23/08/2026
【陈瑜太极第1226期】四秩拳路—我亲历陈瑜家传功夫架（第四集）听师讲述少年时的苦与砺
1986年到1989年初，那几年日子过得平平淡淡、安安稳稳。陈瑜老师每天照旧骑着自行车去天堂河化工厂上班，工作再忙，晚上也从不间断练拳，日日如此。
1988年，我分配到教委所属幼儿园当了老师。平日里要正常上班，只能趁着休息日、空余时间，去找陈瑜老师学拳。就在这段朝夕追随、相处学艺的平淡时光里，陈瑜老师时常和我唠起过往，慢慢讲起他小时候那些清贫、坎坷又刻苦的往事，让我真正懂得，他一身扎实纯正的家传功夫，都是年少岁月里，一点一滴苦出来、磨出来的。
1972年，奶奶（陈公发科之妻）去世了。那一年，陈瑜老师才十岁，从此便和父亲陈照奎先生相依为命。家里没了长辈操持，小小的他，早早扛起了家里的担子。知道父亲常年在外教拳奔波辛苦，小小年纪的他，主动学着洗衣、做饭，照顾父亲的起居。
那个年代条件简陋，没有洗衣机。每到冬天，天寒地冻，他只能用刺骨的凉水洗衣服，一双稚嫩的小手在冷水里反复揉搓。也正是这份早早到来的生活磨砺，养出了他一辈子吃苦耐劳的性子。
他7岁开始跟着父亲正式练拳，陈照奎先生对他格外严格。拳架但凡有一点不到位、劲力有一丝不端正，都会严厉批评、耐心校正。那时候他年纪小，心性稚嫩，心里常常觉得委屈，还曾经两次赌气离家出走。可孩子终究无处可去，在外边徘徊到深夜，最后只能默默回家。
年少的他，那时候并不理解父亲的苦心，只觉得父亲对自己太过严厉。多年之后他才明白，父亲那句沉甸甸的叮嘱，是最深的期许：“你是我的儿子，就得吃别人吃不了的苦。”
也是1972年，父亲时常要远赴外地教拳谋生。有一次出门传拳，不得已把十岁的他独自留在家中。临走时只留下三块钱，托付给邻居，让邻居每天分次给他，叮嘱他一定要省着花。
可终究是孩子，不懂持家，有时候嘴馋买根冰棍儿，当天的零花钱很快就花光了，常常弄得身无分文，连吃饭的钱都没有。
一个人留守的日子，孤单又难熬。街坊邻居看着孩子可怜，偶尔接济他一口吃的。有时腹中饥饿无食，他便爬上房顶摘些枣子充饥。他独自坐在屋顶，望着下方炊烟四起，一户户人家围坐饭桌阖家团聚，唯独自己孤苦伶仃。无数个冷清的日夜，他就这么默默咬牙熬了过来。
父亲后来听说了他独自在家的艰难处境，心里特别心疼。从那以后，只要外出教拳，能带着他就尽量带着他。当时他上小学，只能临时请假，跟着父亲四处奔走、辗转各地。常年这样来回奔波、走走停停，读书断断续续、时续时断，学业也因此耽误了很多。别人安稳读书的年少时光，他都在漂泊、奔波和吃苦中度过。
等到十六七岁，只要每逢回到陈家沟，他都会去村里的井边练拳。为了练出胆量、稳住心性、练好平衡，夯实自己的下盘根基，他专门到井边练习金鸡独立。
井边一侧就是幽深深井，脚下就是险境，对人的专注力、定力、底盘都是极大的考验。练功的时候，必须心神高度集中，身子绝对中正，脚下稳稳扎住。只要下盘稍微一虚浮、重心稍微一偏，就有可能失足落水，丝毫马虎不得。
那时候练功条件极差，全靠苦熬苦练。冬天井边结满寒冰，又冷又滑，立足都难；夏天雨后，井边泥泞湿溜，脚下更是站不稳。每一次站桩、每一次金鸡独立，都必须凝神定气、立身端正、脚下生根。为他日后纯正扎实的功夫，打下了深厚根基。
陈瑜老师常常讲，练拳的根本，不在于花哨招式，而在于练根。真正的太极功夫，讲究落地生根。脚一旦落在地上，虚实即定，根基即稳，不能随便挪动，更不能脚下来回虚拧、乱晃乱动。他把练拳人脚下多余的拧动、虚晃，称作“拧钻子”。他说，脚下但凡有乱拧、拳就是无根的拳，架就是漂浮的架，劲力根本沉不下来。他常打一个很通俗的比方：人的身子就像大树的树干，四肢如同树枝。任凭树枝左右摇摆，树干必须始终立沉稳坚固、纹丝不动。这就是陈氏家传功夫架，根稳、架正、身定、劲沉的真传真谛。
年少清贫的生活、孤苦的岁月，加上他自己的苦练，彻底筑牢了他稳如磐石的下盘，更磨出了他坚韧、荣辱不惊的武者心性。
年少吃过的苦、受过的磨砺，从来没有压垮他，反而全部沉淀内化，变成了一身醇厚、纯正、扎实的太极真功。儿时清贫窘迫、求学颠沛坎坷、练功清苦磨砺，这些常人眼里的磨难，最终都化作了成就他的基石。生活之苦磨砺心志，练功之苦夯实根基，岁月沉淀品格气度。
正是这一段常人难以承受、难以坚持的少年苦砺，最终成就了陈瑜老师根稳架正、中正沉实、古朴纯粹的陈氏太极拳家传功夫架，也让这一脉正宗陈家太极，稳稳扎根、代代相传、生生不息。
Biography of Chen Yu & Siyu
Episode Four — Four Decades on the Martial Path — Hearing from Chen Yu About the Hardship and Tempering of His Formative Years
From 1986 to early 1989, life proceeded quietly and uneventfully. Chen Yu continued his daily commute by bicycle to the Tiantanghe Chemical Factory. Regardless of the demands of his employment, he maintained his evening martial practice without interruption. His training was governed by an unwavering discipline: day after day, without exception.
In 1988, I was appointed as a teacher at a kindergarten under the Education Commission. With the obligations of regular employment, I could only seek instruction from Chen Yu during weekends, holidays and whatever free time my schedule allowed.
It was during these years of regular association and study that Chen Yu gradually began to recount aspects of his childhood and youth: years marked by poverty, adversity, responsibility and relentless training. Through these accounts, I came to understand that the solid and authentic gongfu embodied in his Chen Shi Taijiquan Gongfujia was not acquired through convenience or privilege, but forged through decades of disciplined hardship and uncompromising practice beginning in childhood.
The Burden of Responsibility from Childhood
In 1972, Chen Yu’s grandmother, the wife of Grandmaster Chen Fake, passed away.
Chen Yu was only ten years old. From that point onward, he and his father, Chen Zhaokui, were effectively dependent upon one another.
With the loss of his grandmother who had previously managed the household, Chen Yu was compelled to assume responsibilities well beyond his years. He understood that his father spent much of his life travelling to different places to teach martial arts and earn a livelihood. Consequently, even as a child, he undertook household responsibilities: washing clothes, preparing meals and attending to his father’s daily needs.
The material conditions of that period were austere. During the winter months he had to wash clothes by hand in freezing water, repeatedly working his small, unprotected hands in the cold.
These seemingly ordinary hardships constituted an early form of tempering. They cultivated the endurance, self-reliance and capacity for bitter hardship that would become enduring characteristics of his martial character.
Seven Years Old: Entering the Martial Tradition
Chen Yu began formal martial training under his father at the age of seven.
Chen Zhaokui was exceptionally exacting in his instruction. Any deficiency in the 拳架, however slight, or any deviation in the expression and direction of 劲力, was subject to immediate correction.
For a child, such discipline was difficult to comprehend. Chen Yu sometimes felt aggrieved by his father’s severity and, on two occasions, left home in anger. Yet after wandering outside until late at night, he ultimately had no alternative but to return home.
At that age, he could not yet comprehend the purpose behind his father’s severity. Only many years later did he understand the deeper meaning of his father’s admonition:
“You are my son. Therefore, you must endure hardships that others are unwilling or unable to endure.”
This was not merely a demand for physical endurance. It was an instruction concerning the character required to inherit and preserve a martial tradition.
Learning to Endure Hardship
That same year, Chen Zhaokui frequently travelled away from Beijing to teach in order to support the family.
On one occasion, he was compelled to leave his ten-year-old Chen Yu alone at home. Before departing, he left three yuan with a neighbour, instructing the neighbour to provide it to his son in small amounts each day and reminding him to spend it carefully. But Chen Yu was still a child. Without experience in managing money, he would occasionally spend his small allowance on an ice lolly, leaving himself without sufficient money for food.
These periods of solitude were difficult. Neighbours, seeing the circumstances of the child, would occasionally offer him food. At other times, when there was nothing to eat, he would climb onto the roof and pick dates to alleviate his hunger.
He would sit alone on the rooftop and look across at the surrounding homes, where cooking smoke rose into the evening air and families gathered around their dinner tables. He remained alone without such companionship.
Through countless such days and nights, he endured in silence. When Chen Zhaokui eventually came to realise the difficulties his son had experienced, he was deeply concerned. Thereafter, whenever circumstances permitted, he took Chen Yu with him when travelling to teach.
Chen Yu was still of primary-school age and therefore had to take repeated leave from school to accompany his father. His childhood education consequently became intermittent, while much of his youth was spent travelling from place to place.
Where others experienced the relative stability of ordinary schooling, Chen Yu’s formative years were shaped by movement, hardship and martial discipline.
Forging the Root
By the age of sixteen or seventeen, whenever Chen Yu returned to Chenjiagou, he would practise beside the village well.
He deliberately trained Golden Rooster Stands on One Leg (金鸡独立) to cultivate courage, composure, balance and, above all, the stability of the lower body.
The location itself constituted a severe test. Beside him was a deep well; beneath his feet was potentially dangerous ground. The practice therefore demanded complete concentration, mental composure and structural integrity.
The body had to remain centred and upright. The supporting foot had to establish a firm connection with the ground. The slightest instability in the lower frame or deviation of the centre of gravity could result in losing one’s footing and falling into the well. There was no tolerance for carelessness.
The physical conditions were equally austere. In winter, ice formed around the well, rendering the ground both cold and slippery. After summer rainfall, the earth became muddy and unstable.
Every standing exercise and every repetition of Golden Rooster Stands on One Leg therefore required the practitioner to settle the mind, regulate the breath, maintain structural alignment and establish the root through the feet. Such practice became fundamental to the exceptionally stable lower-body structure that characterised Chen Yu’s later gongfu.
Chen Yu frequently emphasises that the essence of martial practice does not lie in elaborate technique. The essential work is the cultivation of the root.
Authentic Taijiquan gongfu must be rooted in the ground.
When the foot establishes a genuine connection with the ground, the relationship of 虚实 (emptiness and fullness) becomes clear and the foundation becomes stable. The feet should not shift without necessity, nor should they engage in excessive twisting, swivelling or unstable movement.
He refers to such excessive twisting and vacillation beneath the feet as “拧钻子” (ning zuan zi).
In his teaching, disorder beneath the feet produces disorder throughout the entire frame. A practitioner whose feet continually twist and shift cannot establish a true root; the 架 becomes浮, or floating, and the 劲 cannot沉, or settle.
He often explains this principle through the image of a tree:
“The body is like the trunk of a great tree; the limbs are its branches. The branches may move freely in every direction, but the trunk must remain rooted, stable and immovable.”
This, he explains, is one of the essential principles of the Chen Shi Taijiquan Gongfujia:
Root is stable.
Frame correct.
Body centred and settled.
Jin deep and rooted.
This is the authentic essence of the family transmission.
The poverty of his childhood, the solitude of his youth and the adversity together with his own relentless practice, ultimately forged a lower body as stable as rock and cultivated within him the resilient composure of a martial artist; one capable of remaining unmoved by either honour or humiliation.
The hardships of his youth did not defeat him. They were gradually absorbed and transformed into the mature, refined and substantial gongfu that became the foundation of his martial expression.
In retrospect, however, they became the very conditions through which his character and gongfu were forged.
The hardship of life tempered his will.
The hardship of training established his foundation. The passage of time refined his character and bearing.
It was through precisely these extraordinary hardships, hardships that few would willingly undertake and fewer still could sustain, that Chen Yu’s 家传功夫架 was forged into the character for which it is recognised:
- deeply rooted, structurally precise, centred, substantial, restrained, austere and pure in character.
Through this cultivation, the authentic Chen Family Taijiquan tradition has remained firmly rooted and continues to be transmitted from generation to generation.
The lineage endures not through words alone, but through the preservation of its foundation in the body, the transmission of its principles through practice, and the uncompromising discipline required to carry the tradition forward.
Written and translated with permission from 思雨老师 of Chen Shiwu Taijiquan Academy Fengtai, Beijing
WeChat ID: cytjw-cn
Tel : 13241704154
Copyright & Attributes : 思雨 （家传功夫架）
Biography of Chen Yu & SiyuEpisode Four — Four Decades on the Mar...
