Liu Style Ba Gua
Zhang
Liu Dekuan, like most other bagua
practitiones, was already a highly skilled martial artist before studying
bagua, worked for a famous security company and gained a great reputation as a
martial artist. Liu challenged Dong Haichuan and lost, so he decided to study
Bagua Zhang with Dong.
After years of studying bagua, Liu determined that bagua was
too difficult for most to understand, primarily because of the circling
techniques. When most try to develop fighting skills while they are walking a
circle, they lack the development of internal components, very few people can
do both well.
Liu decided that a better way for
someone to develop and understand these skills would be that people should
first practice internal components from circle walking, and then practice
fighting skills using a straight form. So he made a new form that included
sixty-four fighting skills practiced in a straight line. Every skill came from
traditional Bagua but was not practiced by walking the circle. His form is called
Liu style Bagua, Bagua Sanshow, or straight Bagua.
An excellent book on Liu style is:
Ba Gua:
Hidden Knowledge in the Taoist Internal Martial Art
by Liu Xing-Han and John Bracy
Available at: