Murphy Martial Arts

Maintain a relaxed, comfortable posture, and focused intention while walking. Follow these guidelines and the variations on the theme are endless.

1) Allowing the body to feel natural and relaxed, comfortable and connected when walking the circle. This helps a balanced chi flow throughout the body. It also stabilizes the body and improves balance while in motion.

2) Walk smoothly and continuously. You should not waiver, wobble, or bob up and down.

3) Maintain focused intention so the mind and body are in harmony. Tension restricts chi flow, and throws the body off balance. Keep relaxed.

4) The lower body is sunken downward while the upper body is held erect.

5) The head is held straight up, while the shoulders and elbows are dropped.

6) The back is rounded yet straight and erect while the chest is hollow.

7) The wrists are sunken, while the palm remains pressing.

8) The waist is relaxed, while the buttocks are tilted up and slightly forward.

Walking the circle is fundamental, and the basis of all training in Bagua. Bagua practitioners should walk the circle with spirit, intent, and power concentrated on a single goal. While Bagua circle walking trains footwork for fighting, it also follows the Taoist goal of creating stillness in motion.

The Taoist practice was to walk with the body natural and relaxed. The movements were to be comfortable. The intention was to gain a sense of balance while moving slowly. In the beginning you learn to walk the circle painstakingly slowly. In time you walk fast.

You walk the circle in one of the three basins. At first lower basin, you should be low so that the thighs move through a position where they are parallel with the ground. This develops great leg strength, stability, and root while moving. You learn this first, and walk slowly. Middle basin is somewhat higher( in the middle between upper and lower basin), with upper basin being the highest at a normal walking height.

As a general rule beginners and the Young should train lower basin, middle aged can train middle basin, and the elderly upper basin. The higher the basin, the faster one should walk. In an actual fighting situation move at upper basin.

Some Taoist walk the circle for meditative purposes. They walk the circle slow and steadily, with the mind calm and focused. Over time a high degree of mobility is developed when walking becomes very fast, and directional changes are frequent. Some practice to develop a balanced chi flow. To do so the movements and breathing must be smooth, and the dan tian stable. This walking method helps full chi circulation from head to toe.

Bagua Zhang (Eight Trigrams Palm) was created by Dong Hai Chuan around 1853, and was taught publicly after 1870. Dong did not originally call his art Bagua Zhang. His art was originally called Zhuan Zhang (Rotating Palm). The trigrams are symbols which are used to represent all natural phenomena as described in the ancient Chinese text of divination, the Book of Changes (Yi Jing). Zhang means palm and designates Ba Gua Zhang as a style of martial art, which emphasizes the use of the open hand, however some practitioners of this system also will use the closed fist (Ma Wei Chi was known for his fist and forearm strikes). Ba Gua Zhang, as a martial art, is based on the theory of continuously changing in response to the situation at hand in order to overcome an opponent with skill rather than brute force.

Each Bagua system is different. To understand that, you need to know that Dong Hai Chuan only accepted students that had already mastered another system. He taught each student what he needed, and not a specific universally taught curriculum.

Another thing to understand is that Bagua systems vary greatly in complexity of curriculum, and how flowery they are. Older systems tend to be less complex, and have less flash. Dong Hai Chuan himself, may have only practiced a single palm change walking the circle. He only taught a few palm changes. Dong’s students took his forms and theories and combined them with the martial arts they had studied previously. This resulted is in each of Dong’s students ending up with a different interpretation of Ba Gua.

Dong had five main students that he taught. Their names are listed on his tomb. My lineage is through Ma Wei Chi who is one of these five.

Dong Hai Chuan
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Ma Wei Chi (1851 – 1880)
He was from Beijing and had an unusually violent temper (most Bagua men are reserved). He had two nicknames. His first was “Mei Ma” (Coal Ma) because he worked in a coal shop. He was often a braggart, and famously demonstrated the art of Iron Spear before the face of Prince Su. His specialty was the spherical punch. His other nick name, was “Ten Day Ma”. This nick name was because he was noted for his 10 day (or longer)delayed fatal injuries to his opponents. It was not that ten days were needed before an opponent’s injuries would finally kill him; Ma Wei Chi could easily kill an opponent outright, rarely needing to strike more than once. Rather Ma Wei Chi’s strikes were designed to cause latent internal damage that would only later cause death. The ten-day delay would prevent Ma Wei Chi from being considered the legal cause of the death, keeping him out of trouble with the authorities. He was not liked by the martial arts community, and had few students. There is much controversy over his pre-mature death.