Wudang T'ai Chi Ch'uan - Cheng Tinhung

Cheng Tinhung (Zheng Tianxiong, 鄭天熊; 1930–2005). As a young boy he studied Southern Boxing (南拳) from his father Cheng Minchueng (鄭綿彰), which was a family style, learnt from his father Cheng Lin (鄭麟) who was a professional martial artist. As Cheng Tinhung grew older his uncle Cheng Wingkwong (鄭榮光) took an interest in teaching him Wu-style t'ai chi ch'uan. Cheng Wingkwong was a formal disciple of Wu Jianquan, who eventually held the rank of Shifu (師父, or Sifu in Cantonese) in the Wu family's Hong Kong school. At that ranking he had their encouragement to take on disciples of his own and open his own school. Cheng Wingkwong knew of an itinerant martial artist known as Qi Minxuan whose father was a disciple of the founder of the Wu-style, Wu Quanyou. Cheng Wingkwong arranged for his nephew to train with Master Qi from the summer of 1946 to the winter of 1948. Qi Minxuan advised his new disciple Cheng Tinhung, that in order to gain a good reputation as a master of T'ai chi ch'uan he must be both sound in mind and body and also be able to defend himself, thus being able to represent the art in its true form. Cheng Tinhung later took the nickname of the "T'ai chi Bodyguard" for his enthusiastic defence of t'ai chi ch'uan as a martial art. By all accounts, Cheng was a hellraiser—he liked to drink, eat, and fight as well as train and teach. His predilections may have contributed to the ill health that plagued him in his later years.