Li Cunyi (李存義, 1847–1921) — "Single-Saber Li," the anchor of northern Xingyi

Li Cunyi (李存義 / Lǐ Cúnyì, 1847–1921), courtesy name Zhongyuan (忠元), was the great Hebei Xingyi master who became the institutional anchor of the Republican-era northern arts — the "Single-Saber Li" (單刀李) who escorted caravans with a sabre, taught the generation that taught nearly everyone, and lent his authority to the Chinese Warriors' Association (中華武士會), the first modern public martial-arts society in the north.

Life

Born in 深州 (Shenzhou), Hebei — the same martial heartland that produced Li Luoneng and Guo Yunshen. He learned **Xingyiquan from **Liu Qilan (with additional guidance from Guo Yunshen), and Bagua in Cheng Tinghua's circle. He earned his living on the road as a caravan guard (鏢師), founding the 萬通鏢局 (Wantong Escort Bureau) in Baoding, and served for a time as a military martial-arts instructor.

The Chinese Warriors' Association

In 1912 Li Cunyi stood at the centre of the public founding, in Tianjin, of the 中華武士會 (Chinese Warriors' Association) — the first great modern, public martial-arts society in the north, conceived from around 1910 by the revolutionary organisers 葉雲表 (Ye Yunbiao) and Ma Fengtu. Li was its senior authority and chief instructor (named in some accounts as its chair), the figure around whom the Xingyi–Bagua teaching cohered. It was a direct forerunner of the institutional impulse that produced the Jingwu and the Central Guoshu Institute.

Students

Li's line is the most disseminated Hebei Xingyi of all, and his students are a who's-who: 尚雲祥 (Shang Yunxiang, founder of Shang-style Xingyi**), 郝恩光, 黃柏年, 傅劍秋, 薛顛 (Xue Dian), 陳泮嶺, 褚桂亭**, and many more — "hundreds," the sources say. Through them most of the Republican and modern Hebei Xingyi descends.

He left the manuals 《拳術教範》 and 《刺殺拳譜》.

See also

Xingyi (形意拳) — the style overview

Liu Qilan (劉奇蘭) — his teacher

Foreign Strongmen & the Big-Sword Army — the 中華武士會 and the Kang Tai'er challenge

Central Guoshu Institute — the national academy his generation's impulse produced

A Short History of Chinese Martial Arts

Sources

[1] 李存義, Chinese Wikipedia (zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/李存義_(清朝)) and Baidu Baike — dates, the Liu Qilan lineage, the escort-bureau career, the students, the "Single-Saber" tradition.

[2] Benjamin Judkins, Kung Fu Tea / Chinese Martial Studies — on the 中華武士會 and the historiography of the period's "Boxer-fighter" legends (chinesemartialstudies.com).