Wu Chien-ch'üan
Wu Chien-ch'üan, pinyin Wú Jiànquán, 吳鑑泉 (1870-1942), was a famous teacher of T'ai Chi Ch'üan in late Qing dynasty and early Republican China. He was of Manchu ancestry, and originally learned T'ai Chi Ch'üan from his father, Wu Ch'uan-yü (吳全佑, 1834-1902, a famous student of Yang Lu-ch'an, 楊露禪, 1799-1872). Both Wu Chien-ch'üan and his father were hereditary Manchu banner officers, yet the Wu family were to become supporters of Sun Yat-sen. At the time of the establishment of the Chinese Republic in 1912, China was in turmoil, besieged for many years economically and even militarily by several foreign powers, so Wu Chien-ch'üan and his colleagues felt a need for the benefits of T'ai Chi training on a national scale. They subsequently offered classes at the Beijing Physical Culture Research Institute to as many people as possible, starting in 1914. It was the first school to ever provide public instruction in the art of T'ai Chi Ch'üan.
Wu Chien-ch'üan moved to Shanghai in 1928. In 1935, he established the Chien-ch'üan T'ai Chi Ch'üan Association (鑑泉太極拳社) there to promote and teach his family style of T'ai Chi. The Chien-ch'üan T'ai Chi Ch'üan Association schools have subsequently been maintained by Wu Chien-ch'üan's descendants. He was succeeded as head of the family system by his oldest son, Wu Kung-yi (吳公儀, 1900-1970), in 1942. Wu Kung-yi moved the family headquarters to Hong Kong in 1949. Today the Association still has its international headquarters in Hong Kong with branches in Shanghai, Singapore, Malaysia, Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom.