you twist your waist from the right (while standing) to the left (while bending down the upper body). Could look funny if you doing it for the 1st time …

Taijiquan is always perceived to be a slow moving excercise. While taijiquan is definitely slower than the external styles, how slow should it be? In Chen style, there is a mixture of fast and slow movements. The fast being the fajin stokes. Again almost every stroke can have faijin displayed if you want.
As a general guideline for a Beginner, you should do it as slow as you can. By doing so, it allows you to self check your postures, your stance and your weighing of your feet at …

How many different type of barehand Chen taiji routines have you learn or heard of ?

Old Frame Routine 1
Old Frame Routine 2
New Frame Routine 1
New Frame Routine 2
Small Frame Routine 1
Small Frame Routine 2
Old Frame 38 Strokes by Chen XiaoWang
Old Frame 19 Strokes by Chen Zhenglei
Competition Routine- 56 Strokes
more…….
As Chen taiji get more popular we will start to see more “creative” routines…maybe one day we will see “Power Chen taiji”???

Was it the goose or was it the crane? Chen village named this stroke as White Goose Spread Wings (as in Chen Shi TaijiQuan Tu Shuo while In Beijing they named it as White Crane Spread Wings (see Chen Shi TaijiQuan)
If you ever see how a goose spreads its wings, you will agree with me that the stroke is better described by White Goose Spread Wings. In this stroke, both hands are not far stretched but the right palm is just above the right temple while the …

Well, another important stroke of Routine one. It appears 7 times in Routine one so it makes sense to learn it well. The whip is a kind of weapon used in chinese marital arts. The two outstretched arms in the final position of this stroke looks like a whip, long and stretched but yet flexible to strike in a deadly manner.
Some of us do it with a dan-tian rotation with the left hand before it goes in a arc movement to the left. When done in …

This is the stroke you need to really do well as it appear 7 times in routine 1. There are many explaination to this name. More confusion was added by the way it was named in Yang Style. In fact you are doing a 100% when u do a 60% sealing and 40% closing.
What consitutes the 60% sealing and 40& closing is not very clear though. :p
But Peng, Lu , Ji , An are all use in this stroke no mattter it is Old or New frame. So …

揽扎衣 this stroke appears twice in routine 1. It seems to be a bad chinese to english translation mainly caused by the word ,揽 (lan) which sounds the same as Lazy in chinese. Man tied his coat is good enough. Why did he tied his coat? in those days, the chinese men wore long skirt like coat with pants underneath. Preparing to fight would required them to tuck in the coat for convenience.