It is with great sadness that we say goodbye to one of Taiji’s elite, Grandmaster Yan Cheng De, who sadly passed away this week at age 85, after struggling with ill health.
Born in 1935, Grandmaster Yan Cheng De, a 5th Generation Lineage Holder of Yang Style Taiji, was a senior student of the late, great Yang Stylist and Xing-Yi practitioner Grandmaster Zhu Gui Ting, from whom he studied Yang Style Taiji, Xing-Yi form and weapons, (including the 3 Harmonies Broadsword, which he taught the first section of at DDA’s 2014 Shanghai Camp), and Bagua.
All of us at DDA were saddened to hear of his passing and send our deepest condolences to his family and students.
We wish him well on the next stage of his journey and extend our thanks to Grandmaster Yan for all of his teaching and service to the Wushu community both in China and overseas; as well as his conservation of so many Wushu forms taught by his teacher and his peers, preserving what would otherwise be lost to the passage of time.
He has been a good friend to DDA, performing at our biennial ‘Celebration of Culture’ galas, as well as teaching at our Shanghai camps; and was gentlemanly and generous to students and peers with his knowledge; he will be sorely missed by all who knew him!
