The punch launched out of chamber like a mortar from a tube. It hit the fat man's chest with the power of a jackhammer cracking cement. As Bruce heard the dull thud of bone on flesh, pain engulfed his hand and shot up to his shoulder-again. Ignoring the pain, he snapped a front kick into the big belly in front of him. This only resulted in making his foot feel like his hand. This wasn't right! No one remained standing when this young Karate champion landed his best techniques. He fired a backfist at the fat man, who was suddenly gone. Although Bruce hadn't seen him move, his opponent was standing behind him.

The corpulent Chinese boxer's escape from Bruce's line of sight was disorienting and caused an uncharacteristic loss of focus in his concentration. His mind wandered over the chain of events that had brought him halfway around the world to deposit him in this match, which was quickly becoming a humiliating disaster.

From the age of 12, Martial Arts had been the central focus of life for Bruce Frantzis. While in high school, he earned black belts in Judo, Aikido, and two styles of karate. He also tried a little Tai Chi, studied Shiatsu massage, and spent many hours practicing zazen meditation. While pursuing his martial arts career, he earned a scholarship to a major university. He turned down this offer, however, and instead attended Sophia university in Tokyo, at his own expense, to continue his martial arts training in its homeland.

Bruce shook away his reminiscences and spun to face the moonlike, smiling visage of his tormentor. His ridge hand bounced off the close cropped skull and felt like it had just slammed into concrete. A quick downward sidekick into the Chinese boxer's shin only left his foot feeling like the bones in its side had shattered. The kick left the fat man still smiling. A spinning backfist suddenly sent the young fighter hurtling through empty space, causing him to lose focus again.

The Search for Power

Japan had been a big step in his education. He had earned a black in judo at the Kodokan and multiple black belts in shotokanan and Goju karate. He also trained with the Waseda University karate team which won an All-Japan university title. It was here he learned to read, write, and speak Japanese. The highlight of this period involved study at the aikido Hombu Dojo during the last two years of the founder's life. Frantzis was highly impressed by the internal power displayed by the old and very frail Morihei Uyeshiba.

In fact, it was the search for others who possessed the amazing internal power of the founder of aikido that led him to Tai Chung, Taiwan and, the man he now fought---Wang Shu-Chin. He turned to face the 5 foot 8 inch, 300 pound master of paqua chang. It was inconceivable that a physique like that could move so fast. It was even more inconceivable that striking that puffy body felt like slamming your limbs into a steel door, but that had become the reality of this sparring session. Frantzis now wondered about the wisdom of having taken offense at the Chinese boxer's denigration of karate as a low-level martial art. The young fighter had spent half his life practicing karate, but his skill didn't seen capable of creating any level of discomfort on the heavy-set pugilist confronting him. As he launched himself forward with his next combination of techniques, Frantzis began to wonder about Wang's yet unproven offensive skills. The thought was cut off in his brain as the paqua master circled smoothly around his attack and reached out to, seemingly, lightly touch the young fighter's head. The lights went out and the kid went down. Frantzis had found his new teacher.

The fight he lost occurred in 1968 and Frantzis continued to return to Tai Chung and the teachings of Wang Shu-Chin over the next decade. Wang's paqua teaching focused on the development of chi. Frantzis and his teacher practiced many chi kung exercises and standing meditation. Wang taught Frantzis how to use his chi within paqua footwork to move smoothly while fighting. Frantzis also learned how to use internal energy for knockout power.

When Frantzis returned to Taiwan in 1974, he found Wang to be on an extended trip to Japan, so he decided to wait in Taipei. That was the best place on the island to study Mandarin Chinese, in which he subsequently became fluent. Frantzis had learned that Japanese would not be enough if he wanted to learn the deepest levels of Chinese Internal martial arts.

Frantzis had been in Taipei only a short time when a friend took him to the school of Hung I Hsing. Hung's paqua and Hsing-I were famous on the island because of Hung's personal fighting prowess and that of his students who always won their weight divisions at the All-Taiwan full-contact tournaments. Foremost among Hung's many champions were Su Dong Chen, who was teaching in Japan, and the current school champion, Luo De Xiu. Frantzis liked the school and continued to study there for the nest four years when his trips to Taiwan ceased with the death of Wang.

Frantzis found Hung's paqua used smaller Frame circles and had a more precise method of bringing the fighting techniques out of the form. Hung was very good at analyzing the palm changes and teaching a martial Application for each piece. While Wang taught Frantzis how to get power, Hung taught him how to use it. Hung taught a system derived from the 64 linear paqua drills. These drills correlate to the 64 hexagrams of the I Ching in the same manner as the eight palm changes relate to the eight basic Trigrams of the I Ching. The 64 line drills are used to help teach the 384 fighting techniques. There is one technique for each of the six lines in each of the 64 hexagrams. At 5-feet-7 inches, 240 pounds, Hung, like Wang, used more 45-and 90-degree angles in his fighting footwork than half or full circles. While he was studying with them, Bruce saw Wang as having the higher chi development and Hung as being the better teacher.

The Journey Begins

It was between the periods of his studies in Taiwan that Frantzis spent the better part of two years in India studying Pranayama and Kundalini Yoga. His Indian Kundalini teacher gave him the name "Kumar", which became his first name for the next decade.

In early 1975, Kumar Frantzis took a trip to Hong Kong in search of high-level internal martial arts. There, he met a paqua and hsing-I master named Bwa Hwa. Bwa Hwa was a student of a forth-generation master of paqua chang who still resided on the mainland in Beijing. Kumar returned many times to study with Bau Hwa, who taught him how to develop "long power" in his paqua chang.

While training in Hong Kong, Frantzis also met and instructor of paqua chang named Jack Pao. Pao was the first small man with whom Frantzis had studied paqua. He taught a hit-and-run style of paqua fighting. This style relied on circling your opponent very quickly then darting in and out to strike. IT is the perfect style for small fighters and differed greatly from the "angle and in" fighting footwork of his previous teachers.

When easy travel to the mainland of China became a reality for westerners, Kumar Frantzis' search for the source of his arts took on a new dimension. He knew that the home of high-level Paqua Chang was Beijing and that city became his goal. In 1981, he received an invitation to go there and study Yang style tai chi chaun at the Beijing Sorts Institute. He became the first American certified by the Institute to teach. While in Beijing, Kumar hoped to make a contact that would lead him to a high-level paqua instructor.

Unknown to Frantzis, the contact had already been made for him. Bai Hwa had communicated from Hong Kong to his master in Beijing, on behalf of the American martial artist. This led to Frantzis' introduction to Taoist master Liu Hung Chieh, who was Bai Hwa's fourth-generation master of paqua chang.

Liu had a long and glorious martial arts history. His studies began at age 11, with a Shaolin style for three years, at which time, because of his building talent, his teacher brought him to the southern Beijing school of Paqua Chang. At the ceremony, admitting him to the school, Liu bowed to Cheng Yu-Lung, eldest son of Chen Tinghwa, also known as the famous "Spectacles Cheng." Liu was 14 at the time. For three years Liu studied hard at the school, working with many of its paqua and hsing-I instructors. Then the school closed its door.

After the Southern Beijing Paqua School closed, Liu became one of the few serious students of Ma Kuei, who was also known as Ma Shih Ching. When Ma was 18, he became the disciple of the famous paqua master Yin Fu, who was the original student of the founder of paqua chang, Tung Hai Chuan. Because of his slight physique, Yin Fu has often been referred to as "Thin Yin." He was a hero of the Boxer Rebellion, revered for saving the Empress Dowager from the foreigners. Ma Kuei was Yin's best student and his enforcer who accepted challenges in Yin Fu's name. Ma's defeat of a Russian strongman and yang Lu Chan's tai chi student, Huang Chun, made the small man famous in Beijing.

Doing Damage

Ma Kuei's family owned a lumberyard and, as his fame grew, Ma became known as Mu Ma, or wood Ma. This was to distinguish him from the late paqua master, Ma Wei chi, who was known as coal Ma because of his line of work. Although Ma remained a Lineage disciple of Yin Fu, he learned much from Tung Hai Chuan when the founder of paqua came to live in Ma's house in the lumberyard after the old master retired from court.

Liu Hung Chieh represented Ma Kuei's paqua chang in the 1928 All-China Martial Arts Competition. When he told Kumar Frantzis about the tournament, Liu spoke of winning his matches while doing as little damage as possible. He said that this was in contrast to the hsing-I boxers who seemed to revel in executing only full-power techniques, no matter how injurious the results. The police stopped the contest before the tournament ended because of an excessive amount of serious injuries. Although he held lineages in hsing-I and paqua, Liu was happy that day he represented paqua chang on that day.

Later in his martial Arts career, Liu was appointed head of instructors at the Hunan branch of the central government's national Martial Arts Institute, Where Wu Jien Chuan's son's taught. After teaching at the martial arts institute, Liu lived in Hong Kong for a time, where he became a formal disciple of Wu Jien Chuan. During his stay in Hong Kong, Liu lived in the home of the founder of Wu Style tai chi chaun.

Liu returned to Beijing for a period then went to the Tien Tai monastery where he concentrated on the teachings and meditations of the Tien Tai Sect of Buddhism. Liu was in his late 30's when the sect declared him to be a formally enlightened being. For Liu, this was a signal that it was time to find new teachers. He spent the next ten years studying with Taoist masters in the mountains of western China. The change of Government in 1949 brought Liu Hung Chieh back to Beijing to be close to his family. Until his death in 1986, Liu lived quietly at home and concentrated on his spiritual practices. Until 1981, Bai Hwa was his only student during this period. Then he had a dream about teaching a Westerner, just before Bai Hwa sent Kumar Frantzis to him. Kumar studied with Liu throughout the summer of 1981 and then returned to the United States and his own students.

In the summer of 1983, Kumar Frantzis returned to Beijing and studied with Master Liu Hung Chieh every day until Liu's death in December 1986

Learning to Fight

Kumar began his meditation studies with Zen sitting while in high school, and continued the practice while at Sophia University. He also spent time studying meditation in India. Liu was as eager to build on Kumar's foundation of meditation as Kumar was eager to increase his martial skills. The two men meditated together every day of Kumar's stay in Beijing.

The first meditation that Liu learned was paqua meditation. Years later he learned the Buddhist and Taoist spiritual meditation systems. Liu was informed that Tung Hai Chuan taught a complete system of paqua meditation to only a few selected students. Liu learned the complete system from Ma Kuei and Ju Wen Bao. This system did not need any augmentation from other meditations.

Frantzis found Liu's paqua to have large outside movements with big circles. Although Liu stood a mere 5-feet-1 inch and weighed only 110 pounds, his paqua was even larger framed than the paqua of Wang Shu Chin. These large external circles are coordinated with a series of small internal circles that are manifested inside the body. In a martial situation, this style of paqua begins with large movements that turn into small circles once physical contact is made with the opponent. These small circle technique are similar to the small circles in the fighting paqua of Hung I Hsing.

Liu was not a teacher that started everyone at the beginning. He only worked with a couple of advanced students capable of commencing at an advanced level. He saw that Frantzis had attained the technical level in which the paqua boxer controls the movements of himself and his opponent. He wanted to introduce Kumar into the energetic level in which the paqua boxer consciously moves with ever changing energy patterns, as he simply observes the physical confrontation. Frantzis learned that each of Liu's basic palm changes is a physical change that develops an energy change within it. With enough practice, one learns how to separate the energy change from the physical change. The Single Palm Change develops a pure yang energy shape and the Double Palm Change develops a pure yin energy shape. These physical and energetic palm changes are represented, respectively, by the trigrams Ch'ien and K'un. The other six palm changes create the energy changes of wind, shock, coiling, waves, stillness to light, and the form of formlessness. These forms are, of course, represented by the other six trigrams.

When all eight energy changes can be clearly separated from their corresponding physical changes, each energy change can be put into each physical change. This creates eight variations of each palm change. Because each physical change and each energy change have a corresponding trigram, their combination creates the 64 combined energy pattern, which are represented by the 64 hexagrams of the I Ching.

When Kumar asked Liu why they did not practice the 64 line drills which were taught in Taiwan, Liu explained that they were already creating the patterns of the 64 hexagrams. He also told Frantzis the 384 techniques could be found within the 64 variations of the of the eight basic palm changes in his system.

While studying with Liu in Beijing, Frantzis became a formally adopted son of the old Taoist master. On the afternoon of Nov. 30, 1986, Liu taught Kumar the final variations of the eighth palm change. Then they practiced a little Push Hands, with the little old man-as usual--- easily handling the larger young man. The nest morning, an hour before Kumar arrived to train with him, Liu Hung Chieh died---no blindness, no crippling, no invalid stages of any kind; just Liu with his full powers, and then he was gone. The death of a Taoist Master. After the funeral of Liu Hung Chieh, Kumar returned to the United States to resume teaching. It would be the first time he would teach paqua fully and openly, and even that didn't happen right away.

While spending a short time teaching in England in 1975, Kumar taught a couple of lessons on the fundamentals of paqua to a few of his English students. That was the first time he taught paqua to anyone. The next year found Frantzis teaching internal shaolin and tai chi in New York City. He taught his two leading internal students, Frank Allen and Jonathon Lewis, how to fight as a team. He then taught them a few semi-private lessons on paqua chang used as a defense against multiple opponents, which rendered their team strategies useless. In 1982, Kumar taught a class of paqua fundamentals to his hsing-I students in Denver Colo. This class included Bill Ryan. It was 1989 before Frantzis, now known as B.K. Frantzis, started to teach paqua chang openly and fully. He did this from his school in the San Francisco Bay area and in an ongoing three-times-a-year seminar series in New York City.

Frantzis continues to teach Liu's style of paqua chang from his school in Fairfax, Calif., and in seminars around the globe. This style presents an equal mix of martial, healing, and meditation paqua which differentiates it from the other styles of presently taught in the United States. Frantzis is developing a core of instructors to help preserve and spread this rare style of paqua chang. This group now includes five men who have been with Frantzis for different amounts of time and specialize in different aspects of the art. Representing the martial aspects of the style are Bernie Langan of Oakland, Calif., and Frank Allen in New York city. Bill Ryan and Buddy Tripp in Brookline, Mass., represent the healing aspects of this art. B.K.'s newest apprentice paqua instructor, Chris Chappel, of London, England, rounds out the group. B.K. Frantzis and his instructors and students hope to bring this style of paqua chang into the 21st century as a living and growing art.

By Frank Allen and Clarence Lu

Article reprinted with permission from Inside Kung-Fu January 1998 Pg. 90