Sun Lutang (1860-1933) was a master of Chinese neijia (internal) martial arts and was the progenitor of the syncretic art of Sun-style tai chi. He was also considered an accomplished Neo-Confucian and Taoist scholar (especially of the I Ching), and was a distinguished contributor to the theory of internal martial arts through his many published works.

Biography

He was born in Hebei and was named Sun Fuquan (孫福全) by his parents. Years later, his baguazhang teacher Cheng Tinghua gave him the name Sun Lutang. (It was common in old China for people to have multiple names, through various phases of life). He continued to use his original name in some areas, including the publishing of his books. He was also well-versed in two other internal martial arts: xingyiquan and baguazhang before he came to study tai chi. His expertise in these two martial arts were so high that many regarded him as without equal. Sun learned Wu (Hao)-style tai chi from Hao Weizhen. Sun started studying with Hao relatively late in his life, but his accomplishments in the other two internal arts led him to develop his tai chi abilities to a high standard more quickly than is usual. He subsequently was invited by Yang Shaohou, Yang Chengfu and Wu Jianquan to join them on the faculty of the Beijing Physical Education Research Institute where they taught tai chi to the public after 1914. Sun taught there until 1928, a seminal period in the development of modern Yang, Wu and Sun-style tai chi.

Family

In 1891 he married Zhang Zhouxian, with whom he had three sons and a daughter.

Teachers

Tai chi lineage tree with Sun-style focus

Publications

In later life, he published five martial arts texts which were also later translated to English recently: He also wrote a study of bagua spear, though this was never published.