Mr. Hu Yao-Zhen, an exponent of Taiji Stick & Ruler Qi Gong began to learn traditional Chinese Medicine, Qi Gong and boxing at age of sixteen. Even though he had asked many teachers for advice, there was no .any famous master to instruct him, he still took a lot of roundabout courses for his technical skill was still not excellent after many years of practice. Later, when he heard that Master Peng Ting-Jun was quite prestigious in martial arts field in Shanxi, he took along way and called on for advance. He ,could progress quickly every time he followed what Master Peng taught him to practise for a period time. Hu was impressed not only by Master Peng's good reputation, but by his superb skill and noble character through long time of getting along with each other, he then ask for being a formal apprentice to him. Master Peng thought Hu Yao-Zhen was an honest, reliable and diligent man, and he would become-'a promising exponent in Taoist school. So, he recognized him as his apprentice. Since then, he had learned Inner Qi Gong of Taoist School, Taiji Stick & Ruler Qi Gong, Hua Tuo's Five-Animal Skill, Six-Character Formula, Liu He Xin Yi Quan, and Zi Lu Taiji. This was how Taiji Stick & Ruler Qi Gong was handed down from ancient time till now. Master Hu Yao-Zhen, instructed by his kind teacher, finally stepped into the door of first-class skill with consummate level and mastering of Daoism, martial arts and medicine after years of painstaking practice. He later came to work in an acupuncture clinic of Beijing, and since early 50's, he first -tried to apply Qi Gong in the clinical treatment and got very good result for he cured many intractable cases. He would perform Qi Gong in combination with acupuncture and moxibustion to treat those patients recommended by other physicians who could not help with satisfactory effect.

In October 1959, Master Hu participated in National Meeting to Exchange Experience in Qi Gong in Beidaihe. In the meeting, he introduced his own experience on Qi Gong exercise for dozens of years, the laws of Dynamic Qi Gong and Static Qi Gong he had found out, especially the laws of Self-Emitting Qi Gong, and how he first applied Qi Gong in the clinical treatment with significant therapeutic effect and therefore accumulated a lot of successful experiences. Master Hu's excellent report on Qi Gong and the book "Qi Gong" made great influence on Qi Gong circle and enjoyed unanimous appraisals among the figures in Qi Gong world in our country. In the past, there was no unified term for Qi Gong and each school had its own one. At early 50's, Master Hu Yao-Zhen with Liu Gui-Zhen and other ancestors decided to standardize the term as "Qi Gong" to benefit the popularization of it. Soon after, Qi Gong was known to all. Master Hu Yao-Zhen was therefore honored as "Father of Modern Qi Gong" and " Miracle-working Doctor".

Taiji Stick & Ruler Qi Qong was handed down in Taoist School with a long history. The impartments of Taiji Stick & Ruler Qi Gong to the outsiders started from the year 1820 of Qing Dynasty with great prosperity of Chinese martial arts.

In the year when Taoist Huo Cheng-Guang, a famous figure of Daoism, went to Shanxi to impart Daoism, there was a young man named Peng Ting-Jun, who had exercised boxing for a few years. He heard of this piece of news and hastened to go there to learn the skills of Daoism without giving a thought to a long way to go. Especially, as Huo Cheng-Guang taught how to train Dantian and practice Inner Qi Gong, Peng listened and threw in all his thoughts. He was greatly impressed by his words, which he felt like touching a stone and turning it into gold, and really regretted meeting his so late. Since then, he often paid his a visit for instruction. Old Taoist was fond of him very much when he saw him studying very hard, so he gave him some instructions every time he went. He took his teacher's words as treasure and began to follow the instructions to practice Inner Qi Gong of Daoism. Four months later, he felt his Inner Qi Gong had already improved a lot. When he came to old Taoist to learn the skill again, it was quite out of his expectation that he had been to other places to impart Daoism. He was very regretful and had to practice with great effort every day according to what he had been taught.

Three years passed in a flash, when he heard old Taoist Huo Cheng-Guang came to Shanxi to impart Daoism again, he got up early and hastened to see him. The old Taoist was quite satisfied at his hard practice everyday from the early morning to the late night for three years in terms of his instructions, and then he formally received him as his apprentice. Since then, Peng got "Inner Qi Gong of Daoism" "Guiding Qi Stick Inner Qi Gong", that is "Taiji Stick & Ruler Qi Gong" now etc. he treated them as treasures. Peng's skill was improved day by day like fish in water after a period of exercise, and through many years of practice with great effort, he attained superb skill and was well known in the circle of martial arts.

Exponents of Taoism Qi Gong

Taoism Qi Gong and Taiji stick & ruler Qi Gong was originally imparted by Chen Dan, a Taoist of Huashan Mountain, whose era was more than 1000 years ago.

Chen Dan was his Taoist name, and his initial name was said to be Chen Xiyi (871-989). He was well-known among Taoism Qi Gong practitioners. lie not only imparted Taoism Qi Gong and Taiji stick & ruler Qi Gong to many Taoists, bat drew the figure about the inducing 24 Qi sitting Qigong as well. It was said that Chen Dan and Zhao Kuang-Yin (the first empire of the Song Dynasty) were old friends. Chen used to teach Zhao Taoism Qi Gong and Taiji stick & ruler Qi Gong and give him the figure of the inducing 24 Qi sitting Qi Gong. Later, as Zhao became the empire, Taoism qigong and Taiji stick & ruler Qi Gong was also regarded as the secret method for prolonging one's life in the imperial palace.

"The record about Tail-Lua Xiyi" described the family, life, and experience concerning with Taoism of Chen Dan. According to this book, Chen Dan was a person with profound knowledge, outstanding capability, and great intelligence. He had intimate friendship with Zhao Kuang-Yin for many years. Since Zhao Kuang-Yin became the emperor, Zhao and his younger brother (the second empire of the Song Dynasty) had called Chen Dan into their palace for many times in order to give him a position in the government. But Chen Dan was never moved by the attractive promise. On the contrary, he moved to Huashan Mountain, the sacred place for Taoists to retire from public life and practice their own internal constitution.

After that, Chen Dan had been engaged in Qi Gong practice. He also helped other people by predicting their future for them, He kept contact with some hermits (including Liqi, Lvdongbin, and Mayi Taoist) and organized a forum and Qi Gong classes with them. The students of Chen Dan included Zhong-Fang, Muxiu, Lizhicai, Shao Yong, Weiye, etc.


Chen style Taiji's 17th generation, Chen Fake.