Li Jianfang

01 · Lineage & Regional School

Li Jianfang, Male, Han, from Ren, Hebei, is a sixth-batch national representative bearer of Taijiquan (Ⅵ-11). The tradition is documented in Ren, Hebei. Within the regional tradition and school record of Taijiquan in Ren, Hebei: Wang Qihe Taijiquan originated in Ren County, Xingtai, Hebei. In its early period, teaching and practice were centered on the boxing grounds of Ren County town and the surrounding villages, extending also to counties such as Nanhe, Pingxiang, and Xingtai. After the third- and fourth-generation inheritors left home to make a living and teach boxing, the style gradually spread to places such as Shijiazhuang, Handan, Shanxi, and the Beijing and Tianjin area, establishing teaching-and-practice sites in parks, government offices, schools, and martial arts halls, so that the community of practitioners kept growing. Wang Qihe Taijiquan took shape in the late Qing dynasty. It was created by Wang Qihe, a native of Ren County, Xingtai, Hebei, who synthesized the finest points of Wu-style and Yang-style Taijiquan together with the strengths of numerous other boxing arts, producing a school of Taijiquan with complete theory and method that unites practice and application. Since its founding, the style has attracted numerous practitioners because of its practical character and the cultural ideas it embodies, and it has been transmitted mainly through succession from master to disciple, by oral instruction and personal demonstration.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

The bearer record for Li Jianfang is anchored in the documented technical standards of Taijiquan in Ren, Hebei. Within the documented technical tradition of Taijiquan in Ren, Hebei: Historically, Wang Qihe Taijiquan was distributed across Ren County and the surrounding counties of Hebei Province, and it later spread to many parts of China. Wang Qihe successively took the renowned Taijiquan masters Hao Weizhen and Yang Chengfu as his teachers, studying deeply and practicing with refinement. Taking the Wu-style Taijiquan frame as his foundation — with its agile footwork, compact and neat structure, and abundant internal strength — he absorbed the qualities of Yang-style Taijiquan, which is open and generous, supple, lively and graceful, and created Wang Qihe Taijiquan. Its core theoretical system comprises the four-character tenets of cultivation (virtue, authenticity, enlightenment, and perseverance); the ten-character essentials (uprightness, stillness, smoothness, lightness, looseness, softness, roundness, liveliness, sensitivity, and emptiness); the cultivation of the realm of hunyuan jin, or rounded-arc force; the strategy and tactics of sanshou free-hand fighting; the explanations of opening, closing, gathering and releasing; the methods of internal cultivation; and the skills of looseness and softness, perceptual awareness, and internal strength. The routine sets of Wang Qihe Taijiquan include traditional routines, newly compiled routines, and weapon routines with the saber, spear, and sword. Auxiliary training mainly consists of the Wuji standing stance, Taiji standing stance, single-leg stance, lowered-posture stance, Four Symbols stance, stationary-step balance exercise, stationary-step rotation exercise, and moving-step dynamic exercise. It emphasizes stationary practice, moving practice, reverse practice, slow practice, fast practice, free practice, and internal practice. Wang Qihe Taijiquan is characterized by a lower frame with a rigorous structure — light and agile, steady, compact and neat, and filled with internal strength — and an upper frame that is open and generous, even-paced and gentle, supple, lively and graceful. In performing the form, one follows the principle of natural stepping, moving qi with the mind and guiding movement with intent, so that internal qi arises from the dantian, passes through the meridians link by link, reaches the four extremities, and allows the breath to flow through the whole body. In application, the movements are light and agile: outwardly soft but inwardly hard, with soft and continuous hand techniques, while the emission of force is crisp and piercing. Through the exchanges and dissemination of the third- and fourth-generation inheritors, the community of practitioners has steadily expanded. The style upholds the maxim that one must first cultivate virtue before learning boxing and first train smoothness before practicing the form, and its four-character tenets likewise place virtue first — something of positive significance for nurturing moral character and building a harmonious society. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Four characters and ten essentials": Its core theory is the four characters — virtue, truth, insight, perseverance — the ten essentials of uprightness, quiet, smoothness, lightness, relaxation, softness, roundness, liveliness and emptiness, and the training of the round force. "Eight standing posts and seven ways of practising": Auxiliary training uses the limitless, taiji, single-leg, sinking and four-image posts with fixed-step balance and rotation drills, practised still, moving, reversed, slow, fast, loose and inward. "The union of two masters' teaching": Formed in the late Qing, the style rests on the Wu frame's nimble compact steps and solid inner force while absorbing the Yang frame's expansive, floating softness. "Firm below, expansive above": Its lower body is firm, light and compact with solid inner force, the upper body expansive and soft; natural stepping leads energy from the elixir field along the meridians to the limbs.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

In 2025, Li Jianfang was announced in the sixth batch of national representative bearers for Taijiquan, with Ren, Hebei as the declared area. Within the documented safeguarding record of Taijiquan in Ren, Hebei: The project was inscribed in the national inventory in 2014 (batch 4), with Ren, Hebei as its declared area, and Hebei Wangqihetaijiquan Association as its safeguarding unit. Since the project was inscribed in the national inventory, its declared area and safeguarding unit have carried out documentation, transmission and presentation within the national safeguarding framework. Together, the inventory record and the project archive form the public documentary basis for the bearer’s transmission practice.

04 · Associated Heritage Item Dossier

05 · Fellow National Bearers Lineage

National representative bearers recorded under the same item code, ordered from the first to the sixth batch. Batch order is not a teacher–student relationship.

06 · Archival Sources & Bibliography

1. Lijianfang (Ren, Hebei) · China ICH Official Project Archive
2. Lijianfang · China ICH Official Archive