Join our mailing list!

Ch'ang Style Tai Chi Chuan

By Master Eric Sbarge

The legendary Ch'ang Dung Sheng stepped with the quickness of Baqua, neutralized with the softness of Tai Chi, hit with the power of Hsing-I and leveled you with the cracking sweeps and throws of Shuai Chiao.

Master Eric Sbarge

The King of Shuai Chiao

Ch'ang style Tai Chi Chuan is the style of Tai Chi Chuan named after the late Ch'ang Dung Sheng (1906-1986). Ch'ang was one of the most extraordinary martial artists of the 20th century. His accomplishments speak for themselves. At the age of 17 he became the Grand Champion of China by winning the heavy-weight division of China's national kung-fu match, a feat unheard of for someone so young, and he wasn't even a heavyweight.

He then traveled throughout China training with top masters and meeting any and all challenges. The people he fought with and trained with included the most elite Tai Chi, Bagua, Hsing-I and wrestling masters of our century. Incredibly, Ch'ang went to his grave at the age of 80 having never lost a fight.

What made Ch'ang's kung-fu so remarkable? In a word (or two), Shuai Chiao. Shuai Chiao is the Chinese art of grappling and throwing, and Ch'ang was the undisputed "King of Shuai Chiao." Renowned throughout China and Taiwan for decades, his fame didn't spread to the West until the 1970s and 1980s when many top Western martial artists first learned of Shuai Chiao and the incomparable Ch'ang Dung Sheng.

Robert W Smith and Donn F. Draeger featured him in the "Gallery of Chinese Boxing Masters" in their widely read book, "Asian Fighting Arts," and Smith featured him as "The Wrestling Champion" in his "Chinese Boxing, Masters and Methods." Dozens of magazine articles appeared on Ch'ang by Americans who had trained with him.

Complete Martial System

Shuai Chiao, the oldest of China's many martial arts, goes back to the earliest days of the Shang dynasty. Then known as Chiao Ti, Shuai Chiao included the wearing of horned helmets which contestants used to gore each other as they threw and grappled with each other. Later the helmets were discarded, but the concept of throwing and grappling remained and evolved into modern Shuai Chiao. Today's Shuai Chiao emphasizes throws and sweeps but it is a complete system that includes strikes, kicks, Chin Na and groundwork.

Grand Master Frank DeMaria, left and Great Grand Master Ch'ang Dung Sheng

According to Ch'ang, any strike, kick or lock should really be part of a throw or take-down -- you should knock out your opponent or break his limbs as you're in the process of throwing him to finish him off.

Ch'ang began learning Shuai Chiao as a small boy from several famous teachers, the most notable being Ch'ang Fong Yen, the top student of the Shuai Chiao expert Ping Ching I. It was Ch'ang Fong Yen's daughter whom Ch'ang would eventually marry, attesting to the high regard his master had for him. Though already a formidable fighter as a teenager, Ch'ang had an insatiable appetite to learn more kung-fu. He mastered the three major styles of Shuai Chiao (Baodin, Peking, Tientsin) and then went on to master Hsing-I Chuan, Bagua Chang, Tai Chi Chuan, Shaolin Lohan and Ba Shou Chuan. Shuai Chiao is an art form that is often classified somewhere between internal and external kung-fu, so Ch'ang already understood the need to mini-mize Li (external strength) and maximize yi (mind intent) and chi (internal energy).

When he supplemented his Shuai Chiao with the three major internal art forms, his power became virtually unstoppable and he became so fluid and smooth that two, three or even four techniques would seem to flow into one effortless technique. This is when he earned the nickname "Flying Butterfly" in recognition of his unparalleled grace and beauty in combat. He was an unbeatable mar-tial artist -- and he was only getting better.

Meeting General Li

Ch'ang became an instructor at the famous Nanking Martial Arts Institute which was established in 1927 by the nationalist leader General Chiang Kai Shek and overseen by, among others, General Li Chin Lin, chief instructor of the fourth and fifth armies under Chiang. Several of China's most notable martial artists taught at the institute: Yang Ch'eng Fu (Tai Chi Chuan), Sun Lu T'ang (Bagua Chang) and Fu Chen Sung (Bagua Chang), to name a few.

General Li, the pre-eminent swordsman of the time and an expert fighter, challenged Ch'ang Dung Sheng to a friendly match. Much to his surprise, the young Ch'ang soundly beat him. Ch'ang, though he had beaten Li, was impressed by Li's Tai Chi Chuan, believing it came the closest of any he'd seen to the true Shuai Chiao combat forms. Ch'ang saw how the softness and yin/yang concepts could enhance his Shuai Chiao. Li agreed to teach Ch'ang his Tai Chi form, and Ch'ang in turn taught Li the Shuai Chiao applications of the form. Together they modified the form somewhat to eliminate weak postures that a Shuai Chiao master would pounce upon, and Ch'ang altered certain postures to optimize combat—and especially throwing opportunities. Thereafter, Li was said to be unbeatable in his Tai Chi Chuan. And therein lies the origin of Ch'ang style Tai Chi Chuan.

Of all the major styles of Tai Chi Chuan, Chang's style most closely resembles the Yang style. Ch'ang told adopted godson Frank DeMaria that General Li Chin Lin's Tai Chi originally came from an unnamed Taoist source, though clearly it was also influenced by the Yang style, probably because of Li's close association with Yang Ch'eng Fu. In Ch'ang's solo form, the postures are very big and open, and the form is done at one continuous, smooth pace like the Yang style. Many of the postures correspond with Yang style postures, and even some of the sequences are alike.

Ch'ang always referred to his Tai Chi simply as "Tai Chi," never choosing to distinguish or name it as a particular style and never presuming to call it his own style. Only later did his students, and in particular DeMaria, convince him to put his name to his style and give it the recognition it deserved. With the publishing of DeMaria's book, "Ch'ang Shih Tai Chi Chuan" in 1986, which included Ch'ang's dedication and seal, Chang style Tai Chi Chuan officially came to be.

Though Ch'ang had mastered all the major internal arts as well as his Shuai Chiao, he never blended or synthesized new styles. Unlike, say, the Sun style of Tai Chi which mixes elements of Bagua and Hsing-I with Tai Chi, Ch'ang always practiced and taught each art form separately. He believed that each style should be practiced according to its own methods and principles if one is to be able to fully develop those principles.

Eliminating the Weaknesses

Once the principles are fully understood then the methods can be blended during fighting. Chang's genius was in being able to not only maintain each style's purity, but to actually strengthen each style as he mastered it. Along with developing one of the most combat-effective Tai Chi styles, Ch'ang also modified Hsing-I to create Ch'ang style hsing jin churn, meaning "best of Hsing-I." He had a great respect for Hsing-I and practiced it all his life, but the simple fact was that no Hsing-I masters could ever beat him with conventional Hsing-I. With his keen eye and unmatched Shuai Chiao experience, Ch'ang always saw the weaknesses of their methods. Those were the very weaknesses that he eliminated from his own Hsing-I, much as he had eliminated conventional weaknesses in his Tai Chi Chuan.

In Ch'ang's Tai Chi Chuan, adhered to is every principle of the Tai Chi Classics. If you watch the solo form you will see only Tai Chi postures, not Shuai Chiao postures or principles. But when you look at the applications of the postures then the Shuai Chiao heritage comes to life. Every hit, kick, strike or lock is a prelude to a throw or sweep, and every throw or sweep Is designed to take the opponent down fast and hard. Once you see the incredible arsenal hidden within Ch'ang's form, you begin to appreciate just how devastating a fighter Ch'ang really was. He stepped with the quickness of Bagua, neutralized with the softness of Tai Chi, hit with the power of Hsing-I and leveled you with the cracking sweeps and throws of Shuai Chiao.

Every style of Chinese martial arts, internal or external, incorporates the shuai or throwing concept somewhere in its system, and often these throws can be traced to Shuai Chiao, the grandfather of all martial arts. What makes Ch'ang's style of Tai Chi unique is that every posture facilitates at least one - and more often several - throws or sweeps. And the throws and sweeps are not the same as the common twisting and dumping over the knee, as in Yang style's slant flight or the grabbing and pulling the opponent down, of needle to sea bottom.

Rather, the throws utilize pure, classical Shuai Chiao techniques designed to maim the opponent as he's in the air, then slam him to the ground to finish him off. In the solo form, the classical postures such as grasping the sparrow's tail, step back and repulse monkey, cloud hands and the others often appear similar to those of the Yang style, but Ch'ang's application of these postures differs significantly. Each posture may reveal any of several throws, or the posture may show a "set-up" or preparation move for a classical Shuai Chiao throw.

Shuai Chiao uses very specific hand work and upper body work to set up a throw, and often the Tai Chi postures are designed to deflect the opponent's force and control his arms and upper body in preparation for a throw.

People familiar with Shuai Chiao, or any grappling art for that matter, might wonder how it's possible to maintain Tai Chi's adage of a thousand pounds being deflected with four ounces, while executing Shuai Chiao-like throwing and sweeping techniques. The answer is that it's possible - Ch'ang did it superbly - but it's not easy. Most people who perform Shuai Chiao or judo do so poorly, using excessive force and energy to compensate for poor technique.

Internal Strength, Not External Muscle

Ch'ang always said that in Shuai Chiao only 20 to 30 percent of your strength should be used. In Ch'ang's Tai Chi Chuan, that percent has to decrease even further and the strength used must be only internal strength with chi, not external muscle strength. Much has been said and debated over the years about what constitutes internal strength, and what defines chi. Ch'ang, being very direct and pragmatic, simply taught that we all have chi power and with proper practice we can learn to stay soft and use this chi power instead of muscle power. In his mind, good technique reigned supreme over power, be it internal or external. He never advised striving to "attain" high levels of chi; he maintained that if you simply performed the internal arts properly, you would naturally be cultivating a high level of chi which would keep you healthy and give you power with which to fight. He believed that all things being equal, the man with better technique would always beat the man with more chi power.

How, then, does one cultivate good technique in Ch'ang style Tai Chi Chuan? First, chi kung and breathing exercises are learned, followed by the 143-move solo form. From there various stepping patterns unique to Ch'ang style are learned, and the practice of push hands begins. Ch'ang developed several push hands which move in lateral circles and are designed to open up an opponent and uproot him - a tactic which is at the core of Shuai Chiao. After the push hands, then the student begins to learn Ch'ang's applications of the solo form, including the myriad hits, strikes, locks and throws. Ch'ang never developed a two-man set akin to the Yang style san shou for the simple reason that in applying his Tai Chi, one man is usually thrown down right away. It would be awkward and ludicrous for each partner to continually get off the ground to perform the next move.

DeMaria, when he was formally adopted by Ch'ang and began learning his style, had already mastered the Yang style under Franklin Kwang, a New-York based student of Yang Chen-Fu. Ch'ang recognized that DeMaria's skill at Tai Chi was at a high level, yet when he taught DeMaria his style and applications, DeMaria's Tai Chi gained a whole new element - the element of Shuai Chiao - and reached an even higher level.

Though DeMaria discarded the Yang style solo form and adopted Ch'ang's, Ch'ang encouraged DeMaria to continue the practice of the 108 push hands patterns he had learned from Kwang, as well as the Yang style Da Lu and San Shou. Ch'ang felt that these Yang style practices were beneficial to learning the jing or energies inherent in all styles of Tai Chi, and since his own style was heavily influenced by the Yang style the two can complement each other. At the highest stages of training, weapons forms and then freestyle sparring and weapons sparring are practiced. The entire Tai Chi system takes an average of ten years to learn, though like any Tai Chi style it can take a lifetime to perfect.

DeMaria, who has nearly 45 years of experience in Chinese martial arts, has promoted eight of his own students to teacher level, including the author of this article. Most of these students have trained with DeMaria for over 20 years, learning Ch'ang's styles of Tai Chi Chuan, Hsing Jin Chuan, Bagua Chang, Shuai Chiao and Shaolin Chuan. As students of DeMaria, they witnessed Ch'ang's extraordinary skills during his many visits to DeMaria's home. Though by the mid-1980's Ch'ang was already in his late 70s, he demonstrated any technique effortlessly, twirling, sweeping and kicking into the air like a man in his 20s. He seemed to enjoy taking off his shirt to expose his massive barrel chest, then inviting students to come up and feel his huge arms and chest. He was like rock, with no fat, no sagging skin, no indications of his age whatsoever. When he demonstrated a Hsing-I strike, though he was kind and hit softly, it was nevertheless like being hit by a rock.

Like Ch'ang, DeMaria teaches each art form separately, then encourages students to experiment with using and blending the various styles in combat. According to DeMaria, any of the styles are complete in and of themselves, but by training in cross-styles you can get additional perspectives and find new possi-bilities within each style.

For example, you can train in Chang style Tai Chi Chuan and have good Tai Chi with the ability to ward off, push and throw opponent, but your knowledge and skill will never be close to what it could be if you also studied Shuai Chiao. With the added study of Shuai Chiao you would be awakened to infinitely more throwing and sweeping techniques. Plus you would fine-tune the energies and movements essential to good throwing skills.

For those who argue that the study of more than one style impedes one's progress or makes everything mixed up and watered down, the counter argument would be to look at Ch'ang or DeMaria. Nothing about their kung-fu is mixed up or watered down. DeMaria does insist that if you haven't mastered one internal style, you probably haven't mastered any other style, either; but once you do master an internal style, it is not only possible but advisable to master others. For anyone seeking a style to master, Ch'ang style Tai Chi Chuan certainly has much to offer.

Back to top