Dong Yingjie (Wade-Giles: Tung Ying-chieh, Chinese: 董英傑, 1897 - 1961) was a leading master of tai chi, and a top disciple of Yang Chengfu.

[1] Famous in his time for defeating a foreign boxer in a public challenge match, he dedicated his life to the martial arts, training intensively in multiple styles, serving as chief assistant instructor for Yang Chengfu, and going on to found his own thriving tai chi legacy.

[2] After five years he returned home to marry and join the family business, but soon sought out Liu Laoying again to resume training.

[5][note 2] In 1926, Dong moved to Beijing seeking instruction from Grandmaster Yang Chengfu in Yang-style tai chi.

[11] In 1928 Dong moved south with a group led by Yang Chengfu to establish tai chi schools in other cities.

[12] Later that year he proved his pushing hands prowess and confirmed the reputations of his teachers by defeating all nine challengers at the Hangzhou Guoshu Arena Competition (杭州國術擂台賽).

[13] He also demonstrated Yang-style forms at major Guoshu events for audiences that included martial arts celebrities and government officials, for example in Shanghai in 1928[14] and at the West Lake Expo Auditorium (西湖博覽會大禮堂) in 1929.

[15] He was the principal contributor to Yang's 1931 book Methods of Applying Tai Chi Boxing (太極拳使用法),[16] and helped establish Yang-style tai chi schools and classes in Hangzhou,[17] Nanjing and other cities,[18] including Suzhou where he lived and led classes in the mansion of a wealthy patron during his first years in the region,[19] Shanghai where in 1934 he established and managed all business of the center as director as well as instructor,[20][21] and Guangzhou where he assisted and then took over when Yang returned north in 1935.

[22] He earned the name Yingjie, which can be translated as "heroic figure", in his early thirties by defeating a British fighter in a brutal public match in Nanjing.

After the fight, Dong threw his winner's jackpot of silver coins into the crowd, asking the audience to cover transportation home for other Chinese martial artists who had competed.

[23][24] In 1936 after Yang Chengfu passed away, Dong Yingjie was invited to teach in Hong Kong, where he founded the Tung Ying Kit Tai Chi Chuan Gymnasium — "kit" (Jyutping: git6) is the Cantonese pronunciation of "jie" (傑, Pinyin: jié) — and became the first to teach Yang-style tai chi in the colony.

[25] After the war he returned to Hong Kong, enlisting his children in growing both schools, and in 1948 published 太極拳釋義 (The Meaning and Significance of Taijiquan Practice, also translated Tai Chi Boxing Explained) which illustrated and explained the Yang-style curriculum and introduced his Yingjie Fast Form (英傑快拳 — see the section on the Dong family forms below).

Also known as the "Red Book" due to the cover of the Hong Kong edition, it has been reprinted many times, and in 1972 his eldest son Tung Hu Ling (Dong Huling; 董虎嶺) expanded the section on the Yingjie Fast Form.

[26][note 3] In the 1950s his network of schools and students expanded to Thailand, Singapore, and Malaysia under the management of his son Tung Hu Ling, their success in Southeast Asia ensured after a few Muay Thai boxers famously challenged and failed to defeat their tai chi.

[27] Dong Yingjie also led efforts to coordinate with leading Yang and Wu (吳, Pinyin: Wú) stylists for the promotion of tai chi, organizing a large gathering of practitioners in Hong Kong, and serving as a judge for a wildly popular public match in Macau between his longtime colleague, Wu-style tai chi master Wu Gongyi, and a master of Tibetan White Crane.

At that 1954 fight, Dong was filmed demonstrating techniques with an Eagle Claw master, and performing his Yingjie Fast Form.

[28] In his final years Dong Yingjie lost weight and strength, but it is clear in films of him performing tai chi that he retained his balance, grace, and martial skills longer than most.

He continued his teaching and practice as long as he was able, as well as the calligraphy and painting he had mastered in Macau during World War II, and in his last days took the time to tell stories of his past to his family, especially his youngest child Jasmine, who was then 21.

She also taught in the UK, founded a school in Australia, and served as instructor and advisor to the Taiji Society of the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

But in the early 1950s he returned home to Ren County in Hebei for good, where he continued to teach tai chi to a select group of students for many years, including his nephew, Tung Hu Ling's son Dong Zengchen.

But in 1966 he was invited to promote tai chi on a tour of North America which he completed in 1967, after which he moved to Honolulu, Hawaii to establish a new school and home base in the USA.

Tung Hu Ling's other son Dong Zeng Chen (董增辰, Pinyin: Dǒng Zēngchén, 1947-) taught in mainland China for many years before moving from Hebei to take over the Hawaii school after Tung Hu Ling's retirement in 1983, accompanied by his son Da De "Alex" Dong.

[38][39] Dong then developed his Yingjie Fast Form (英傑快拳, Pinyin: Yīngjié Kuàiquán), and introduced it to the world in his 1948 book.

It is most visibly distinct from other Wu (Hao) forms in its larger frame, forward-inclined postures, and internal strength projected through the fingers.

Unlike the classic Yang-style metaphor of "an iron bar wrapped in cotton" this is more like "a crab shell on the outside, and soft inside".

[42] Dong Yingjie taught that there are in fact not three separate large, medium, and small "frames" of Yang style, that mastery of one will allow a student to understand the others and move freely between them, that all tai chi lineages including Wu (Hao) have a deep relationship, and that the Yang Chengfu "large frame" is simply the best place for beginners to start.

And so Dong Yingjie and his son Tung Hu Ling were modest about their contributions to the art, and were never known to criticize other styles or masters.

[43] The Dong family now has tai chi students in over 20 countries and territories around the world, while maintaining warm connections to China including their ancestral home Xingtai.

[44] Although Dong Yingjie is perhaps not as well-known in the West as some other masters, many seeking to learn tai chi for health or martial arts training have long found their way to him and his successors.

[note 4] For he was a champion, he was a master of multiple styles with his own unique synthesis, and he established a lasting legacy that has continued to thrive, with many affiliated schools in North America, Europe, and Asia.