Ma Hai Long and the Living Heart of Wu Taijiquan

“Move the qi like a nine swirled pearl (spiral) — let there be no part it does not reach. Move the energy like folding steel a hundred times, such steel is tough and will not break. Your body has the appearance of an eagle seizing a rabbit. Your spirit must be like a cat catching a mouse. Be still like a mountain peak and move like a flowing river. Store the energy like bending a bow. Release the energy like releasing an arrow. Aim straight in the middle of the arch, build up and let go. The force releases from the back, the steps follow when the body shifts. Gather then release it, reconnect when connection is broken. When moving back and forth there must be a continuous connection. When advancing and retreating there must be constant shifts. First be extremely soft then extremely hard.”

— From the classic ‘Explaining the mind-set of the practice of the thirteen movements’ by Li Zhong 李仲 (1598–1689), cousin of Chen Wangting.

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These words were written more than four centuries ago, yet they read like a precise instruction manual for what Master Ma Hai Long (馬海龍, born 1935) teaches today in Shanghai. If you want to understand Wu-style Taijiquan at its source — not a watered-down version, not a modernised sport form, but the transmission as held by the founding family itself — then Ma Hai Long is the living thread you follow.

A Lineage Carried in the Body

Ma Hai Long was born into the innermost circle of Wu Taijiquan. His father, Grand Master Ma Yue Liang (馬岳樑, 1901–1998), was the senior disciple and son-in-law of Wu Jianquan (吳鑑泉, 1870–1942), the founder of Wu-style Taijiquan. His mother, Wu Ying Hua (吳英華, 1907–1997), was Wu Jianquan’s daughter — meaning that Ma Hai Long grew up literally inside the Wu family system, trained by his grandfather, his mother, and his father from childhood.

He began formal training at the age of seven under his grandfather Wu Jianquan, who held him to an exceptionally high standard. As Ma Hai Long has recalled: “He favored me greatly, but still he was very strict with me.” That early strictness gave him a foundation that has lasted a lifetime.

After Wu Jianquan passed away, Ma Hai Long trained under both parents. His mother taught him the weapons — sword and sabre — with precision and warmth. His father focused on the empty-hand form and Tui Shou (push hands), demanding above all that his son never embarrass Wu-style Taijiquan. The phrase Ma Yue Liang repeated was direct: “Don’t lose face for Wu style Tai Ji Quan — because everyone knows you are the grandson of Wu Jian Quan.”

Watch Ma Yue Liang and Wu Ying Hua in this tribute video — two of the 20th century’s most important Taijiquan teachers, captured in their prime:

And here is Ma Yue Liang demonstrating the traditional Wu-style Tai Chi Sword at a 1984 masters demonstration — precise, relaxed, and utterly unhurried:

Keeper of the Shanghai Flame

Today, Ma Hai Long serves as President of the Shanghai Jianquan Taijiquan Association (鑑泉太極拳社) — the same organisation Wu Jianquan founded in 1935, originally housed in the Shanghai YMCA building. He took over the role from his father reluctantly. He has described feeling that his introverted character was unsuited for public leadership — and that it was ultimately his mother’s insistence that overcame his resistance. Once he accepted the responsibility, he has carried it with the same seriousness with which he approaches the art itself.

His sibling Ma Jiangbao (1941–2016) brought the Shanghai Wu lineage to Europe, teaching across the Netherlands and the continent for decades. But it is Ma Hai Long who has remained the guardian of the original Shanghai school, ensuring that the transmission Wu Jianquan established remains intact.

The Four Principles from the Classic Treatise — Applied

In his interviews, Ma Hai Long returns again and again to four principles drawn from Wang Zongyue’s Taiji Quan Treatise. These are not abstract philosophy — they are a training programme. Here is how to work with each one.

1. Lightness — 輕 (Qīng)

“In motion the whole body should be light and agile.”

In Wu-style, you do not emit Fajin — explosive, outward force. Ma Hai Long is unambiguous: “If you practice Wu’s Taijiquan, you can’t show Fajin. Cultivating the energy inside is more important than expressing the energy outside.”

How to practise this: Every time you feel the urge to push harder, move faster, or make the form more impressive — that is precisely the moment to do the opposite. Reduce effort. Reduce tension. Ask: can this movement hold its structural integrity with 20% less muscular force? Start there. Lightness is a direction of travel, not a fixed destination.

2. Continuous Connection — 貫串 (Guànchuàn)

“All parts of the body linked as if threaded together.”

Ma Hai Long is precise about what breaks this principle: any pause, any gap interrupts the force. Once interrupted, when you restart the next movement, there is resistance. The thread has broken.

How to practise this: Practise your slow form with a single rule: the movement never stops until the form ends. No micro-pauses at transitions between postures. The ending of one movement is the beginning of the next — like a river that curves but never halts. If you find yourself stopping, slow down further until you can maintain continuity at that speed.

3. Active Qi — 氣宜鼓盪 (Qì yí gǔ dàng)

“The Qi should be activated.”

Ma Hai Long understands Qi through both classical Chinese and medical lenses — his father was a practising haematologist. He connects it to the full range of the body’s functional systems: nervous, endocrine, immune, digestive. The purpose of practice, in his words, is to give “all body and mind a unified exercise, especially the nervous system.”

The breathing method is abdominal breathing. Not chest breathing. Not forced deep breathing. Abdominal breathing expands the lower lung lobes, increases oxygen uptake, and — crucially — requires the practitioner to direct awareness toward the lower Dantian.

How to practise this: Before your next session, stand in Wuji posture for three minutes using only abdominal breathing. Feel the lower abdomen expand on the inhale, release gently on the exhale. Then enter the form without trying to coordinate breath with movement — let the breath settle naturally. Forcing coordination too early creates tension, which defeats the purpose entirely.

4. Gathered Spirit — 神宜內斂 (Shén yí nèi liǎn)

“The Shen (spirit of vitality) should be internally gathered.”

Ma Hai Long does not use music when he practises and does not want it when he performs. His reason is precise: “You have a certain frequency when you practice. Music has its own frequency. It will interfere with your mind.” The nervous system must be highly concentrated. This allows body and mind to train as a unified whole.

How to practise this: Turn off all background noise. Practise in silence. For the first two minutes of your session, do nothing — stand still and allow the mind to arrive in the body. Notice external sounds and let them pass. The quality of your Shen in training directly determines the depth of what you absorb.

The Five Methods of Ma Yue Liang — A Daily Training Framework

Ma Hai Long has passed on the five-point framework his father distilled from a lifetime of practice. These are not decorative slogans — they are a measurable daily standard:

1. Calm (靜, Jìng) — The most important. Calmness of the heart comes first. If the heart is agitated, everything downstream is compromised.
2. Light (輕, Qīng) — No heavy feeling. Heaviness signals excess tension, excess effort, or structural misalignment.
3. Slow (慢, Màn) — Ma Hai Long maintains 40 to 45 minutes for a single form. Slowness is not performance — it is the only pace at which the nervous system fully absorbs what the form teaches.
4. Genuine (真, Zhēn) — Practise with the heart. After practice, reflect: what was wrong today? What did I avoid noticing?
5. Perseverance (恆, Héng) — Daily practice for a fixed duration. Without perseverance, everything else is decoration.

Use this as a daily checklist. Before you begin: is the heart calm? During practice: is there heaviness to release? Afterwards: was it genuine?

The Structural Key: Xu Ling Ding Jin

If there is one technical concept that unlocks everything else in Ma Hai Long’s teaching, it is Xu Ling Ding Jin (虛靈頂勁) — the light, active energy that suspends the crown of the head as if lifted by a thread from above.

Many teachers present Han Xiong Ba Bei (hollow chest, round back) and Song Yao Chui Ding (loosen the waist, sink the tailbone) as separate corrections. Ma Hai Long disagrees: “If you do well the Ding Tou Xuan, you naturally have Han Xiong Ba Bei… All of these cannot be done separately. The most important thing is Ding Tou Xuan.”

The logic is anatomical. The human spine is naturally S-shaped. When the crown rises and the tailbone sinks, the spine achieves its most neutral functional alignment. From that alignment, the chest hollows naturally. The back rounds naturally. The waist releases naturally. Force the chest in without the crown lifted, and you distort the entire system.

How to practise this: Place one hand lightly on the crown of your head. Imagine the hand is not resting there but being gently pushed upward from within. Feel the subtle lengthening of the back of the neck. Notice what happens to your chest — it should release slightly inward without effort. Remove the hand and keep that sensation through one repetition of your opening movement. That is Xu Ling Ding Jin.

Sinking Qi to the Lower Dantian

Classical Chinese medicine describes three Dantian. Ma Hai Long focuses practice on the lower Dantian — approximately five to six centimetres below the navel. The instruction is functional: when Qi rises due to anxiety, tension, or mental scatter, breathing shortens and the upper chest tightens. When awareness drops into the lower abdomen and breathing lengthens, the chest releases and lung capacity expands.

This maps precisely onto Li Zhong’s 17th-century instruction: move the qi like a nine-swirled pearl — let there be no part it does not reach. Qi that spirals freely reaches everywhere because nothing is blocking it. Tension, shallow breathing, and mental agitation are the blocks. Sinking Qi to the Dantian removes them.

How to practise this: During the form, whenever you feel yourself rushing or tensing — that is your signal. Without stopping the movement, soften the lower abdomen and allow the breath to drop. Do not force it. Simply stop preventing it. The Qi will sink when you remove the obstacle.

The Martial Thread

It would be a mistake to think that Wu Taijiquan’s emphasis on softness, slowness, and internal cultivation means the martial application has been removed. Ma Hai Long comes from a family where martial effectiveness was demonstrated, not merely discussed. He recounts stories of his father in Chongqing and on the streets of Shanghai — encounters where yielding and leading with force created outcomes that heavier, harder styles could not achieve.

Li Zhong captures this: “First be extremely soft then extremely hard.” The softness is not the goal — it is the method. The iron is folded a hundred times precisely to create something that will not break. Wu Taijiquan’s slow, quiet cultivation is the folding process. What emerges is a different quality of strength — rooted in structure and timing rather than muscular effort.

Where to Begin

If you are new to Wu-style Taijiquan, Ma Hai Long’s teaching points to a clear entry path:

• Start with the slow form. The fast form exists, but the slow form is the foundation — it is where the five qualities are developed.
• Practise daily for a fixed time. Irregular bursts do not build the nervous system adaptation that makes the art functional.
• Find silence. Practise without music, without distraction, without performance. The form is a laboratory, not a display.
• Work on Xu Ling Ding Jin first. Everything else in the posture follows from it.
• Be patient with slowness. Begin with fifteen minutes of genuine slowness rather than forty-five minutes of hurrying.

The lineage that runs from Wu Quanyou through Wu Jianquan, through Ma Yue Liang and Wu Ying Hua, and now through Ma Hai Long in Shanghai, is not merely a historical chain. It is a living transmission — a set of embodied principles tested across generations in practice halls, medical clinics, and the streets. What Ma Hai Long teaches is what his grandfather built, what his parents refined, and what he has spent a lifetime verifying in his own body.

Begin where you are. Follow the thread.

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For further study, the MADDECODE YouTube channel hosts a six-part interview series with Ma Hai Long covering the history of Wu-style, its core characteristics, the father-son transmission, and training methodology.