Two years ago in a karaoke bar in Taipei, Nigel Sutton and Vincent Jones led the members of the British Tai Chi team in a chorus of "there's only one Dan Docherty". Although I appreciated the sentiments expressed, I had however, to inform them that I knew of at least three other Dan Docherty's; one of them being my father, that one of the others also practiced Tai Chi Chuan, while the third DD (whom I have never met) also advertises in Combat. This has resulted in the past in my father cashing my winning premium bond vouchers and in my being presented with bills and invoices about which I know nothing.
I was reminded of this recently when I went to Leicester to be assessed by a panel from the British Council of Chinese Martial Arts. The assessment was held at Derek Frearson's Wu Guan, which brought back nostalgic memories of gym's in Hong Kong.
After I had demonstrated some forms, pushing hands and applications, I was asked some questions by the panel. They seemed especially interested in what name I wished to use for my organisation were I to join the BCCMA. For the last several years I have used the name "Practical Tai Chi Chuan". I told them that I intended to call my organisation "Practical Tai Chi Chuan International ".
I explained that I had clubs in a number of countries and that I taught Tai Chi Chuan in a practical way so that people could use it for self defence as well as for improving their health. They then asked me if I would be using the name "Wudang" or "Wutang".
There are two major theories as to the origins of Tai Chi Chuan. One suggests that Tai Chi Chuan originated in Wudang Mountain with the Confucian-Taoist, Chang San-feng. One suggests that it originated in the Chen family village. Furthermore the Chinese internal martial arts are often collectively referred to as "Wudang".
For the last eighty or ninety years, it has been common practice to divide Tai Chi Chuan into styles named after the famous masters of the past: Yang, Wu, Sun Hao, Chen etc.
Chris Thomas, a teacher of Chen and Cheng Man-ching style Tai Chi in Macclesfield once remarked to me that only one person ever practiced Cheng Man-ching style Tai Chi and that was Cheng Man-ching.
Chris is absolutely right. If the gentle reader were say to visit a hundred schools of Yang Style Tai Chi, he would find a hundred variations of Yang style Tai Chi. The same applies to all the other Tai Chi "families". For example about ten years ago, The Wu family published a book entitled "Wu Family Tai Chi Chuan" in Hong Kong. The book featured Wu Jian-quan and his son, Wu Gung-yi., performing techniques from the hand form. The techniques bore the same name but were executed in a quite different way. The father exhibited deep stances and extended movement, while the son exhibited high stances and very little extension. So who is doing true Yang style ? Who is doing true Wu style ?
Most Tai Chi instructors accept the principles elucidated in the Tai Chi Chuan Classics, even if in some cases they are not quite sure what these are. It is then only a question whether they are capable of practicing these principles effectively or not.
The Tai Chi that I teach is Chen style, Yang style, Wang style, Wu style, Ching Yi style, Qi style, Cheng style and Docherty style because people with these different names and others before them have all played a part in its transmission.
The oral transmission that I received from my teacher was that Chang San-feng founded Tai Chi Chuan while living on Wudang Mountain. I also visited Wudang Mountain in 1984 and saw statues and portraits of Chang as well as an inscription in his honour from the Ming Emperor dedicating many of the buildings there in Chang's honour.
This is why I say that my Tai Chi Chuan is from Wudang . It is Wudang Tai Chi Chuan. However, I cannot claim sole rights to this name as many other people hold the same belief about the origins of their Tai Chi Chuan. It is as absurd for someone to lay sole claim to the name Shaolin, or karate or taekwondo as it is for anyone to claim sole use of the name Wudang.
Of course using a certain name does not automatically confer legitimacy. For example there is group which amongst other things practices "Tai Chi Ribbon " and Tai Chi Dance" and which claims to be the oldest style of Tai Chi Chuan with a history of more than 2000 years. Not only this, but they claim to be able to move people without touching them. The interesting question is not whether regular Tai Chi instructors who are members of the Tai Chi Union believe all this (without exception they do not), but whether or not members of this group themselves believe that they are practicing Tai Chi Chuan. I should add that this group once sat on the national governing body for Chinese Kung Fu.
Rampant nationalism can also lead to what at best can be termed misleading information. For example a few years before his death a famous sensei of the JKA gave an interview in which he was asked whether he had trained in styles other than Japanese karate. He denied doing so despite saying that he had trained for a considerable time in China.
It is quite evident that the karate taught today by leading instructors is quite different in nature to that brought to Japan by Gichin Funakoshi and that one of the primary influences has been from Japanese instructors who have trained in Chinese styles. It is greatly to his credit that Sensei Kanazawa of the SKI has been so open about his involvement with Tai Chi Chuan. As in many things he is the exception rather than the rule.
Going back to the claims of the Chen family village to be the source of Tai Chi Chuan. It was only a fairly recent by the famous Chen stylist, Gu Liu-sheng, which revealed that there had been a confusion between a famous official from Manchuria named Cheng Wang-ting and a lowly garrison soldier from the Chen village also named Chen Wang-ting. The only difference being the "ting " character.
This type of error is bad enough, but an article (not in Combat) on Tai Chi history some years ago went one better claiming that Chen Jia-kou was the founder of Tai Chi Chuan. Chen Jia kou is not the name of a person; it is the Chen family village.
So in future, if you don't like Dan Docherty's Tai Chi Column, don't assume that I'm the DD who wrote it. By the way Paul, about those two invoices......