Cheng Man-ch'ing
Cheng Man-ch'ing (WG) or Zhèng Mànqīng (py), 鄭曼青 (1901 - March 26, 1975) was trained in Chinese medicine, calligraphy, tai chi chuan, painting and poetry.
He developed lung disease (believed to be tuberculosis) in his 20s and, in an attempt to rid himself of the disease, studied T'ai Chi Ch'uan with Yang Ch'eng-fu from 1928 - 1935.
He published Cheng's 13 Chapters of Taiji Boxing in 1950 which has been translated into English twice. In 1967 in collaboration with Robert W. Smith, he published T'ai Chi, the Supreme Ultimate exercise for health, sport and self defence. Other 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
After a career as a physician, and martial artist in Taiwan, Professor Cheng emigrated to the United States, where he ran the Shr Jung T'ai Chi School in New York City's Chinatown section. He is famous as the first well known teacher to offer T'ai Chi instruction in North America. His focus was always on the healing aspects of the martial art, and he developed a significantly abbreviated version of Yang's form, taking ten minutes to practise instead of the original thirty, as well as shortening the reach and modifying other physical expressions of the individual movements in the form. This allowed him to teach larger numbers of Western students, but his changes to the Yang style form have never been recognised by any Yang family teachers and, due to the continued popularity of Cheng's short form, are still a source of controversy among the various T'ai Chi schools to the present day. The Taipei branch of the Shr Jung school is still operating under the direction of Liu Shi Heng.
Reference
- Cheng Man-ch'ing; Master Cheng's New Method of T'ai Chi Self-Cultivation, Translated by Mark Hennessy; Frog, Ltd. Books, Berkeley, CA; ISBN 1-883319-92-7 (1999)
