The Heritage Of Tai Chi

by Chia Siew Pang
& Goh Ewe Hock

Tai chi came into prominence in the eighteenth century when Yang Lu-ch'an introduced it in Beijing. Prior to this, tai chi was reported to have been taught only to members of the Chen family living in a small village in Hopeh Province. Yang Lu-ch'an was the first non-member of the Chen family to be taught this most secret art. The following version of how this occurred was related by our teachers. We cannot vouch for its authenticity but nonetheless have recorded it as it gives an insight into and forms an interesting background for this ancient and rich art.

Yang Lu-ch'an was a pugilistic enthusiast. He studied the 'hard' schools of martial art from many tutors. One day, he had a heated discussion with a Chen and was beaten up for his pains. Yang was very frustrated as he realized his skill in martial art was very inferior to Chen's. He requested a return bout. During the interim he practiced assiduously. In the return bout, he was again handled like a babe and thrashed so soundly by Chen that he forswore the practice of all other forms of martial art. He was determined to learn Chen's system.

He soon discovered that it was taught only to members of the Chen family and then only if the Chen stayed in a particular village - the Chen Chia Kou village. The Chen who defeated him was the nephew of the grandmaster. Yang wished to learn from the grandmaster but realized that a direct approach would be unsuccessful. He decided to 'steal' the art from the family. First he disguised himself as a beggar, then he made himself temporarily dumb by swallowing some hot charcoal. He hoped that the sight of a poor, suffering beggar outside his home would evoke the grandmaster's sympathy.

The ruse worked. Yang gained entry and was eventually employed as a servant in the grandmaster's household. He soon became a trusted servant and was given access to the inner courtyards of the family household. Here he spied on the Chen family as they practiced. Religiously, he copied their moves and practiced them in secret. He was able to benefit from this activity as he already had a good grounding in the martial art.

One night, as Yang was practicing secretly, he suddenly found the grandmaster observing him. He was terrified. In those days in China, the price one paid for spying on other martial art systems was either one's head or right hand! The grandmaster, surprisingly, demanded neither. He merely said, 'Do you think I did not realize you were spying on us when we were practicing? I allowed you to watch because I wanted to see how serious you were and how well you would benefit from the instruction. If you had shown neither interest nor skill, I would have killed you myself.'

On saying that, he tapped Yang three times on the head and walked away, leaving a puzzled but very relieved man. From that day, Yang went to the grandmaster's quarters every morning at 3 a.m. for personalized instruction in tai chi. During the day he did his chores as usual and no one in the family realized he was receiving secret instruction from the grandmaster.

One day the grandmaster explained why he had broken one of the strongest family traditions by teaching an outsider the secrets of the art. He had realized that by restricting the art to family members, tai chi would eventually decline in vitality. Family members would not have any incentive to practice well or to introduce new techniques since even those with less than perfect mastery of the art were far better than most practitioners from other schools of martial art. He reasoned that if he taught a talented and skilled outsider, like Yang, he would ensure that the essence of tai chi would not be lost to the world. Further, tai chi would remain a vigorous and vital art as not only would it be practiced by many but also the family members would have to practice hard in order to avoid being beaten by their own art.

The tradition of selecting hardworking and dedicated students to pass on the knowledge of the art began with Yang and has persisted. Often masters would not accept payment from such students, whose only obligation was to learn the art well and, in turn, pass on their knowledge to other deserving students.

Thus Yang Lu-ch'an fulfilled his greatest desire and was personally instructed by the grandmaster for several long years. This grandmaster remained critical of the standard of the art practiced by members of the family. At one of the annual competitions held among members of the Chen family, he noted that none of the younger members was able to defeat an old man like himself. It was pointed out that this was because he had so much more experience and practice. Since the proficiency of an exponent was related to the amount of practice and as age did not impair one's ability in the art, they were confident that when they reached his age they would equal or better his skill.

Then the grandmaster dropped his bombshell: 'If I can produce someone younger than myself, who has acquired sufficient skill through thoughtful and diligent practice, to defeat all of you, what would you all have to say then?'

This statement was received with much laughter. The grandmaster's claim was treated with some derision when the family discovered that this superman was none other than their servant, Yang Lu-ch'an. Laughter turned to disbelief as, one after another, members of the Chen family were beaten by Yang. Gradually, their feelings hardened into anger as they realized that not only had their grandmaster trained an outsider, he had done it so well that he could defeat all members of the family. They felt cheated and betrayed.

'Yang Lu-ch'an will go forth and teach the world tai chi. If you all do not practice well enough, you will soon find that others will be better than you in your own art. Although I have broken our family tradition by teaching an outsider, I have ensured that the knowledge of the art will not die but will blossom and develop over the years.'

With those words, the grandmaster personally escorted Yang out of the village and gave him his blessings to spread the knowledge of tai chi. Yang lost no time in fulfilling his teacher's wishes. He had to establish tai chi as an effective martial art system before he could attract any good students to his school. In order to do this, he wandered all over Hopeh Province, taking on all challengers. In his first year he carried a flag that proclaimed he was the best martial art exponent and challenged anyone who disputed this claim. The flag was displayed in taverns, marketplaces and other public places. It soon attracted many challengers for all serious martial art practitioners are proud of displaying their skill. Furthermore, a proven martial art exponent in those days could earn an honorable and comfortable living by providing escort service for the richer merchants and travelers or by teaching his art.

Yang Lu-ch'an was never defeated in any of his bouts. He continued in his travels for a total of three years. His flag, by this time, recorded all his past victories and he called himself the 'Unbeatable Yang'. He also claimed that he practiced the martial art system, tai chi chuan - 'grand ultimate fist'. Despite all these claims, the number of challengers dropped. So Yang went to Beijing and started a school of tai chi. Here he teamed up with two other 'soft' or 'infernal' martial art schools (Hsing I and Pa Kua) and together they challenged, defeated and expelled all other martial art schools from Beijing. For a very long time afterwards, only these three schools of martial art were taught in Beijing.

Following Yang's death, his version of tai chi, now known as Yang tai chi, was taught mainly by members of his family. His grandson, Yang Cheng-fu, formalized the teaching of tai chi into a set of 81 moves which took a student some time to learn and about 15-20 minutes to complete. One of his better students, Cheng Mun-ch'ng, updated this version by weeding out the more repetitive and impractical moves. He retained the essence of the art by neither introducing any new moves nor attempting to change Yang Cheng-fu's interpretation of the art. Thus the basics of Yang tai chi as taught by the originator Yang Lu-ch'an were preserved, and today, this version of tai chi is the one which most closely resembles the original form. It is this version which was taught to Chia Siew Pang by Cheng Mun-ch'ng and which is presented in this manual. (Tai Chi - Ten Minutes to Health)

We have described briefly the evolution and development of one of the more popular forms of tai chi. This version has stood the test of time. Today, it is still widely practiced in many parts of the world. However, it is not the only version of tai chi that has developed over the years. In attempts to improve upon what they have learnt, several have introduced their interpretations of the art; the result has been the development of many schools of tai chi. Among the better known versions are Chen tai chi, Wu tai chi and Sun tai chi. Many later versions introduced modifications to the original system. Sun tai chi, for example, incorporates some of the techniques of other 'soft' martial art systems. All this reflects the rich heritage and versatility of the ancient art. 

Master Chia Siew Pang
Master Chia first learned tai chi in 1933 from Master Li Yue in Kwangtung. In 1936 he studied the art under Master Cheng Mun-ch'ng. Not as generally well-known as his tai chi skills is the fact that Master Chia is an accomplished physician trained in administering traditional Chinese medicine.

Dr Goh Ewe Hock
Dr Goh is a medical practitioner, trained in western medicine and specializing in community medicine. Dr Goh lives in Sydney where he conducts small private classes in Yang's tai chi.

This article is excerpted with permission from their book "Tai Chi; Ten Minutes to health" published by CRCS Publications, PO Box 1460, Sebastopol, CA 95473.