Long ago, in ancient China, a legendary figure of Chinese martial arts appeared.
His name was Yang Lu Chan. He became known as ‘invincible Yang.
He had been trained over many years in tai chi by a master in a remote, rural village, populated by the ‘Chen clan’. After achieving a very high standard he departed and ended up in Beijing.
Tai chi at this time was not well known at all.
In Beijing he achieved fame by defeating all comers in martial arts duels and challenges. As a result he was appointed as chief combat in instructor to the Manchu Imperial Guard. These were the ‘special forces’ soldiers of the day responsible for palace security and protection of the royal family.
At this time tai chi was taught primarily as a fighting or military art that could be learned and used relatively quickly by soldiers.
As Yang Lu Chan aged one of his sons took over many of his teaching duties with the soldiers and was also known as an outstanding martial arts fighter.
Whilst teaching soldiers and millitary men they also trained the princes and other ‘nobles’. It is believed that they learned a much softer version of the art, being less well conditioned and motivated.
As a result tai chi began to essentially develop different tiers of practice. Those that practiced for health and well-being and those that practiced for martial skills as well as the health and well-being benefits.
Fast forward to celebrated fighting tai chi Master Cheng Tin Hung
In the late 1930’s a young, teenaged Cheng Tin Hung began training with his uncle in traditional Wu style Tai Chi Chuan. His uncle, Cheng Wing Kwong, had learned from a few different teachers before being accepted as a formal disciple by the very famous tai chi master Wu Chien Chuan. Master Wu’s own father and teacher had been personally trained by the legendary ‘invincible’ Yang.
Cheng Wing Kwong and students
Uncle Cheng was a wealthy businessman and as such could afford the tuition of such a great teacher who in turn focussed on teaching him primarily the health aspects of the art.
Cheng Tin Hung himself however was equally interested in learning as much as he could about practical martial arts skills and how to make himself as effective as possible in combat. As a youth in his village he had witnessed a well respected martial artist being defeated by a simple ruffian and had decided from that experience that he would never practice empty martial arts, only the real thing.
1946 he was lucky to be introduced by his uncle to his second teacher, Qi Min Xuan.
Cheng Tin Hung showing ‘square form’
Master Qi had highly advanced combat tai chi skills and was hired by uncle Cheng to teach his nephew.
Master Qi trained the young Cheng Tin Hung in all aspects of tai chi, always emphasising the practical applications and combat training. He would also have Cheng Tin Hung practice tai chi’s Neigong exercises several hours a day.
After a period of time Cheng Tin Hung’s tai chi skills were formidable.
He would often stand up for all types of tai chi practitioners in fighting situations and became known as a tai chi ‘bodyguard’.
He would take on any challengers in duels and was recruited to fight in the major Hong Kong- Taiwan – Macau full contact championships. Him and his classmate were the only two fighters from the ten best Hong Kong kung fu fighters to achieve success.
Chang Tin Hung was able to easily defeat the 3 times national champion of Taiwan (who was also the chief instructor to their military martial arts).
Cheng Tin Hung weighed only 148 pounds and his opponent was 164, making the victory even more impressive.
After the championship victory he was well established in Hong Kong martial arts circles and became a highly respected teacher who would teach tai chi as a means to improve your health and wellbeing as well as to enable you to fight and defend yourself against any standard of opponent from any style.
His students would represent the art in street duels against challengers and in the full contact Chinese kickboxing competitions in Hong Kong they had a record of 31 wins from 32 matches, demonstrating and extraordinarily consistent method. In international competitions their record was equally outstanding with multiple international champions and group victories.
As well as fighters Cheng Tin Hung taught the softer aspects of the art across Hong Kong in a government funded program to offer free training to improve the health of local residents who couldn’t afford other means. Participants can be seen in this historic video:
So the tai chi art handed down by Cheng Tin Hung can be seen to be rich I’m not only high level combat skills but also all round health promotion exercises.
The strengths of Tai Chi that comes from Cheng Tin Hung’s disciples
Our school comes from this lineage. Not all schools are high quality examples of the lineage but at their best they will exhibit:
- A no-BS approach to real tai chi practice, using regular and scientific terminology to describe training and benefits.
- Avoidance of ‘mystical’ and jargon terminology often designed to fool and confuse beginners and the less informed.
- A commitment to real practice that improves the health of the various components of the physical body.
- Friendly, supportive and rich social environments where friendships flourish.
- Training that is real and that works practically as a fighting art
Tai chi has many practitioners and teachers who overemphasis the mystical elements and teach an ineffective system very slowly. A good tai chi teacher shouldn’t foster a cult like, inauthentic environment which sadly is commonly seen in many groups. This leads to slow or even negative progress.
