Lineages of Wu style Taijiquan.

May authors in the West, tend to make it very simple:

From the founder Wu Yuxiang to his nephew Li Yiyu, then to outside family Hao Weizhen, then Hao Weizhen’s son Hao Yueru and grandson Hao Shaoru.

But in fact it is only one of many lines of Wu style.

Li Yiyu became a successor of Wu Yuxiang’s Taijiquan, but his brother also learned from Wu Yuxiang, and also had students, and I know that there are lines coming not from Li Yiyu, but from his brother Li Qixuan. I don’t know much about it though. Know only that grandsons of Li Qixuan learned also from Hao Weizhen.

So I will talk about 4 relatively important lines, all coming from Li Yiyu. Two of them come through Li Yiyu’s sons.

Li Baolian was Li Yiyu’s elder son. He taught two sons Li Tangyin and Li Kuiyin. There exist lines coming from Li Kuiyin, but again I don’t know much about it. Li Tangyin taught his sons, and two of them had some successor lines. However I don’t know anything about people from Li Disheng line. Another son of Li Tangyin was Li Jinfan. In Guangfu Sun Jianguo is the most famous of Li Jinfan’s disciples. Another famous one is Qiao Songmao – from whom my Yiquan brother Xie Yongguang is learning. Sun Jianguo calls this style Wu Li style. Qiao Songmao made some changes and started calling it Qiao style.

Li Xunzhi was Li Yiyu’s younger son. Li Xunzhi learned from his father as a child for only a few years, until that passed away, and later continued with his elder brother, his cousins (sons of Li Qixuan) and also with Hao Weizhen. Li Xunzhi taught his son, who was not actively teaching and four people from outside family. From those, two became famous teachers: Wei Peilin (who passed away early) and Yao Jizu. My teacher Zhai Weichuan learned first from Wei Peilin, and when that passed away, continued with Yao Jizu. We simply call it Wu style. By the way, wife of the founder of Wu style was from the same Zhai family from which Zhai Weichuan comes.

Li Yiyu’s famous disciple from outside family was Hao Weizhen. He was the first who started popularizing it in various parts of China. He was teaching Taiji for living, so he had to find many students. The Li family was rich, so they didn’t need to do this, teaching only within family and very few people from outside family. Xingtai, a bit to the north from Handan is a place where there are some important lines coming from Hao Weizhen. But most well known is Hao family line: From Hao Weizhen to his son Hao Yueru and grandson Hao Shaouru. Presently Hao Shaoru’s disciple Liu Jishun is teaching in California, and another – Wang Muyin, known by nickname Hao Yinru, in Shanghai. This is known as Wu Hao style.

Less people know that Li Yiyu had another disciple from outside family: it was Ge Fulai, who also learned from Hao Weizhen. This branch is strong in North-East China and is known as Wu Ge style.

Andrzej Kalisz