was a military officer cadet of Manchu ancestry in the Yellow Banner camp in the Forbidden City, Beijing and also a hereditary officer of the Imperial Guards Brigade. At that time, Yang Luchan was the martial arts instructor in the Imperial Guards, teaching t'ai chi ch'uan, and in 1850 Wu Ch'uan-yu became one of his students. In 1870, Wu Ch'uan-yu was asked to become the senior disciple of Yang Pan-hou, Yang Luchan's oldest adult son, and an instructor as well to the Manchu military. Wu Ch'uan-yu had three primary disciples: his son Wu Chien-ch'uan, Wang Mao Zhai and Guo Fen. Wu Ch'uan-yu's son, Wu Chien-ch'uan, and grandchildren: grandsons Wu Kung-i and Wu Kung-tsao as well as granddaughter Wu Ying-hua were well known teachers. Wu Chien-ch'uan became the most widely known teacher in his family, and is therefore considered the co-founder of the Wu style by his family and their students. He taught large numbers of people and his refinements to the art more clearly distinguish Wu style from Yang style training. Wu Chien-ch'uan moved his family south from Beijing to Shanghai in 1928, where he founded the Chien-ch'uan T'ai Chi Ch'uan Association in 1935. Wu Kung-i then moved the family headquarters to Hong Kong in 1948.
His younger sister Wu Ying-hua and her husband, Ma Yueh-liang, stayed behind to manage the original Shanghai school.
Between 1983 and her death in 1996 Wu Ying-hua was the highest-ranked instructor in the Wu family system. Her descendants continue teaching and today manage the Shanghai school as well as schools in Europe:
The Wu style's distinctive hand form, pushing hands and weapons trainings emphasize parallel footwork and horse stance training with the feet relatively closer together than the modern Yang or Chen styles, small circle hand techniques and differs from the other t'ai chi family styles martially with Wu style's initial focus on grappling, throws, tumbling, jumping, footsweeps, pressure point leverage and joint locks and breaks, which are trained in addition to more conventional t'ai chi sparring and fencing at advanced levels.
Generational senior instructors of the Wu family t'ai chi ch'uan schools
1st Generation
Wu Ch'uan-yu, who learned from Yang Luchan and Yang Pan-hou, was senior instructor of the family from 1870–1902.
2nd generation
His oldest son, Wu Chien-ch'uan, was senior from 1902–1942.
3rd Generation
His oldest son, Wu Kung-i was senior from 1942–1970.
Wu Kung-i's younger brother, Wu Kung-tsao, was senior from 1970–1983.
Wu Kung-i's younger sister, Wu Ying-hua, was senior from 1983–1997.
4th Generation
Wu Kung-i's daughter, Wu Yan-hsia was senior from 1997–2001.
Wu Kung-tsao's son, Wu Ta-hsin, was senior from 2001–2005.
5th Generation
The current senior instructor of the Wu family is Wu Ta-kuei's son Wu Kuang-yu.
