There is a more in-depth explanation of the six harmonies in Liu’s penetrating palms dvd. Being that he was a student of Dr Xie I think it appropriate to include his understanding, as it only adds to what was explained by Dr Xie.
Liu explains that there are three external harmonies and three internal harmonies. His external harmonies are largely the same as Xie’s. He does go into a bit more of an explanation of the relationships, however, so I will list them all again with these details.
Three external harmonies:
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the eyes & hands must be in harmony. The eyes do not stray from the hand. Bring your focus in, between heaven and earth, or on this planet, I am the only thing in existence. This will bring you into stillness (while turning and standing).
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the waist & body are in harmony. This means that when turning it is guided from the waist and from the waist one emits power.
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hands & feet are in harmony. Where the hands go the feet are there. They arrive at the same time. “To put out a fist without a leg will always be unsuccessful. The hands are but to open the doors, the opponent is beaten by the legs”.
The three internal harmonies:
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mind & thought must be in harmony. Your mind is your thoughts and your thoughts are on what your doing. Constantly thinking about what must be done and never forgetting it.
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stillness & movement being in harmony means being calm while moving and being present while moving.
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hard & soft in harmony I take to mean the interchange of hard overwhelming powerful attack and more smooth yielding techniques that rely on more technical skills.
Here I introduce the basic elements of the snake system. I will be putting together some of my favorite snake combos in the coming weeks. I’ll try to also upload some run throughs of the applications as I am able.
Here I discuss using the rear hand to directly attack and open the opponent as opposed to the first two methods that address a more responsive role, responding to the opponent by rushing or withdrawing. Here we will initiate an attack in order to cause and utilize the response. Soft and leaning strikes are introduced as well as the method of turning the back.
In this clip I explain how the withdrawing attack method specializes in stepping and how that can be utilized based on the forms and direction changes of the bear system. Drilling these short combos can be beneficial to those new to the art as a way to get familiar with the different systems and strategies. Drilling these combos can also benefit more seasoned practitioners by giving them an idea of how to apply the art in real life situations.
Yin style Bagua is first a combative art. Unlike many traditional arts these days we study strictly for combative use. YSB contains no watered down flamboyance as is found in many other traditional arts in current times. Training of Yin style Bagua is strictly for self defense and is taught as it has been handed down to us from the practitioners who came before us.
Dong Hai Chuan passed down the art of Bagua to Yin Fu, his greatest and longest studied student, to whom this branch of Bagua is named for. Yin Style Bagua differs from other styles of Bagua in many ways. Yin Fu passed his art on to Men Baozhen, who in turn taught Xie Peiqi. Dr Xie trained He Jinbao fully in the combative aspects of this art. All these practitioners hailed from Beijing, where He Jinbao resides to this day. He Jinbao teaches workshop across the United States and Europe annually. There are many study groups in the States that train regularly and come together to attend these workshops throughout the years. ...
As we age it is important to train the muscles and ligaments. For all its different systems of study of martial skills Yin style bagua's Yang trigram systems are typically the most physically demanding. This is with the exception of snake and rooster. As "misplaced trigrams" snake has a more yin flavor and rooster has a more yang component. Meaning these two are opposite of what's expected.
Kan/water trigram is represented more by smooth flowing movements and as such tends to be less vigerious and explosive. Making supplementation with other animal systems is beneficial to maintain physicality.
My group has been working hard on the kan system for a while and decided it was time to train some more explosive strength, the dragon system is a good start.
The holding and lifting palm or zhen/dragon system in Yin style bagua is quite physically demanding. As a rule dragon is very dominating and powerful. Deploying a long strength rising up from the feet, it is a true full body force. I have ...
Last class focused on snakes entrapping and grasping methods. Entrapping is said to be like a hand cuff, not too tight but still holding fast. So a light but strong grip. Seems counter intuitive but this is obtainable with finger strength. A strong grip with a lot of pressure on the opponent will cause them to react as if in danger. Where as a lighter grip may not cause a immediate reaction from the opponent, or might not trigger a “danger” response.
Grasping is paired with seizing in the Lion system, different than how it’s looked at here in snake system. Even in the sense that it’s not exactly “paired” here in the snake system. With Lion system seizing and grasping are often refers to different sides of the same coin. Meaning an attack to control and subdue the opponent would be a seize, but the same technique applied faster or with more explosive force, causing damage to the opponent, would be considered a grasping attack.
With the Snake system grasping attacks, damage is...
