Yang Ch'eng-fu
This article uses primarily the Wade-Giles system of romanization. For a version of this article which features the pinyin system, please see Yang Chengfu.
Yang Ch'eng-fu 楊澄甫 (1883-1936) has become by far the best known teacher of T'ai Chi Ch'uan to have ever lived. His direct descendents, the many students he taught and their students have spread the art around the world. He was born into the famous Yang T'ai Chi family, and with his older brother Yang Shao-hou (楊少侯) and colleagues Wu Chien-ch'üan (吳鑑泉) and Sun Lu-t'ang (孫錄堂) was among the first teachers to offer T'ai Chi instruction to the general public at the Beijing Physical Culture Research Institute from 1914 until 1928. He moved to Shanghai in 1928. He is known for having "smoothed" out the somewhat more vigorous training routine he learned from his family as well as emphasising a "large frame" (expansive movements in stepping and from the arms using large circular motions) in his training. His smooth motion, evenly-paced large frame form and its hundreds of offshoots has been the standard for Yang style T'ai Chi Ch'uan (and overwhelmingly in the public imagination for T'ai Chi in general) ever since.
His sons have continued to teach their father's T'ai Chi, including his first son, the late Yang Shou-Chong (楊守中), who brought Yang style T'ai Chi Ch'uan to Hong Kong, his second son Yang Chen-chi (who is the current head of the Yang family instructors) and his third son, Yang Chen-to (楊振鐸, born 1926), living in Shanxi Province, who is the most famous Yang family T'ai Chi Ch'uan instructor living today.
