ARC Wiki

• 14th generation.
• Teachers: Chen Bin-Wang (father), Wang Zong-Yue*
• Students include: Chen Geng-Yun (son), Chen Hua-Mei, Chen Huai-Yuan and Yang Lu-Chan, Wang Zong-Yue*.

• Special note regarding Wang Zong-Yue, please see the section on Wang Zong-Yue.

Chen Changxing: (1771 - 1853 alias Yunting) was the 14th Generation Standard Bearer. In the history of Chen Tai Chi Chen Changxing is regarded as a monumental master and was known by the nick name of 'Mr Ancestral Tablet' because of his firm rooting and upright posture. He was the son and student of Chen Binwang. Chen Changxing worked most of his life as a bodyguard and his skill with weapons was famed. Chen Changxing combined Chen Wangting's empty hand forms into the two Laojia (old frame) routines that we have today - Yi Lu and Er Lu (Pao Chui). He contributed to the Chen Family Manuals by writing three books on Tai Chi – ‘10 essentials of Tai Chi’, ‘Key Elements to Display One's Talents in Tai Chi’ and ‘Tai Chi Fighting’. His famous students include: his son Chen Gengyun, Yang Luchan (founder of Yang Style), Chen Humei (Chen Hua-Mei) and Chen Huaiyuan.

陳長興傳

[12] CHEN CHANGXING

陳長興陳氏十四世孫據家譜所載其技出自其父秉旺所傳世謂蔣發傳長興者實誤蓋蔣為九世祖奏庭公同時人也得長興薪傳者子耕雲而外以陳懷遠陳華梅楊福魁為最

Chen Changxing is of the fourteenth generation of the Chen family. According to the Genealogy, his skills came from his father, Bingwang. Everyone says that Jiang Fa taught Changxing, but this is actually a mistake. Jiang lived was a contemporary of Wangting, who was from the ninth generation of the family [whereas Changxing was fourteenth generation]. As for Changxing’s students, beyond Chen Gengyun, the best were Chen Huaiyuan, Chen Huamei, and Yang Fukui [Luchan].https://brennantranslation.wordpress.com/2017/08/31/taiji-boxing-according-to-chen-ziming/

The use of martial arts on the battlefield were gradually de-emphasized over time after firearms were introduced. Many teachers kept interest in the martial arts going by promoting fitness, health, and longevity. Because of this, the sets of Chen Taijiquan reportedly went through great change during the next five generations after Chen Wangting. It should be noted that three prominent 14th generation Chen family members left their own pivotal signatures on the Chen style system of Taijiquan. These prominent Chen family members were Chen Changxing (1771-1853), Chen Youbeng, and Chen Youheng. Chen Changxing is forever remembered as the one who organized the sets into two sets (Yi Lu and Er Lu). Chen Youbeng developed a New Style and also maintained the Original style. This new style was supposedly a small frame style which he in turn passed on to Chen Qing-ping who developed Zhao Bao style Taijiquan. Chen You-heng reportedly carried on the military tradition of the art by practicing a Big Style which he passed onto Chen Ji-shen, Chen Zhong-shen, and Chen Bo-shen.

Chen Wangting's style carried these unique ideas not only into hand to hand combat but into weapons practice as well. Chen took the idea of “sticking to” from pushing hands a step beyond with his development of “sticky spears” training. At the time, this was seen as an advance in the use of weapons, as guns had not yet been introduced.www.chiflow.com/html/Taijiquan_Chen.htm

Chen Changxing (陳長興 Chén Chángxīng, Ch'en Chang-hsing, 1771–1853), 14th generation Chen Village martial artist, synthesized Chen Wangting's open fist training corpus into two routines that came to be known as “Old Frame” (老架; lao jia). Those two routines are named individually as the First Form (Yilu; 一路) and the Second Form (Erlu; 二路, more commonly known as the Cannon Fist 炮捶). Chen Changxing, contrary to Chen family tradition, also took the first recorded non-family member as a disciple, Yang Luchan (1799–1871), who went on to popularize the art throughout China, but as his own family tradition known as Yang-style t'ai chi ch'uan. The Chen family system was only taught within the Chen village region until 1928.

Also see: Chen Bu, Chen Wang-Ting, Chen You-Ben, Chen Fa-Ke.