the rum soaked fist: internal martial arts forum

Something strange happened the other day, I was asking an expert why Yang Zhendou (3rd son of Yang Chenfu and former head of Yang Family) chose his grandson Yang Jun as the head of Yang Family association and why it skipped a generation and not an older person 5th generation not chosen. It was said that Yang Zhendou did not have an heir with his first wife as they were separated during Cultural Revolution and that he had re-married to his second wife who had child already and that Yang Jun was her grandson. So that means that Yang Jun, is not even a blood relative of Yang, just legal or adopted relative. It was said that the rightful heir is some guy born to one of the other sons (either Yang Zhenjie or Yang Zhenguo) who is pretty big and robust, but has only training in Taijiquan for a few years.

While bloodline does not guarantee skill, (as time, hard work, and effort DOES aka kung fu) this says a lot.

http://yangfamilytaichi.com/yang/tree/

Bloodline has never guaranteed skill. The reason that skill sometimes does seem to get passed down in families in CMA is that in order to get good you need to be taught the 'secrets' openly, be supervised by someone to make sure you don't go wrong, and put in loads of effort yourself. Traditionally, Chinese teachers taught unreservedly to their own family members but were very guarded with their teachings to outsiders. Unfortunately, that mindset is still very prevalent, even nowadays.

Yang family has many well known relatives:
Fu Zhong Wen
Tian Zhaolin
Zhao Yubin

yeniseri wrote:Yang family has many well known relatives:
Fu Zhong Wen
Tian Zhaolin
Zhao Yubin

Fu Zhong Wen married in to the family so his grand son ought to be a "rightful" heir...As I understand Tian Zhaolin was adopted in to the Yang family?....Zhao Yubin I don't know about......To the OP, interesting info.......I have com to understand that in China after YCF's death it was agreed on that Li Yaxuan would be the head representative of YTJQ, after his passing I don't know if the common agreement was that on any of YCF sons would be the sole head of YTJQ? ...As I understand FZW and his brother's teachings are quite strong in the Handan area.

Trick wrote:

yeniseri wrote:Yang family has many well known relatives:
Fu Zhong Wen
Tian Zhaolin
Zhao Yubin

Fu Zhong Wen married in to the family so his grand son ought to be a "rightful" heir...As I understand Tian Zhaolin was adopted in to the Yang family?....Zhao Yubin I don't know about......To the OP, interesting info.......I have com to understand that in China after YCF's death it was agreed on that Li Yaxuan would be the head representative of YTJQ, after his passing I don't know if the common agreement was that on any of YCF sons would be the sole head of YTJQ? ...As I understand FZW and his brother's teachings are quite strong in the Handan area.

So I've heard that the person who is with a Master when he passes gets the final transmission and is the "yuan". for example Yang Chenfu was the Yuan of Yang Jianhou. Fu Zhongwen was the Yuan of Yang Chenfu, Fu shengyuan was the Yuan of Fu zhongwen, etc. etc.

Also you can find who is a true disciples of Yang family are by who got the teachings the Yang saber. Saber was not taught to everyone, just the closest disciples.
Cheng Man Ching did not teach the Saber form.

The broadsword has always been a part of the Malaysian CMC tradition as was the pole and spear.
So many of CMC,s students taught parts that Cheng felt he could delete in later years

I do not know if it is true, but I have heard that true head of Yang Family Taijiquan is Yang Zhenji, the oldest son of Yang Chengfu (after deceased Yang Shouzhong). Yang Zhenduo just made head of family by himself because of business and that the relationship of those two brothers is damaged because of that... Again, please, I do not know if it is true.

wayne hansen wrote:The broadsword has always been a part of the Malaysian CMC tradition as was the pole and spear.
So many of CMC,s students taught parts that Cheng felt he could delete in later years

The CMC guys I know who do saber and spear got it from elsewhere like Mainland China cause they felt the CMC system was incomplete. And guess what? those saber and spear forms look l far off versions. Very different from what the current Yang Saber forms coming from YCF's top students look like.

As for Yang Zhenjie, the story I heard was that Yang Zhenjie never renounced his older brother Yang Shouzhong who fled to Hong Kong in 1949. Zhendou was head because he did and became part of the wushu association. Yang zhenjie had to live in a small house and do factory work most his life but still trained hard what he learned from Yang Shouzhong under those conditions.

Miro wrote:I do not know if it is true, but I have heard that true head of Yang Family Taijiquan is Yang Zhenji, the oldest son of Yang Chengfu (after deceased Yang Shouzhong). Yang Zhenduo just made head of family by himself because of business and that the relationship of those two brothers is damaged because of that... Again, please, I do not know if it is true.

Hi Miro, the PRC chose Yang Zhenduo to be the representative of Yang style in the 80s, when the "standardized" reference works for the various orthodox styles were published. YZD looked more like YCF, so they used him in the books. Maybe Leroy or Louis would know whether the "family" was asked who would represent the style. I tend to doubt that they were asked. Anyway, iirc, Yang Zhenji passed away in 2007.

The CMC yang style broadsword was well established in Penang in 1973
That was before access to the mainland
It is the exact same sequence to the one now done in the yang family
However it is much more fluid and circular

yeah right Wayne.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnV6tB7Y-JU


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTzua1rocv4



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-J9551OwZ_o

I hope that first clip is not meant to be an example of Malaysian CMC saber
It is sort of the same sequence but not done very well

I just looked at the first guy Julian Chu doing what he calls the CMC Jian
It does not follow the CMC sequence but the traditional yang sequence
So you are right it is not learnt thru Chengs lineage