Yang Tianzheng

Biodata

Background / History

Family and Medical Practice

Yang Tianzheng comes from a family that has practiced acupuncture for generations and strongly values martial arts. His own master trained him through beatings, a method he later uses when teaching Su Ziyang. He eventually regards Su as the person who can carry the Yang family’s acupuncture tradition forward 131 153.

Three years before accepting Su as his disciple, Yang treated a man who had experienced severe mental disturbances for seven or eight years. According to Yang’s account, a woman’s voice emerged from the patient after the fifth needle of the Thirteen Needles of the Ghost Gate and threatened him with three years of misfortune unless he stopped. Yang inserted two more needles; the patient recovered, but Yang subsequently lost his job, suffered business losses, and experienced nightly sleep paralysis 120 121.

Yang says that neither Mr. Mengfei’s advice nor any other intervention resolved the problem: he simply endured it until the three years passed. He later recounts the incident to teach Su restraint, warning him not to needle too ruthlessly 121.

Meeting Su Ziyang

Mr. Mengfei introduces Yang to Su during the dispute with Guo Tianren and Yang Jinguang. Rather than proposing another fight, Yang challenges their opponents to mark the regular-meridian acupoints on anatomical charts within twenty minutes. He completes every point, while Yang Jinguang manages at most four meridians and makes mistakes 118.

When the opposing side resorts to violence, Yang throws two attackers using Tai Chi and then defeats Yang Jinguang in an unarmed exchange. He retreats when the older man produces a rope dart. After uniformed personnel intervene, Yang Jinguang breaks his restraint chain and strikes Yang’s head, leaving a cut that is heavily bandaged 118 119.

Mr. Mengfei subsequently asks Yang to teach Su. Although Yang initially refuses and calls Su slow-witted, he accepts him without imposing additional initiation rules. Examining Su’s hands, he recognizes their suitability for acupuncture and begins with theory rather than immediate needling practice 119 120.

Training and Later Instruction

Yang becomes a regular instructor at the clinic, teaching acupuncture and supervising Su’s martial practice. At Mr. Mengfei’s request, he takes the role of the harsh trainer: every time he knocks Su down, he administers three baton strikes unless Su gets up or escapes first. Privately, Yang complains that the other masters have made him the villain despite his affection for their disciple 121 131.

The training improves Su’s reactions and combat readiness. After Daoist Jin returns and adds his own instruction, Yang must use thirty percent of his strength to knock Su down, rather than defeating him as easily as before 147 179.

When Su agrees to teach a friend’s daughter once she turns fourteen, Yang and Mr. Mengfei prescribe four years of special training. They later deliver 869 medical books, all to be read within that period 220 225.

Appearance

• At his introduction, Yang is described as approximately the same age and build as Mr. Mengfei 118.
• He is taller than Daoist Jin and can lift him until his feet leave the ground 179.
• After Yang Jinguang wounds his head, a nurse wraps it so extensively that Yang complains about attracting stares in his residential complex 119.

Personality

Yang is blunt, direct, and impatient with fuss. Su initially considers him unusually upright and honorable compared with Mr. Mengfei’s other friends, only to discover that Yang also enjoys teasing, pranks, and making his disciple squirm. He dislikes excessive ceremony and can become irritated when Su uses expressions he does not understand 118 133 141 183.

His severity as a teacher is paired with genuine affection. He brings Su medicinal wine after a painful training session, praises serious study, and adjusts lessons when Su is exhausted. He also protects Su from Daoist Jin’s anger, physically carrying Jin away so their disciple can escape 131 133 179.

Yang respects medical tradition without accepting every inherited restriction. He rejects refusing treatment on supposedly inauspicious days, arguing that rescuing a patient matters more than consulting taboos. He likewise questions the claimed healing power of ordinary numbers and cautions against believing that any single therapy can treat every disease 134 135 153.

He favors proportionate retaliation rather than unconditional tolerance. When Su describes confronting Fu Xinyu, Yang approves but insists that he stay within limits and avoid causing injury. His warnings about dubious companions similarly focus on protecting Su rather than controlling all his friendships 131 171.

Abilities & Skills

Acupuncture and Moxibustion

Yang possesses extensive knowledge of meridians, acupoints, needle manipulation, and moxibustion. His anatomical-chart victory demonstrates both the breadth and accuracy of his acupoint knowledge 118.

• Technical instruction: Teaches preparatory handling, insertion and manipulation methods, tonification and reduction, and techniques for opening passes and clearing joints 121 133.
• Finger strength: Inserts a soft, two-inch silver needle into a tightly bound xuan-paper pad up to its base with apparently little effort 133.
• Needle safety: Requires inspection of the tip, shaft, and handle connection before use, including checking for barbs, bending, and breakage risks 133.
• Clinical judgment: Emphasizes that needling paper differs from treating people; patients’ constitutions and sensitivity to the arrival of qi require individual adjustment 133.
• Foundational study: Recommends the Great Compendium of Acupuncture and Moxibustion to Su 120.

Named Treatment Methods

Tai Chi and Internal Force

Yang specializes in Tai Chi Chuan and stresses internal force over brute strength. Su finds that striking him feels like striking cotton, while Yang can throw him with little visible exertion 171.

• Grasp the Sparrow’s Tail: Sends two charging attackers more than a meter into the air 118.
• Cloud Hands followed by Deflect, Parry and Punch: Disrupts Yang Jinguang’s punch, unbalances him, and knocks him down with a palm strike 119.
• Cloud Hands instruction: Teaches Su this movement after repeated requests, while advising him to concentrate on Eight Trigrams Swimming Dragon Palm rather than collect entire martial systems 125.
• Specialized striking force: His baton blows remain painful despite Su’s Golden Bell Shield and Iron Cloth Shirt training 131.
• Daily internal cultivation: Confirms that he practices the internal cultivation associated with his Tai Chi every day 150.
• Combat awareness: Detects Su’s attempted sneak attack and throws him several meters away 156.

Folk-Remedy Research

Yang actively seeks out unusual treatments and secret formulas, often involving Su in their investigation 174 175 190.

• Obtains a bottle of Old Master Jiang’s tooth-extraction powder after Jiang refuses to reveal the formula 175.
• Visits a testing laboratory with Su through arrangements made by Old Daoist Master Xiao 176.
• Produces a crucian-carp tooth-extraction preparation and reports successfully testing it on a Tibetan mastiff 178.
• Becomes absorbed in Chuanya, spending his days making medicines in Daoist Jin’s room 178.
• Investigates a practitioner’s pale-green mouth-ulcer powder and tries unsuccessfully to overhear Daoist Jin’s own remedy 190.

Talismans and Incantations

Yang has conducted considerable research into talisman drawing and incantation chanting. When evaluating image-number healing, he argues that a talisman requires a cultivator’s qi to become effective and asks what comparable source could empower ordinary numerals 153.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Expandable steel baton — Used during Su’s daily sparring punishments 131.
• Bound xuan-paper practice pad — Tests finger strength and control with soft silver needles 133.
• Gold and silver needle sets — Gives Su nineteen gold needles with silver handles and fourteen silver needles, explaining their numerical symbolism through the Yellow River Chart 133.
• Taoist Umbilical Acupuncture booklet — A handwritten, hand-bound text that Yang passes to Su to study and preserve 135.
• Metal bead strand — A gift from Su, with platinum Buddha-head and marker beads, silver-colored accessory beads, and steel beads. Yang wears it immediately and remarks that it could also serve as a weapon 296.

Relationships

• Su Ziyang — Disciple and intended inheritor of the Yang family’s acupuncture. Their relationship combines demanding instruction, mutual teasing, and parental concern 131 133.
• Mr. Mengfei — Close friend who introduces Su and entrusts his training to Yang. Their frequent arguments include Mengfei publicizing embarrassing photographs and Yang protesting his assigned role as the harsh master 118 119 131.
• Daoist Jin — Fellow teacher of Su and regular sparring partner in his training. Yang also shields Su from Jin’s temper and tries to obtain his secret medical formulas 179 190 296.
• Old Daoist Master Xiao — Friend gained through mutual respect and their shared connection to Mr. Mengfei. Xiao offers advice about Yang’s troubling treatment experience and helps arrange laboratory testing 121 134 176.
• Old Master Jiang — Tooth-pulling acquaintance whom Yang visits with liquor and persuades to provide a bottle of extraction medicine, though not its formula 174 175.
• Old Feng — Close martial-arts friend. Yang sends Su to visit him and later intervenes by telephone when their sparring turns into a chase 281 282.
• Fairy Li — A younger companion whom Yang defends against embarrassment over her appetite. He also criticizes Mr. Mengfei for testing the young couple’s feelings 210 211.
• Yang Jinguang — Opponent whom Yang defeats in medical knowledge and unarmed combat; Yang Jinguang subsequently wounds him with a broken restraint chain 118 119.

Notable Quotes

“Learning acupuncture is good, but when you use your needles, you must remember that Heaven cherishes life. Don't needle too ruthlessly.” 121

“An acupuncturist who doesn't understand his own needles is like a soldier going onto the battlefield without knowing how to use a gun.” 133

“Kung fu is a matter of time. Keep practicing, and you'll improve. Diligent study is like a seedling in spring: you can't see it grow, but it gets taller every day.” 172

Trivia

• His martial-training history is inconsistent: one passage says he began at eight and has trained for fifty years; later, Yang says he began at twelve, is fifty-two, and has trained for forty years 131 172.
• Su wonders whether Yang is descended from Yang Jizhou after hearing their similar names, but the supplied passage does not establish such ancestry 120.