"A similar thing happened when Yang Shao-hou died - all his senior students were required to kowtow to Yang Cheng-fu and accept him as the new senior lineage holder...
Who knows these names today - Hsiung Yang-ho, Chi Ching-chih, Chang Ching-lin, Chen Hsiu-feng, and Li Shou-chen? They were all great students under YSH, senior to YCF, and in many cases superior to him in technique and ability; (because of this) they refused to bow, and were subsequently written out of the family lineage, but they all continued to teach, and they all have legitimate descendants today.
This is where much of the "unofficial source" Yang Shao-hou material comes from today.
I feel the main fact I was trying to convey was that all these YSH masters refused to accept YCF because of two reasons:
- They were superior to YCF as far as pure technique was concerned; this little matter could have been cleared up by Cheng-fu offering to 'cross-hands' with them, but he did not dare to risk the possible "loss of face". For their part, they could not challenge him without losing both 'face' and 'honor', since one of the conditions of their acceptance into discipleship was to swear to never challenge another member of the Yang family.
- YCF was changing the forms and "standardizing" them; in the view of YSH and his students, that meant "dumbing them down" so that the "least common denominator" could be achieved for the teaching of public classes.
YSH's seniors wanted no part of that process - and we have what little we do have of the 'inner door' YBH/YSH technology that is still available today due to the courage and convictions of these relatively few senior practitioners.
I would add "and people like the Tians", except for the fact that there 'are' no other people like the Tians - they are unique in their deep connection to the Yang family 'second-generation' methods of Yang Jian-hou;
Tian Zhao-lin was adopted into the family while still a child, and he slept in the same bed as YCF - and he was raised and trained by YJH just like his other two sons. I would say to any sincere practitioner on this list - if any senior representatives from the Tian family discipleship ever do make it to this country and offer public seminars - do not miss your chance to connect with some of the oldest and most authentic 'inner door' Yang family methods available today.
