Cheng Man-ch'ing
Encyclopedia
Cheng Man-ch'ing (July 29, 1902 - March 26, 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, t'ai chi ch'uan, 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 taught poetry and art in several leading colleges in Beijing and Shanghai and was a successful artist. At the age of nineteen, he was a professor of poetry at an esteemed art school in Beijing. Later in Shanghai, he became acquainted with influential figures including Wu Changshi, Cai Yuanpei
, Zheng Xiaoxu
, Xu Beihong
, and Zhang Daqian
.
In his twenties, he developed lung disease (believed to be tuberculosis
partly from exposure to the chalk dust from the school blackboards). Ill to the point of coughing up blood, he began to practice t'ai chi ch'uan more diligently to aid his recovery. Cheng retired from teaching and devoted himself for several years to the study of t'ai chi ch'uan, traditional Chinese medicine
, and literature.
In addition to his childhood instruction, Cheng Man-ch'ing received formal Chinese medical training. While he was teaching painting in a Shanghai art school, one of his friends grew ill and was unable to find relief. Cheng Man-ch'ing wrote a complex prescription for his friend, who took the medicine and recovered fully. One story from his memorial book is that a retired traditional doctor named Song You-an came across the prescription. He demanded to be put in contact with the person who wrote it, as the sophistication and erudition of the prescription showed exceptional talent and competence. As war was raging across China at that time, it took several years before Cheng Man-ch'ing was able to present himself for study. With Song, Cheng received instruction and became conversant with the Chinese pharmacopoeia
.
Around 1930 Cheng met the well-known master Yang Chengfu
(1883–1936), with whom he began to study Yang-style t'ai chi ch'uan, until Yang died. While the exact dates of Cheng's study with Yang are not clear, one of Yang's top students, scholar Chen Weiming
wrote that Cheng studied six years with Yang.http://www.nytaichi.com/looking.htm. Cheng, according to Yang's son Zhenji, ghostwrote Yang's second book Essence and Applications of Taijiquan or The Substance and Application of T'ai Chi Ch'uan (Taijiquan tiyong quanshu, 1934), for which Cheng also wrote a preface and most likely arranged for the calligraphic dedications.
Cheng taught t'ai chi ch'uan, practiced medicine, and continued his art practice in Sichuan
Province during the Sino-Japanese war
years. By 1946, he had developed a significantly abbreviated 37-move version of Yang's traditional form. He wrote the manuscript for his Thirteen Chapters during this period, and showed them to his elder classmate Chen Weiming
, who gave it his imprimatur
.
twice. He started the Shih Chung T'ai Chi Association in Taipei, where many now well-known students (Benjamin Lo, Liu Hsi-heng, Hsu I-chung, dr Qi Jiang Tao, Robert W. Smith
, T. T. Liang, William C. C. Chen
, Huang Sheng Shyan
and others) trained with him.
Though he tended not to advertise it, Cheng served as one of the painting teachers of Soong Mei-ling, Madame Chiang Kai-shek, whom he taught to paint lotuses; and as personal physician to Chiang Kai-shek
in Taiwan and perhaps earlier.
, where he taught at the New York T'ai Chi Association at 211 Canal Street in Manhattan. He then founded and taught at the Shr Jung T'ai Chi school at 87 Bowery in New York City
's Chinatown
section, with the assistance of his six American senior students, known as the "Big Six": Tam Gibbs, Lou Kleinsmith, Ed Young, Mort Raphael, Maggie Newman, and Stanley Israel. Half a dozen later students/assistants are known as "the Little Six": Victor Chin, Y Y Chin, Jon Gaines, Natasha Gorky, Wolfe Lowenthal, and Ken VanSickle. Other American students include Herman Kauz
, Patt Benton, Carol Yamasaki, Robert Ante, Patrick Watson, Lawrence Galante, Lisa Marcusson, Saul Krotki, and William C. Phillips. In Taiwan, Cheng's students continued running the school in his absence. It operated initially under the direction of Liu Hsi-heng. Hsu I-chung is the current director.
While living in New York City, Cheng often spent several hours in the early afternoons studying or teaching classes of three or four students in the C. V. Starr East Asian Library in Columbia University, usually in a small, mahogany-panelled loft above the main floor. For relaxation, he raised orchids.
, and T. T. Liang, Cheng published "T'ai Chi, the Supreme Ultimate Exercise for Health, Sport and Self-defense," which was his second t'ai chi book in English. He wrote over a dozen other books on a variety of subjects, including the I Ching
, the Tao Te Ching
, the Analects of Confucius
, books of poetry, essays, medicine, and art collections. Translations of his works include: "Master Cheng's New Method of T'ai Chi Ch'uan Self-Cultivation"; "Cheng Man Ch'ing: Essays on Man and Culture"; "Cheng Man Ch'ing: Master of Five Excellences," and "T'ai Chi Ch'uan: A Simplified Method of Calisthenics for Health and Self-Defense."
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 one of the earliest Chinese masters to teach t'ai chi ch'uan 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 t'ai chi. When pressed on the issue, he called his form "Yang-style t'ai 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 t'ai chi ch'uan 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. William C. Phillips operates Patience T'ai Chi Association in Brooklyn, NY.
Huang Sheng Shyan
(Huang Xingxian), one of Cheng's most accomplished disciples, established over 40 schools in South East Asia, through which Cheng's T'ai Chi has continued to reach over 10,000 practitioners.
2. Beginning
3. Ward Off, Left
4. Ward Off, Right
5. Roll Back
6. Squeeze
7. Push (Postures 3 through 7 are known as "Grasping the Sparrow's Tail"
8. Single Whip
9. Raise Hands
10. Shoulder Stroke
11. White Crane Stretches Its Wings
12. Brush Knee Left
13. Play Guitar (Followed by Brush Knee Left)
14. Step Up and Block
15. Parry and Punch
16. Apparent Close-up
17. Cross Hands
18. Embrace Tiger, Return to Mountain (followed by Roll Back, Squeeze, Push, then corner Single Whip)
19. Fist Under Elbow
20. Step Back and Repulse Monkey, Right
21. Step Back and Repulse Monkey, Left (Followed by three more Repulse Monkeys: Right, Left, and Right)
22. Diagonal Flying
23. Wave Hands Like Clouds, Left
24. Wave Hands Like Clouds, Right (Followed by three more cloud hands left, right, left, to Single Whip)
25. Single Whip, Lower Style (Also known as "Snake Creeps Up" (or Down))
26. Golden Cock Stands on One Leg, Right
27. Golden Cock Stands on One Leg, Left
28. Separation of the Right Foot
29. Separation of the Left Foot
30. Turn Body and Kick With Heel (This posture is followed by Brush Knee, Left and then Brush Knee, Right)
31. Step Forward and Punch (Followed by Ward-off Right, Roll Back, Squeeze, Push and Single Whip)
32. Fair Lady Weaves (Works) Shuttle I- A textbook example of how defense proceeds offense in Tai Chi
33. Fair Lady Weaves (Works) Shuttle II (Followed by two more Fair Ladies, Grasping the Sparrow's Tail, Single Whip and Snake Creeps Down)
34. Step Up to Seven Stars
35. Retreat to Ride Tiger
36. Turn Body Sweep Lotus Leg
37. Bend Bow Shoot Tiger (The form is close out by step up, block, parry and punch followed by Apparent Close-up, Cross Hands and Close)
Yongjia
Yongjia may refer to:* The former name for Wenzhou, a city in Zhejiang, China* Yongjia County, in Zhejiang, China* Yongjia School, Chinese school of thought during the Song Dynasty* Yongjia , a brachiopod genus....
(present-day Wenzhou
Wenzhou
Wenzhou is a prefecture-level city in southeastern Zhejiang province, People's Republic of China. The area under its jurisdiction, which includes two satellite cities and six counties, had a population of 9,122,100 as of 2010....
), Zhejiang
Zhejiang
Zhejiang is an eastern coastal province of the People's Republic of China. The word Zhejiang was the old name of the Qiantang River, which passes through Hangzhou, the provincial capital...
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, t'ai chi ch'uan, calligraphy
Calligraphy
Calligraphy is a type of visual art. It is often called the art of fancy lettering . A contemporary definition of calligraphic practice is "the art of giving form to signs in an expressive, harmonious and skillful manner"...
, painting
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
and poetry
Poetry
Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
. 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."
Early years
Cheng's father died when Cheng was very young. Around the age of nine, Cheng was struck on the head by a falling brick or roof tile, and was in a coma for a short while. He recuperated slowly, and was apprenticed to a well-known artist, Wang Xiangchan, in hopes that simple jobs like grinding ink would help his health. Within a few years, his teacher sent him out to earn his living at painting. Cheng's aunt Chang Kuang, also known by her artist's name of Hongwei Laoren, was a well-known painter. During Cheng's childhood, his mother took him out to find medicinal plants and taught him the fundamentals of traditional Chinese herbal medicine.Cheng taught poetry and art in several leading colleges in Beijing and Shanghai and was a successful artist. At the age of nineteen, he was a professor of poetry at an esteemed art school in Beijing. Later in Shanghai, he became acquainted with influential figures including Wu Changshi, Cai Yuanpei
Cai Yuanpei
Cai Yuanpei was a Chinese educator and the president of Peking University. He was known for his critical evaluation of the Chinese culture that led to the influential May Fourth Movement...
, Zheng Xiaoxu
Zheng Xiaoxu
Zhèng Xiàoxū . Chinese statesman, diplomat and calligrapher.-Early life and diplomatic career:Although Zheng traced his ancestral roots to Minhou, a small town near Fuzhou, he was born in Suzhou, Jiangsu...
, Xu Beihong
Xu Beihong
Xu Beihong was born in Yixing, China. He was primarily known for his shuimohua of horses and birds and one of the first Chinese artists to articulate the need for artistic expressions that reflected a new modern China at the beginning of the 20th century...
, and Zhang Daqian
Zhang Daqian
Chang Dai-chien was one of the best-known and most prodigious Chinese artists of the twentieth century. Originally known as a guohua painter, by the 1960s he was also renowned as a modern impressionist and expressionist painter...
.
In his twenties, he developed lung disease (believed to be tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
partly from exposure to the chalk dust from the school blackboards). Ill to the point of coughing up blood, he began to practice t'ai chi ch'uan more diligently to aid his recovery. Cheng retired from teaching and devoted himself for several years to the study of t'ai chi ch'uan, traditional Chinese medicine
Traditional Chinese medicine
Traditional Chinese Medicine refers to a broad range of medicine practices sharing common theoretical concepts which have been developed in China and are based on a tradition of more than 2,000 years, including various forms of herbal medicine, acupuncture, massage , exercise , and dietary therapy...
, and literature.
In addition to his childhood instruction, Cheng Man-ch'ing received formal Chinese medical training. While he was teaching painting in a Shanghai art school, one of his friends grew ill and was unable to find relief. Cheng Man-ch'ing wrote a complex prescription for his friend, who took the medicine and recovered fully. One story from his memorial book is that a retired traditional doctor named Song You-an came across the prescription. He demanded to be put in contact with the person who wrote it, as the sophistication and erudition of the prescription showed exceptional talent and competence. As war was raging across China at that time, it took several years before Cheng Man-ch'ing was able to present himself for study. With Song, Cheng received instruction and became conversant with the Chinese pharmacopoeia
Pharmacopoeia
Pharmacopoeia, pharmacopeia, or pharmacopoea, , in its modern technical sense, is a book containing directions for the identification of samples and the preparation of compound medicines, and published by the authority of a government or a medical or pharmaceutical society.In a broader sense it is...
.
Around 1930 Cheng met the well-known master Yang Chengfu
Yang Chengfu
Yang Chengfu or Yang Ch'eng-fu is historically considered the best known teacher of the soft style martial art of Yang-style t'ai chi ch'uan .-Biography:...
(1883–1936), with whom he began to study Yang-style t'ai chi ch'uan, until Yang died. While the exact dates of Cheng's study with Yang are not clear, one of Yang's top students, scholar Chen Weiming
Chen Weiming
This is a Chinese name; the family name is ChenChen Weiming was a scholar, taijiquan teacher, and author. He was also known by his name Chen Zengze 陳曾則, Weiming being his hao, a pen-name....
wrote that Cheng studied six years with Yang.http://www.nytaichi.com/looking.htm. Cheng, according to Yang's son Zhenji, ghostwrote Yang's second book Essence and Applications of Taijiquan or The Substance and Application of T'ai Chi Ch'uan (Taijiquan tiyong quanshu, 1934), for which Cheng also wrote a preface and most likely arranged for the calligraphic dedications.
Cheng taught t'ai chi ch'uan, practiced medicine, and continued his art practice in Sichuan
Sichuan
' , known formerly in the West by its postal map spellings of Szechwan or Szechuan is a province in Southwest China with its capital in Chengdu...
Province during the Sino-Japanese war
Sino-Japanese War
There were two wars known as the Sino-Japanese War :* The First Sino-Japanese War between China and Japan , primarily over control of Korea....
years. By 1946, he had developed a significantly abbreviated 37-move version of Yang's traditional form. He wrote the manuscript for his Thirteen Chapters during this period, and showed them to his elder classmate Chen Weiming
Chen Weiming
This is a Chinese name; the family name is ChenChen Weiming was a scholar, taijiquan teacher, and author. He was also known by his name Chen Zengze 陳曾則, Weiming being his hao, a pen-name....
, who gave it his imprimatur
Imprimatur
An imprimatur is, in the proper sense, a declaration authorizing publication of a book. The term is also applied loosely to any mark of approval or endorsement.-Catholic Church:...
.
Taiwan
Cheng moved to Taiwan in 1949 and continued his career as a physician and as a teacher of his new t'ai chi ch'uan form, as well as actively practicing painting, poetry, and calligraphy. He published Cheng's 13 Chapters of T'ai Chi Boxing in 1950 which has been translated into EnglishEnglish language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
twice. He started the Shih Chung T'ai Chi Association in Taipei, where many now well-known students (Benjamin Lo, Liu Hsi-heng, Hsu I-chung, dr Qi Jiang Tao, Robert W. Smith
Robert W. Smith (historian)
Robert W. Smith was an American martial artist and writer most noted for his prodigious output of books and articles about the Asian martial arts and their masters...
, T. T. Liang, William C. C. Chen
William C. C. Chen
William C. C. Chen is a Grandmaster of t'ai chi ch'uan that currently lives in the US. His school is in New York City and he has hundreds of students around the world....
, Huang Sheng Shyan
Huang Sheng Shyan
Huang Sheng-Shyan, 黃性賢, Huang Hsing-hsien or Huáng Xìngxián was born in 1910 in Minhou County of the Fujian province in Mainland China. He began studying Fujian White Crane with Xie Zhong-Xian at the age of 14. In 1947 he resettled in Taiwan where he became a disciple of Cheng Man-ch'ing...
and others) trained with him.
Though he tended not to advertise it, Cheng served as one of the painting teachers of Soong Mei-ling, Madame Chiang Kai-shek, whom he taught to paint lotuses; and as personal physician to Chiang Kai-shek
Chiang Kai-shek
Chiang Kai-shek was a political and military leader of 20th century China. He is known as Jiǎng Jièshí or Jiǎng Zhōngzhèng in Mandarin....
in Taiwan and perhaps earlier.
United States
In 1964, Cheng moved with his family (Madame Cheng, two sons, and three daughters) to the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, where he taught at the New York T'ai Chi Association at 211 Canal Street in Manhattan. He then founded and taught at the Shr Jung T'ai Chi school at 87 Bowery in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
's Chinatown
Chinatown
A Chinatown is an ethnic enclave of overseas Chinese people, although it is often generalized to include various Southeast Asian people. Chinatowns exist throughout the world, including East Asia, Southeast Asia, the Americas, Australasia, and Europe. Binondo's Chinatown located in Manila,...
section, with the assistance of his six American senior students, known as the "Big Six": Tam Gibbs, Lou Kleinsmith, Ed Young, Mort Raphael, Maggie Newman, and Stanley Israel. Half a dozen later students/assistants are known as "the Little Six": Victor Chin, Y Y Chin, Jon Gaines, Natasha Gorky, Wolfe Lowenthal, and Ken VanSickle. Other American students include Herman Kauz
Herman Kauz
Herman Kauz is a prominent author and teacher of the martial arts, in particular T'ai chi ch'uan.-Life:Kauz was born in 1928 in Brooklyn, New York...
, Patt Benton, Carol Yamasaki, Robert Ante, Patrick Watson, Lawrence Galante, Lisa Marcusson, Saul Krotki, and William C. Phillips. In Taiwan, Cheng's students continued running the school in his absence. It operated initially under the direction of Liu Hsi-heng. Hsu I-chung is the current director.
While living in New York City, Cheng often spent several hours in the early afternoons studying or teaching classes of three or four students in the C. V. Starr East Asian Library in Columbia University, usually in a small, mahogany-panelled loft above the main floor. For relaxation, he raised orchids.
Writings
In 1967 in collaboration with Robert W. SmithRobert W. Smith (historian)
Robert W. Smith was an American martial artist and writer most noted for his prodigious output of books and articles about the Asian martial arts and their masters...
, and T. T. Liang, Cheng published "T'ai Chi, the Supreme Ultimate Exercise for Health, Sport and Self-defense," which was his second t'ai chi book in English. He wrote over a dozen other books on a variety of subjects, including the I Ching
I Ching
The I Ching or "Yì Jīng" , also known as the Classic of Changes, Book of Changes and Zhouyi, is one of the oldest of the Chinese classic texts...
, the Tao Te Ching
Tao Te Ching
The Tao Te Ching, Dao De Jing, or Daodejing , also simply referred to as the Laozi, whose authorship has been attributed to Laozi, is a Chinese classic text...
, the Analects of Confucius
Analects of Confucius
The Analects, or Lunyu , also known as the Analects of Confucius, are considered a record of the words and acts of the central Chinese thinker and philosopher Confucius and his disciples, as well as the discussions they held....
, books of poetry, essays, medicine, and art collections. Translations of his works include: "Master Cheng's New Method of T'ai Chi Ch'uan Self-Cultivation"; "Cheng Man Ch'ing: Essays on Man and Culture"; "Cheng Man Ch'ing: Master of Five Excellences," and "T'ai Chi Ch'uan: A Simplified Method of Calisthenics for Health and Self-Defense."
Cheng Man-ch'ing's t'ai chi ch'uan
Cheng Man-ch'ing is best known in the West for his t'ai chi ch'uan. 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 Chengfu'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 momentumMomentumIn classical mechanics, linear momentum or translational momentum is the product of the mass and velocity of an object...
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 one of the earliest Chinese masters to teach t'ai chi ch'uan 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 t'ai chi. When pressed on the issue, he called his form "Yang-style t'ai 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
William C. C. Chen
William C. C. Chen is a Grandmaster of t'ai chi ch'uan that currently lives in the US. His school is in New York City and he has hundreds of students around the world....
, 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 t'ai chi ch'uan 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
Ed Young
Ed Young may refer to:* Ed Young , Caldecott Medal-winning illustrator* Homer Edwin Young, known as Ed Young, pastor of Second Baptist Church , a megachurch...
are still teaching. William C. Phillips operates Patience T'ai Chi Association in Brooklyn, NY.
Huang Sheng Shyan
Huang Sheng Shyan
Huang Sheng-Shyan, 黃性賢, Huang Hsing-hsien or Huáng Xìngxián was born in 1910 in Minhou County of the Fujian province in Mainland China. He began studying Fujian White Crane with Xie Zhong-Xian at the age of 14. In 1947 he resettled in Taiwan where he became a disciple of Cheng Man-ch'ing...
(Huang Xingxian), one of Cheng's most accomplished disciples, established over 40 schools in South East Asia, through which Cheng's T'ai Chi has continued to reach over 10,000 practitioners.
Cheng Man-ch'ing's Sequence
1. Preparation2. Beginning
3. Ward Off, Left
4. Ward Off, Right
5. Roll Back
6. Squeeze
7. Push (Postures 3 through 7 are known as "Grasping the Sparrow's Tail"
8. Single Whip
9. Raise Hands
10. Shoulder Stroke
11. White Crane Stretches Its Wings
12. Brush Knee Left
13. Play Guitar (Followed by Brush Knee Left)
14. Step Up and Block
15. Parry and Punch
16. Apparent Close-up
17. Cross Hands
18. Embrace Tiger, Return to Mountain (followed by Roll Back, Squeeze, Push, then corner Single Whip)
19. Fist Under Elbow
20. Step Back and Repulse Monkey, Right
21. Step Back and Repulse Monkey, Left (Followed by three more Repulse Monkeys: Right, Left, and Right)
22. Diagonal Flying
23. Wave Hands Like Clouds, Left
24. Wave Hands Like Clouds, Right (Followed by three more cloud hands left, right, left, to Single Whip)
25. Single Whip, Lower Style (Also known as "Snake Creeps Up" (or Down))
26. Golden Cock Stands on One Leg, Right
27. Golden Cock Stands on One Leg, Left
28. Separation of the Right Foot
29. Separation of the Left Foot
30. Turn Body and Kick With Heel (This posture is followed by Brush Knee, Left and then Brush Knee, Right)
31. Step Forward and Punch (Followed by Ward-off Right, Roll Back, Squeeze, Push and Single Whip)
32. Fair Lady Weaves (Works) Shuttle I- A textbook example of how defense proceeds offense in Tai Chi
33. Fair Lady Weaves (Works) Shuttle II (Followed by two more Fair Ladies, Grasping the Sparrow's Tail, Single Whip and Snake Creeps Down)
34. Step Up to Seven Stars
35. Retreat to Ride Tiger
36. Turn Body Sweep Lotus Leg
37. Bend Bow Shoot Tiger (The form is close out by step up, block, parry and punch followed by Apparent Close-up, Cross Hands and Close)
External links
- Cheng Man-ching site.
- Zheng Manqing.com A tribute site.
- Cheng Man-ching Official site.
- Cheng Man-ch'ing Biography Project information.
- Biography of Cheng Man-ch'ing from his Memorial Book
- Site for the Shr Chung Tai Chi Chuan Association founded by Cheng. In Chinese and English.
- CMC Tai Chi teacher directory
- List of CMC form postures.
- Wolfe Lowenthal and the Long River Tai Chi Circle list of CMC instructors
- Grasp Sparrows’s Tail is like two men sawing from Cheng Tzu’s Thirteen Treatises on T’ai Chi Ch’uan neigong.net
- Mike Milewski, student of Cheng Man Chin, teaches Tai Chi Chuan, Yang (Cheng) style in Milwaukee, WI