Bajiquan history

The recorded history of Baji begins from the restless early years of the Qing dynasty (1644-1911) when the Manchus took over the power from the Hans. Many Han soldiers were forced to blend in to the crowds or to escape to monasteries in order to survive. These officers were forming local resistance movements from varying material which needed to be taught martial arts quickly to be able to restore the power to the Han. Martial arts which had for a long time been family secrets suddenly became publicly taught.

Wu Zhong (1712-1802) was the son of a rich family in Meng village of Shandong province (山东). He had practised various martial arts from childhood. Eventually he became an officer in the local government. One day as he was practising his martial arts in his regular spot outside his home he met a person dressed as a taoist monk. This person told Wu that he had watched his training for several days and was pleased with what he had seen. Wu got a chance to test the visitor's skills and soon discovered that he had met an exceptional fighter. Wu offered to accomodate the visitor in his home and asked for teaching from this person who was obviously taking flight. He taught Wu for ten years after which he was given permission to start teaching Bajiquan publicly. This is the origin of the old name of Bajiquan, "Kaimen Bajiquan" or "open door Baji boxing".

Due to reasons unknown, Wu Zhong later moved to Luotan village in Cangzhou county, Hebei province (河北) where he continued to teach until his death. His daughter Wu Rong continued the teaching tradition with her husband. The best known students were Li Dazhong and Zhang Keming. Li Dazhong died under the age of 30 due to an attack by bandits while he was defending a convoy.  Zhang Keming and his family were killed by a hundred men during the turmoil of the civil war in 1947. Regardless of the demise of these two great masters, the Luotan village is still famous for its Bajiquan.