Yang Chengfu

Yang Chengfu (1883–1936) was the third-generation successor of the Yang family Tai Chi lineage and the man who standardised the Yang-style Tai Chi long form that remains the most widely practised Tai Chi form in the world today. The grandson of Yang Luchan—the founder of Yang-style Tai Chi, who first learned Tai Chi from the Chen family—Yang Chengfu refined and simplified the family form into a large, open, slow-flowing sequence accessible to practitioners of all ages and fitness levels. He taught publicly across China in the 1920s and 1930s, producing influential students including Cheng Man-ching and Dong Yingjie, whose own teaching spread Yang-style Tai Chi internationally. Yang Chengfu’s standardised form is the foundation of the vast majority of Tai Chi practice worldwide.