Chen Wangting (1580–1660), seated in this picture, he is often credited with creating Tai Chi Chuan and is the founder of Chen Tai Chi. 

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This image depicts the moment of inspiration for the invention of the art of Tai Chi Chuan, at least according to some sources. Chang Sanfeng is thought to have watched a fight between a snake and a bird in the 15th century and got the idea to build a style of fighting around his extensive knowledge of Taoist philosophy and internal energy.
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Sun Lu-t'ang (or Sun Lutang) was a master of the internal arts and was instrumental in the invention of the syncretic art of Sun-style t'ai chi ch'uan. Born in 1860, he was also an expert in Neo-Confucian and Taoist scholarly pursuits and was a master at two other internal martial arts; xingyiquan (hsing-i ch'uan) and baguazhang (pa-kua chang). He came to t’ai chi relatively late in life but mastered it very quickly and spent much of his later career teaching t’ai chi to members of the pu...
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Yang Lu-ch'an also known as Yang Fu-k'ui or Yang Fukui (1799-1872), was an influential master of t'ai chi ch'uan during the 19th century who founded the Yang-style. After a modest upbringing, Yang was hired by the Imperial family in 1850 to teach them and several of their élite Manchu Imperial Guards Brigade units martial arts.

At this time, he taught the Taijiquan style and is credited with spreading it throughout China, being named by four of the five Taijiquan families as having transmitt...
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Chen Fake practicing Xin Jai

Chen Fake (1887–1957) was a master of t’ai chi ch’uan who was instrumental in the spread of his style, Chen-style taijiquan, when he took it from his home in the Henan Province in 1928 and started teaching it in Beijing. As the style is largely based on internal energies, Chen Fake feared its subtle properties may be lost to future generations so he created an external form known as Xin Jia (New Frame) to add a visual framework to the internal movements.
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Wu Quanyou (1834–1902), or Wu Ch'uan-yu as he was also known was a t’ai chi ch’uan  master from China. He taught many great exponents of the art including his son, Wu Chien-ch'uan who created the Wudang style of t'ai chi ch'uan, and Maozhai who was the creator of the Northern Wu Style Wang. Wu Quanyou is believed to have had great abilities; in particular he excelled in skills that involved neutralizing hard external energy and developing the flow of soft internal energy (chi).

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