When I was young, I was very weak and always iii but my family had no money to cure my illness. My father made great effort in finding various means to give me treatment but there was no effect. Soon after, He had the idea in improving my physique by practicing Wushu. Then my career in practicing Wu Shu began.
At the beginning, my father brought me to visit some boxing masters, but the masters all disliked my poor physique because they didn't want to teach a disciple with much difficulty and they thought it was hard to get the achievement, but my father never gave up. Finally, I met my first master Li Kuixiang who lived in Xiguan district of Jinan city. Master Li was kind-hearted and easy-going. He appreciated my honesty and determination.
In 1966, introduced by the old staff of post office, I had got the opportunity to meet the famous Tai Ji Quan Master Hong Junsheng and I was fortunate enough to take him as my master and learn Chen style Tai Ji Quan. I felt great respect for him because he was a person of great-hearted, bold and forthright, and his learning was profound and immense. I acknowledged the extensive knowledge and profound scholarship of Wushu from Master Hong. Wushu contains not only comprehensive and profound theory, but also the close skills. Master Hong taught us with patience, he required us to adopt a rigorous approach in our studies and to have a thorough training in basic skills. For example, we should strengthen to practice the Zhen Xuan (positive spin) and the Fan Xuan (derotation) of our hands, to master the law of eyes', body's, steps', hands' movements, and to properly coordinate the movements of our waist, crotch and knee. It is no easy to master these well. Moreover, if we wanted to know their deep truth of attacking skills, we should make greater effort. Master Hong often applied the simple truth in our daily life to illustrate the boxing skills and theory. For instance, he would take the movement in using the chopsticks by hands to have meals as an example, and he vividly analyzed the law of Chan Fa (the twisting skills). There were Shun Chan and Ni Chan, rotation and revolution, as well as Zhen Xuan and Fan Xuan. That reminded me of the day in autumn of 1971, when I saw Master Hong practiced the Er Lu 0 in Hun Quan Tan of Da Ming Lake in Jinan City. Master Hong seldom practiced it in public, but he did the movement quite well just like dragons rising and tigers leaping, which gave us aonther kind of aesthetic enjoyment differed from the enjoyment of "Ba Wang Bie Ji" by Master Mei Lan Fang. It only took about two minutes for Master Hong to do the movement of "Pad Chui". He remained calm after finishing it. He practiced the "Lou Xi Ad Bu" and then the "Jin Gang Dad Zhui". Those movements look as if he was sitting in the revolving chair. His legs twisted with relax but could leave the twisting mark in the floor which looks like Tai Ji Tu (diagram of the universe). Then he practiced from "Pi Shen Chui" to "Zhan Shou". In the meanwhile, his body flied up in the air and twisted, with his clothes aflutter, as if a colorful balloon rose high into the air. At the very moment, he landed, he lifted his right knee and practiced the "Yan Shou Hong Quan". After finishing it, he immediately played the "Lao Ni Chan Fa". Those performances were all indescribably wonderful.
When Master Hong taught us "Tui Shou", he told us that we should take advantage of the skillful force and the strength of "Chan Si Jin" of Tai Ji Quan. When we practiced Tui Shou, we should pay attention to the application of doing Tui Shou with the opponent in practice. For example, on one hand we should keep our bodies balanced; on the other hand, we could attack the opponent's center-of-gravity and make him lose his balance.
I practiced the Chen Style Tai Ji Quan for forty years following my Master Hong Junsheng. Thanks to him, I can get the access to Chen's Quan.
