Yes, Michael has the link right but it's all in flash animations so I can't link directly to the article. You go to the homepage:
1.
http://www.emptyflower.com/xingyiquan/index.html2. Click "crushing"
3. alt+f and search for "military xingyi"
And then the article will appear.
Originally published in the August, 1999 issue of Black Belt magazine copyright 1999 by Dennis Rovere. Used with permission.
[snip]
"The difference between the hsing-i I passed on to you and what I taught military officers during the war is significant. You learned more and had more time to perfect the art."
It was 1988. The person speaking, was my teacher Col. Chang Hsiang Wu. . . . His statement, made in response to a question I asked about the Chinese army's use of hsing-i during the Second World War took me completely by surprise.
I had recently been contracted to teach close combat to army reconnaissance instructors. Col. Chang and his wife Major Chang Yen Ying (a senior student of Du Shen Wu and former close combat instructor for the Chinese commandos) were giving me advice on how to structure the program. During the conversation Col. Chang began sharing some of his thoughts and experiences as they related to his hsing-i tenure in the military. He also, to my delight, expanded upon aspects of strategy (both in combat and training) that make hsing-i such an effective system.
[snip]
The first thing Col. Chang did was to clarify his opening comment to me. . . [snip]
Here's his alleged training at the gonganbu (aka the PSB "Public Security Bureau") in Shanghai:
http://www.rovere.com/gung_an.htmlHere's a photo of the "police training":
There's others but I like that one because you can read where it says "Tae Kwon Do" on the back of the dobak.
so you're actually zhang xiang wu lineage? he claims that adam hsu will back his claim.... hm I'll ask john wang what he thinks.
Damns straight. My Shifu trained directly under the great man himself. That's how I know that General Zhang was in his 80's back in the late 50's and never lived to see the 60's. That's also how I know that there is no fucking "super 8 film" excerpts. Even General Zhang's family members claim not to have any photos.
There's a reason why you never heard of anyone learning from him. Because he, for the most part, didn't teach anyone. There's a couple guys in Shanghai who claim to have his lineage and there's my Shifu and that's about it. Shiye was too busy fighting the Japanese and the opium dealers in the northeast to be bothered teaching. He didn't even teach Liu in a formal fasion, more of a mentor type relationship. Zhang introduced Liu to Gong Baozhai and was a senior brother to him under Li Shuwen. He only taught my Shifu because the war was over and he was retired and Shifu was a little kid at the time and the old man took a liking to him. A lot of people in Xi'an even hold a fair bit of resentment over Zhang teahing Shifu when he wouldn't teach anyone else. He was essentially in hiding, which makes the thought of him teaching some crazy Guai Lo even more ridiculous. Shifu basically got in because General Zhang thought, "Meh. He's just a kid. What can it hurt...." or maybe because Zhang, at that time was lonely and liked having a kid around. I dunno. I just know that he was pretty private. He hung out around the south gate of Xi'an which, at that time, was still not developed like it is today.
Anyways, I somehow thought you already knew I was Zhang Xiangwu lineage.
For Taiji:
Wu Junshan-> Zhang Xiangwu ->Li Suiyin->me.
For Baji
Li Shuwen->Zhang Xiangwu->Li Suiyin->me.
For Bagua and Xingyi I am not even that sure. This issue only came up because I got an email from a guy who was researching his own lineage (a Wu Tan guy in Spain AFAIK) and Jarek reccomended he ask me since he was trying to get info on Zhang Xiangwu, which there is very little of out there.
