If you could peek into the private training of a historical martial artist, who would it be?

[Robin Wu]

Suppose you had a magical camera that allows you to peek into the private training of a historical martial artist. Who would it be?

 

[Marin]

Probably Chen FaKe to start-

 

[YiiQuan]

Probably Chen FaKe to start-

I remember you said during your podcast with Bryon Jacob that he had tables on both sides of his courtyard with buns. Whenever he is done with his line drill in one direction, he will eat a bun and turn around and do the same drill going the other direction.

 

[Nick]

I remember you said during your podcast with Bryon Jacob that he had tables on both sides of his courtyard with buns. Whenever he is done with his line drill in one direction, he will eat a bun and turn around and do the same drill going the other direction.

Sounds like some of my training

 

[Nick]

Definitely Fake and Zhaokui, though I've always thought Wang Peisheng had a neat background /good skill too.

 

[Marin]

Definitely Fake and Zhaokui, though I've always thought Wang Peisheng had a neat background /good skill too.

Lots of videos of him available-

 

[angryclown]

Fake seems to be the pivotal persona in modern taiji practice, so he'd definitely be interesting. Chen Wangting might be pretty interesting to see, as well. Or maybe anyone good who practiced when there were still seven forms before they were consolidated down to two.

A younger Feng would doubtless be entertaining.

 

[Nick]

Maybe tangentially related, if for historical context:

ChenShi Tree

 

[angryclown]

johnyii said:
I remember you said during your podcast with Bryon Jacob that he had tables on both sides of his courtyard with buns. Whenever he is done with his line drill in one direction, he will eat a bun and turn around and do the same drill going the other direction.

Sounds like some of my training

This is almost exactly how I train, as well, except I improved it by having baskets of buns on both ends of one small table, and I eat a bun each time I weight shift. #Legendary

 

[Nick]

This is almost exactly how I train, as well, except I improved it by having baskets of buns on both ends of one small table, and I eat a bun each time I weight shift. #Legendary

So *that's* why you have demon legs!

 

[angryclown]

Yes, if by "demon legs" you mean a big, fat gut...

 

[Marin]

Yes, if by "demon legs" you mean a big, fat gut...

- I was going to say but you did which is better

 

[Robin Wu]

Yes, if by "demon legs" you mean a big, fat gut...

You're just cultivating your dantian.

 

[Marin]

You're just cultivating your dantian.

I am now going to call all of my bad old man features, "dantians". Thanks!

 

[Marin]

For example, " No, I'm not bald. Really, that's my upper crown dantian. That's how those look once you develop them."

 

[Nick]

For example, " No, I'm not bald. Really, that's my upper crown dantian. That's how those look once you develop them."

So I'm a certain type of "advanced" student then....

 

[Edmond]

I wonder if we go far back enough (e.g. Chen Wangting), and we go ask them about Qi, "Dantian rotations", etc. They'll just give us blank looks and wonder "What's this guy been smoking?" It's just usual training for them. Nothing magical.

 

[YiiQuan]

I would love to see the look on the faces of Chen Xiaowing, Chen Zhenglei, Wang Xian, and Zhu Tiancai when they were learning the so-called "new frame" from Chen Zhaokui