Ye Style TaiJiQuan or YeJiaQuan (Ye-Family-Boxing) is referred as the style of Taijiquan which was practiced and taught by Ye Dami by the martial arts circle around Shanghai City and Zhejiang Province.

Ye Dami

Ye Damin (叶大密, 1888 – 1973), from Wencheng County of Zhejiang Province, was grown up in a martial arts and Chinese medical family. Ye started martial arts at young age by learning a martial arts system from Wenzhou known as Xiaobagua (Small-Bagua). Ye met his first Taijiquan teacher, Tian Zhaolin (田兆麟, 1871 – 1959), when he served in the army at Hangzhou City in 1917. Ye Dami learned Yang Jianhou (杨健候) style Taijiquan (also known as Middle-Frame-Yang-Style-Taijiquan) from Tian. Ye Dami and Sun Cunzhou (孙存周, 1893 – 1963, Sun Lutang’s son) became sworn brothers in 1918, thus Ye has the opportunity of learning from Sun Lutang (孙禄堂, 1860 – 1933).

Ye Dami founded Wudang Taijiquan Association (武当太极拳社) in Shanghai in 1926. Wudang Taijiquan Association is the first martial arts organisation or association naming “Taijiquan” in China.

Ye Dami, together with his students and other famous martial artists, studies the art of Wudang Sword when Li Jinglin (李景林, nicknamed “the god of sword”) went to Shanghai in 1927. Ye later also taught Wudang Sword at his Taijiquan Association.

Ye Dami has also learned Yang Style Taijiquan from the Yang brothers when both Yang Shaohou (杨少侯, 1862 – 1930) and Yang Chengfu (杨澄甫, 1883 – 1936) traveled to Nanjing in 1928.

Ye Dami later merged his learning, i.e. Tian Zhaolin’s middle-frame Taijiquan, Yang Shaohou’s small-frame Taijiquan, Yang Chengfu’s large-frame Taijiquan, Sun Lutang’s internal strength, Li Jinglin’s Wudang Sword handworks and martial arts skills from his own family, to become an unique style of Taijiquan, it referred by others as Yejiaquan (Ye-Family-Boxing).

Ye Style Taijiquan by Jiang Lan

Location: Jiaxing, Zhejiang, China.
Date: December 2009

After the establishment of People’s Republic of China, Ye Dami worked in the Chinese medical field. Ye Dami was persecuted during the Cultural Revolution, he passed away at the age 83 at Shanghai in 1973.

Notes:

• Ye Dami has brought his student along to learn from the greats, students such as Pu Bingru (濮冰如) and Zheng Manching (郑曼青) has later became the representatives of Yang Chengfu.
• Ye Dami has a really close relationship with Sun Lutang family. When Wudang Taijiquan Association was newly opened, Sun Cunzhou has been voluntary “house sitting” at the association for half a year. When Sun saw Ye has defeated all the challengers (including some famous martial artists) easily, Sun was then convinced and left his voluntary post.