Tuesday, June 16, 2015

Cheng Tinghua’s Baguazhang: Divergent and Emergent Expressions of Core Principles, Part 1

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.



Recently, I began working with a friend who was also a practitioner of Cheng-style Baguazhang, coincidentally from the Sun Zhijun school. I was interested in his forms and asked if he would teach some of them to me. I was fortunate that he was totally open to the idea. When I saw the first three palm changes, I noticed something very familiar. So, being the person I am, I began to research.


In fact, seven of the eight palm changes in the form he practiced had the same names as the one I practiced, and the first three were only stylistically different. Additionally, I found that the other four that share common names, have components of one another in various palm changes that are almost identical. I’ll get to that later. All of the palm changes in both Eight Palms forms have very clear take-down (Kuaijiao) and grappling (Qinna) implications, making them very useful for hiding wrestling moves in what looks like a ballet dance routine.


These similarities inspired me to study other branches of Cheng-style Baguazhang in order to understand the differences and the reasons for the differences. This article is the result of my subsequent research and study of the branches of six of Cheng Tinghua’s most famous students: Cheng Youxin and Cheng Dianhua (lumping together in a single Cheng Village branch), Li Wenbiao, Gao Yisheng, Sun Lutang and Liu Bin. This is my attempt to compare and contrast the Eight Palms forms of each of these branches through the fourth and fifth generation Cheng practitioners who have survived into modern times. (See lineage chart at the end of this article for reference.)
To avoid confusion as much as possible, I will use the term “Eight Palms form” to refer to the standard set of eight short hand-to-hand combat training sequences each separated by circle-walking, as opposed to the eight static-posture (Ding Shi) circle-walking forms. The Eight Palms form goes by a number of names used interchangeably among both the relative variants and the Ding Shi forms, which also vary among the branches of Cheng-style Baguazhang.


Sun Zhijun
Eight Mother Palms (八母掌）
Liu Jingru
Eight Big Palms (八大掌)
Liang Shouyu
Old Eight Palms （老八掌）
Zhang Jie
Eight Mother Palms (八母掌)
Luo Dexiu
Pre-Heaven Eight Big Palms (先天八大掌)
In a short piece, written by Zhang Yongchun and Liu Yuanqing, the authors state that the Eight Palms form consists of the Single Exchange Palm, Double Exchange Palm, Smooth Posture Palm, Back Body Palm, Turning Body Palm, Grinding Body Palm, Overturning Palm and Returning Body Palm.1 Indeed, according to Liu Jingru, both Cheng Youxin and Cheng Yougong believed that these were the true Eight Palms. While these are the names of the eight palms practiced, by Sun Zhijun and Liu Jingru, they are by no means the same eight practiced by all the Cheng schools, as we will see in this exploration.
First, however, I realize that in order to understand the possible reasons for the differences among the branches, it is worthy to note the backgrounds of the various surviving teachers of these branches of Cheng Baguazhang.


Well-Known 4th/5th Generation Representatives of Cheng Style Baguazhang Branches

Sun Zhijun

Sun Zhijun grew up in Cheng Village where at a very early age he began to train with Cheng Tinghua’s nephew, Cheng Yousheng and later his second son, Cheng Youxin.2 He also trained with Liu Zinyang, who was said to be “one of the most developed students of Cheng Dianhua (Cheng Tinghua’s brother).” Sun Zhijun’s teachers were very close to Cheng Tinghua, being family members or village residents. Their emphasis was on tradition.3 Eventually, Cheng Youxin endowed a great honor to Sun Zhijun by naming him the Lineage Holder for Cheng family Baguazhang.


Grandmaster Sun eventually moved to Beijing. His later career followed the path of form competitions in China. These competitions emphasized agility, grace and acrobatics as exemplified by contemporary wushu. And while Master Sun has spoken of his frustration regarding emphasis on fancy moves over real content,4 his Eight Palms no doubt are influenced by contemporary wushu. They are very smooth, graceful and agile, and the martial applications are more implicit than explicit. However, he has stated that his closest students have received the full substantial training. In addition, renowned martial artist, Liang Ke Quan, stated that Sun Zhijun was the best Baguazhang fighter of whom he knew.

Liu Jingru

Liu Jingru’s lineage derives from Cheng Tinghua’s student, Li Wenbiao. Li Wenbiao was involved in the militaries of both the Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China.5 Li taught what he learned from Cheng to Luo Xingwu. Luo Xingwu was a disciple of Li and also trained with Cheng Yougong (Cheng Tinghua’s nephew who served as a military officer under Li Wenbiao) and Cheng Youxin. He eventually became involved in the Beijing Martial Arts and Sports Association.6 Liu Jingru originally learned Baguazhang from Luo but was also instructed by Cheng Youxin.7
Based also in Beijing, Liu Jingru’s career followed a very similar path to that of Sun Zhijun. Like Sun Zhijun, Grandmaster Liu’s Baguazhang education was close to the Cheng family and shares with Sun Zhijun the names of the Eight Palms form. However, the military background of this branch seems evident as the martial applications tend to be more explicit as are the expression of power performed by some of Grandmaster Liu’s students, such as Han Yanwu.

Liang Shouyi and Li Tianji - Sun Lutang’s branch

Grandmaster Liang Shouyu, who is Master Wu’s teacher, was originally from Sichuan. Early on, he was an accomplished Shuaijiao practitioner8 like Cheng Tinghua himself. Later, Liang became a Sanshou (free-hand fighting) practitioner and coach. The Baguazhang teachers from whom he learned the Eight Palms were Zheng Huaixian and Wang Shutian, both of whom were students of Sun Lutang.9 Zheng was both a military man and a performance coach and Wang became a very well-known coach and competitor. It is clear that Liang Shouyu learned and passed on the same Eight Palms form as another student of Sun Lutang, namely Li Yulin, who was succeeded by Li Tianji. In fact, the versions passed down through Li Tianji and Liang Shouyu are only stylistically different.  Both are rather short and have very explicit and efficient martial applications.


Sun Lutang is perhaps one of the most famous Chinese martial artists of his time. He was a Xingyiquan practitioner who trained for eight years with the famous Guo Yunshen after learning the basics from Guo’s student Li Kuiyuan. Guo Yunshen introduced Sun to Cheng Tinghua, from whom he learned Baguazhang for only three years.10 Sun Lutang’s Baguazhang was clearly influenced by his deeper foundation in Xingyiquan training as demonstrated by the animal shapes as well as his emphasis on the rise, drill, overturn and settle movements for each opening movement that he repeatedly underscores in his book Xingyiquan Xue.
A note about Sun Lutang’s Baguazhang is important here to avoid confusion. Sun Lutang is very famous for publishing the first book on Baguazhang. In it, he describes a routine that theoretically follows the evolution of the Ba Gua described in Part 1, Chapter XI of “The Great Treatise” in the Yijing (I Ching). The form begins with Wuji stance and continues with a Taiji stance and then through the Liang Xi (The two forces, i.e. the yin and yang represented by the Single Exchange Palm), the Si Xiang (the four images represented by the Double Exchange Palm), and then through eight animal shapes that represent the Ba Gua11 (the eight archetypes) of the Yijing. Sun Lutang’s book did not contain an Eight Palms form. Rather, his version of the standard Eight Palms form taught in many schools across China in the 1950s and ‘60s uses his various animal shapes to create more complex palm changes incorporated into the Eight Palms set.


In an interview with the Pa Kua Chang Journal, Li Tianji “said that what Sun printed in his book was the ‘public version.’ What he taught in private was reserved for his close friend students." On the other hand, Grandmaster Li also told the Pa Kua Chang Journal that he himself developed the standardized Eight Palms set based on what he learned from his father and from Sun Lutang.12


Whatever the case, this standardized Eight Palms form, whether from Sun’s “private teaching” or Li’s amalgamation seems to be what was received from Zheng Huaixian and Wang Shutian by Liang Shouyu in Chengdu, Sichuan.  The minor, stylistic differences between the two likely owe to the fact that Liang Shouyu’s style is particularly influenced by Sanshou and Shuaijiao: the Eight Palms he teaches are a complete system of strikes, kicks, grappling and take-downs.

Zhang Jie

Zhang Jie, a Baguazhang practitioner in Seattle, Washington, inherited his Baguazhang in Beijing from Liu Xing Han who learned it from Liu Bin. Liu Bin, who was a general in the Qing army during the late 1800s, was one of Cheng Tinghua’s students in Beijing. Until the early 1930s, Liu taught Baguazhang in the South District of Beijing. In his book, Zhang Jie describes two divergent schools of Cheng-style Baguazhang, namely the Liu Shui school led by Cheng Tinghua’s family (see Sun Zhijun above) and the Zhuang Gong school led by Liu and his allies. Zhang states that the Liu Shui school emphasized fast and flowing techniques while the Zhuang Gong school emphasized strength and rootedness.13


Per this Zhuang Gong focus, Liu Bin’s lineage refers much to health and qigong practices of Qing dynasty-era Daoism. Liu and his allies were very interested in conducting research on Baguazhang, referring often to the Yijing and other Daoist texts. In addition, it is said that Liu Bin worked with Cheng Tinghua to develop a Nine Palaces Baguazhang form. Liu Bin was also a close friend of Sun Lutang’s. In fact, Master Sun used to help teach Liu Bin’s students, emphasizing speed and agility.14 Surely, though without citing any historic evidence, Sun’s book describing a direct relationship between Baguazhang and the Yijing must have influenced Liu Bin’s philosophical interests and research. As a professor and teacher of Chinese Culture, Zhang Jie continues this emphasis on the connection between Baguazhang and Chinese philosophy as well as the focus on rootedness in walking.

Luo Dexiu

Luo Dexiu is a student of Hong Yixiang, who learned Baguazhang from Zhang Junfeng, a student of Gao Yisheng. Like Sun Lutang and Liu Bin, Gao Yisheng was focused on making explicit, theoretical connections between Baguazhang and the Yijing. From this branch of Cheng-style Baguazhang, we have the Pre-Heaven Eight Palms. The term “Pre-Heaven” refers to the arrangement of the Ba Gua along a circle before their interactions with the world, described in Chapter II of the “Shuo Gua” in the Yijing.


While the first three palm changes common among most of the Cheng branches are still present in Gao’s Pre-Heaven Eight Palms form, the structure of the full sequence and the names of the palms are totally different from the other branches. The Single Exchange Palm is usually performed at the beginning of the routine, followed by a variation of Smooth Posture Palm and then Double Exchange Palm each with a different name than their counterparts in the Old Three Palms (蛇形顺势掌 “Snake-shape Smooth Posture Palm” and 龙形穿手掌 “Dragon-shape Boring Hand Palm” respectively).


To summarize, the backgrounds of the teachers and leaders of these various branches of Cheng-Style Baguazhang influence the respective expressions of the Eight Palms form. While all of them contain the basic principles taught by Cheng Tinghua, they have diverged in style due to emphases on performance competition, military applications, Sanshou competition, and classical Chinese philosophy.


Lineage Chart

Dong Haichuan
















1 Zhang, Yongchun and Yuanqing Liu, Cheng Style Baguazhang, Trans. Joseph Crandall.↩

2 Sun, Zhi-jun, You Shen Ba Gua Lian Huan Zhang (Beijing: People’s Medical Publishing House, 2012) xi.↩

3 Miller, Dan, “Ba Gua Zhang in the Cheng Family Village,” Pa Kua Chang Journal 4.4, (1994): 6-8.↩

4 Miller, 9.↩

5 Liu Jingru and C.S. Tang, Dragon Stretches Its Claws: An Illustrated Training Manual of Baguazhang, 2nd Ed. (Hong Kong: Hong Kong Martial Arts Magazine, 2001) 18.↩

6 Liu, 19-21.↩

7 Liu, 5.↩

8 Liang, Shou-Yu and Tai D. Ngo, Chinese Fast Wrestling for Fighting: The Art of Sanshou Kuai Jiao (Boston: YMAA Publishing Center, 1997) vii.↩

9 Liang, Shou-Yu, Jwing-Ming Yang, Emei Baguazhang: Theory and Applications (Boston: YMAA Publishing Center, 1994) xvi.↩

10 Miller, Dan, “Sun Lu-T’ang and his Pa Kua Chang,” Pa Kua Chang Journal 3.4 (1993) 6-9.↩

11 Sun Lutang (Sun Fuquan), Ba Gua Quan Xue, Trans. Joseph Crandall (Pinole: Smiling Tiger Martial Arts, 1915) 20-66.↩

12 Miller, Dan, “Father of Modern Wu Shu, Li Tain Ji, Dies in Beijing at age 81,” Pa Kua Chang Journal 6.4 (1996) 30.↩

13 Zhang Jie with Richard Sapiro, Liu Bin’s Zhuang Gong Bagua Zhang: South District Beijing’s Strongly Rooted Style, vol. 1 (Berkeley: Blue Snake Books, 2008) 18-19.↩

14 Miller, Dan. “Sun Lu Tang: His Life and Teaching.” Pa Kua Chang Journal 3.4 (1993) 12-13.↩
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