Yang style (楊家) T'ai Chi Ch'üan in its many variations is the most popular and widely practised style in the world today and the second in terms of seniority among the primary five family styles of T'ai Chi.

The Yang is the one of the two opposing forces in Chinese philosophy, it associates with the bright Sun, represents masculine nature. See Yin Yang. Yang is the transliteration of Chinese family name 楊, also spelt as Yeung, which means poplar literally. It can also be the transliteration of a very... Yang family first became involved in the study of T'ai Chi in the early 1800s. The founder of the Yang style was Yang Lu-ch'an (楊露禪), aka Yang Fu-k'ui (楊福魁, 1799-1872), who studied under The Chen style (陳氏) is considered to be the senior branch of the five Tai Chi Chuan family styles and the third in terms of popularity. The Chen style today is known for its low postures and vigorous martial art training. While there are many hundreds of... Ch'en Chang-hsing starting in 1820 was a leap year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). Events January 1 - Constitutionalist military insurrection at Cádiz leads to summoning of Spanish parliament ( March 7) and restoration of 1812 Constitution ( March 8) by king Ferdinand VII. January 28 - Russian expedition lead by Fabian Gottlieb von... 1820. Yang's subsequent expression of T'ai Chi as a teacher in his own right became known as the Yang style, and directly led to the development of the other three major styles of T'ai Chi (see below). Yang Lu-ch'an (and some would say the art of T'ai Chi Ch'üan in general) came to prominence as a result of his being hired by the Aisin Gioro (Chinese: 愛新覺羅; pinyin: ixīn j o1) was the family name of the Manchu emperors of the Qing dynasty. The word aisin means gold in the Manchu language, but the meaning of gioro is unknown. It is notable that the Jin dynasty (jin means... Chinese Imperial family to teach T'ai Chi to the elite Palace Battalion of the Imperial Guards in Events January 4 - The first American ice-skating club is formed (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania). January 29 - Henry Clay introduces the Compromise of 1850 to the U.S. Congress February 28 - University of Utah opens in Salt Lake City, Utah March 7 - United States Senator Daniel Webster gives his Seventh of March... 1850, a position he held until his death.

Yang Lu-ch'an passed his art to:

• his son Yang Pan-hou (楊班侯, 1837-1890) who was also retained as a martial arts instructor by the Chinese Imperial family, became the teacher of Wu Ch'uan-yü (Wu Quanyou), a The Manchu (manju in Manchu; 滿族 (pinyin: mǎnzú) in Chinese, often shortened to 滿 (pinyin: mǎn) are an ethnic group who originated in northeastern Manchuria. During the Manchu conquest, they conquered the Ming Dynasty in the 17th century and founded the Qing Dynasty, which ruled... Manchu The Eight Banners (In Manchu: gūsa, In Chinese: 旗 qí) were administrative divisions into which all Manchu families were placed. They were initially based on tribal divisions but soon became the primary source for the Manchu military organisation, with each banner required to raise, support, and train a... Banner An army unit consisting of mounted soldiers are commonly known as cavalry. Cavalry fight from the backs of their mounts, which most often are horses or camels. Infantry travelling by horse and fighting on foot are instead known as dragoons. Modern cavalry units are generally not mounted on horseback (save... cavalry officer of the Palace Battalion. Wu Ch'uan-yü's son, Wu Chien-ch'üan (Wu Jianquan), also a Banner officer, became known as the co-founder (along with his father) of the The Wu style (吳家) Tai Chi Chuan of Wu Chuan-yü (Quanyou) and Wu Chien-chüan (Jianquan) is the second most popular form of Tai Chi Chuan in the world today, after the Yang style, and fourth in terms of family... Wu style.
• his son Yang Chien-hou (Jianhou) (1839-1917), who passed it to his sons, Yang Shao-hou (楊少侯, 1862-1930) and Yang Ch'eng-fu (楊澄甫, 1883-1936). Yang Ch'eng-fu removed the vigorous Fa-jing (release of power), energetic jumping, heavy stepping, and other abrupt movements to emphasise Ta Chia (大家 large style). This style has slow, steady, expansive and soft movements suitable for general practitioners. Thus, Yang Ch'eng-fu is largely responsible for standardizing and popularizing the Yang style T'ai Chi widely practised today. Yang Ch'eng-fu's descendants are still teaching in many schools associated with their family internationally.
• Wu Yu-hsiang (Wu Yuxiang, 武禹襄, 1813-1880) who also developed his own Wu style.

Tung Ying-chieh (Dong Yingjie), Ch'en Wei-ming (Chen Weiming), Fu Zhongwen (Fu Chung-wen) and Cheng Man-ch'ing were famous students of Yang Ch'eng-fu. Tung, Fu and Cheng each taught extensively, founding groups teaching T'ai Chi to this day. Cheng Man-ch'ing, perhaps the most famous of the three, significantly shortened and simplified the traditional forms Yang taught him after his teacher's passing, supposedly 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.

There is another relatively minor variant of the Yang style known as Kuang-p'ing style T'ai Chi Ch'uan (广平太极).

Books

• Douglas, Bill The Complete Idiot's Guide to T'ai Chi & QiGong (2nd Edition) Alpha Books (2002) ISBN 0028642643 includes 64 movements of Kuang Ping Yang style

External links

• Yang Family Website (http://www.yangfamilytaichi.com/)
• Dong Tai Chi home page (http://www.dongtaichi.com/)
• Yang Family Disciple's Website (http://www.itcca.org/)
• Guang Ping Yang Tai Chi Association (http://www.guangpingyang.org) Kuang Ping or Kuang-p'ing style