Chen Zhonghua and his Chen Style Taijiquan Practical Method (Part 3)

This is Part 3 of the translation and my interpretation of the text written by Sun Zhonghua. He is the 19^th generation master of Chen Style Taijiquan and a 2^nd generation master of Hunyuan Tai Ji. You can find the full text here if you can read Chinese. Here are the links to the other parts: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

To be a top Tai Ji master, you need to have the following five conditions.

1. Love the art
2. Have the time
3. Have moral and ethics
4. Able to learn and comprehend
5. Have a good teacher

I won’t go into further details about 1 to 4, as the majority of us will find that we cannot fulfill condition number 5, i.e. it is difficult to look for a good teacher.

Tai Ji is a martial art that places great emphasis on both theory and practice. It is difficult enough for an accomplished teacher to perform a proper excution of Tai Ji as martial art, it will be more difficult without a teacher. A teacher will determine the success or failure of a student, hence the strong emphasis on finding a good teacher. A good teacher needs to fulfill a lot of criteria. What the previous masters find most important is only 2: The teacher has to “have the goods” and “can teach”.

Have the goods

“Having the goods” means having the real thing (even better if the teacher expanded on what he learnt). You can’t listen to whoever who brands himself well, or have a large student following. You can’t even say that the person has the goods just because he is famous. To know whether a person has the goods, you need to understand the person from various sources and consciously observe the teacher.  You first have to look at the lineage of teachers before him, but again, just because he’s on some famous lineage does not mean he has the goods. You still have to consciously observe. As choosing the right teacher is that important, you cannot take this exercise lightly. If not, you might end up learning all the wrong things again.

Can teach

“Can teach” means the teacher is able to pass on his knowledge effectively to the students. This is a bit more than willing to teach, although willing to teach is a key criteria. Some who has the goods are unwilling to teach, hence misleading his students, and concurrently destroying his name and lineage. There are others who doesn’t have the goods, and yet imitate the masters as though he has the goods. He doesn’t even have the fake goods…

Having said all these, you must be wondering, where are all these teachers who “have the goods” and “can teach”?

Yes, these teachers do not come by often, but I manage to chance upon one. His name is Chen Zhong Hua. He is the student of 2 teachers, Hong Jun Sheng and Feng Zhi Qiang, both are 18^th generation master of Chen Style Tai Ji. Chen Zhong Hua (CZH) is now the international standard bearer of the Chen Style Practical Method Tai Ji. People who witness his skills are just astounded.

A little story

Before I compare the different Tai Ji systems to understand CZH and his practical method better, let me tell you a little story.

(to be continued…)

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Related posts:

1. Chen Zhonghua and his Chen Style Taijiquan Practical Method (Part 4)
2. Chen Zhonghua and his Chen Style Taijiquan Practical Method (Part 1)
3. Chen Zhonghua and his Chen Style Taijiquan Practical Method (Part 2)
4. A compassionate teacher always loses
5. A spine (tingling) question