By Grand Master Wayne Peng
Translated by Shiaw-Ling Lai
The first Chinese and English dual-language manual on the subject of traditional tai chi published, Zhaobao Tai Chi Chuan, finally makes its much-anticipated debut before tai chi aficionados in the Bay Area.
Zhaobao Tai Chi Chuan promises to wholly unveil the mystery of Wudang’s traditional Zhaobao Tai Chi style. Zhaobao Tai Chi is one of the most ancient tai chi chuan legacies in China, boasting several hundred years of history in its practice. While the modern-day world of martial arts echoes with the clamor of hundreds of individuals seeking to make a name, Zhaobao Tai Chi Chuan has always enjoyed a timeless prestige. Despite the greater modern-day popularity of Wu style, Hao style, and Sun style tai chi, all can trace part of their origins back to Zhaobao Tai Chi Chuan as well.
But what kind of tai chi martial art is Zhaobao Tai Chi Chuan. What is its history? What makes it unique?
According to book author Master Wayne Peng’s introduction, “Zhaobao Tai Chi Chuan’s name comes by the geographic region, and is the only tai chi which does not take a surname as its appellation. Zhaobao, is not a personal name, but the name of a small town located fourteen kilometers east of the Wen district in the Henan provine. A town which has had 2,300 years of history. The town looks south over the Yellow River’s northern banks, and gazes north into the Taihang foothills, turning east into the capital, and extending west toward Luo Yi. Since antiquity, this propitious location has made Zhaobao a center of travel and trade.According to legend, Zhao Bao was once the elaborate Jin Yin Zhong burial grounds of the soldiers of Zhao Dynasty during the Warring States Period (500 B.C.–221 B.C.); thus earning the town the title of “Zhaobao” or “Zhao’s stronghold,” a name which has continued into usage today. Between the end of the Ming and during the beginning of the Ching dynasties, a man from Zhaobao named Jiang Fa became a disciple of the renowned Shanxi province tai chi master Wang Zongyue; after returning to his hometown, Jiang Fa then bequeathed his skills to his fellow townsman Xing Xihuai, thus beginning the line of Zhaobao tai chi masters, and reintroducing the name of Zhaobao into the annals of martial history.
The feudalistic era in which Zhaobao Tai Chi’s originators lived was a world without firearms and with limited weaponry; in this world mastery of the martial arts was the equivalent of power over life and death. For this reason, practitioners of Zhaobao Tai Chi’s were historically very selective in who they chose to inherit Zhaobao Tai Chi’s traditional boxing techniques, practice, and theoretical manuals. Zhao Bao Tai Chi masters were few and far between, and for seven consecutive generations, Zhaobao Tai Chi’s conservative keepers stoically guarded the secrets of the art, giving rise to the saying that, “Zhao Ba Tai Chi would never leave the village.” It was not until the 1930s, when the two tenth generation masters Zheng Wuqing and Zheng Boying irrefutably left the village of Zhao Bao that finally brought and end to the claim. The two gentlemen established a foothold in the city of Xi’an, in the northwest, turning their attention to the entire nation, broadening the teaching of Zhaobao Tai Chi’s art, and devoting a lifetime of painstaking care to the advancement and teaching of Zhaobao Tai Chi.
Amongst the students that Zhaobao Tai Chi Chuan’s 11th generation Master Song Yunhua taught included today’s 12th generation Master Wayne Peng. Up and until this 12th generation in the 1980s, Zhaobao Tai Chi Chuan had never even crossed the borders of China. But thereafter, with the new generation, the martial art branched out to Hong Kong, Australia, Thailand, Singapore, France, Germany, Holland, and so forth. In doing so, Zhaobao Tai Chi finally removed its veil of mystery and became an open subject of study for people from all over the world.
Regarding technique, Zhaobao Tai Chi Chuan’s central principals are, “hard as iron, soft as cotton, slippery as a fish, and inseparable as glue.” (Literally, the last part of this saying should actually be translated as, ‘tenacious as a fish bladder,’ stemming from a practice in ancient China to boil the air bladders of fish to make a sticky paste used for glue.) In its performance Zhaobao Tai Chi is elegant and graceful, its yin-yang philosophy of yielding softly as a way of expressing great strength demonstrated through every composition of its stances, combining movements that emphasize the natural harmony of human body, like the fluid shifting of clouds and flowing water, leisurely drifting. Canonical Chinese scriptures, including the “I Ching” (The Book of Change), “Zhongyong” (The Doctrine of the Mean), as well as Neo-Confucian thought, form the backbone behind Zhaobao Tai Chi’s philosophies and ideas; uniting “The Three Teachings” (Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism), under an exciting new umbrella of philosophical debate and thought.
Beneficial as both an exercise for both physical and mental health, Zhaobao Taichi also incorporates a strong regimen self-defense training. Zhaobao Taichi is one of China’s greatest traditional cultural treasures; it embodies both intelligence and philosophical thought in its practice, emphasizes natural grace and synchronicity in its movements, and expresses a seemingly bottomless well of mystery in the intricacies of its combat and defensive techniques. Unparalleled throughout the world, the practice of Zaobao Taichi cultivates the physical strength of the whole body, instills discipline, hones character, helps the body to repel sickness, and rewards practitioners with increased energy throughout the day, enriching the enjoyment of even everyday life.
But more importantly, the study and practice of Zhaobao Taijiquan is accessible to all, without regard to age, sex, or the body’s physical limit; unlike the broader spectrum of physical sports, and without the tedious expense of equipment. To practice, you will only need a few square meters of indoor or outdoor space—an old Zhaobao adage calls it, “space enough for a cow to sleep”—and each practitioner, whether he or she be young or old, can moderate the exercises according to his or her own abilities. A small stretch of open area is all that is required to practice the complete set of Zhaobao Taichi exercises.
Today it has received widespread acclaim, not only for the elegance and refinement of its movements, but also because it is an effective tool for self-defense tool, the study of which has engage many martial arts students. Zhaobao Taichiquan exercises help to build healthy bodies, and in this it is different from other forms of martial arts, in that Zhaobao Taichiquan is suitable for all levels and all ages of practice, and the exercises focus on conditioning the natural fitness and strengths of the individuals’ body. Even small investments in this exercise can return large rewards, and more and more practitioners have joined the art of learning Zhaoba Taichi kung fu.
The author of this book, Master Wayne Peng, is a twelfth generation disciple of China’s Wudang Taichi tradition. An admirer of the martial arts from his youth, he first began training between six and seven, and his early exposure can perhaps be credited to growing up in the heart of the ancient city of Xi’an, in the province of Shanxi. One cannot help but feel the weight of history in Xi’an. In speaking of this ancient capital, many people call to mind the historical significance of the Qin Emperor unifying the six countries and establishing his capital here; a tremendous feat that set the foundation for an illustrious succession of dynasties to come in Xi’an. Xi’an was also the site from which the Han Chinese drove the Xiongnu tribes from central China—stories abound of the raging Han army sweeping with the speed of sparrows on horseback across the plains, expelling the invaders. Under the influence of this rich heritage of martial arts and culture, Master Peng was born.
Master Peng is a great devotee of traditional Chinese culture and martial arts, which led him to seek out and become a disciple of Wudang Zhaobao Taichi’s eleventh generation Master, Mr. Song Yunhua. Master Peng eventually entered into the practice’s grand tradition and became one of the youngest initiates to earn the title of Master. He has dedicated over thirty years of his life to pursuing and understanding the essence of Zhao Bao Tai Chi. Tai chi training emphasizes elegant and simple forms, movements graceful like a crane flying in the air, flowing and smooth as drifting clouds or flowing water, cyclical movements that seem as soft as cotton, endlessly turning. In practice and application, the basic form must be centered, upright, balanced, and circularl, guided by the principles of loose, serene, and smooth, reflecting the philosophy of the five movements (also called Wu Xing) and eight trigrams of the Ba Gua. In performance tai chi can be fast or slow, the movements may be large or small, and if one’s practice of tai chi kung fu is mature, it increases one’s internal power, in particular after mastering the fundamentals of tai chi push hands, wrestling, leg stance, and sparring.
Although a powerful martial artist in his own right, Master Peng found his true calling in working to educate and share his passion for tai chi with an international audience. In in the 1990s, he joined his own Master Song Yunhua in Hong Kong and assisted in the founding of the International Tai Ji I Quan Dao Association. The Association’s mission was to promote tai chi and initiate an active exchange of ideas with other martial arts groups, to discuss, to compare notes, and to infuse new life and energy into traditional Chinese martial arts and culture. Master Peng himself has always stressed that, “Practice is the only way to critically examine the truth,” and has always welcomed exchanges with other schools and disciplines as another way of deepening his own understanding of the martial arts. In this spirit, Master Peng went on to lead a team to the 2001 Ju Hai International Tai Chi Competition, where they were honored with seven gold medals and six silver medals, as leaders at the forefront of the competition.
Master Peng has been studying tai chi qigong as a form of health exercise 1980s. An avid learner, he has studied traditional Chinese philosophies in depth for their insights into the art of tai chi, and for the contemporary applications of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism, as well as the concepts guiding the five movements and eight trigrams of the Ba Gua. The Chinese martial arts publications, Wu Dang, and Tai Chi, have run numerous stories on his work as a cover feature, and in acknowledgment of Master Peng’s remarkable work and years of dedication to the field of tai chi, he has been honored wich such distinctions as, “Chinese Fitness Leader of the Year,” “International Martial Arts Master,” a listing in the “Who's Who of Contemporary Chinese Kung Fu Masters,” and has been awarded with the “Oustanding Chinese Martial Artist Award,” “World Class Marial Artist Gold Medal” and the “Top 100 World Famous Martial Artists Award.” Master Peng has also received accompanying invitations to act as the overseas representative, editor, and researcher for the Chinese International Wushu Cultural Development and Research Center as well as the Contemporary Chinese Wushu Encyclopedia Editorial Committee.
In 2005, Master Peng immigrated to the US, to begin his US martial arts enterprise. Master Wayne Peng is presently both Chairman and trainer the of the USA Tai Chi Kung Fu Culture Association, President of the USA Tai Chi Kung Fu Club, Director of the California Chinese Medical & Research Center’s Tai Chi Qigong division, Head Coach of the International Tai Chi I Quan Dao, and consultant for the International Wushu Sanshou Dao Association, as well as their California Division Director.
The USA Tai Chi Kung Fu Culture Association was founded to promote the exchange of culture and martial arts through various intercultural events. In 2006, the organization welcomed a lecture series by distinguished martial artists from the Mainland, in 2007, members of the group embarked on a Sino-US martial arts conference trip to the Wudang Mountains in China (which lays claim to being the place of origin of all Tai Chi), and in 2008, the Culture Associated and its members attended the 11th Handan International Tai Chi Chuan conference, as well as two Hong Kong international Tai Chi Chuan exchanges.
Master Peng has devoted over 30 years of his life to the profound practice and research of Zhaobao Tai Chi Chuan, and distilled the essence of what he’s learned in his new book, Zhaobao Tai Chi Chuan, a compilation in circulation today thanks to the USA Tai Chi Kung Fu Culture Association; this dual-language publication features facing pages of Chinese and English, with the goal of making Zhaobao Tai Chi accessible to everyone. Now available in bookstores all around the Bay Area.