Tung Ying-chieh

Who was Tung Ying-chieh?

Tung Ying-chieh or Dong Yingjie was an influential teacher of t'ai chi ch'uan. He was born in Hebei, China. A senior student of Yang Chengfu, he originally studied Wu-style t'ai chi ch'uan as a young man. Tung also studied with Chengfu's older brother Yang Shao-hou and was the founder of Dong Tai Chi. In Shao-hou's classes he was an older classmate of the Wu-style's Wu Kung-i and Wu Kung-tsao, and the men remained close colleagues in later years. Following the trend of many famous t'ai chi masters who moved south during the War years, Tung moved to Hong Kong in 1939 and taught Yang style there. The Dong style as it eventually developed included training features researched by Tung Ying-chieh, both with Yang Chengfu and independently.

He wrote a book called "T'ai chi ch'uan Explained" or "Principles of T'ai chi ch'uan" which has recently been translated from Chinese into English. First published in 1948, it has been reprinted and updated continuously since its first publication.

Tung Ying-chieh was followed by son Dong Huling who is followed by Tung Kai Ying and Dong Zeng Chen. The members of the Tung family teach t'ai chi ch'uan in Asia, Hawaii, North America and Europe.