Yu Yongnian

In 2012, Dr. Yu Yongnian was now probably the last living direct disciple of Wang Xiang Zhai, who continued to practice and teach Zhan Zhuang everyday, and he kept very healthy looking younger than his advanced age, 93. His pushing hands was still very powerful, and even strong athletic students couldn’t move him…

It was always with great humility and kindness that Grand Master Yu Yong Nian received his visitors, he liked to explain the basic theories of Da Cheng Chuan and also its difference with other martial arts, but also anecdotes about his Master Wang Xiang Zhai…

His researches on Zhan Zhuang are invaluable and led him to be recognized as the world’s leading authority on Zhan Zhuang Chi Kung.

Yu Yong Nian was born near Beijing in February 1920. After completing his initial schooling he was sent for specialist medical education in Japan. At 21, he returned in China, and began working at the Beijing Railways General Hospital.

Three years later, exhausted from the long, constant hours of dental practice, he began training under Late Great Master Wan Xiang Zhai, After nine years of study and practice, Yu Yong Nian began to introduce aspects of Zhan Zhuang as treatment for internal diseases at his hospital.His initial successes led to a major medical conference in 1956 at the Beijing Shoudong San Hospital to introduce the Zhan Zhuang system to hospitals throughout China.

“When I was training in the park under Master Wang Xiang Zhai,” Doctor Yu Yong Nian recalled, “he would tell me to “pull the tree” towards me, and push it back. This was from a distance and I couldn’t try how I could possibility do that! I tried everyday. Only after long practice did I begin to feel the connection with the tree. Then I began to understand his words.”

After the Cultural Revolution, Doctor Yu published the first of four books on the Zhan zhuang system. The first edition of Zhan Zhuang for Health (Educational Publishers, Beijing) was published in February 1982 with a print run of 20,000. By April, a second edition of 120,000 copies was issued. By 1987, a further 294,500 copies had been printed. A limited edition of his second book on the application of Zhan Zhuang for health was published in Beijing in 1989 and in the same year a further book on the system was issued by Cosmos Books in Hong Kong. Discovery Publisher translated the book into English in 2014.

Dr. Yu’s research

Professor Yu Yong Nian never stops to research on Zhan Zhuan, even nowadays he continues to refine his theoretical works. One most unknown part of his research is an exclusive interpretation of Zhan Zhuan system and its correspondence in the “Tao de Ching” of Lao Tseu.

With his scientific formation and his mastering of Chinese traditional philosophy but also with 70 years of uninterrupted practice of Zhan Zhuan, he brings a new light in the understanding of the essence of Internal Martial Arts through Yi Chuan healing and fighting systems.