One day Yang reportedly witnessed one of the partners of the pharmacy utilizing a style of martial art that he had never before seen to easily subdue a group of would-be thieves.

Peeking through the broken wall, he saw his master Chen Changxing teaching the techniques of grasp, control, and emitting jin in coordination with the sounds "Hen" and "Ha."

He was amazed by the techniques and from that time on, unknown to master Chen, he continued to watch this secret practice session every night.

[5] This was the beginning of the spread of tai chi from the family art of a small village in central China to an international phenomenon.

[6] Due to his influence and the number of teachers he trained, including his own descendants, Yang is directly acknowledged by 4 of the 5 tai chi families as having transmitted the art to them.

Though not independently verifiable, several noteworthy episodes are worth mentioning to illustrate the Yang Wudi character: In Chinese, tai chi is now known as taijiquan (literally "taiji boxing").

Weng wrote for him a matching verse:[9] Hands Holding taiji shakes the whole world, a chest containing ultimate skill defeats a gathering of heroes.Thereafter, Yang family history holds that taiji began to be used in reference to the martial art, although it is not until the turn of the 20th century that there is firm written evidence for the term "taijiquan".