After already having studied tai chi for 20 years, Master Frantzis learned Wu Style Tai Chi from his teacher, Taoist Sage and Tai Chi Grandmaster Liu Hung Chieh in Beijing, China in the 1980’s. Grandmaster Liu was a Hsing-I and Bagua master who took an interest in tai chi and learned the Wu Style directly from it’s co-founder, Wu Jien Chuan, in the 1930’s.
Wu Jien Chuan was a highly accomplished tai chi martial artist. In his later years he also became very interested in tai chi for health and Taoist meditation. This was the time period when Liu studied with him.
Liu took the forms he learned from Wu and moved to Western China where for over a decade he deeply studied the spiritual practices of Taoism, eventually attaining the highest level of development in Taoism, becoming what is known as a Taoist Sage or Immortal. He continued to practice Wu Style Tai Chi during this time, and incorporated into his form the precise spiritual methods of Taoist moving meditation.
Master Frantzis studied with Grandmaster Liu for three and a half years privately. Liu taught Master Frantzis all his knowledge of the health, martial, and meditation aspects of Wu Style Tai Chi. He did this within the traditional Long Form, which consists of over 100 movements.
Liu also trained Frantzis in the precise process of how to develop shorter forms so that people could gain the essential health benefits of tai chi, without the effort necessary to learn and practice the Long Form. Master Frantzis then developed his Short and Medium Forms.