He was recognized widely in the martial community as a person of extraordinary abilities. Therefore everyone called him 'Eyeglasses Cheng. After his studies were completed, he opened an eyeglasses shop in Beijing outside the Suiwen Gate. In his youth he practiced Shuaijiao (wresting) and later he went to the capital to fourth disciple to study with Dong Haichuan after being recommended by Yin Fu and Shi Jidong (elder disciples of Dong Hiachuan). He was born in the 28th year of Qing Daoguang (1842). He was from Cheng Family Village in Shen County, Hebei. The founder of Cheng Style Baguazhang was Cheng Tinghua. When Dong taught he leveraged the primary skills of the disciples and enhanced it with Baguazhang, this resulted in a number of variations amongst his disciples so that almost everyone of them started a specific style or branch of Baguazhang. Dong worked for the King for over 20 years and during that time he did not teach much and was inaccessible to general students.Īfter retirement he did teach and had a great number of disciples including Yin Fu, Cheng Tinghua, Song Changrong, Song Yongxiang, Ma Weiqi, Liu Dekuan, Liu Fengchun, Shi Jidong, Wei Ji, Liang Zhenpu, Wang Lide, Li Cunyi, Zhang Zhankui, Geng Chengxin, Zhou Mingtai and others. He also would meet other great masters there such as Taijiquan's Yang Luchan (1799-1872), Xingyiquan's Guo Yunshen (1829-1900), Liu Qilan (1819-1889) and Pao Chui expert Song Mailun (1890). Within the King's palace Dong was able to practice his martial arts and research its techniques greatly. It became very popular with royalty at this time! It spread throughout Beijing and into Tianjin, He Bei province and eventually across the whole country. Baguazhang was popularised in Beijing whilst Dong Hai Chuan was working in Prince Su mansion during the late Qing dynasty. After gaining quite prowess Dong is said to have travelled far and wide seeking out capable masters. Whilst his younger life was not entirely clear it is thought that he had interests in martial arts from a young age practicing styles within his village such as Bafan Quan (obtained from his elder cousin, Dong Xianzhou) and there is also a story that at age twelve he studied Liuhe Quan with a Master Li (some believe it to be Li Guanming). Ba Gua Zhang is fairly modern style based on older boxing methods and includes concepts from Daoism, commonly acknowledged to have been created by Dong Haichuan (1799-1882), who was born in Zhu Jia village of Wen'an County in Hebei Province.
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