---
title: "Ma Fengtu & Ma Yingtu (馬鳳圖・馬英圖) — the brothers who built 通備"
---

The **Ma brothers of Cangzhou — Ma Fengtu (馬鳳圖, 1888–1973)** and **Ma Yingtu (馬英圖, 1898–1956)** — fused four of the great northern arts into a single integrated system, **通備 (Tōngbèi, "comprehensive-prepared") martial learning**, and armed the Republican era's broadsword soldiers with the famous **破鋒八刀**. Hui (Muslim) masters of the Cangzhou heartland, they sit at the crossroads of Pigua, Baji, Fanzi, and the dadao of the resistance.

## The brothers

**Ma Fengtu (馬鳳圖)**, courtesy name **Jianxiang (健翔)**, 1888–1973, and his younger brother **Ma Yingtu (馬英圖)**, 1898–1956, were born into a **Hui** martial family of **Cangzhou (Mengcun / Yangshiqiao)** — the same Cangzhou-and-Mengcun ground that produced the Wu-family [Baji](https://wulin.openmindspace.org/baji) and Li Shuwen. The family later resettled in the **northwest (Gansu)**, where the Ma-style 通備 took deep root.

## 通備 — the synthesis

Ma Fengtu's life work was to **integrate four arts that had long been practised separately** into one coherent system under the motto *理象會通 ("uniting principle and form")*:

- [**劈掛 (Pigua)**](https://wulin.openmindspace.org/pigua) — the long-range, whip-like family art;
- [**八極 (Baji)**](https://wulin.openmindspace.org/baji) — the short, explosive close art (the classic 劈掛 + 八極 pairing);
- [**翻子 (Fanzi)**](https://wulin.openmindspace.org/chuojiao-fanzi) — the dense, rapid tumbling hands;
- [**戳腳 (Chuojiao)**](https://wulin.openmindspace.org/chuojiao-fanzi) — the kicking art;

plus spear and staff — drawing on a **通背大架** he inherited from **黃林彪 (Huang Linbiao)**, tracing to the Qing master **潘文學 (Pan Wenxue)**. The result, **馬氏通備武學**, is one of the most ambitious systematisations in Chinese martial history.

## 破鋒八刀 — the sabre of the resistance

Ma Fengtu devised the **破鋒八刀 ("Eight Sabres that Break the Edge")**, a battlefield broadsword method, for **Feng Yuxiang's 西北軍 (Northwest Army)** — developed through the **新武術研究會 (New Martial Arts Research Society)** he co-founded with **張之江 (Zhang Zhijiang)** at Zhangjiakou around **1924–25** — and wrote the army's **《白刃戰術教程》 (close-combat manual)**. *(The method is widely cited as ancestral to the famous *[*1933 Big-Sword units*](https://wulin.openmindspace.org/foreign-challengers)*; the direct chain to the 29th Army's saber is asserted in popular history but debated by scholars — best stated as "associated with," not proven.)*

## Ma Yingtu and the Guoshu Institute

The younger brother, **Ma Yingtu — "Lightning Hands" (閃電手)** — was a feared practical fighter. He performed Baji at the **1910 Tianjin 中華武士會** demonstration and was praised by **"Divine Spear" **[**Li Shuwen**](https://wulin.openmindspace.org/li-shuwen). From 1927 at the [**Central Guoshu Institute**](https://wulin.openmindspace.org/central-guoshu-institute), he was a section head of the Shaolin gate, one of the institute's strongest men, who helped run the first **國考** national examination and pushed to make **八極** a core subject.

The Ma family's 通備 continues today through Ma Fengtu's sons — **馬賢達 (Ma Xianda, 1932–2013)**, a major modern wushu figure, and **馬明達 (Ma Mingda)**, a martial-arts scholar.

## See also

<PageRef space="notes" slug="pigua" text="Pigua (劈掛) — a core component of 通備" />

<PageRef space="notes" slug="baji" text="Baji (八極) — the 劈掛+八極 pairing the Ma brothers integrated" />

<PageRef space="notes" slug="chuojiao-fanzi" text="Chuojiao + Fanzi (戳腳翻子) — the other two arts of the synthesis" />

<PageRef space="notes" slug="foreign-challengers" text="Foreign Strongmen &amp; the Big-Sword Army — the 破鋒八刀 and the dadao units" />

<PageRef space="notes" slug="central-guoshu-institute" text="Central Guoshu Institute — where Ma Yingtu ran the first 國考" />

## Sources

**[1]** *馬鳳圖*, Chinese Wikipedia and *馬英圖*, Baidu Baike — dates, the 通備 synthesis, the 破鋒八刀, the Guoshu Institute role, the family line.

**[2]** *理象會通：馬氏通備*, HK01 ([hk01.com](https://www.hk01.com/%E6%AD%A6%E5%82%99%E5%BF%97/147072/)) and the Tongbei Institute ([tongbeiedu.wordpress.com](https://tongbeiedu.wordpress.com/2013/05/08/ma-fengtu-%E9%A6%AC%E9%B3%B3%E5%9C%96/)) — the Ma-style 通備 system and its components.

**[3]** *破鋒八刀*, China News ([chinanews.com.cn](https://www.chinanews.com.cn/cul/2012/12-06/4386303.shtml)) — Ma Fengtu's saber method and its (debated) link to the Great-Wall dadao squads.