Category: English articles
Questions and answers about BaguaQuan, Interview with Master He JingHan
This interview is from the book BaguaDaoyin, written by Master HeJingHan
Continue reading “Questions and answers about BaguaQuan, Interview with Master He JingHan”My personal opinion on the nomenclature of Single Change Palm and Double Change Palm
Ability v Application
Translated by David Alexander
The process of studying Baguaquan is first to train ability and then to study methods of application. Ability includes basic ability -i.e. basic skills – and applied ability – i.e. forms, San Shou, weapons etc. If applied ability is insufficient then the student must backtrack to reinforce basic ability and go to and fro like this several times, like kneading dough or forging steel. When the student is proficient in ability the teacher will introduce methods of application and do some demonstrations of applications so that the student can learn by analogy and understand fully without the need for words while being flexible and adaptive.
Continue reading “Ability v Application”The tree of Bagua Quan
Translated by David Alexander
Bagua Quan is a teaching system (I believe that other martial arts should also be like this). In my first book (Bagua Quan Foundation) I explained things through the medium of text and illustrations. However martial arts is like a kind of pictorial language in which knowledge depends entirely on ‘physical experience’, Words and illustrations are only a way of noting things down and do not make it easy for a person to understand. Consequently I am making public (via youtube video clips) the principal empty-hand training forms in Bagua Quan. I hope that those interested will be able to study them further.
Continue reading “The tree of Bagua Quan”Image and action are two separate things
Image and action are two separate things
When in earlier times I studied ‘Later stage Bagua Quan’ my master often said “Image and action are two separate things ”. For a long time I didn’t understand. Afterwards I gradually caught some of the meaning and then passed over the threshold of ‘Later stage Bagua Quan’.
Continue reading “Image and action are two separate things”Chinese martial arts: an investigation into how they developed from hard to soft and into their current status
Chinese martial arts: an investigation into how they developed from hard to soft and into their current status
Continue reading “Chinese martial arts: an investigation into how they developed from hard to soft and into their current status”Conversation with He Jing-Han, on 1/7/01.
The Chinese martial arts are not for creating fighters but for training human ability (human potential) in the abstract. Actually the character wu is inaccurately translated as “martial.” The word “martial” in English has to do with war, but the word “wu” in Chinese is one part of the wen/wu dichotomy. This wu means the basic ability of the person. Then wen is the biaoxian, the “demonstration” of this basic ability.
Continue reading “Conversation with He Jing-Han, on 1/7/01.”A posture is like a battle formation
A posture is like a battle formation
Postures are an important part of Chinese martial arts. They are an indispensable part of the training in every school. In particular every school’s ‘basic form’ will contain the basic postures which are the ‘mother posture’ (also known as ‘original posture’) followed by several ‘son postures’ (also known as ‘variation postures’). As regards Bagua Quan every posture has the dual connotation of internally nourishing the body and externally dealing with the opponent. Here I will only touch upon the aspect of ‘dealing with the opponent’.
Continue reading “A posture is like a battle formation”Interview with master He Jing-han on Bagua quan
BAGUA QUAN The 8 trigram martial art
He Jing-han started to study Yang Taiji Quan at the age of 15. However after 6 or 7 years of studying he started to stagnate and he did not know how to proceed. At the age of 23 he was introduced to master Gong Bao Zhai and started to specialize in Bagua Quan.
Continue reading “Interview with master He Jing-han on Bagua quan”