Yang Chengfu

Yang Chengfu (Hanyu Pinyin), or Yang Ch'eng-fu (Wade-Giles) ( 楊澄甫, 1883-1936) is historically considered the best known teacher of the soft style martial art of Tai Chi Chuan (Taijiquan).

His direct descendants, the many students he taught and their students have spread the art around the world. He was born into the famous Yang Taijiquan family, the son of Yang Chien-hou and grandson of Yang Lu-chan. With his older brother Yang Shao-hou (楊少侯) and colleagues Wu Jianquan (吳鑑泉) and Sun Lutang (孫錄堂), he was among the first teachers to offer Tai Chi Chuan 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" or "Da Jia 大架" with expansive movements in stepping and using large circular motions with the arms. His smooth, evenly-paced large frame form and its hundreds of offshoots has been the standard for Yang style Tai Chi Chuan (and overwhelmingly in the public imagination for Tai Chi Chuan in general) ever since.

Tung Ying-chieh (Dong Yingjie, 董英杰, 1898-1961), Ch'en Wei-ming (Chen Weiming), Fu Zhongwen (Fu Chung-wen, 1903-1994), Li Yaxuan (李雅轩, 1894-1976) and Cheng Man-ch'ing were famous students of Yang Ch'eng-fu. Each of them taught extensively, founding groups teaching T'ai Chi to this day. Cheng Man-ch'ing, perhaps the most famous outside of China, significantly shortened and simplified the traditional forms Yang taught him after his teacher's passing, reportedly to make them more accessible to larger numbers of students. Although Cheng's modifications are considered controversial by most other schools and are not recognized by the Yang family, Cheng Man-ch'ing is known as the first to teach T'ai Chi Ch'üan in the West.

His sons have continued to teach their father's Taijiquan, including his first son, the late Yang Zhenming (1910-1985) (a.k.a. Yang Shaozhong, Yang Shao-Chung, Yeung Shao-Chung; 楊守中), who brought Yang style Tai Chi Chuan to Hong Kong, his second son Yang Zhenji (born 1921, current head of the family), and his third son, Yang Zhenduo (楊振鐸, born 1926), living in Shanxi Province, who is widely considered the most prominent of the Yang family Tai Chi Chuan instructors living today.

T'ai Chi family tree
This family tree is not comprehensive.

LEGENDARY FIGURES | Zhang Sanfeng* circa 12th century NEI CHIA | Wang Zongyue* T'AI CHI CH'ÜAN | THE 5 MAJOR CLASSICAL FAMILY STYLES | Chen Wangting 1600-1680 9th generation Chen CHEN STYLE |   +---+    |                                                                   | Chen Changxing                                                     Chen Youben 1771-1853 14th generation Chen                                    circa 1800s 14th generation Chen Chen Old Frame                                                    Chen New Frame |                                                                  | Yang Lu-ch'an                                                      Chen Qingping 1799–1872                                                         1795–1868 YANG STYLE                                                         Chen Small Frame, Zhaobao Frame |                                                                  |    +-+-+   |    |                                 |                             |   | Yang Pan-hou                      Yang Chien-hou                   Wu Yu-hsiang 1837–92                          1839–1917                        1812–80 Yang Small Frame                     |                             WU/HAO STYLE |                                +-+                      |    |                                 |                 |                      | Wu Ch'uan-yü                      Yang Shao-hou     Yang Ch'eng-fu          Li I-yü 1834–1902                        1862–1930         1883–1936               1832–92    |                              Yang Small Frame  Yang Big Frame            | Wu Chien-ch'üan                                       |                    Hao Wei-chen 1870–1942                                          Yang Shou-chung         1849–1920 WU STYLE                                           1910–85 108 Form                                                                     | |                                                                       Sun Lu-t'ang Wu Kung-i                                                                  1861–1932 1900–70                                                                    SUN STYLE |                                                                         | Wu Ta-kuei                                                                  Sun Hsing-i 1923–72                                                                    1891–1929                                                                 1891-1929

Note to Family tree table

Names denoted by an asterisk are legendary or semilegendary figures in the lineage, which means their involvement in the lineage, while accepted by most of the major schools, isn't independently verifiable from known historical records.