Cheng Man Ching and Yang Style Tai Chi

Cheng Man Ching

Cheng's beautiful caligraphy



Cheng Man-ch'ing (WG) or Zhèng Mànqīng (py) (鄭曼青, 1902-1975) was born in Yongjia (present-day Wenzhou), Zhejiang Province (his birthday was on the 28th year of the Guangxu emperor's reign, 6th month, 25th day, which corresponds to July 29, 1902). He died March 26, 1975; his grave is near the city of Taipei. Cheng was trained in Chinese medicine, tai chi chuan, calligraphy, painting and poetry. Because of his skills in these five areas (among some of the traditional skills and pastimes of a Confucian scholar in traditional China) he was often referred to as the "Master of Five Excellences." Because he had been a college professor, his students called him "Professor Cheng."

Cheng Man-ch'ing is best known in the West for his tai chi chuan. The following are some of the characteristics of his "Yang-style short form."

* It eliminates most of the repetitions of certain moves of the Yang long form.
* It takes around ten minutes to practice instead of the twenty to thirty minutes of the Yang long form
* The hand and wrist are held open, yet relaxed, in what Cheng called the "Fair Lady's Hand" formation (as opposed to the straighter "Chinese tile" formation of the Yang style)
* The form postures are not as expansive as Yang Ch'eng-fu's form
* Cheng postures are performed in "middle frame" style, which changes the movement of the feet from the Yang version.
* Cheng's concept of "swing and return" in which the momentum from one movement initiates the next.

These changes allowed Cheng to teach larger numbers of students in a shorter time. His shortened form became extremely popular in Taiwan and Malaysia, and he was among one of the earliest Chinese masters to teach tai chi chuan publicly in the United States. His students have continued to spread his form around the world.

It should be noted that Cheng rejected the appellation "Yang Style Short Form" to characterize his tai chi. When pressed on the issue, he called his form "Yang-Style Tai Chi in 37 Postures." However, the postures in his form are counted differently from those in the Yang Chengfu form. In the older form each movement counts as a posture, whereas in the Cheng form postures are counted only the first time they are performed, and rarely or not at all when they are repeated. Moreover, certain postures which appear in the Cheng form, such as High Pat on Horse, are not counted at all. These differences in how the postures are counted have led some Cheng practitioners, such as William C.C. Chen, to characterize their own forms as exceeding 70 "movements," and indeed, upon close comparison with the Yang Chengfu form, Cheng's postures, if counted the same way as Yang's are, would number over 70.

Cheng's changes to the Yang style form have never been officially recognised by the Yang family and (perhaps partly because of the continued popularity of Cheng's shortened form) his style is still a source of controversy among some tai chi chuan practitioners. From Cheng's own point of view, the approval of his elder brother disciple Ch'en Wei-ming was all the recognition he needed, since by that time Yang Chengfu was deceased, and all of the current generation of Yang Chengfu leaders were junior to him.

In Taiwan, a number of his students still teach, and the Shih Chung school still operates. In New York City, among Cheng's senior students, Maggie Newman and Ed Young are still teaching.