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Master Chu Gui Ting was born in Hebei Province June 21, 1890. At age of six, he lost his father. As a young boy, he loved martial arts very much, so by the age of 10 he had already known many systems such as Shaolin and Drunken Fist. Famous Xingyi masters Jiang Yue He and Li Cun Yi knowing the potential of the boys, both accepted him to their personel disciples. Master Kiang traveled quite frequent so he left the teaching of the boy to Master Li Cun Yi. He praticed Xingyi by day and Baguazhang by night. This story about two masters of the same art teaching one disciple was well talked in his home town because this was very rare at the time. This story also shows the love and caring of the two Masters for young Chu Gui Ting and the personal affection toward him.

At age 22, he was already known for his incredible Tui Gong. He broke one attacker's leg after being ambushed from behind. In 1914, in a farewell party to Master Xao Yin Kuan across town in Tien Zing, all of his martial arts friends took the boat across to get there while he himself went bare foot, doing beng quan to get there from his home town. This story is enough to describe how much dedication he had for the martial arts.


Master Chu in Long Xing or "Dragon Form."

In 1914, in a match with Yang Taijiquan Master Yang Cheng Fu, Master Chu realized the hidden power of Taiji. He was later accepted as one of Yang's students and became one of Yang's top ten disciples of Yang Taiji. In later years, Grandmaster Yang had left the responsibility to Master Chu to take on the challenges from other martial art fighters. This was to show the confidence level Grandmaster Yang had in Master Chu.

In 1926, Master Chu was presented and accepted by famous swordsman Li Jing Lin to learn Wu Dan Tui Jen ( Wu Dan Sparring Swords ). This skill was added to his already famous Xingyi, Bagua sword systems : San Hei Tao, Liu Hei Jen, making him a well round martial artist with incredible rare skills.

In spring of 1928, three famous armed forces generals, Zhang Zi Jiang, Li Jing Lin and Fung Zu Ziang organized the first national China full contact competition with no protective gear in Nanjing. The preliminary fight was held in Shanghai and the final fight was held in Nanjing. Master Chu was the winner of this 1928 contest. In this contest, because there were no rules and no protective gear, there were many injuries among the fighters from all styles. The government did not pay for these expenses. It was the individual fighter's responsibility. Master Chu wass incredible fighter, but surprisingly with a hidden kind heart. There was one story about his kindness. During the morning bout, he broke the opponent's shoulder with a downwards elbowstrike. The couldn't take any more punishment and took refuge under the referee table. Master Chu felt terrible about his excessive force. He later bought the medication with his own money and personally took it to his defeated opponent.

After the fight of 1928, he was invited to be the chief martial art officer of several government organizations: the security force of the President's Palace of Nanjing, the police headquarters, the police academy, The Department of Arm Forces, Armed Forces Academy and the security force of Jen Su province.

There was one story about how he had given martial art lessons to about 35 policemen on the street during his army commission as chief martial art officer. It turned out some of these so-called policemen were corrupt. One day he was in a civilian clothing taking a walk in a crowd market place. He witnessed this group of policemen giving a hard time to a poor food stand owner on the street. He became involved the matter without revealing his true identity. The policemen turned their attention to Master Chu and went to handcuff him and place him in jail. He did not allow that to happen.


Grandmaster Chu with top disciple Gong
Zhong Xiang at a young age.


With only his bare hands, he foght the group of corrupted men. Many nearby policemen joined in the fight. After everything was over, all thirty or so of them were laying on ground with broken bones screaming in pain. Only after the incidence was over, they later learned that the one who beat them up was the chief martial arts officer. But by then it was too late.

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