Cheng Zongyou

Cheng Zongyou 程宗猷 (1561-1636) was a Chinese martial artist. He is noted for his publication Shaolin Gunfa Changzong or Elucidation of Shaolin Staff Techniques, as well as the Gengyu Shengji (Skills Beyond Farming) which described various other weapons systems, including Japanese kenjutsu.[1]

The "Lifting sleeve position" (Gaodaxiu shi) from Cheng Zhongyou's Shaolin Gunfa Changzong (1621)

Little is known of Cheng's life. He was born in Xiuning County into an upper-class family, and as such had a literary upbringing instead of the military (or criminal) childhood that was more common among professional martial artists of his era. He spent around a decade studying at the Shaolin Monastery, and described his training in some of his works.[2] He also learned Japanese kenjutsu techniques from Liu Yunfeng, who had studied under various Japanese masters of the sword.[3][4]

His Shaolin Gunfa Changzong was the first documented explanation of Shaolin methods, which had previously been transmitted only orally. Mao Yuanyi, the editor of the Wubei Zhi, was sufficiently impressed with this work that he incorporated it virtually wholesale into his own treatise.[2]

References
  1. Thomas A. Green; Joseph R. Svinth (11 June 2010). Martial Arts of the World: An Encyclopedia of History and Innovation [2 volumes]: An Encyclopedia of History and Innovation. ABC-CLIO. p. 95. ISBN 978-1-59884-244-9.
  2. Meir Shahar (2008). The Shaolin Monastery: History, Religion, and the Chinese Martial Arts. University of Hawaii Press. pp. 56–62. ISBN 978-0-8248-3110-3.
  3. Peter Allan Lorge (2012). Chinese Martial Arts: From Antiquity to the Twenty-First Century. Cambridge University Press. p. 266. ISBN 978-0-521-87881-4.
  4. Zhang Yun (2009). The Complete Taiji Dao: The Art of the Chinese Saber. Blue Snake Books. p. 23. ISBN 978-1-58394-227-7.


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