Dong Haichuan (about 1813 - 1882), originally named Mingkui（明魁）, also called Hai（海）, styled Huichuan. His original family home is in Hongdong County, Shanxi Province, and his family lived in Wen’an County, Hebei Province. He was fond of studying both literature and Wushu. He has a strong constitution, long arms and un-comparable force and is good at various boxing weapons, especially at Erlangquan, Luohangong, and mastering the attack skills of what is known as the “suppress quietness with movement” stance. His name became well known in the villages, even during his youth.
During the Xianfeng period (from 1851 to 1861) of the Qing Dynasty, Dong traveled around the Wuyue areas (today’s Jiangsu Province and Zhejiang Province), Jiangwan (today this is part of Jiangsu and Anhui Province), Bashu (today’s Sichuan Province), and all over the Yangtze River. During his travels, he used to run to the mountains to escape the enemies, where he was inspired by Taoism’s method of making pills of immortality.
He also attempted to explain the Taijiquan theory with Zhou Yi, who created the Zhuanzhang, which is the primary form of Baguazhang by combining the Kung Fu of Taoism into walking in circles round and round, led by breathing. Dong used to study under Honglian Elder (Bi Chengxia) and practiced Baguazhang with eight kinds of weapons, as well as the Art of leading spirit with Qi (vital energy). Several years later, he trained himself into a master, and after continuous developing and perfecting, formed what is known today as Baguazhang.
In the 4th year of the Tongzhi period (1865), Dong went to the capital city, to become an eunuch in the imperial palace, but soon after he had to leave the palace because his colleagues were jealous of his intelligence. According to Dong Haichuan and Baguazhang (Hong Kong edition) compiled by Qin Tianshou, some people who have not even met him did not want to compete with him, for instance, Yinfu, a Luohanquan specialist, Cheng Tinghua who was good at wrestling, Shi Jidong, who was good at Liantui, and some younger individuals, such as Liu Dekuan, who was famous for his big spear. But they were all defeated by Dong, and they begged him to be take them in as students.
According to The Engraved Article on the Tomb Tablet of Dong Haichuan, he was “enclosed by a dozen soldiers, but defeated them all”, “In addition, there was another master who was good with the sword and halberd who fought him but Dong, who had to fight with empty hands, took his opponent’s weapon, stamped on his foot, and defeated the challenger.” “He used to travel in the areas out of the Great Wall, sometimes letting several persons taking sharp weapons fight against him in a ring, Dong fought back in all directions, reflecting as quick as wind, he didn’t won over the rivals but also the observers on the site.”
In the 13th year of Tongzhi (1874), Dong retired and concentrated in teaching Martial Art to students. There were often dozens of people visiting him, from ordinary people to officials, amounting to nearly a thousand. In his teaching, Dong took walking circle as the basic training, stressing on “walking comes first among hundred trainings”, and took the stance that “walking can get more effective results than hundred trainings.”
He also combined the single form training with the basic palm technique, teaching the attacking principle of “suppress stillness with movement”, “side-stepping from the straight attack, fighting back from the side”, “drove the side with forward”, training the response capability of students from the real fighting with “fighting back by the attacker’s technique”, by oral teaching, then the students practicing upon their understanding, making every one learn something and strengthening display his own advantage. After continuous enriching the technique, he at last laid the theoretical foundation of the Baguazhang method, establishing his system of Bagua Zhang, which developed and multiplied into several schools.