LU SHUI TIEN

lu shui tien's pa kua chang

Lu Shui Tien (1894-1978) brought Pa Kua Chang to Korea when he moved his family there during the Chino-Japanese War. Lu, originally from the city of Ching Tao in Shantung Province - China, was well known in Shantung for his martial arts ability.
During the war Lu was a guerrilla fighter and killed many japanese soldiers. He was contributing to the war together with a group of chinese martial arts experts hiding in the mountains during the day and infiltrating japanese encampments at night.
Lu Shui Tien became so well known for his fighting skills that japanese put a price on his head. When this occured, it became too dangerous for Lu to stay in China, so he sailed from Ching Tao across the Yellow Sea to a safe place in Inchon, Korea.
When Lu Shui Tien was young, he studied what he called the "farmer's style" martial arts. By farmer style Lu was referring to any one of the hundreds of "family style" martial art systems practiced by inhabitants of remote towns and villages. After having practised farmer's styles for a number of years, Lu wanted to know more. He had heard that the best fighting art in China was Pa Kua Chang and so he sought out a Pa Kua Chang instructor.
He found Li Ching Wu (1864 -?). When he met Li, and began his study of Pa Kua Chang, he was still a teeenager. Li did not live in Ching Tao but in a town which was about two day ride by horse north of Ching Tao. Lu would frequently make the two day journey to his teachers town to study. The study and practice of Pa Kua Chang was the only thing that interested him.
Not much is known about Li Ching Wu himself. Park Bok Nam does not know who Li's teacher was, however Lu told him that Li only had ten Pa Kua Chang students at that time. These students kept for themselves the Pa Kua Chang learned from Li Ching Wu and this is the reason why this style didn't spread out too much. Li was very selective choosing his students. After Li's death, Lu Shui Tien looked around for another teacher to continue his studies, and began studying with a Tung Hai Chuan's fourth generation practitioners. Lu told Park that his first teacher taught a more complete system of the art than his second one, because he matched up straigth line footwork Pa Kua skills with circle walking and manouvres.
Nowadays in Beijing the Lu Shui Tien's name is very famous through the Yin Fu lineage Pa Kua Chang practitioners. They know he came from Ching Tao and left China during the chino-japanese war. Many of them think that the 2nd Lu's teacher was He Chin Kuei, the Yin Fu's son in law. Even if it wasn't confirmed it might be possible that one or both Lu's teachers was from Yin Fu lineage, because most of the Pa Kua he taught is typical of that style.