The YeYoung Lineage teaching is based on the Chinese Literati Tradition. The term literati that originated from Latin generally defines a person of letters. It is used as a literary translation of the Chinese word shi, a person who is learned, skilled, and capable of many things. The Chinese idea of Literati is parallel with the Western idea of the Renaissance Man, not in the sense of being creative or the world-conquest, but in the sense of being introspective and self-cultivating, in other words, the self-conquest.
In 1428 the Prince of Ning (1378-1448), 17th son of the founder of the Ming dynasty, established the YeYoung Tradition. YeYoung Tradition is a synthesis of the Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism body-mind-spirit practice. It consists of the traditional Chinese Five Arts that focus on self-cultivation through Chinese Thought (Chinese sages and their philosophies, Buddhism, and Taoism), Meditation (Qi Gong, Neidan, Taiji quan, herbal medicine, and Chinese art of tea), Divination (I Ching, Fengshui, and other Divinations), Poetry and Calligraphy, and Qin Music. YeYoung Tradition thrived through its eminent forerunners who had excelled in the art of body-mind-spirit to their zenith. From 1800s onward, YeYoung Tradition was enhanced by the recent YeYoung Family members: Qingji (1835-1900), father of Youhua, a Yellow Robe Knight, one of the First Rank Military Officers and the Governor-Generals of the Qing dynasty (1644-1911), Denke (1870-1938), older brother of Youhua, and Youhua (1889-1976), known as the Sage YeYoung Ren. The Sage YeYoung Ren of the former Patriarch of YeYoung Tradition lived to the aspiration of cultivating a perfection of body-mind-spirit with high attainments in the Five Arts through the late Qing dynasty, the Nationalist regime (1911-1949), and the Communist regime.
Born in 1961 raised and trained as the lineage heir, Bing Fan YeYoung began to receive the YeYoung teaching at age 9 from the Sage YeYoung Ren. He continued his studies on Chinese philosophy, literature and poetry, Daoyin and Neidan, medicine, I Ching, Fengshui, Sizhu, and Literati painting and calligraphy under the careful directions of his grandfather and his late father Wen Gai. Bing Fan YeYoung began Chen Family Style Taiji Quan studies and practice at age 12. His first teacher Qi Youren (1933-2001), a student of Chen Fake (1771-1853) the Ninth Patriarch (seventeenth generation), was a Taoist martial arts master, and the Kong Tong School lineage holder. In the late 1970s, Bing Fan YeYoung had the good fortune to study with the late Chen Zhaokui (1928-1981) the Tenth Patriarch (eighteenth generation) of Chen Family Large Frame Taiji Quan.
In addition to his studies with some eminent masters of Taoist, Buddhist, and Confucian traditions including the Grand Qin Master Li Mingzhong (a student of the late Grand Qin Master Wu Zhaoji), Bing Fan YeYoung had journeyed to Tibet between 1997-2005 to seek out the Tantric or secret teachings from the Tibetan hermits. In 1997, he became a student of Songje Lama and Dondrop Lama. A Tantric Yogi of Sakya Sect in Tibetan Buddhism, Songje Lama meditated in lotus position day and night for more than 30 years in hermitage. He was known by his healing power and divination ability. Dondrop Lama, the Head Lama of Tagong Monastery in Kham, was known by his abilities of healing power, rainmaking, and divinations. In 1999 Bing Fan YeYoung received the lineage teachings and transmissions from both Songje Lama and Dondrop Lama. In 2000 Bing Fan YeYoung became a student of His Holiness Jigdal Dagchen Sakya, who is the Head Lama of Sakya Monastery of Tibetan Buddhism.
As the current Patriarch of YeYoung Tradition, Grandmaster Bing Fan YeYoung has brought two contributions to YeYoung Tradition, firstly by integrating the Chen Family Large Frame Taiji Quan into the YeYoung teaching and practice, and secondly by integrating the traditional Confucian “Ethical teaching,” Buddhist “Dharma talk,” and Taoist “Tao speak” into the modern Western daily life style through the perspectives of the Western rational analysis and psychology to YeYoung Tradition.
By studying and practicing the Five Arts, YeYoung Tradition lays the entire emphasis on the self-cultivation or the self-conquest—an alternative modernity—the internal modernity in contrast with the Western external modernity that Westerners are familiar with. YeYoung Tradition focuses on one becoming a person of nobility and elegance, a person of people and nature, and to enliven one’s life with a perfection of body, mind, and spirit, become a Master of practice of this earthly life, and ultimately to Enlightenment.