Of all the modern Tai Chi masters, none has had as much impact as Professor Cheng Man-Ch’ing. He died on March 26, 1975 in Taiwan, and is remembered today as the “Master of the Five Excellences” for his mastery of five arts: calligraphy, poetry, painting, medicine and Tai Chi Chuan.

Cheng Man-Ch’ing was born on July 29, 1902 in Yongjia, China. As a young man, he became seriously ill with tuberculosis. A local doctor suggested him to practice Tai chi chuan to cure himself. Cheng then embarked on the study and practice of Tai Chi. He completely cured his illness.

In his thirties, Cheng became a student of the great master of Tai Chi Chuan, Yang Ch’eng-Fu. He studied with him the Yang form from 1928 to 1935, enduring many difficulties to learn this art. Although he himself became a great Tai Chi master, Professor Cheng, with his legendary modesty, always disparaged his own skill over that of his teacher. He used to say, “If Tai Chi were a human body, all I have is the thumb. My teacher has the whole body!”

Man-Ch’ing created his own form, the 37-step form, based on the traditional 108-posture Yang form he had studied with his teacher.

A Tai chi chuan school in New York

After a brilliant career as a doctor, senator and martial artist in Taiwan, Professor Cheng had to expatriate to Taiwan like many other martial arts masters and Chinese intellectuals. There he founded the school of Tai Chi Chuan “Shr Zhong”, or “The right rhythm”. He then left in 1964 for the United States, where he opened a Tai Chi school in New York, in the Chinatown district.

He returned to Taiwan in 1974 for the publication of his book of commentaries on the Tao Te Ching of Lao Tzeu, a work that was particularly close to his heart. Thus, he declared to his relatives, once his work was completed, “If I have to die, I will have no regrets.”

Today, Cheng Man-Ch’ing’s legacy lives on through his poetry, his painting, those he healed, those to whom he passed on his teaching and who in turn pass it on to students all over the world.