太极拳 Taiji Quan 1959

 

 

Dante Basili

This is an interesting document dated September 1959, filmed by the Chinese Army Film Studios. These are masters active in Beijing in those years, the setting is all of Beijing. 

 

Some names of some relevance appear that many of us do not know today: 

 

• Li Yaochen 李尧 臣 (1876-1973) the old man with a white beard, probably the model of the famous Taiji figurines, very well known at the time, performed several times for Mao Zedong and the New China cadres, he taught with his daughter to young people at Zhongnanhai Ministerial Residence. As a young man he had been an escort of values ​​and had also performed for the widowed Empress Cixi. His style, however, was Taizuquan and Sanhuang paochui, from whom he learned Taiji is not clear. 

 

• Wang Yongquan 汪永泉 (1904-1987) master of Yang style taijiquan had studied with Yang Jianhou (1939-1917), the youngest son of Yang Luchan, and with Yang Shaohou (1862-1930), his son, and older brother of Yang Chengfu. 

 

• Yang Yuting 杨 禹 廷 (1917-1982) of the Wu style, the most representative master of this style in Beijing 

 

• Chen Zhaokui 陈 照 奎 (1928-1981) very young 31 years old 

 

• Sun Jianyun 孙剑云 (1914-2003) daughter of Sun Lutang 

 

• Li Jingwu 李 经 梧 (1912-1997) demonstrating the simplified 24, perhaps the first video shot of this exercise created just 3 years earlier. Li Jingwu had studied Wu style with Zhao Tie'an and Yang Yuting and then moved to Chen style with Chen Fake but he had also studied other styles with other masters and became the first taijiquan teacher of the newly formed wushu competitive team of the city of Beijing. 

 

• Li Bingci 李秉慈 (1929-2022) Wu style master, student of Yang Yuting, was also very active in sports organizations and participated in the drafting of standardized forms for pedagogy and competition, as well as in the formulation of competition regulations and in the training of referees.