Chen Style

Tai Chi

Remembering Grandmaster Chen Zhaokui

Chen Mao Shen was a legendary figure. This is a true story: One day Chen Mao Shen and his best friend went to watch a Chinese Opera in Beiping Kuo. They passed through a wheat field in Chen village. In this wheat field there was a large round stone that weighed about 200 Kg (about 440 lbs) Chen Mao shen rolled the stone alongside him as he walked to the Opera House. The distance from that wheat field to the Opera House was about 3 miles! He rolled the stone back to the wheat field after the opera was over. If one does not have the “Kung Fu” it is very difficult to move the stone at all let alone 3 miles! I tried to roll that stone and I could only roll it 7 to 8 turns.

Chen Mao Shen was appointed by the village to watch the wheat field. His responsibility was to protect the wheat from being eaten by chickens. When any chicken got close to the wheat field Chen Mao Shen could always catch the chicken. If any chicken came within 100 meters of him he could always catch it. Chicken Farmers were always getting fined because Chen Mao Shen would always catch their chickens in the wheat field. Everybody knew that Chen Mao Shen’s Kung Fu was extremely good, but nobody had ever seen him practice in public. Some people tried to test him. One day 5 or 6 well seasoned Tai Chi practitioners attacked him suddenly, hoping to catch him off guard. They all rushed in to grab him. What they could not see was how he folded his chest and dantian, releases his energy with “fa jin” and threw the all to the ground.

At that time Wang Xian was the Civil Military Officer. He used to patrol the village every night. He knew that Chen Mao Shen was good but had never seen him practice. So he was very curious. He always stopped by Chen Mao Shen’s house and looked inside. Chen Mao Shen’s house situated at the south end of Chen village, on the east side of the street. There was a cliff behind his house. At about 3:00 in the morning Wang Xian stopped by Chen Mao Shen’s house and saw Chen practicing his “new form". Finally Wang Xian decided to ask Chen Mao Shen what he was practicing. Chen said he wasn’t practicing anything he was just stretching. Since then Wang Xian paid close attention to Chen Mao Shen. One night Wang Xian climbed up on to Chen Mao Shen’s roof to watch him practice. Chen walked out of his house and in to the courtyard, looked around to make sure no one was watching, and started to practice Xin Jia. When Chen noticed he was being watched he did a few random movements to confuse Wang. Wang then jumped down and introduced himself. He asked a lot of questions. Chen was moved by the sincerity and enthusiasm of this man and from that time on Chen taught Wang Xin Jia. Chen also agreed to teach Xin Jia to the entire village. Therefore when Chen Zhao Pei died Chen Mao Shen suggested bringing Chen Zhao Kui back to Chen village to serve as Gatekeeper. So Wang And Chen Mao Shen went to Beijing together.

Sometimes Master Chen wanted to let his students experience the feel of “jin”. He would demonstrate on his students. When he taught “kuo tan ma” he turned his body used his palm to push Ma Hung.Ma Hung lost His balance and fell into a bucket of water. We had to clean the house before we could continue the lesson. Later Ma Hung invited Master Chen to teach in Shi Jia Zhuang from 1977 until 1979.

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