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Excerpts from Ray Haywards' First T'ai-Chi Ch'uan Article, 1980
by Ray Hayward

Master T.T. Liang is truly an extraordinary and talented teacher, scholar, and practitioner of T’ai-Chi Ch’uan. Not only has he improved and modified T’ai-Chi himself, but he has used the methods of his fifteen different teachers to give his students the correct way to practice. To test if the methods of his instructors were sound, Master Liang checked their theories with the established principles set down in the T’ai-Chi Classics. The Classics were written by the ancient masters who had thoroughly acquired the art of T’ai-Chi. If the teachings Master Liang got from his teachers corresponded to the Classics, he used them; if not, he disregarded them.

A controversial addition by Master Liang is his introduction of music to his forms. By doing T’ai-Chi to music, each posture has a fixed number of beats. Every time the student repeats a certain posture, it should be identical to the last one of its kind. Let’s use Single Whip as an example. In Liang’s form Single Whip takes 6 beats to complete. Each and every time we do Single Whip we take 6 beats to complete the posture, thus making the posture uniform throughout our practice. We take the last step on “5” and push with the left hand on “6.” Each time we know that we should step on “5,” not on “4” or “6.” In this way the body becomes used to the posture by making it exactly the same over and over again. This definitely helps us to relax and sink during our more familiar movements. Some people do Single Whip a little differently each time during their form. This is bad for concentration of breath and “breaks” the meditative state.

A strong emphasis on weapons training is found in Master Liang’s curriculum. Not only does he teach T’ai-Chi Sword, T’ai-Chi Knife, and T’ai-Chi 13 Spear Form, he also incorporates the short stick, Ta-Mo Sword, Man-Chiang Hung Sword, Double Sword, and Double Knife as well as various fencing sets into his teaching program. Use of the tassel with the sword and knife is also due to Liang. “My sword teacher used the tassel to distract or to take the opponent’s sword away,” said Liang. “I never saw him use ‘hand energy’ to turn the tassel; he used his waist which is a principle expounded in the T’ai-Chi Classics.” Using the tassel helps to “smooth out” the student’s movements. If they jerk the sword, the tassel won’t swing or will get wrapped around the wrist. Master Liang’s specialty is the Double Sword which has two tassels and swords weaving intricate patterns of circles and figure-8s. Of course students learn how difficult it is to wield the double swords at their first attempt. After watching Master Liang go through the set effortlessly, the student realizes it will take time and practice to simulate Liang’s ease. This thought usually occurs when the student looks down to find his tassels wrapped around his wrists or tied together.

These are but a few of the theories, additions, and changes T’ai-Chi has gone through since passing from Master Liang Tung-Ts’ai to his pupils. My wish is that people who were fortunate enough to study with Master Liang come to full realization and appreciate the sweat and blood put forth by him to make T’ai-Chi a little more understandable. Thanks are due to this great master for helping us to learn the most difficult and intricate of the internal martial arts.

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