He learned the powers of traditional kungfu the hard way.

The Qingcheng genre is known for the "water-element style" that uses soft to beat hard. Photos by Du Lianyi

In 1990, he visited Song Dezhao, an 81-year-old master. Liu had thought Song was a frail old man, but he just couldn't hit Song. Instead, Song closed in on him at breakneck speed.

In 1991, he met another master, Peng Yuanzhi, 80, known as the "fastest fist" in Sichuan.

The master invited him for a fight in Peng's bedroom. "Within a fraction of a second, I found myself flung against a cupboard," Liu recalls.

The first thing Liu did after recovering from that assault was to kneel down and ask Peng to accept him as a disciple.

"My views about traditional wushu changed forever," Liu says.

He spent the following years learning from more than 100 masters different kungfu styles in Sichuan. His pursuits gradually steered him to the Qingcheng branch.

In 1995, Liu quit his job as an anesthetist in the Dujiangyan People's Hospital, and set up the nation's first Qingcheng Kungfu training center at the foot of Mt Qingcheng.

The center suffered serious damage in the earthquake in 2008 and had to be pulled down. "When the quake struck, I was practicing kungfu with my students," Liu recalls.

He rallied 500 of his students to go to the epicenter Wenchuan as volunteers. They taught quake victims the Qingcheng Taoist healthcare regimen.

"Kungfu is not just for those who like to show punches and kicks in action movies," Liu says.

However, he admits that many people today are ill-informed of the value of traditional Chinese kungfu and have instead embraced taekwondo, judo and karate do.

Liu says less than 20 young people were practicing Qingcheng kungfu in Sichuan in the early 1980s. Thanks to his efforts, Qingcheng kungfu is seeing a revival. So far, Liu has trained about 60,000 students from 23 countries and regions.

But while young enthusiasts from home and abroad flock to Henan province for Shaolin kungfu, Liu finds it difficult to recruit local students to learn Qingcheng kungfu.

In contrast, each year hundreds of overseas students go to Mt Qingcheng during their vacations to learn from him.

Liu adheres to the ancient rules of Qingcheng kungfu that decree that "rare and difficult kungfu techniques should not be taught to too many students".

All interested students are put through strict tests of physical strength and ethical conduct that may last several years, Liu says.

Only a few make it as disciples and must pledge to pass on the legacy of Qingcheng kungfu.

However, Liu also believes the changing times have made it necessary for Qingcheng masters to keep a high profile.

In 2002, Liu made it into the Guinness World Records by extinguishing six burning candles from a meter away, using a Qingcheng kungfu skill called Pi Kong Quan.

Now, Liu can extinguish 12 burning candles within seconds, from 1.6 m away, through rapid movements of his fist.

"This is no acrobatic stunt," Liu says seriously. A learned practitioner can deal his enemy at least six deadly blows within a second by mastering this skill, he explains.

"Learning kungfu does not mean one has to become violent," Liu says.

"To be a true kungfu master, one needs to command much more than just lethal combat skills."

All his students, ranging in age from 6 to 81, must learn the Tao Te Ching, the most important Taoist scripture, and also the history of Qingcheng kungfu and the Taoist traditions of Mt Qingcheng.