Yu Chenghui (于承惠) demonstrating Wushu Double-Handed Straight Sword (双手剑)

Yu Chenghui (于承惠), (16 August 1939 – 5 July 2015), was a Chinese Wushu Master, actor and action director. Yu started practicing Wushu at the age of 11, specializing in the use of the Chinese sword (剑). He won the championship title at the age of 20 in a Wushu competition held in Qingdao. He joined the Shandong Wushu team and later emerged as the champion in the Drunken Sword (醉剑) division. Yu once injured during a training session and almost lost the use of one of his leg due to delayed medical treatment. He left the Wushu team later to recover from his injury and worked in a factory for the next decade or so. During that period of time, Yu spent his free time studying Wushu and interacting with other martial artists to improve his techniques until he had fully recovered. For 14 years during the course of his martial arts career, Yu had been working on recreating the double-handed straight sword (双手剑) movements, as well as the lesser-known Shark Fin Broadsword (鱼翅刀) movements, which were believed to be extinct since the Tang Dynasty. It is said that during a thunderstorm, Yu saw how a praying mantis reacted in response to the heavy downpour and conceived the ideas for completing the design of the swordplay technique following the principle of “Mantis threads the forest” (螳螂穿林). As several other Wushu champions of his generation, Yu was selected by film director Zhang Xinyan (张鑫炎) to participate in the 1982 film Shaolin Temple. Following his first successful role, Yu continued to star in great number of martial arts films and television series until his passing in 2015. Long live the king of the double-handed sword!!