…the story of ninth generation Li Xin (Yan), Li Zhong (1598-1689), and cousin Chen Wangting (1597-1664) of Chen Village, all studying in the Taijimen (Taiji Gate) of the Thousand Year Temple, and collaboratively creating taiji yangshenggong shisanshi (taiji health cultivation thirteen postures) and tongbeigong (back-through art). Later, the two cousins accompanied Chen Wangting, when he competed in the provincial military examinations in Kaifeng. Incensed by an unfair judge’s scoring in the archery contest, the three participated in the fatal beating of the man. For this, Li Xin was stripped of his gongsheng degree and fled to Qicheng, where he worked in his uncle’s granary until it went bankrupt. Returning to his hometown Tang Village, he resumed his martial arts study in the Thousand Year Temple but was ‘enticed’ to join the rebel army of Li Zicheng, which sought to overthrow the Ming dynasty. He rapidly rose to the rank of general but was assassinated in 1644 on the eve of the collapse of the rebellion and Manchu takeover. The seventh section of the ‘Genealogy’ contains the titles of three texts related to martial self-cultivation, but only half of the ‘Shisanshi gong ge’ (Song of the thirteen postures routine) has survived, while the other two are missing [Li 2010].Douglas Wile, “Fighting Words” pg. 24
taiji:li_xin
taiji/li_xin.txt · Last modified: 2023/09/30 09:14 by 127.0.0.1