Articles: Chang San Feng sul TAI CHI CHUAN The Application and Practice of T'ai Chi Movement Master Ni Hua Ching

YANG TAI CHI CHUAN at the garden All are invited to partecipate

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The Original Yang Style Tai Chi Chuan© is the evolution into modern times of a process of refinement of Chinese martial art that was begun in China by Master Chang San Fang circa 1300 AD. It has been said that Master Chang was a highly accomplished boxer of his era, expert in Shaolin and Taoist fighting styles. He had studied Taoist energy and spiritual cultivation techniques in his maturity. Through his internal studies, and his deep contemplation Master Chang arrived at the method by which to apply energy technique to combat technique. As one contemporary master has observed, Master Chang had built a very good bicycle with his martial art; he was an efficient and competent fighter. By adding Chi to his technique, he in a sense built a motorcycle. Legend has it that in his observing a snake and crane fighting in his courtyard Master Chang was inspired in his whittling away everything non-essential from the arts he had practiced and applied up until that time. Indeed, Yang Style Tai Chi Chuan’s movements are based exclusively on the movements of these two animals. Others assert that he and some companions wished to devise the most devastating fighting technique known combining their knowledge of martial arts, energy and acupuncture. Regardless of what one wishes to believe, the fundamental concepts of this art, the original name of which was surely not Tai Chi Chuan, were passed on from Master to student until they came to the hearing of Master Yang Lu Chan.

It is said that Master Yang Lu Chan (1780-1873) had first studied Shaolin Hung boxing method from a very young age. Legend has it that he had heard that a devastating and unique form of boxing was the patrimony of the Master Chen Chang Xin (1771-1853) of the Chen Village. The story goes that Master Yang Lu Chan went to work for the Chen Family so that he could learn from Master Chen. The latter held lessons in secret and only around midnight, perhaps because he had studied with Master Zhiang Fa. Master Zhiang Fa, a Taoist boxer, whose art was directly descended from Master Chang San Fang, had been passing through Chen Village and had seen Master Chen Chang Xin practicing his family’s “Cannon Fist” boxing technique, and could not help but laughing. This angered Master Chen and he grabbed Master Zhiang Fa’s shoulder, but was thrown to the ground simply upon the latter’s turning round. Master Chen asked to learn from him and was promised that in 3 years time Master Zhiang Fa would return and teach him. So it came to be. The elders of the Chen Family, then forbade Master Chen Chang Xin from teaching publicly. Apparently this is why he would teach exclusively in his back courtyard at midnight.

Master Chan San Fang
Master Yang Lu Chan	Master Yang Chien Huo	Master Yang Chen Fu	Master Yang Sau Chun

Young Yang Lu Chan would watch these lessons unnoticed through a hole in the garden wall, and then would practice what he had learned. One day, Master Chen discovered Yang Lu Chan correcting the form of one of the former’s students. Master Chen had Yang Lu Chan show him what he knew. Apparently young Yang Lu Chan had learned the art better while studying secretly than the normal students and so was formally accepted as a student of Master Chen. He studied with the latter over a thirty-year period. The great differences found between Chen Tai Chi Chuan and Yang Tai Chi Chuan might be attributable to the alleged direct instruction of Master Yang Lu Chan by Master Zhiang Fa during that time.

Master Yang Lu Chan then went on to practice and develop his new style of boxing, which still had not yet been named Tai Chi Chuan. His art was so soft and yielding that people called it “the style of the soft fist”, “mien quan” (cotton boxing) or “hua quan” (neutralizing boxing), or “the 13 postures”. However, later while in Peking, he began to use the name Tai Chi Chuan thanks to a poet who wrote that his form had the essence of the tai chi symbol within it. It is said that in his extensive travels through much of China he was challenged by the best boxers he encountered and was never defeated, thus earning the title “Yang the Invincible”. One important aspect of his high level of development is that Master Yang Lu Chan is known to have not ever seriously injured any of his defeated opponents. He and his sons Master Yang Ban Huo (1837-1892) and Master Yang Chien Huo (1842-1916) eventually became instructors of the imperial court. Master Yang Chien Huo, also undefeated in his career, had three sons: Master Yang Shao Huo (1862-1930), Master Yang Chao-Yuan and Master Yang Chen Fu (1883-1936), perhaps the most famous of the three.

Master Yang Chen Fu’s image is that most used in books, brochures and descriptions of Yang Tai Chi Chuan. It was he who developed and popularized the forms of Yang Tai Chi Chuan that are most widely practiced today, in particular what is known to some as the Peking form. His son, Master Yang Sau Chung (1910-1985), one of the great masters of Tai Chi Chuan of the middle and late 20th Century left his tradition to 3 disciples as well as to his children who were all women. Furthermore, in 1953 Master Yang Sau Chung founded the International Tai Chi Chuan Association (ITCCA) as a registered trademark for the Original Yang Family Style of Tai Chi Chuan his disciples promote.

Master Chu King Hung