Guo Yunshen

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Guo Yunshen (郭雲深, 1827-1902) was a famous Xingyiquan martial artist. He represented the xingyi martial philosophy of preferring to become highly proficient with only a few techniques rather than to be less proficient with many techniques. His skill with one technique Beng Quan was legendary, and earned him the nickname "Divine Crushing Fist". Although it is not historically reliable, he is said to have fought Dong Hai Chuan, the founder of baguazhang. The outcome of their match was that practicitioners of both arts each highly respected the other. In another version of this story, desiring to fight Dong Hai Chuan, he first went to visit Cheng Tinghua, another native of Hibei province. Cheng invited him to dinner, and Guo wished to demonstrate his "Divine Crushing Fist," which Cheng evaded twice. Because of this, he rethought his plan to challenge Dong, knowing him to be a superior practitioner to Cheng. He was a student of Li Luoneng as a member of the Hebei xingyi school and trained many famous students including Wang Xiangzhai and Sun Lutang.