Cheng Man-ch'ing
Cheng Man-ch'ing or Zheng Manqing was a Chinese expert of tai chi, Chinese medicine, and the so-called three perfections: calligraphy, painting and poetry. He was born in Yongjia, Zhejiang Province, during the Qing dynasty. Cheng died March 26, 1975; his grave is near the city of Taipei in Taiwan.
Because of his skills in the 3 Perfections or "Excellences" – considered to be among some of the traditional skills and pastimes of a Confucian scholar – plus medicine and tai chi, he was often referred to as the "Master of Five Excellences." Because he had been a college professor, his students in the USA 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 object, and was in a coma for a short while. He recuperated slowly, and was apprenticed to a well-known artist, Wang Xiangchan 汪香禪, in hopes that simple jobs like grinding ink would help his health. Wang taught Cheng's aunt Zhang Hongwei 張紅薇, as well as fellow townsmen Ma Mengrong and Ma Gongyu, all of whom became quite well-known. Within a few years, Cheng's teacher sent him out to earn his living by painting. During Cheng's childhood, his mother took him out to find medicinal plants and taught him the fundamentals of traditional Chinese herbal medicine.By the age of eighteen, Cheng was teaching poetry and art in Beijing and within a few years had become a successful artist whose works were in demand. His aunt's friend Cai Yuanpei gave him a letter of introduction that led him to Shanghai, where he became acquainted with influential figures including Wu Changshuo, Zheng Xiaoxu, Xu Beihong, and Zhang Daqian. He took a position as the Dean of the Department of Traditional Painting at the prestigious Shanghai College of Art, which was headed by Liu Haisu. Cheng participated in national and international exhibitions, including one in 1933 organized by Xu Beihong, and was deeply involved with a number of art societies, including the Bee Society. These groups met to socialize, paint, and organize fundraising exhibitions. Around 1930, Cheng left the Shanghai College of Art and with Huang Binhong, and other leading artists, founded the College of Chinese Culture and Art. The school was forced to close upon the Japanese invasion.
In his twenties, Cheng developed lung disease. Ill to the point of coughing up blood, he began to practice tai chi more diligently to aid his recovery. Cheng retired from teaching and devoted himself for several years to the study of tai chi, traditional Chinese medicine, and literature. His literary studies were with retired scholar Qian Mingshan.
In addition to his childhood instruction, Cheng Man-ch'ing received formal Chinese medical training. While he was teaching art in Shanghai, 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 宋幼庵 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. Dr Song was the twelfth generation of physician in his family; his medical school had a formidable collection of traditional medicines.
In the first lunar month of 1932, Cheng met the well-known master Yang Chengfu, with whom he began to study Yang-style tai chi, 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. Cheng, according to Yang's son Zhenji, ghostwrote Yang's second book Essence and Applications of Tai Chi or The Substance and Application of Tai Chi, for which Cheng also wrote a preface and most likely arranged for the calligraphic dedications.
Cheng taught tai chi, practiced medicine, and continued his art practice in Sichuan Province during the Sino-Japanese war years. In this period he taught Abraham Liu while at the Central Military Academy, China's equivalent of West Point. 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.
Taiwan
Cheng moved to Taiwan in 1949 with the retreating Republican Chinese government. He continued his career as a physician and as a teacher of his new tai chi form, as well as actively practicing painting, poetry, and calligraphy. He published Cheng's 13 Chapters of Tai Chi Boxing in 1950 which has been translated into English twice. He started the Shih Chung T'ai Chi Association in Taipei, where many now well-known students including 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 "birds and flowers" style (his colleague Huang Junbi instructed her in landscape painting. Cheng also continued to be a medical advisor to Chiang Kai-shek.
United States
In 1964, Cheng moved with his wife, two sons, and three daughters to the United States, 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. 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 Frank Wong, Michael and Lora Howard, Herman Kauz, René Houtrides, Patt Benton, Lucjan Shila, Carol Yamasaki, Robert Ante, Judyth Weaver, Patrick Watson, Min Pai, Lawrence Galante, Lisa Marcusson, Saul Krotki, Robert Chuckrow, Robert D. Morningstar, Phillip Carter, 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 at Columbia University, usually in a small, mahogany-panelled loft above the main floor. For relaxation, he raised orchids.
Writings
Cheng wrote numerous books and articles on a variety of subjects, including commentaries on the I Ching, the Tao Te Ching, the Analects of Confucius, his original works of poetry, essays, medicine, and several art collections.https://chengmanching.wordpress.com/writings./ In 1967 in collaboration with Robert W. Smith, and T. T. Liang, Cheng published "T'ai Chi, the Supreme Ultimate Exercise for Health, Sport and Self-defense," which was his second tai chi book in English. 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 also produced several tai chi films, and some of his classes and lectures were recorded and in later years released on DVD.
Tai chi
Cheng Man-ch'ing is best known in the West for his tai chi. 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
- 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 momentum from one movement initiates the next.
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. 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. Moreover, there is nothing in Cheng's teaching to prohibit a practitioner of his style from repeating any number of movements just as many or more times than they are repeated in the Yang Chengfu form.
Cheng's changes to the Yang-style form were not officially recognised by the Yang family and his style is still a source of controversy among some tai chi practitioners. From Cheng's own point of view, the approval of his elder brother disciple Chen Weiming 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.