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Sun Taijiquan

Sun style taijiquan is one of the five major styles of taijiquan – the other four being Chen style, Yang style, Wu style and Wu (Hao) style – and is the youngest of the five. It was developed by grandmaster Sun Lutang (1861-1932), who incorporated the other two Chinese internal arts of baguazhang and xingyiquan into his taijiquan.

Characteristics

Sun style, Wu style and Wu (Hao) style are considered to be "small frame" taijiquan – that is, the arm movements are small, the steps are short and the stances are upright. This is in contrast to Chen style and Yang style, which contain big arm movements, long steps and deep stances.

Sun style is unique in that it has no "traditional" bow stance (front foot weighted 60-70%, rear foot weighted 30-40%). Instead, it has a follow-through step which brings the rear foot close to the front foot, toes touching the floor with no weight. One benefit of this is that transitions between postures place very little strain on the knees compared to other styles of taijiquan. Because of this, and because of Sun style's aforementioned small frame characteristics, we consider Sun style to be the ideal taijiquan style for the elderly and the physically impaired.

Sun style taijiquan is also instantly recognizable by its signature Open/Close Hands (Kai/He Shou) posture, which appears 13 times in the form. In fact, Sun style is sometimes nicknamed "Kai He Taijiquan."

Training

Sun taijiquan is comprised of a single Long Form and a single Straight Sword Form. However, Sun taijiquan is also part of the larger Sun Lutang system, which includes the other two Chinese internal arts of baguazhang and xingyiquan.

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