Master Xu's Viewpoints On Ba Gua Zhang

By Xu Shi Xi

Bagua is being loved by many people for the reason that it had shown great function in a long history. In the age of cold weapons, one with a better martial ability would win, and achieve higher status, thus great martial artist were born like clouds in the sky. If people wanted success and to be important, they had to train hard and never let their training methods be open to others. They did this to survive.

It is not surprising that Wushu had gradually fade away following the emergence of guns and bullets, because no matter how powerful your martial ability is, you can not win over a shot.(Fired Bullets) So it is not surprising that in the recent history Wushu people like to talk more about prolonging life.

Current Wushu has given up difficult combatant movements and assistant training methods, but added beautiful forms easy to learn by ordinary people which has no real combat functions, thus it has changed into a kind of pure body exercise for fitness, entertainment, communication or even fashion. It is not Martial Arts anymore, but had become a sort of dancing Arts.

In recent years, some people made even more changes on Traditional Wushu, which was not complete already. Traditional Wushu was made simpler and simpler, being added some dance movements, and had totally lost its original features. It is a pity for Traditional Wushu.

Now, people who practice Wushu can be divided into three groups, one is for health keeping, their movements being slow and soft; the second group of people is for fame and money, learning some sets of forms and bribing referees for titles of tournaments; the third group, is really in pursuit of something that represents genuine martial abilities.

Many people have misunderstandings about Bagua, thinking that Bagua is only circling, that it is only for health not for combat. I can only say that they do not know Bagua, or these people have not been introduced into the real art yet. As for Yin Style Bagua, the content is quite rich, possessing fist, palm, broadsword, spear, cudgel, sword, free sparring, acupuncture, and Gong Fa.

To practice martial arts, you first need to build up your body, for only a strong body can develop combat abilities, the two aspects assist each other and can never be apart. Traditional Yin Style Bagua requires preciseness and neatness of actions, no waste of hands.

These are useful in real combat but not for appreciation. I can't name all the techniques, hidden hands, hidden feet or small legs, hooks, points, tilts, dials, buckles, breaks, steps, bumps, flips, uppercuts, elbow attacks, knee attacks, head attacks... all these are techniques to break the opponents down in such a surprising action that can injure or deform their body parts. And it is because of this, that real Yin Style Bagua were not easily taught.

The current society is in an age of rapid science and technology development, people are working under greater pressure and faster pace, so it has never been more essential for us to keep a healthy body. To learn Bagua well, can not only bring you fitness and prolong life, but can also grant you self-protection and happiness.

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