ARC Wiki

• Liu He Ba Fa: Liang Zi-Pang, Sun Zhi
• Xingyiquan:
• Tai Chi: Raymond Chung*

*According to Master Raymond Chung, Moy Lin-Shin learned Tai Chi with him for no longer than three months. Master Chung is currently (2017) head of the Vancouver Tai Chi Chuan Association.

Mr. Moy, the founder, was not a deity nor an enlightened person (in the Buddhist sense). Although the club likes to give the impression he was those things, he was really a human being with his own personality failings, just like anyone else. He was also a tai chi master, in the truest sense of the word.

Taoist Tai Chi, which should rightfully be called Moy tai chi, is not really tai chi at all. It is a combination of liu he ba fa (which itself incorporates aspects of bagua, tai chi, and xing-yi) and yi-quan (which entails zhan zhuang and neigong). The only Yang tai chi element is in the external choreography.

Their lineage is solid. Mr. Moy was taught by the legendary Liang Zipeng and his student, the renowned master Sun Zhi. Master Liang was famous for becoming an expert in a litany of aggressive external fighting styles, the most notable being Eagle Claw. Only later did he become an internal artist by mastering zang zhuang from You Peng Xi, student of the venerable master Wang Xiangzhai, creator of zang zhuang. He then learned liu he ba fa from Wu Yi Hui, the art's modern (non-mythical) creator. Mr. Moy also had contact with a master Yeung, who is said to have practiced a lesser known spontaneous/intense form of qigong. In addition, there is the learning of taoist and confucian liturgy which is where all the religious stuff comes from.

The club offers liu he ba fa. This was modified by Mr. Moy but retains a lot of what he learned from his teachers. It is what Mr. Moy intended to teach when he immigrated to Canada but he quickly discovered that people simply could not do this difficult form. Thus the more simplified set of tai chi described above was developed. They also offer sword, saber, and xing-yi but these sets were never taught by Moy in any great depth. He sent students to learn the sets from other teachers and upon their return he would offer personal corrections. He never gave open classes for these 3 forms.

Mr. Moy could have taught a lot more but he was obsessed with the building of an empire. This is one of the most tragic aspects of the Mr. Moy story in my opinion. Oddly, he left this hard-won empire in the hands of incompetent people, without any direction on who should do what upon his passing. There was a power struggle and certain people rose to the top. The rest is history.

There are definite weaknesses in the training matrix of this club. The main instruction is not supposed to happen in regular classes but at expensive workshops (a liu he ba fa week, 4.5 days, can fetch upwards of $1000 CAD). Yet due to the large numbers of “teachers” a workshop participant will routinely find themselves with a teacher that does not know them or their history, something that is crucial in tai chi instruction. Continuing, these workshops can easily reach hundreds of participants so the teacher cannot possibly provide adequate instruction. Finally, the teacher is himself/herself often not very good (more often than not they are chosen based on spiritual/religious reasons and not for their understanding of tai chi). So a participant receives something generic and of low quality and does not receive any sort of follow up, again something that is crucial. That same student goes to another workshop, usually with another low quality teacher, to receive more low quality “common denominator” instruction. Rinse and repeat. It could be that this cycle of very slow moving improvement is actually part of the equation… to generate funds. The takeaway here, though, cannot be denied: members of this club have their tai chi improve at an incredibly slow rate. Add the following to the mix: some members can receive and understand certain teachings but, and this is where the religious part comes in, because their hearts are “not open” they are “not ready” to receive such instruction. So such a student is left to languish, possibly for years, in the hope that some day they may… see the light.

This club does offer a social aspect that is helpful to a lot of people. This is part of one's health too. This is especially true for the elderly and those afflicted with serious health conditions. A lot of laughs can be had here if you get into it and you can make a lot of friends. This is doubly so when you consider there is probably a class in every major city in the world. Just show up anywhere and everyone is just like you. They also go out of their way to help those with serious health problems. There is a definite degree of genuine compassion that cannot be denied.

The club activates a sense of generosity from its members from the outset. Donate your time/effort/money to the fundraising project of the month/year. This can be very helpful to people who are very self-centered. The problem is that this prodding never stops and eventually pushes a person to decide whether they will become a zealot or a pretender (“closed hearted”).

In conclusion, the actual art Mr. Moy taught is excellent. It is the organizational/business aspects, low quality instructors, religious fanaticism, and administrators-for-life that have ruined it in my opinion. Only time will tell how Mr. Moy's legacy will play out. https://www.reddit.com/r/taijiquan/comments/4guvhq/taichi_taoist_is_worth/

As a sickly youth Moy was sent to a monastery. There he was trained in the teachings of the Earlier Heaven Wu-chi sect of the Hua Shan School of Taoism and regained his health. Moy reported that he studied the religious and philosophical side of Taoism and that he had acquired knowledge and skills in Chinese martial arts.

Ahead of the Communist Revolution of 1949 Moy moved to Hong Kong. There he joined the Yuen Yuen Institute, in Tsuen Wan district in the New Territories, continued his education and became a Taoist monk.

The Yuen Yuen Institute was established in 1950 by monks from Sanyuan Gong (Three Originals Palace) in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, which in turn traces its lineage to the Longmen (Dragon Gate) sect of Quanzhen (Complete Perfection) Taoism. The Yuen Yuen Institute is dedicated to Taoism, Buddhism and Confucianism. In 1968, Moy co-founded, together with Taoist Masters Mui Ming-to and Mrs Tang Yuen Mei, the temple for the Fung Loy Kok Institute of Taoism (FLK; Penglai ge, 蓬萊閣) on the grounds of the Yuen Yuen Institute.[2]

In addition to his studies and education in Taoism Moy Lin-shin learned a range of internal martial arts including Liuhebafa (Lok Hup Ba Fa, 六合八法 liùhé bā fǎ), T'ai Chi Ch'uan (太極拳 tàijí quán), Hsing I Ch'uan (形意拳 xíng Yì Quán), Bagua (Baguazhang, 八卦掌 bà guà zhǎng) and Taoist Qigong (chi kung, chi gung, 氣功 qìgōng). One of Moy's main teachers in Hong Kong was Leung Ji Pang (Liang Zi Peng, or Leung Ji Pang, 梁子鵬) (1900–1974), an instructor in Liuhebafa and other arts, who was in turn a student of Wu Yi Hui. Moy was taught Liuhebafa at the Chin Woo Athletic Association in Shanghai. Moy also trained in Hong Kong with Sun Dit, a fellow student of Liang Zhi Peng, who Moy said had developed skills in Hsing I Chuan and Push hands (押手 Yāshǒu).