A
Simple Mission :
This site is to serve the interests
and needs for accurate data regarding the Chinese Internal Martial arts exercise: commonly named Liu He Ba Fa Chuan,
六合八法拳 [ Cantonese:
LokHop PatFat ], or by a longer, somewhat revealing names, as: HuaYue-XiYi-Men + xinyi-LiuHeBaFa-, 華嶽希夷門
心意六合八法; or tersely as LHBF in abbreviation, and its associated principles and
forms.
[ Note: there are longer and amended
versions of this exercise still being taught ]
It is not limited to usual published stock
of stories offered without much thought to their veracity or lack of supportive prima facia evidence.
Peripherally linked data is also given
to consider the subjects context and historical timeline and if or if any linkage had existed.
The LHBF exercise
is often now called 'water-style' boxing, [ 水拳 shui-chuan ] which is incorrect historically,
but can be said to be true as an objective principle; the term water boxing has also been used for marketing
and for personal interests. This has resulted in an altered use and meaning of this word-principle. Most 'teachers' cannot
demonstrate this flowing within LHBF.
The LHBF exercise has often
been renamed due to redesign by some teachers with the objective of simplifying its' name to the general public as Hua-shan
Tai-Chi- or as Hua-Yue Tai-Chi- [ 華嶽太極拳 ]. Correct
in intent.
The exercise can also be monikered as the
adjunction of the various names given by recent teachers: a ' Mt. Hua-derived Chen-Tuan sect' 希夷門 coupled
with the 'central ideas of two teaching verses, the 6-coupled harmonies and the 8-methods' . This reference is historically
untrue.
References :
[ Note: the association with Mt.Hua
or with the Song Dynasty Court Taoist Chen Tuan [ Xi-Yi ] is considered both a myth and perhaps also a confusion of
phonetically similar names or a wrongful description 'from Hua Shan' rather than 'around that area of Mt. Hua'; or that he
was also called Chen Bo meaning of Bo Village; this has also occurred for other related martial exercises. The activities
of the Xi-Yi-Sect are not those of Taoist Chen Tuan nor even derived from him. There are many layers of cross-confusions.]
A Complexed
Mission :
Contemporary
styles often have elements of Yi-chuan 'intuition' boxing as set down by reknowned teacher Wang Xiang-zhai; notable among
the yi-chuan enhanced LHBF is ...
> Zhu-ji Chuan 基.築拳
[ relative to the core 66-forms of the Nanjing style ] and
> Pan Yan Flow -LHBF,
潘炎流 六合八法拳 created
by teacher Pan Yan Liu 潘炎流 .
There also exists a cross-over with a 'hun-yuan' principled exercise which
adds another layer of understanding. [ 混元一炁掌 ]
Reference
Prototypes or 'other' non-Nanjing versions of LHBF :
There appears also to be prototypes or 'pre-' 'other' versions of LHBF [ not clearly
called as such ] prior to its first public teaching in Shanghai and its' later
academic teaching in Nanjing. [ This is best called the 'Nanjing Academic' style].
These differ in number [ 96-form or 104-form series ] or due to provincial locations,
Shandong and Henan. [ both 96-and 104 form styles continue to be taught ], and also do appear to differ from the
now standard 66-form Nanjing series in form series and intent.
Some teachers have also sought to
emphasize its potential health giving aspects,
ie
Yuan Tong Ba Fa ( 元通八法 ) or to include or simplify with qi-gong principles
predominating.
Some teacher have also found or created 'Mt. Hua' qigong [ chi-kung
] exercises
which became packaged with a LHBF exercise. [This relation is
likely false.]
There also exists strong evidence that a First Song Dynasty
period martial exercise
of the
notable military general and Emperor Tai zu..its' .methodologies and principles
later a part of Shaolin exercises...and later still, a part of Chen Village boxing's
development ...to form what is now called [or should be called ] a proto-'tai-chi-' principled exercise; this has been
substantiated; this seems also
a part of the now called LiuHe BaFa. This explanation requires some acceptance of an exercises 'division' into known
Shaolin and non-Shaolin tracks whose differences made them adaptable to internal martial arts principles before the name 'tai
chi' boxing exercise was used. Special attention should also go to the town, called
独流 du liu within Hebei.
" it's very well known for tough martial artists, and a very complete kind of Tongbei,
called Duliu Taizu Tongbei quan 独流 太祖 通背拳" 。[ Dr. Kenneth
Fish ]
Reference :
Although this site discusses LHBF, its' true interest is in the concept of
> change, equilibrium, and balance,
....
> flow within a dynamical system,
and
> continuity, and evolution...
Water is usually taken
as a metaphor for this: thus the moniker water'-boxing; this is not reserved to only LHBF, but to older styles and also to
the archaic
concept of 'tao' or literally, a traverse,
a way, a course, or a path or a track [without being intermeshed with philosophical dogmas of 'taoism'.
Reference:
Life
is born in water, intrinsically it understands its' fluidity and its' dynamic connection to 'spirit' and to 'source'.
As in ancient times, we also use these feelings and ideas in our name title :waterspirit; we also use
them separately as a 'water' style and 'spirit' style kinesthetics, energetics exercise.
The addended numbers
-6x8, or 6-by-8, that I have chosen, are a
reference to a simple and basic set of ideas codified as a teaching aid by the Chinese, called the Liu-He-Ba-Fa verses, thesix-harmonys [combinations]
and the eight-methods [standards]. Thus, when brought together, we have the title of this website and its
guiding tenets: water+spirit+6x8.
The origins of these verses is questionable,
as all Chinese martial arts utilize them. The numerics chosen and the style were a trait of the Song Dynasty but this does
not fix them as from the Song period.
An alternate
title for this teaching would be : Intuitive-water-spirit-standard-method or Integral-knowing-intuitive-feeling orPsi-Force
Awareness Skill. All are and would be modern ways of identifying and describing them. Proven methods of intuitive intellegence are used that you
can be assured of as correct to a 'standard'; its' skills goes beyond intuition. In
practice, the exercises taught here in are a reengergizing experience, a 'qi-gong' [chi-kung ]; they
can also be fulfilling as a spirit-renewing endeavor, a 'shen-gong' for medical-health improving/ balancing, and
if wished, applied to preserving and defending life as it was in ancient times; this application has been often called martial.
The martial methods are inherently limited
by physical and hyper-physical teaching, practice methods; a step up would be intuitive; a next step would be noetic, which
the Chinese call ling shu, or ling-gong, 'empty' force way.
Martial art is not an 'art', it is a skill; military
action is a serious affair, requiring a 'heart of stone' and a 'mind-sword'; it is not in anyway an exercise of boxing
or competition. This is why, at this website, we will will not discuss this aspect with this as a goal. We will
only discuss the potential of your intrinsic-dynamics and your spirit-force. Martial art is a low level application that will
only result in impeding yourself; it is skill attenuating. It can be easily shown that spirit- or qi-inspired practitioners
easily outlive martial-practitioners. It can also be shown that noetic or psi-force exercise guides skill development better.
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