Wang Ziping (王子平, 1881–1973) — the "Thousand-Pound King"

Wang Ziping (王子平 / Wáng Zǐpíng, 1881–1973), courtesy name Yong'an (永安), was a Cangzhou Hui (Muslim) master of 查拳 (Chaquan) famous for prodigious strength — the "Thousand-Pound King" (千斤王) who answered the touring foreign strongmen, headed the Shaolin gate of the Central Guoshu Institute, and spent a long second life as one of China's most renowned bone-setters.

Life

Born in 滄州 (Cangzhou), then Zhili, into a Hui family with a martial tradition. He trained 查拳 (Chaquan) under 楊鴻修 (Yang Hongxiu) and Huaquan under 沙寶興, and became legendary for raw power — lifting, stone-locks, and feats of strength that earned him the name 千斤王, the Thousand-Pound King.

The Russian strongman

Wang is the foremost of the era's masters who actually fought a foreign strongman and won. At Beijing's Central Park — by most accounts in 1918 or 1919 (sources differ) — he confronted the touring Russian Kang Tai'er (康泰爾), who billed himself the "world's strongest man." Accounts agree Wang prevailed; several add that the Russian, faced with a real challenger, declined to fight — which is why historians treat the dramatic "defeat" as part fact, part embellishment. (The very same Kang Tai'er victory is also claimed by the Xingyi master Han Muxia — see Foreign Strongmen.)

The Guoshu Institute, and a second life in medicine

In 1928 Wang was appointed head of the 少林門 (Shaolin / external-arts gate) at the Nanjing Central Guoshu Institute. He was also, for decades, one of Shanghai's leading traumatologists and bone-setters (傷科 / 骨科) — a healer as famous as the fighter. After 1949 he served as a vice-chair of the China Wushu Association, and in 1960, aged about eighty, accompanied Premier Zhou Enlai to Burma as the wushu delegation's chief coach.

His daughter 王菊蓉 (Wang Jurong, 1928–2009) became a founding professor of wushu who later taught in the United States. Wang left the manuals 《拳術二十法》 and the therapeutic 《祛病延年二十勢》 ("Twenty Postures to Dispel Illness and Lengthen Life," 1958).

See also

Cha + Hua (查拳) — his art

Foreign Strongmen & the Big-Sword Army — the Kang Tai'er story in full

Central Guoshu Institute — where he headed the Shaolin gate

A Short History of Chinese Martial Arts

Sources

[1] 王子平, Chinese Wikipedia (zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/王子平) and Baidu Baike — dates, the Chaquan lineage, the 千斤王 name, the Guoshu Institute role, the bone-setting career. The Russian match is best dated 1919 in the most authoritative sources (some popular accounts say 1918).

[2] Benjamin Judkins, "Wang Ziping and the Strength of the Nation," Kung Fu Tea (chinesemartialstudies.com) — the strongman matches and their historiography. [3] Wang Jurong, English Wikipedia — his daughter's career.