---
title: Liu Yunqiao (劉雲樵, 1909–1992) — Baji to Taiwan, founder of Wutan
---

**Liu Yunqiao** (**劉雲樵 / Liú Yúnqiáo**, 1909–1992) is the man who carried **八極拳 (Baji)** and **劈掛 (Pigua)** out of the Hebei heartland and into Taiwan and the wider world. The last disciple of **"Divine Spear" **[**Li Shuwen**](https://wulin.openmindspace.org/li-shuwen), an inheritor of the [**Yin Fu**](https://wulin.openmindspace.org/yin-fu) Bagua line through Gong Baotian, a military-intelligence officer and trainer of the Republic of China **presidential bodyguards**, Liu founded the **武壇 (Wutan)** organization in 1971 and, through students like [**Su Yu-Chang**](https://wulin.openmindspace.org/su-yu-chang) and **徐紀 (Adam Hsu)**, globalized Baji.

## Life

Born in **滄縣 Cang County (Cangzhou), Hebei** in 1909, into a landowning family in *the* martial heartland of the north. As a child he was placed under [**李書文 Li Shuwen**](https://wulin.openmindspace.org/li-shuwen) — the fearsome Baji and great-spear master, who lived and taught in the Liu household — and became Li's **last formal disciple**, training in [**Baji**](https://wulin.openmindspace.org/baji), [**Pigua**](https://wulin.openmindspace.org/pigua), and the **大槍 (great spear)**.

He broadened well beyond Baji. He studied **八卦掌 (Bagua)** under **宮寶田 (Gong Baotian)** — himself a disciple of [**Yin Fu**](https://wulin.openmindspace.org/yin-fu) and a former imperial bodyguard — linking Liu directly to the Yin-line Bagua of the old Qing court, along with other northern arts.

Around **1948–49** Liu moved to **Taiwan** with the Nationalist government. He served in **military intelligence**, and later directed the training of the **Presidential bodyguards (侍衛)** — the role that gave him the standing of a national martial authority. In **1971** he founded the **武壇國術推廣中心 (Wutan)**, systematizing Baji + Pigua + Bagua for modern students and publishing widely. He died in **Taiwan in 1992**.

## What he gave the art

- **The principal vector by which Baji + Pigua reached the world.** Before Liu, Baji was a closely-held Hebei and Manchurian-court art; through Wutan it became an internationally taught system, with branches in Japan, the United States, and Europe.
- **A preserved, published transmission of Li Shuwen.** Li wrote nothing; much of what the world knows of his Baji and spear comes through Liu's teaching and Wutan's materials.
- **The paired Baji–Pigua curriculum** — *"Baji with Pigua, gods and ghosts are afraid"* — taught as an integrated whole, the short-range and long-range arts as one body of work.

## The lineage that descends from him

- **蘇昱彰 (**[**Su Yu-Chang**](https://wulin.openmindspace.org/su-yu-chang)**)** — carried Baji (and Pachi Tanglang) to the United States and Europe.
- **徐紀 (Adam Hsu)** — prolific teacher and author who spread Liu's Baji and traditional-method teaching in the West.
- A large Taiwanese and international Wutan network that remains the major outside-mainland Baji transmission, paralleling the orthodox **Mengcun Wu-family** line in Hebei.

## See also

<PageRef space="notes" slug="li-shuwen" text="Li Shuwen (李書文) — Liu's teacher, 'Divine Spear'" />

<PageRef space="notes" slug="baji" text="Baji (八極拳) — the full style overview" />

<PageRef space="notes" slug="pigua" text="Pigua (劈掛掌) — Baji's classical pairing partner" />

<PageRef space="notes" slug="su-yu-chang" text="Su Yu-Chang (蘇昱彰) — Liu's disciple; Baji to the West" />

<PageRef space="notes" slug="yin-fu" text="Yin Fu (尹福) — the Bagua line Liu inherited via Gong Baotian" />

<PageRef space="notes" slug="diaspora" text="Diaspora — Where Chinese Martial Arts Went (the Taiwan vector)" />

## Sources

**[1]** *Liu Yunqiao*, Wikipedia ([en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liu\_Yunqiao](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liu_Yunqiao)) and the Chinese Wikipedia counterpart — biography, the Li Shuwen and Gong Baotian transmissions, the bodyguard role, the founding of Wutan.

**[2]** Wutan (武壇) school histories and Liu Yunqiao's published Baji / Pigua materials — the transmitted curriculum.

**[3]** *吳金賢 ed. 八極拳國術秘本* (1936) — the held public-domain Baji manual from the era of Li Shuwen's mature teaching; the textual backdrop to Liu's transmission. Held in the codex.