In my mind, the reason there is so much variation among some schools of the same lineage goes back once again to the fact that all Ba Gua teachers teach their student's differently based on their individual needs. Additionally, because Ba Gua is an art of principle and not choreography, each teacher is free to develop his or her system as long as it adheres to the basic underlying principles. Some see the degree of diversity between the various schools of Ba Gua as some sort of black mark against the art. These are the "sheep heads" of the world who think all martial art should be practiced exactly as the teacher has shown. They do not try and think for themselves and discover what will work best for them, they rely on the teacher for everything. I think that it is exactly the opposite. I think that the diversity, variety, adaptability and originality in Ba Gua is its strength.
-Dan Miller, Pa Kua Chang Journal Volume 6, Number 2.
Part 1: Introduction and Background
Click here for Part 4: Conclusion and Discussion
I began learning Baguazhang in 2010 under Master Wen-ching Wu and his senior students, Frank Whitsett-Lynch and Spencer Oberry. They taught me the Eight Palms form, the two-person sanshou routine, the Swimming Body form, a saber form and many of the practical fighting applications. At some point, Frank had told me that the Eight Palms form that we were learning was originally from Cheng Tinghua who was an accomplished Shuaijiao (Chinese wrestling) expert in his time. (Incidentally, Frank was also a wrestler, and he taught us the take-down applications of the Eight Palms form.)
I’m the kind of person that craves understanding. Knowledge is only a building block. In an attempt to deepen my understanding, I bought and read books, studied Wikipedia and watched countless videos of Bagua forms on YouTube. I looked up Cheng-style Baguazhang on the internet and found videos of Sun Zhijun performing a flowing form that, at first glance, looked nothing like the form I was learning. I was a little confused. Master Wu clarified later to me that our form came through Sun Lutang, a student of Cheng Tinghua.
Eventually, I did find some videos of Li Deyin and Wang Yanji performing an Eight Palms form that was different than what I had learned only in superficial ways. I later learned that their form had also come down through Sun Lutang, via Li Tianji. Now it was starting to make a little sense. Later discussions with various Baguazhang practitioners helped me to realize that since the essence of bagua is the tendency to change and respond to different situations, it is only natural that there are so many variations, unlike Taijiquan or Xingyiquan.
