Robert W. Smith, Student of Cheng Man-ch'ing

Martial arts historian Robert W. Smith passed away July 1, 2011, in North Carolina. A man with a voracious appetite for learning---whether intellectual pursuits or martial arts---Smith combined those interests adeptly over many decades of involvement with the Asian arts of judo, taijiquan, and other disciplines.
Smith met Cheng Man-ch'ing (Zheng Manqing) while posted as a CIA analyst to Taiwan in the late 1950s. He wrote about Cheng, whom he felt to be the most accomplished of all of his teachers:
"Zheng was unique, a happy aberration. He was able through tedious practice (much of it so arcane that it is a safe bet that it resides now in no living person) to take an intelligent and creative mind and to soften, reduce, and even empty it in the service of a none-too-robust boddy. From this synthesis came an absolutely unparalleled art of health and protection of health." (Martial Musings,p. 323)
Together, Smith and Cheng wrote T'ai Chi: The "Supreme Ultimate" Exercise for Health, Spoort, and Self-defense (Tuttle, 1967). This book presents taiji philosophy and Cheng's particular views, and the taiji form with detailed photos.
Smith's delightful memoir Martial Musings: A Portrayal of Martial Arts in the 20th Century (Via Media, 1999) is a mix of social, cultural, and personal history and commentary. Smith also featured Cheng in his book Chinese Boxing: Masters and Methods (Kodansha, 1974).

See further reports and links for Robert W. Smith on the Taijiquan Journal blog.

Cheng Man-ch'ing on Women's Health

Cheng Man-ch'ing was, from the 1930s on, a practicing doctor of traditional Chinese medicine. He wrote several books on Chinese medicine topics related to women's health, cancer, and orthopedics, as well as newspaper columns on meditation and tai chi. His books on medicine discuss theory, application, cases, and prescriptions, and give insight into how Cheng thought about medicine.
The complete Insights on Women's Medicine (女科心法Nu'ke xinfa) has just been released, translated by Douglas Wile, who also writes an extensive introduction to the work, giving the historical context of twentieth-century Chinese medicine and Cheng's place in it. The book is published by Sweet Ch'i Press (order through Redwing Books). Wile, formerly professor of Chinese at Brooklyn College, is a prolific translator, having previously translated and annotated several books: Thirteen Chapters, Cheng Man-ch'ing's Advanced Form Instruction, Zheng Manqing's Uncollected Writings, as well as Lost T'ai Chi Classics, T'ai Chi Touchstones: Yang Family Secrets, Tai Chi's Ancestors, and The Art of the Bedchamber: The Chinese Sexual Yoga Classics.

A Visit from West Point

Cheng giving a demonstration
(source unidentified).

In December of 1967, Cheng Man-ch'ing welcomed guests from West Point, the United States Military Academy located in upstate New York. Led by John Kress, instructor of unarmed combat, a group of officers and cadets visited the New York Tai Chi Association studio on Canal Street in Chinatown. Kress and his group exchanged ideas and demonstrations with Cheng and his students. Many years earlier, Cheng himself had taught tai chi at the Whampoa Military Academy, China's "West Point."
As Tam Gibbs, Cheng's assistant and translator later recorded, "Mr. Kress demonstrated some Army field fighting techniques. All were helpless against him. Strong as a bear and as fierce as a tiger, he crouched in a stable posture, quick and light on his feet. Cooly concentrated and never initiating an attack, he took advantage of the slightest opening. Each of those to face him was sent staggering; no one could penetrate his long arms, which seemed like flagpoles with the hugest hands at the ends of them that I have ever seen on a man."
The tai chi students also gave demonstrations, and to everyone's delight, Kress and Cheng Indian wrestled. Cheng, a half-foot shorter and much lighter, bested Kress, but was worried, as he could sense Kress' high skill. The two men came away with a great appreciation of each other.

Traces of a Master

Professor Cheng Man-ch'ing left a number of ways in which people could observe and appreciate his work, and derive guidance for their own practice of taijiquan and other arts.
For instance, Cheng's own exploration of qi development (養生 yangsheng) is evident not only in his taijiquan movies and in the stories people tell of his medical abilities, but in his calligraphy and painting. After all, Chinese calligraphy is based on some of the same principles as taijiquan: alignment, focus (yi), balance, and relaxation. In these four examples below of his calligraphy, done over the span of fifty years, we can see—despite the low resolution of these pictures—how his work dramatically changed over time.

4th European Cheng Man-ch'ing Cup

The European branch of Cheng Man-ch'ing's lineage holds a large event, the European Cheng Man-ch'ing Cup every year or two with guest masters, workshops, practice, discussions, tournament, demonstrations, lion dance, banquet, and socializing.
This year's event will be held July 31-August 3 in the mountains of southwestern France near the border with Spain. Featured presenters include Rosa Chen, Wang Chin Shih, Chu Hong Bin, Nigel Sutton, Fong Sutton, Lau Kung Kim, Nils Klug, Ken Van Sickle, Epi Van der Pol, and William Nelson.
For registration information, see the group's website (English and French).
Un événement exceptionnel!   

Tracing the Past: Art Exhibit

"Tracing the Past, Drawing the Future: Master Ink Painters in 20th-Century China," an exhibit of Cheng Man-ch'ing's elder colleagues works will be held at Stanford University in California.

The exhibit presents more than 110 works, in two rotations, February 17 through July 4, 2010. Admission is free. “This landmark exhibition illuminates a turning point in the development of Chinese ink painting during the 20th-century,” explained Dr. Xiaoneng Yang, the Cantor Arts Center’s Patrick J. J. Maveety Curator of Asian Art. “Drawing upon paintings and calligraphy on loan from Chinese collections new to American audiences, the exhibition presents monumental portraits, vibrant bird-and-flower painting, and spectacular landscapes by Wu Changshuo (1844–1927), Qi Baishi (1864–1957), Huang Binhong (1865–1955), and Pan Tianshou (1897–1971). Collectively known in China as the ‘Four Great Masters of Ink Painting,’ these artists faced the dual challenges of negotiating the impact of encounters with the West, while inventing new directions for long-held practices of ink painting.”
A fully illustrated catalogue with scholarly essays in English accompanies the exhibition, including two introductory essays and essays on each artist. Full entries, translated from Chinese, accompany images of the works in the exhibition.
An international symposium, "The Politics of Culture and the Arts in Early 20th-Century China" will be held February 19–21. Cosponsored by Stanford’s Cantor Arts Center, Center for East Asian Studies, and Department of Art and Art History, the symposium is open free to scholars and the public."

Cheng Man-ch'ing was well acquainted with these men as colleagues in the Shanghai art scene, the art colleges, and painting societies. Wu Changshuo wrote a colophon for Cheng's 1924 album and praised the young Cheng highly. We can see an influence of Wu and Qi Baishi on Cheng Man-ch'ing's painting.

Painting by Wu Changshuo
Flower and Vegetables album:
Narcissus, Eggplant, Grapevines, Lotus, Chrysanthemum, 1904.
Album Leaves. Ink and colors on silk. Zhejiang Provincial Museum.
Reproduced with permission. 

Chinese Painting Forgeries

There is a long history in China of forged artwork, and these days it has become a big business, with "painting factories" churning out cheap imitations of great works. Cheng Man-ch'ing's paintings have, along with those of hundreds of other artists, been forged, often quite ineptly.

A forger copies the format and content of the original painting (in most cases working from a printed version), but unless the forger is highly skilled, the net result is nowhere near the work of the master. In this example of a forgery (left), Cheng's style is superficially copied in terms of layout, content, and subject matter. However, we can see that the forgery has missed the mark: it is flat and unexpressive, the plant has no life in it, and the parts of the plant do not relate to each other. When compared to an original work of Cheng's (right), we can see that the authentic work is imbued with qi, and that everything--composition, line, detail, brushstroke, color--"hangs together" as a whole. The plant looks alive, as if the wind has blown it into place just at that moment.

What is missing in most forgeries is the indelible mark of the artist, the focus of the mind and execution of inner expression, sponteneity, feeling, depth, skill, and technique: the power of brushwork, strength of line, facility in ink tones, and an intimacy of understanding the interconnected brushstrokes of both painting and calligraphy.

Ironically, forgery in Chinese art is to a certain extent a byproduct of study. An aspiring artist is expected to master the styles of prior great artists, and gradually work towards development of his or her own style. In fact, Cheng Man-ch'ing's friend and colleague Zhang Daqian (張大千 Chang Ta-ch'ien, 1899–1983), one of the great figures of 20th-century Chinese art, took great delight in creating such skilled forgeries that he was regularly able to fool experts. Nevertheless, forgery remains trickery.

2/2017 Update: Readers can find a comprehensive article on Chinese art authenticity, connoisseurship, and artist Huang Binhong here in Chinese Heritage Quarterly.