Pa-kua: Eight-Trigram Boxing (Chinese Martial Arts Library) [Paperback]

Robert W. Smith (Author), Allen Pittman (Author)

Book Description

Series: Chinese Martial Arts Library | Publication Date: July 15, 1990

Originally published in 1967, Pa-Kua was the West’s first look into the esoteric Chinese martial arts. It has been a valued and sought after text ever since. It was put out of print in the 1970s, but since that time interest in the martial arts have continued to skyrocket. Pa-Kua gives an introduction to the little known mystical martial art from China, Pa Kua Chang (also known as Ba Gua Zhang), translated as "Eight Trigram Boxing". Smith describes its history, profiles its great practitioners and gives a series of unique exercises, illustrating the solo practice and their fighting applications.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Robert W. Smith is one of America's great pioneers in the Asian martial arts and has written numerous books and articles on theses ancient fighting traditions. Smith is the author of Chinese Boxing: Masters and Methods, also available from North Atlantic Books. He lives in Hendersonville, North Carolina. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 104 pages
• Publisher: Tuttle Publishing (July 15, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0804816182
• ISBN-13: 978-0804816182
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #859,886 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pa-Kua Chinese Boxing for Fitness and Self-Defense, March 26, 2000

By 

Bob Shackleton (Arlington VA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pa-Kua: Chinese Boxing for Fitness and Self-Defense (Hardcover)

First published in 1967, this book was the first English-language text about Pa-Kua Chuan ("eight trigram boxing," also spelled Baguazhang), a comprehensive system of self-defense from China. It is one of the three nei-chia or "internal" systems of martial arts, the other two being Hsing-I Chuan and the more familiar T'ai-Chi Chuan.

Mr. Smith, now retired, was a CIA analyst specializing in the Chinese economy and is also a leading scholar of Asian fighting arts. ["Asian Fighting Arts," which he co-authored with Donn Draeger, remains the single best comprehensive description of the entire range of Asian martial arts.] Mr. Smith moved to Taiwan with his wife Alice in the late 1950s to study the internal and external arts with their leading exponents, nearly all of whom had left China in 1949. [He relates many of his interesting experiences in another excellent book, "Chinese Boxing: Masters and Methods."] He was thus among the first Americans to study these arts with teachers who traced their lineages back to the teachers who codified them in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

This text presents much of the material Mr. Smith brought back from Taiwan, including a brief history of the art and an illustrated description of much of the art's basic material as taught by Mr. Smith's primary teachers, Hung I-hsiang and Kuo Feng-sh'ih. The material covered includes eighteen basic exercises, twenty of the sixty-four linear forms, and the basic circling exercises. The book is thus an indispensable aid for anyone undertaking a serious study of Pa Kua, and also a very interesting and useful text for anyone engaged in almost any kind of serious physical discipline.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Clear, concise presentation of one entire Pa Kua form., August 13, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Pa-kua: Eight-Trigram Boxing (Chinese Martial Arts Library) (Paperback)

No-one has done as much to bring the Chinese internal arts into the awareness of Western martial artists as R.W. Smith.It is reassuring to see that his student, Allan Pittman apparently intends to continue this process.There is nothing superfluous in this book. Aside from basic guidelines of practice, the main focus is on one complete Pa Kua form.This form is demonstrated by Mr. Pittman and the photographs are of such clarity that anyone with a background in one or other movement or martial art should be able to learn from them.As any martial artist worth his salt knows, the basics are everything and the basic practice of Pa Kua is the circle walking, single palm change and the form. This book does an excellent job of illustrating these basics. The rest is up to the reader.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good presentation of a complete Pakua system., January 24, 2001

By 

Yasser Bilgrami (dubai United Arab Emirates) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Pa-kua: Eight-Trigram Boxing (Chinese Martial Arts Library) (Paperback)

Smith and Pittman have done a wonderful job in condensing vast knowledge in a short,concise and easy to refer book.Diligent practise of the presented forms answers many questions and insights which continue from where the text has left off,a natural way to learn and comprehend any Neijia system(from an eastern teaching point of veiw).It will not be helpful however to someone who is used to being "spoon-fed".Practise correctly and diligently and the system will reveal itself to you.