Mingdong Xu

Mingdong Xu is a Taijiquan practitioner, writer, and independent researcher with more than fifty years of experience in internal martial arts and philosophical inquiry. Born in China, he spent ten formative years—beginning at age fifteen—laboring at Fangqiang Farm during a time of national transition. Those years of hardship, lived with only six years of formal schooling, became the foundation of his lifelong pursuit of clarity, discipline, and understanding. During that decade, he taught himself philosophy, logic, mathematics, physics, history, and literature—an uncommon path that continues to shape his work today.

In 1978, Xu passed China’s highly competitive national examination and entered Amoy University (now Xiamen University), one of China’s leading universities, where he earned a Bachelor of Economics. He later completed a Master’s degree at Lincoln University in San Francisco.

Xu’s work stands out in the Taijiquan world for its clarity, rigor, and modern perspective. He bridges traditional Chinese philosophy with systems thinking and the scientific method, re-explaining core concepts such as Yi, Jin, and Relaxation in observable, testable terms. He also introduces modern principles—Integration, Synchronization, Counter-Movement—that help readers understand Taijiquan as a coherent and living discipline.

Through his independent imprints, House of Baqiao and House of Fangqiang Farm, Xu aims to preserve the spirit of Taijiquan while making its ideas accessible to modern thinkers. His writing resonates with martial artists, researchers, educators, and lifelong learners drawn to the intersection of movement, philosophy, and self-cultivation.