Chen Village Style

   Taijiquan Class

      Sundays 12:00noon - 1:00pm

      Tuesdays 6:00pm - 7:00pm

      @ Wu Tang PCA New York City

Journey to the Chen Village – the Birth Place of Tai Ji Quan

By Tina Zhang - Jan. 20, 2006

 
After our annual Beijing Internal Martial Arts Training trip, we took a 7 hours train ride to Zheng Zhou, a city where Master Chen Zheng Lei’s “Chen Village Tai Ji Quan School is located. We trained with Chen Zheng Lei and Zhang Dong Wu on Qin Na and Chen forms with his son, Chen Bin, who I first met at Cheng Zheng Lei’s workshops in the States 4 years ago.  We had the Chen Village Style Tai Ji form reviewed and learned the 18 Posture Sword Form, which is short, but includes the major postures of Chen Tai Ji sword. It was another fantastic learning experience with Master Chen. On our fourth day there, we took hour and a half taxi ride to visit the Chen Village. Mr. Liu, a manager from the Chen’s School who was originally from the Village, volunteered to go with us and show us around the village. On the high way to the Village, we jumped out of the taxi to stop at a bridge over the Yellow River to have a view of the River, and the Tai Ji symbols all along the bridge.

 The Chen Village, as I expected, is a very common village, a poor corner on the planet and the villager's suport their life by simply farming. There are about 700 families and 2000 people living in the village. There was no electricity before 1964, and the first tap water started to run in 1983. There were public telephones, but you could not get a phone line in your house until 1995. There is only one elementary school in the village and children go out of the village to attend high schools if they’d like to have a higher education, but some of them don’t.

Mr. Liu took us to his home in the village and we met his Mother who was 80 years of old and a Tai Ji Quan practitioner when she was young. She looked healthy and happy. The villager’s home did not have a heating system or heater and we saw some of the villagers gathering around a fire to get a little warmer spot to hangout… Houses that have a refrigerator and a television are considered a luxury.

           Liu &  Mom                 The only elementary school           Chen Zi Qiang & daughter              Chen Xin's old house

The village and villager’s life style have not changed much since the village began in the 1300’s. It made me wonder how the most famous and fastest growing in popularity Tai Ji Quan style was invented in this village? When we visited the original Chen Village Tai Ji Quan School, everything seems to be answered by what we saw and understand better the meaning of Tai Ji Quan to its earliest practitioners - the old style training setting, the young kids who were training in physical stretching, and some students training in forms as well as weapons…It only because of Tai Ji Quan, that gives the village a very different meaning and makes it historically interesting!   

It was very impressive when we visited Chen Wang Ting (1600-1680), the founder of Tai Ji Quan’s graveyard – which is a Tai Ji museum now. The yard where Yang Lu Chan (1799-1871), the Yang Style Tai Ji Quan founder practiced Tai Ji Quan when he lived and learned Chen Village Style Tai Ji Quan from Chen Chang Xing(1771-1853) and the grave stone of Chen Zhao Pei (1893-1972), who trained Chen Xiao Wang, Chen Zheng Lei, Zhu Tian Cai, and Wang Xi An – four diamond Chen Village Style Masters.

                      Yang Lu Chan Bai Shi                           Yang Lu Chan's home                   Yang's practice yard

                                                                                                       Inside Tai Ji Museum

                                                     Here comes the Big Ditch!

Chen Village – Chen Jia Gou in Chinese, means Chen Family Ditch

In 1374, Chen Pu, the first generation of the Chen family moved from Shan Xi Province and settled in the village, which was named “Chang Yang Village”. Later on, the Chen family become the majority of the population, over 70% of the villager’s last name were Chen, so, they renamed the village as “Chen Jia Gou”, after the Big Ditch at the east end of the village. Now, the Ditch is a little better than a garbage dump and a spot was clearly rebuilt as a practice area where some villagers practice Tai Ji all year around, other than that, the villagers don’t care about its existence, but the visitors do.    

                               The Ditch

"I'm at my aunt's wedding!"

   The village is still the village, the Tai Ji still the Tai Ji, and both are never going to change!  

   Welcome to the classes of Chen Village Style Tai Ji Quan at WuTangCPA!