Hu Daozheng
Lineage & School of Heritage
At the age of 14, Hu Daozheng took Chen Zhiyuan as his teacher and began studying the rattan shield formation (Shahetengpaizhen). In 1958 he became the twelfth-generation inheritor of the Shahetengpaizhen, and he was at that time the only person in the whole country who knew the complete set of its battle formations.
Mastery, Signature Works & Repertoire
Male, of the Han ethnic group, born in 1927 in Shahe, Hebei. The Shahe rattan shield formation (Shahetengpaizhen) was originally a practical combat technique of ancient military art. Because the rattan shields were light, sturdy, and durable, impervious to sword blows and impenetrable to spear thrusts, the rattan-shield soldiers in ancient battle formations were used mainly to counter enemy cavalry. The rattan shields used in ancient warfare were woven mainly from rattan vines, with tough frames, and lined with cotton and flax; a piece of raw hide painted with a tiger's head was fixed over the pointed top. Today the shields have evolved into wicker weaves and are used mostly for theatrical performance, though they also serve for physical fitness and self-defense. The contemporary transmission of the Shahe Shahetengpaizhen is still accomplished through oral instruction and personal demonstration. The interlocking attack-and-defense routines of the Shahetengpaizhen are linked ring by ring and endlessly variable, and their practical value for attacking enemies and defending oneself is extremely strong. Each move and posture is fixed and decisive, unchanged for several hundred years. Moreover, the ancestral family rule was to pass the art to men but not to women, and to insiders but not to outsiders.
Honors & Recognition
He is a national representative bearer of Shahetengpaizhen, a first-batch national intangible cultural heritage project. This kept the scope of instruction in the Shahetengpaizhen extremely limited, lending the art a certain air of mystery. In order to pass on the techniques of the Shahetengpaizhen, Hu Daozheng broke with established practice and has so far trained more than two hundred disciples; his rattan shield formation has won awards on many occasions at sporting events, arts festivals, and similar activities.
References & Archival Sources
Representative Items of This Bearer
- Shahetengpaizhen Ⅵ-13
Profile
This static English edition is rendered at the edge for search engines, AI crawlers and readers without JavaScript. Compiled from official national representative bearer archival records, organized by topic and translated into English. 阅读中文版。