Liu Shiduan
| Liu Shiduan | |||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 劉士端 | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Simplified Chinese | 刘士端 | ||||||||
|
|||||||||
| Transcriptions | |
|---|---|
| Standard Mandarin | |
| Hanyu Pinyin | Liú Shìduān |
| Wade–Giles | Liu2 Shih4-tuan1 |
Liu Shiduan (died 1896) was the founder and leader of the Big Swords Society, a martial arts society whose main task was to protect the property of landowners in Caozhou prefecture (southwestern Shandong province) in late Qing China.
Well educated during his youth, Liu owned about 100 mu of land in a village called Shaobing Liuzhuang. In his thirties, he learned a kung-fu technique of invulnerability called the "Armor of the Golden Bell" from a visiting martial artist and soon started teaching it to his own disciples. They formed the Big Swords Society in the early 1890s, sometime before 1895. Although the local government was fearful of the heterodox nature of the Golden Bell rituals, it tolerated the Big Swords because they assisted in repressing a wave of banditry in 1895 and 1896. In early 1896, however, Liu and the Big Swords got embroiled in conflicts with local Catholic communities. Liu did not participate actively, but in June 1896 he dispatched one of his lieutenants to northern Jiangsu to help the Pang lineage in their struggle for land against a clan that had joined the Catholic Church for protection. With their ranks swollen by locals who were not members of the Society, Big Swords discipline broke down as they burned the houses of local converts and looted shops that did not belong to Christians. When the local government, led by judicial commissioner Yuxian, moved in to suppress the movement, Liu was arrested and beheaded.
Because they practiced rituals of invulnerability and because of their anti-Christian activities, Liu's Big Swords are considered precursors of the Boxer Uprising that unfolded in north China from 1899 to 1901.
Liu Shiduan was born in Shan County in Caozhou (Shandong Province). According to his descendants, he was 43 when he died in 1896, so he may have been born in 1853 or 1854. He lived in a village called Shaobing Liuzhuang (燒餅劉莊). From 7 to 20 sui Liu attended school; he tried, but failed, to pass the lowest level (xiucai) of the imperial examination.
...
Wikipedia