Over the years, a considerable amount of confusion has arisen over what year Cheng Man-ch'ing was born. The years 1900, 1901, 1902, and even 1903 are commonly cited. However, according to his memorial inscription, he was born in the 28th year of the Guangxu emperor’s reign, the sixth month, on the twenty-fifth day—the Western date of July 29, 1902.
Welcome
Cheng Man-ch'ing
(鄭曼青/ 郑曼青), a painter, poet, calligrapher, doctor, and t'ai chi ch'uan master, was born in 1902 in Yong-chia (Yongjia 永嘉), present-day Wenzhou 溫州), Zhejiang province. Cheng gained fame as an artist in his early years, and in his thirties, took up t'ai chi ch'uan study with the famed Yang Ch'eng-fu. In his later years, Cheng was instrumental in helping spread t'ai chi ch'uan to Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore, and the United States.
Cheng's name is also spelled Zheng Manqing, and he also went by the names Cheng Yueh (Zheng Yue), Cheng Man-jan (Zheng Manran), Hermit of the Jade Well (Yu-chin shan-jen; Yujin shanren), and other artistic names. He was commonly known as a master of "Five Excellences" (五絕) for his many talents.
The Cheng Man-ch'ing Biography Project seeks to document Cheng Man-ch'ing's life course and his many activities. For further information about the project, you can view a project brochure here. Contributions to the project are welcome and are tax-deductible. You can contact project director Barbara Davis at chengbiography (at)gmail.com or at
editor (at ) taijiquanjournal.com. Barbara Davis is director of Great River Tai Chi in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and is author of The Taijiquan Classics: An Annotated Translation, and translator of Chen Weiming's Taiji Sword. She serves on the editorial advisory board for the Journal of Asian Martial Arts, and is editor of Taijiquan Journal.
Language: This site makes use of Wade-Giles romanization for Chinese, and pinyin where indicated; and uses traditional Chinese characters unless indicated.
Copyright: All material on this site is copyrighted and used with permission of Cheng's estate.