Where did these styles come from? Does anybody make a good tape series of it? Are their any schools in the Maryland, DC, Northern Virgina area? Is it internal? Is it a Taoist or Buddhist system?
Thanks in advance.
"Luminous beings are we."
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Where did these styles come from? Does anybody make a good tape series of it? Are their any schools in the Maryland, DC, Northern Virgina area? Is it internal? Is it a Taoist or Buddhist system?
Thanks in advance.
"Luminous beings are we."
Adam Hsu, Su Yu Chang, and Tony Yang all produce Bajiquan and Piquazhang tapes. All of them are good and I recommend watching any of these.
As for Bajiquan and Piquazhang being a Shaolin style...I don't believe so (you may want to ask RAF about this). Bajiquan can be traced to a Chinese Muslim named Wu Zhong who learned the style from two daoist monks. It is much more similar to Chen Taiji and Hsing I than anything else.
You must eat bitter before you can taste sweet.
All stories of Ba-ji and pi-gua I've heard traced the style back to a mysterious monk named "Lay", who passed it to Wu-zhong, who then taught the art to his oldest daughter. The Wu-Dun story said "Lay" was a Taoist monk. But another Shaolin story claims it originated from Shaolin temple as an internal style for the meditating monks. "Lay", therefore, was a monk from Shaolin who passed the art to Wu-Zhong. So I guess no one knows for sure where the art originated. It's believed that Ba-ji used to be called "Ba-zi chuen", meaning "rake fist", and the earliest record of this style goes back to Ming (1368-1644).
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"You fight like you train." --Motto, USN Fighter Weapon School (TOPGUN)
The origins of baji are real tricky. The system may have passed through the shaolin temple but I do not think the style originated in the shaolin temple. I follow Adam Hsu's thinking on these ideas regarding martial arts in the shaolin temple.
The mysterious monk could not be documented and, if he existed, was probably a monk in name only. More likely, a failed revolutionary.
I have never seen any of the modern temples, songshan in particular, lay claim to baji, although I have seen some baji that looks like it contains elements of long fist. Can't say much about pi gua. Sifu James Guo is very sharp regarding these historical concerns and you might want to post him on his website