YIN FU

尹福 Yin Fu (1841-1911) Was a highly skilled martial artist known for his Snake Tongue striking style. He was also a wholesaler of baked goods and sold bread to Prince Su's palace where Dong lived, he knew of Dong Haichuan's skill and would ask the guards everyday if he could meet him. Yin Fu persistently asked everyday until a new guard, who knew Yin Fu because of his martial skills, passed the word along to Dong Haichuan. Finally Yin Fu was allowed into the palace to see him. Dong was sitting at a table drinking tea when Yin fu walked up and said he'd like to study with him. (Which in Chinese is a polite way to challenge someone to a fight.) Dong Haichuan at first refused, knowing that Yin Fu was no match for him but with persuasion from the Prince who had been watching, he eventually agreed. Dong told Yin to attack him and that he'd be countering with a Unicorn strike. Yin shot out a snake tongue strike for Dong's face, Dong still sitting down countered and then and poked out Yin Fu's two front teeth. So as not to lose face Yin Fu swallowed his own teeth. (This is said to be the reason why he always had a large mustache.) Yin recognizing that he had been thoroughly beaten asked Dong if he could be his student. Dong refused but the prince had liked Yin Fu's character and insisted that Dong take him on as his student.

Yin Fu became Dong Haichuan's first student and learned Dong Haichuan's system of Bagua Zhang as well as learning Dong's style of Lohan Fist. They spent roughly six years in the palace practicing everyday, then the Prince asked Dong to take Yin Fu with him to the north to collect taxes where it was in Dong's best interests to have and to teach Yin Fu.

In Beijing Yin Fu became well known and the Bagua that he taught became known as Yin Style Bagua. He became a bodyguard for the wealthy and powerful as well as teaching in the Imperial Palace. After a time Yin Fu's wife passed away and he chose to marry again which was taboo in society at the time. Dong Haichuan being an upstanding member of the palace was forced to break all ties with Yin Fu. Dong Haichuan started taking on new students but knew he wouldn't have the time to teach one person the whole system, so he taught everyone a different aspect of the bagua system in the hopes that they would get together after his death and teach each other what they knew, but their rivalries shattered Dong Haichuan's hopes and he decided to reconcile with Yin Fu. After Dong Haichaun passed away Yin Fu continued teaching but he stuck with tradition by keeping Bagua very secretive and had very few students, one of which was Men Baozhen.

门宝珍 Men Baozhen (1873-1958) Was an aristocrat from a Manchurian family. He was a very bright and skilled martial artist. He knew of Yin Fu's fame and being a large man standing at 6'6", he thought that he could beat Yin, so he politely asked Yin if he could study with him. Men attacked Yin who countered with a shocking strike, ending Men's ambitions. Men acknowledged Yin's unbelievable skill by bringing him gifts, food, and drink everyday until Yin eventually accepted Men as an inner door student. Men started out learning the Lion system, and became known as the 'big chop, big hack, and big stomp'. He was famous for his chopping strikes and said that three chopping strikes are the hardest to defend against. Men Baozhen spent as much time learning the healing and philosophical sides of Bagua as he did the martial side. Although he was not Yin Fu's oldest student, he was chosen to inherit the complete system of Yin Style Bagua. Men Baozhen studied and took care of Yin Fu into his old age, and was there for him when he passed away. Men continued the tradition and only passed on Yin style Bagua to one man, Dr. Xie Peiqi.

门宝珍

掌式分上、中、下三盘，每盘掌式不同。八大掌计为震卦龙形平托掌；艮卦熊形背身掌；坎卦蛇形顺势掌；乾卦狮形张嘴掌；巽卦凤形风轮掌：离卦鸡形卧式掌；坤卦麟形返身掌；兑卦猴形抱式掌。另有罗汉拳、擒拿解脱诸技法。器械有鸳鸯钺、七星杆、判官笔、鹿角棒、子路转环刀、转剑、转枪、镗等。（以上承门宝珍弟子解佩启先生提供）。

通过对以上尹氏在京现存五大支系的整理对比，各系均从不同角度吸收发扬了尹氏八卦掌的技艺精华，就其共性而言则师出一门。尹氏八卦掌，出手为牛舌掌，拇指内扣，四指并拢，劲力冷脆快，富弹抖力。走自然步，趋于急行，以足碾地，横开斜进，抒翻走转进退直接，重踢打，身形变化简捷明快。惜此门艺业自建国至今，尚无一部专著详述其精髓，而诸多前辈相续故去。个别长者虽不时有著作文章刊世，然多沉溺于掌故传说与八股杜撰之中，令同仁叹息，晚辈茫然。

解佩啟 Xiè Pèiqǐ (1920-2003) As a young boy was always interested in the martial arts. His father taught him their family style called Tan Tui (Springing Legs). Everyday Xie would wake up at four in the morning to practice by himself, and would occasionally run into Men Baozhen who lived next door to Xie. He knew of Men's skill but Men would always ignore him, until one day when Men stopped to watch Xie practicing, he was nervous but kept on doing what he was doing. Men said, "You are very good and you practice hard." Xie was ecstatic from getting a compliment from Men Baozhen. Then Men said "Although you could do that your whole life and you still wouldn't be any good" Xie's heart dropped but then Men said, "Tomorrow morning you should get up earlier and come over to my house."

Xie was so excited he could not sleep that night. He was already waking up at four in the morning so he decided to get up earlier and thought two in the morning would be sufficient. That night happened to be one of the worst rainstorms he had ever seen, and a large drainage ditch ran between Xie and Men's homes. He decided to wade across the nearly waist deep water and when he got to Men's he was completely soaked. A friend of Men Baozhen let him inside, he saw Men sitting down casually drinking some tea. Men didn't even acknowledge Xie's presence, so being only 13 years old and not knowing what to do he started practicing what he knew. A few minutes went by when Men looked up and started screaming, "What are you doing, are you crazy your getting water all over my floor!" Xie, scared immediately ran into the back yard and standing in the pouring rain started to practice out there. He was out side for a while practicing the Tan Tuei that he knew when Men finally came to the door and said "What are you stupid, you'll get sick practicing out in the cold." Xie just stood there having no idea what to do. "Come inside and we'll get you something dry to wear." From that day on Xie would wake up early and watch Men Baozhen teaching his other students, and afterwards he would clean Men's courtyard, polishing all the iron and statues, cleaning up leaves and pruning plants. For two years Men Baozhen never said anything until one day he asked him, "Oh, are you the one who's been doing this?" Xie wanted to say: Of course, who do you thinks been doing it! But decided it was best to not say anything. Men then said, "How about tomorrow I show you something."

Dr. Xie practiced Bagua Zhang everyday up until his unfortunate passing away on October 10th, 2003 at the age of 83. There are many stories about Dr. Xie's life and with time and collaboration I hope we can share and document them. Before his passing Dr. Xie had been working to train the new inheritor of Yin Style Bagua , He Jinbao, in all of its martial systems.



贺进宝 He Jinbao (1955) first began studying martial arts with an older neighbor who taught him Xi Yangquan; he didn't ask a lot of questions so he knows little about the roots of that art. He studied with him for many years until his teacher admitted that he had surpassed his own abilities in the art and said, "That although they could beat most of the Longfist (changquan) people, they had no way of beating the Bagua people." On October 12, 1971 Jinbao was introduced to Dr. Xie. He Jinbao became Dr. Xie's student and later was fortunate enough to also be the student of Xie Peiqi's chosen lineage inheritor Liu Fang. Liu took Jinbao in, which allowed him to study Bagua eight hours a day. Unfortunately Liu Fang died in an accident and Jinbao lost a father figure and Dr. Xie lost one of the system's inheritors. The other being Wang Li-Hai who had also died at a young age. (The dates and particulars about these deaths I do not know, and I'd hate to speculate more.) These tragedies would eventually lead to Dr. Xie's decision to break tradition and openly teaching the art to foreigners in 1995.

Dr. Xie and He Jinbao have been to the US and Europe numerous times since '95 as well as hosting seminars in Beijing. Although Jinbao was not Dr. Xie's oldest student he is his most diligent and was chosen to Inherit the complete system of Yin Style Bagua. Jinbao now continues a new tradition by openly teaching Bagua Zhang.