Sun Lutang

孫祿堂 Sun Lu-t'ang
Portrait of the Chinese, neijia martial arts master Sun Lu-t'ang.
Born	Sun Fuquan (孫福全) 1860 (1860) Hebei, China
Died	1933 (aged 72–73)
Nationality	Chinese
Style	Sun-style taijiquan, Baguazhang, Xingyiquan
Teacher(s)	Xingyiquan: Li Kuiyuan (李魁元), later Guo Yunshen (from 1882) Baguazhang: Cheng Tinghua (from 1891) Wu (Hao)-style taijiquan: Hao Wei-chen (from 1911)
Rank	Founder of Sun-style taijiquan Founder of Sun style Baguazhang
Notable students	Sun Xingyi (孫星一), Sun Jianyun (孫劍雲), Sun Cunzhou (孫存周)
Website	Sun-style website

Sun Lu-t'ang or Sun Lutang (1860-1933) was a renowned master of Chinese neijia (internal) martial arts and was the progenitor of the syncretic art of Sun-style t'ai chi ch'uan. He was also considered an accomplished Neo-Confucian and Taoist scholar (especially in the I Ching), and was a distinguished contributor to the theory of internal martial arts through his many published works.

He was born in Hebei and was named Sun Fuquan (孫福全) by his parents. Years later, his Baguazhang teacher Cheng Tinghua (程延華) gave him the name Sun Lutang. (It was common in old China for people to have multiple names). He continued to use his original name in some areas, including the publishing of his books.

He was also well-versed in two other internal martial arts: xingyiquan (hsing-i ch'uan) and baguazhang (pa-kua chang) before he came to study t'ai chi ch'uan (taijiquan). His expertise in these two martial arts were so high that many regarded him as without equal. Sun learned Wu (Hao)-style t'ai chi ch'uan from Hao Wei-chen. Sun started studying with Hao relatively late in his life, but his accomplishments in the other two internal arts led him to develop his t'ai chi abilities to a high standard more quickly than is usual.

He subsequently was invited by Yang Shao-hou, Yang Chengfu and Wu Chien-ch'üan to join them on the faculty of the Beijing Physical Education Research Institute where they taught t'ai chi to the public after 1914. Sun taught there until 1928, a seminal period in the development of modern Yang, Wu and Sun-style t'ai chi ch'uan.