Dong Haichuan



Dong Haichuan (董海川) was born on the 13th of October 1797 (or 1813) in Zhu village, Ju Jia Wu Township, Wen An County, Hebei Province, China and died on the 25th of October 1882 in Beijing. He is widely credited as the founder of Baguazhang and most, if not all, existing schools of Baguazhang place Dong Haichuan at the beginning of their lineage.

As a child and young man he trained the martial arts of his village intensely. The arts were probably Shaolin-based and may have included Ba Fan Quan, Hong Quan, Xing Men Quan, and Jin Gang Quan. These were the arts being taught in and around Dong’s village at this time according to Pa Kua Journal 3-1.

His family is thought to have been poor so at some point around 1853 Dong left Hebei Province to seek work elsewhere. In many accounts he is described as spending his youth travelling, penniless, and often getting in trouble. But he, even by his own claims, continued to study martial arts intensely during his travels. Where, by whom and what he was taught varies depending on the source. But it is generally accepted that, during this time, Dong studied Daoist training methods that included some kind of circle walking practice. He synthesized his previous experience with his village arts, what he had learned in his travels and his Daoist experiences to create a unique art originally called Zhuan Zhang (Turning Palms). Zhuan Zhang was Ba Gua Zhang in its formative years.

Around 1864 Dong arrived in Beijing and he got a service job at the residence of the prince of Su. Later Prince Su gave him the job of tax collector. Dong and his top student Yin Fu went to Mongolia to collect taxes for ten years. Upon his return he left the princes household and he began to teach publicly, giving up all other occupations to fully devote himself to developing and teaching Baguazhang. It is generally believed that among his later students he only accepted experienced martial artists. He consistently taught only the first three palms, Single Change Palm, Double Change Palm and the Smooth Body Palm and then he would vary the last five depending on the individuals’ previous martial arts experience. It was also in his public teaching period that the art was given the name Baguazhang (eight tri-gram palm).

In his later years he was poor and lived with Yin Fu's student Ma Gui. Ma owned a lumber yard and Dong lived on the premises. He died in 1882.

Baguazhang had become a well-known fighting style in Beijing and northern China by the late-1800s and Dong Haichuan and his students became famous. This gave rise to many fictitious stories and written pulp novels which were adopted as fact.

Anecdotes and Legends about Dong Haichuan
Disclaimer: Most of these stories were the work of pulp fiction writers and have no verifiable basis in fact.

The most famous of all stories about Dong Haichuan, is probably the one about his fight against the Xingyiquan master Guo Yunshen (1827-1902). Despite being his junior by many years, Guo Yunshen challenged Dong Haichuan as an equal. The younger man had earned a reputation as dangerous and deadly fighter who had put many an opponent into an early grave due to his mastery of a technique he called the "Divine Crushing Fist" which also earned him his nickname in martial arts circles. According to the story, Guo Yunshen and Dong Haichuan fought for a long time (some say the fight lasted for days) without either being able to achieve victory. Eventually, however, Dong Haichuan brought all his skill and the experience of his greater age to bear and defeated Guo Yunshen. Both masters developed deep respect for each other, though, and swore a pact of brotherhood between their schools. Even to this day, Baguazhang and Xingyiquan are often taught alongside each other in martial arts schools, a tradition that goes back to this legendary confrontation between the two masters.

In another story, Dong Haichuan worked as a servant in the household of a noble in Beijing shortly after he had moved there. Fearing prosecution for transgressions of his earlier days, he kept his fighting skills a secret from the public. During a crowded banquet, however, he caught people's attention by lightly maneuvering through the banquet-hall packed with guests, and even climbing walls, serving drink and food. The host and master of Dong Haichuan recognized by this, that Dong Haichuan must be skilled in martial arts and asked him to perform for him and his guests. Not being able to refuse his master's wish, Dong Haichuan did as he was asked, impressing the crowd with his performance. The noble's personal bodyguard - a muslim by the name of Sha Hui-Tsu - saw his position threatened by Dong Haichuan, though, and so he challenged him to a fight. Sha was soundly defeated and recognized that he was unable to beat the other man in open combat, so he plotted to murder Dong Haichuan in secret. Together with his wife - who was an expert with the pistol and Sha's right hand - he entered the bedroom of Dong Haichuan to kill him in his sleep. Before he could even strike, Sha found himself held at gunpoint with the pistol of his wife, which Dong Haichuan had effortlessly wrested from her grasp so quickly that she could not even react. Expecting such betrayal, Dong Haichuan had only pretended to sleep and jumped out of the bed with lightning speed. Sha then submitted his life to the martial arts master who forgave him and also taught him for some time.

Many other small anecdotes exist about the lightning reflexes of the Baguazhang master. Often he seemed to just have been in one place but suddenly appear elsewhere, moving with such agility and grace that he often startled and impressed his students and acquaintances. Also his rooting was the stuff of legend: In one anecdote about his death, it is told that his students were unable to move their master's coffin no matter how hard they tried. Suddenly, they heard Dong Haichuan's voice sound from the coffin, berating their inability to make him budge even in death. Only then, after being taught one last lesson, the students were able to move the coffin and lay their master to rest.