Beng Quan info for newbie.......

[Colin]

Can any of you help please?
I've recently started X'ng Yi Quan (private lessons) with a Master who speaks very little english.
My question is the way he has taught me Beng Quan is to always step forward with the left foot forward, then right follows, but always in left stance.
I bought Robert Smiths book on Hsing-I, and this shows stepping left to right.
Soooooo! My question is:
Is the style i'm practicing Hebei, shanxi or what?
Any help would be gratefully received.

thanks
Colin..............

[Mark M]

Left foot forward stepping is correct. This is the first Beng Chuan. This should follow with stepping to both sides at angles,called "lively" step Beng Chuan.

[PlasticSquirrel]

your way is correct, but i'm not sure if something so small could be used as a criteria for determining the province that your xingyiquan originates in. while many people divide xingyiquan into the three provinces of henan, hebei, and shanxi, there are many systems and huge differences in forms within the provinces. systems often vary greatly from teacher to teacher. a good example of this is what mark mentioned, the "lively step." in the xingyiquan that i have seen, there are no diagonal steppings in bengquan. they are stylistic differences, with no one method clearly better than another.

some people say that the main difference between the xingyiquan in shanxi and hebei is that it is more soft from shanxi, while hebei is harder. that may be a little bit of a rule of thumb, but is most likely not very accurate, since in shanxi there are three very old systems, those of dai, che, and song. che is the most common of these.

[Colin]

Thanks guys,
I'm taking my first few steps down this new path, and there is so much I don't know yet!
No doubt i'll be able to find out more from my Master as the weeks go by. I just don't want to go asking him too many question yet as we are communicating on a pretty good level, considering the language barrier.
For your info.. He is Master Lu Jun Hai. fom Shanghai.
Thanks again..........

Colin.....

[MaFuYee]

it's a matter of trust.
one step at a time.
you must learn to walk, before you can fly.
wax on, wax off.
...
and many other cliche's

- neque mibi quisquam Judaeorum fabulas objiciat.

[beaudacious]

in general practicing hard and long can answer many questions. Everyone has different tolerence for practicing on faith in the beginning good luck crawling tiger