Sun lu tang biography

Chinese martial artist

In this Chinese name, the family name is Sun.

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.^[1] 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.^[2]

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