Yang Family Tai Chi: Four Sticking Spears

The Four Sticking Spears is one of four two-person methods comprising the Yang family's Thirteen Tai Chi Sticking Spear system. Liang Dehua presents it here in full: the Gong Li foundation, the stepping methods, the solo exercises, the partner drills, and the complete two-person set with its sticking applications.

Weapons work occupied a central place in the Yang family curriculum. Yang Luchan and Yang Banhou were both renowned spearmen, and the reputation that produced the name Yang Wudi — Yang the Invincible — was built substantially on the weapon. The spear was trained as a weapon and, with the head removed, as a long pole for Gong Li practice to develop Nei Jin. Yang Chengfu held that daily spear training increases internal strength, and the Tai Chi principles of stick, adhere, join, and follow were cultivated directly through it.

Liang Dehua transmits the material as it was passed to him, situating each exercise within the history and reasoning that produced it. The syllabus proceeds from foundation work through solo practice to partner training, closing with the complete two-person set.

Yang family spear training originally comprised two sets — the Thirteen Big Spear (十三大槍) and the Twenty-Four Flower Spear (二十四式). The Thirteen Big Spear is still trained in Yongnian, Yang Luchan's hometown, and its movements are recorded in Li Yiyu's manual, confirming these as the family's original spear sets.

The Yang family subsequently applied their Tai Chi principles to the weapon and created the Thirteen Tai Chi Sticking Spear, a two-person system composed of four methods:

1. Four Sticking Spears
2. Four Non-Sticking Spears
3. Four Disarming Spears
4. One Coiling Spear

This course addresses the first of these.

The spear was never trained solely as a weapon. With the head removed, the long pole served Gong Li training for the development of Nei Jin, and the Tai Chi principles of stick (粘), adhere (黏), join (連), and follow (隨) were developed directly through its practice.