The biography from “Journey to Emptiness” (below) has been included for reference. In this post his teachers names are not mentioned. However there are several clues. Let's lay out a timeline.
Based on this timeline it should be enough to figure out who his teacher was. Then we can evaluate the authenticity of his teaching and why it is so different than orthodox and why it does not reconcile easily with others.
First, Zhang was no slouch; he had stuck with baguazhang for 17 years. Yet at the same time one wonders why on earth a lifetime martial artist would have trouble with a tai chi player from the 60s. One must remember the era. Therefore let us make some assumptions. One, we may assume who his teacher COULD BE, who he MIGHT be, and who he WAS NOT. First his teacher was a Yang stylist. Second his form has some obvious stylistic quirks; very low stances with knees far beyond the toes; a reverse-direction 'an', a wrist flick on single whip. This fingerprint means that he is a yang stylist who is not from the lineage of yang cheng fu (i.e. the public yang cheng fu style).
Here are some more clues:
So we are looking at taiji masters in beijing in the 50s and 60s. Surely this man must have been known for his skill. But this is the problem. A man such as Zhang, doing bagua for 17 years would surely know that what he is demonstrating is not taiji. Who was his Bagua teacher? Who was his “taiji” teacher? Can we speculate he was a middling bagua student and rode the taiji bandwagon by approproating other martial arts? This is the picture with which we are presented. In reality his master may never have existed; yet then where did his distinctive qirks come from? Liu Gaoming (Yang Style Taijiquan) comes to mind. But Liu's form does not bear the same hallmarks, as similar as it is in other respects. May we propose it is someone Liu Gaoming knew? Is it Niu Chunming? unlikely, different expression. Li Tian Qi (李天骥)? Well, maybe, maybe not. Li Jingwu? Well, maybe not.
However if it was anyone of importance it would be known to one of these people. Let us for example examine the Li Jingwu story and see if anything clicks (see below).
What clicks is that once you read this story it becomes impossible to come to any other conclusion: There is no reason why the teacher would not want anyone to know who he was unless:
and
Based on this, we may state that there must have been some reason why Zhang's teacher wanted to remain unknown. Based on an analysis of Zhang's martial arts we may conclude this is precisely because he didn't actually learn tai chi but rather pulled a moy lin shin and incorporated the skills from some other martial art into tai chi AND/OR he really did learn internal neigong, but for some reason he wasn't supposed to learn this.
What was Zhang's social status after this? He does not appear in group photos and is not mentioned with other taiji or bagua community members and is not included in their histories after (or before) the 60s and one may then assume that he was never regarded highly in those circles. Thus we may finally conclude that the quality of this lineage is exceedingly low and that the teacher's name was covered up because of this, and/or that the story was made-up to lend credibility where none otherwise existed, and which was not found in said lineage after the story got out anyways.
from: http://wulinmingshi.com/2018/01/04/the-hidden-tao-li-jingwus-life-in-taijiquan/
I have been reading a book called ‘Hidden Tao [大道显隐]’ by one Mei Mosheng, which is a compilation of articles commemorating the life of the eminent taiji master Li Jingwu, who learnt Chen and Wu style taiji from some of the greatest masters of his day. As M Li is not that well known in the West, perhaps some introduction is in order.
(picture: Li Jingwu in a Chen style posture)
M Li was from Shandong, but moved to Harbin when he was 14. While in Harbin, he started learning Mizong quan [lost track boxing, made famous in China by Huo Yuanjia of the Jingwu association] under Liu Ziyuan at the age of 17 in order to heal his legs, which had been frostbitten during the harsh Harbin winters. After 3 years of training, his legs got better and he had achieved a degree of gongfu. In the early ’30s, Li moved to Beijing for business. While there, Li always kept an ear to the ground for martial arts teachers. A friend from his village who had practiced xingyi, taiji and bagua for many years and knew the Beijing martial arts scene well recommended that Li study taiji. Li managed to get a recommendation to study Wu style taiji under Zhao Tie’an, a disciple of Yang Yuting (of northern Wu style) and Wu Jianquan. Among Wu stylists in Beijing, Li Jingwu was known (eventually became known -ed) as one of the ‘5 tiger generals’ [五虎上将], a group which also included the famous master Wang Peisheng.
(picture: L-R: Zhao Tie’an, Wang Maozhai, Wang Ziying)
The Chen style master Chen Fake was also teaching in Beijing at that time (having been invited to teach in Beijing in 1928 by his nephew, Chen Zhaopi). In the early ’40s, through an introduction from Hu Yaozhen, the famous master of xingyi and qigong who also taught Feng Zhiqiang, Li Jingwu became M Chen’s disciple and studied with him for over a decade. Prior to liberation, Li ran a department store in Beijing. 1959 was a turning point in his life, for it was in that year that Li accepted a post to teach taiji full-time at the Beidaihe Qigong Rehabilitation Hospital in Hebei province. M Li spent the rest of his life teaching taiji in the relative ‘backwater’ of Beidaihe.
(picture: Chen style ‘Family photo’ taken in Beijing in 1982. Back row, 3rd from left (L3): Chen Xiaowang. L5: Feng Zhiqiang. R5: Li Jingwu. R4: Hong Junsheng. Chen Zhaokui’s disciple Ma Hong is front row, far right.)
M Li was unusual in that he made all of his students learn both Wu and Chen styles, and was also unusual in that, although he was mostly known for his Chen and Wu style, he had a good working knowledge of Sun and Yang styles as well. Based on his experiences, M Li created a separate set of neigong exercises, which was later made public in the book ‘Taiji Neigong’. His art is carried on by his disciples such as Lu Dehe, Wang Dayong and Zuo Zhiqiang, as well as by his son Li Shujun and grandson Li Hongshun.
I wanted to share a small extract from this book which I thought was interesting:
“M Li’s neigong was incredibly developed. One time he got me to feel his stomach – it felt as though there was a half-inch wide hard band around his stomach. He was smiling while I did this, he definitely wasn’t holding his breath or anything. Once, during a course of lectures on taiji, whilst explaining the phrase ‘don’t let qi mix with qi’, he said: ‘this is the ancients showing us that there are two kinds of qi: one is breath, and the other is the ‘inner qi’ of the dantian. The meaning of this phrase is not to confuse breath and inner qi. When M Li taught me neigong, he said: ‘it’s a gradual, stepwise regimen that produces gudang qi [surging qi] – it is surging qi that can be used in push hands and fighting. When M Li pushed hands and launched people, you could see his dantian rotating, the spirit flowing up the back [神通于背], and there would occasionally be ‘heng,ha’ sounds. Even in his old age, M Li could still launch people more than a zhang [3 metres] away, a feat made possible by his deep neigong.
M Li lived to be 86, which is a ripe old age, I guess. His taiji combined both health and fighting: even when he was over 80 he could still launch people in a moment. Even after he had had an operation on his legs and he couldn’t walk, he could still push hands with us whilst sitting down – this must have been thanks to his neigong. I remember, one time when I went to see him, he said ‘I’ve gotten old, I’m good for nothing, I can’t even carry a basket of eggs. But if someone applies force on me, I can still use my neigong to yield, neutralise and then launch him. I guess this is ‘reaction force’. However, this ‘reaction force’ can only be used after long practice. This is skill [gongfu] – once you have developed the ‘taiji body’, you won’t lose your gongfu. It can even be used lying on a bed. Finally, M Li said “the neigong of internal martial arts, once achieved, stays with you your entire life, this is one of the unique characteristics of internal martial arts.”
(from the blog;)
Master Zhang Youngliang. 張永良師傅
Master Zhang Youngliang, was born in 1920.
Note: Information translated from a local student/ visitor.
He started his martial arts training at age of 5, until 14. His family ran a shoe factory at the time. Since 14 he joined the family business and needed to ship the handmade soles from Tongzhou to the City.
On the way he had to cross a river on foot and carried his bicycles/soles on his shoulder.
張永良師傅，1920年出生，5歲開始武術訓練，直到14歲。他的家人當時經營一家鞋廠。 從14歲起，他加入家族生意，並負責將通州的手工鞋底運往城市。 途中他不得不徒步穿過河流，並將自行車/鞋底放在肩上。
The cold water hurt his legs over the years and he had to stop when he was 25. He began Ba Gua training from his second master by then, and practised the art for 17 years.
In 1962, 4 years before the Culture Revolution, he started his Taichi training from his third master. In fact, he had been practicing in the park where his Taichi master had met him, and observed him for quite some time.
Master Zhang, and his Taichi master had a contest to compare skills. Master Zhang, lost in such a way that he knew that this was what he was looking for in his own martial path, Master Zhang, decided to follow his Taichi Master right after the match.
At first the master did not want to teach him, but after awhile agreed when he saw the sincerity of Master Zhang, He agreed to teach him with the following conditions:
多年來，冷水傷了他的雙腿並使得他在25歲時不得不停下工作。在那時，他開始從第二位師傅那裡接受八卦掌的訓練並持續練習了17年。 1962年，在文革前的四年，他從他的第三位師傅開始了他的太極拳訓練。 事實上，他一直在遇到他太極師傅的公園練習，師傅在這之前已經觀察他很長一段時間。
張師傅和他的太極師傅曾彼此較量武藝的高低， 張師傅輸了。張師傅在較量後立刻決定追隨他的太極師傅，因為他知道這正是他在自己的武術道路上一直追尋的東西。 起初師傅不想教他，但經過一段時間，當師傅看到他的誠意後，同意在下列條件下教他：
1. tell no one that I am your teacher. 2. do not practice other things. If you do I will know. 3. do not push with anyone for 3 years.
For 4 years he studied Taiji until his master was nowhere to be found when the Culture Revolution had disturbed the society and the daily life of everyone. Master Zhang secretly practised Taiji by himself during this hard time.
1.不要告訴任何人我是你的師傅。
2.不要練習其他的武術。 如果你練了，我會知道。
3.三年內不要與任何人推手。
他跟師父練了4年的太極拳，一直到擾亂了社會和每個人生活的文化大革命讓他完全找不到師傅的蹤影。 在那段艱難的時刻，張師傅仍然自己偷偷地練太極拳。
In 1980 he started teaching. Master Zhang to this day has kept his promise to tell no one his teacher’s name. His master had passed a code to him: to teach but not for money. The true meaning of Taiji and Chinese Kungfu is manifested in him and his teaching and his followers.
1980年起，張師傅開始教拳。 他至今仍遵守承諾，不告訴任何人他師傅的姓名。 他的師傅傳承了一個規範給他：為教而教，而不是為了金錢。 太極拳和中國功夫的真正含義已體現在張師傅、他的教導及他的追隨者身上。