By
Tina Zhang
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Dong
Hai Chuan, the founder of Ba Gua Zhang, was born in Zhu Jia Wu village,
Wen An County, He Bei Province, in North China in 1797, and died in 1882.
Dong’s early life was that of a martial artist searching for and training
with all the high level martial arts masters.He arrived in history in his
mid life as a servant of the royal prince Su Wang. He named his special
martial art Ba Gua Zhang and his story began with a Banquet of the Prince
Wu Wang where Dong impressively demonstrated his art. After showing his
extremely high skills in the martial arts at the banquet Dong served as
a martial arts trainer in the Palace. He had two very famous students,
Yin Fu and Cheng Ting Hua, those two second generation Masters later on
created the globally spread Yin style Ba Gua Zhang and Cheng Style Ba Gua
Zhang.
Cheng Ting Hua was the founder of Cheng
style Ba Gua Zhang. Cheng was born in 1848, and passed away in 1900.
He was already a highly skilled martial artist who was good at shuai
jiao, Chinese wrestling and shao lin gong fu before he studied
Ba Gua Zhang with Dong Hai Chuan. He was one of few the best Ba Gua Zhang
boxers at the time and the one who most highly influenced and taught the
most people the art. There are many stories about this legendary
Master of real fighting who possesed great skills in teaching the art.One
of the earliest book about Ba Gua Zhang says: “No one does not know Cheng
Ting Hua’s name if they study Ba Gua Zhang.”
Cheng You Long, the older son of Cheng
Ting Hua, was born in 1872. He studied Ba Gua Zhang with his father
and Tai Ji Quan with Yang Jian Hou. He was very highly skilled in
both arts. One of his students Sun Xi Zhan wrote a book of Ba Gua
Zhang, which helped to spread the art in China.
Cheng You Xin was the second son of Cheng
Ting Hua. He was a nine year old boy at the time his father passed
away. He learned Ba Gua Zhang from his uncle Cheng Dian Hua,
his brother Cheng You Long, and inner disciples of his father. He
trained very hard and became a great Ba Gua Zhang boxer; also he specialized
in the skill of Ba Gua Deer Horn Knife and developed the sixty four palms.
Li
Wen Biao was an inner door student of Cheng Ting Hua who was known for
his size and for the power of his rolling palm heel strike, known as Ta
Zhang. In this palm strike the hand rolls into the opponent, first touching
the finger tips and then rolling the surface of the palm on to the opponent’s
body, ending with a power release from the palm heel. It was said of Li
that if he hit an opponent with 30% of his Ta Zhang power that the opponent
was sure to be injured and if Li used 50% or more of his power that it
always brought blood from the opponent’s mouth. As a young inner door student
in the Cheng School, Li sometimes accompanied and assisted his senior brother
Sun Lu Tang on his teaching journeys. Later Li became an Imperial Guard
of the late Ching Dynasty and served as a martial arts instructor to the
troops. Due to their traditional hair style Li’s top military students
were known as Li’s 20 Best Braids. Li Wen Biao’s death came about due to
an offer he made to guard his post alone over a holiday in order to allow
the other guards to go home and celebrate with their families. This left
Li completely out numbered when a bandit gang decided to pick that day
to raid the post and try to steal the arms there. Li didn’t lie down quietly
and legend has it that he exterminated a dozen of the brigands before they
shot him to death. In its circumstances of the empty hands of a master
versus the firearms of a group and the number of deceased attackers, Li’s
demise is strangely reminiscent of that of his master Cheng Ting Hua.
Luo Xing Wu, was born in Lu County, He Bei Province.
He was the best student of Li Wen Biao, and also studied with Cheng You
Long, the older son of Cheng Ting Hua. Luo
Xing Wu was one of Li Wen Biao’s 20 Best Braids in the Place. Luo
managed to make the transition from the Imperial Ching army into the army
of the new Republic of China. During the Sino-Japanese of the 1930’s Luo
was in Manchuria and it was there where his most famous encounter took
place. At some point Luo found himself under attack by a Japanese gentleman
who was wielding a Japanese katana sword. This Japanese warrior was considered
the best swordsman in the entire area. Having no weapon on his person,
Luo picked up a near by slender tree branch. Although his weapon was vastly
inferior, Luo’s clever Ba Gua footwork completely confused his attacker,
allowing him to disarm the Japanese warrior and beat him into submission.
Luo was one of the few martial arts masters to bridge not only the Late
Ching and Republican eras, but also from the Republic to the People’s Republic.
Liu Jing Ru, was born 1936, Gao Yang
County, He Bei Province. Liu Jing Ru began to study
with Luo Xing Wu in 1957, when Liu was 21 years old. In 1963, the last
national martial arts tournament before the Cultural Revolution took place,
and the twenty seven year old Liu Jing Ru won the gold medal in Ba Gua
Zhang. When there was finally another national martial arts tournament
in 1979, a forty three year old Liu Jing Ru again took the Ba Gua gold
medal. Liu says that he felt like a youngster in that tournament as the
average age of the competitors was forty seven. The following year Liu
again won the national Ba Gua Championship after which he became a martial
arts teacher. Even at the age of seventy, Liu Jing Ru is fast, loose, powerful
and full of energy. He enjoys his daily practice
of Ba Gua Zhang as an internal gong fu and enjoys the mental and physical
health derived from high levels of internal combat skills.
He has trained many martial arts champions in China and he now teaches
regularly at home in Beijing as well as abroad.
Liu holds one of the only two highest Duan ranking in China’s Ba Gua Zhang
system and had two Ba Gua Zhang books published in China. Due to
his fifty years of relentless practicing and coaching Ba Gua Zhang, he
deserves to be a living legend and the most respected Classical Cheng Style
Ba Gua Zhang Master in our century.
Liu Jing Ru teaches the entire system of classical Cheng
Style Ba Gua Zhang which contains the following forms: “Eight Palm Postures
Circle Walking”- a foundation of the Ba Gua Zhang; “Eight Basic Palms”
– the basic techniques of Ba Gua Zhang in eight foundation palm changes;
“Swimming Body” – a cascading set of palm changes; “Sixty Four Palms” –
eight variations of each of the eight basic palm changes; “Sixty Four Hands”
– sixty four palm techniques taught in line drills, and a two-person drill,
plus the weapons of “Ba Gua Sword”, and “Ba Gua Deer Horn Knives”.
Frank
Allen has practiced and taught a number of different sets of forms, weapons,
fighting, meditation and Moving I Ching practices of Ba Gua Zhang for 31
years. Tina Zhang has studied with a number of high level internal
martial arts masters in her home town, Beijing and has won two gold medals
in women’s sparring in Chinese martial arts tournaments. She is a high
nationally ranked medalist in Tai Ji Quan and Ba Gua Zhang coving the areas
of forms, weapons and push hands in the United States. Master Liu
Jing Ru is the Ba Gua Zhang Master who Frank and Tina go on an annual trip
to Beijing to study with. Frank Allen and Tina Zhang both teach grand
master Liu Jing Ru’s Cheng Style Ba Gua Zhang at the Wu Tang Physical Culture
Association in New York City.