Dong Haichuan

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Dong Haichuan

Dong Haichuan (董海川) was born on the 13th of October 1797 in Zhu village, Wen An County, Hebei Province, China and died on the 25th of October 1882 in Beijing. He is widely considered to be the founder of modern Baguazhang, one of the Chinese martial arts. His family is thought to have been rather poor, so he left Hebei Province to seek work elsewhere. In many accounts he is described as spending his youth travelling, penniless, and often getting in trouble. Around the middle of his lifetime he settled in Beijing, though, after studying martial arts for several years. There he found employment as servant and bodyguard in the households of nobles and even the imperial household. In his latter days, he gave up all other occupations to fully devote himself to developing and teaching martial arts. He is widely credited as the founder of Baguazhang, and most - if not all - currently existing schools of this martial art place Dong Haichuan at the beginning of their lineage. Reportedly, Dong Haichuan developed his style from the teachings of Daoist martial artists in the mountains of rural China. Where exactly, and by whom exactly, he was taught, varies depending on the source. Some say he was instructed by monks at Mount Emei, others refer to evidence documenting that Dong Haichuan got taught by the Daoist Dong Meng-Lin at Jiu Hua Mountain, An Hui Province. The latter is said to have taught two other disciples, but only Dong Haichuan attained enough renown that his style got passed on to later generations. The fact that he went to Beijing and was the first to publicly teach this style, probably contributed a lot to the fact that his legacy is still being remembered to this day. Due to the efforts of Dong Haichuan and his students Baguazhang had become a well-known fighting style in Beijing and northern China by the mid-1800s.

1 Anecdotes and Legends about Dong Haichuan
2 See also
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Anecdotes and Legends about Dong Haichuan

The most famous of all stories about Dong Haichuan, is probably the one about his fight against the Xingyiquan master Guo Yunshen (1827-1902). Despite being his junior by many years, Guo Yunshen challenged Dong Haichuan like an equal. The younger man had earned a reputation as dangerous and deadly fighter who had put many an opponent into an early grave due to his mastery of a technique he called the "Divine Crushing Fist" which also earned him his nickname in martial arts circles. According to the story, Guo Yunshen and Dong Haichuan fought for a long time (some say the fight lasted for days) without either being able to achieve victory. Eventually, however, Dong Haichuan brought all his skill and the experience of his greater age to bear and defeated Guo Yunshen. Both masters developed deep respect for each other, though, and swore a pact of brotherhood between their schools. Even to this day, Baguazhang and Xingyiquan are often taught alongside each other in martial arts schools, a tradition that goes back to this legendary confrontation between the two masters.

In another story, Dong Haichuan worked as a servant in the household of a noble in Beijing shortly after he had moved there. Fearing prosecution for transgressions of his earlier days, he kept his fighting skills a secret from the public. During a crowded banquet, however, he caught people's attention by lightly maneuvering through the banquet-hall packed with guests, and even climbing walls, serving drink and food. The host and master of Dong Haichuan recognized by this, that Dong Haichuan must be skilled in martial arts and asked him to perform for him and his guests. Not being able to refuse his master's wish, Dong Haichuan did as he was asked, impressing the crowd with his performance. The noble's personal bodyguard - a moslem by the name of Sha Hui-Tsu - saw his position threatened by Dong Haichuan, though, and so he challenged him to a fight. Sha was soundly defeated and recognized that he was unable to beat the other man in open combat, so he plotted to murder Dong Haichuan in secret. Together with his wife - who was an expert with the pistol and Sha's right hand - he entered the bedroom of Dong Haichuan to kill him in his sleep. Before he could even strike, Sha found himself held at gunpoint with the pistol of his wife, which Dong Haichuan had effortlessly wrested from her grasp so quickly that she could not even react. Expecting such betrayal, Dong Haichuan had only pretended to sleep and jumped out of the bed with lightning speed. Sha then submitted his life to the martial arts master who forgave him and also taught him for some time.

Many other small anecdotes exist about the lightning reflexes of the Baguazhang master. Often he seemed to just have been in one place but suddenly appear elsewhere, moving with such agility and grace that he often startled and impressed his students and acquaintances. Also his rooting was the stuff of legend: In one anecdote about his death, it is told that his students were unable to move their master's coffin no matter how hard they tried. Suddenly, they heard Dong Haichuan's voice sound from the coffin, berating their inability to make him budge even in death. Only then, after being taught one last lesson, the students were able to move the coffin and lay their master to rest.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

Smith, Robert W. "Chinese Boxing", ISBN 1-55643-085-X
Liang, Shou-Yu; Yang, Jwing-Ming; Wu, Wen-Ching "Baguazhang : Emei Baguazhang Theory and Applications", pp 36-38, ISBN 0-940871-30-0
Smith, Robert W.; Pittman, Allen "Pa-Kua - Eight Trigram Boxing" pp 19-22, ISBN 0-8048-1618-2