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The History of Yin Style Baguazhang

Yin Fu: 2nd Generation

by

Rand Cardwell

Yin Fu (1840-1909) The top disciple and most thoroughly taught student of Dong Haichuan.

Yin Fu was the top disciple and most thoroughly taught student of Dong Haichuan, the founder of baguazhang. He spent around twenty years under Dong and is reported to have received the highest transmission of the art to include the entire martial, medical, and qigong practices. Other modern styles of bagua even support that Yin Fu was Dong’s first and best taught student. His influence was so great in the art that an entire branch is known as Yin Style Baguazhang. Some practitioners claim that Yin’s method contains teachings outside of what he learned from Dong, but those within the system claim that there is no difference. When examining other styles of baguazhang, it becomes quickly apparent that they generally do not contain the depth of Yin Style. There are eight distinct animal systems that are taught in Yin Style. Each of those with eight methods of striking and each of those contains seven different forms that reflect the characteristics of the different trigrams. Additionally, there are high, middle and low basin methodologies that teach the practitioner techniques for fighting people of the same height, that are taller, and shorter. The martial system is vast and composed of a well-organized regimen of training. Whereas, Dong Haichuan was the father of baguazhang, it was his top disciple, Yin Fu, who founded Yin Style Baguazhang. Now, let us take a look at the life and experiences of this man.

Meeting Dong Haichuan

Yin Fu was born in Qing dynasty Daoguang 20^th year, or 1840 in the western calendar, in Zhang Hua village of Hebei Province. He was reportedly from a poor family that struggled in an economically surpressed village. These factors surely played in Yin Fu’s

Yin Fu - 2nd generation lineage holder of Bagua

decision to move to Beijing in his late teens. Upon arrival to the capital, he first gained employment as a knife and scissor sharpener. Yin Fu quickly learned the skills necessary to be successful in this trade, but his employer went bankrupt and the business dissolved. Yin Fu, being an enterprising young man, took what funds he had managed to save and invested in a business of his own. He started peddling hot cakes on the streets of Beijing. He quickly gained the reputation of being a hard worker, being the first at the bakery in the morning and last to leave the streets in the evening. The hardships of growing up poor were a driving factor in efforts and his business grew as a result. Things continued to improve for Yin Fu until one day when he was robbed on the streets of Beijing. This event led him to cut back on the hours that he sold hot cakes and to start training in snake-tongue boxing, a martial method he initially learned at his home village. This effort was to help refine his self-defense capabilities to ensure that he could better defend himself in the event of another robbery attempt. Yin Fu was a small man with a thin build, not a very imposing figure and one that predatory thieves would likely target.

Working the streets of Beijing, Yin Fu was sure to have heard of the many stories that were circulating about a eunuch in the court of the Imperial Family with tremendous martial skills. Dong Haichuan’s abilities were already starting to become legendary and his art, which was unknown, was discussed as being highly refined and effective. Yin Fu, in the hope of meeting this martial arts master, moved his stand to a street near the palace. Eventually, he met and was befriended by Dong who accepted him as his first student from outside the palace. Another version of their meeting states that Yin Fu, having moved his cake stand near the palace, continued asking various members of the Royal Guard for an opportunity to meet Dong. Finally, he was invited to enter the grounds and to meet the renowned master. Finding Dong sitting and drinking tea, Yin Fu walked up to him and asked to study with him. Dong first refused, but Prince Su had overheard the conversation persuaded him to reconsider. Dong then order Yin Fu to attack him as he remained seated as the table. Yin Fu launched a strike towards Dong’s head with a snake tongue technique. While remaining seated, Dong easily blocked the strike and then struck Yin Fu in the mouth, knocking out his two front teeth. Not to lose face, the young Yin Fu swallowed his teeth. Dong still refusing to accept the young man as a student was ordered by Prince Su, having been impressed with Yin Fu’s spirit and bearing, to accept the young man as a student.

Liu Shicheng, a 4th generation disciple of the late Dr. Xie Peiqi, provides another version of this meeting. According to Mr. Liu, “Yin Fu heard that a highly skilled martial artist had taken up residence at Prince Su’s palace. His name was Dong Haichuan. Yin Fu thus had a motive when he went to see if he could meet Dong. The first time he went, he was refused entry. He was refused a second time. Upon the third time, Dong Haichuan came out of the palace to see him and then let him enter into the Visitor Hall. Everything, the architecture and the layout were still in the traditional way and this was a fancy palace. Dong Haichuan said, ‘Since you have come, why don’t we cross hands? Keeping it friendly’ Yin Fu took a martial posture and launched an attack at Dong’s head. Haichuan stepped out of the line of the attack and struck Yin Fu. He used the Unicorn Spits Out the Book technique and knocked out Yin Fu’s teeth. This is why all of Yin Fu’s pictuces show his long mustache and hides his missing teeth.” Thus started a relationship that would last for over thirty years.

The Top Disciple

It is reported that Yin Fu spent the next couple of years proving himself to Dong. That during the daily training sessions that were held on the palace grounds, that Yin Fu would be the first to arrive and the last to leave. That we trained harder, with more spirit, than any of the other students. He put himself through more hardships in his training that the other students, performing greater number of strikes and holding deep stances for longer periods of time. Yin finally, in an effort to show his sincerity, sold his hot cake business so that he could train fulltime. This event, coupled with his dedication to training, finally proved his worth to Dong Haichuan and he earnestly started teaching Yin Fu the art of baguazhang.

Dong Haichuan was ordered by Prince Su to travel to Mongolia to collect taxes that were due the crown. Yin Fu was invited to assist his instructor and together they headed to Mongolia. The year was 1866 and their adventures in Mongolia would not bring them back to Beijing until around 1875. During that time, Dong taught Yin Fu the complete system of baguazhang to include the martial, meditative, and qigong practices. They were companions on a daily basis and any time what was not devoted to their tax collection duties was filled with training. This time was critical in Yin Fu’s martial development and was a gift that no other student of the art had the opportunity to enjoy. Yin Fu, at that time, was Dong Haichuan’s only student in the art of baguazhang. It is reported that upon returning to Beijing that Dong assisted Yin Fu in establishing his own martial arts school. Dong returned to his duties at Prince Su’s palace and slowly started accepting new students who showed a sincere attitude and were hardworking.

During the trip to Mongolia, Yin Fu’s first wife died, and so after returning to Beijing he remarried. This was taboo in the society of the time. It was accepted practice that a

Yin Fu with the bagua da dao. Note: this photo might be of another bagua practitioner, Fu Zhensong, but others claim that it is of Yin Fu.

widower could take on as many concubines and mistresses as he wished, but taking a second wife was forbidden. Given Dong Haichuan’s position, he had to abide by the social laws more than the average citizen, and was forced to renounce and break all ties with Yin Fu. This event was led many to suggest that Dong’s discussion to accept new students in bagua was based on losing the man that he transmitted his entire art. Regardless, Dong began to accept other students and taught them baguazhang, but it can be argued that none could have been trained in the entire system, which he had transmitted to Yin Fu, given the amount of time that was left in his life. Classes that were taught on his return to Beijing were probably limited to afternoon sessions and lacked the intense one-on-one training that was used on the Mongolian expedition with Yin Fu. Liu Shichang states, “Yin Fu carried the nickname of Iron Bracelet Yin Fu. It was after Yin Fu that Dong Haichuan took on other students. After he took on other students, his art became known as a style, and was no longer a secret.”

Dong Haichuan maintained his position with Yin Fu for about five or six years. During that time Dong took on new students and Yin Fu continued the develop of his school and started expanding into the lucrative security market in Beijing. He utilized many of his personal students in his security service and provided bodyguards to wealthy merchants and families. This business proved very successful for Yin Fu and over time he was even able to start sending assistance back to his home village. Dong Haichuan started to realize that he did not have enough time left to train any of his current students in the full art of baguazhang. If he taught a different portion to each of them that after his passing his teachings would continue to live on, but conflict and rivalries among some of his students shattered his hopes. The date is not known, but Dong Haichuan reconciled with Yin Fu, ignoring the etiquette of the day concerning Yin Fu’s second marriage. After Dong’s death it was Yin Fu that funded the first memorial stele at his tomb to honor his instructor.

The New Lineage Holder

After the death of the founder,

The Dowager Empress, Tzu Hsi - She appointed Yin Fu to provide her security on her flight from Beijing during the Boxer Rebellion in 1900.

Dong Haichuan, Yin Fu continued to operate his successful security business and also continued his teaching. Through the contacts that he had developed while training at the Prince’s palace, Yin Fu was offered the position that was once held by his mentor - Chief Instructor of the Imperial Guard. Yin Fu accepted the position and this further expanded his growing reputation among the martial art community. There are numerous stories of challenges and all out attacks towards Yin Fu in which he was always victorious. His connections with many of the first generation students of Dong continued and he was often called upon for clarification and higher level instruction. He taught many important officials in the Royal Court and gained the admiration of the Dowager Empress, Tzu Hsi. During the Boxer Revolution. a Chinese effort to rid itself of foreigners and their influence that occurred in the Summer of 1900, she had the choice of any man in China to provide her security as she left the war torn capital. She chose only one man, Yin Fu. This honor, which speaks highly of the martial reputation of Yin Fu, was however a mute point. Though the empress survived the conflict, the ages old Chinese form of government, that she was such an intricatal part, was at its end.

Yin Fu kept to the traditional manner that he was taught and trained very few students and accepted even fewer to be actual disciples. Among those were several that had also trained under Dong Haichuan. Yin stuck to tradition and kept the higher teachings of bagua secretive. As his security business expanded and demanded more of his time, Ma Gui, a student of both himself and Dong, assisted in the training of the next generation of bagua practitioners. As is true today, elder practitioners, though not the lineage holder, assisted in the training of the more junior practitioners. The late Dr. Xie Peiqi, the third generation lineage holder of Yin Style Bagua, stated that the top students of Yin Fu were Lu Yongqing, Ma Gui, Men Baozhen, Yang Junfeng, Ju Qingyan, Gong Baotien, and Rong Shi. Two of these students, Ma Gui and Men Baozhen, appear on the 1930 stele that was erected at Dong Haichuan’s tomb. Men Baozhen was given the complete transmission of the art by Yin Fu. He learned the entire martial, medical, meditative, and qigong practices and at Yin Fu’s death became the third generation lineage holder for Yin Style Baguazhang. It is reported by some sources that Men Baozhen cared for Yin Fu in the later days of his life. Yin Fu died in Beijing in 1909 having lived a remarkable life and becoming one of the most revered martial artists in China.

Known Students of Yin Fu

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