Gao Yisheng
Chinese baguazhang master (1866–1951), student of Cheng Tinghua and Song Changrong, founder of the Gao baguazhang style with 64 houtian palms.
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ChinaBiography
Gao Yisheng was a Chinese baguazhang master and the founder of the Gao baguazhang style. He was born in 1866 in the village of Dazhuangzi (Dashan, Wudi county) in Shandong province. In childhood he permanently damaged his leg in an accident with a mule cart and had to walk with a cane.
As a boy he learned the dahongquan style ("Great Red Fist") in his home village. In 1892, at the age of 26, he began studying baguazhang under Song Changrong. From 1896, thanks to an acquaintance with Zhou Yuxiang, he studied for four years in Beijing under Cheng Tinghua. Between 1902 and 1911 he studied xingyiquan under Li Cunyi. He claimed to have met the Taoist Song Yiren in 1912; according to the source this is likely a fabrication.
Around 1902 he began teaching the Cheng baguazhang style. In 1911 he returned to his home village and began teaching his own style, Gao baguazhang, which includes 64 houtian palms and a comprehensive curriculum of basic exercises, forms, weapons and push hands. His students included his nephew Liu Fengcai, his first student Wu Jin-yuan, and also Wu Mengxia, Zhang Junfeng and He Kecai.
In 1942 he defeated a taijiquan teacher in a duel, who died from his injuries. Gao Yisheng then fled from the police and worked in a pharmacy for the rest of his life. He died in 1951 in the village of Wu Ching, to which he had fled from Tianjin, at the age of 84 or 85.