Wudang Tai Chi Chuan
Encyclopedia
Wudang t'ai chi ch'uan 武當太極拳 is the name of a system of T'ai chi ch'uan (Taijiquan) that was developed by a Hong Kong
香港 based T'ai chi ch'uan master known as Cheng Tinhung 鄭天熊. While Cheng Tinhung never claimed to be teaching any particular school of T'ai chi ch'uan, his uncle was a disciple of the Wu
吳 school of T'ai chi ch'uan, which may or may not have had some influence on his own approach to the art.
The Wudang t'ai chi ch'uan system is now being taught in Europe
by two of Cheng Tinhung’s disciples, Dan Docherty and Ian Cameron, both based in the United Kingdom
. The system also continues to be taught in Hong Kong, and the current head of that school is Cheng Tinhung’s son Cheng Kamyan (Zheng Jianen) 鄭鑒恩, whose school is called the Hong Kong Tai Chi Association 香港太極總會.
Zhang Sanfeng
張三豐, a highly mythologised figure said to be the founder of T'ai chi ch'uan, lived in the Wudang Mountains
武當山 and the name "Wudang" used for this T'ai chi ch'uan system was used in order to acknowledge Zhang Sanfeng's status as the founder of T'ai chi ch'uan. There are other schools of T'ai chi ch'uan that also use this name.
The Wudang t'ai chi ch'uan system is also known as “Practical T'ai chi ch'uan”. This name comes from that given to Cheng Tinhung's style by various Chinese martial arts journalists in Hong Kong during Cheng Tinhung’s heyday, and from the school's assertion that its t'ai chi is eminently useful as a form of self-defense.
The Wudang t'ai chi ch'uan system teachers publish that they have links to famous T'ai chi ch'uan masters (see lineage diagram), including Yang Banhou
陽班侯 , Wu Quanyou
吳全佑, Wu Jianquan 吳鑒泉, Cheng Wingkwong (Zheng Rongguang) 鄭榮光, Chen Gengyun 陳耕雲, and Wang Lanting 王蘭亭.
. After losing his family during the Japanese Occupation and Second World War, Qi Minxuan became an itinerant martial arts instructor teaching T'ai chi ch'uan to those that would give him board and lodgings. His father Qi Gechen 齊閣臣 was a disciple of the famed T'ai chi ch'uan master Wu Quanyou. Qi Minxuan also learnt from a Buddhist monk
known as Jing Yi 静一 (Tranquil One), who learnt T'ai chi ch'uan from Wang Lanting 王蘭亭. Qi Minxuan’s Buddhist name was Zhi Meng 智孟 (Sagacious Elder) and was an enthusiastic student of Chan Buddhism. The fate of Qi Minxuan is unknown.
in Cantonese) in the Wu family's Hong Kong school. At that ranking he had their encouragement to take on disciples of his own and open his own school. Cheng Wingkwong knew of an itinerant martial artist known as Qi Minxuan whose father was a disciple of the founder of the Wu 吳 School, Wu Quanyou. Cheng Wingkwong arranged for his nephew to train with Master Qi from the summer of 1946 to the winter of 1948. Qi Minxuan advised his new disciple Cheng Tinhung, that in order to gain a good reputation as a master of T'ai chi ch'uan he must be both sound in mind and body and also be able to defend himself, thus being able to represent the art in its true form. Cheng Tinhung later took the nickname of the "T'ai chi Bodyguard" for his enthusiastic defence of T'ai chi ch'uan as a martial art. By all accounts, Cheng was a hellraiser—he liked to drink, eat, and fight as well as train and teach. His predilections may have contributed to the ill health that plagued him in his later years.
Soon after he arrived in Hong Kong in 1975 he started training T'ai chi ch'uan under Cheng Tinhung and within a few years was elected to represent Hong Kong in Full-contact Fighting competitions. In 1980 he won the Open Weight Division at the 5th South East Asian Chinese Pugilistic Championships in Malaysia .
In 1985 he was awarded a Postgraduate Diploma in Chinese from Ealing College, London.
He is now based in London and travels extensively teaching and writing about T'ai chi ch'uan. Mr. Docherty is known for his strong views on the history of T'ai chi ch'uan and is seen as a polarizing figure within the world of t'ai chi. In articles and interviews he has spoken of confrontations with other t'ai chi teachers, including an infamous meeting with one Shen Hong-xun, a master who claimed to have and to teach "empty force", or the ability to move a person without physical contact. The meeting ended up with Mr. Docherty pouring water over the head of Shen Hong-Xun, not to prove that empty force does not exist but to suggest that Master Shen was unable to summon and use it at that time.
He first came under the tutelage of Cheng Tinhung in 1971 whilst serving in the armed forces in Hong Kong. On his return to Edinburgh he set up his class which was to evolve into the Five Winds School Of T'ai chi ch'uan.
Ian Cameron teaches in Edinburgh. He also supervises other classes in Scotland and England.
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
香港 based T'ai chi ch'uan master known as Cheng Tinhung 鄭天熊. While Cheng Tinhung never claimed to be teaching any particular school of T'ai chi ch'uan, his uncle was a disciple of the Wu
Wu style tai chi chuan
The Wu family-style t'ai chi ch'uan of Wu Ch'uan-yu and Wu Chien-ch'uan is the second most popular form of t'ai chi ch'uan in the world today, after the Yang style, and fourth in terms of family seniority. This style is different from the Wu style of t'ai chi ch'uan founded by Wu Yu-hsiang...
吳 school of T'ai chi ch'uan, which may or may not have had some influence on his own approach to the art.
The Wudang t'ai chi ch'uan system is now being taught in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
by two of Cheng Tinhung’s disciples, Dan Docherty and Ian Cameron, both based in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. The system also continues to be taught in Hong Kong, and the current head of that school is Cheng Tinhung’s son Cheng Kamyan (Zheng Jianen) 鄭鑒恩, whose school is called the Hong Kong Tai Chi Association 香港太極總會.
Zhang Sanfeng
Zhang Sanfeng
Zhang Sanfeng was a semi-legendary Chinese Taoist priest who is believed by some to have achieved immortality, said variously to date from either the late Song Dynasty, Yuan Dynasty or Ming Dynasty. His name is said to have been Zhang Junbao 張君寶 before he became a Taoist.Zhang's legend is that of...
張三豐, a highly mythologised figure said to be the founder of T'ai chi ch'uan, lived in the Wudang Mountains
Wudang Mountains
The Wudang Mountains , also known as Wu Tang Shan or simply Wudang, are a small mountain range in the northwestern part of Hubei Province of People's Republic of China, just to the south of the city of Shiyan.-Geography:...
武當山 and the name "Wudang" used for this T'ai chi ch'uan system was used in order to acknowledge Zhang Sanfeng's status as the founder of T'ai chi ch'uan. There are other schools of T'ai chi ch'uan that also use this name.
The Wudang t'ai chi ch'uan system is also known as “Practical T'ai chi ch'uan”. This name comes from that given to Cheng Tinhung's style by various Chinese martial arts journalists in Hong Kong during Cheng Tinhung’s heyday, and from the school's assertion that its t'ai chi is eminently useful as a form of self-defense.
The Wudang t'ai chi ch'uan system teachers publish that they have links to famous T'ai chi ch'uan masters (see lineage diagram), including Yang Banhou
Yang Pan-hou
Yang Banhou was an influential teacher of t'ai chi ch'uan in Ch'ing dynasty China, known for his bellicose temperament.-Biography:...
陽班侯 , Wu Quanyou
Wu Ch'uan-yu
Wu Ch'uan-yu or Wu Quanyou was an influential teacher of t'ai chi ch'uan in late Imperial China. He is credited as the founder of the Wu style t'ai chi ch'uan...
吳全佑, Wu Jianquan 吳鑒泉, Cheng Wingkwong (Zheng Rongguang) 鄭榮光, Chen Gengyun 陳耕雲, and Wang Lanting 王蘭亭.
Qi Minxuan
It is thought that Qi Minxuan 齊敏軒 came from Wen County, Hebei Dao in Henan Province. He was a teacher of T'ai chi ch'uan and neigongNeigong
Neigong, also spelled nei kung, neigung, or nae gong, refers to any of a set of Chinese breathing, meditation and spiritual practice disciplines associated with Daoism and especially the Chinese martial arts...
. After losing his family during the Japanese Occupation and Second World War, Qi Minxuan became an itinerant martial arts instructor teaching T'ai chi ch'uan to those that would give him board and lodgings. His father Qi Gechen 齊閣臣 was a disciple of the famed T'ai chi ch'uan master Wu Quanyou. Qi Minxuan also learnt from a Buddhist monk
Monk
A monk is a person who practices religious asceticism, living either alone or with any number of monks, while always maintaining some degree of physical separation from those not sharing the same purpose...
known as Jing Yi 静一 (Tranquil One), who learnt T'ai chi ch'uan from Wang Lanting 王蘭亭. Qi Minxuan’s Buddhist name was Zhi Meng 智孟 (Sagacious Elder) and was an enthusiastic student of Chan Buddhism. The fate of Qi Minxuan is unknown.
Cheng Tinhung
Cheng Tinhung (Zheng Tianxiong) 鄭天熊 (1930-2005). As a young boy he studied Southern Boxing 南拳 from his father Cheng Minchueng 鄭綿彰, which was a family style, learnt from his father Cheng Lin 鄭麟 who was a professional martial artist. As Cheng Tinhung grew older his uncle Cheng Wingkwong 鄭榮光 took an interest in teaching him Wu-style t'ai chi ch'uan. Cheng Wingkwong was a formal disciple of Wu Jianquan, who eventually held the rank of Shifu 師父 (or SifuSifu
Shifu is the identical pronunciation of two Chinese terms for a master. The character 師 means “teacher”. The meaning of 傅 is “tutor”, and of 父, “father”. Both characters are read fu with the same tones in Cantonese and Mandarin, creating some ambiguity...
in Cantonese) in the Wu family's Hong Kong school. At that ranking he had their encouragement to take on disciples of his own and open his own school. Cheng Wingkwong knew of an itinerant martial artist known as Qi Minxuan whose father was a disciple of the founder of the Wu 吳 School, Wu Quanyou. Cheng Wingkwong arranged for his nephew to train with Master Qi from the summer of 1946 to the winter of 1948. Qi Minxuan advised his new disciple Cheng Tinhung, that in order to gain a good reputation as a master of T'ai chi ch'uan he must be both sound in mind and body and also be able to defend himself, thus being able to represent the art in its true form. Cheng Tinhung later took the nickname of the "T'ai chi Bodyguard" for his enthusiastic defence of T'ai chi ch'uan as a martial art. By all accounts, Cheng was a hellraiser—he liked to drink, eat, and fight as well as train and teach. His predilections may have contributed to the ill health that plagued him in his later years.
Dan Docherty
Dan Docherty was born in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1954. He graduated with an LLB in 1974 and soon after moved to Hong Kong where he served as an inspector in the Royal Hong Kong Police Force until 1984 .Soon after he arrived in Hong Kong in 1975 he started training T'ai chi ch'uan under Cheng Tinhung and within a few years was elected to represent Hong Kong in Full-contact Fighting competitions. In 1980 he won the Open Weight Division at the 5th South East Asian Chinese Pugilistic Championships in Malaysia .
In 1985 he was awarded a Postgraduate Diploma in Chinese from Ealing College, London.
He is now based in London and travels extensively teaching and writing about T'ai chi ch'uan. Mr. Docherty is known for his strong views on the history of T'ai chi ch'uan and is seen as a polarizing figure within the world of t'ai chi. In articles and interviews he has spoken of confrontations with other t'ai chi teachers, including an infamous meeting with one Shen Hong-xun, a master who claimed to have and to teach "empty force", or the ability to move a person without physical contact. The meeting ended up with Mr. Docherty pouring water over the head of Shen Hong-Xun, not to prove that empty force does not exist but to suggest that Master Shen was unable to summon and use it at that time.
Ian Cameron
Ian Cameron was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1944.He first came under the tutelage of Cheng Tinhung in 1971 whilst serving in the armed forces in Hong Kong. On his return to Edinburgh he set up his class which was to evolve into the Five Winds School Of T'ai chi ch'uan.
Ian Cameron teaches in Edinburgh. He also supervises other classes in Scotland and England.
External links
- http://www.hktaichi.com The Hong Kong Tai Chi Association
- http://www.taichichuan.co.uk Practical Tai Chi Chuan International's official website
- http://www.five-winds.co.uk Ian Cameron's Five Winds School of Tai Chi Chuan
- http://www.taichiteachers.co.uk UK Tai Chi Teachers website - with links to highly rated Wudang
- http://www.wudang.eu Wudang Global Federation