---
title: Gong Baotian (宮寶田, c. 1870–1943) — the imperial bodyguard of Yin-style Bagua
---

**Gong Baotian** (**宮寶田 / Gōng Bǎotián**, c. 1870–1943), courtesy name **Ziying (子英)**, was a master of **Yin-style Baguazhang** (尹派八卦掌), a famous **Qing imperial bodyguard**, and the man who carried the Yin line into Shandong — and, through his student [**Liu Yunqiao**](https://wulin.openmindspace.org/liu-yunqiao), toward Taiwan and the wider world. Small and astonishingly agile, the martial world nicknamed him **"Gong the Monkey" (宮猴子)** for his light-body skill.

## Life

Born around 1870 in **青山村 (Qingshan Village)**, in the old **寧海州 (Ninghai Subprefecture)** of Dengzhou — today in **Rushan (乳山), Shandong**. He came to Beijing and became a disciple of [**Yin Fu**](https://wulin.openmindspace.org/yin-fu), the senior disciple of Bagua's founder [**Dong Haichuan**](https://wulin.openmindspace.org/dong-haichuan), placing Gong in the second generation of the art and the Yin (尹派) branch.

<Callout type="info">
  **A note on the lineage.** Lineage tradition holds that the young Gong also received some early guidance from the aged **Dong Haichuan** himself, on Yin Fu's introduction. Dong died in 1882, however, when Gong was a child, so any such contact was brief at most — his documented teacher is **Yin Fu**. He is famed for **light-body skill (輕功)**; the often-repeated image of him **walking the rim of a wicker basket without tipping it** is part of that reputation, and best read as tradition.
</Callout>

## The imperial guard

Gong's skill reached the **Qing court**. By tradition in **1897** he was summoned to the palace as a head of the imperial guard with the rank of **四品帶刀侍衛 ("Fourth-Rank Sword-Bearing Guard")**, serving as a personal bodyguard to the **Empress Dowager Cixi** and the **Guangxu Emperor**. In the upheaval of **1900** — the Boxer crisis and the Eight-Nation Alliance's entry into Beijing — he is recorded as escorting the imperial party in its flight to **Xi'an**, and was rewarded with the **Yellow Riding Jacket (黃馬褂)**. He left palace service around 1905 and returned to Shandong. Later, in **1922**, the Manchurian warlord **Zhang Zuolin (張作霖)** engaged him to instruct his army; Gong withdrew again after Zhang's assassination in 1928. He died in **1943**.

## What he carried

Gong preserved and transmitted the **Yin-style Bagua** — the tighter, harder, more percussive branch of the art — and is the principal reason it took root in Shandong.

## Students

- [**Liu Yunqiao**](https://wulin.openmindspace.org/liu-yunqiao) — studied Bagua under Gong at **Yantai (煙台)** around 1933–1935, and later carried it (alongside his primary art, Baji) to Taiwan through his **Wutan** school. *(Liu's main lineage was Baji under Li Shuwen; Bagua via Gong was a second transmission.)*
- **王壯飛 (Wang Zhuangfei), 單香陵 (Shan Xiangling), 宮寶齋 (Gong Baozhai)**, and others continued the line in Shandong and beyond.

Gong left **no written manual**; his transmission is through his students.

## See also

<PageRef space="notes" slug="yin-fu" text="Yin Fu (尹福) — his teacher; the Yin branch of Bagua" />

<PageRef space="notes" slug="bagua" text="Bagua Palm (八卦掌) — the full style overview" />

<PageRef space="notes" slug="dong-haichuan" text="Dong Haichuan (董海川) — the founder, two generations above" />

<PageRef space="notes" slug="liu-yunqiao" text="Liu Yunqiao (劉雲樵) — his Bagua student; carried the line to Taiwan" />

<PageRef space="notes" slug="history" text="A Short History of Chinese Martial Arts" />

## Sources

**[1]** *宮寶田*, Chinese Wikipedia ([zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/宮寶田](https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%AE%AE%E5%AF%B6%E7%94%B0)) and Shandong (Weihai/Rushan) local historical records — birth (c. 1870), the Yin Fu discipleship, the imperial-guard service under Cixi and Guangxu, the 1900 flight to Xi'an, and the Liu Yunqiao transmission.

**[2]** *Liu Yunqiao*, Wikipedia ([en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liu\_Yunqiao](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liu_Yunqiao)) — corroborating Liu's study of Bagua under Gong Baotian at Yantai in the 1930s.