The History of Gao Style Ba Gua Zhang

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DONG HAI CHUAN (1813? -1882)
      Dong Hai-Chuan is founder the art of Ba Gua Zhang. Little is known about his early martial experiences or his development of Ba Gua Zhang. When he was in his 40’s Dong was employed in the palace of Prince Su in Beijing. During this time he began teaching Ba Gua Zhang and became known as a top-notch fighter. He was also known for having many capable students; among them was Cheng Ting Hua.

 

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 CHENG TING HUA (1848 – 1900)
                 Cheng Ting Hua was the fourth son of a farming family from Hebei County. When he was young he liked practicing the martial arts of his village. Then he moved to Beijing to apprentice in the eye-glasses trade he also began to practice Shuai Jiao, a throwing art. Cheng was an avid practitioner and worked hard at his art.
           Cheng heard of Dong Hai Chuan and sought to be accepted as his student.  Dong only accepted students who were experienced in other arts. Since Cheng was all ready an expert in Shuai Jiao, Dong accepted him as a student. After being accepted he trained very hard and acquired great skill. As a teacher Cheng accepted more students than any other teacher of his generation.  Zhou Yu Xiang and Gao Yi Sheng were two of his students who became teachers, passing on Cheng’s teachings and skill. Cheng’s life ended early when he was shot by German soldiers during the Boxer rebellion of 1900.
hist3GAO YI SHENG (1866 –1951)
         Gao Yi Sheng was born in Shandong province in 1866. During his childhood his family fortune was lost so they moved to Hebei province to find employment. When he was young his leg was broken by a mule cart and the bone was set incorrectly so Gao walked with a cane the rest of his life. As a boy he learned the art of Da Hung Chuan (Big Red Fist) in his home village.  
          In 1892 when Gao was twenty-six years old he began his study of Ba Gua Zhang with Dong Hai Chuan’s student Sung Zhang Jun. After 3 years of practice with Sung all he had learned was basic circle walking and the single palm change. Gao asked for more instruction, but Sung refused and Gao left to find another teacher.
          At age thirty, in 1896, Gao met Zhou Yu Xiang. Zhou was a talented student of Cheng Ting Hua. Zhou’s skill in fighting had earned him the nickname “Peerless Palm” Zhou. Gao and Zhou “crossed hands” three times and Gao was defeated each time. Gao knelt and asked to become Zhou’s disciple. Zhou said they were to close in age for him to bring him into the system so Zhou took Gao to Beijing to meet his teacher Cheng Ting Hua. Cheng accepted him as his student because of his previous experience with Sung and on Zhou Yu Xiang’s recommendation. Gao learned the majority of the system from Zhuo and would travel to Beijing periodically to study with Cheng, until Cheng’s death four years later. Gao learned the 8 shen tien palms, weapons forms and applications.
            After 6 years of intense study Gao began teaching Cheng Ting Hua Style Ba Gua Zhang in Shaogao township, Wu Ching County, Hebei province. Some time between 1902 and 1911 Gao also studied Xing Yi Quan with Li Cun Yi. In 1911 he returned to his home village Shandong province at the age of forty – five at which time he started teaching Gao style Ba Gua Zhang.
            In 1912 Gao claimed he met Sung Yi Ren, a Taoist from Guang Hua Mountain who gave him the Hou Tien sets. It is likely that this is a fabrication because the Chinese attribute many of their martial arts to famous yet obscure sources. There are many Ba Gua Zhang systems with application based short forms similar to Gao’s Hou Tien Sets. It is not difficult to believe that Gao had learned some of them from Cheng or Zhuo. Another student of Zhuo Yu Xiang wrote a book that had thirty-one of Gao’s sixty-four Hou Tien palms in it. Han Mu Xia, grand-student of Cheng Ting Hua and friend of Zhuo Yu Xiang’s had forty - eight straight line Ba Gua Zhang sets almost identical to Gao’s. Based on the above facts, it is possible that Gao may have standardized forty-eight of the Hou Tiens from his experience with Zhou, Cheng and Li Cun Yi; then rounded out the total number to sixty-four by creating two more lines based on his experience and in accordance with well known Daoist cosmology.
            In 1917, at age 51 Gao moved to Yang village, Wu Ching county, Hebei province, about 10 miles from Tianjin city. He taught in Yang village and in Tianjin city. Gao would also periodically return to his home village in Da Shan Township in Shandong province to teach. Tianjin was a rough and violent place with many experienced martial artists, gangsters and coarse people. Anyone who taught martial arts in Tianjin had to have real fighting skill.
             Gao’s main source of income was teaching martial arts classes so his class structure was designed to teach anyone who wanted to learn. His public classes contained multiple levels, each level of study costing additional amounts of money; some students only wanted to learn Ba Gua Zhang for health, others for show, some could not afford to learn more than what was taught the basic class and still others wanted fighting skill. He trained his students according to their interests, attitude, and physical condition. His first disciple was a well known, wealthy martial artist named Wu Meng Xia. Wu had studied with many prominent martial arts teachers. He went to meet Gao, they crossed hands and Wu was soundly defeated. He knelt and asked to become Gao’s disciple.
            In 1942 he got into a fight with a Tai Ji Chuan teacher in the park. Gao defeated him but injured him so badly he died three days later. To avoid the police Gao fled to Wu Ching village outside Tianjin city. He never returned to Tianjin and spent his remaining years living in the back of a Chinese medicine shop; he died in 1951 at the age of eighty-five.
hist4ZHANG JUN FENG (1902 – 1974)
         Zhang Jun Feng was born in Shandong province in 1902 and at the age of 9 moved to Tianjin City to learn the fruit wholesaling business. By the age of sixteen he was already interested in martial arts. It is not known what arts he studied originally but by 1923 he was a close friend of Wu Meng Xia.
          Wu Meng Xia introduced Zhang to Gao Yi Sheng and Gao accepted him as his student. Zhang could not attend Gao’s public class because he worked managing a fruit wholesaling business so he paid to receive private instruction from Gao in the morning and in the evening. Private instruction was the most expensive level of Gao’s teaching structure. In his later years Zhang was known to yell at his students “Do you know how much I had to pay to learn these skills?!”
              Zhang also spent a lot of time sparring and practicing with his senior Gong Fu brother Wu Meng Xia from whom he learned a great deal. Wu had had many famous teachers including Han Mu Xia, Niu Chun Ming and Gao Yi Sheng. Wu was known for his quick temper and excellent fighting skill. Zhang Jun Feng also studied with Hebei Xing Yi Quan master Li Cun Yi, but only in name. At this time Li was old and Zhang studied with Li’s son Li Bin Tang.
             As Zhang developed his skill he became well known in Tianjin. In 1938 he became the chairman of the Tianjin City Martial Arts Association. Zhang studied, practiced and taught martial arts from 1921 until he left in China 1948. His dedication and continual practice resulted in his being an expert and highly skilled martial artist.
             In the summer of 1948 the communists took over and Zhang Jun Feng left mainland China for Taiwan.  He tried to set up a fruit wholesaling business, but the business failed. To support himself he began to teach martial arts. Zhang began holding open classes and founded the Yi Zong martial arts school in 1950. Zhang accepted and taught any dedicated person, including the Taiwanese, despite opposition from other Chinese teachers. During this time he fought many challenges matches from the traditional martial artists in Taiwan and the other teachers who had moved from the mainland. Among his 10 original students were the Hung brothers.  
            Yi Zong is the name Gao Yi Sheng gave Zhang Jun Feng’s branch of his Ba Gua Zhang. So our branch of Gao’s Ba Gua Zhang is called Yi Zong Ba Gua Zhang (the martial art of the Yi Ching eight trigram palm).  Zhang Jun Feng passed away in Taiwan in 1974.  He was seventy-two.

hist5The Hung Brothers - Hung I Mien (1920-2001) Hung I Xiang (1925-1993)
hist6              Hung I Xiang, Hung Yi Wen and Hung I Mien were three of Zhang Jun Feng’s original students during the 1950’s in Taiwan. They studied all of Zheng’s arts; Ba Gua Zhang, Tai Chi Chuan, Xing Yi Quan and Chi Gong but each had their respective areas of expertise. Hung I Xiang specialized in Xing Yi Quan, Hung I Mien’s area of expertise was Ba Gua Zhang and the oldest brother Hung Yi Wen was an expert in Tai Ji Quan.
         Some time around 1950 Hung I Mien was exercising in the park where Zhang Jun Feng was holding class. Zhang saw him and called him over. He showed him some Xing I Quan and Hung was interested in what he saw.
              The Hung brothers spent the next 10 years studying with Zhang. Hung I Xiang was a favorite of Zhang and he passed much of his fighting skill and technique to Hung. Hung’s skill and power made him famous.  Hung I Xiang went on to become a full time professional martial arts teacher. He trained many students during his thirty-plus years of teaching the internal martial arts, producing many full contact champions and excellent fighters.

 

hist7Luo De Xiu
Mr. Luo began his study of martial arts in his teens learning traditional Shao- Lin gung fu. Hearing from a friend about Hung I Xiang, Luo visited Hung’s school. He liked what he saw and began his study of Xing I Quan.  Mr. Luo trained diligently and eventually became one of Hung’s best students and his school champion. His insatiable interest in the internal martial arts led him to study Ba Gua Zhang with Hung I Mien and later with Liu Qian.  Researching the Gao style in Taiwan Luo talked to many former students of Zhang Jun Feng comparing forms, theory and application with them. This research gave him a uniquely informed point of view on Gao style Ba Gua Zhang. He is known as one of the foremost experts on Ba Gua Zhang in the world. Mr. Luo lives and teaches in Taipei, Taiwan.

 

 

 

hist8Marcus Brinkman, O.M.D.
During his first ten years in the Republic of China, (Taiwan) Dr. Marcus Brinkman did his best to seek out the finest martial and medical teachers existing there at that time (1985-95). He is the senior disciple of Bagua Zhang teacher Luo De-xiu, having originally hosted Luo's early Xingyi and Bagua classes at his house on Yangming mountain in Taipei. Unique to his training experiences in Taiwan are his earlier studies with the now deceased Xingyi and Bagua Master, Hong Yi-xiang, who Marcus spent over four years with, training the foundations of his Internal Boxing Arts.

Besides his lineage in the Internal Arts systems of Xingyi Quan and Bagua Zhang, Marcus has spent many years studying Taiji Quan (Chen Pan-ling) as well as several systems of Qigong. In addition to the Martial arts, Dr. Brinkman has devoted over twenty years studying and practicing Chinese medicine. While in Taiwan he spent over seven years learning the pulse diagnosis system of Dr. Zhang Wei-yian as well as apprenticing with many other well known healers in and around Taipei.

In the last seven years, Marcus has served as Academic Dean at two Chinese medical colleges in the U.S. and has worked to propagate the pulse diagnosis system he acquired while in Taiwan. He is a teacher of Ba Gua Zhang under the auspices of Luo De-xiu and also teaches Taiji and Xingyi. Marcus is currently living in Asia continuing his medical and martial education and practice.

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