Kuang P’ing t’ai chi ch’uan was brought to the USA by Grandmaster Kuo Lien Ying.
Kuo’s t’ai-chi ch’uan form is most popularly called the Kuang Ping style today.
The form’s movements are usually done with a faster rhythm than most of the more modern Yang style forms.
Grandmaster Kuo told me that he took out some repetitions and shortened the original form.
Later others claimed the form he taught was the original form, that is doubtful.
The form has little resemblance to the several versions of what are called “Traditional Yang Style” forms that are taught by the followers of Yang Cheng-fu and their students, or the form taught by Kuo’s friends Tchoung Ta-tchen or Liang Tsung-tsai.
Yang Pan-hou lineage: Kuo’s form is said to be traced back to Yang Pan-hou, the son of Yang Lu-chan.
There are several versions of Yang Family forms taught today, I find it intriguing that some bear no resemblance to the other forms at all.
Our Tchoung Symmetrical Long form and our San Shou Form are traced directly to him and his son Yang Shao-hou and his student Tian Zhao-lin and Hsiung Yang-ho.
There are several people teaching what are known as “Older forms”, “Secret forms”, etc.
Kuo later became the primary teacher of this particular form of t’ai-chi ch’uan.
Then later in China the forms were turned into politically correct, calisthenics forms such as the “Simplified 24 Form” and other modern forms now for basic exercise and competition.
The modern exercise and competition forms, e.g. 24 simplified form, were choreographed by committee to replace the “Sifu” based traditional arts.
Later, many of Kuo’s t’ai-chi ch’uan students, and their students, changed his form, so there are several versions of his art being taught today, some bearing little resemblance technically or energetically to what Kuo taught.
The Kuo’s warm-ups and t’ai-chi ch’uan form can be done either as calisthenics, or as a ch’i kung i.e. a mind-body exercise, depending on the emphasis of the student.
Kuo’s book, T’AI-CHI-CH’UAN In Theory And Practice, has pictures of Kuo doing his form, the only book I know of with a significant number of pictures of Kuo actually doing his form.
At one of the UCR Tournaments I brought the book in case there was any argument about how the form should be done in the “Kuang Ping Form Category”.
The University of California T’ai Chi Ch’uan Championships was the First in the Country to feature a “Kuang Ping Form” category for Kuo’s form, as a separate category.
Chung wrote his book, with a similar title to Kuo’s, called Tai Chi Chuan in Theory and Practice, which showed Chung’s version of Kuo’s form as well as Wu style and Yang style.
One is part of Kuo’s Chinese book translated into English, another is by Kuo’s wife, Simone Kuo, who came out with her book and her version of his style.
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