Master Gabriel Chin, the principal source of information for this work, was born September 28, 1920 in Shandong Province, Mainland China. Raised in a family of scholars and professionals, he began his education in Lin-yi, Shantung. During the years of the Japanese occupation, he attended the Central Military Academy, where he received a BS in Military Science. In 1936, at the age of 16, Master Chin began serious training in Tai Chi Chuan, a martial art taught in a style developed and handed down from Yang Lu Chan, through his son, Yang Ban Hou to his student Liu Guang Ze to Gabriel Chin, my teacher.
Trained by many masters from the Yang family and teachers of other tradition, he progressed rapidly and soon found himself teaching martial arts to soldiers of the Kuo Ming Tang Army. Over a 10-year period, Master Chin, rose to the rank of Battalion Commander. This military part of his life accounts for the fact that his Tai Chi teachings always retained its martial arts birthright.
As China moved into a chaotic period of political upheaval, Master Chin made his way to Taiwan where he became a translator for businesses and the United States government. During this period, he often wrote poetry in Chinese and he trained as a singer in classical opera. He translated Franz Joseph Hayden’s “The Creation” that was performed in Taiwan.
In 1971, his interests in teaching linguistics lead him to accept a teaching position with Middlebury College in Vermont. To expand his knowledge of linguistics, he enrolled at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and earned an advanced degree in teaching English as a second language. Later, he accepted a professorship to teach in the Chinese Studies Department of the University of Michigan.
In 1983, Master Chin began to focus on the application of Chi Kung as a healing art and his successes in this area became well known in Ann Arbor, including at the University of Michigan Medical Center where a science-based program has been undertaken to explore the medical advantages of Chi Kung.
Master Chin read the Chinese Classics on the martial arts and he met with the Masters who founded the various martial arts styles practiced today. As a Chinese historian and scholar, he developed a unique understanding of Tai Chi and Chi Kung.
For three uninterrupted decades, Master Chin continued to teach Tai Chi and Chi Kung in Ann Arbor. A great number of his students have come and gone, and many have returned, if only to spend part of a weekend with Gabriel at the Cube. Until March 31, 2005, he maintained a Chi Kung practice that focused on healing those who came to seek his help. As I was writing these words in 2005, I was informed that Master Chi had passed on. Repercussions from his hard military life finally caught up with him. As in the past when he was absent, I am sure his students will step in to partially fill the void and carry on the teaching tradition initiated by Master Chin at the Cube on the Michigan campus.
