Category: 文章/Article

                                                  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.

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’.

Chinese martial arts: an investigation into how they developed from hard to soft and into their current status

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’.