For Almost 40 years, William has been learning & teaching Taijiquan.
“The end purpose of Tai-Chi Chuan is to prolong life and to endow it with the youth of eternal springtime“, from the Song of the 13 Tai-Chi Chuan Postures.
Tai-Chi Chuan consists of 64 motions. It is good for men and women, the young and old alike.They can all practice it. When a healthy person practices it, it will make them healthy all the time. When a sick person practices it, it will cure his sickness. It can also help people to recover their mental stability and build up strength in the body.
As the motion is neither slow nor fast, it is easy to practice. You can finish practicing one set of Tai-Chi Chuan in 10 to 15 minutes. It is passive in its application. Its softness can overcome hardness; its slowness can overcome what is fast. It changes wonderfully in facing all opposing motion. The end purpose of Tai- Chi Chuan is to prolong life and endow it with the youth of eternal spring.
During my undergraduate studies, I had the extremely good fortune of meeting Master Simu Kuo at her studio in San Francisco’s Chinatown district. Now, at this point I was no stranger to the various effects of exercise, nor to the Chinese martial art approach…as I had begun training under Master So of the Northern Shaolin traditon when I was just an 8 year old boy. But, shortly into my very first lesson I new that this was something different. My nervous system began to glow as if there some form of electrical current coursing throughout my body. As the Chinese would put it…my sensation of Chi and the intensity of its flow had been magnified. And, this was a good thing…
The word in Chinatown was that Simu’s husband–who had just recently passed away–was a legend in China who had learned and mastered a rare an ancient form of Tai-Chi Chuan that pre-dated the popular forms of Tai Chi currently practiced. Furthermore, this orthodox lineage was utterly lost in mainland China and that Sifu & Simu were the only ones passing down these teachings. Naturally, this raised my enthusiasm and I was eager to learn more background information.
I found out that contrary to the secretive nature of guarding this knowledge within a handful of only chinese born disciples, Sifu’s vision was to bring this treasure to the melting pot that is the USA and to pass his knowledge down to all regardless of race, creed, sex or religion. In 1965, with the help of a handful of loyal students, he opened the Lien Ying Tai-Chi Academy in Portsmouth Square, SF Chinatown. His young bride and disciple, my teacher Simu, arrived the following year and continues to offer instruction to this present day.
One of their goals was to de-mystify the practice. Rather than confusing the student with esoteric terms, the call was to action, or in Nike’s words, “Just Do It”. Yes, there was a bit of advice and guidlines, but the attention was to learn through activity. Keeping in mind that the Kuo’s art was created on the sacred Taoist moutain temple community–Wudang Mountain–if you ponder this approach you can see that is quite in line with a basic tenant of Taoism, “The Tao that is spoken of…is not the eternal Tao.“ Tao Te Ching, Chapter 1. This is further echoed in the Song of the 13 Tai-Chi Chuan Postures, “A novice will require verbal instruction in the initial stages, but practice will steer its own course and bring about its own perfection.”
Now back to my origins with Simu…combining my first experience with the Kuo’s solid background, I decided to dive in and begin my one-on-one instruction with Simu. I would arrive at 5 am to practice what I learned, and when Simu saw fit she would pass on corrections or teach me a new step. I took a special liking to my first days lesson, and by focusing on these fundamental exercises I–quite luckily— was able to acheive the Chin-2-Toe stretch in under 100 days. During my college years, I spent most of my summers living next door to Simu’s studio to immerse myself in these studies. Rather than a guru-disciple relationship, we have developed a family level connection and a life long friendship. In addition to various martial and yogic arts, Simu introduced me to many things ranging from chinese philosophy & strategy to learning how to cook countless tasty dishes that she and Sifu enjoyed together.
Moving forward to the present, I have vowed not to alter the shape, rhythm or sequence of the postures of the Tai Chi Chuan movement set, and to pass down what has been transmitted to the best of my abilities. To that end, I continue to train with Simu in effort to refine and maintain what I have been fortunate enough to learn. As the decades have passed, I am more enthralled than ever and happily enjoy Tai-Chi Chuan every single day. As Sifu encouraged:
Continuous Self Discipline
It is with great honor that Simu has requested that I open up a branch of the Academy in Southern California, and I sincerely look forward to your participation.