Made-Up Concept: Changxing Number

[Robin Wu]

In mathematics, there is a concept known as Erdős number.

It measures the "collaborative distance" between the mathematician Paul Erdős and any other researcher, based on co-authorship of academic papers.

Example:

0: Paul Erdős himself.​

1: Anyone who co-authored a research paper directly with Erdős (there are 509 people with an Erdős number of 1).​

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2: Anyone who co-authored a paper with an Erdős number 1 author.​

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3: Anyone who co-authored a paper with an Erdős number 2 author, and so on.​

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Inspired by this concept, there later was a concept known as the Kevin Bacon number.

Bacon Number 0: Kevin Bacon himself.​

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Bacon Number 1: Actors who directly starred in a movie alongside Kevin Bacon.​

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Bacon Number 2: Actors who did not work directly with Kevin Bacon, but worked with someone who did.​

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So I thought: What if we created one for Taijiquan such as the Changxing Number.

A Changxing Number is the generational distance of a lineage with Chen Changxing (1771-1853), teacher of Yang Luchan and great grandfather of Chen Fa’ke. An unofficial Changxing Number refers to the distance one is from Chen Changxing but is not part of a lineage.

0: Chen Changxing himself.

1: Chen Gengyun, Yang Luchan

2: Chen Yanxi, Yang Jianhou, Yang Banhou, Wu Yuxiang

3: Chen Fa’ke, Yang Chengfu, Yang Shaohou, Wu Quanyou

4: Chen Zhaokui, Feng Zhiqiang, Hong Junsheng, Fu Zhongwen, Cheng Man-Ching, Wu Jianquan, Hao Weizhen

5: Chen Yu, Chen Xiaowang, Chen Zhonghua, Huang Sheng Shyan, William C.C. Chen, Sun Lutang, Yang Jun

6: Marin Spivack, Chen Ziqiang, Chen Bing, Wang Peisheng

What’s interesting here is that Sun Lutang is from (1861-1932) who has the same Changxing number as Chen Yu who was born in 1962. Their births are over a century apart.

Huang Sheng Shyan has the same Changxing Number as Chen Yu, but was born in 1910, which is over 50 years earlier than Chen Yu.

Wu Quangyou, father of the founder of Wu Style, has the same Changxing number as Chen Fa’ke but was born over 50 years earlier than Chen Fa’ke.

The founder of Wu Style, Wu Jianquan, has the same Changxing Number as Chen Zhaokui.

Wang Peisheng surprised me. I think he is disciple under Yang Yuting (Changxing Number 5), but did also get to learn from his teacher's teacher Wang Maozhai (Changxing Number 4). Maybe he should be a 5.5.

Yang Jwing Ming would have an unofficial Changxing Number of 6.

Sun Lutang’s daughter and son (Sun Jianyun and Sun Cunzhou) have a Changxing Number of 6.

Adam Mizner has an unofficial Changxing Number of 7, both in Yang Shaohou’s line and Huang Xingxian’s line.

 

[angryclown]

I think unofficial generations should be shown as exponentials, also known as the fantasy multiplier. So if I learned from someone but was not a disciple, I would have an exponent of 1, which wouldn't change anything, but would still make me unofficial. However, if my teacher was unofficially a student of Yang Jun, and I wanted to claim lineage, my Chen Changxing number would be 8 (my unofficial lineage number) squared (my fantasy multiplier for two degrees unofficialness), or 64.

My guess is that would put Shoreline Taiji guy (who is super proud of himself) as something like ChangXing number 512, which is both hilarious and probably accurate.