Danny Emerick - great martial historian

The following is an extracted comment made by Danny  Danny Emerick. It stands alone in it's Content or you can read the back-and-forth in the post below.

I apologize for my late arrival to this “party”, but after waiting for a response from Gord Hill to my two minor questions, and receiving nothing from him, I decided to contribute my own response to the somewhat slanderous, unfounded and ill researched comments made by Hillhouse & Hill (btw, a great name for a law firm!), so please pardon the lengthy post...

To begin, Mark Hillhouse starts the parade with the untrue statement that CMC was a professor of “literature.”  Nope, he was a professor, or Chiao-shou  (教授) of poetry, art and calligraphy (known as the “Three Excellences”) at a few art institutes in Peking, and later in Shanghai. He was never a professor of "literature."

He continues with the declaration that CMC had not known YCF's complete art, so CMC's disciples "had to" add the missing parts by learning from other teachers.

So, did ALL of his disciples do this? If not all, then how many did?

I know of only a handful in Taiwan, and perhaps a few from NYC, who may have done this after they studied with CMC. But it should be noted that CMC never forbade his students from going elsewhere to learn, if they so wished. In fact, I read just the other day about CMC himself introducing a well-known senior student of his to a Yang style teacher in Taiwan to learn the 88 San Shou set...(something that even YCF himself never taught!). But it also seems the case that the majority of those who included the long form, other weapons and other practices in their teaching had learned these BEFORE they studied with CMC, perhaps in order to add his name to their lineage of teachers?

Later, Hillhouse makes the statement that CMC only was with YCF a maximum of six months(!) and that his 6 years of study with YCF, spoken of by Ch’en Wei-ming, was untrue! Outside of implicitly calling Ch’en Wei-ming a liar(!), this is an example of little or no serious research before one offers his opinions.

He seems to base his statement on the notion of CMC's "intense studying for his professorship" a great distance outside of Shanghai, and therefore, unable to continue with YCF during this period.  However, I don't think HIllhouse knows when or where CMC studied, nor what the nature of this study entailed...

If only a little research on this is followed, one will find that it was beginning in 1928, not 1930, that CMC studied at the "Chi Yuan" (常州) which was located in the township of Ch’ang-chou (常州), which was merely a train ride of a little more than an hour from Shanghai.  Now, as to how this "intense study" was conducted, the student was given an essay topic or a poem to compose. When he finished, he handed in the assignment and waited for the teacher's comments, given the next day, either to re-write the composition based on the teacher's suggestions, or given the next assignment. This was how classical study was conducted, and indeed, CMC's teacher, Ch’ien Ming-shan (錢名山) was of the old civil servant literati class, and followed that method.

Also, in reading CMC's comments about his study at the Chi Yuan, he mentions in several passages of leaving the Chi Yuan in the morning and returning in the evening. So he was not confined to the school grounds by any means!  His remark to his T'ai-chi student, Tam Gibbs, about not leaving the school premises for three years was spoken in obvious hyperbole!  He was merely encouraging his student, Tam, to take academic study seriously, (which Tam ultimately did, earning a M.A. in Chinese Language and Literature from St. John's University in NYC).

CMC was not only studying the Confucian classics and poetry composition during the years 1928-1930. He also was studying T’ai-chi Ch’uan in Shanghai under Yeh Ta-mi / Ye Dami (葉大密), a student of T’ien Chao-lin / Tian Zhaolin (田兆麟). Yeh had opened his school in 1926, and CMC, along with Ms. P’u Ping-ju / Pu Bingru (濮冰如) and Huang Ching-hua / Huang Jinghua (黃景華) became students...(Huang says it was in 1926 when they joined).

So, where was CMC after he completed his “intense study” in 1930? Well, a photo, dated 1930, shows CMC at the opening of the China Academy of Literature and Art in Shanghai! So he obviously was in Shanghai then!

And where was YCF at this time?

YCF and his family had left Peking in 1928 and moved south. Yang found accommodations for his family in Shanghai, and after his family was settled, YCF went further south to Nanking at the invitation of Chang Chih-chiang / Zhang Zhijiang (張之江), the Director of the Central Martial Arts Academy in Nanking. Due to unforeseen events that delayed YCF’s arrival in Nanking, another teacher had been engaged by the time YCF arrived. Yang returned to Shanghai for a short time, but was again invited to teach in Hangchou in 1929. After staying for a year, he returned to Shanghai in 1930 to permanently settle there.

And it was in 1930 that CMC, along with Ms. P’u Ping-ju and Huang Ching-hua, were introduced to YCF by Yeh Ta-mi. (Both Huang and Yeh attest to this!).

So the year, 1930, was the beginning of CMC’s T’ai-chi association with YCF, which later culminated in CMC performing his Pai-shih / Baishi (拜師) to YCF in February 1932. This ceremony was performed at the home of P’u Ch’iu-chen (Ms. P’u Ping-ju‘s father) who sponsored CMC for this event.

Gord Hill asserts that CMC could not have been YCF’s student for six years because YCF became too ill to teach in 1933!

Again, research shows that YCF was continually teaching students in Shanghai until 1935. It was only sometime in the first half of 1935, while YCF was teaching in Kuang-chou / Guangzhou, that a debilitating illness came upon him which necessitated for him to return to Shanghai for treatment. Indeed, there is a photo dated December 23, 1934 at the Kuang- chou Municipal Government building of the welcoming party for the arrival of YCF.

It was after his return to Shanghai in the late Spring / early summer of 1935 that YCF realized he could not continue his usual teaching schedule, and engaged Chang Ch’ing-ling / Zhang Qinlin in the late summer of 1935 to teach Nei Kung to his students. CMC was, of course, included in this group, as was Ms. P’u Ping-ju and Huang Ching-hua. Both Huang and Yeh Ta-mi corroborate this event.

Sadly, YCF never recovered from his illness, passing away on March 3, 1936.

So to conclude, it seems to be the case that CMC first met, and became a student of YCF beginning in 1930 in Shanghai, later becoming a disciple (弟子) in February 1932, and continuing with his illustrious teacher, until Yang’s untimely passing in 1936.

I welcome any and all sincere questions and comments regarding the above, and again apologize for the lengthy response.