Hsu Hung-Chi

Who was Hsu Hung-Chi?

Hsu Hung-Chi or Xu Hongji was a Taiwanese martial artist who specialized in the internal Chinese arts of xingyiquan, baguazhang and taijiquan.

Hsu was born in Taibei, Taiwan in 1934 to a family of six brothers. In school, he was very athletic and participated in swimming, soccer and judo. He began his study of Shaolin kung fu with his father at an early age. He also learned boxing and became a skilled street fighter. After studying the external styles of shaolin for many years, he discovered the unique effectiveness of the internal martial arts and began training with Hung I-Hsiang, a master of all three of the major Chinese internal arts, xingyiquan, baguazhang and taijiquan.

After many years of training, Hsu opened his own martial arts school. Hsu's school used a modified version of the Tang Shou Tao system developed by his teacher Hung I-Hsiang. Hsu named his school Shen Long Tang Shou Tao. Tang Shou Tao is not a separate style of martial art, but rather a practical, step-by-step, systematic approach to learning internal martial arts and developing highly refined levels of skill.