Sun Lutang (孙禄堂, 1860 – 1933), from Wangdu County, Heibei Province, was a famous martial arts master during late Qing Dynasty (1644 – 1911) and early Minguo (Republic of China, 1911 – 1949) era.
Sun Lutang
Sun Lutang, a.k.a. Sun Fuquan (孙福全), began his martial arts studies at 8 years old, where he learned Shaolin boxing from 1868 to 1972. Sun Lutang started to study Xingyiquan under Li Kuiyuan (李魁元) in 1872. Li later introduced Sun to learn from his teacher, Guo Yunshen (郭云深, 1820 – 1901) in 1875 for a duration 8 years. Guo Yunshen brought Sun Lutang along for most of the martial arts occasions where Sun has met and learned from some of the Xingyiquan old-timers, e.g., Liu Xiaolan (刘晓兰, 1821 – 1906), Song Shirong (宋世荣, 1849 – 1927), Che Yizhai (车毅斋, 1833 – 1915), Bai Xitu (白西园), etc.; Sun was also provided a lot of “friendly” contest experiences during this period. Sun Lutang, with the recommendation of Guo Yunshen, traveled to Beijing and studied Baguazhang under Cheng Tinghua (程廷华, 1848 – 1900) in 1883.
Sun Lutang started an 11-province-journey alone from 1886 to 1888. He challenged all the martial artists whom he has came across and never lost a match during this 2-year-period, places that has been traveled by Sun including the famous Shaolin Monastery and Wudang Mountains. Sun opened a martial arts school at his hometown after his journey in 1888.
Sun Lutang met and learned Taijiquan from Hao Weizhen (郝为真, 1849 – 1920) at Beijing in 1912.
Sun Lutang published “Xingyiquan Xue (The Study of Xingyiquan)” in 1915, the first ever Xingyiquan publication. He later published “Baguaquan Xue (The Study of Baguaquan)” in 1916, “Taijiquan Xue (The Study of Taijiquan)” in 1919, “Quanyi Shuzhen (The Truth of The Essence of Boxing)” in 1923 and “Baguajian Xue (The Study of Bagua Sword)” in 1925.
Sun Lutang's Internal Martial Arts publications
Sun was invited as the head of Internal Martial Arts at the Central National Martial Arts Academy at Nanjing in 1928. He was also invited as the vice curator of National Martial Arts Academy of Jiangsu Province.
Sun Lutang’s martial arts abilities was not only granted recognition from the younger generation but also from those martial arts veterans. Sun has involved in countless challenge matches and he has never lost a match.