Dark Stream School

Elementary Pa Kua Chang

1. Introduction

2. Elementary Exercises

3. Pa Kua Trains the Feet

4. Static Exercises

5. Serving Tea Exercises

Introduction

Lineage of the Traditional Style Pa Kua Chang

Tung Hai Ch'uan

Cheng Ting Hua

Chang Chao Tung

Chiang Jung Chiao

Gun Yuen Tang

Grandmaster Peter Kwok

Ta Jia Li (Sifu)

Peter Kwok's Pa Kua Teacher was Gun Yuen Tung. I don’t know what he taught Peter. I suspect that Peter only taught 3 static palms, 8 palm changes, and the Pa Kua Long form. At any rate that is what he taught Sifu. My teacher thought it inadequate, so he added back the 5 remaining static palms, 4 of Erle Montaigue’s Wooden Man roads, and Mike Patterson’s 8 pole exercises.

For the sake of completeness, I’ve added the remaining 4 of the Montaigue Wooden Man set. Between Erle Montaigue and Sifu Patterson, a comprehensive set of direction changing methods emerge and it becomes clear why it is said “Pa Kua trains the feet.” Sifu Patterson’s Serving Tea exercise are Pa Kua’s Silk Reeling methods and are fun to practice so I’ve incorporated them into my Pa Kua. I was comparing straight sword styles, so I also brought in Jiang Jian Ye’s double edge sword form.

The Pa Kua I was taught never mentioned the eight trigram palms. Since this is one of the foundations of the art, I have researched it and added it to my practice. First off, I delineate each of the fundamental palm configurations and then I integrate it into the Static Palm set, where it was clearly intended to be introduced and linked to the footwork.

Shaolin is mostly long fist and is the foundation for the Peter Kwok legacy. Chin-Na is grappling. Tai Chi is long fist and it trains the waist. Hsing Yi is all short fist and trains the hands. Pa Kua trains the feet and is a mixture of short and long fist with a lot of trickery thrown in.

Creation myth

A neer-do-well left his village and went into the mountains to kill himself. While in the mountains, he saw two fairies practicing an unusual dance. He asked them to instruct him and, over the course of the following two months, they did.

When he returned to his village to demonstrate the change that had occurred in him and to display his new skill, he found that all of the villagers of his generation were dead. The only person who recognized him had been a small child when he had banished himself to the wilds.

Given the unusual nature of the system, it is easy to believe that it was not invented by mortals!

Two masters fought for 3 days. The outcome was inconclusive. One master was more vocal and convinced the audience that he was the clear winner. The other master didn't convince them to the opposite, so to the self-proclaimed victor went the spoils. He took over his opponent's students, married, and enjoyed the good life. However, he was challenged to meet again in 10 years to conclude the duel.

The other master banished himself to the wilderness to practice his arts in bitterness and hatred of his rival. He was shamed and stripped of his livelihood.

The winner set up shop, taught and enjoyed his success until the appointment to continue the duel neared. Realizing that he had devoted his time to teaching and not to training, he devised a strategy to preserve his life, if not his honor. He and his wife filled a coffin with rocks. They arranged a rendezvous after his wife convinced his rival of his death. At that point, they would move on, change their identities and live on their accumulated wealth.

The wife wheeled the coffin to the appointed spot and awaited the coming of the rival master. When he arrived and saw the coffin and the grieving widow, he honored all the social conventions. He asked only that he be allowed to approach the coffin and to pass his hand over it.

Knowing that he would never dare desecrate the funeral, the wife agreed. The master approached the coffin and passed his hand over it, bowed, and left.

The wife wheeled the coffin to the graveyard, where she met her husband. When she reported the strange behavior of the embittered master, her husband opened the coffin to find that all of the rocks had been pulverized!

Elementary Exercises

Standing

Use the Tai Chi Checklist

Lift the Crown Chakra

Eyes gaze into the distance

Ears listen inwards

Tongue to the roof of the mouth

Head as if balanced on a pin

Neck and back straight

Sink the chest, raise the back

Diaphrammatic breathing

Drop the pelvis

Sink the chest, raise the back is a little bit of an oversimplification. Here’s the detailed story. Move Gall Bladder 20 outward by rotating the humerus internally. Move that little knob on the inside of your elbow toward your center. Sink the Lung 1 points towards each other. Lift Conception Vessel 14 updards (pick pu the xyphoid process on the lower tip of the sternum) . Sink the Liver 14 points on the margin of the ribs towards each other. Sink the Gall Bladder 24 points on the waist towards each other. Of all these points, the keys are to lift the sternum and internally rotate the humerus.

The Tai Chi checklist ends at  Drop the Pelvis .  There's a little more to it than that simple phrase.  It needs to be experienced, but for a quick description just bow.  That's right.  Bow.  Thank Rick Taracks for that little statement.  Here’s what it means.  Stand with your feet apart and bow.  Feel how the greater trochanter rotates outward.  Gall Bladder 30 moves forward.  Also, Liver 12 in the inguinal fold sinks inward.  This opens the space to drop the pelvis.  You immediately notice the lengthening of the spine.   But wait, there’s more.  Bend your knees so that Bladder 54 behind the knees aligns with Kidney 1 on the bottom of the foot.  The net effect is that your legs corkscrew into the ground.  The right leg spirals counterclockwise and the left leg spirals clockwise.  Now

don’t let your knees buckle inward and you’ve got the full effect of dropping the pelvis.   If   you need more, see Jou Tsung Hua’s Tai Chi book.

Pa Kua Trains the Feet

This is only true if you know what is being trained. The following points are the fundamentals which then go on to be incorporated into all the forms.

Stepping

Walking the circle in Pa Kua has always been somewhat mysterious to me. You have to understand what you’re doing before it becomes effective. So start with the walking. It’s not heel-toe, around the circle we go. That is an example of Sifu’s Shaolin training corrupting the system. First off, hit the Wu Chi posture. Now as soon as you step off, you notice that you’re out of alignment. That’s why Pa Kua developed the stepping method that it uses. From the Wu Chi posture, and assuming a clockwise circle, slide the right foot out on the little toe edge. Notice that your posture is deep as you maintain your dropped pelvis. Feel how the foot locks into the ground and spirals in a counterclockwise direction. Wu Chi is reestablished. (In actuality, it was never lost.)

Now step out left, sliding along the big toe edge, maintaining the knee bend. It locks into position at the natural full extension. Some people liken this to the gait of a camel. This stepping method causes the inner foot to toe-out and the outer foot to step straight, maintaining a natural flat-footed empty stance throughout.

Changing directions

1. Inside Change: A hooking step towards the center of the circle is called an inside change.

2. Outside Change: A hooking step away from the center of the circle is called an outside change.

3. Outside Crossing Change: A hooking step to the outside that ends in a lotus stance heading in the opposite direction is called an outside crossing change.

4. Inside Crossing Change: A hooking step to the inside that ends in a lotus stance heading in the opposite direction is called an inside crossing change.

5. Inside Turn: Stand in a right equatorial stance.  If you turn to the center of the circle into a right flat footed empty stance, this is an inside turn.

6. Outside Turn: Stand in a left equatorial stance.  If you turn away from the center of the circle to a left flat footed empty stance, this is an outside turn. Colorful Rooster Fighting combines an inside crossing change with an outside turn for a 360 degree turn around.

7. Inside Cross Step: Stand in a right rooster stance. Step the left foot down to the right so that the feet are crossed. Put the weight on the left foot and step to the right with the right foot, landing in a right flatfooted empty stance. This is an inside cross step.

8. Outside Cross Step Stand in a right rooster stance. Step the left foot down to the right so that the feet are crossed . Turning to the right, pivot to a left flatfooted empty stance. This is an outside cross step.

Static Exercises

This section contains much original research because these foundation skills never made it into my training. So I’ll save you a lot of effort and just lay it out nicely.

Pa Kua Chang means Eight Trigram Palm. So one would think that there are eight fundamental palm positions or ways of holding the palm. And indeed there are. Each palm provides a way to develop Chi and circulate it through the meridians. This can be used for healing Chi Kung or for damaging Dim Mak. This section describes the palms and links them to the circle walking for a moving Chi Kung.

Remember to:

· look to the center (vertical pole)

· breathe out with the kick

· walk circle once each way

· turn with hooking step, outside foot

These exercises are performed slowly. You are always breathing and stepping in unison. So, for instance, breathe in stepping left and breathe out stepping right. Occasionally do a hooking step and reverse the breathing synchronization.

Try to keep the body on the same level throughout the exercise. The kick may be performed at the highest level you're capable of. Land the kick softly in an out-step.

Study the way in which energy is transferred to the fingers through the feet, legs, waist, and shoulders.

Peter Kwok’s Principal Static Palm Exercises:

Sifu said that Wood Floating Palm, Cloud Carrying Palm and Spinning Palm were the three most important static palms according to Peter Kwok. The exercises are described below.

Wood Floating Palm

Also known as Chicken Palm. Arms slightly bent, hands at waist height, fingers forward, heels of palm down, fingers up on the in-breath. Again, the most important aspect is to sink the chest and raise the back.

Cloud Carrying Palm

Also known as Monkey Palm. Lift the hands overhead, palms up, fingers forward, upper arms 45 degrees forward, arms are almost fully extended. There is a slight bend at the elbow. You should feel chi in the meridian that is active at that time of day, and in its 12 hour opposite. When we were practicing, the active meridian was bladder, so the lung meridian in the arms should have been active. This can be experienced as a vibration along the meridian that pulses in a sine wave. The intensity builds to a peak and then diminishes.

The important thing to remember is to sink the chest and raise the back. Flex the wrists and supinate the furthest extent possible. The humerus is even with the shoulders, but by pushing out the scapula, the chest sinks and the back raises.

An important detail to attend to is that the wrists are flexed and everted. Although Sifu taught us to keep the wrist flexed and inverted, there is ample evidence that this is incorrect. First of all, if you do the sequence Monkey Picks the Fruit, Monkey Offers the Fruit, it is clear that the wrists cannot be inverted. In addition, the static palm is called Picking Palm, which calls for eversion of the wrist. Photographs of traditional Pa Kua masters shown in this posture are clearly everting the wrists. Apparently the message got lost in translation.

Spinning Palm

Also known as Lion Plam. Inside palm down at shoulder height, outside palm out, knuckles near the ear. Separate with the breath. The pinky and the elbow in the raised hand are on the same line. With the extended arm and raised arm, get the feeling of pulling apart.

Rythmic breathing is very important.

Traditional Pa Kua Eight Static Palms.

The Traditional Pa Kua Static Palms are summarized in the following table:

Pin Yin	Wade/Giles	English	Energy	Attribute	Animal	Trigram	Notes
Yang Zhang	Yang Chang	Upward Palm	Lifting up	Heaven	Lion Palm
Fu Zhang	Fu Chang	Downward Palm	Pressing down	Earth	Eagle Palm
Shu Zhang	Shu Chang	Upright Palm	Palm striking forward	Fire	Unicorn Palm
Bao Zhang	Pao Chang	Embracing	Hugging	Thunder	Tiger Palm
Pi Zhang	Pi Chang	Chopping Palm	Chop with edge	Wind	Dragon Palm		also known as Ce Zhang, Sideways Palm
Liao Zhang	Liao Chang	Scooping Palm	Hook with wrist joint	Water	Chicken Palm
Tiao Zhang	Tiao Chang	Picking Palm	Invert the wrist	Mountain	Monkey Palm
Luo Xuan Zhang	Lo Shuan Chang	Screwing Palm	Supinate and thrust up	Lake (Clouds	Hawk Palm

Static Palm Sequence

When walking the circle, execute the palms in the following sequence. Circle clockwise in the morning and Counterclockwise in the evening.

Chicken Palm

Tiger Palm

Eagle Palm

Lion Palm

Unicorn Palm

Dragon Palm

Hawk Palm

Monkey Palm

Chicken Palm

Also known as Wood Floating Palm. To change directions, hooking step inside, Flower Hides Under The Leaf, Chicken Palm

Tiger Palm

Embracing palms held at shoulder height, palms facing in. Variations on practice include the feeling of hugging a large cylinder to the chest or using the large cylinder to push away.

Eagle Palm

Like wide Pat The Horse from the Tai Chi., to change directions, hooking step outside, Flower Hides Under The Leaf, Eagle Palm.

Lion Palm

Also know as Spinning Palm. To change directions, Purple Swallow Folds Wing , Close Door Push Moon, Flower Hides Under The Leaf, Lion Rolls The Ball.

Unicorn Palm

Shoulders face center of circle, Temple block and palm, to change directions, hooking step, close door, flower hides, unicorn. This palm is used to push or strike. So another variation of this posture uses the temple block to push forward and, with the opposing hand held behind the back with the palm facing out, push to the rear. The lower hand looks like the mirror image of the temple block.

Dragon Palm

Like Single Change Palm. To change directions Purple Swallow Throws The Wing, Close Door Push Moon , Flower Hiding Under Leaf, Duck Flock Flies Out .

Hawk Palm

Like Sky horse walking in air from Pa Kua Chiang Chuan. To change directions Take Helmet From Back Of Head, Cover Body Palm, thrust up.

Monkey Palm

Cloud carrying palm. To turn round, move like the long form road 5, Crossing Block, Walking While Pulling The Garments, Then In 3 Steps, Ape Monkey Steals Fruit, Ape Monkey Offers Fruit, Big Eagle Spreads Wings.

Serving Tea Exercises

Serving tea exercises are akin to Tai Chi’s Silk Reeling. Try to get the whole body involved. If one part moves, everything moves. If one part stops, everything stops.

Inside

Stand comfortably, left hand palm out behind your back, right hand palm up at waist. Sweep the right hand toward the waist keeping the palm up. Maneuver the hand through the whole range of motion with the pinky leading the way. There are three checkpoints:

1. Palm up, fingers facing the body at waist height

2. Palm up, fingers facing away from the body at waist height

3. Palm up, fingers facing the body, hand above the head

Repeat using left hand.

Outside

Stand comfortably, left hand palm out behind your back, right hand palm up at waist. Sweep the right hand away from the waist keeping the palm up. Maneuver the hand through the whole range of motion with the thumb leading the way. There are four checkpoints:

1. Palm up, fingers facing the away from the body at waist height

2. Palm up, fingers facing the body, hand above the head

3. Palm up, fingers facing away from the body at shoulder height

4. Palm up, fingers facing the body at waist height

Repeat using left hand.

2 inside

Perform inside rotations with both hands.

2 outside

Perform inside rotations with both hands

Inside outside opposite hands

Hold both hands at waist height. Start the right hand rotating outwards until it reaches head height. Then, with arms out of phase by half a cycle, start the left hand rotating inwards. Take both hand through the full range of motion.

After a few repetitions, start the left side first and repeat the exercise.

Inside outside 1 hand

Stand comfortably, left hand palm out behind your back, right hand palm up at waist. Sweep the right hand toward the waist keeping the palm up. Maneuver the hand through the whole range of motion with the pinky leading the way. Once the inside cycle is completed and the hand is at the waist, rotate it through the outside cycle. When nearing the end of the rotation, finger thrust with palm up to shoulder

height

Inside outside both hands

This is the most complex variation of the tea serving pattern. While the right hand executes the inside-outside rotation, the left hand is performing an outside-inside rotation. The timing is such that when finger-thusting with the right, the left hand is palm striking with the fingers down.

Walking freestyle

Start walking the circle. Use one of the 8 direction changes as you perform one of the tea cup exercises. Practice until you can do all 7 tea exercises with any of the direction changes.

This concludes the fundamental training for Pa Kua Chang.