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| 5 Section Taiji Program |
Forms from the 5 Section Taijiquan program (Wuduan Taijiquan) have been adopted into the curriculum of taiji schools around the world. The 5 Section program is comprised of five forms, each choreographed in five sections, as well as basic qigong, core principle and 'sensing-hands' practices.The forms, which span beginner, intermediate and moderately advanced levels are well suited to meet the needs of modern recreational taiji learners but can also serve to prepare serious students for more advanced traditional taijiquan training.
五段太極拳
5 Section Taijiquan Program
(Wuduan Taijiquan)
• 5 Section Taijiquan 五段太極拳
(solo form Yang style)
Solo bare-hand taiji form. Derived from Yang style (Beginner)
• 5 Section Taiji San-shou 五段太極散手
(2 person form)
Two person bare-hand taiji sparring form (Intermediate)
• 5 Section Taijijian 五段太極劍
(solo sword form)
Solo taiji sword form. (Beginner/Intermediate)
•
5 Section Taijijian (Duilian) 五段太極對練劍(2 person sword form)
Two person taiji sword 'sparring' form
(Intermediate/Advanced)
• 5 Section Chen Taijiquan 五段陳式太極拳
(solo form Chen style)
Solo barehand taiji form.
Derived from Chen style
(Beginner/Intermediate)
• 5 Section 24 Movement Taijiquan 五段二四式太極拳
(solo form Yang style)
A '5 Section approach' to the PRC standard.
• 5 Section Taiji Qigong & Core Principles 五段太極氣功
A 'modular' curriculum of basic principles and energetics.
• 5 Section Taiji Jue-shou 五段太極覺手
(Sensing-hands)
Multi-functional partner drills which support form work.
• 5 Section Taiji Jue-jian 五段太極覺劍
(Sensing-hands)
Multi-functional sword partner drills which support sword form work.
• 5 Section Taijiquan full curriculum intensive
(4 weeks, 4 days-per-week)
• 5 Section Taijiquan teacher's certification intensive
(6 weeks, 4 days-per-week)
Sam Masich shoots Adriaan Blaauw for the
Chen-style chapter of '5 Section Taijiquan'.
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History and Development of the Wuduan 5 Section Taijiquan program
Sam Masich
A difficult problem
From 1982 to 1985 I taught the commencement form of the Yang Style Taijiquan long barehand form to over 1000 registered students. Of those who started learning this traditional routine only about 70 actually completed the entire sequence. Seventy out of a thousand. It can be discouraging for an instructor to experience a 93% drop out rate. As I was to travel in years to come, comparing notes with other taiji teachers it became evident that this ratio was the norm rather than the exception when it came to teaching long traditional forms, and that most instructors solved the problem by teaching a ‘short form’ of some sort to beginning students.
Zheng’s 37 & the 24
At that time in taijiquan history the most common short form was Zheng Manqing’s (Cheng Man-Ch’ing) 37 posture bare-hand routine. His first books on the 37 form enjoyed wide audiences, both amongst Asians outside of China yearning for connection with their cultural roots, and North Americans disaffected by the Vietnam invasion and hungry for cultural alternatives. While the popularity and scale of Zheng Manqing’s 37 form was of interest to me, the style of his movement - the shapes of postures, methods of transitions - were all very particular to Zheng’s personal interpretation of Yang-style taijiquan and not reflective of the other Yang-style masters of his generation. For me this was problematic as my interests lay more in the latter direction.Another form which was beginning to find its way around the globe in the late 1970’s was a 24 posture routine formally named ‘Simplified Taijiquan’. During the 1950’s in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) a set of initiatives were introduced by the government designed to promote, archive and develop Chinese martial arts, or Wushu. The ‘24’ was issued in 1956 after a committee of taiji experts headed by Li Tianji choreographed some of the most popular sequences from the traditional Yang style long form. The idea was to to provide Chinese citizens with a simple, basic taiji form as part of the China National Fitness Program. The 24 was initially disseminated internationally in the form of books and charts which generally found their way first into Chinatown bookstores where they were acquired by aficionados and made part of the standard library and decor of taijiquan schools.
To be continued...
The 5 Section Program
Taijiquan involves more than solo bare-hand forms. Push Hands, sparring and traditional weapons are all part and parcel of traditional curriculum and it seemed as important to develop simplified work for these aspects as well. Four other routines were developed to represent and help prepare for other aspects of traditional training. Much in the way that various traditional styles’ long forms are patterned from the first routine of the Chen style, each of these forms is modeled after the choreography of the 5 Section solo form.
The 5 Section two person sparring form reflects various traditional push-hands and sparring practices. The 5 Section solo straight-sword and the 5 Section two person sword sparring forms represent and prepare for, traditional taiji sword and sabre studies. The fifth of the 5 Section forms is the the 5 Section solo Chen-style taijiquan barehand form, which gives a glimpse of the origins of taijiquan, while preparing students for the differences that can be experienced between styles.
The ‘5-fives', as they have come to be known, cover virtually all preparation requirements for traditional taijiquan study: solo bare-hand, partner bare-hand, solo and partner weapons and other styles. Thus, the 5 Section Program, while promoting a lighter, more accessible approach, provides a kinesthetic snapshot of the entirety of traditional taijiquan training.
To be continued...
