LI WEN-BIN, the founder of Shang Pai Xingyiquan, was born in 1918. He began his martial arts training at the age of 8, and at 13 he began to learn Xingyi Quan and weapons from Grandmaster Shang Yun-Xiang. In 1996, the Chinese Martial Arts Association named him one of the top ten martial arts masters in the country; he passed away a year later, at the age of 80. SHANG ZHI-RONG is the daughter of Grandmaster Shang Yun-Xiang. LI HONG is the son of Li Wen-Bin and the lineage holder of second generation Shang Pai Xingyiquan. LU MEI-HUI was born into a martial arts family in Taiwan and has received lifelong training in the internal martial arts. She is the co-translator (with Master Chang Wu Na) of The Major Methods of Wudang Sword; she has also written a Xingyiquan curriculum for students in Taigu County, Shanxi Province, in China - the birthplace of Xingyiquan. She currently lives in Seattle, Washington. The author lives in China / Seattle, Washington.
