Song Shirong (宋世荣), a.k.a. Song Yuezhai (宋约斋), is one of the representative figure of Shanxi Xingyiquan. Song was born in Beijing in 1849 and passed away in 1927. He, together with his family due to business purposes, resided to Taigu County, Shanxi Province in 1865. Song Shirong and his younger brother, Song Shide (宋世德, 1857 – 1912), began their studies in Xingyiquan under Li Luoneng (李洛能) the following year after they have moved to Taigu county.

Song Shirong

Song Shirong met Liu Xiaotang (刘晓棠) when he was 24 years old, Liu furnished Song a copy of Neigongsijing (内功四经, The Four Classics of Internal Practice) from the books collection of Forbidden city of Shenyang. Song Shirong adopted and incorporated the contents of Neigongsijing and other internal strength methods into his Xingyiquan practice, thus, he created a unique style Xingyiquan which has a distinctive fajin feature. Song Shirong’s unique style Xingyiquan was later named as Song Style Xingyiquan by his successors.

Song Shirong was very strict in choosing his apprentices, with only a dozen or so disciples, each and every disciples made it to the top in the martial arts scene. Song Huchen (宋虎臣, eldest son of Song Shirong), Song Tielin (宋铁麟, son of Song Shide), Ren Erqi (任尔琪), Jia Wengao (贾蕴高) are some of the famous successors of Song Shirong.