God spear Li

The most prominent figure in Baji quan history is Li Shu Wen. He was born in 1864 in Cangzhou, Hebei. He became a martial arts master extraordinaire and earned himself the nickname "God of Spear Li".His prowess was said to be enough that he boasted that he did not have to strike the same opponent twice.

During his childhood, his family was poor, he could not attend school. Together with his father, he learned the art from Huang SiHai. When Huang SiHai followed Zhang ZhiWan, the governor of Henan, in order to be his bodyguard (i.e. should be in 1876), Li ShuWen and his father, both disciples of Huang SiHai, followed Huang SiHai. After the death of his father, Li ShuWen travelled freely here and there, visiting some teachers and friends. Later when he got a bit older, his skill gradually got mature and he went to Beijing to serve as martial instructor. At that time, the martial art instructors were divided in two categories: the first category were private teachers, specially employed by government officials in order to teach their children. The other kind of instructor would set up by themselves their schools where people who want to learn martial arts would come. During the greater part of his life, r Li Shu Wen served as an instructor, roaming around Beijing and Tianjin, either as private or independent instructor. Mr Li had many disciples, when he got 51 year old he cut his hair and went to Hei Long Jiang province to serve as instructor for Mr Xu LanZhou, the commander of the 1st army, and taught martial art to Mr Xu’s 4 sons. Later on, he followed Xu LanZhou’s move to Beijing, Tianjin, XuZhou, Shanxi, following the troops everywhere they went.In his later life, he became an adviser to Fu ZhenSong, grandmaster of Wudang quan, after famously fighting him to a standstill.

Li Shu Wen had many students and some of them became important figures in history of martial arts. Four of his students from Luo Tong Village were Han Hua Chen, Ma Ying Tu, Ma Fong Tzu and Zhou Shu De. These four introduced a form of BaJi Quan to the Central Martial Academy in Nanjing, a very important organization at the time dedicated to modernizing martial technique and education during the Republican period. Other disciples include warlords such as Li Jin Lin who was a famous swordsman, Ren Guo Dong, Zhang Xiang Wu, Na Yu Kuen, Liu Hu Chen and Liu Xu Dong. Li Shuwen's student Huo Dian Ge was abodyguard of Pu Yi, the last Emperor of China, Li Chenwu was bodyguard to Mao Ze Dong and and Liu Yun Qiao was instructor of the bodyguards of Chiang Kai Shek. This is why baji is known as the bodyguard style

Li was extremely gifted fighter, his martial skills reached the highest possible level. Although his stature was small and his appearance unimpressive, his skill was marvelous. Exceedingly brave with hot temper he fought countless times causing heavy injuries and sometimes even a death of the opponent. Because of his life style he was in constant fear for his life and over the years became overly paranoid. He never traveled same road twice, not even his closest friends and students knew where and when he would travel nor which road he will take. He never used the door to enter his house after travel, he always used a different window to enter in fear of an ambush. Unfortunately all this security measures didn’t help him. He met his end in 1934. Li Shuwen killed far too many people during his life in either martial arts matches or self defense, causing victims' relatives to hold a grudge. He died of a poisonous tea served by one of them.

In pop culture Li Shuwen is depicted as an "Assassin-class" character in the video game Fate/Extra and as a "Lancer-class" and "Assassin-class" that was recently released in Fate/Grand Order. The Japanese manga "Kenji" depicted Li Shuwen according to numerous accounts from various sources, notably from Li Shuwen's last student Liu Yunqiao.