The Man vs The Myth：Cháng Dōngshēng
If you practice Shuai Jiao, today known as Chinese wrestling, you have probably heard of Cháng Dōng Shēng (常東昇, ﭼْﺎ دْﻮ ﺷْﻊ). This was a man whose reputation soared to mythic proportions. He was said to be undefeated and the greatest in China. Let’s take a closer look at the man vs the myth.
He was born in 1908, as a Hui Chinese from Baoding, Hebei. The Hui community, Chinese Muslims, had long been associated with martial pursuits. There a wrestler named Ping Jingyi blended northern Chinese boxing and Baoding shuai jiao giving rise to a new local style which used so-called Shaolin training techniques in its wrestling. Ping Jingyi’s student, Zhang Fungyan, was famous for beating the Xingyi Boxer, Li Quan Yi. It was from Zhang Fungyan that Chang Dongsheng would learn wrestling. Their bond was close, and Chang was a strong and exceptional pupil, and even went on to marry Fungyan’s second daughter.
It was a turbulent time, the Qing Empire had given way to warlords and the young Republic of China; optimism struggled to survive amidst war and famine. Yet at only 20 years of age, Chang left Hebei for Nanjing. Chang Dongsheng taught at the Nanjing Central Kuoshu Institute (中央國術館) and was the youngest faculty member. There, he exchanged knowledge with other martial arts experts and was exposed to Western boxing and European and Japanese concepts towards training and calisthenics which were influential in the early Republican era. Cháng blended Yang Taiji, xingyi quán and his Baoding Shuaijiao and may have had a type of Hui boxing in his repertoire as well. It is said he studied with up to 70 different martial masters in China. In 1933 he was said to have won the heavyweight division of the 5th National Kuo Shu Tournament. They say he challenged Shuaijiaoshou (wrestlers) all across the Republic of China in his time, and even defeated a 7 foot tall Mongol. It is said he continued to defeat challengers while teaching combat-oriented Shuai Jiao to Chinese Nationalist soldiers in the second Sino-Japanese War (WW2). Famously, he fought and destroyed Japanese POWs and Judoka at a time when the Empire of Japan was attempting to conquer China. In 1948 he was said to have won a Chinese national grappling competition. He was undefeated, so they say.
When the Nationalists (KuoMingTang, KMT) were defeated by the Chinese Communist Party, Chang fled with them as they took over Taiwan…
There, under the KMT’s pro-China martial law environment, Chang secured a senior instructor position. He taught Shuai Jiao at the police academy for decades. Chang earned a reputation for being agile, strong, and bad tempered. Yet, in the dictatorship era, in a society where Confucian values were deeply entrenched, and martial arts adored – he was a hero of mythic proportions. Anger and gambling addiction aside, here was a man forged from a violent era in China, allegedly never defeated, flawless, powerful. While China was closed off to much of the world, Hong Kong and Taiwan’s martial artists were able to influence much of the world’s perception.
His legacy contributed to a tough Shuai Jiao community in Taiwan. His student Roger Soo contributed to Shuaijiao’s continued growth and use in Sanshou / Sanda fighting, while his student Lin Fengwen would train Taiwan’s largest cohort of champion wrestlers during Taiwan Shuai Jiao’s golden age. In the USA, David C.K. Lin, one of his toughest and most talented students, helped found Baoding Combat Shuai Jiao. Chang Dongsheng’s legendary status and legacy was secured. Eventually, as all legends have an ending, he succumbed to cancer.
Was he a great wrestler? Yes.
Was he as great as they say? Maybe.
Was he completely undefeated in all his matches? Perhaps. Still it is doubtful he was never humbled in his cross training. We also must stop to consider that we have no idea the quality of all of his opponents so it is difficult to assess just how impressive his wins were. We also don’t know what deals were made in the background, if any. While famous for breaking Japanese prisoners of war (and captured Judoka among them), how impressive is a well-fed, strong professional martial artist defeating potentially demoralized, injured, and malnourished prisoners? From that perspective, perhaps that was more about the catharsis of smashing the enemy, boosting the morale of war-weary Chinese soldiers, or even sadism. In an era when China was severely battered from war, famine, and colonization - heroes were needed. In Taiwan he cultivated something like a martial cult of personality, and was damn near worshiped by his students. In my opinion, as important as his mythic reputation and legendary exploits were for his career and the morale of his students, he should not be worshiped and he should be seen as a man, a powerful fighter of a man, but a man. The man was surely a survivor, a great wrestler, and a killer born in a violent time.
Let’s go back to his origins. Baoding had a thriving community of wrestlers, and there is not one but several Baoding styles - Chang studied under one of those. To have forged a man like him, the community itself must have been skilled. No matter his talent, it seems highly unlikely that in a high level wrestling environment he was truly undefeated in his early days - his teacher and sparring partners must have been formidable. Baoding’s community was itself an offshoot of the broader Qing era wrestling - that of the Manchu, which was established in Beijing, and had another offshoot in Tianjin. Qing Bannermen had all been practitioners of wrestling, and after the fall of the Qing, the Mongols continued to be top level wrestlers - the martial sport being such an integral part of their culture and lifestyle. Did Chang challenge wrestlers all over the Mongolias?
We don’t know about that.
Today, Shuai Jiao outside of China is quite fractured with a lot of lousy politics. Within China it is either represented by clubs or by the sports schools of the state, and no surprise many of the champions to this day remain Mongols. The Mongols still maintain a large talent pool of top level wrestlers. Perhaps that’s the most important part. Provided there is a thriving martial community… the right man, in the right era, with the right set of motivations and traumas, can be turned into a top level fighter - but it goes back to that wrestling culture. What we should emulate and build aren’t heroes, but the talent pool and culture from which they spawn from.
What can Chang Dongsheng teach us as individuals? While he may not be the man the myth makes him out to be, he left his hometown to challenge the nation, and in doing so he earned himself legendary status. His training, his mindset, and his will to go further, go bigger - THAT made him great. He was no saint, and he may not have had heroic ambitions. Instead of worshiping him I think it’s time we find the worth in his truly gritty and violent life. So I ask you to ask yourself two questions:
Am I honestly pushing myself and refusing to be complacent?
Am I contributing to a healthy, thriving competitive environment that breeds the best?
-Vincent Tseng @the.wandering.warrior
