Pa Kua Chuan
Traditional Style
Cheng Ting Hua
(1848 - 1900)
Cheng Ting Hua was from Cheng village of Sun district, Hebei Province. He opened a spectacle shop in Beijing and was widely known
as 'Spectacle Cheng'. Cheng was very fond of the martial arts. At
first, he studied under various schools of Chinese Boxing for a couple of years,
and was particularly proficient at Chinese Shuai Jiao or
wrestling.
One of Dong Hai Chuan's most skilled students was
Cheng Ting Hua. He was an eyeglass maker by trade, but a Shiao Shou wrestler,
and Chin Na practitioner by hobby. Because of his background, there are
characteristics of Chin Na, and Shiao Shou in his Bagua. He is the father of the
"Cheng" style. It is said that he practice all the time even at work,
instead of using a chair when he worked on spectacles, he would bend one leg and
lay the other one behind it (exercising leg skill ). In this way he would appear
to be sitting while working as to not draw attention. Cheng Ting Hua was
involved in the Chinese Boxer Rebellion and apparently disarmed and
incapacitated a squad of German soldiers without hurting any of them. When they
Platoon leader came to the scene he ordered them to open fire on Cheng, killing
him in 1900. Liu Bin was one of Cheng's Top students.
He was eventually recommended to Master
Dong Haichuan under whom he studied a few years. By persistent
practice, he became an expert himself. It is said that many famous
fighters challenged Cheng but no one could defeat him.
Cheng had an impulsive nature. He was short but
strong. In all his fights, he was known to use the 'Single Pounding Palm'
(Dan Zhuang Zhang) and was always successful in throwing his opponents in a
single movement. In contrast to Yin Fu, who popularized the Tornado Palm
and Ox Tongue Palm, Cheng was know for his fluid 'Dragon Claw' which inspired
many styles of Ba Gua such as Dragon Style, You Shen (Swimming Body Ba Gua), Gao
Style, Jiu Gong Zhang (Nine Palaces), and Jiang Rongqiao's style. Though
both of these men studied under Dong Haichuan for years, the difference in style
can be attributed to the fact that Dong tailored his teachings to suit the
nature and martial arts background of each student.
In July 1900 foreign troops entered Beijing.
Looting, raping, and other acts of barbarism were perpetrated everywhere by the
foreign devils. Master Cheng was so angered by these atrocities that he
resolved to take vengeance on the foreign troops. At the sight of a dozen
or so soldiers, he set forth to meet them with only two daggers. His
pupils tried to stop him, but to no avail. It was later found that Cheng
single-handedly killed ten or more soldiers, but died of multiple bullet wounds
during the struggle.
His most famous student was Sun
Lu Tang (1859-1933) who went on to found Sun Lu Tang style, still practiced
today. Cheng had two sons. The elder, Cheng Yulung (1875-1928) was
also a master of Baguazhang. He was responsible for spreading the art in
Beijing and Tianjin.
This information was obtained from the website:
http://sol.spaceports.com/~asiagirl/bagua/lowgraphic/history.html
&
http://www.quantum-chiropractic.com/kungfu/bagua.htm
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