Wu (Hao) Style T'ai-Chi

The founders of Wu (Hao) style taijiquan are acknowledged to have authored some of the writings now considered as taiji classics. There are four main ‘branches’ of Wu (Hao) style in China, of which two are represented in the West. The four are (a) the taiji spread by the Hao family (as represented in the West by M Liu Jishun); (b) the taiji practiced by Hao Weizhen’s students from the Xingtai area in Hebei (as exemplified by Wu Wenhan and Chen Gu’an, whose student, Jimmy Wong, is spreading this version in the US); (c) the ‘old frame’ practiced by descendants of the Wu and Li families, and (d) the taiji spread to the Northeast of China (formerly called Manchuria) by Yan Zhigao, who I hope to profile in a later article.

In this article I’d like to introduce one of the most prominent practitioners of the ‘old frame’ in China, M Yao Jizu, who was from the ‘hometown’ of Yang and Wu (Yuxiang) styles of taijiquan, Guangfu town in Yongnian county, Hebei Province. Sadly, he passed away in 1998. His father, Yao Peiyu, had learnt Yang style taijiquan under Yang Luchan’s eldest son, Yang Fenghou.