Zheng Manqing (1902-1975), Song Meiling's chinese painting teacher in her later years. His original name was Yue (岳), a native of Yongjia District (present-day Lucheng District, Wenzhou). Good at poetry, books, paintings, boxing, and medicine, Yu Youren was praised as: "a generation of wizards", known as "five absolute old people" and "Yongjia five absolutes".
Zheng Manqing began to learn painting from Wang Xiang at the age of 10, and after the age of 14, his painting skills have greatly improved. In 1917, in Hangzhou, he became acquainted with Shen Yusuo, Ma Yifu, Jing Ziyuan, Lou Xinju, etc., and studied poems, books, and paintings. In 1920, he was recruited by Yuwen University to teach poetics in Beijing. Befriend Zheng Sujie, Chen Shizeng, Wang Mengbai and others, after six years of edification, poetry and painting have entered the realm. In 1928, he taught at the National Jinan University and served as the director of the Chinese Painting Department of the Shanghai American Academy; in 1929, he studied Yang Chengfu in Shanghai and studied Yang Jia Taijiquan; in 1931, he founded the China Academy of Literature and Art with Huang Binhong and others, serving as vice president; in 1932, Zheng Manqing resigned from all teaching positions and studied classics from Qian Mingshan, a master of Yanghu Guoxue. In 1934, he became a boxing teacher at the Central Military Academy; in 1938, he served as a consultant of the Hunan Provincial Government and a teacher of the Guoshuguan, during which time he promoted the National Arts movement for the whole people of the province, and stipulated that every two months, forty directors and instructors of the Guoshu curators and instructors from all counties in the province would be dispatched to teach Taijiquan courses. Due to the short learning time of the course, in order to facilitate the teaching of learning, Zheng Manqing cut down the repetitive moves of the big frame and reduced it to thirty-seven styles, named Zhengzi Simple Taijiquan. Widely circulated, it is now known as the "Zhengzi Taijiquan Thirty-Seven Styles". In 1939, Zheng Manqing moved to Chongqing to teach at the Central Training Corps.
In 1949 (1950), he took his family to Taiwan, and at the invitation of Mr. You Mijian, the mayor of Taipei, he founded the Shizhong Boxing Club on the top floor of Zhongshan Hall in Taipei City to teach Taijiquan, and then moved to Ren Aiguo Primary School in Taipei City, and then to Wuchang Guo Middle School in Taipei City.
Zheng Manqing's calligraphy and paintings are unique, and his fame at that time was directly after Zhang Daqian. After arriving in Taiwan, Zheng Manqing formed a poetry club with Yu Youren and Chen Hanguang. Together with Ma Shouhua, Tao Yunlou, Chen Fang, Zhang Gunian, Liu Yantao, Gao Yihong, etc., he established the Seven Friends Calligraphy and Painting Association, and participated in the establishment of the Republic of China Painting Society, and was elected as a director and chairman of the Chinese Painting Committee. He is also Professor Huagang of the Chinese Culture Institute and head of the art group of the New York Branch of the Chinese Cultural Revival Movement Committee. Zheng Manqing has held many solo exhibitions at home and abroad, during which he was praised by Western painters at the National Gallery in Paris and the New York World Exposition, and was known as the master of Oriental ink painting.
In 1965, Zheng Manqing went to the United States, lived in New York, founded the Taijiquan Society, taught a wide range of apprentices, and directly or indirectly studied Taijiquan. He has been an apprentice in the United States for 20 years. Zheng Manqing's disciples established associations specializing in the study of Zhengzi Taijiquan in Taiwan, Hong Kong, the United States, Singapore and France, and published and distributed the quarterly journal of Taiji Studies, which was disseminated all over the world.
The old disciples did not like Mr. Zheng Manqing's boxing style, nor did they agree with his "beautiful hand" theory, but appreciated his contribution to the spread of tai chi.