Wang Xiangzhai
Chinese master (1885–1963), founder of the Yiquan style (Dachengquan), one of the first to publicly teach the standing posture zhan zhuang.
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ChinaBiography
Wang Xiangzhai was a Chinese martial arts master and founder of the Yiquan style, also known as Dachengquan. He was born on 26 November 1885 in Hebei province and died on 12 July 1963 in Tianjin at the age of 77.
As a physically weak child, he was sent to master Guo Yunshen to improve his health. He trained with him in zhan zhuang, a standing posture that required hours of practice. He left Guo three times and returned each time, believing that the traditional training was flawed. In his youth he served as a soldier in Beijing. At 33 he travelled across China and studied with other masters: the monk Heng Lin, Xie Tiefu (xingyiquan), Fang Yizhuang and Jin Shaofeng (white crane), Wu Yihui (liuhebafa), and Zhang Zhaodong (baguazhang).
After seven years of research with Chen Yen Tong, he settled in Shanghai; Chen Yen Tong proposed the name Yiquan for the new system. In the 1940s one of Wang's students, a journalist, renamed it Dachengquan (fist of great attainment). In Shanghai he taught, among others, Han Xingqiao, Han Xingyuan, Hong Lianshun, and Zhao Daoxin; in Beijing, Yao Zongxun and Zhang Entong. As one of the first Chinese teachers, he taught zhan zhuang publicly and, in cooperation with hospitals, studied its therapeutic effects.
He also received Japanese visitors. According to the sources, however, Kenichi Sawai studied under his successor Yao Zongxun, not directly under Wang.