Sally Chang, Founder and Chief Instructor
Sally Chang, martial artist, teacher, acupuncturist, and founder of Evergreen Taiji Academy. Teaching online and in-person, she brings together 30 years of Martial Arts experience, Daoist cultivation, and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), distilling them into practices of individual and collective healing. Sally Chang delivers depth and wisdom into embodied practice, and is known for her warm, focused presence.
Her training includes Northern Shaolin Gongfu, Bagua Zhang, Qigong, and Taiji Quan. Sally is 26th generation lineage holder of Wudang Longmen Pai, the Dragon Gate School of Daoism from Wudang Mountain, and is a student of Daoist Priest, Shifu Chen Yun Xiang. Sally’s root Shifu is Ted Mancuso of the Academy of Martial Arts, where she received deep foundational training in traditional Chinese martial arts. She studies Daoism and Classical Chinese Medicine with Daoist priest, scholar and acupuncturist, Dr. Jeffery Yuen, 88th generation disciple of Yu Qing Huang Lao Pai.
Sally’s deep love and practice of martial arts and the healing arts are interwoven, as a steady guide and way of life. These wisdom practices guide us through all manner of seasons, revealing freedom within form by cultivating our innate vitality and resilience.
Personal Statement:
I have been incredibly fortunate to be guided by great masters who embody and share multi-generational wisdom with great compassion and humanity. In my Taiwanese family lineage, my great-great grandfather, Chang Tsuan Bao and his son Huai were both traditional herbalists. Huai was also a martial artist. My grandfather and uncles who followed him were doctors in modern western medicine. I was born fifth generation in this line, and have a deep dedication to serving the community and promoting well-being through medicine and internal cultivation.
My understanding of the human experience has been greatly influenced by training in martial arts since I was a youth. Taiji and Neigong (internal cultivation) practice are essential to my life and shape my world-view, as these arts reveal and cultivate our innate healing potential.
I believe the “art” aspect of martial arts is in the observation, study and expression of our actions and reactions when confronted with difficult issues. In life we all confront challenges that are internally or externally generated, large or small in scale. The science and art of classical Chinese medicine and internal cultivation practice develop our ability to respond and adapt to life’s challenges with agility, skill and integrity, and return home, to our natural place within the Dao.