Master Yang (family name) Hai (given name).
From Tianjin, mainland China, Master Yang had the good fortune to be born into a family devoted to the martial arts. Tianjin is a city besides Beijing, it has been a hotbed of internal style for more than hundred years . In the last century, most of the Xingyi masters in the Hebei style were from that area, such as Liu Qilan, Li Cunyi, Zhang Zhaodong, Xuedian. Cheng style Baguazhang got more developed in Tianjin as well after the sons of Cheng Tinghua (the founder of Cheng style Baguazhang) moved to that city from Beijing. In the history, most people who lived in Tianjin were decedents of military soldiers from Ming Dynasty (1368 to 1644), so the Tianjin people still kept the character of old military soldiers. The martial art atmosphere in Tianjin was very strong that there was a proverb at the Kungfu community in China that “if you pass the test in Tianjin, then you will be a good one”.
From the age of 8, he began his Martial Art training. Since in his family, each generation would have one child to be selected in order to keep the family tradition going. In China, at that time when family chose someone as the linage bearer for the future of the family knowledge, the child would not have too many choices besides obeying it, and the training would be very serious, systematic and strict. His first teacher was his grandfather (Yang Qinglin), a Grandmaster of Internal Styles and a student of Zhang Zhankui (Zhang Zhaodong), the founder of Xingyi-Bagua Palm system. Master Yang still remembers deeply that how nice his grandfather was in general but how serious when the teaching began. Since his grandfather had caravan body guard experience in Li Cunyi's Wantong company branch, hearing his grandfather’s first-hand martial art stories was master Yang’s most joyful time and valuable reward by practicing hard.
His uncle, another of Master Yang’s earliest teachers, was a student of Grandmaster Chen Zhaokui, the son of Chen Fake the legendary master who first brought Chen Taichi from Chen village to Beijing. From his uncle (Yang Feng-Wu), Master Yang got the strong foundation of the art of Tai Chi, it ensured his further development of his Tai Chi practice. Master Yang always says that Tai Chi is such a deep art with both of martial and health aspects benefit, Tai Chi training dramatically improved his understanding of other arts.
Since his family was well-educated in Chinese traditional arts, they knew that people should take as much training from different masters who were experts in different aspects, they sent master Yang to many other old masters through family relationship. It was not a common thing back to that time since people would keep learning only one style, and it was very hard to be accepted by other masters without contacts. Fortunately, his grandfather helped him a lot in terms of introducing many famous masters to him. These experiences deeply broadened his view of internal arts as a whole. He learned Xing Yi from Hu Jinling, the students of Han Ziheng. Han was a very well-known master in Tianjin since he was one of the best disciples of Li Cunyi, the legendary figure of Hebei Xing Yi school. He learned Cheng style BaGua from Fu Shoubo, Master Fu was one of the top Xing Yi and Ba Gua master in Tianjin before 1990s.
He practiced Chen style Tai Chi with Master Ma Hong, Master Ma is an inspiring figure in Master Yang’s heart. All of these masters unselfishly helped master Yang’ Martial Art development.
At the same time, Master Yang realized that without Daoist Meditation and Qi Gong training, his practice would not be able to reach high level. Since Meditation and Qi Going is part of Daoist practice for thousand years, especially meditation, it is the root of Chinese internal practice. People will know what will happen inside of their body after internal practice, and many Chinese traditional arts were originally developed under meditating mental state. For example, Chinese Daoism philosophy was strongly influenced by Meditation. Understanding how the energy work in the body will help physical training and guide us in daily life with energy-feeling. So he completed his Martial training with Energy Art training under the tutelage of such well-known masters as Yang Meijun, the Grandmaster of Wild-Goose Qigong, Li Zhihe, the Grandmaster of Potential-Ability Development Qigong, Pang Heming, the founder of Zhineng Qigong. He went to the White Cloud temple to learn Daoist Meditation from Cao Zhenyang, the top priest at that time. He has collected a lot of old Daoism documents in order to make a deep research of this thousand years old art. He believes that learning these old Daoist documents is like digging a rich treasure-trove, since the spiritual approach is practical and beneficial, it will lead Daoist Art practitioners reach a much higher level in their journey of self-development.
Master Yang has a university degree in Traditional Chinese Medicine (Herbology and Acupuncture) from the University of Traditional Chinese Medicine at Tianjin. With Energy Art together, his medical training background helped him understand the human body in energy level instead of only at the physical level. He is a certified Qi Gong teacher too, the certificate having been issued in 1992 by the Zhineng Qigong Research Association of Tianjin. In 1988, Master Yang began to teach martial arts and Qi Gong at the Technical Institute of Tianjin and in other communities. He now resides in Montreal, where he established the Center for Wudang Internal practice in 2001.
Since Master Yang has very strong training in these traditional Chinese arts with long period teaching experience, he can promote Chinese Daoism Arts with profound knowledge around the world. He believes that when people train in modern time, the traditional principle of practice is essential to be applied and followed. He emphasizes that physical training should combine with theory study, internal practice should come with external exercises, spiritual approach should be applied through daily life and Daoism philosophy should be the general guidance of all of these practices. He would like to share his experience and knowledge to those who like Chinese Arts!