Song, Chuan Zi Bu, and Xie Zhong Yu Zheng: Wu Style Basics

By Wu's Tai Chi Chuan Academy, Hong Kong

Published:

The outward identity of Wu Style Tai Chi Chuan rests on two features: the Chuan Zi Bu parallel stance and the Xie Zhong Yu Zheng (“slant yet straight”) body alignment. Beneath both lies a single word: Song — relaxation. Ma Hailong summarized the Wu Style character in sixteen characters: “Tranquil, compact and extended, slant-yet-straight, Chuan-character stance.” The last eight describe the most visible external signature; Song is the soul that runs through everything. Drawing on Wu Tu Nan’s “Song Gong Lun,” the Wu Style competition form, and the standard text Wu Style Tai Chi Chuan: Weapons Explained, this article sets out the definitions, mechanics, and practice methods of the three fundamentals.

Key Facts

  • Song: Wu Tu Nan’s classic definition — “loose, wide but not slack.” Song is not limpness, nor sinking down; it is the sequential release of nine major joints.
  • Chuan Zi Bu: both feet parallel, toes facing forward; the bow stance lands as if on the two outer strokes of the Chinese character 川. Divided into zheng bu (cardinal directions) and yu bu (corner directions).
  • Xie Zhong Yu Zheng: from the side, a slanted line runs from Baihui to the rear heel (roughly 25°–30° forward lean in the bow stance); from the front, both shoulders and hips are level and square, with three points aligned.
  • Unique details: Wu Style’s “three points aligned” are nose tip, knee tip, and toe tip (other schools use the hand tip); the horse stance (zhuang bu) exists only in Wu Style.
  • Push hands advantage: no large waist rotation — coordination comes from whole-body forward lean and rear sitting, produced jointly by Chuan Zi Bu and Xie Zhong Yu Zheng.
  • Beginner path: 10 minutes of standing Song practice daily, fixed-stance Chuan Zi Bu first, then the Brush Knee single-movement drill for Xie Zhong Yu Zheng.

1. Song: The Soul of Wu Style

The Classical Definitions

Wu Tu Nan, in “Song Gong Lun” (On Relaxation Skill), wrote:

Song means loose — wide but not slack; light, released, freely pleasant, not rigid or congealed, possessing tiny pores that admit other things. All of this makes the meaning of song clear.

Yang Yu Ting required: “The whole body naturally relaxed, connected joint by joint; the mind quiet, the nerves unstrained.” “The hands stay level, without force; the body carries no strength.” Li Bingci and Weng Fuqi’s Wu Style Tai Chi Chuan: Weapons Explained gives the sequence: “First the static song of posture and frame, then gradually the song of the torso and limbs in motion.”

Three Layers of Song — and Common Misreadings

First, song is not softness. Song means the joints open and stiff force is absent — not a limp, collapsed body. Demonstrating song gong, Eddie Wu Kwong Yu remarked: “Many people think song means soft. That is not song — song is the absence of force, letting go.”

Second, song is not sinking down or shrinking back. The head must rise upward for song to be upright; a bowed head, hunched chest, rounded back, and sunken shoulders are precisely not song.

Third, song is the sequential opening of every joint. The nine major joints — ankle, knee, hip, waist, shoulder, elbow, wrist, fingers — release one by one, connected through. Brute force, locked joints, and tense muscle are all the opposite of song.

What Makes Wu Style Song Distinctive

Wu Style releases from the top down: like a bamboo blind hung from one end — fix the top point and the rest of the slats can hang loose. The crown lifts by xu ling ding jin (empty force at the crown); every joint below releases naturally downward. Song unites body and mind: the relaxation of posture reaches the internal organs, the nervous system, and thought — beginning with the exterior, then moving the interior. Yang Yu Ting’s Northern Wu style established “song without collapse, tight without stiffness” — emphasizing song, not softness, with internal jin preserved inside relaxation. Only when the whole body is thoroughly song can listening jin become sensitive — “touch and it empties” — the material basis of push hands skill.

Song Practice Methods

The fundamental drills demonstrated by Eddie Wu include: wrist swinging — wrist, fingers, elbow, shoulder, and hip all released, shaking like flicking off water, entirely without force; hip-led arm turning — the hips carry the arms left and right while the arms stay completely passive; knee song — standing on one leg (a wall may be used), using intent not force, releasing knee and ankle; tucking the weilyu — drawing the tailbone in while sitting into the leg to adjust balance; and the three-section, nine-joint release: head-and-neck section (head, neck, chest and back), waist-and-hip section (chest, waist, hip), leg section (hip, knee, ankle) — nine joints released in sequence.

Yang Yu Ting was later honored as the “Grand Master of Song-Rou” and “Master of the art of song and emptiness” — his push hands saturated with song, neutralizing through release: at the instant of contact the opponent’s center was already emptied, and before they noticed, they were gently issued away. Hence the reputation: “touch and it empties.”

2. Chuan Zi Bu: The Foundation of Wu Style Footwork

The Classical Definition

The Wu Style competition form states: “The stance highlights the Chuan-character stance — both soles parallel, toes and heels facing forward; when bowing the leg, the knee sits directly above the toe, so both feet seem to stand on the two outer strokes of the character 川.”

The image explains itself: the two outer strokes of 川 represent the two sides of the body — from shoulder to hip to knee to foot, connecting the Jianjing point on each side down to the Yongquan point on the sole. The middle stroke represents the body’s centerline — from Baihui at the crown, through neck, back, and waist, to the Huiyin point at the crotch.

Technical Specifications

Both feet parallel, toes forward (the rear foot turning out no more than 20°); in the bow stance the front knee bends over the toe while the rear leg extends naturally; in the empty stance the empty foot rests on the center stroke. Width is about one foot-length (zheng bu) to one and a half (yu bu); depth is one full foot-length in zheng bu, half in yu bu. The step is narrower than Yang Style — the Slant Flying stance spans roughly half the distance of its Yang counterpart. The 45-form manual stresses: in parallel, empty, bow, or diagonal-bow stances alike, the feet stay parallel, highlighting weighted-leg turning.

Zheng Bu and Yu Bu

Wu Style footwork divides by the eight directions. Zheng bu (straight steps) travel the four cardinal directions — east, south, west, north — width one sideways foot, depth one lengthwise foot; used in Brush Knee, Grasp Bird’s Tail, Repulse Monkey, and so on. Yu bu (corner steps) travel the four corner directions — southeast, northeast, southwest, northwest — width one and a half feet, depth half a foot; used in Parting the Wild Horse’s Mane, Slant Flying, Fair Lady Works at Shuttles, Strike the Tiger, and so on.

Three Advantages

First, greater stability: parallel feet create a sensible support base, and the center of gravity stays on the optimal axis — equilibrium in any position. Second, freer transitions: in weighted-leg turning the empty leg steps through the inside of the support leg with no rise or fall of the body; small arcs make turning nimble. Third, better push hands: the body always faces the opponent squarely — surer than the T-stance or V-stance; sitting back and pressing forward remain stable, where a T-stance falls sideways.

Compared with other styles: the Yang bow stance turns the rear foot in about 45°, takes a wide span, and weights roughly 70/30; the Chen bow stance splays the front foot slightly, bends the rear leg, and spans middling width. Wu Style’s Chuan Zi Bu keeps both feet parallel and forward, turns on the whole foot or the heel, and achieves extreme single-weighting at one-nine.

The Wu Style Horse Stance

Wu Style also contains a horse stance (zhuang bu) — found in no other tai chi style. Left post, right pillar: together with Chuan Zi Bu it completes the Wu Style stance system.

3. Xie Zhong Yu Zheng: The Core of Wu Style Body Method

The Classical Definition

“Xie Zhong Yu Zheng” stands within Ma Hailong’s sixteen-character summary of Wu Style. It means the posture may take a definite slant while the overall center of gravity remains central and stable — the core body requirement of Wu Style. Weapons Explained makes the key point: xie zhong yu zheng looks “slant” yet is in fact “straight” — the slant is a change within motion, not a static pose.

The Dialectic of Slant and Straight

From the side: Baihui, shoulder, back, waist, hip, leg, and rear heel form one slanted line — in the bow stance the torso leans forward roughly 25°–30°, the body line meeting the ground at about 60°–65°. From the front: both shoulders and both hips are level and square, with three points aligned — nose tip, knee tip, and toe tip stacked over the ground. The outward slant is the dynamic process of empty-full transition; the inner center of gravity stays on the optimal center of the support base, and the gathered jin issues along the vertical line of the three aligned points into one best resultant force.

Three points aligned is a distinctively Wu Style expression: in the bow stance, the plumb line from the nose tip must fall over the front knee tip and toe tip. Other schools usually align hand tip, nose tip, and toe tip; Wu Style insists on the knee tip — a signature detail.

The Mechanics

Take Left Brush Knee and Twist Step: front and rear feet form a parallelogram whose diagonal is the resultant line of the two directional forces — the slanted body issues a concentrated whole-body force. The Danzhong point on the chest and the navel form a lever: through the sit-to-bow transition it travels along the diagonal, producing a prying, issuing force. Xie Zhong Yu Zheng is not “standing crooked” — it is using the body’s slant to deliver the greatest concentrated resultant force in motion: whole-body jin.

In Push Hands

In four-direction push hands, Wu Style does not demand large waist rotation (at most 45° each side); adjustment comes from whole-body forward lean and rear sitting — adding a “drawing near, drawing away” coordination. When the opponent attacks the joint inversely, sitting back buys the chance to neutralize — and the same geometry can be turned against them. No large waist rotation; whole-body coordination instead: the push hands advantage born of Chuan Zi Bu plus Xie Zhong Yu Zheng.

Common Errors and Corrections

Bending the waist and jutting the buttocks to chase the “slant” — understand the principle correctly, drill the single movement, and add ankle flexibility work (pressing and rotating the ankle). Losing the crown lift and shrinking — xu ling ding jin must not be lost; the suspended head is what keeps a slanted body from falling. Front knee passing the toe or the rear heel lifting — adjust the step length so the heel plants solidly in the bow stance. Frontal skewing, shoulders or hips uneven — “straight” requires both shoulders and hips level and square: slant belongs to the side view, straightness to the front view.

4. Three Fundamentals, One Foundation

Song is the internal basis — without it Chuan Zi Bu cannot stand firm and the slant becomes mere crookedness. Chuan Zi Bu is the basis of form — footwork governs body method, and the parallel feet give Xie Zhong Yu Zheng its stable support base. Xie Zhong Yu Zheng is the signature of body method — stance plus slant together complete the Wu Style “standing-pillar body.” All three unite in single-leg weighting: Chuan Zi Bu secures the single-weight center, Xie Zhong Yu Zheng adjusts the body method upon it, and Song makes the whole possible.

5. Beginner Practice Path

Song basics, ten minutes daily: stand in Chuan Zi Bu and release joint by joint; swing the wrists, turn the shoulders, soften the knees; use intent, not force, and feel the joints open. Chuan Zi Bu first, standing still: feet parallel, toes forward; feel the single-leg weighting — if the body does not move when the empty foot lifts lightly, empty and full are distinguished. Sit into the leg, lift the foot, tuck the weilyu; advance and retreat always along the inner side of the legs. Xie Zhong Yu Zheng through Brush Knee: set up the Chuan Zi Bu bow stance, find the three aligned points; from the side, one slanted line from Baihui to the rear heel; from the front, shoulders and hips level and square.

Further Reading