Hi Josh,
I understand your frustrations with Erles Lineage and there is some truth in what you say, but it does not matter it is all finished now . We all have a choice to believe or not, your sentement is noted and many follow your understanding and believe the same as you do. Tony ward name has come up many times before and I still believe that erle met an old chinese gentleman,known or unknown in spelling, made contact, learnt some forms, later realised he got a lot more than he thought and continued to work that which had been given to him for years to come. Erle is dead and passed on and only the whole truth lies with him and it is only a distraction to his great works and the art of Taiji
Tai Chi principles are that, they are principles of movment & are at the root of all internal systems and although the external form wil differ the principles remain the same,depending upon your leve of understanding.
The methods of the "old yang" are definatly internal and taiji principle based, and having "push hands" with "credited tai chi masters" I think you do not give Erle credit he is due. He is not responsible for others applying the knowledge, that is every student responsibility, he has done his part, now it time for others to do there's.
Erle certainly help put the Dim - Mak back into Tai Chi with the help of the martial arts press, right or wrong he did this because the knowledge of pressure points work was already on the martial arts circuit with Mr Dilman, whos methods he disaproved of as we all know.
We should keep this topic to its title as it goes far past Mr Montaigue
lineage. In time, I believe he will be thought of differnetly.I do not subscribe to all of his work and for good reason, but no more or less than I would for other teachers or artists.
The man was humble and nice with a good heart, with no intention to cheat everybody out of pocket. His intent was to teach, guide and give and fine qualities for anyone to follow. He may or may not of told a few lies - being human I also fall fowl to being not 100% honest , 100% of the time, we should all be mindful of pocking the stick at someone before we look at the log in our own eye.
Lets share knowledge in true martial arts way, we will never see eye to eye in every quater but its no different with music, it all has its own flaviour. and accepting the different versions is all a part of it.
keep going with your historical & practicle studies of the art, it good to have this knowledge if one has a real interest in it, for me I just like to play, train, teach, and help where I can.
Carl
http://www.dim-mak.co.uk