Cheng Man Ching Short Tai Chi Chuan and Yang Long Forms Compared

Robert Chuckow, a student of Cheng Man Ching (Zheng Manqing), wrote this comparison of the two forms in 2011. I found it to be interesting reading. An excerpt is below. The full article may be read here.


Yang Cheng-fu (1883–1936) was a grandson of Yang Lu-chan, the originator of the Yang style of T’ai-Chi Ch’uan. Cheng Man-ch’ing (1902–1975) was an inner student of Yang Cheng-fu. After Yang Cheng-fu’s death and before coming to the United States, Cheng Man-ch’ing created a shortened version of the traditional form taught him by Yang Cheng-fu. That shortened version is now widely taught in the United States and other countries.

Practitioners of Cheng Man-ch’ing’s T’ai-Chi short form (C.M.C. form) are largely unaware of many of the changes he made. Most of them know that Prof. Cheng removed postures and repetitions from the Yang Cheng-fu T’ai-Chi long form (Yang form), changed “Step Back to Repulse the Monkey” to feet-parallel, and emphasized the “beauteous wrist.” But there are many other changes. It is important to understand what the changes are, why they were made, and the relative benefits of each of the two forms.

I learned the C.M.C. form under Prof. Cheng in Chinatown, NYC, from 1970–1975, at the T’ai-Chi Ch’uan Association and the Shr Jung School. I have been practicing that form since then and have taught it continuously since 1973. I also studied for six years during the 1970s with Grandmaster William C.C. Chen (Chen Chi-cheng), who originally learned T’ai Chi from Prof. Cheng in Taiwan. Chen’s form is an offshoot of Prof. Cheng’s, and parts of C.C. Chen’s form are done the way Prof. Cheng originally taught but later changed. When asked, C.C. Chen freely delineated between what he had originally learned from Prof. Cheng and what he had then changed. As a result, I learned some of the changes that Prof. Cheng had made since teaching Chen. I also observed some changes that Prof. Cheng made during the five years that I studied with him.

I learned the Yang form from the late Clifton Cooke in the mid 1970s and later from Harvey Sober. I have been teaching the Yang long form to my senior students for about two decades. Sober’s version came from the late Franklin Kwong (Kwong Yung-cheng), a direct student of Yang Cheng-fu (see a video of Kwong doing the Yang form: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dew02bd-SaM).

According to some of his students, Kwong claimed that his version was authentic.

There is some variation in how those who studied with Yang Cheng-fu do his form, which may be explained as follows: (1) Yang Cheng-fu may have changed his way of doing the movements over the years, (2) At a given time, he may have taught different people differently, (3) students taught in the same way sometimes inadvertently do movements differently from what they were taught, and (4) his direct students may have made purposeful changes based on their state of physical health, the limitations of their students, or other considerations. Nevertheless, certain conclusions can and will be drawn.

The following links are for the names and sequence of movements of both the Yang and C.M.C. forms: http://www.chuckrowtaichi.com/LongForm.pdf and http://www.chuckrowtaichi.com/ShortForm.pdf.

In addition to Prof. Cheng’s elimination of some movements of the Yang form (discussed in §1, below) and the elimination of repetitions of movements (§2), there are general differences throughout (§3); differences in the order of the movements (§4); differences in movements that are in both forms (§5); transitions that occur in one style and not the other for movements common to both forms (§6); differences in transitions between successive movements common to both forms (§7); and differences between what Prof. Cheng taught, what he did, and what those of his students do and teach (§8).