My Teachers
Those who helped
on the Way
Our lineage
A Brief History of the
Yang Family Style
Huang was renounned for his power but also for his unfailing generosity and persistence as a teacher. He developed a massive following with thousands of students throughout Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Australia and New Zealand . Along with many training techniques, Master Huang created a famous set of exercises, known as Song Shen Fa (Loosen Body Method).
For some teachers, lineage - where your roots lie - is everything. They believe it gives them credential, rank and status. In truth, a lineage is like a mountain path. It gives you a direction, opens up possibilities, reveals that others have come before you and journeyed further than you - otherwise there would be no path left to follow. It is only of value if you hike it to see where, and how far, it leads. All else is hearsay. The Yang Style has been our chosen path and it has a particularly interesting story to tell. Below is a, very brief, history of the Yang Style.
According to Chinese tradition, Taijiquan (aka Tai Chi) was created by a Daoist hermit named Zhang Sanfeng 張三丰 in the Wudang mountains 武當山 sometime during the Song Dynasty (960-1279AD). There are many versions of how he acquired this wondrous art. Some claim he learnt it in a dream; others say it was by observing wild animals in combat. In one version, while watching a snake defend itself against a bird, he grasped that yielding to force is the best form of defense. And so taijiquan was born.
Moving out of the mists of legend, we know that sometime in the 17th century the art found its way to Chen Village (陳家溝) in Henan Province. There it stayed, so far as we know, until a young boy from Yongnien county永年縣 arrived at the Chen family’s door. That boy was Yang Luchan 楊露禪 (1799-1872), the founder of the Yang Style. Yang worked as a servant of the Chen family and because of his lowly social status he was not able to learn easily – often resorting to spying on the family’s secret midnight practices in order to learn what they were not willing to teach him. ( An alternate version portrays him, already a realized martial arts master, infiltrating the Chen village in disguise seeking the secrets of the Chen Style.) After many years of hardship and perseverance he developed enough skill that the head of the Chen family, Master Chen Changxing 陳長興, recognized his great potential and decided to transmit the secrets of his art. After leaving Chen village, Yang traveled around the country challenging other boxers. His skill was so great that he was never defeated. He became known as Yang Wudi 楊無敵 – Unbeatable Yang. Soon he came to the attention of the Manchu emperor, who requested Yang teach him and his elite guards this magical martial art.
Yang had two sons: Yang Banhou 楊班侯 (1837-1892) and Yang Jianhou 楊健侯 (1837-1917). Both had superlative martial skill. Banhou was the second son (the first died while young) and his father’s training was so rigorous that he tried to run away from home. He was said to be especially proficient at small postures and free fighting. Once he was challenged by a very strong boxer. When they met, the challenger immediately seized his arm in a vice-like grip. Banhou sent him flying across the courtyard into a crowd of onlookers. He was so proud that he went directly home to tell his father of his victory. Yang Lushan just laughed and pointed to his son’s sleeve, torn during the course of the fight. “Is this Taiji?” he asked. After that, Banhou began training in earnest to perfect his art. Unfortunately, he was said to be an unpleasant teacher, often brutal even with his own students, and thus his skill was transmitted only to a few. Nevertheless, most of the Yang family documents are attributed to him.
Jianhou was the third son and an expert in middle postures and the coordination of hard and soft energy. Like his father before him, it is said that he could put a bird in his open hand and prevent it from flying away simply by neutralizing its energy. He was also a proficient swordsman who could defeat his best students in swordplay using only a dust brush. He was a generous teacher and had many students.
Jianhou’s two surviving sons were Yang Shaohou 楊少侯 and Yang Chengfu 楊澄甫. In 1928, Chengfu traveled from his home in the North to teach boxing in more Southerly cities such as Shanghai and Nanjing, spreading the art for the first time throughout China, and later, through his students, throughout the world. Chengfu was a big man, weighing close to 300 pounds. Students often described his phenomenal pushing hands skill as like meeting someone who has hands of cotton yet arms like bars of steel. In fact, Chengfu once famously defined Taijiquan as “the art of concealing hardness within softness, like a needle in cotton.” Some claimed that, when pushing with him, Chengfu could “magnetize” his arm so that it was impossible to draw away from his contact.
One of his students, Cheng Man Ch’ing 鄭曼青 (pinyin: Zheng Manqing), relates a story about his teacher: One day Cheng approached the great Yang and asked about the application of a certain movement. Yang placed two fingers lightly on Cheng’s throat, and then threw him 20 feet into a wall, knocking him unconscious. Luckily, the student survived; for it is in part thanks to Cheng that Yang style Taijiquan spread throughout the west, when he moved from Taiwan to New York City in 1965. Today millions of people practice Taijiquan all around the world.
While Master Zheng was also famous for his power and his abilities to change from soft to hard energies instantaneously, I remember him most for his quiet dignity, and the universal respect and regard others had for him. He is a true gentleman of the martial arts world.
Sword Practice in Taiwan Park
Huang believed that each of us should go directly into our own experience to discover Tai Chi principles for ourselves, just as the original masters had done. One of his many sayings is: "Don't be content with being the student of a successful master; you must make a success of your own practice". He died in 1992.
Master Zheng Xian Qi was my principle teacher in Taiwan. Zheng was born in Fujian Province in 1920. He became Huang Xin Xian's only formal disciple in Taiwan. In the early days, he would follow Huang to Master Cheng Man Ch'ing's home where they would listen to Cheng's lectures and practice Tui Shou for hours with the master. Master Zheng won numerous national championships and was a coach for the Taiwan National Team - under his guidance, his students have won over 60 national titles.
Wen Wu Temple, Taiwan: The Martial and the Civil Way
I first started learning the Yang Family system through the Cheng Man Ch'ing lineage. My own teacher in Taiwan, Master Zheng Xian Qi studied with both Cheng and the Tai Chi and White Crane master, Huang Xin Xian.