yeniseri wrote:Apparently Dong's family had an art, whether it is the family itself or of the village? or the name? (Bapanzhang-allegedly debatable) but he changed elements of the village/family name style to match Beijing cultural MA hub and added Daoist?buddhist stuff to make it palatable to the greater public. Most important was the martial skill so it was tantamount to supremacy, over and or in conjunction with CMA of the era. My sources were various CMA magazines from Hong Kong, parts of 'translated articles from a few teachers. If I recall correctly, there were alleged Dong family members who were named as being experts but whose art remained in Dong's village!
Dong Haichuan's older cousin was a teacher of Ba Fan Men (8 rotation Martial System) aka Ba Shan Men aka Fanzi Quan
but his village style was just a Luohan Quan variation, as was most of village styles in close proximity to Shaolin Temple.
At a young age Dong Haichuan (DHC) learned his village's Luohan Quan and the village teacher recommended to his parents that they send him to Cangzhou to further his martial arts skills so at the age of 12 they sent him to learn Liu He Men (Six Harmony Martial System) from Li Guanming near Cangzhou City.
DHC had a photographic memory so he learned that, and any other style, very quickly, so it was pointless to become a disciple and Li Guanming sent him to various martial arts friends to learn other systems:
~ Chuo Jiao Men (Piercing Leg Martial System) and it's sub-styles of Jingang Quan, Erlang Quan, and Taiji Shisanxing (Taiji 13 Shapes).
~ then went on to learn his cousin's Ba Fan Men style.
~ then traveled south to learn arts like Zi Men Quan (character gate boxing) and Ying Men Quan (hard gate boxing).
~ came back up north and became involved with the Li Trigram Sect of Quanzhen Daoism and learned their Daoist and Buddhist combined practices and martial art called Shen Quan (Spirit Boxing).
All those Martial Systems, along with a few more I didn't mention, were blended together or isolated into their different animal Xing, added to, subtracted from, and all mixed with the Li Trigram's Internal practices became DHC's Baguazhang.
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