Lu Shui-Tian

Lu Shui-Tian (Lu Shui-T’ien, 1894–1978) brought Ba Gua Zhang to Korea. Born in the city of Ching Tao in Shantung Province, China, he was well known in Shantung for his martial arts ability, fought as a guerrilla during the Sino-Japanese War, and spent the rest of his life teaching in the Chinatown of Inchon. The Ba Gua Zhang taught by the association comes from him, through his successor, Master Bok Nam Park.

Early training in China

Lu studied “farmer style” martial arts when he was young. These “family style” systems were practiced in remote towns and villages because, during the Qing Dynasty, police protection reached only the large cities. A village would hire an experienced martial artist to live there for a time and teach its young men how to fight. Once that group was trained the teacher moved on and they trained others, so that over time each village made the system its own.

After a number of years Lu wanted to learn more. He heard that the best of the fighting arts was Ba Gua Zhang, so he sought a teacher. He was still a teenager when he found Li Qing-Wu (Li Ching-Wu). Li lived about a two day ride by horse north of Ching Tao, and Lu made the journey often, staying for months on end and sometimes as long as two years. The study and practice of Ba Gua Zhang was the only thing that interested him.

Not much is known about Li Qing-Wu, and so far no one has been able to determine who his teacher was. He was so selective about who he taught that he only had ten Ba Gua Zhang students. When Lu brought along a Xing Yi practitioner he had met on the road, Li flatly refused the man and scolded Lu for not asking first. Li taught each student individually, based on the student’s body type and aptitude, choosing the one aspect of the art that suited him best and sending him home to practice it for at least a year. Periodically he brought all ten together to teach each other what they had discovered. Every time Lu went to see his teacher he was tested when he arrived, and tested again before he left.

After Li Qing-Wu died, Lu Shui-Tian sought out other Ba Gua Zhang instructors. There is evidence that he spent some time with a Fourth Generation practitioner from Dong Hai-Chuan’s lineage. Master Park does not know the name of Lu’s second teacher because Lu seldom spoke of his background. Whenever a question touched on it he would respond, “That question will not help your practice.” Lu felt that stories about martial artists always get blown out of proportion, and that they turn a student’s mind away from the fundamental training that develops real skill.

Guerrilla fighter

Lu Shui-Tian practiced, refined, and utilized his Ba Gua Zhang fighting skills during the Sino-Japanese War (1931–1945) as a member of a band of expert guerrilla fighters. They would hide in the mountains during the day and infiltrate Japanese camps at night. Due to the covert nature of their operations they couldn’t kill the enemy with firearms, and could only use traditional bare hand techniques and silent weapons. Lu’s favorite weapon was the short knife. He was extremely skilled with single and double knives but preferred the single knife, which left one hand free for grabbing and striking. He could also throw a knife fastened inside his sleeve, whipping out his arm so that it shot out like a dart, and he was extremely accurate.

Lu killed many Japanese soldiers and became so well known for his fighting skill that the Japanese put a price on his head. This forced him to leave China, sailing from Ching Tao across the Yellow Sea to Inchon, Korea. Inchon was a big trading port, and whenever he thought it was safe Lu traveled back to carry on the fight. On one of these trips his wife was killed while fleeing the Japanese on horseback. Lu left for Korea once again and never returned to his native country. He settled in Inchon’s large Chinatown with his daughter and son, and never remarried.

Teaching in Inchon

Lu was well known and well respected among the Chinese martial artists living in Korea, and for years he taught only the Chinese in Chinatown. He was a strict, traditional teacher who tested a student’s patience and loyalty long before he taught anything of substance. He held that the relationship between a teacher and student is the same as that between a father and son, and that students of the same teacher are like blood brothers. He gave his students four ideals to cultivate for life, Wisdom, Benevolence, Sincerity, and Bravery, and told them that a teacher does not teach the student; the student teaches himself or herself.

Lu did not treat Ba Gua Zhang as a collection of techniques. He taught that the movements of a form are templates for principles of correct motion, and that a student must research how each principle can be applied to any situation. He also believed that a student could not learn the art without the experience of fighting. A spinning top, he said, falls unless it is struck to keep it going, and a practitioner who is never hit in combat will lose momentum the same way.

He warned his students about the obstacles they would meet. After three days the body is sore. After three weeks the newness has worn off. After three months boredom and doubt set in, because progress in the internal arts is measured in years. After three years comes complacency, just when the student is still a beginner. Master Park passes this lesson on to his own students, so that they can recognize each obstacle and practice through it.

In Korea, Lu’s art came to be known simply as “Inchon Kung Fu,” and its practitioners were highly respected. Older martial artists in Taiwan and Hong Kong remembered a famous Ba Gua Zhang stylist they called “Ching Tao” Lu.

His successor

Master Park began training with Lu in 1960, and in the end Lu chose him as his successor. When Park began teaching, Lu came to the school for four or five hours every day to show him how to be a good teacher, and he evaluated students at its monthly promotion tests.

Though still very strong and healthy, Lu died tragically and accidentally in 1978, at the age of 84, when he was overcome in his sleep by a malfunctioning gas heater. As his top student, Park was asked to wear the traditional funeral clothes usually reserved for close family.

In June of 1991 a new stele was erected at Dong Hai-Chuan’s burial site in China to record how Ba Gua Zhang traveled to Korea. It states that the art was brought there by Lu Shui-Tian, and carved beneath his name are the generations of students who carried it on.