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Some students told me that certain instructors claimed that their teachers had taught Taichichuan to the Chinese emperor, and used that as a qualification.

They asked me for comments. Since I have been asked about similar sayings years ago, it may be useful to clear up this point.

Although a few of the ancient emperors were good in fighting before they conquered the country by force and became emperors, most of their descendants indulged in the luxurious and easy life when they were royal princes, and were not interested in personal self-defense arts.

Even archery training stopped

In the Manchu dynasty, the early princes and emperors did include horsemanship and archery in their training. But they did not take up contact fighting.

During the years when Taichichuan became popular in Peijing, the emperors even discontinued the archery training. There was no evidence that any emperor has ever learned Taichichuan.

Yang Lu-chan did teach one of the royal princes and his relatives and bodyguards. The prince was a distant cousin of the Emperor.

They didn’t do well

Later, Lu-chan’s second son, Pan-hou, also taught. As expected, the prince and his relatives, who learned the art only because it was a fashion to do so at that time, along with other hobbies, such as cock-fighting, did not do well.

Some books reported that, when one of Pan-hou’s students, Chen Shiu-feng, asked why Pan-hou taught the Prince completely differently, he replied that their physical constitution is different.

After a few years, the prince asked Yang Lu-chan why his three bodyguards, who were already good fighters, did not improve their skill.

Then, Yang agreed to give the three bodyguards special instructions. Only after that did the three bodyguards progress well.

The fact was that none of the emperors had learned Taichichuan. The Taichichuan taught to the royal prince was not the true art, but a watered down version to suit the physical constitution and needs of a royal family.

High Manchu official taught

All Taichichuan, other than the Chen style, was derived from the Yang style.

Since the founder of the Yang style, Yang Lu-chan, did teach a royal prince, all Taichichuan students other than those of Chen style may claim that their great, great, grandteacher had taught the royal prince.

If one is interested in comparing the government position of his teacher’s students, the Chen style is more ahead.

Chen Geng-yan, the fifth great-great-grandfather of Chen Xiao-wang, had been invited by Yuan Shi-kai to teach him and his relatives, firstly in Shantung Province and then in Tianjin, near Beijing.

Yuan was a high-ranking government official in the Manchu dynasty who trained the new army, and then became the first president of the Republic of China, 1912-1916.

Very few persons know this fact. Most authors think that it was Chen Geng-yuan’s grandson and great, grandson, Chen Fa-ke and Chen Chao-pei who first brought the Chen style outside of Chenchiekow when they taught in Beijing from 1928.

The latest case was in the 1960’s, when the president of the Ivory Coast invited Franklin Y.C. Kwong, who learned from Tung Ying-chieh and Tung Hu-ling, to be his personal tutor.

He taught him for many years

Kwong taught the traditional Yang style Taichichuan to the president for many years.

He accompanied the president whenever visiting foreign countries, before he resigned and started to teach in the United Nations Secretariate, Columbia University, and other institutions in New York.

Kwong is the person dressed in white trousers demonstrating self-defense and join hands operations in Huang Wen-shan’s book, "Fundamentals of Tai chi Chuan," chapters 13 and 14.