Hi everyone, this is my Liang style teacher, Zhang Wei Dong performing the Ba Mian Zhang which is considered an advanced set of the Liang style. It was developed later, in the 20th century I believe, as an extension of the Ding Shi Ba Zhang which are the Fixed Palm Changes. Within our lineage the Fixed Changes are considered the "Highest expression of the principles" even though they are the most simple. The Ba Mian Zhang stands in contrast with how outwardly expressive the movements are even though they are based off the simple changes. Also, you might see me in the background watching🙂. This was filmed in Beijing by a Kung Fu brother of mine before he moved back to Europe. Sometime around 2009 maybe.

I stumbled across this video and thought I'd share it here. While not long, it was interesting to see some different practices shown in archival footage.

Today in the Live Session we continued working on our Bagua basic movements and walking drills and also introduced our Flowing Set #1. This set comes from our Wang Shu Jin lineage of Cheng style and helps teach basic movements as well as the concept of "jie zou" and "ge deng". Jie zou is rhthym and 'ge deng' is implies the sound of horse hooves in motion. These concepts are meant to be studied and expanded upon, not really something to just remember or put on a list. The goal is to understand how these concepts shape the practice. Below is a YouTube video going over the first few movements of the flowing set. With this, and most bagua forms, there are many ways to express the movements once the basics are understood. This form should be done on the left and right side.

What style of Bagua is that? This is a question I get asked a lot so I thought I would put some basic information out there. My opinion is that lineage is something that is built in the training hall with your teacher and classmates first and foremost and style is there for reference. This has been how pretty much how all my teachers have operated. That being said, the individuals that make up your lineage and their experience are very applicable to your training when you look to "seek what they sought". I train and represent two different family styles of Bagua, Cheng style and Liang style. My Cheng style comes from Andy Dale who I began training with in the early 2000's. He began his study in Seattle in the 1970's training Cheng style from 3 different teachers as well as Fu style from Viktor Fu, descendent of Fu Zhen Song. His Cheng style can be traced to the Zhang Zhao Dong, Liu Bin, and Cheng Yu Long branches. One of his teachers, Tchoung Ta Tchen was a training partner of Wang Shu Jin. My Liang style comes from Zhang Wei Dong of Beijing who I began studying with in 2007. His Liang style is traced to the Guo Gu Min branch which is a lesser known branch of Liang style. Guo Gu Min was peer of Li Zi Ming and is often credited for recording the Bagua Songs. Both my Bagua teachers also trained in various other martial arts just as I do including shuai jiao, tai ji, xing yi and other external styles like mantis, monkey and wing Chun . Zhang Laoshi also trained in San Da and BJJ. Andy is 6th or 7th degree black belt in Aikido and also highly ranked in Judo. I mention this because both of them saw Bagua as an art that helped them integrate and develop their martial arts skill as a whole. This is something that is very important to me in my training and teaching. If you can understand the proper method of training then Bagua becomes an incredibly rich training ground for building skill. How to train these styles together without confusion? In my opinion and experience there is zero conflict between bagua styles. There is no liang style body method, cheng style body method, there is only bagua body method as developed by the individual in relation to their practice. The movements are guides and tools. Creating something that "looks like bagua" is not the same as creating bagua generated movement and over stylization should be avoided. Rather we work the movement and forms according to the criteria and standards set forth in the Bagua classics, also called the bagua songs. These are movement and energetic principles that when applied correctly teach proper bagua body method. It's not just about twisting and coiling.

During Thursday's live class we went over the Liang style 64 Palms line one. Here is a YouTube clip going over the first few moves.