Dear Tim,
I took the following article from this website:http://www.taichizen.com/

Sun Lutang’s Martial Enlightenment & Structural mechanics

-dedicated to the late beloved Sun Jianyun and the Legendary

Sun Cunzhou (from Sep/Oct Kung Fu Magazine, 2005)





By Ping zhen Cheng & Dr. Jiusong Kan



Enlightenment or transcending above the ego-centric self, attaining inner actualization and joy has always been the shining light of Chinese Zen and Taoism Practice. However, throughout the martial arts history in both East & West, only a few great beings caught glimpses of certain stages of Enlightenment through the means of practicing martial art. One of the most influential masters of all times is Sun Lutang(孫祿堂, 1860-1933), the Martial Sage of China. As the pioneer of integrated internal arts, a reformer of all three styles of the Internal Family, his teachings on Marital enlightenment is not only systematic, but it also can be validated by both Taoism Alchemy principles and Jung’s theories of “actualized SELF” and “collective consciousness”, as well as certain components of Zen and Vipassana teachings.



During an individual’s limited existence, three issues have been causing major conflicts towards living a balanced and joyful life—they are conflicts between the body, emotion, and the mind, or disharmonies between the lower, middle and the upper Dantians, or the 3 centers. The greatest obstacle preventing reaching oneness and Enlightenment has always been the constant struggles caused by random energies or opposing “Needs” and “Wants” between the body, the emotion and the mind. According to Traditional Chinese Medicine, different “Qi Patterns” or “Karmic Patterns” are always influencing and pulling an individual toward opposite directions. Making any major or minor decision in life is ALWAYS a confrontational challenge of persuading the 3 centers to work together as one unit, and many times, the persuasions fail.



In marital arts training as well as in the school of life, the three Dantians are never willing to co-operate. Much energy is wasted during the conflicts and very little is accomplished. Without reaching Oneness, much of a practitioner’s martial arts training is just a sport of escape instead of an art, a study to remove the root of the inner problems. Realizing that much of the life’s energy is wasted during this never-ending vicious cycle and the short, precious nature of life itself, sages from all spiritual traditions have been creating “PATHS”, to observe, balance and unify the 3 Dantian’s or Chakras. Sun Lutang is simply a Master with martial arts as a skillful means to serve the purpose of inner liberation.



Sun style Xingyi’s core training, using Santi posture to align the upper, middle, and lower Dantians, is one of the most direct paths to solving this basic human dilemma. The “Enlightened Martial Study”(拳道合一學 QuanDao HeYi Xue) is based on self-observation and inner communication through movements, movements that create effects directly on the Channels and the 3 Dantians.

Xingyi practice starts with the Santi Posture(三體勢). (picture 036 & picture 065) The first stage of Santi training is: Creating an Observer: In Neidan practice (內丹學 ), this is called “LianJi”( 煉己), meaning the Alchemy or Practice of the self, transforming & polishing from a scattered, non-unified self to a balanced SELF, in order to serve the later stages of deeper meditation and realizing the freedom of no self. This stage utilizes two self-diagnosis and healing methods to observe while practicing the Santi Posture.



The first method is the 5 elements breathing diagnosis: the 5 unbalanced breathing patterns are: longer exhalations than the inhalations, -reflecting a Fire or heart imbalance; longer inhalations than the exhalations–reflecting a Water or kidney imbalance; “Windy” or noisy breath—reflecting a lung or Metal imbalances; “Interrupted” or frequently paused breath—reflecting a Wood or liver imbalance; and a combination of the previous 4 would be an Earth or digestion imbalance. Simply quieting the mind by applying awareness to listen to the breathing will not only serve the self-diagnosis purpose, but will also heal and remove all inner imbalances. As the practitioner’s breathing becomes more even and peaceful, a solid, non-scattered observer is created for the next stage of Xingyi practice.



The second self-diagnosis method is the 5 finger diagnosis, the balance and the unbalance between the internal organs & the 5 elements will be revealed vividly at the tip of the fingers. From the pinky to the thumb, the corresponding organs are kidney, liver, heart, spleen, lung. (note that this system is different from the meridian system of TCM). The Excessive or Yang elements would be expressed by a warm or expanded feeling of certain fingers, and the Yin or deficient ones would be expressed by cold and numb sensations. This diagnosis will not only diagnose and heal, it will also determine what the individual emphasize should be when learning Fajin training with the 5 element fists-which elements should be focused on the most for self-practice (the weaker elements for self-healing), and which would be the easiest arsenals to develop for successful martial applications & sparring. (The stronger elements.)



The second level of development in Santi is: balancing the 3 Centers with Expanded Awareness by applying some of the 9 essentials of Sun Style. When a relatively more stable observer is established, one can utilize the observer for inner alignments: the secrets of relaxing and unifying the 3 centers is to use a so-called “expanded awareness” based on Alchemy’s principles of holistic observation and avoid falling into the traps & common patterns of mind – the narrow and limited ways of focusing, meditating or “collecting the Qi” (采氣),. Any “partial efforts” of artificial breathing patterns, including all versions of the so-called Dantian or abdominal breathing are strictly prohibited during this stage of training. Otherwise work would be wasted and fell into the category of “Post-natal or limited Qi” (後天之氣)training. It would disable the practitioner to tap into the “pre-natal” or unlimited Universal source (先天之氣).



According to this principle, over 90% of today’s Qigong or New Age meditation styles would fall into the “Postnatal” categories would not be able to reach the stage of true inner unification. If this sounds too extreme, readers can simply use some traditional standard to evaluate today’s Qigong styles.



The traditional standards for a practitioner who has successfully completed the very early stage of real Qigong and Alchemy training, a pre-stage before forming the Neidan are the simple measurements of the practitioner’s Jing, Qi, and Shen(精氣神 ) level in daily life, corresponding to the 3 centers: “When the Spirit is enriched, very little sleep becomes necessary”, “When the Energy is enriched, very little food is needed”, “When the Essence is enriched, very little desire is un-transcended.” Looking today’s world filling with “Masters and healers”, obviously not too many meet this basic standard. Not only does Sun’s life stories fully proved these standards, practitioners may also validate these standards with self-experience-1-3 months of correct Santi training would lead to the above results. Some of the following details of Santi are from teachings of Master Tong Xudong(童旭東), the most accomplished author and integrative master of both Sun Jianyun and Sun CunZhou’s ( 孫劍云,孫存周) teachings in China today.



The intellectual or mental center, the Top Dantian, is located near the forehead region, corresponding to all mental conflicts, and non-stopping inner chattering of the mind. They can all be transformed by a HOLISTIC VISION together combining with the 4th essential of Sun Style-“Ding” or align the back of the cervical with the rest of the spine: emptying the vision, dis-attach the eyes from ANY SPECIFIC TARGET and yet projecting a RELAXED vision toward the EMPTY SPACE before the index and the middle finger of the leading hand, only utilizes a small percent of focus. If standing on a left Santi stance, with short time of correct practice, energy sensation connecting the left middle & index fingers with both sides of UB1 would be felt. The key is to only “lightly” focus. In Neidan Alchemy as well as Zen meditation, the “Percentage of focus” or “HuoHou”(火候), “Intensity of the Fire”, IS THE key whether a practitioner becomes “enlightened” or “De-lightened”. In Santi training, using this method incorrectly will lead to high blood pressure, sleeping disorder, excessive ego and violent temper and other “fire” syndromes. Both Shanxi and Hebei Xingyi teach a whole system of “Reducing Fire Qigong” to counter this possible side effect.



The Second Center is the middle Dantian or the emotional center. All emotional conflicts, the sum of all pressure and baggage from the past, can be balanced by constantly softening the chest and expanding the back both VERTICALLY AND HORIZONTALLY. This piece of Taiji and Xingyi Classic is the most widely misinterpreted as hollowing the chest and rounding the back.



When both relaxation and quietness is attained, without any efforts of trying to activate, Dantian breathing will be activated. When applying this correctly, all the excessive, negative emotion carried inside of the sternum region will naturally transform into healing forces, the fire will naturally drop downward by a simple commandment of “INNER RELAXATION”, poison will be transformed into medicine. Longer, abdominal breathing will be naturally formed. The second Sun essentials states: “when Qi becomes smooth, the Yin Qi will drop downward following the Ren Channel.” (Chapter 3, Bagua Quan Xue )



If this classic holds any validity, then again, many of today’s martial arts, Qigong and Yoga practitioners practice the breathing incorrectly. Today, instead of working on inner personal issues and letting go, many of us are busy using our limited, ego-centered will to prolong the length of breathing, or to visualize Dantian, or to create warm sensations. All these will only carry one further away from the DAO, regardless how much self-created Qi sensation is experienced during the beginning stage. There will never be any real personality-transformational effects in the long run.



The 3rd center or lower Dantian deals with control, sexual and contentment issues, mostly issues related with the most primitive parts of the body’s desires. Following part of the Sun-Style’s first, third and 8th essentials –“Ta, Ti, and Suo” (塌提縮), folding the pelvic region and tucking the tailbone and the groin region SLIGHTLY upward, dropping and yet filling the kidney and waist regions downward. This downward and upward opposite adjustment forms a pair of powerful Yin & Yang forces, allowing the primitive energy from the bottom to communicate with higher energy sources from the top. The union of the opposites will thus bring true transformation to the inner personality. All 3-center related issues will be transformed into healing energy and “Qi food” for the two higher centers.



Eventually with constant training of balancing the 3 centers, qi on all 5 fingers or 5 elements would be balanced, the stage of healing is basically completed. Many issues from the past would also be resolved. Only if one is able to heal him/her self, one is able to help & heal others, not necessarily with Qigong or miracles, but simply by living with a natural being that is free from heavy issues and imbalances. Issues of the 3 center are the causes of most personal issues within as well as the external chaos in the world.



Overall, there are 2 mental traps and common faults for most practitioners during the first 2 stages of training: Either too much effort in getting result, therefore relaxation never becomes possible; or too easy-going in the head, believing that following the Shifu’s instruction or standing in the Santi alone can bring real results, while all the internal detailed are ignored and never actualized.



The Third Level of Santi Training: Establish 6 harmony and detailed mind-body connections in 8 directions. All structural connections in front-back, upward-downward, left-right as well as diagonal directions must be established not only in the head, but actually inner tendon stretching along the 8 directions must be felt physically. This is a must for developing Fajin and to expand the consciousness to the maximum potential. This indoor part of the training is what’s missing in many of today’s Xingyi teachings. Drawing B (will be mailed) are some of the energy lines that have been considered as “secrets” in the lineages of Xingyi.



The greatest difficulty during this stage is to observe & stretch ALL the structural and energy lines at once. Many times only a partial Fajin or a Fajin with harmfully effects to the body is developed which is not rare in the internal history even among teachers. The best solution is to feel & stretch each pair of line connections at once, spending about 1-2 weeks of daily practice and still never sacrifice the relaxation of the 3 centers while applying SOME effort on the line connection. Then without sacrificing the previously established line connection, gradually add more lines. This progressive way of developing Fajin & tendon stretching has been widely adopted by many modern internal Masters of all styles in Mainland -Xingyi, Bagua, Taiji, Yiquan, to train the “indoor” disciples since the early 80’s.



Eventually, when all 4 directions of projections are connected and performed with expanded awareness, every posture and every move will become a 3 dimensional sphere. Infinite techniques can be developed and created from 8 spherical Fajin patterns as both healing Qigong exercises and applications simultaneously.



As relaxation, observation, unification, energy projection get refined deeper and deeper, all layers of the mind-body connection will be established, and it will eventually lead the practitioner automatically merge into an ideal stage of training-the transformation of the Tendon, Bone and the Marrow, achieving the legendary effects of Internal’s 3 levels of Fajin-the visible Jin, subtle or invisible Jin and transcended Jin, systemized by both Sun & Guo Yunshen(郭云深 “•••••••••••齽�).



The results of expanded awareness training in Santi training have unlimited effects in the martial arts application. Using a basic Zuan, Pi, Pao combination(鑽,�ü,炮) as an example, when A faces a facial straight punch/punch from B’s leading arm, utilizing the holistic sensitivity developed from Santi, A counters with a Zuan performed by the lead arm. The Zuan here does not only serve as a block, but due to A’s heightened awareness training, it’s capable of creating a so-called “Yin-Yang contacting region”-a Mini, Micro point within the tiny contacting region between the two’s arms. That is the point that B has relatively weaker Jin or weaker Internal Structural Support, an “open hole”. Sliding through & pushing toward this point, B’s punch is pushed to the side, exposing his centerline. The defensive Zuan turns into an attack toward the B’s chin, neck, facial region. This may look similar to a block and attack with the same arm from external styles but different in nature. (picture 062 & 063, & photos zuan1 & 1a, 4 to choose from)



In Xingyi, the Zuan may or may not have a specific target or attacking region. It may send Fajin with the knuckles, the elbow, or even the forearm. Both the contacting region of the weapon and the target on the opponent are subject to change according to time and space under the commandment of holistic awareness developed from the Santi training.



B defends A’s Zuan, trying to cover A’s Zuan with either front or back hand. 2 possibilities may occur here due to internal structure mechanics.

a. B is able to make contact with A’s attacking Zuan, but due to the extreme amount of Fajin, B’s Zuan will still carry enough momentum to “drill” or “screw” through A’s defense. This effect highly reflects Xingyi’s nature-an internal punch is multi-directional, and is subject to counter all counters AUTOMATICALLY, during the punch’s initiation, activation and finishing stages, which is not possible to most external styles.



b. B has very good sensitivity training, as well as a stable internal structure. He is able to not only maintain contact with A’s Zuan, also transferring and redistributing some of the attacking force into the earth as well.



If “b” occurs, then A simply applies a back hand Pi from a reverse Santi-again this back hand Pi is holistic, it may make contact with any part of the arsenal-from elbow to forearm & palm, it may be used as an attack or simply a “Path-clearer” from underneath, sending an upward Fajin to shock and shake the opponent’s stance & structure, creating an opening for a front hand Pao or Beng. (photos Pi1, Pi1a, Pi2, Pi2a, Beng or Pao, 5 to choose from)

During the process of A applying reverse Pi, if B closes in to trapping and grappling range, then A’s elbow, shoulder, head, the whole reverse side can turn into weapon and send out Fajin.



Failure on unifying the 3 centers leads to failures in all areas of life. In martial arts application, many times, even the best technique would fail because of the lack of coordination between the 3 centers. Lack of coordination in the body simply reflects inner disharmony of the psyche as well as imbalances in the channels, meridians and organs, which are all connected with the 3 centers. Sun style is simply a mirror, to reveal the unbalances of the practitioner in order to transcend above. Even facing an external opponent, or life & death situation, the real disturbance is still from within. Realizing this is the key to transcend all internal violence even if one has to kill externally in the battlefield.



Marital Enlightenment is like Enlightenment in Buddhism and Taoism in the sense that it is not something that is blurry and supernatural. Just like the martial ability, the level of Enlightenment or Realizing the Dao can also be examined and tested, and the best test is how a person lives and dies. Looking back in the history of martial arts, Sun Lutang’s death was as much a legend as his life was, not only that he was fully conscious and ready to leave the earth when the day had came, he actually predicted (or chosen) the exact time in deep meditation and stated: “To me, coming and leaving is the same as a game, a show…”, and left the earth in complete peace, like sages and saints in spiritual schools did.



Some of the principles in Sun Style are extremely sophisticated because it represents the highest level of martial arts development in China’s history. Sun’s principle does not only transform a practitioner’s body, but equally transcends the practitioner’ personality & inherited weakness as well. This possibility of transformation and reconstruction of a new SELF is what makes Sun Style a milestone in the history of martial art. It actually breaks the limited boundary of the definition of “Martial Arts”, levitates the “Art” into the unlimited “Martial Dao or Path”, bringing true freedom to the practitioner, freeing the self from an unbalanced existence which is conditioned by the cycles and patterns from the past. It creates a new “SELF” in the light of consciousness, adding “positive forces” into the spiritual evolution of not only martial artists, but also to the whole human race.

And the following "curriculum contents" :

B. Sun Style: Level one-Meditation. 1. Kidney shifting Qigong-adoption from Bagua; 2. Empty and Full footwork-adoption from Xingyi; 3.揥an-Letter� hands training, adoption from Sichuan Tantric Buddhism.

Level two-Sun style Dantian Neigong.

Level three-Forms: Long Form, Secret 36 揥an-Letter hands� form, passed down to Master Chen Jian-hou of Jiangsu in 1928 by Master Sun.


Are these things part of what sun lu tang passed down, or is it a later "invention"?
Has anyone heard of sun jianyun teaching these things?

Thanks

Andy, I've got no idea how Tim will answer this "secret teachings" question....

But I will say that with the passing of Master Sun Jianyun as well as Sun Shurong recently that there have been all sorts of claims of secret and lost Sun Tai Ji forms and training methods popping up as well as folks throwing Sun Jianyun under the bus.

I've heard that in Sun's book he showed higher postures only because he was advanced - but he really taught lower postures. That it's a requirement to learn XY first, that there was an older Sun Tai Chi form that only one branch of Sun style now has, that Sun's art was only complete for him but is not actually a complete style without learning both bagua and XY etc. etc.

Rather convient these claims have emerged in the last year now that no first generation students are around to set the record straight, huh?

Hi Robert,
You are right how its convenient the claims secret and lost sun stuff.... I don't want to be taken for a ride by made up "secret and lost sun stuff" but I also don't want to miss out on good essential sun material.... a dilemma??

I hoping those in the know like Tim can help clarify what is or isn't taught by Sun Lu Tang...... I'm surprised the "curriculum" mention sun style dantian neigong as it reminds me of a passage on sun's book essence of boxing/or some sun piece (etc approx) that mentioned sun's discussion with song shirong (shanxi xingyi practitioner) and sun mentioned at early on he took on the worldly opinion and "accumulated qi" in his dantian, his dantian became solid and hard, and by using qi in dantian (in his physical techniques I would assume) he could knock opponents away....

I guess as time goes on we may hear more and more secret and lost stuff here and there?? Kind of reminds me of similar situation in yang style....eg Yang shaohou this and that, tian zhaolin this and that, yang jianhou this and that......Have you ever heard of wei shuren??

I wonder where they shift their kidney to.

Another reason why Tim should do a dvd on Sun-style

Tobias

Breaking News from China:

Sun Lu-Tan just turned over in his grave and several witnesses heard a 'DOH!' sound.

i may shift one of my kidneys to mexico, im not doing too well financially.

Whilst the article is a bit OTT there might be something missing from present day Sun style arts.My own teacher trained with Sun Jianyun over a thirteen year period and has trained with most of the Sun family.The other week I was doing push hands with him and he casually mentioned about there being someone in Beijing who had been taught a Taoist qigong method by Sun Jianyun that enables him to use massive amounts of tension during push hands yet remain very fluid.Its probably got nothing to do with what was written above as I have never heard anything like that mentioned in reference ot Sun arts.

Interstingly I emailed the people who had written the above article requesting further information.So far I haven't recieved a reply and that was four months ago!

[quote]Failure on unifying the 3 centers leads to failures in all areas of life[/quote]

So 99.99% of the population are doomed to failure!

what does OTT mean?

Over the top.

TFS

Hello everyone, this is Ping, the author of the article.

Here are some answers:

Before Sun Jianyun passed away, i was the last one to interview her and part of the interview was published in the Dec issue of last year's tai chi journal. So much of what i wrote WAS from her, and some were from other teachers and not herself.

Any way, "Shifting" kidney if about shifting focus on two sides of mingmen, & making the "Whole structure" half and half, half Always rooting into the earth through the lower back-heel connetion, and the other half free and ready to shift the weight. In 4 spherical motions, lateral, horizontal, vertical and diagonal, there would be 8 directions of basic motion.

This is for standups only, as for ground-fighting, this shift would not be the same.
Tim is the real master on that and i won't comment on ground-fighting here.

The Chen Jianhou lineage teaching that I picked up from other lineage uncles in south China is not validated by Jianyun Laoshi. There had been wars between the lineage, as in every style.

I pick us something because it's good, not because of my master or grandmaster's validation only. Mr. Sun Lutang was simply an example of martial, cultural, and spiritual evolution, not a SET of rules to follow.

Sun style is an alive "Evolving Tendency", not a thing, ever-growing, ever-evolving. Technically it's like BJJ's evolving, spiritually it's more.

Tony, I don't believe that I ever received your email, I am at taijizen@aol.com or pingeastwest@yahoo.com.

Happy new year by the way.


My northern Sun lineage teachers are: Liu Shuchun, Bai Pushan, Tong Xudong, & Jianyun Laoshi's last disciple-Zhang Dahui, an astronaunt scientist who really figured out YiJing. I believe that Tim might of met Shuchun Laoshi before.

My Sifu is one of their training brothers from Master Cunzhou's lineage, Zhang Lie of Tian Jin.

None of us are affiliated with Sun Yongtian, the apponited "successor" of "New Wushu Sun", not because of politics, but out of principle.

I am in China half of the time teaching Buddhism, so if i don't respond here right away, i would do it later.

Ping

Ping,

Thanks for the explanation.

Hi Peng,

Sorry for the misunderstanding.My own teacher,Dave Martin,has trained with some of the people you mentioned and is a friend of Bai Pushan.I have a feeling it was Bai Pushan who was taught the Taoist qigong method by Sun Jianyun.The reason I tried contacting you was due to us feeling there is something missing from what we are practicing.I will email you again via one of the addresses you have posted.

This is our website.We are not affiliated to the "Wu Shu Sun shi".

http://www.sunstyle-taichi.com

Happy New Year

Tony

Tim, you are the man.

I've always wanted to host you for my students/friends schools and we actually spoke once in Chinese when I was a dept director at an acupunture school about inviting you up a few yrs back.

Sorry for never follow up with that as work got hectic after that.

Next time you do anything in the East coast, I have my word to support you by sending some students at least.

When I visit the West coast later in the yr, lunch on me.

Ping

Hi Tony, you are right about the missing info.

Because of closed teaching, the amount of info, not any ONE successor of Sun systems have all the puzzles together. That's why Beijing’s teacher often get together to put the puzzles together.

Same as in Wei Shuren’s Yang Case.

So just as Sun Lutang,Wang Xiangzhai, Ma Fengtu(founder of Tongbei), Bruce and Tim did, training with multiple teachers in multiple styles is THE way.

My southern Sun teachers/friends were at war with Jianyun laoshi’s students because she did not validate Parts of the southern material as legit even though she did agree that the lineage itself is from her father.

For example, in the southern sun taiji, with the moving step, after a move is Almost done, let’s say the “An” part of the LanZhaYi, instead of having the back heel off the earth as you see it today, it is suddenly landed back into a narrower Santi posture with a spiraling, drilling fajin, to execute a second-time, short Fajin with the front hand adhering or very close to the target, looks like Bagua’s spiraling power and Xingyi’s short power combined.

About “government Wushu Sun lineage HOLDER”, first of all, none of Master Cunzhou’s lineage accept Jianyun laoshi’s will letter of naming Sun Yongtian. It is “peasant, rural” mentality to have A “single” lineage holder in 2003.

Even Sun Lutang, Wang Xiangzhai did not name one single Spoken person when they passed away, and to do so in 2003 would be against the Dao, the evolving of the time. While certain teacher can become the main successor of certain parts of the training, no one should be able to speak for the style and a passed away teacher.

“lineage Holder” is a thing more from kung movies, novels and Gang culture, it must be eliminated today for Chinese Martial “skill” to be transformed into “martial Science” and “marital Dao”.

How do the Beijing side of Sun teachers view what I wrote now: last yr, for the first time ever, when I introduced my Tongbei side of teacher, the legendary Ma Mingda, to the Beijing Sun teachers, including Master Liu Shuchun, Jianyun laoshi’s Bagua successor, my above writing was pretty much the product of that meeting.

But this is not the main reason why Sun Yongtian & “new Wushu Su” is not legit, there are many moral corruption things that I would not get into here, Mr. Bai’s translator, Ms. Wang Yi can be contacted by Mr. Martin for the “full story”.

Anyway, 2 videos of myself are pasted here for sharing and criticizing, many mistakes in them judging from now-many years later, but hopefully, they can also reveal a little “missing mechanic” of not only Sun, but maybe internal in general.

One is Wudang Small frame taiji with Sun influence, originated by Grandmaster Ye Dami, who is also Cai Songfang’s grand master, this Taiji has flavors of 3 of his teachers: Li Jinglin, Tian Zhaolin, and Sun Lutang, my teacher does it MANY times better than me, but since he did not allow to be taped, i had myself performing it. With all the mistakes, I leave it online so that students can learn from the mistakes and not make them.

The other one is Single and double palm change with stationary footwork for instruction only, again, lots of leg mechanics are missing.

http://www.academy-martialarts.com/ping_inside.htm

Pass my best regard to Mr. Martin and all other Sun friends in your school.

Ping

Hi Peng,

What you are desribing is starting to make sense.Last September I trained with a Sun style master who was visiting the UK and his stances in LanZhaYi were exactly as you describe.He stressed the correct stance was santi rather than the more common front weighted stance.I think his lineage was Sun Cunzhou.

I have always been baffled at what Sun Lutang was trying to achieve.Why make a few modifications to Wu-Hao style?It seems he made major changes that changed the mechanics of the form entirely but for some reason things seem to have reverted back to a slightly modified Wu-hao style.We also practice Xingyi and I think this is essential to help understand what Sun Lutang was trying to achieve.

I don't really know who Sun Jianyun's successor is(perhaps he was appointed by the goverment?) and I agree it is quite absurd to name one person in 2003.I know for a fact that Wang Xiangzhai had at least six successors but none of them inherited the complete art.

Ping,
I just wanted to say that your Yang style is very nice. Lots of silk reeling was evident. I also liked the stancework.

Does the Yang Family Have Silk Reeling Exercises?
And being that they are exercises are they a componet of Tai Chi Chuan mentioned in the classics?