Book Feature: Yang Luchan by Sifu Kendra Mahon

For the fifth book of her Masters of Kung Fu series, Sifu Kendra Mahon, known as Kung Fu Kendra, has gone north, away from Foshan and Canton, to tell the life of the founder of Yang-style tai chi. Yang Luchan: Yang the Invincible follows a labourer’s son from a farming county on the North China Plain to the imperial capital. It is coming soon to Amazon in Kindle and paperback.

From Pharmacy to Capital

Born in 1799 into a poor family in Yongnian County, in what is today Hebei province, Yang Luchan trained in Long Fist as a boy and later did odd jobs at the Taihetang pharmacy, owned by Chen Dehu of Chen Village. According to the Yang family’s account, that connection sent him south to study under Chen Changxing, and Chen-style sources describe him as the first recorded disciple from outside the Chen family. Several sources place the start of his teaching in Beijing around 1850, where he taught imperial guards and Manchu nobles and became known as Yang Wudi. The traditions agree he earned the name by accepting challenges and never being defeated, and according to tradition he beat opponents without seriously injuring them. He died in 1872.

Facts Before Legend

Mahon is careful about what can and cannot be known. The best-known episode of his life, spying on the Chen family at night, is labelled legend: it has no contemporary record and follows a pattern found in many martial arts tales. The book also sets aside a contest with Dong Haichuan, for which there is no reliable evidence, and the belief that Zhang Sanfeng created tai chi. Nor did Yang Luchan invent tai chi; the book credits him as the founder of Yang style. Her view is that the truth loses nothing by comparison. “Correcting a myth does not make a hero smaller. The real Yang Luchan, a poor man who persevered and became a master, is more inspiring than any legend.”

A Wing Chun Perspective

Mahon says plainly that she is not a tai chi teacher; she writes as a Wing Chun master from a neighbouring tradition. There is no evidence that the northern and southern arts met in Yang Luchan’s lifetime, though Leung Jan was practising Wing Chun in Guangdong during those decades. What the book traces instead are shared principles: not meeting force with force, relaxation, and sensitivity trained through contact with a partner, pushing hands in tai chi and chi sau in Wing Chun. “When I first pushed hands with a tai chi practitioner, I was struck by how familiar it felt.” Part Four works through the principles one by one, from song and rooting to the thirteen postures and investing in loss, setting Wing Chun parallels such as the slow opening of Siu Lim Tao beside them.

The Family Legacy

The final part follows the art after its founder: his sons Yang Banhou and Yang Jianhou, his grandson Yang Chengfu and the large frame, the five family styles, Tang Hao’s 1930 research in Chen Village, the simplified 24-form of 1956, Cheng Man-ch’ing’s teaching in New York from 1964, and UNESCO’s 2020 listing of taijiquan. A chapter on health is measured, noting that tai chi is not a cure for disease and not a substitute for medical care. Each of the 59 chapters ends with a lesson, each part closes with a workbook, and the book finishes with a timeline, a glossary and a group guide. For Mahon, the two arts are different roads with a shared destination. “Different paths can lead to the same mountain.”

About the Author

Sifu Kendra Mahon, known as Kung Fu Kendra, has trained since 2005 and holds Master level (purple sash). She teaches Traditional Wing Chun as it was passed down to her by Master Brian Lewadny, who learned it from Grandmaster William Cheung. She is the author of 13 books and counting, including The Way of Wing Chun and Masters of Kung Fu series, and created the Become a Sifu Wing Chun Online Certification Course. Read what her students say on the Kung Fu Kendra reviews page.

Where to Get It

Yang Luchan: Yang the Invincible is coming soon to Amazon in Kindle and paperback. Book 1 of the series, Bruce Lee: The Philosopher Behind the Fist, is available now. See all of her books on her Amazon author page and on kungfukendra.com.

Editor’s note: Wing Chun Magazine is published by Sifu Kendra Mahon.