---
title: "Li Jinglin (李景林, 1885–1931) — the \"Sword Saint\" and patron of the jian"
---

**Li Jinglin** (**李景林 / Lǐ Jǐnglín**, 1885–1931), courtesy name **Fangchen (芳宸)**, was a **warlord general turned the great patron of the sword** — the **"Sword Saint" (劍仙)** whose **Wudang-sword (武當劍)** art, and whose founding role at the [Central Guoshu Institute](https://wulin.openmindspace.org/central-guoshu-institute), did more than anyone's to make the **jian (劍)** a living martial art again in the Republican era.

## Life — the general

Born in **棗強縣 (Zaoqiang County), Hebei**, Li was a serious military man, not a martial hobbyist. He rose through the **Fengtian (奉系)** and **Zhili (直系)** cliques, commanded the **直魯聯軍 (Zhili-Shandong Allied Army)**, and in 1925 served as **military governor of Zhili**. After the wars turned against his faction in 1927, he poured his remaining years and prestige into **國術 (the national art)**.

## The sword

The martial world called him **劍仙, the "Sword Saint"** — a popular honorific that attached after his death. His command of the **Wudang straight-sword** was real and consequential, but his **sword lineage is genuinely disputed**:

<Callout type="warning">
  **Whose sword?** Popular tradition (and Chinese Wikipedia) make Li a student of **宋唯一 (Song Weiyi)**, of the Wudang sword line. But the **earliest primary source — the 1931 *****武當劍法大要*****, written by Li's own disciple Huang Yuanxiu** — credits Li's Wudang sword to **陳世鈞 (Chen Shijun), a man of Anhui**, and does not mention Song Weiyi at all. The two attributions come from different traditions and do not agree; the honest course is to record both.
</Callout>

## The Central Guoshu Institute, and the held text

Li was a **co-founder and the first vice-director (副館長)** of the **Central Guoshu Institute** when it opened in Nanjing in 1928, and his personal network is credited with attracting its star faculty. He went on to found the **山東國術館 (Shandong Guoshu Institute)** in Jinan in 1930, where he died of dysentery in 1931, aged 46.

His sword survives chiefly through **黃元秀 (Huang Yuanxiu, 1884–1964)** — who studied the sword under Li and taiji under Yang Chengfu — and who compiled the **《武當劍法大要》 (Essentials of Wudang Sword Method, 1931)**. *The codex holds a scan of that very book*, in `Sources/northern-kungfu-manuals/` — making Li's transmission one we can read at the source.

## See also

<PageRef space="notes" slug="central-guoshu-institute" text="Central Guoshu Institute — which he co-founded and first co-led" />

<PageRef space="notes" slug="long-saber-method" text="The Long Saber (單刀法選) — the codex's other major bladed-weapon text" />

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

## Sources

**[1]** *李景林*, Chinese Wikipedia ([zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/李景林\_(1885年)](https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%9D%8E%E6%99%AF%E6%9E%97_(1885%E5%B9%B4))) — the military career, the Guoshu Institute role, the Song Weiyi tradition.

**[2]** 黃元秀 (Huang Yuanxiu), *武當劍法大要* (Commercial Press, 1931) — held in the codex; the **primary source**, with its appended biography crediting **Chen Shijun of Anhui**. English: Paul Brennan, [*Wudang Sword*](https://brennantranslation.wordpress.com/2014/06/01/wudang-sword/).