I just put this photo with this original copy here without any edition in order that we could know there have been so much great people following Dong Hai Chuan/s step to continue sacrifice their lifes to preserve this great art! Please remember this great person Li Shao An who preserved this photo copy for us to see a true Dong Hai Chuan/s face!

A Victim of Taiping heavenly Kingdom Dong Hai Chuan

Late in the last Chinese Qing Dyanasty, There were many rebellions, the largest, happened around 1850s, and was known as Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. 

In just few short years the new Kingdom seized more than half of China, the Qing Dynasty and the new Kingdom were opposed, neither side could destroy the other.

In secret, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom planned to send an assassin to kill the emperor of Qing Dynasty.

They recruited a great martial artist with super great ability to fulfill this plot. 

To get close enough to the Emperor, the assassin, became a eunuch to be able to enter the palace as a servant.

A few years later, when he was close enough to the emperor and ready to strike, the situation totally changed! The Qing emperor died, and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was destroyed by the Qing Dynasty in just a very short time.

The Assassin had reached the end of his journey, and the was nothing left for him, but to live out his life as a eunnoch!

The assassin’s name was Dong Hai Chuan, the first Master who brought Baguazhang to the world around 1860s, few years later after the Taiping heavenly Kingdom disappeared!

This is the reason why we could know almost nothing about Dong Hai Chuan’s life before he became a eunuch. It is why we have no information about Dong’s teacher or the early Bagua Zhang lineage and history of this great art.

 In his later life, after he’d started to teach Baguazhang in the palace as well as later on in Beijing city, he knew it was a possibility that someone would recognize him as an assassin at any time. He knew this would be a risk for the rest of his life, meaning that anyone with any relationship with him could be in danger. He chose to keep his mouth closed on these matters in order to protect those closest to him. 

For the rest of my life, I will do my best  to tell all the world how amazing Dong Hai Chuan was and how precious the art
is that he has passed down to us. I will try my best to teach as he had taught in order to preserve this treasure to honor him. I believe this act will benefit the whole of the world.

This is what we know of the life of the first generation Baguazhang master, and we have learned of the beginnings of the history of Baguazhang.

 Go to Second Generation



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