Excerpt: Bagua in Beijing

This from the new second volume of “Liu Bin’s Zhuang Gong Bagua Zhang” book:

…Wei Wen Da’s son, Wei De Sung, was called crazy because he was quite

talkative and didn’t always follow the social rules of the times; he was a

free spirit. He was born in 1913 and died in 2002 at age eighty-nine. His

martial arts specialty was Di Tang Gong, or ground boxing. He showed

his Di Tang Gong to Master Han Wu, a fifth-generation Nan Cheng Bagua

master. He was smart, and when he would see a master practice, he could

copy the technique very well after seeing it just once. People would call

him “Ba Shi Zei”; Ba shi meaning “martial arts” and zei meaning “take”

or “steal.” Zei also means “extremely smart.” He knew many different

weapons and forms and applications. When he would practice, he never

allowed women to be around him, not even his wife. He thought that if a

woman saw you practicing, you would have trouble. He liked fighting.

 

… Another master, Zheng Wei Shan, was known as “Crazy Zheng.” He

liked to drink as well. People would say that he was quite bold and outgoing.

Crazy Zheng was poor, and so he would sometimes go outside Beijing

to buy bootlegged liquor because it was cheaper. At that time, Beijing

was a walled city, and you could only get in or out through several gates

that were under guard. You weren’t supposed to bring liquor into the

city. Master Zheng would go out of the city to buy the liquor and put it

in a bag made out of a pig’s gall bladder. He had learned a lot of martial

arts, including ching gong, and so when he came back, instead of going

through the gate, he would jump over the wall.

 

…Han Wu practiced Bagua under Master Liu Shi Kui until the Japanese

surrendered at the end of World War II. Master Liu then moved back

to his own home, and Han Wu continued to study from him at Master

Liu’s home. We understand that Master Han Wu studied and acquired the

Essence of Bagua Zhang from two great masters. He was also a great wrestler,

and he combined and integrated all of this into his practice and his

teaching; over time he was recognized as a great master of Bagua Zhang.

The character of his Bagua is described as wei mien ruan nei han gang bao

zhi li, meaning that his exterior technique and even his body are soft, like

cotton, but inside the power is like a hurricane.

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