Sun Shi Tai Ji Ba Gua Xing Yi Quan
Sun LuTang's System of Internal Martial Arts
Sun-Style Internal Martial Arts 孙氏武学has stood the test of time since our Grand Master Sun LuTang 孙禄堂developed the system almost 100 years ago. We are fortunate to be a part of the practitioners who carry his legacy. The Malaysia Study Group has been extremely supportive towards promoting the art since its 2018 introduction in Kuala Lumpur by Master Ivan Ang.
Xingyiquan 形意拳, Baguaquan 八卦拳and Taijiquan 太极拳are the three pillars of internal martial arts 内家拳of the modern world. At a time of chaos in the late 18th century, Grand Master Sun LuTang 孙禄堂was born to a simple family. He began his training of Xingyiquan at a young age and further his studies in Baguaquan and in his fifties into Taijiquan.
Grand Master Sun was credited in history for unifying the three arts into one with ‘I-Ching 易经’ as its theoretical basis. His system of internal martial arts came to known as ‘Sun Style Internal Martial Arts 孙氏武学’ and has a profound impact spreading across martial arts, philosophy, literature and others.
Our center in Kuala Lumpur emphasizes on the study of Sun-Style Xingyiquan and Baguaquan at this juncture and look forward to expanding its classes to cover Sun-Style Taijiquan as well in the near future.
Introduction to Sun Style Xingyiquan 孙氏形意拳
By 1915, Sun Lu Tang had amassed a great wealth of knowledge on Xingyiquan. He then proceeded to reform xingyiquan referencing to Xi Sui Jing 洗髓经, Yi Jin Jing易筋经, and I-Ching 易经, removing the complexities and preserving the essence of the forms. The forms came to be known as Sun Style Xingyiquan 孙氏形意拳. The summarized characteristics of Sun Style Xingyiquan are:
1. Simplicity
There are neither blocks or intercepting movements, each step either spirals upwards or downwards. The issuing of power is elastic and penetrative but not obvious.
2. Established structure
Sun-Style Xingyiquan places great emphasis on the structural alignment of the body, this allows the issuing of power to be focused while the weight is never equally distributed to increase the agility of the movements.
3. Minimum distance and concise movements
The movements of both the upper and lower body pay particular attention to the terms "short, flat, fast," moving in unison through the best possible distance. The elbow protects the ribs, and the hand protects the heart.
4. The unity of both Inside and Outside of the Body
As an internal martial art, Sun-Style Xingyiquan exhibits through the movements of expansion and contraction, opening, and closing, lifting and releasing, every requirement tries to harmonize both inside and outside of the body, leading up to a training of the bones and muscles as well as the mind and soul.
Introduction to Sun Style Baguaquan 孙氏八卦拳
Sun-Style Baguaquan was developed from He Luo 河洛mathematics, I-Ching 易经 and Nei Jing 内经, the concept had a strong traditional Chinese culture embedded into the art. It is simple, beautiful and practical for the people of all ages.
The learning process can be divided into six steps;
- Stance work. Including Wuji, San Ti, and walking stance.
- Fixed Steps Walking (Single and Double Changing Palms)
- Fixed Steps Eight Palms
- Free Steps Eight Palms
- Changing Palms (No fixations, arbitrary, improvised)
- Sanshou
These six steps are especially important for beginners. If you have practised Xingyi with proper San Ti training, the process is faster. As Sun-Style arts emphasises the concept of "major weight", especially on the hind legs, the practice is essential to ensure that the lower body moves smoothly.
Introduction to Sun-Style Taijiquan 孙氏太极拳
Sun-Style Taijiquan is characterized by its distinctive forward, and backward steps, agile movements and a continuous flowing motion like water, every turn of the form are accompanied by the opening and closing hands.
The essential feature of Sun-Style Taijiquan is the utilization of Xingyi's unification of interior and exterior and Bagua's unification of stillness and motion into taijiquan's state of harmony. The are no ups and downs, left and right, the agility of the movements ensure the centre of gravity is always changing.
From the beginning of the form till the end, all movements require the body to stay upright while maintaining the compactness and coherence of the form. This is so that the both inside and outside the body, can be developed holistically. Hence, it is important to follow the rules set to practice the form.
In short, Sun-Style Taijiquan is a Chinese martial art of a gentle, slow boxing, with self-defence, fitness, health, and self-cultivation roles. Sun-Style Taijiquan combines the ideas of physical movement and that of intention to guide the movement of ‘Qi’ and make practitioners healthy and achieve longevity.
Advisor and Chief Instructor
Ivan is the 4th generation lineage holder along the line of Grand Master Sun CunZhou 孙存周 and the only overseas disciple of Grand Master Sun WanRong 孙婉容.
He met his first martial arts teacher from Henan, China in 1990 where he was taught privately on Chen-Style Taiji 陈氏太极basics, old form, single straight sword, broadsword, push hands and combat applications. Ivan started Sun-Style Internal Martial Arts 孙氏武学 (Taiji, Bagua, and Xingyi) in 1995 gradually developing his skills in the three arts. He then furthered his study of Chen-Style under Chen style Master Lim Teck Hing in 2000.
Through the recommendations by friends in the martial arts circle, he later had the honour to learn Sun-Style Internal Arts privately under Grandmaster Sun WanRong, gaining the opportunity to learn authentic Sun-Style Taiji, Sun-Style Bagua and Sun-Style Xingyi. Grandmaster Sun is the granddaughter of Sun-Style Founder Sun LuTang 孙禄堂. During his studies of Sun-Style Arts in Beijing, he also had the privilege of being guided by Wu-Style Taijiquan 吴式太极拳grandmasters Gao ZhuangFei 高壮飞and Zhang WeiYi 张伟一.
He is the current Chairman of Singapore Sun Style Internal Martial Arts Research Association, a Taijiquan instructor teaching at Woodlands area in Singapore and a Wushu tournament judge. Ivan is also one of the few teachers in the world outside of China to teach all three arts of the Sun-Style Internal Martial Arts system, he has in recent years, received private students from Taiwan, US, Australia, Malaysia and France to learn Sun-Style Arts.
Ryan is a businessman based in Kuala Lumpur. He started learning martial arts at age 11 beginning with Chinese Wushu 武术and then Kendo 剑道 and Aikido 合气道in his teens. He held Chief-Instructor positions and was a full-time instructor for Aikido in the early 1990s.
After taking a considerable long break to venture into the business world. Ryan returned to pursue his passion for the martial arts in early 2010s after experiencing an unpleasant encounter with ill health. Returning to regular martial arts training accelerated the restoration of his well-being.
He began learning Chinese Internal Martial Arts in 2016 with the introduction to Shang-style Xingyiquan 尚派形意拳. In 2018, he began to study Sun-Style Internal Martial Arts 孙氏武学 (Xingyiquan 形意拳, Baguaquan 八卦拳 and Taijiquan 太极拳) under the personal tutelage of Master Ivan Ang 洪添荣 (4th generation Sun-Style lineage practitioner, a direct-disciple of Grand Master Sun WanRong 孙婉容).
Today Ryan helps to promote Sun-Style Arts and together with Low Thian Seng Sensei of Tenchijuku Budo Center, they have jointly organized several Teaching Seminars by Master Ivan Ang in Kuala Lumpur in the past several years and continue to introduce this beautiful art to more Malaysians.
Besides practicing the Chinese Internal Arts, he also practices Pekiti Tirsia Kali (under Guro Daniel Khoo), Silat Suffian Bela Diri @ SSBD (under Cikgu Maul Mornie), and also Muay Chaiya and Krabi Krabong (under Kru Pedro Solana). Ryan believes by continuous learning and consistently widening one’s exposure to martial arts of different nature and cultural backgrounds is the most rewarding path to becoming a better person and martial artist.