Li Guichang

Master Li Guichang was born in 1914 in Shanxi province and died in 2000 at the age of 86. He began his study of
Martial Arts at the age of thirteen when he took up the art of Chang Quan, Yue Style Eight Overturning Hands and
weapons. About 1927 he began to study Xingyi and Shaolin Five Elements Soft Art with the famous Xingyi Master
Dong Xiusheng. Dong was a practitioner of traditional Chinese medicine and and spent most of his life traveling in
Northern China studying martial arts and treating patients. He was a Xingyi student of Liu Wenhua, the son of Liu
Qilan. Liu Qilan was one of the most famous disciples of Li Luoneng, the creator of what we know as Xingyi Quan or
Form Intent boxing, a martial art derived from the Dai family style of Xin Yi. Dong also studied with Geng Jishan,
another famous disciple of Liu Quilan. He also learned Ba Gua from his friend Sun Lutang. (Dong also authored
several books on Xingyi that had great influence on Xingyi practioners of his day.) All of these teachers were located
in Hebei province. Dong was also a disciple of Song Hucheng of Shanxi province. Song Hucheng's father Song
Shirong was a disciple of Li Luoneng and founder of the Song style of Xingyi. Master Li as Dong's disciple was also
part of the Song family.

Master Li studied with Dong from 1927 until 1936. Dong Xuisheng died in 1938 of opium addiction at the age of 58.
Master Li also studied the Yang style of Tai Ji with Liu Donghan. Master Li at one point was the vice president of
the Shanxi Xingyi Quan Assoc. and president of the Taiji Push Hands Assoc. His Xingyi was soft but very powerful
and sensitive. When he touched someone he could immediately control their "power path" and throw them out with
ease. His Fa Li was highly refined. He said "I use the body method to seize the opponent. In all respects it
determines the strike. When to strike and how to strike are all within my grasp."

I met Master Li for the first time in 1995. I had, by that time, been studying one style of Xingyi for about seven years,
and other martial arts for a long time before that, and I was immediately impressed not only by his very high level of
skill but also by his personality, warm, open and confident. He was very honest in his teaching and pleased that
people would come so far to study his art. Watching him it became truly clear to me the relationships within the
internal family of arts. Xingyi, Tai Ji, and Ba Gua Zhang.

Master Li was of course old when I met him and in order to facilitate our learning he recommended that we also study
with his disciple Song Zhiyong. Master Li said "Song is the standard for my system". Song Zhiyong has been very
open in his teaching so that he could fufill Master Li's wish that we might grasp his method of Xingyi. Song Zhiyong
has a deep and full understanding of his masters art both in theory and application and his shen fa is highly
developed. As one older Tai Ji practitioner told me once in Taiyuan "Song's skill is rare, even in China".

When I first began to study Xingyi I thought of it as only firm and powerful. Whole body power used with the proper
angle to take the opponent's center and roll through and destroy him. I got to the point where I could accomplish this
fairly well. But I found that if the opponent was bigger and stronger than myself, and just as skilled, I was at a
disadvantage. I also saw that those of my schoolbrothers and sisters who were smaller were often at a
disadvantage as well. I also found that if people were successful using firm power they tended to never move beyond
it. Master Li and his teacher Dong Xuisheng were small men and dealt with the same problem. Many of the
practioners in Hebei were big and powerful so they practiced to be firm on the outside and soft within. Li Guichang
and his teacher stressed the opposite, soft on the outside and firm within and the use of subtlety and cleverness.
Also their expression of Fa Li delivers great "shock power" while remaining very relaxed and their ability to stick,
adhere,connect and follow allows one to strike with any of the seven stars at the most advantageous moment. Dong
Xuisheng had in many ways an almost unique experience of Xingyi and was able to combine concepts and training
from both the Hebei and Shanxi traditions. Master Li also felt that Tai Ji and Xingyi in fact share many principles
and his expression of Xingyi shows this clearly.

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