Moy Lin-Shin (1931-1998)
Moy Lin-Shin was a Taoist monk who studied Tai Chi, Qigong, Lokhupbafa, Xing-I and Bagua in Hong Kong. After emigrating to Canada, he began teaching martial arts in a small studio. When he found that his students needed to regain their health more than they needed to learn how to fight, he changed his teaching to better serve that need. He modified the Yang Style Tai Chi 108-move set by emphasizing turning, stretching, rising and sinking. In addition, he borrowed principles from Lokhupbafa, Bagua and Xing-I to enrich the Tai Chi set and supplemental exercises.
Moy Lin-Shin sadly passed away in Toronto June, 1998
Here are some stories we heard about Master Moy
A lot of Mr. Moy's background we don't know. We heard he was sickly as a child and his parents took him to the temple and left him there to work and hoping the monks could cure him.
Eventually Mr. Moy recovered his health and he was grateful and devoted to Guan Yam, goddess of compassion. He dedicated his life sharing what he learnt to help other people to regain their health and to help alleviate their sufferings.
We don't know all his teachers. We know some of the anecdotes of his teachers. We've heard one of the teachers in China would not accept a student unless the prospective student can push (push hands) over this teacher's wife. She was in her mid sixties. But it took Mr. Moy six months before he could push over her and be accepted as student this particular teacher.
We know that his second last teacher was Leung Tse-Pang. Mr. Leung was renowned for his Lok Hup in Hong Kong. Mr. Leung only allowed Mr. Moy to learn the first two moves of the set in the first year. We are complaining we only learn one or two moves a week. After learning the first two moves, Mr. Moy learnt the set at a much faster pace.
His final teacher was the gentleman who used to heckle Mr. Moy while he was helping Leung Tsz-Pang teaching in the park in Hong Kong. When Master Leung was not there one day, Mr. Moy was teaching the students. This gentleman was telling the students not to listen to Mr. Moy, because he didn't know what he was teaching. After the students left, Mr. Moy approached the gentleman and said, "If I don't know what I was talking about, teach me". We don't know what was taught but it involved shedding of blood. Mr. Moy asked if he would be his teacher. He told Mr. Moy to ask for permission from Master Leung. Mr. Moy asked and got the permission. So this gentleman became his final teacher. His final teacher made Mr. Moy to promise not to teach what he learnt from him while the teacher was still alive. Mr. Moy did honour the agreement not to teach the exact movements or exercises. But he incorporated the essence/principles of those exercises in our tai chi set. He chose tai chi instead of lokhup because at that time nobody heard of lokhup. But personally he preferred lokhup over tai chi.
Before he came to North America, he taught a lot of people in the park. He followed one of the principles his teacher in China taught him. His teacher drew the Chinese character of rice and told him this was what tai chi all about. Mr. Moy took it and reflected on it. So he taught us all to follow the 45 degree stepping.
One day his teacher told the group practicing in the park that they all must stretch to loosen the joints. He demonstrated the stretching on a lot of the moves. Most people there thought the idea of stretching was ridiculous but they did it. Next time they all did the normal tai chi set while Mr. Moy still did the stretched way. That is why our set emphasizes in stretching while most other tai chi masters teach the normal hold back tai chi.
Mr. Moy told us that when he left China, his best friend was killed by a bomb from the sky. It could have been him because he was so close to his friend.
When he came to the west, he visited his two cousins in Brazil. He couldn't find work in Brazil. Then he came to Canada on his way to New York City where his mother and sister lived. US customs questioned his Taiwanese passport and refused his entry to US. That was why he stayed in Canada.
So he ended up in Toronto and started teaching tai chi in a Chinese community centre in Hagerman Street behind city hall. Somebody in Montreal came to Toronto and learned tai chi from him. Mr. Moy started going back and forth to Montreal weekly. Toronto Tai Chi Association and Montreal Tai Chi Association were formed. As his students moved away, Mr. Moy encouraged them to start tai chi classes wherever they went, so his organization grew to be worldwide.. When he died in 1998, there were over 400 locations in the world.
Mr. Moy understood the importance of training instructors to spread his tai chi, so more people will benefit from it. Under his guidance he let people teach beginners the tai chi. In the beginning, he let members who had tai chi experience with other styles to teach, of course, he had corrected them to his way. Then he trained some of the new members to understand his tai chi and encouraged them to teach. He always said, "Teachers learn together with the students".
That was one of the reasons why his tai chi form was spread so quickly and introduced to many countries in the world. The other reason was he never benefited financially from the teaching of tai chi. People saw that and were willing to help the organization.
In the early stages, Mr. Moy had the idea of training 12 disciples who would be as capable as him. But he gave that up because he could not find anyone would give up everything and practice tai chi alone. Also he tried to train one person to be chief instructor, but as that person learned, they became too proud of themselves and no longer humble. After a few tries, he gave that up and start teaching a lot of people, each with part of his skill. So now his skill had spread over many of his close students but none had all the skills. He thought that would keep them together as a unit.
As told by Doug Nettleton to the gathering on 2009 CTCA's AGM
