Cheng Man-ch'ing
鄭曼青
Chinese painter and taijiquan master (1902–1975), a student of Yang Chengfu and creator of the shortened form of the Yang style with 37 postures, which he spread in Taiwan and the USA.
Quick Facts
TaiwanBiography
Cheng Man-ch'ing, Zheng Manqing in pinyin, was a Chinese painter, calligrapher, traditional medicine physician and master of Yang style taijiquan, the creator of the shortened form with 37 postures. He was born in 1902 in Yongjia, today part of Wenzhou, and English Wikipedia gives the date as 29 July. He died on 26 March 1975 in Yonghe near Taipei.
As a child, after a head injury, he studied for five years with the painter Wang Xiangchan, and at seventeen he went to Beijing, where he taught poetry. Around 1930 he founded an art college in Shanghai with Huang Binhong. He practised taijiquan with interruptions from 1923 and attributed his recovery from a lung disease to the Yang style. In 1932 he met Yang Chengfu and studied with him until his death in 1936.
He took part in the creation of the 1934 book of Yang Chengfu. According to Russ Mason, he created the shortened form with 37 postures as early as 1938 while training officers in Hunan, while English Wikipedia gives the year 1946. In 1949 he moved to Taiwan, where he founded the Shi Zhong society, and in 1950 he published the book Thirteen Chapters. From 1964 he divided his time between New York and Taipei, and in 1967 he published the book T'ai Chi with Robert W. Smith.
In 1982 the National Palace Museum in Taipei held a retrospective exhibition for him, and in 2006 a memorial hall opened in his former house. The Yang family did not officially accept his shortened form. We have not found a quotation with a verified location in his books.
Early life
According to a 2012 study by Russ Mason, Cheng Man-ch'ing was born in 1902 in Yongjia, today part of Wenzhou, as Zheng Yue, and his father died when he was a child. The exact date of 29 July is given by English Wikipedia. By about the age of nine he knew the Confucian classics by heart, and after a head injury he studied for five years with the painter Wang Xiangchan. In 1919, at the age of seventeen, he went to Beijing, where he taught poetry, and later, on the recommendation of Cai Yuanpei, he taught in Shanghai.
Training and teachers
According to Mason, he practised taijiquan with interruptions from 1923 and attributed his recovery from a lung disease, considered to be tuberculosis, to the Yang style. According to English Wikipedia, he met Yang Chengfu in the first lunar month of 1932 and studied with him until his death in 1936. The sources give the length of study differently, with Chen Weiming writing of six years and other texts of two or four. According to the family list of Cui Yishi, cited on the forum of the family association, he was the twentieth disciple of the inner door of Yang Chengfu.
Contribution and innovations
Around 1930 he founded the College of Chinese Culture and Art in Shanghai with Huang Binhong, and it ceased to exist after the Japanese invasion. In 1934 he took part in the creation of the book Taijiquan tiyong quanshu by Yang Chengfu. According to Mason, he created the shortened form with 37 postures as early as 1938 at the Hunan Martial Arts Academy while training officers. In 1949 he moved to Taiwan, settled in Yonghe and founded the Shi Zhong society. The book Thirteen Chapters was published in Taiwan in 1950 and in English in 1985. From 1964 he divided his time between New York and Taipei, and in 1967 he published the book T'ai Chi with Robert W. Smith.
Legends and documented facts
The year the form with 37 postures was created varies, with Mason giving 1938 and English Wikipedia 1946. According to English Wikipedia, the Yang family did not officially accept his adaptations of the form. According to Wikipedia, his older fellow student Chen Weiming approved the manuscript of Thirteen Chapters, not the form itself. According to the forum of the family association, Fu Zhongwen described Cheng as a legitimate student of Yang Chengfu in an interview for Inside Kung-Fu in April 1993.
Legacy
According to Mason, he died on 26 March 1975 in Yonghe near Taipei, and elsewhere in the same study the year 1973 appears. After his death the Shi Zhong society was led by Liu Xiheng, in 1993 the Master Zheng Taijiquan Study Association was founded, and on 25 June 2006 a memorial hall opened in part of his former house. In 1982 the National Palace Museum in Taipei held a retrospective exhibition for him. The first student of the Shi Zhong society was Benjamin P. J. Lo.
Teachers, students and family
Associated Martial Arts
A Chinese family of internal martial art styles with slow forms and tuishou, documented from the 17th century in Henan. Zhang Sanfeng is a legend, UNESCO 2020.
Yang Style Tai ChiMaster→A family style of taijiquan founded by Yang Luchan and settled by Yang Chengfu. The hand form of the large frame is flowing, without explosions of force, jumps or stamping.
Organisations
- Shih Chung T'ai Chi AssociationFounder · 1950
- Shr Jung T'ai Chi schoolChief instructor · 1964