Lee-style T'ai Chi Ch'uan - History

History

According to Chee Soo in a book published by HarperCollins, the style is derived from an original set of eight movements created by Ho-Hsieh Lee from Beijing around 1000 BC, this was a time before there were any written records so we only have the oral tradition passed down from father to son to rely on. His family moved to a fishing village called Wei Hei Wei (modern Weihai) on the East coast of China in Shandong Province and settled there and practiced a range of Taoist Arts. The techniques were passed on from one generation to the next and kept within the family until the last in their line, Chan Lee, traveled to London in the 1930s on business. Here, the account continues, he met and adopted a young orphan named Clifford Soo, later to be known as Chee Soo, and he passed the techniques on to him as he had no children of his own.

Chee Soo writes:

The formation of the International Taoist Society
This society was formed on the foundations that were originally laid down by Professor Chan Kam Lee to cater for the interest that was beginning to be aroused, and because other members started to form their own classes and clubs, it was felt that the formation of an association would help to bind all practitioners together.
In the winter of 1953-4, Chan Lee died, off the coast of China, near Canton, when the ship that he was traveling in sank in a severe storm, and so Chee Soo was asked to take over the leadership of the Association. However, in deference to the memory of Chan Lee, Chee Soo declined to accept any title within the Association at that particular time. By 1959, groups and clubs were being formed all over the world, and they were all asking for leadership. For this reason, Chee Soo decided to accept the post of President of the Association. Since then the Association has grown from strength to strength in the British Isles, Australia, South Africa, France, Germany, Holland, Mauritius, and New Zealand.

In 1976 a book about Lee style T'ai Chi Ch'uan written by Chee Soo was published entitled "The Chinese Art of T'ai Chi Ch'uan" which describes the history and philosophy of the style in detail including descriptions of each aspect of the Art with photographs and descriptions of the Lee style T'ai Chi form. Chee Soo wrote several books about the various aspects of the Lee style Taoist Arts published by HarperCollins which became best-sellers and were subsequently translated into several languages including French (distributed in Canada, France, Belgium, Switzerland, Portugal), German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese (Brazilian), Polish, and Indonesian. Chee Soo moved to Coventry in the 1980s and trained a group of teachers to continue his work.
Since his death in August 1994 there are now several school teaching the Lee style T'ai Chi based in the British Isles each of which emphasize different aspects of the Lee style Taoist Arts.

The emblem of the Lee family is the Seahorse which represents Yin within Yang as it is the only creature where the male incubates and gives birth to the offspring.