"In the seventh year of the Hong Wu Reign,
my ancestor Chen Bu, from the big scholar tree in Hongdong County,
Shanxi Province, moved to Henan Province's Changyang Village in Wen
County. My family produced many offspring, and because of this the
name of the village was changed to Chenjiagou.
The village was ten li west of the county town, and behind the village
is a ridge named Qinfengling. In those days there were many bandits
who robbed the villagers, and the local garrison didn't dare to apprehend
them. My ancestor was skilled in Taijiquan and was altruistic so he
sprang into action. He led his sons and younger brothers and the young
and strong of the village, several hundred in all, in an attack on
the bandits' den: after they exterminated the bandits, the region
was peaceful.
Since then, many disciples have
studied each day because a martial arts society was established within
the village to spread and pass on this skill among the villagers."
-Written by Ji Fu, Chen Zhao Pei
5/9/35, Henan, Wenxian, Chenjiagou
To begin to trace the origins of the Chen family style, one must first
begin with the historical patriarch of Chenjiagou, Chen Bu.
Chen Bu emigrated from Zezhou Prefecture (present day Jincheng) in
Shanxi to the area of present day Chen village in the reign of the
first emperor of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644). This was part of a
series of officially sanctioned large scale emigrations from north
China to areas including Shandong, Henan, Jiangsu, Anhui and Beijing,
where the population had been reduced radically by wars.
It is accepted that there was a boxing art practiced at the village
before the time of Chen Chang Xin, the fourteenth generation boxer
credited with instructing the founder of the Yang family style (and
thus opening the art to the public). As to the form of the art, specifics
cannot be proven. It has been suggested that the art was external
in nature, and may have been the Shaolin Tai Tzu Quan, Hong Quan,
or Tongbei Quan. There exist similarities in the postural names of
the Pao Quan form of Shaolin and the Pao Chui form of Chen Taiji.
Also, the close proximity of the Shaolin temple to Chenjiagou cannot
be discounted when considering this thesis. Two of the earliest writers
on the art of Chen family Taiji, Chen Xin (a famous author and master
of the 16th generation, 1849-1929) and Chen Ji Fu (also known as Chen
Zhao Pei, 1883-1972, see above passage) have credited Chen Bu with
the creation of Taiji. Apparently, this is not borne out by verifiable
historical documents.
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