Ma Gui’s Bagua through Liu Wanchuan to Yu Zhiming, to Li Baohua
And then my limited interpretation.
About this website
This site is an attempt to present the skills, training methods, and a bit of theory of Ma Gui’s system of bagua, through Liu Wanchuan and Yu Zhiming to Li Baohua, in an organised manner. I, Andrea Falk, was one of the first foreigners to study with Li, and I hope to give people a clearer understanding of the system’s techniques through this site. It is written in complete freedom, so will contain inaccuracies and may express views contrasting to those of Li Baohua, and his facebook page, the Ma Gui Ba Gua Promotional Center. Some historical articles that I translated for Li are at his website, and any organisational info belongs there, but the link doesn’t respond.
To know more about me, see thewushucentre.ca
Ma Gui Bagua’s most striking characteristic is the slow and stable circle-walking that develops lower leg strength, qi, and blood flow, and whole body power. The body develops to resemble Dong Haichuan and Ma Gui – a thick trunk and back with well developed dantian, firm wrists and ankles, powerful legs and arms, rosy complexion, and calm expression. When practising techniques, footwork is clean and quick, always using koubu and baibu. The system also emphasises horse stance training to develop useable whole body power in techniques, and specific fast stepping with techniques practices that develop the coordination for the application of this power. Training this system develops your health and martial ability simultaneously. It is not a performance based style.
This site is basically my notes put into better order. Consider it an extensive notebook of my interpretation of the system. My training notes cover the period from 2001 to 2012. My notes do not represent the official line. It may seem that I am going against Li in keeping the website going, but I certainly mean no disrespect. What he taught me, and what I continue to practise to this day, has enabled me to heal my back and knee injuries, become more powerful than I was before the injuries, and remain stronger than someone my age should be. The value of this training is too high to keep quiet about it. If you want to study the whole system, don’t start. Li doesn’t seem to like teaching foreigners for more than ten years, this has been seen over and over again. If you want to be strong, you can learn enough to heal and strengthen. Bagua is not about how much you know, anyway, but how well you ‘get’ what is going on with your body. You need to have a strong mind to handle the way of teaching and to be able to let it go.
Walk the circle one step at a time, in the footprints of the masters.