Shang Yunxiang

Shang Yunxiang (尚云祥), a.k.a. Shang Jiting (尚霁亭), was a renowned master of Xingyiquan in the late Qing Dynasty (1644 – 1911) and early Minguo (Republic of China, 1911 – 1949). He was born in Leling City of Shandong Province, in 1864. he passed away at the age of 73 in 1937.

Shang obtained his Xingyiquan skills from Li Cunyi (李存义, 1847 – 1927). In the beginning, Li Cunyi refused to accept Shang as a student due to his “not-ideal-physique for martial arts”. Shang was skinny and short, of a height of less than 1.6 meters. It was under the intercede of Zhou Mingtai (周明泰, a student of Liu Qilan) that Li Cunyi accepted Shang Yunxiang as his student. When he was older, Shang also learned Baguazhang from both Li Cunyi and Cheng Tinghua (程庭华, 1848 – 1900). Shang was well known for his skill with the Beng Quan (one of the five basic skills of Xing Yi Quan). Because he was skilled in combat, Guo Yunshen (郭云深, 1820 – 1901) visited him personally to instruct him on his Beng Quan methods (for which he had also been known).

Shang, like his shifu Li Cunyi, was famous with his combat ability, he earned nicknames like “Iron Arms”, “Iron Feet Buddha”, “Half Step Bengquan”, etc for his real-life combat experiences and his ability to generate exceptionally strong explosive power. Shang’s career had always been related to martial arts. He had worked as a biaotou (headman of a biaoju ), bodyguard, detective, martial arts teacher and so on.

The style Shang taught was promoted as 'Shang Style Xingyiquan' by his successors. The leading figures of Shang Style Xingyiquan were/are Li Wenbin (李文彬, 1918 – 1997, Shang’s student), Shang Zhirong (尚芝容, 1923 – 2004, Shang’s youngest daughter), Li Hong (李宏, 1954 – ), Zhang Shijie (张世杰, 1946 – ), etc. The style is still practiced by many people today.

Shang's lineage can be traced along the Xing Yi Quan lineage chart (originally from the Xing Yi page on Wikipedia):