Page 4 - Robert W. Smith - Pa kua_ Chinese boxing for fitness & self-defense-North Atlantic Books (2003)

In Place of an Introduction

THERE ARE few books even in Chinese on Pa-kua Chang (palm)
or Pa-kua Ch'uan (boxing). This is not only the first book on the
art in a foreign language, but also the first to present the circling
method with its functions balanced against a more linear method
which initially may have more appeal for Westerners. The more
linear system is the result of three years of study under Huang I-
hsiang ( ), senior student of Chang Chun-feng ( ), one
of the leading boxers in Formosa. For the classical circling method,
I have used extensively the two best books written on the art to
date, Sun Lu-t'ang's Pa-kua Ch'uan Hsueh ("Study of Pa-kua Box-
ing," Peking, 1916), and Huang Po-nien's Lung Hsing Pa-kua
Chang ("Dragon Shape Pa-kua Palm," Shanghai, 1936). Master
Sun, whose "eyes were very high" (meaning he stood above most
boxers), is known and revered by many Chinese. His book forms
the basis of the circling system presented here. Huang's book re-
veals how the art had been modified in the twenty years following
issuance of the Sun text. To show the present circling methods, I
have used the teaching of Kuo Feng-ch'ih ( ), my personal
teacher; Chen P'an-ling ( ), the world's leading authority on
Chinese boxing; and Wang Shu-chin ( ), pupil of famed Mas-
ter Chang Chao-tung ( ).
Why write a book on a subject about which even few Chinese
know? Simply, to inform Western readers about a discipline
worthy of far wider recognition than it now has. Although Pa-kua
is self-defense par excellence, it is also an excellent system of ex-