Dr. Xu Weijun 48 step Wu Taijiquan.

This is Dr. Xu Weijun performing the 48 step form we teach after 24 step Yang. He is one of the masters that came over from Beijing Sports University in China when John still had his studio on Main Street back in 2000. This guy is the absolute best (regarded as one of the top 100 masters of all time), and you can even see -- if you look close enough -- the pulse governing how he moves in each transition. His body very slightly, slowly and smoothly vibrates due to decades of dedicated qigong (pulse) cultivation, and has quite a heavy and magnetic quality to its essence of movement. It's almost reptilian in manner. Internal development in its top form, look and study closely...



Here's a link to the youtube vid if you want a closer look with the full-screen option: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gt4XPLe0UU

I've watched this a few times now and I'm picking up little subtleties each time. It's almost as if you can see his intent "through the back" a lot in this video - it's like a small wave.
And a full 8 minutes too - I didn't realize Wu style was that long. This is great.

Man i Cannot stop watching this!! Look at him, Theres no abrupt movement, no sharp stops or anything of the sort. He just..flows. Excuse the cliche but he's so fluid, like water! Its amazing to me. The softness is obvious but if u really imagine being on the receiving end it takes you to an entirely different thought process. Im nowhere close to being done with taiji but even i can see the mastery behind this!

It's interesting... Xu is a apparently a Tongbeiquan master; that was the style he was the most proficient in. It makes sense that the subtle wave-like motion is the physical manifestion of his specific martial practice (tongbeiquan literally means "through the back fist"). Perhaps he opened the back channel to a further degree than the others due to his area of mastery, which is why his head seems to bob back-and-forth slightly. John said that when he put his hand on Xu's stomach, it felt like a python was moving underneath his skin. Xu then shot qi (or whatever you want to call it) through his stomach, knocking John back several feet. Also, tests were done at UVa using an MRI on Xu's body; the results said he had the heart health of a 20 year old... and he was a smoker. I also think his lungs were in great condition too, but I could be wrong. John told me he was a pretty freaky guy, maybe even a little scary (his skill). I definitely wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of one of those strikes.

The technical name for the qigong we do (as well as Dr. Xu) is "AMQ", which is an acronym for "Acupuncture Meridian Qigong." Through practice over the years you are literally giving yourself acupuncture by accessing the body's meridian channels with your breath, and growing pathways or "building roads" using your body's blood vessels. This baffles most, if not all, medical doctors in the field of medicine. They just don't get it because it's not something that's taught in traditional medical schools. According to what they're taught, this shouldn't be possible. I suppose it's similar to Christopher Columbus saying the world was round, as the popular opinion was it was flat; or that we would never venture into space because it wasn't possible. The list goes on....

My guess is that Xu opened and grew his main back channel to a larger degree than the others due to his preference and aptitude for Tongbeiquan. His top student, Lu Shaojun, is a Xingyquan master. It would be interesting to see the difference in Taiji expression Lu would exhibit due to his field of mastery. I actually saw Lu do Taiji, but was such a beginner at the time that I had no eye for internal expression, and thus missed the great subtly in his movement.

Eryn wrote:It's interesting... Xu is a apparently a Tongbeiquan master; that was the style he was the most proficient in. It makes sense that the subtle wave-like motion is the physical manifestion of his specific martial practice (tongbeiquan literally means "through the back fist"). Perhaps he opened the back channel to a further degree than the others due to his area of mastery, which is why his head seems to bob back-and-forth slightly. John said that when he put his hand on Xu's stomach, it felt like a python was moving underneath his skin.

The technical name for the qigong we do (as well as Dr. Xu) is "AMQ", which is an acronym for "Acupuncture Meridian Qigong." Through practice over the years you are literally giving yourself acupuncture by accessing the body's meridian channels with your breath, and growing pathways or "building roads" using your body's blood vessels.

My guess is that Xu opened and grew his main back channel to a larger degree than the others due to his preference and aptitude for Tongbeiquan. His top student, Lu Shaojun, is a Xingyquan master. It would be interesting to see the difference in Taiji expression Lu would exhibit due to his field of mastery. I actually saw Lu do Taiji, but was such a beginner at the time that I had no eye for internal expression, and thus missed the great subtly in his movement.

And he was in his fifties in this video! Xu was one of only a handful of people who holds a 9th duan ranking and he also has 8th duan. These were in Baji and Tongbei and I don't remember which style was which ranking. At the time I was told this, there were supposedly less than ten 9th duan practitioners and only relatively few more with 8th duan. I don't suspect that he "grew his main back channel to a larger degree" per se, but that he had fully opened all the meridians and cultivated dan tian to an insanely high level. He could move the concentration of it in a python-like way through his whole body and demonstrated this to John, so I'm told and believe, through his legs and torso. The roots of taijiquan may be closely linked to tongbei according to some. When I watch this video, I definitely notice how he seems to have a "tongbei body" but it does not seem to taint his taiji IMO. In fact, I can't imagine taiji done more seamlessly. I can also see a bit of his baji in his posture. Often people let their focus on other styles sort of skew what they do, but I only see phenomenal taiji here despite these other qualities of his movement. Xu was pretty intense about his training I'm told, which should not be a surprise. His basic routine for taiji started with doing taiji gongfa and warm body exercise, 108 times. It became quickly apparent that this was not a level of training that would carry over into a western school. For those of you aspiring to his level, this is a good start point (I'm not up for it). One would definitely need the highest of skill level in qigong to approach his level.

Just to add my 2 cents on your comments Eryn, AMQ isn't necessarily the technical name for the qigong we practice. This is however a modern term for it that seems to most accurately describe what it is we are doing and what qualifies it as being different from much other qigong. Many qigong styles talk about opening the meridians and how it affects the meridians and so on without ever feeling the pulse traveling through the meridians and the great majority of it is simply feel good visualization or else hard qigong circus freak stuff. The control and cultivation of the meridians as we practice falls into a small subset and specifically deals with the physically palpable sensations of the acupuncture meridians that are in fact built through practice. I would not phrase this as, "literally giving yourself acupuncture", as we are not dealing with the external use of needles. We are able to do what a good acupuncturist does without the needles and then some. The meridians must be built and dan tian must be cultivated or there is nothing other than imagining. This cannot be done without the work of qigong. Acupuncture ideally can create the meridian temporarily or help un-block a built meridian, but if the meridian is not open it will not be felt. If there is not pulse and magnetism felt, there is no meridian cultivated.

I watched Lu do taiji as much as possible and would describe much of the way I do things as being from Lu, but mostly through John's interpretation of his teaching. Also, I have studied Xu's videos much and have adapted to his movement somewhat, particularly when it comes to Chen. I still learn a lot every time I watch this and other videos of Xu.

I just ordered another vcd containing routines from several different masters, one of which is Xu doing some Tongbei exercises, as well as more taiji. I'll post that once I get it uploaded.

108 times... that's around 3 hours total. What a beast.

Dave wrote:I've watched this a few times now and I'm picking up little subtleties each time. It's almost as if you can see his intent "through the back" a lot in this video - it's like a small wave.
And a full 8 minutes too - I didn't realize Wu style was that long. This is great.

The Yang long form as performed by Xu Laoshi is 15 minutes. Also, this form is commonly referred to as Wu style, but really it is best described as combined taiji. It has lots of Wu's signature moves, but is built on a Yang base apparently and to my eye nowadays, more resembles Yang in flavor than it does Wu. It also contains some hints of Chen and Sun style taiji. The brush knee with a follow step is from Sun.