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...
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,...
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...
Possibilities of an Art Realized My last teacher in China, Liu Hung Chieh, was a master of bagua, tai chi, hsing-i and Taoist meditation. In addition, he was a master calligrapher and a classical Chinese scholar who had a complete knowledge of traditional Chinese...
Bai Hua, a student of Liu Hung Chieh, was Beijing-educated. I met Bai Hua in Hong Kong and was lucky that he was an extremely articulate Mandarin speaker because I spoke only Mandarin. I shared an apartment with Bai Hua for a time and he had as strong an influence on...