Cheng Tinghua
Chinese baguazhang master (1848–1900), student of Dong Haichuan and founder of the Cheng style, from which the Sun and Gao branches came, killed during the occupation of Beijing.
Quick Facts
ChinaBiography
Cheng Tinghua was a Chinese baguazhang master, one of the best-known students of Dong Haichuan and founder of a branch from which the Sun and Gao styles came. He was born in 1848 in the village of Chengjia in Shen County in Hebei Province and was killed in 1900 in Beijing.
Before baguazhang he practised the Chinese wrestling shuaijiao. According to Wikipedia he learned a trade from a maker of spectacles in Beijing, and according to the Chinese news agency Chinanews he opened a spectacle shop there, from which he was called Spectacled Cheng. Chinanews names Dong Haichuan and Guo Yunshen as his teachers and calls him the best-known Beijing student of Dong. His courtesy name was Yingfang.
According to Wikipedia his style rests on wrestling and throws and is based on the eight basic palms Ba Da Mu Zhang. According to Wikipedia, Sun Lutang studied with him from 1891, and in 1896 Gao Yisheng found him. From his style came the Sun, Gao and Jiang branches.
He was killed in 1900 during the occupation of Beijing by foreign troops. Chinanews says that soldiers arrested him and as he fled over a roof his queue caught on the tiles and he was shot, while Wikipedia writes of German soldiers and resistance to forced conscription. Sources give his sons and students differently.