The Whirling Circles of Ba Gua Zhang: The Art and Legends of the Eight Trigram Palm

by Frank Allen, Tina Chunna Zhang

Overview

This is the most complete book on the art of Ba Gua Zhang ever presented in English. It tells the story of the history and legends of the art and its most famous masters as well as presenting the basic training, forms, fighting and weapons of Ba Gua Zhang. The text also includes a new translation of the classic Ba Gua 36 songs and 48 Methods as well as the Daoist meditation roots of the art and the method in which Ba Gua becomes at its ultimate level a physical and energetic manifestation of the Chinese Classic of Change, the Yi Jing. This book will be of interest not only to practitioners and enthusiasts of Ba Gua Zhang, but also to everyone who is interested in the history, philosophy and methods of Chinese Internal Martial Arts.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781583941898
Publisher:	North Atlantic Books
Publication date:	06/26/2007
Pages:	248
Product dimensions:	7.01(w) x 9.23(h) x 0.61(d)

About the Author

Frank Allen was an early student of BP Chan and the first person ever certified to teach the Beijing Lineage Ba Gua of B. K. Frantzis. Tina Chunna Zhang is an award-winning instructor of tai ji quan and ba gua zhang. They both train with Grandmaster Liu Jing Ru in Beijing every year. Frank and Tina teach weekly classes and monthly workshops and retreats around the USA and Europe. They live in the Lower East Side of New York City.

Table of Contents

Foreword     vii
The Origins of Ba Gua Zhang: A Blend of History and Legend     1
The Basic Training of Ba Gua Zhang     58
The Forms of Ba Gua Zhang     83
Twisting, Coiling, Circling, and Spiraling: The Fighting Techniques of Ba Gua Zhang     117
The Exotic Weapons of Ba Gua Zhang     133
The Ba Gua Zhang Classics: The Thirty-Six Songs and The Forty-Eight Methods     172
The Daoist Roots of Ba Gua Zhang     215
A Moving Yi Jing (I Ching)     225
Acknowledgments     235
About the Authors     237