Cheng Tinghua was from Shen County; he later moved to Beijing where he had an eyeglasses shop located next to the Fire Spirit Temple on Si Shuai Street in the Flower Market Plaza.
[2] During the Boxer Rebellion (July 1900) Cheng swore to defend his country from the enemy.
One day, around the government buildings near the Yong Ding Gate, Cheng met ten of the enemy and subdued them all and none dared to advance.
Each Cheng substyle uses as its technical basis eight basic palms (Badamuzhang 八大母掌), from which more complicated linking forms are derived.
Of the eight basic palms, only the first three (Laosanzhang 老三掌) are considered to be the oldest and passed down by Cheng Tinghua himself before his death in 1900.