Copyright IAM Co 2006
By John P. Painter PhD ND

Different approaches to Baguazhang

When practicing any internal method, martial art or Qigong it really helps if we have a clear goal in mind. Here are five such possible goals that can be used in studying Baguazhang and most especially Jiulong Baguazhang.

Different ways of practicing Baguazhang
Popular books, magazine articles and videos give the impression that when one trains Baguazhang forms one is training the mind, body and spirit. Some intimate that the practice of Baguazhang dances or forms alone will produce an evolutionary like development in the student. Then in some mysterious way the student will move from a point of unknowing to becoming a Qi filled martial art master who never gets ill, lives for many years, is able to fight like a wild tiger or swirling dragon and later evolve into an immortal sage. This of course is hardly the case.

The evolution of Baguazhang has undergone numerous changes since its beginning. It is a fantastic tool containing many layers and each of these layers can occupy years of study and training. Some of the layers overlap while others are not necessary for specific goals. Large segments of student I meet in Baguazhang circles have little awareness of these layers many especially beginners have unrealistic expectations of the art.

In Li family Baguazhang we have two major divisions one for martial art skills and the other for health and longevity. Students can study both; however we avoid training the two at the same time to avoid confusion of goals. The first type is called Zhandouli or combat effective methods and the second is known as Jiankang Gong or healthy skills. Within these two base categories are numerous layers of training intensity and focus.

Below are five categories of Baguazhang training methods common to many systems. As I stated earlier many new students think they are going to get all the benefits from any style of Baguazhang that they are learning and this is just not so.

I do not feel you can master all of these in your life. It takes too much time to develop skills needed for each of these. Each of the five has special ways of focusing the practice to achieve your personal desired goals.

1. The Contemporary Wushu way
Here the attention to memorizing dances like forms (Wudao) are primary. The student will also need to develop flexibility and stamina plus a modicum of strength for this path of study. The student pays attention to physical appearance, grace, flow, poise and balance during form presentation. Stage presence and routine presentation are important also.

Health is important but only so far as how it affects outward appearance. One does not have to study anything remotely associated with spiritual practice or martial art for self-defense to appear skilled in Baguazhang for this category. In my years of judging Baguazhang at martial arts tournaments seldom were the winners of the Baguazhang forms division capable martial artists. Few if any had developed any serious combative skills.

I say this not to insult these athletes merely to point out that there are many ways to focus one’s training and forms for competition alone will not produce a self-defense expert or impart the type of longevity enjoyed by traditional old school Baguazhang masters.

A large majority of practitioners of Baguazhang fall into this category which with the proliferation of standardized judging in tournaments and the desire to win a trophy all contribute to the loss of the greater depths that “old school” Baguazhang has to offer.

2. The Health and Qigong Way
This type of study implies training the body and mind in numerous disciplines to create vitality and wards off disease. Qigong practice is one of the dominate types of training here. Students are taught ways to circulate Qi in the meridians to create of internal energy for health purposes. In Jiulong Baguazhang these methods are know as Flying Dragon Qigong. Meditation for developing imaging skills and stress relief may also be part of the program.

Baguazhang circle walking exercises can provide aerobic conditioning. Some schools including the Jiulong method include strengthening of muscles through progressive resistance training as in the iron sphere exercises.

Within this focus on health there will be  little serious emphasis placed on martial skills or self-defense .In Jiulong Baguazhang this is the way we call the Jiankang or health development way.

Quite a few schools other than Jiulong Baguazhang attempt to blend the methods of health, Qigong and martial prowess into one complex and long study, our experience is that such efforts do not produce the highest level results in students.

It should be noted that if one undertakes Jiulong Baguazhang study for self-defense many of the health benefits will be forthcoming as a result of the practice of forms, exercises and other routines that provide aerobic and some progressive resistance methods. Also through the training of our Quiet Sitting methods for martial skills the student will also develop valuable skills that may be used in the pursuit of Qigong abilities within the Jiankang practices. One can seek this path in Jiulong Baguazhang or any style by selecting and rejecting what levels of the art they wish to focus upon.

3. The Self-defense way
This level is the most common in martial art schools specializing in self-defense curriculums. Self-defense means that we are studying the art for the possibility that we may one day have to use it to protect ourselves in a violent encounter.

This study will focus on learning principles, forms and methods of defensive maneuvers, striking, locking, throwing and kicking tactics. Anatomical pressure points may also be learned. Push hands training, two person sparring sets and free sparring may also be employed.

Some traditional weapons sets (Wudao) may also be learned for the flavor of being involved in an antique art. Anyone seeking true self protection from these types of arts must realize that one cannot learn to defend oneself from teachers who have never had to use the method to defend themselves.

Furthermore the prospective student should know that some sparring in a Wu Guan (Gong Fu School) or experience in tournament fighting does not qualify a teacher to teach street defense methods of self defense. Theory is fine; it is experience with the methods that counts in the real world.

Many of our Jiulong Baguazhang instructors come from a law enforcement, military or body guard background and have had direct experience with such methodology. Those who have not are trained directly by those who have amassed realistic skills in self protection.

4. The Warrior way

This next to spiritual practice is the most demanding and difficult level. Few Baguazhang teachers have actually gone to this level of training. Here the body and mind are focused upon becoming an instrument of peace and power through the use of combative tactics. This level is time intensive, would be employed only by professional bodyguards, law enforcement, and specialized military like warriors.

Studies of the health practice are expanded to include training that produces superior health, strength and speed. Various forms of equipment training are utilized such as punching bags, iron spheres, nine posts balance beams and the like. Aerobic endurance is enhanced in both stamina and the ability to withstand physical punishment during combat.

Studies the self-defense practice are enhanced and intensified to include iron hand instruction methods, combative full power training and defensive tactics with and against weapons both armed and unarmed. Light body skills and obstacle course like training become common place methods of developing warrior skills. The Baguazhang warrior must learn to run, jump, climb over any terrain or obstacles and still have enough “wind”, and vitality to fight with multiple opponents.

Qigong of the martial school is also studied to prepare the inner energy for combative altercations. Meditation is important to develop a calm resolute mind yet it too is focused on developing the lower center the Dantian or Jing-Tian and later in Qin-gong (light body skills) the Qi-Tian is trained to allow the body to rise more easily when jumping.  The training does not have to include anything remotely associated with spiritual practice to attain skill in this level.

5. The Spiritual Path

Many profess to want this level of attainment through Baguazhang practice. There is a major difference in pretending to be spiritual and actually attaining it. This is the most difficult path of them all and can only be undertaken by those who are willing to renounce a great deal of what they have come to believe as true about themselves and the world.

It is not something that is or can be taught in a commercial setting. It is attained through long and diligent practice and guidance from a teacher who has achieved or is on the path to finding the lessons of the Dao.

I fully believe that when one attains true spiritual nature violence is unnecessary other parts of the “super conscious” come into play and one is just not present when violence would take place. While I am on this path and as I age I can see more of this wondrous thing I have not fully achieved it. My teacher Li, Long-dao said his father achieved it and when he did he stopped teaching, went off into the leeward side of Mount Emei, and joined a Daoist religious order.

This was Li, Zhang Lai a man who was a martial trainer in Chang Kai Shek’s army. In the end of his life he became a Daoist recluse and devotee to the Bodhisattva Kuan Yin. Li’s father told him that to obtain spirituality one had to progress upward by what he called the internal ladder from the lower cauldron, which activates the animal nature where sexual energy is converted into power for martial use.

In time with proper focus the energy can be sent to the second center if we know how to open it and we enter the realm of Kuan Yin (she who weeps for the pains of the world) and our compassion develops. At this stage we no longer wish to bring harm we only want to find tranquility. Here the martial artist will abandon ego and violent maneuvers for less aggressive ways of dealing with physical conflict.

The third stage is one where the life force opens the upper energy field and the mind is free of anger and violence. To put it in my teachers’ words, “the world becomes amusing!” everything is seen as a great cosmic play or joke and we truly realize that nothing is real. I can write these words but I do not fully comprehend them. I believe them for I feel it but I do not fully realize it yet.
So these are a few of the many ways that teachers and students within the schools of Baguazhang can celebrate the arts. No one path is correct for everyone. Each must choose the correct path and find the teacher who best can guide you on this journey. Within the Jiulong Baguazhang family we place the very least focus on number one, the contemporary wushu way, preferring to focus on health, longevity and self-defense skills rather than the fleeting moments of glory or adulation that comes from winning a shiny trophy. If you feel this is what you would find of interest to your evolution in the Dao of things then I invite you to join us.

For more information contact me at Thegompa@aol.com