23rdMarch2015

LiJingLinThe"SwordSaint"and"Warlord"who
woretheImperialYellowJacket

[http://4.bp.blogspot.com/
VieDf5D5sMA/VQ_GV7inevI/AAAAAAAAC0g/jXNsyqOpwA/s1600/11409291616145L.jpg]

TranslationofanarticlefromtheBusinessTimesNewspaper

AmongtheChineseWarlords,LiJingLinhasbecomealmost"marginalized",unlikeZhangZongChangwhosenamewillstink
forever,orSunChuanFangwhoselifestillattractsalotofinterest.ButinactualityLiJingLinandZhangZongChangwere
twoofthe"FiveTigers"ofZhangZuolin.ButnotonlywasherecognizedasaWarlordbeforeZhangZongChangbuthisstatuswas
always above that of Zhang Zong Chang. Like Zhang Zong Chang his troops were semi trained conscripts. During the ZhiWan
(HebeiAnhui)Warin1920,LiJingLinoperatedasaRegimentalCommanderundertheAnhuiCliqueGeneralQuTong
Feng,butwasoustedbyWuPeiFuandreluctantlysoughtrefugeundertheaegisofZhangZuoLin.Asbothofthemcommanded
troopswhowerenotregularsoldiers,theirrelationshipwasquitegood.TheirunitwascalledtheUnitedTroopsofZhili(nowHebei)
andShandong.Andbecamebloodbrothersfightinginthesamewars.

What is interesting is that when one talks of Li Jing Lin, one rarely discusses his leadership ability or his life as a Warlord. But
referenceisalwaysmadetohisstatusasamartialartsGrandmaster.TheauthorbelievesthatLiJingLinachievedtwothingsthat
deservetoberemembered.(1)DuringtheXinhaiRevolution,LiJingLin,hewasCaptainoftheQingCourtSecondSuicideSquad
,andwastaskedwithsuppressingtherebellioninHanyang.Duetohisvalorinbattle,theQingCourtawardedhimthe
ImperialYellowJacketorHuangMagua.(AsyellowwasacolornormallyreservedfortheImperialfamily,thisjacketgrantedforcivil
ormilitarymeritwasconsideredthehighesthonourduringtheQingdynasty)(2)LikeZhangZongChang,hewasalsoa"DogMeat
General"(thetermderivedfromthegamePaiGowwhichNorthernChinesetermedeatingdogmeat)andwhengamblinghe
didnotcarehowmuchmoneyhelost.AccordingtothememoirsofhisstrategistHanYuChen,oncehelost7080thousandsilver
dollars of offical funds gambling and he no means to repay. He then puffed up his chest and reported to General Zhang and took
responsibilitysayingthathedidnotshortanyofthesoldierspay[tocoverhisdebts].Zhangsaidthathedidwellandwroteoffthe
funds.Lisaidthatherememberedthisallhislife.

DiscussingLiJingLin'smartialarts

LiJingLin,whosecourtesynamewas""wasbornin1885anddiedin1931.HehailedfromJuchangCountyinEncaiTownship
inHebei.HewasanethnicHanBannerman,andalthoughhewasnotfamousasaWarlord,hehadthesobriquet"SwordSaint"or
"GodofSwordLi"whichalltheotherWarlordswerehardpressedtomatch.Astothesourceofhismartialartsandastohisoriginal
teacher there are many different theories. One theory is that his teacher was Chen Shi Jun , but according to the Wudang
Sword Dan School 12th generation Lineage Holder Wu Zhi Quan the existence of Chen Zhi Jun is questionable without any
historicalrecords.InsteadhesaysthatLi'smartialartscomesfromthreesources(1)hismartialartslearnedasachild(2)Wudang

SwordfromSongWeiYiand(3)YangTaijifromYangLuChan.

According to the present information, we can figure out this much. When he was young, Li Jing Lin had a foundation in Yan Qing
MenErLangMen.Whenhewas14heenlistedintheyouthcorpsinLuoyang.Theheadoftheyouthcorps,Song
Wei Yi noticed that Li Jing Lin had a foundation in martial arts and was very intelligent, thus he accepted him as his disciple and
transmittedtheWudangSwordtohim.SongWeiYi'sstatusinthemartialartscircleswasveryhigh,hewastheninthgeneration
lineage holder in the "Dan" school of Wudang Sword, and he was the first lineage holder in the history of Wudang Sword to
composeamartialartsmanual.In1922whenLiJingLinwasFirstGeneraloftheArmiesofthethreeEasternProvinces,hewaswas
traininghisarmiesinthenorthandhereconnectedwithhismaster,theywerenaturallyveryhappytoseeeachother.SongWeiYi
gavethemartialartsmanualhehadauthoredtoLiJingLinandthusreceivedthefulltransmissionfromSongWeiYi
andbecamethe10thGenerationLineageholderofWudangSword.ThushistitlessuchasSwordSaintwerenotabunchofhotair.

DuringtheBoxerRebelliontheyouthcorpsweredisbanded.ThatyearLiJingLinwas16andreturnedtohishometown,andwent
lookingintheneighboringYongnianCountyforanewteacherandbecameastudentofYangLuchan'sthirdsonYangJianHouand
learnedtheessenceofTaijiquan.Howeverthereareseveralaccountsofthisperiodofhislife,accordingtothefamousmartialartist
and"walkingencyclopedia"SaGuoZheng,LiJingLinlearnedhisTaijiquanfromtheeldestsonofYangLuChanYangFeng
Houandanindeedinthe1993FallissueofWudangMagazinethelineageislistedasYangLuChanYangFengHouLiJingLin
Jiang Rong Qiao Sa Guo Zheng. But other information states that his teacher was Yang Jian Hou. However as Yang Feng Hou
passedawayrelativelyearly,evenhissonYangJiaoLin'skungfuwastaughtbyhisunclesYangBanHouandYangJianHou.WuZhi
QuanalsostatedthatLiJingLinstudiedunderYangJianHouandwasoneofhisnonYangfamilydisciples.

Regardlessofwhateachpartystates,thesourceofLiJingLin'sTaichiwasYangLuChan,andthiscanconfirmed.Duringtraininghe
also formed a deep friendship with Yang Jian Hou's son Yang Chengpu and spent a lot of energy promoting Taichi. The current
simplifiedTaijisetand88movementTaijiquanpromotedbytheChinesegovernmentarebasedupontheoriginalShandongGuoshu
AcademymanualwhichwasauthoredbyLiJingLinandYangChengpuincollaborationwithothers.Therecordsstate
thatin1929LiJingLinaskedYangChengputoauthoramanual,andafterthreeroundsofcorrections,itwasdemonstratedbythe
HeadofTeachingoftheShangdongGuoshuAcademyLiYuLinandthefinalversionwassetbyLiJingLin.Atthistimethere
wasthosewhocalledthisversiontheLiJingLinStyleorthe"YangStyleNewFrame""NewYangStyle".

In addition to Taijiquan, Li Jing Lin also spent considerable effort popularizing Wudang Sword. Of special note was that Li Jing Lin
obtainedtheapprovalofSongWeiYitopublicizethehistoricallyconfidentialWudangSword.(In1923,themanualwaspublishedin
Beijng)andthishelpedthespreadandinfluenceofWudangswordgreatly.

Havingsaidthis,LiJingwasnotaconservativeperson,hewidelytaughtandaccepteddisciples.Thiswasespeciallytrueduringthe
1929NationalRingFightingCompetition anditwassaidthatduringthatperiodmorethan500peoplebecamehis
disciple.

TheAscendancyofLiJingLin

SomeinformationstatesthatLiJingLinwasagraduateofBaodingMilitaryAcademy,butthisdoesnotseemright.Accordingtothe
informationLiJingLinwenttostudyinBaodingin1903,andwasthesameyearasSunChuanFangandWuPeiFu.Atthetimethe
school was called the "Accelerated Military Training Hall for the BeiYang Army" and was the previous incarnation of the Baoding
MilitaryAcademy.TheperiodafterLiJingLingraduatedwasnotclearlydocumentedwithsomeinformationstatingthatheservedas
alowerlevelofficerincapital.

DuringtheXinhaiRevolution,LiJingLinfollowedthetroopssouth,tofighttherebels.AccordingtotherecordsLiJingLinwasvery
brave,andvolunteeredtoheadthesecondsuicidesquad.Atthattimethesuicidesquadhad500people,andwasdividedintotwo
teams,whencrossingtheXiangriverstraighttoSanyanBridge,ithittherebelssohardthattheycouldnotretaliate.Herushedto
thefronttocaptureHanyangCity'sGuishan(TortoiseMountain)andwasrewardedwithanImperialyellowjacketbytheQingcourt.

BeforeheservedunderZhangZuolin,LiJingLinonceservedundertheHeilongjiangWarlordXuLanZhouasastrategist.During
this time Li and Zhang were not "friends" but were "competitors". As Zhang Zuolin had ambitions to conquer the three Eastern
Provinces(Liaoning,JilinandHeilongjiang)hehadtodefeatXuLanzhou,andasLiJingLinservedasXu'sstrategist,wascaughtup
intheconflict,andthusforaperiodLi'scareerfacedmanyobstacles.DuringtheZhiWanWar,heevenfledtoserveasaregimental
commanderforQuTongfeng.Whenhewasdefeatedhelosthisstatusevenasaregimentalcommander.Reluctantlyhechangedhis
allegiancetoZhangZuolin,andinthisrespecthewassimilartoZhangCongchang.Howeverfromtheactualsituationwecansee
thatZhangZuolinrespectedLi'stalentsanddidnotdemotehiminthesamewayasZhangCongchang,butpromotedhimseveral
grades.AfterthefirstZhifengWarin1922,ZhangZuolinrestructuredhiscommandanditwasatthattimethatLiJingLinbecame
theCommanderinChiefofthethreeEasternProvinces.

Posted23rdMarch2015byBernardKwan
Labels:Chinese,history,martialarts,sword,taichi,Taoism,wudang
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