Yang Pan-hou was the eldest son of Yang Lu Chan. He was proficient at T'ai Chi Ch'uan at a very young age, was very cocky and self-assured. He often fought challenge matches for his father, and once fought a match against a great boxer named Liu, a master of Eagle Claw who had a lot of wins to his name and a good reputation with the imperial household. Liu was enraged to only fight the young son, but agreed nevertheless. Thousands watched as the giant rushed at the small Pan-hou, grabbing his wrist in a vice like grip (which Pan-hou later said to be like the bite of a dog). This shocked young Pan-hou so he inhaled and used Chieh Chin energy to snap his arm reflectively out of Liu's grasp, which also threw the big man off the fighting platform and heavily down to the ground, unable to continue at all. Proud Yang Pan-hou rushed home to his father and, as soon as he saw him, shouted that he had won,. Yang Lu-ch'an calmly looked at his son from of his resting place in a hanging mat, and said, "Yes, well done; but look, son, is this real T'ai Chi Ch'uan?" while pointing to Pan-hou's torn sleeve..... .

On a summer day, Master Yang Pan-hou was on a field in north china, when a stranger came up asking for the whereabouts of a certain Pan-hou. Master Yang replied he was the same one, when, without a pause, the stranger attacked with three fingers like a spear. "My friend, why don't you go up there to cool off?" Master Yang said, lightly waving his arm and tossing the attacker up the roof of a grass hut standing nearby.

A man called Lo Wan-tzu was a student of Pan-hou for some time in North China. After some years he wanted to test his art (i.e. challenging his master to see if he was ready to go out into the world). Master Yang Pan-hou replied to him, "How would you be liked to be thrown into the shape of an ingot?" ( a form of lotus flower or ship like shaped metal money of the Ming dynasty). The student laughed, and invited master to try. He was then immediately thrown into the round shape of the described ingot, with his hip lightly damaged. This man is still alive today, walking with a limp, recounting tales about Master Yang Pan-hou's prowess. (Today means the 1940s).

Another side of Master Yang is shown in this story: Although he was not rich, he lent or gave money to those in need. A friend asked to borrow 100 Yuen to get by, promising to return the money in a year. Master Yang agreed, under the condition that his friend could land squarely on his feet on the rooftop when he tossed with a staff. Wondering what was going on, the friend agreed, whereupon Master Yang hoisted him easily onto the roof with a mere flick of the wrist by holding the staff, and the friend landed on wobbly legs. Laughing loudly, Master Yang helped him down a ladder, exclaiming, "This was just a game, no matter what, here's your 100 Tael" The friend departed, extremely pleased.

Master Yang Pan-hou was also called Yang The Unmatchable; he used to say, "If You cannot throw or overcome someone with T'ai Chi Ch'uan, it is simply because your skill has not matured. Don't say T'ai Chi Ch'uan is of no practical use. Don't be afraid even if someone is as strong as a bull - a 100 pounds weight is useless if it lands on nothing"

Pan-hou also had the sticking Chi skill; at the age of 60, he acquiesced to a request by a southern boxer to test this ability. The boxer placed several bricks, roughly two feet apart in a circle in the yard, and asked master Yang to place his open hand on his back; he then would run and jump from brick to brick, trying to loosen the hand. He could not, no matter what he did. Master Yang was always there behind him. (It seems from the arrangement that this must have been a Pa Kua boxer). Yang Pan-hou was quite fierce in his manner as well as in his fighting, even in his older days; he seems to have had some influence on Yang Shao-hu, Yang Chien-hu´s older son, who was also known for having little patience with challengers. One son: Yang Chao-peng.