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The 1994 Great Trip in Internal Kungfu

The  1994 April was a great year for my Kungfu.

In that year I went first in Guangzhou to study Baguazhang with Fu Meilan and Fu Wenlong and then I went to Beijing to join a United States group sponsored by the Pakua Chang Journal and including its Director, Dan Miller, and members of the Tang Shou Tao Association .The Tang Shou Tao group consisted of about 27 persons, including myself that, wit a Brasilian, was the only one not-American.

We met in the evening of 31 March and soon in the next morning we began the training . In the Morning we were training Shanxi Xingyiquan with 82 year old Master Li Guichang (Song Xirong school) and particularly with his students Mao Mingchun and Cui Jinmin. We studied  Wuxing quan, (Five Elements Kungfu), Shi'er xing (Twelve Animals),Jixing Bashi, Zashi chui and two-man sets such as Wuhua pao, Wuxing Xiangke and the long Aishen Pao. This kind of Xingyi quan is only slightly different from the Hebei school: The forms are simililar, only the weight is more on the center of the body and the front leg is similar to gongbu position.

In the afternoon we studied Li Ziming Lao ba zhang (the same I had studied with Li Ziming himself in 1988), a small Qinna(arm-locks) set, exercise and a lot of Bagua two-person application drills with Master Zhang Huasen. While staying in Beijing I could see my teacher Liu Jingru and study a Zonghe Baguazhang set, a mixed form  (Cheng and Yin schools ) created inside the Baguazhang Association in Beijing.

We studied all these things for eight days and then we moved to Tianjin to study another Bagua school, the Gao Yisheng's one. But before leaving Beijing we had the privilege to visit the Bagua founder (Dong Haichuan) tomb.

Our visit to the Dong Haichuan tomb in Beijing

 

 In Tianjin the Gao Yisheng system was taught by Wang Shusheng and Liu Shuhong and by two of Wang's best students, Ge Guoliang and Li Xueyi. During the eight training sessions we studied all eight circular palm changes (called pre-heaven) and all the 64 post-heaven straight lines forms.

I found the circular form very nice and the same is for the very 20/30 initial straight line forms but the remaining items I felt a little mechanical. In addition we studied the Bagua sword and broadsword, two nice forms indeed. In the spare time I recorded with my videocamera my solo training to memorize and  not to have lost the numerous forms we were taught.

It is not finished here: in addition we studied Hebei Xingyiquan and Jiang Rongqiao Baguazhang with master Liu Wanfu, including a long 64 palms form wich combined movements from Bagua, taiji, Lanshou, Tongbei and Bajiquan and a 98 movements Xingyi form.

At the training days end we were extremely tired but really satisfied. During the 21 days the group spent in Beijing-Tianjin, almost everyone of us spent from eight to twelve hours a day practicing Bagua or Xingyi, pushing hands and so on. More, I had trained before in Guangzhou! It is the most intensive training year I ever spent in China.

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