Formosa Neijia

I’ve gotten several complaints about Chen Yun-ching’s baguazhang DVD and I’ve recently had the chance to review it. I want to offer a response but first I want to say clearly that I don’t represent anyone in any way and this response is just my own thoughts.

I’ve seen Chen laoshi demo the bagua several times now and what he did didn’t look like what is shown on the video as far as movement is concerned.

I think that what is shown on the DVD is meant almost solely as a review for those taking the seminars. The instruction is broken down into a lot of “baby steps” to make things clear. These are artificial stopping points that are inserted to make sure that the student is getting the motion clearly. Those stopping points would be taken out in normal practice once the routine is learned. Think of what is on the disk as a fixed-step practice.

When I see Chen laoshi doing the bagua, none of those stopping points are there. One reason may be that when I met Chen laoshi, I showed him a bit of the taiji, xingyi, and bagua that I had done before so he knew that I had learned some things. Therefore he just does the bagua as he normally would, which is in a smoother fashion than shown on the disk, because he knows I don’t need the stopping points to see what is going on. In a room full of students with various backgrounds, that may not be the case.

As for the fajings, my guess is that he’s trying to show some of the usage in a clear format for students. Obviously you wouldn’t normally do the form with fajing like that. But put yourself in his position. Showing students where some of the usage is would be useful, so that’s likely why it’s included.

I don’t see this as a shaolin-ized version of bagua, as has been speculated in certain areas. There have also been charges that Chen laoshi has changed the bagua from what he taught earlier. I can’t speak to that directly, but it seems to me that the changes are perhaps in the way the form is taught. I think that Chen laoshi is trying to make things even clearer for students, but that may be causing some confusion.

But then God forbid that something based on the Yijing (the book of changes) actually change in anyway. I think we need to keep in mind that bagua, probably most of the IMA’s, will change. It’s part of the art. It isn’t fixed and isn’t supposed to be. If he has made some changes, then so what?

Finally, I think people need to cut Chen laoshi some slack. He has some pretty big shoes to fill and doing so isn’t easy. He has to compete with people’s inflated expectations, and that’s hard for anyone. I do know from personal experience that he cares a lot about students getting what he has to teach.

Maybe this clears things up.