Soon Yang’s fame began to spread for his unusual style of martial art. Until then, martial arts had all been a battle of strength, power and speed, however this ‘cotton boxing’, ‘soft boxing’ or ‘solvent boxing’ as it was known amazed the local people for its effectiveness in overcoming strong opponents with ease.

After emerging from Chenjiagou, Yang became famous for never losing a match and never seriously injuring his opponents. Having refined his martial skill to an extremely high level, Yang Luchan came to be known as Yang Wudi (“Yang the Invincible”). He was later appointed as kung fu instructor in the Qing court at the highest level. His son, Yang Jianhou (1837-1892) was also very proficient in tai chi and after defeating a famous challenger called Liu he also gained the same prestigious nickname as his father.

As his number of students increased, Yang Luchan revised the Lao Jia (old frame) series of movements with his eldest son, Yang Shaohou and his third son, Yang Jianbou (1839-1917) into the zhong jia (Medium Frame) set. Later this was revised again by Yang Chengfu (1883-1936), the third son of Yang Jianbou, which finally developed into the present Da Jia (Big Frame) style.  Yang Chengfu is largely responsible for standardizing and popularizing the Yang-style tai chi widely practised today.