Cheng Ming System

The Tsun Nan Mountains in Shanxi Province are recognized in Chinese mythology and history as the place where many martial arts were born. Monks and religious wise men used to go to these mountains for solitary meditation. Sometimes they stayed there for many years, developing both their individual skills as martial artists and their personal worldview and philosophy of life.

The great masters were very modest, avoiding exposure, in part to avoid unwanted challenges and enemies who would be attracted by unnecessary publicity. Nevertheless, the names of some of these famous mountain hermits spread far and wide, as did their special abilities in the various martial arts.

The pursuit of good health and long life was an important element in the worldview of these monks and wise men. They included in their practice regimes elements of healing and meditation that turned their martial arts into a full and encompassing way of life, resting on deep philosophical premises and improving both physical and mental health.

There are stories about some of these masters who, even at the age of one hundred or more, were as supple, strong, and full of energy as young boys. To this day, when the Chinese want to bless someone close to them, they say: "May you live as long and be as strong as the Mountains of Tsun Nan" – meaning not the mountains themselves but their legendary inhabitants of bygone days.

Cheng Ming System

Cheng Ming System taught at the Israeli Tai Chi Center combines the three internal martial arts: Tai Chi, Xing Yi, and Ba Gua. The name Cheng Ming is the nickname of the founder Grand Master Wong Shu Jin, who studied and specialized in each style separately before combining them into one complete method.

The name Cheng Ming also indicates the spirit of the system as founded by Grand Master Wong Shu Jin, and as it has been taught ever since. ‘Cheng’ means transparency in study and training, ‘Ming’ means integrity and fairness towards training partners and other people.

In addition to the three internal martial arts Tai Chi, Xing Yi, and Ba Gua, Cheng Ming System combines Qi Gong practice and meditation. These practice methods stimulate and flow the Chi energy in the body and thus strengthen it internally to improve mental resilience and achieve inner peace.

Grand Master Wong Shu Jin himself also specialized in Qi Gong and meditation, and realized that these practice methods may have a significant contribution to the overall training experience, and therefore made Qi Gong and meditation an integral part of the Cheng Ming System.

Grand Master Wang Shu Jin

Grand Master Wong Shu Jin used to say that even after fifty years of studying martial arts, he still wouldn't dare to say that he had reached full mastery. "I am still learning and satisfied with it. I am humbled by the greatness and generosity of my teachers for accepting me and agreeing to teach me."

Grand Master Wang Shu Jin was born in China and devoted his life to studying and teaching Chinese martial arts. Although he was most famous for his talents in Ba Gua, Grand Master Wang Shu Jin was also an expert in Tai Chi and Xing Yi. He studied in China under several famous Masters, including Chan Tsao tung, Wang Xian chi, and Shiao Hai Po.

In 1948, with the end of the civil war in China, he immigrated to Taiwan and settled in Tai Tsung. Even then he became known as a leading religious teacher and a great teacher of martial arts. When he arrived in Taiwan, many students gathered around him and his name reached senior government officials in the capital Taipei who also asked to become his students.

At that time, Chinese martial arts were not known in Japan. The Japanese Martial Arts Association appealed to the Taiwanese government to send a martial artist to Japan to teach there. The handling of the request came to Chen Pan Ling, the chairman of the Martial Artists Association in Taiwan. The request was a great challenge as many Chinese martial artists feared conflicts with Japanese martial artists. The only one who accepted the challenge was Grand Master Wong Shu Jin.

In September 1959, Grand Master Wong Shu Jin arrived in Japan with the title of Ambassador of Chinese Culture, a very honorable title. Japanese martial artists, hearing the master's name, wanted to see him and challenge him. None of them was able to defeat him and many even became his disciples as a result. Grand Master Wong Shu Jin became a well-known figure in Japan, he was invited as a guest to conventions of various martial styles in Japan and his photos were published in all the newspapers.

He did so for eight years before returning to Taiwan. During his stay in Japan he taught between the years 1963 – 1966 at the "Koro-Lu" club of the Karate Federation. The best fighters in the world, from east and west came to try him and learn from him, among them the famous boxer Jack Dempsey, the bodyguards of the royal family in Japan and fighters with high ranks in karate. Many of his students followed him to Taiwan to continue their studies.

Grand Master Wong Shu Jin's strength, talent in martial arts, and ability to absorb direct blows with no visible effect have become legendary among martial arts practitioners and have been immortalized in magazines and books around the world.

Grand Master Wong Shu Jin passed away on September 8, 1981 in Taiwan, leaving the leadership of the Chemg Ming System to his senior personal disciple Master Wong Fu Lai, and his co-leader Master Huang Shu Jun.

Master Wang Fu Lai

Master Wong Fu Lai, the head of the International Cheng Ming System today, began training when he was 16 years old with Grand Master Wong Shu Jin in Taiwan.

A few years later, Grand Master Wong Shu Jin declared Master Wong Fu Lai for the first time as his personal student to a group of martial artists who were training at a martial arts school on a farm in Taiwan.

In his first appearance in front of the audience, Master Wong Fu Lai demonstrated for one of the Xing Yi katas.

Since that first public performance, many more years have passed, during which Master Wong Fu Lai persevered a strict daily study, before taking over from his teacher the leadership of the Cheng Ming System.

Since the death of Grand Master Wong Shu Jin in 1981, Master Wong Fu Lai has continued to spread the Cheng Ming System throughout the world, according to his teacher's will.

In addition, Master Wong Fu Lai continued to promote in Taiwan the activities of the Cheng Ming Association founded by Grand Master Wong Shu Jin.

Today the association is officially recognized by the government of Taiwan and has many branches around the world including Japan, Australia, Italy, the United States and, of course, Israel.

Master Wong Fu Lai makes visits each of the world branches every year and conducts seminars and training for instructors and students.

The special personality of Master Wong Fu Lai can be learned from the following things he said in one of the seminars he gave in Israel: "Even though we live differently we can connect because we train in the same way. When you meet people who practice the same kata there is no difference between them even if they come from different countries, even though as human beings they are different from each other. There is no difference because their heart and spirit are aimed at the same thing. The issue is not East and West but what the individual is willing to do to learn. Training in martial arts is personal. Those who train learn, experience, gain experience, knowledge and wisdom."

Master Huang Shu Jun

Master Huang Shu Jun is the first and oldest female student of Grand Master Wang Shu Jin. Along with Master Wang Fu Lai, she spends all her time practicing the Cheng Ming System and teaching it worldwide.

During one of her visits to Israel, Master Huang Shu Jun spoke about her feelings regarding the school and the system: "My home is the home of all of you and I hope that the school is the second home of all. A Chinese saying is: Why is the mountain so high because it does not reject a single small stone, not even a grain of dirt, and that's how this great mountain was created. Why is the sea so big and deep, because it receives not only big rivers but also small streams, that's why it's so deep and big. That's why in our  system we think that with each new person who comes, we gain strength. They say it's easy to break a small stick, it's harder to break two or three sticks together and when there are a lot you can't break them at all. If we can unite our power will be greater."

Master Huang Shu Jun has a unique personality and is an inspiration to every student in the school. When asked if Tai Chi does something for the soul and changes the personality after practicing for many years, she answered: "This method is very gentle and teaches you to define yourself and to give up the sharp angles, therefore it is also good for improving personal relationships. The harmony is not only between the inner yin and yang, Training in Tai Chi also brings harmony to relationships with the outside world, between men and women and even in the global aspect. This is the best way to learn to let go of the ego. In China and Japan, when you enter a dojo you have to bow, it teaches modesty and humility. When you see the teacher or the instructor you also bow. It lowers the ego. When we do this simple movement many times, we allow ourselves to be much more humble and open to receiving other people."

Master Huang Shu Jun regularly accompanies Master Wong Fu Lai's visits to Israel. She has extensive and in-depth knowledge of diverse techniques of Qi Gong and meditation and conducts workshops on the subject.

Cheng Ming System Today

The structure of the Cheng Ming System as it is today was completed by Grand Master Wong Shu Jin by incorporating a unique Tai Chi kata developed in the 1920s in China by the Martial Arts Federation. The kata combined the five main tai chi styles, Chen, Yang, Wu – Hao, Wu and Son, and actually created a new and modern style with many advantages.

Grand Master Wong Shu Jin was one of the first to learn the new kata, and since he was already an experienced martial artist, he introduced a number of additional changes that made it the most complete Tai Chi style today. Cheng Ming style Tai Chi utilizes kata as a basis for learning martial arts, and the health benefits of the practice to improve quality of life and achieve balance, mental resilience and inner peace.

"Tai Chi is the root of the roots" Grand Master Wong Shu Jin used to say.

During one of his visits to Israel, Master Wong Fu Lai presented the Israeli Tai Chi Center with two handwritten calligraphy.

In the shorter scroll are written two words that mean "ethics of martial arts". The responsibility of the warrior, a person who trains in martial arts, is to keep his mind and soul "right" and clean, to keep his mind and soul spotless (truth and not lie), and to pass this on to the next generation.

In the long scroll are written five words spoken by Grand Master Wong Shu Jin before his death. These words describe the stages of growth of the martial artist during his studies: Chi – skill, Su – application, Yi – art, Gong – philosophy, Dao – the way.

We invite you to take your first steps on the Tai Chi path at the Israeli Tai Chi Center, the best Tai Chi school in Israel and the only official representative in Israel of the International Cheng Ming System.