By Shi(3) Naijian, Ji county, Hebei

From Zhonghua Wushu, volume 149, Dec. 1996

In 1987, Fujian Scientific Fighting Arts Publishers put out a book by Lin Sui titled Orthodox Baguazhang. In this book it was stated that: “Dong Haichuan had ten famous students.   One of them was Han Fushun.  Mr. Han Fushun (also called Han Liu) was of the Cheng NanPeng village in Ji County, Hebei.  He was a simple and upright man.  When he was young,  he wanted to study Baguazhang.  He asked Shi(1) Jidong and Shi (3) Liqing to be his teachers in Baguazhang.  When Dong Haichuan met him, he saw that Mr. Han was simple and honest, and grasped that his nature was truly gentle.  He put much importance on weapons. This caused Dong to  accepted him as a student.”

This part of the text and what is really true do not match.  I am Shi (3) Jidong’s direct descendent.  My ancestor Shi (3) Jidong was Dong Gong Haichuan’s third inner door disciple.  He was also Dong Gong’s adopted son-in-law.  When Dong Gong began to get old, he taught his art in people’s homes.  My ancestor took advantage of this.  He welcomed Dong Gong into his home and provided for him.  At that time, as was common among men and women who did not have relatives, Shi asked Dong Gong to adopt his wife.  In this way, as a relative, they could naturally look after and attend to Dong Gong.  He would live with them and they would supply his clothes, food, and expenses, and when he died make his tomb.

Han Fushun was not a literate man.  He worked as a blacksmith for my family when they set up the Yi He Lumberyard in Beijing.  He was sincere and honest, diligent and conscientious.   Also because of his concern for his fellow villagers, therefore he also wanted to teach his Bagua Martial Arts.  As Dong Gong lived with my family, he was able to point out faults to Mr. Han.  In the old society, teachers and students were bound by certain rules.  To become a formal student, one must kneel in reverence to the teacher.  This was reserved for talented people that the teacher wanted to keep close.  The writing on Dong Gong’s tomb gives the complete list of his students.  It does not have Han Fushun’s name.  Probably Mr. Wu Junshan and Mr. Lin Sui have not seen the writing on the tomb.

Also in WuLin,  volume 4, 1993, Hao Xinlian say’s, “Wu style Baguazhang, geneology is this:  the famous Baguazhang practitioner Wu Junshan  was the top student of Shi(1) Jidong, who was Dong Haichuan’s adopted son-in-law.”  So here we have Mr. Dong Haichuan’s adopted son-in-law Shi (3) Jidong’s name is changed to make Shi(1) Jidong.  Now we have this matter of  “duplicate records”.  In order to clear up this matter so that the error is not  propagated, I especially make this declaration to straighten history to its correct appearance.  I hope that Wu Style Baguazhang practitioners and Mr. Hao Xinlian understand and make allowances for this.

Shi (3) Jidong was styled Zhenbang.  He was commonly called Liu.  His name in the arts was Shi (3) Liqing.  He was from Cheng Si Shao Zhai village, Ji County, Hebei Province.  He was born in 1837 and died in 1909.
 
 

Shi (3) – history
Shi (1) – execute, carry out