HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF
FLOWING WATER FLOATING CLOUDS
"White Crane Flaps Wings" in Flowing Water Floating Clouds
While Yang Style Taijiquan is the most popular style practiced outside China, inside China the most popular is Chen Style Taijiquan. When Chen Style Taijiquan was first demonstrated outside China by Chinese masters, many spectators were surprised. They thought it was Shaolin Kungfu, as Chen Style Taijiquan was (and still is) fast and forceful.
The style of Taijiquan practiced in our school, Wahnam Taijiquan, is more like Chen Style Taijiquan than Yang Style Taijiquan. In fact it is more like Shaolin Kungfu than Chen Style Taijiquan. Based on existing Taijiquan and other kungfu literature, we honestly believe that Wahnam Taijiquan is the closest to the original Taijiquan practices in the past.
Taijiquan was evolved from Shaolin Kungfu by the great Zhang San Feng in the 13th century, and was later called Wudang Taijiquan. It then evolved into Chen Style, Yang Style, two Wu Styles and Sun Style Taijiquan.
There were many sets in Chen Style Taijiquan, called Cannon Fist 1st Set, Cannon Fist 2nd Set, etc. I condensed various Chen Style sets into just one set and initially named it Chen Style Taijiquan. Later I used the name "Flowing Water Floating Clouds", drawing inspiration from the fact that Taijiquan was initially called "Cloud Hands", which was a shortened form for "Flowing Water Floating Cloud Hands".
"Flowing Water Floating Clouds", as it names signifies, emphasizes on flowing force. If a practitioner practices this set alone, without practicing other internal force training methods, he would be able to develop remarkable internal force. In combat application, it covers all the four categories of attack, namely striking, kicking, felling and chin-na. Many of its techniques are very sophisticated.
Wong Kiew Kit
18th December 2015
LINKS
Flowing Water Floating Clouds in Pictures