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A member of the Shibuya tai chi school introduced me to Kenichi Sawai’s
hsing-i group, who were fanatics about developing chi through standing
practices. Sawai had studied for 10 years in China with Wang Hsiang Zai, founder
of the I Chuan School of hsing-i. At the time I was introduced to Kenichi
Sawai’s class, it was primarily oriented toward a love of fighting rather than
health and fitness.

The solidly built Huang Hsi I was about the same height as the average
American man, but tall for a native Taiwanese. His strength and abundant chi—natural and trained—combined with his huge,
immensely sensitive hands, made him a superb healer in Chinese qigong (chi
gung/chi kung) therapeutic bodywork (qigong tui na) and osteopathy. He came
from a farming background and consequently had a strong affinity for living
things, including plants and herbs.

One of the people at the aikido school I attended in New York after high school hours was a judo
teacher named Lou Klinesmith. Knowing of my passion for the fighting arts, Lou
asked me one day if I had any interest in finding out about a new kind of
“soft” punch. Curiosity aroused, I replied, “Sure, why not?”

In the summer of 1968, I traveled to Taiwan from Japan in search of the internal arts bagua master Wang Shu Jin, who was widely considered to be one of the best empty-hand fighters in Asia. I tracked down Wang’s class, which met at the amphitheater shell in the park in Taichung at 5:30 AM. There were many people in the park at that hour doing all sorts of things, including Shaolin gung fu, karate, tai chi and badminton. Some individuals hung from branches of trees, stretching themselves, some just strolled while others played saxophones.

When I studied with the late Hung I Hsiang, he was in his fifties. He spoke
with a gravelly voice that sometimes conveyed a bit of gruffness, but in
actuality, Hung was an intelligent, perceptive, well educated and articulate
man. Watching him practice bagua zhang, his small-movement precision was
incredible. The potential for misreading Hung based on interpretation of voice
tone raises an important point about bagua practitioners. I have met many over
the years who practice bagua for all sorts of animal, human and spiritual
reasons. Some have been saints, some sinners.

I studied with O-Sensei Morihei Ueshiba, the founder of aikido, during my
undergraduate days in Japan.
My research has indicated that O-Sensei’s aikido was in a primary way directly
influenced by bagua zhang. My first in-depth, extended experience with a top-level master of internal
martial arts was with Ueshiba between 1967 and 1969.