Background
Yang Chengfu was born into the famous Yang Taijiquan family, the son of Yang Chien-hou and grandson of Yang Lu-chan.
Yang Chengfu was born into the famous Yang Taijiquan family, the son of Yang Chien-hou and grandson of Yang Lu-chan.
He moved to Shanghai in 1928. Chengfu is known for having "smoothed" out the somewhat more vigorous training routine he learned from his family as well as emphasising a "large frame" or "Da Jia (大架)" with expansive movements in stepping and using large circular motions with the arms. His smooth, evenly paced large frame form and its hundreds of offshoots has been the standard for Yang-style t"ai chi ch"uan (and overwhelmingly in the public imagination for T"ai chi ch"uan in general) ever since.
Chengfu is the official author of two books on the style, Application methods of Taijiquan, published in 1931, and Essence and Applications of Taijiquan (Taijiquan Tiyong Quanshu), published in 1934.
His second book was translated into English in 2005. His direct descendants, the many students he taught, and their students, have spread the art around the world.
Among Yang Chengfu"s students were famous masters such as Tung Ying-chieh (Dong Yingjie, 董英杰. 1898–1961), Chen Weiming, Fu Zhongwen (Fu Chung-wen, 1903–1994), Li Yaxuan (李雅轩.
1894–1976) and Cheng Manitoba-ch"ingenieur
Each of them taught extensively, founding groups teaching T"ai chi to this day. Cheng Manitoba-ch"ing, perhaps the most famous outside of China, significantly shortened and simplified the traditional forms Yang taught him after his teacher"s passing, reportedly to make them more accessible to larger numbers of students. Although Cheng"s modifications are considered controversial by most other schools and are not recognized by the Yang family, Cheng Manitoba-ch"ing is known as one of the first to teach T"ai chi ch"uan in the West.
Liu Jen Yu ( 1907 - 2000 )
11º Longmen Pai
5º Jinshan Pai
Kun Lun Chien Shan.
