What do you mean by "inheritance"? How to divide the "generations of descendants" of Taiji Chuan? This is a concern of some traditional Tai Ji Chuan practitioners, and their views have always been different. In the process of preparing for the "2005 Yang-style Tai Ji Chuan Famous Seminar", the author also encountered such problems. This paper takes Yang-style Tai Ji Chuan as an example to talk about my humble opinion, and also involves some views on some Yang-style inheritors' appellations.
The article "descendants" in Ci Hai has two meanings: ① refers to people whose moral knowledge can be passed on to future generations. (2) people who inherit an academic discipline and spread it. According to the first and second meanings of "make it spread", "successor" can generally be defined as "giver". Therefore, Yang Luchan, the founder of Yang-style Tai Ji Chuan, is the first generation descendant of Yang-style Tai Ji Chuan, and Hou Ban and Hou Jian are the second generation descendants.
However, the second meaning above also means "successor". For example, Yang Banhou is the "successor" of Yang Luchan. According to this meaning, Yang Banhou is the first generation of descendants. But people used to say "carry on the family line" and called Yang Banhou the second generation.
"Inheritance" is an evaluation and an innate right, which can increase the reputation and weight of boxers. So, who can be called a "successor"? How to divide generations? Every school has its own opinion, and there are differences between schools and within schools.
First of all, I think "birthright" is not the essence, but the real inheritance and teaching. Whether it is too entangled in people and themselves, or too entangled in fame, it doesn't make much sense. However, since there is a "successor", there must be a statement.
The emergence of Wushu is a complicated problem. According to the old tradition, Master gave boxing, accepted excellent students' towels as his disciples, and held a kowtowing ceremony. This disciple became his next generation. However, due to various reasons, there are many special circumstances. From the perspective of "inheritance skills and communication skills", there are mentoring and non-mentoring; There are descendants of the next generation and descendants of the same generation as teachers; Some are social views, and some are teachers' views.
It is normal to learn from teachers and pass them on to the next generation. However, judging from the current situation, there are three main situations for future generations who have no teachers.
The first is family communication. For example, the son and grandson of the "master" come from primary school boxing and are natural descendants. There is no problem of learning from the teacher. I have never heard of a son or grandson of a famous teacher kowtowing to his father or grandfather, but he is still recognized as a descendant by the society. There are two ways to learn from grandpa: if your father is a famous teacher, treat him as your generation; If the father is unknown, grandchildren can be direct descendants of ancestors. For example, Yang Shaohou, although he learned boxing from his grandfather Yang Luchan, can't be a descendant of his father Hou Jian. He also tempered literati boxing with his grandfather Fu since childhood, but he could not carry on the family line with his father Fu Sheng. Of course, in propaganda, people admit that they got it from two generations. Among Yang's relatives, He Hammer is Yang Chengfu's nephew and son-in-law, both of whom are older than Yang Chengfu's son. They got their boxing skills from their grandfather Yang Chengfu, and their father was not a famous teacher. So as descendants of Yang Chengfu, they are the fourth generation. The grandson of Niu Chunming, the grandson of Cui Zhisun, and the fourth generation descendant of Yang family all came directly from their ancestors. They call themselves the fifth generation descendants, and everyone has no criticism. Yang, the son of Yang Banhou, is a descendant of his cousin Yang Chengfu because he can't learn from his father.
Yang Zhenduo's grandchildren Yang Jun and Vencent Yang are the sixth generation grandchildren since Yang Luchan. However, they all learned boxing directly from grandpa since childhood. Technically speaking, they are descendants of Yang Zhenduo, and they are the fifth generation in everyone's mind. However, the Yang family still calls it the sixth generation according to the blood relationship, which is another special case.
In the second case, because of identity problems, it is not convenient to learn from teachers. For example, the difference between the rich and the poor, age, communication reasons and so on. If the scholar is a nobleman and the teacher is a servant, probably few people kowtow to the teacher. Wang Lanting and Li Ruidong are close friends and their parents have a good relationship, so Wang Lanting awarded boxing to Li Ruidong as his brother. It is said that he received disciples before the memorial tablet of Yang Luchan, acting as a teacher. Mr Zhao Bin has some friends who learn boxing from him. They are very close and old, and their children call them uncles. Although he didn't kowtow to his master, we call him a "close friend" of Zhao Bin, and he is also a descendant, which is more important than a "disciple".
Ye Dami is a teacher in Shanghai, studying under Tian, and later under Sun Lutang, Yang Shaohou, Yang Chengfu and Li. As early as 1926, Ye Dami founded Wudang Taiji Society in Shanghai. Zheng Manqing, Pu Bingru and Huang Jinghua are all students of the club. Yang Chengfu 65438-0928 studied under Wu Huichuan and Chu Guiting at the same time when he was in Nanjing Central Martial Arts School. Because the Central Martial Arts School couldn't arrange it, Mr. Yang Chengfu took Wu Huichuan and Chu Guiting to Shanghai to make a living. First he taught in Wudang Tai Ji Chuan Club, and later he was introduced by Ye to several mansions to teach boxing. Wu Huichuan later founded Huichuan Tai Ji Chuan Society. 1February, 932, Yang Chengfu sent Ye Dami a photo with the title "Hui Di Village, a big secret person" (this is modesty) to show his respect. Although Ye Dami didn't learn from Yang Chengfu, his students Zheng Manqing and Pu Bingru later became Yang Chengfu's disciples. Therefore, according to Ye Dami's actual inheritance, achievements and influence, he is well-deserved as a descendant of Yang Chengfu's former teacher and should belong to the fourth generation.
The "nine strokes" of Taiji biography, known as "beautiful words and sentences", was passed on to Niu Lianyuan by Yang Banhou. It is said that Niu Lianyuan, a wealthy businessman, married Yang Banhou in Beijing, and Yang Banhou gave him boxing in the name of his brother on behalf of his father (both of them belong to the second generation). However, when Niu Shi's disciple Wu published the annotation of Tai Ji Chuan's Nine Laws and Eighty-one Styles, the editor felt that Wu was too senior, and suggested that Niu Lianyuan be called the "third generation", which was also recognized by disciple Yu.
In today's Tai Ji Chuan world, there are some influential people, who are recognized as a generation of descendants of Tai Ji Chuan, instead of learning from teachers.
The third situation is social reasons. After liberation, who kowtowed to the teacher against feudal superstition? After the reform and opening up, it is after the rise of teachers. I heard from Mr. Meng Xianmin that none of the descendants of his grandfather Niu Chunming who studied boxing after liberation was an apprentice. However, who is an influential descendant has its own public opinion.
The above views are the opinions of one family and our own. Don't force other teachers to recognize them.