One of the earliest students of Great Grand Master Wang Xiang Zhai was a young man who had just studied orthodox western medicine and then specialised in dentistry. His name was Yu Yong Nian.
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 to China and began work at the Beijing Railway General Hospital.
After nine years' study and practice under Great Grand Master Wang, Yu Yong Nian began introducing 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.
This was from a distance and I couldn't imagine how I could possibly do that! I tried every day. 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, Professor Yu published the first of four books on the Zhan Zhuang system.
The first edition of Zhan Zhuang for Health (Educational Publishers, Beijing, 1982) was published in February 1982 with a print run of 20,000 copies. By April a second edition of 120,000 copies was issued. By 1987 a further 294,500 copies had been printed.
Professor Yu, now the world's leading authority on Zhan Zhuang Chi Kung, is a member of China's National Chi Kung Research Council.
He is also consultant to the American-Chinese Chi Kung Research Group and to the Da Cheng Chuan Zhan Zhuang Chi Kung Research Groups (Europe).
The Great Accomplishment Lineage, part 5
