Short Form - deeper

There are five main family styles of Tai Chi, and Wutan schools start by teaching the Yang family style (link).

An application of single whip by Yang Chengfu from his 1931 book.

Specifically, the head of our school, Master They Soon Tuan, recommends we initially teach ‘Cheng Style Tai Chi Chuan’ what is colloquially referred to as the ‘Short Form’, ‘Yang Short Form’ or ‘Yang 37’.

Wutan’s ‘Yang’ short form is actually derived from a form created by Cheng Man-ch’ing (Zheng Manqing and sometimes referred to as ‘CMC’) (link), who studied with Yang Chengfu for a number of years.

The form comes in many variations. The one we teach is said to have thirty seven ‘postures’, and is much abbreviated from Yang’s original ‘long form’, but can still take anywhere from six to ten minutes to complete when focusing carefully on technique and breathing.

The Yang family has not endorsed Cheng’s adaptation. Accordingly, I will reference this form as the Cheng style Tai Chi form (not to be confused with ‘Chen’ Tai Chi).

Cheng Man-ch’ing in Single Whip

The changes from the traditional Yang ‘long form’ reduced some of the repetition and made it easier to teach larger numbers of students.

The moves, steps and transitions in the following video will be familiar to students, although you will notice some differences and omissions from the way this form is taught by Wutan.

Can you spot them? Maybe something to talk to your instructor about 😉

Here is another version of CMC doing his short form.

1. Look at the high hand finger positions in the double pushes

2. The so called ‘hold the ball’ is minimised and transitory

3. No donkey kicks

4. Elbow/shoulder strike (stroke) is very subtle as is White Crane Spreads its wings

5. Five Repulse Monkeys and five Cloud Hands as opposed to three. The Cloud Hands are also punctuated with a tiny pause in the middle of the move

6. Stepping back for Golden Rooster

7. In the kick section, the two separating kicks are followed immediately by the heel kick without stepping down (as in Long Yang)

8. There’s a fast 360 turn just prior to the Sweep Lotus Kick

9. Bend the Bow to Shoot the Tiger is minimal

Spot any more?

By way of contrast, look at this competition version:

1. The upper hand of the White Crane Spreads its Wings comes to the centre line like an inner forearm block

2. One brush knee push

3. No donkey kicks

4. No punch under elbow

5. Three Repulse Monkeys and three Cloud Hands

6. Stepping backwards for the Golden Roosters

7. Separating kicks are low and to the diagonal, followed by a quick turn, no foot down for the heel kick

8. For ‘Four Corners’ (Fair Lady Weaves at Shuttles) the inner hand slides up the forearm of the outer hand

9. A fast 360 turn prior to the Sweep Lotus Kick

There is a full set of pictures, with notes, on Wutan’s version of Cheng’s short form in Master They SoonTuan’s book, Tai Chi - The Treasure of Mankind (sometimes referred to as the ‘purple book’), Wutan (UK), 1997, ISBN 0-9530917-0-8. Your Wutan instructor will be happy to supply a copy.

This post was first published at https://wutansurrey.com.

Revision History

• 05-Dec-2024