By now, even the most casual martial arts fan will be familiar with the movies of Li
Lianjie, who you almost certainly know better as Jet Li.
Li is one of China's most legendary martial arts superstars whose acrobatic, violent style
and countless hit movies have built a legacy that started well before his moves first graced
the silver screen.
He won his first martial arts championship when he was 11, dominated his sport for years,
and even toured the world with the best Wushu practitioners Beijing had to offer, until
he retired at the ripe old age of 17 and started a new career in the movie business.
That didn't go too badly, either: Li made his first movie way back in 1982, and his
casting as the Emperor in the live-action version of Disney's Mulan marks his 50th acting
credit.
"Don't forget to breathe."
For a martial arts movie career as stellar as Li's, you have to be able to kick hard,
fight fast, and train for a very, very long time.
So just where did he get all those skills, anyway?
Li didn't just pop into existence as a fully formed, super-talented martial artist.
His considerable prowess is the result of countless hours of practice and rigorous training.
But who exactly taught him all those fancy moves?
Who trained Jet Li?
Well, the vast majority of young Jet Li's martial arts career was watched over by Li
Jungfeng, an esteemed Kung Fu master, famed Wushu coach and Qigong practitioner.
Over the course of his career, Jungfeng had a hand in training around 10,000 students,
Jet Li among them.
Jet Li trained under Jungfeng and his co-coach Wu Bin during the future martial arts superstar's
ten-year tenure on the Beijing Wushu Team.
Here's what the coach has to say about his hard-working star student:
"Jet Li was a perfect pupil, not just in terms of power and flexibility, but also, most importantly,
learning capability.
He had great coordination and his movements were very graceful."
Li Jungfeng is actually something of a martial arts movie star himself, as he starred in
the 1982 kick-flick Wu Lin Zhi and three other films.
He has also choreographed action scenes and starred in Learning Wushu, a TV show that
was about pretty much exactly what you think it would be about.
Apart from Jet Li, his most famous student is arguably Ge Chunyan, a Bagua style master,
five-time national champion and the man who trained superstar actress Zhang Ziyi for her
role in The Grandmaster.
In fact, Jungfeng considers Ge his finest pupil instead of Jet Li.
And then there's Wu Bin, Jungfeng's co-coach.
This guy is arguably even tougher than Jungfeng.
After all, the man they call "Coach Wu" isn't just any old trainer.
This ninth-degree grand master is considered the "father of modern Wushu," and has been
instrumental in shaping the sport over the decades.
It was Coach Wu who started training the eight-year-old Jet Li in 1971, and it was Coach Wu who founded
the fabled Beijing Wushu Team, which first threw Li into the spotlight.
Wu believes that age eight is the only proper time to begin one's Wushu training, though
he personally started at age 19, and has been known to accept students as old as 22 if he
sees enough potential.
He is considered an extremely strict, yet highly effective coach, and the list of renowned
athletes and Wushu masters he has trained is as long as his arm.
Unsurprisingly, he has also held positions in many Wushu-related committees and boards
over the years.
And he shows no signs of slowing down, either: As of 2018, Master Wu has written 18 Wushu-themed
books, and his accolades include Presidency of the Beijing Wushu Institute, directorial
position of the Beijing Wushu Team, and top positions in the Chinese Wushu Association,
Asian Wushu Federation, International Wushu Federation, and the World Fighting Martial
Arts Federation.
Of course, he's a fan of martial arts movies as well, although despite being Jet Li's old
coach, he has gone on record as saying he prefers the movies of Bruce Lee and Jackie
Chan.
Which…yeah.
Ouch.
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