The Lion system of Yin Style Baguazhang, which is transmitted directly from Dong Hai Chuan, Yin Fu, Men Baozhen, then to Dr. Xie Peipi (who passed away in 2003), and finally to He Jinbao, is the most aggressive and structurally dominant animal system within the broader Eight Animal Shape framework of Yin Style. The Lion system is the foundation of the “combat structure” known as the Interlocking  Palm, representing the principle of strike and advance. The Lion shape embodies direct, unrelenting force, ferocity, integrity, and overwhelming bio-kinetic momentum. The Lion shape builds the practitioner into a living avalanche.  *He Jinbao demonstrating Yin Style Baguazhang. “Strike, strike, and strike again. Anything is a valid target. There is nothing within the human physical condition that the Lion Palm cannot obliterate.”  Let's break down the Lion Shape of Dr. Xie Peiqi’s Yin Fu style Baguazhang from his specific lineage’s perspective: Internal Mechanics and Strategy: Th...

  Suppose there was just one fighting set from Yin Fu Baguazhang that captured the martial strategies, heavy-handed applications, and an array of compound circular blocks and deflections with the appropriate speed, fluidity, and savagery, which would, across the board, benefit people of all physicalities. In that case, the Dragon & Phoenix, without question, that fighting set.  Dragon & Phoenix is a battle of two siblings. First-born son Dragon. First-born daughter Phoenix. Eldest brother and sister, and embodiments of the primordial forces of thunder and wind who forever seek dominance and favor from their father, who is the sky and all of heaven. Dragon and Phoenix fighting set is both a clash and a flow of Yin and Yang energies, with a leaning towards an overall Yang force. Dragon, the source of thunder, is the oldest Son, most like his father, Lion. Phoenix, the wind source, is the Yang of the Yin forces, the oldest daughter and a daddy's girl.  Dragon and Pho...

*Peng /Phoenix (At the time of this piece's initial writing, I was attempting to differentiate between the Phoenix of Chinese culture and the European conception of the Phoenix).  The quality of Wind or Xun trigram is that of sustained pervasive influence, insomuch a degree of omnipresence can be tangibly grasped. Further notable associations with Wind, or Xun trigram, include vastness and expansion, but also a feeling of remote distance and dissociation from attachments. This phenomenon manifests as Peng or King of Birds in the physical dimension and Chinese cultural context. Peng is an elusive but paradoxically continuously present animal, largely beyond emotional expressions. Peng's aloof personality should not be mistaken for an uncaring or selfish nature. Peng is supremely benign and virtuous but is virtuous and kind because that is what Peng is, not to "act" benignly or noblely. Serene, in the face of violence, Peng responds to evil by natural law. Once harmony ...

  The fighting sets of Yin Fu Style Baguazhnag, most notably the infamous "piercing palms," serve as a bridge for individuals with little to no prior combat experience to practice Yin Fu Baguazhang's martial strategies and health-building exercises, especially circle-walking, before the more specialized aspects of Yin style Baguazhang which generally required a student to have a solid foundation in martial arts to begin with.  Yin Fu Style Baguzhang's fighting sets are mainly separate from the art's esoteric I-Ching connections. These are fighting forms, and while the student does assume a "posture" or "body" such as Lion, Dragon (by far the most well known), Pheonix or even Bear, these postures, in this context, are stripped down in essence, purely transmitting kinetic chains of movement and acting as delivery systems for the martial payload.  That is not to say the advanced, esoteric methods of Yin Fun Baguazhang founded on the I-Ching are le...

Cheng Yu Lung's Yin Energy Dragon Shape Baguazhang is an intermediate-level school of martial Baguazhang that emphasizes the dark, heavy, and sinking qualities of water while teaching a unique variant of the Dragon Shape as expressed through the Thunder Gua or Trigram. Rather than the explosive and athletic nature of the Dragon, who revels in open space, directing force upward, the dragon energy in this school of Baguazhang is that of a giant Sea Serpent.  No less violent or abrupt, but tending toward crushing and pulling downward. The Sea Serpent is thick and sinuous, rising up only to come crashing down. The Yin energy is not of the typical soft and yielding force but that of sinking, submerging, and purposely holding under.  In my teachings of Daoist metaphysics, this set constitutes Water over Thunder in the I-Ching, or Hexagram #3. It denotes difficulties and even mortal danger. The Hexagram (six lines, the top a line split, and the second an intact yang line) illustrates...

The Monkey is an animal that mirrors human-like characteristics and, in truth, a creature we likely share a distant common ancestor. Like man, the desires and morality of a Monkey reflect the qualities of a lake. Often shallow but can be dangerous and unexpectedly deep. The surface of the Lake reflects all of heaven above. It is a mirror for man to see his reflection in the significant mandate of Celestial movements. Humanity's place in the universe. Monkey is also a mirror for man, seeing himself in the lower world of the base and animalistic. As above, so below. There are profound truths held by both worlds.  Monkey wears its emotions on its sleeve. Hyperexcitable and easy to rile, Monkey is expressive in its displays of surprise and wonder. The Monkey is not far off, emotionally, from the wild exhilaration of a man when he first made a fire (perhaps the defining moment when "man" split from or defined himself as distinctly separate from the Monkey). Monkey is exception...