Page 10 - Robert W. Smith - Pa kua_ Chinese boxing for fitness & self-defense-North Atlantic Books (2003)

was sixty he returned to find a forty-year-old named Ma installed
as the leading boxer. Ma approached Chang and politely told him II
that he could withstand his punch. (This was the usual way of decid-
ing who was the strongest boxer—each would get a free swing at A Beginning Method
the other's body. The loser, however, had the option of challenging
for an actual contest if he was unsatisfied with the one-punch
method.) Chang obliged smilingly but ordered four students to
hold a blanket in back of Ma. He then told Ma: "Put your hands To APPRECIATE the classical circling method of Pa-kua, which will
up to protect your body. I will only hit your arm." So saying, be described later, we begin with a description of a method easier
Chang hit Ma's arm with his fingers and palm-butt. Ma immediately to understand and assimilate and yet one which does not defile the
fell back sharply into the blanket, pulling all four students atop overall idea of the art. This is a method taught by Chang Chun-
him. Ma knelt down and became a student of Chang. feng in Taiwan. Chang claims to have learned Pa-kua under Chang
The best-known Pa-kua boxers in Taiwan today are Wang Shu- Chao-tung, but this method contains so little of that master's
chin ( ), Chang Chun-feng ( ), Ch'en P'an-ling ( ), classic style that it must be supposed that he learned it from some
Kuo Feng-ch'ih ( ), and Hung I-hsiang ( ). other teacher in the Tientsin area. I practiced with Chang for three
hours one rainy afternoon in Taipei in 1960—a short time but long
enough to see and feel his considerable skill. Illness prevented his
teaching me on a regular basis, but I was able to learn his method
from two of his senior students, Hung Hsien-mien and Hung I-
hsiang. Before I left Taiwan I had learned the basic sixty-four
postures and enough auxiliary movements to bring the total to
over one hundred. I was not able, however, to photograph the sys-
tem and have had to rely on my notes. Here we can only sample
the whole, selecting postures that best illustrate the general princi-
ples.

A. THE EIGHTEEN EXERCISES
Each of the exercises that follow conform to the principles of Pa-
kua, even though some have crept in from hsing-i and other sys-
tems. Practice them well, and, when you meet them in the postures,
you can incorporate them with facility. Moreover, with these ex-

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