Yang Style Tai Chi forms the basis for Giuseppe Possemato’s Dragon Taichi . The word “Yang” refers to the clan that developed the style.
Yang Style Tai Chi was founded by Yang Luchan (1799-1872), who studied this martial art during the first half of his life in the Chen village. He concluded his studies when his master died and then moved to Beijing, where he became a well known martial artist at the imperial court. Here he trained various students as well as his own two sons (Yang Banhou and Yang Jianhou), who went on to continue the lineage.
Yang Banhou didn’t have any children to follow on from him. However, Yang Jianhou had two sons who continued in his footsteps: Yang Shaohou and Yang Chengfu. Yang Shaohou had a violent character and few students were able to withstand his brutal training. Whereas, Yang Chengfu had many pupils and went on to perfect the concept of “public teaching” for the health of the masses as opposed to “private teaching” for select groups of martial artists.
Yang Chengfu passed on the Yang family secrets to Yang Sauchung (or Yang Shouzhong) who in 1949 moved to Hong Kong, where martial arts and Daoism were seen favourably.
He had three daughters. It is at this point that, for the first time in history, that a member of the Yang family chose three external disciples (Ip Taitak, Chu Ginsoon and Chu Kinghung) to guarantee the survival and purity of the lineage. Ip Taitak in turn then went on to choose Deng Deqiang as his first disciple.
It becomes clear from this brief genealogy that, over a period of 200 years or so, the number of people who have had access to the entire body of secret principles contained in this style is quite limited. Master Possemato studied for over 15 years with the third disciple of Yang Sauchung, Chu Kinghung, as well as with the first disciple of Ip Taitak, Deng Deqiang, becoming one of his top students.
Dragon Taichi 