Marnix Wells 2007: Entering the Tàijí Gate - the early years
Marnix Wells began his study of Yang-style taijiquan in 1968 at Hong Kong. He was at that time a B.A. in classical Chinese from Oxford (1967) with deep interest in Buddhism and Daoism. His driving interest was to understand the relationship of Chinese martial art to philosophy. Marnix learnt Yáng Tàijíquán from an old man named Wáng in a small park by the end of Mody Road, Kowloon. The teacher explained that Tàijíquán was a martial art, but that its martial applications would only become apparent after continued daily practice over years. Not totally convinced by this explanation, Marnix continued his language studies in Taiwan, Japan and eventually Korea, while determined to re-discover the martial nature of Tàijíquán.
In Taipei, Marnix learnt tàijí two-man practice of push-hands, dàlyû and sànshôu with Gan Xiàozhou, a leading disciple of Zhèng Mànqing and like him a native of Zhèjiang with a strong accent. He continued study under Zhang Yìzhong (‘Chô sensei’, originally from Shànghâi) in Shibuya, Tokyo where he became a friend of Bruce Frantzis and Barry Wicksman from New York, and Danny Connor from Manchester. Zhang had been chief instructor of Wáng Shùjin in Japan and had also studied with Chén Pànlîng (of Hénán). Zhang taught the two-man drills and defence applications with great precision but seemed to lack what Bruce called ‘the juice’.
On the 1969 summer break, Bruce was away in India training at a yoga ashram. Marnix returned to Taipei, where Gan Xiàozhou took Marnix to the general push-hands Saturday morning meet in the government Legislative Yuàn. There leading luminaries, mostly followers of Zhèng Mànqing, Wáng Yánnián and others engaged in informal push-hands. A young man named Liào Wèishan, a student at the Political University in Mùzhá, drew Marnix aside and told him to resist, rather than just to yield when pushed, as he had been taught to do. Armed with this new insight, the scales fell from his eyes and much of the magic of the push-hands masters vanished into thin air. Liào told him that Zhèng Mànqing had an in-door teaching which was ‘hard’, unlike the ‘soft’ tàijí he used to con the uninitiated (piàn wàiháng) and foreigners in America.
The next summer (1970) Marnix returned to Taiwan and met Liào again. He learnt that Liào was a native Taiwanese, an outsider among an ex-mainlander elite, a country boy from Xiluô in the south, where he grew learning the south Fújiàn style of Springing Crane (Zonghè) taught by Lín Guózhòng (see Robert Smith: Chinese Boxing, Masters and Methods, Tuttle), which also had a form of pushing- or sticking-hands. These stylists threw their arms out like a crane (cf. White Crane Spreads Wings in taiji) to strike with the whole arm. Liao took Marnix on a tour visiting masters in Taiwan. At Táizhong, they looked up Wáng Shùjin (passing a pair of giant size bloomers on the washing-line) who took us by taxi to a farmhouse in Câotún where his leading disciple Wáng Fúlái had his students parade their forms of baguà and xíngyì while the teachers watched fanning themselves. Marnix pushed hands competitively with his students but found to his surprise they seemd unable to deliver. Liào faulted Wáng for reliance on superior body weight and lack of application training in his students.
Liào pointed out to Marnix the thirty-four powers or energies (jìng/jìn) described in Chén Yánlín’s 1936 Tàijíquán True Transmission. Liào was to translate these in Tai Chi Classics (1977, reprinted by Shambala). They are transmitted from teacher to student by practice of contact-sticking (zhannián) in the process of ‘feeding power’ (wèijìng). The teacher as it were ‘magnetises’ a students by joined rotation of forearms, sticking with strong resistance and unbroken contact. Liào called this the transfer of ‘current-like’ power, or ‘charging up chi [qì]’ (2005 Chi, how to feel the life energy). Yang Jwingming’s 1996 Tai Chi Theory & Martial Power goes on to expound no less than fifty-three types of power.
For one hundred dollars (U.S.), Liào undertook to train Marnix intensively every day for one month, until he had ‘entered the gate’ (rùmén). Liào’s training consisted in toughening the arms, using the whole arm and body to strike. The sticking arms was used to find a weakness or faulty connection and immediately exploit it in an attack. Marnix became sore from being repeatedly bounced off walls in ‘eat bitter’ (chikû) training. In particular, Liào introduced me to the reality of fajìng ‘projecting’ or releasing power as in shooting an arrow from a bow, and dôujìng ‘vibration’ or shaking power.
At this juncture Bruce happened to phone from Tokyo and, hearing of Liào, took the next plane down to Taipei. Bruce and friends then helped Liào get a visa and air-ticket to Tokyo, where we continued the training for a few months, and then on to the USA where Liào went his own way. He eventually set up a Taichi Center in Illinois under the name Master Waysun Liao. Liao’s recent publications speak only of health and the Tao. This is after all what Liào (1977 I-20) called mere ‘public Taichi’, just an exercise or dance, because before 1911 under the Manchus its martial nature had to be kept hidden. Since the opening up of China from the 1990s, fajìng has become more widely known, and taught by masters from Chénjiagou (in Hénán) such as Chén Xiâowàng and others.
Bruce refers to Liào as “a ‘young master’ of Yang style tai chi” in his 1998 The Power of the Internal Martial Arts (North Atlantic Books 47ff, 97ff) but concludes his ‘secrets’ of fajìng came from White Crane boxing. One U.S. student recently emailed me to suggest there actually are two Waysun Liao, one a master of springing crane and another of tàijí boxing. David (June-Chian) Dai, a traditional Chinese medicine doctor in Canada and author The Science of Taichi Dynamic (Tàijíquán Dònglì d’ Kexué, Wûzhou Publishing Co.) wrote to me as follows:
Recently, I was taking some Zong-He (Springing Crane) at my hometown, Chia-Yi. Also, I happened to have the chance to discuss Taichi taught by Master Waysun Liao. Since all these people including me have the same background of indoor students of Master Cheng Chuquan (student of Wu Guozong who is the student of Cheng Man-ching), I am very curious about the dynamics of Liao's style. Accordingly, Master Liao said to his students here (Chia-i schools established about 2 years ago) that he is the true indoor student of Cheng Man-ching. Also,he had his advanced instruction from masters at Beijing. However, to my understanding, Master Cheng Man-ching's dynamics is mainly based on iso-metric way, which characterized with movement on the same horizontal level. Master Liao's style is more iso-tonic that move up and down and look similar to those of the Crane. Since he never mentioned any background of Zong-He Crane for his style, I could not conclude whether Liao's Taichi dynamics is more Crane instead of Cheng Man-ching's Taichi. Also, lots visualization look similar to those of Yi Chuan (Mind boxing by Wang Xiang Zhai).
There are indeed strong similarities between martial push-hands in Tàijíquán, and Springing Crane cross-hands, Wingchun chisau training, and others. Significantly, the classic Tàijíquán ‘Push Hands Song’ never mentions pushing, and translates literally as ‘Hitting Hands Song’ (dâshôu ge). It explicitly describes defence against a hit or strike (dâ), countered by contact-stick-connect-follow, so as to “draw out his force to fall into a void.” This aspect of Tàijíquán requires greater attention and development if it is to reclaim its old, fabled martial status.