Top 8 Chinese Kung Fu masters in Minguo era

The Minguo era refers to the period from 1912 to 1949 in mainland China. This period witnessed the prime of Chinese Kung Fu masters. Here is a list of 8 most famous Chinese Kung Fu masters of that time:

1. Yip Man

Yip Man (1893 –1972), also spelled as Ip Man, was a well-known Wing Chun master. He taught the Wing Chun in Hong Kong in the 1950s. He was the first person to open a Wing Chun school to the masses and his effort also brought Wing Chun to its eminence today. He also nurtured the famous martial artists including Bruce Lee. He passed away in 1972 and was praised as “Grandmaster” by his disciples.

2. Li Shuwen

Li Shuwen (1862-1934) is famous for his superb martial arts skill. He was born in Cangzhou city, which is known as “Hometown of Martial Arts”. It was said that he was never defeated in his life. He was good at Bajiquan, Piguazhang and spear. Due to his excellent boxing and spear technique, he got the reputation of “never need to strike twice” and “the God of the Spear.”

3. Shang Yunxiang

Shang Yunxiang (1864 -1937) is martial artist, Xingyiquan master and founder of Shang style Xingyiquan. He first learnt Xingyiquan skill from Li Cunyi and later Guo Yunshen. He was thin and weak and was less than 1.6 meters tall, however, his fame spread all over the martial art world for his “Half Step Bengquan” , “Qi Full of Belly” , “Big Spear” and excellent combat ability. He was hired by Li Lianying, the Head Eunuch of Qing Dynasty, to guard his courtyard, worked as a Biaotou (headman of a biaoju) in Beijing and Baoding.

4. Sun Lutang

Sun Lutang (1860-1933) was a renowned martial artist during Late Qing Dynasty and early Mingguo era. He was Xingyiquan, Baguazhang, Taichiquan master, and the founder of Sun style Taijiquan. He has also published many books on the theory of different martial styles he learnt.

5. Li Jinglin

Li Jinglin (1885-1931) was both a martial art master and a army general during the Chinese warlord era. He learnt Wudang Sword from Song Weiyi and later obtained Taichiquan from Yang Luchan. These two marital art styles helped him develop skillful sword technique and got the nickname of “China’s First Sword.”

6. Zhang Ce

Zhang Ce (1866-1934) was a well-known Tongbeiquan master. He created his own style Tongbeiquan named Taiji&Wuxing Tongbeiquan. He obtained great fame from his many victories in real fightings, hence got the nickname of “Bei Sheng”, or “Sage of Tongbei”.

7. Du Xinwu

Du Xinwu (1869 -1953) was a Chinese martial artist who developed his own internal style Kung Fu – Ziranmen, also known as Natural Boxing. It is a Northern internal style Kung Fu taught together with Qigong breathing techniques.  When studied in Japan, Du Xinwu defeated Japanese sumo and got the name of “God-legs”.  He served as Sun Yat-sen’s bodyguard and protected him in important events.

8 Wang Ziping

Wang Ziping (1881–1973) was a Muslim practitioner of Chinese Martial Arts from Cangzhou – “Hometown of Chinese Martial Arts.” He has been practicing martial art since child and was good at Chaquan and Taichi. Wang won fights against Russian, American, German, and Japanese martial artists. He was also the vice chairman of the Chinese Wushu Association.

31 Responses

  1. Mamadou says:

    What are the real values of their “windmills” gesticulations grand masters in real life & real street fights…nope.
    As a Nakmuay (Muay Thai) I sent many of them directly at the hospital. Now in the 21st Century I can’t hardly understand why this useless & unefficient crap still have “believers” please don’t waste your time and above all your money with those thugs & scammers…get into real life

  2. Yash kukreti says:

    Huo yuanjia also better then ip man and real hero of china

  3. Sajjad says:

    You fucking people what about bruce lee

    • God says:

      Bruce Lee was never a master idiot lmao

      • Christina says:

        Agreed- he only had about 5 years formal training under Ip Man and technically was good but rather weak in a few areas.He also disrespected the old masters by daring suggest that the old ways which have held up in battle for 2000 years were useless today. A little punk is what he was though I have to admit I do like his movies

        • lol says:

          Bruce Lee had more wisdom for combat than any master ever

          • King_V019 says:

            not really

          • Rob Knight says:

            Lol.. NO he didn’t.. NOT even close. Bruce was only an above average student and he only had 5 years of actual training. He was NO Master at all. But he was very diligent in his physical side of the training which brought him to a higher level overall. Compared to your average shopping mall karate place.. sure he would be a “master” in comparison to them and nearly all karate teachers.. but for real kung-fu.. he was a good junior student is all.

        • Rob Knight says:

          You’re correct about Lee. He disrespected the real arts which GAVE him his foundation in Wing Chun which he still largely based his Jeet Kune Do on. The one thing he did NOT seem to understand is that you can NOT START teaching a student to be “Formless” UNTILL they have already Mastered FORM. You MUST have a Rigid structure or frame to BUILD upon, then you can eventually become less rigid and structured. This is the way of All things. But you can not start out a student without structure. Even Tai Chi has forms or structure, it’s just SOFT structure. Tai chi goes from soft to hard. Shaolin goes from Hard to Soft. The greater and more solid is your foundation, which starts with structure, the greater your fighting and skills will be.

    • sree lemon chandra mohonta says:

      You don’t know about yip man bro. World best grand master is yip man. God of Kong fu is yip man

    • James says:

      What about Wong fei hung

    • evgyrt says:

      gongfu masters of the 1912-49 era, hardly count in bruce lee, and he was etnically 1/4 swede and an american citizen by birth.

  4. Anonymous says:

    What about Bruce Lee?

  5. Sepfian Herdyanto says:

    Where is Wang Xiang-Zhai, founder of Yi Quan!?

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  8. kasutav says:

    I wanna learn kung fu.So if plz anyone is interested in teachinh me then i will be great ful.I wanna learn kung fu tor protect myself and my family

  9. abhishek pyare says:

    I learn kung fu . Do you learn kung fu me please please

  10. Shriraj Tripute says:

    Buddhidharam is great kung fu master and great Indian India is great country

  11. wei chuan says:

    i am a kung fu master i wiil tech you kung fu

  12. rohit says:

    I love kung-fu

  13. hemanth says:

    i have no master to teach me a kung- fu

  14. ericchan says:

    teach meegaelclarw ilikekungfuthedargon ericchan and ilike jackiechan

  15. Master Dragon says:

    ..Imma kungfu Master,,,,,,, yeah…..

  16. Ravi chauhan says:

    I am so much like a kungfu but i have master to tech me anytime my kungfu techer so i want to laren a kungfu.

  17. satwant singh says:

    i love kung fu….

    • kyle harris says:

      I have studied kung fu by wushu and I like it but when I use kung fu not for evil but for good and I trained myself to understand kung fu and it’s art form but I don’t have a master to teach me the way of kung fu

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