The colonists originated from all parts of Western Europe, and China and Africa too.  They were sentenced to be colonists in a strange land found to be abundant in natural resources. Some were objects of religious persecution.  Others were English criminals and debtors expelled from their parent country to establish cities in the new world. Some were adventurers and mercenaries who sought to glean as much wealth as they could from a different, new land.   Whatever the case, the best and the brightest bonded together to be the founding fathers of a country, under God destined to be one of the greatest powers in the world.   The English kings and queens were a rough bunch not content with the king’s fifth of ransom from the settlers.  They wanted more. The English levied taxes with no recourse as to why.  The English commanded that soldiers be given quartering at individual homes.  The English demanded that male youth of the poor be conscripted to life as a sailor in the English Navy.  The best and the brightest of the colonists obtained the Magna Carta of France and amended it to be the constitution of the land.  Napoleon in his funny hat and hand in his coat financed the American Revolution.  Firearms, food, armament, and logistics provided by the government of France, made the impossible come to pass.  The patriots established the United States of America.  The American public has a short memory.  It is for this reason only that the US entered World War 2.  France ousted the royal family and was overrun.   The French queen spent the rest of her life as a commoner working in a dress store.  

Monarchy and elitism do not produce a viable political system.  The strong, valiant, courageous, ethical royalists slowly become evil, corrupt weaklings.   Over time criminals, reprobates, and defectives move close to the royalty, intermarry, and weaken the line.  What happens is a sorry reminder of past greatness.  In a monarchy, only the royal family and their friends get educated and ply good jobs. The rest are commoners and toil in labor for the duration of their lives.  The other class hopes and prays every generation that one of their children will be good-looking enough or smart enough to marry into the royal family.  The line and the system degrade.  Ultimately the people cried out of their misery, as the colonists did, and formed a communist takeover.   Then the cycle begins anew.

The dialectic communists are no better.  They run around with black Manchurian automatic pistols and assassinate other communists stealing from the treasury.  Violence prevails and to obtain an education or a good job a citizen must have a red communist card.  For a while, the system functions adequately.  Then the ruling communists begin to interbreed, criminals obtain red cards and the ruling communists become a communist monarchy, the people cry out in anguish, and few take up weapons but the unrest is quashed.  The want to be king is just plain old human nature.   There are intercene civil wars and the ruling electorate establishes themselves as the privileged few and becomes a monarchy.  Remember they still keep the name as a communist.

The most stupid, inane, wasteful, slow, and expensive political system is a capitalist democracy. In a democracy, the people choose the economic policies of the nation and Malthusian economics prevail.  Democracy is stupid because the wealthy can never agree.  A plurality is unknown and the electorate fights daily for a majority.   A democracy is wasteful.   Elections cost enormous sums of money and the criminals try to rig the ballot box.  Democracy is slow because the electorate once they agree takes time to implement public policy.  It took the United States two years to enter World War 2 and if the attack at Pearl Harbor, if it never happened, Europe would have been speaking German.   Democracy is incredibly expensive.   All the electorate, once elected command high salaries and must be housed in proximity to govern the land.   Elections are incredibly expensive and the reason our founding fathers chose a four-year term was to get the inept out of office before they ruined the economy or if the president did not want to do it anymore.   A one-six-year term is better and cheaper. People are people and they can’t agree, and they steal from one another, and eventually try to be king.   In a democracy, once an incumbent finishes a term,   the wealthy know whether they are proficient competent, and ethical and whether they choose to re-elect them.   This is the worst political system, BUT IT IS THE ONLY ONE THAT IS HALF WAY FAIR.   Everyone who plays their card right and has the right connections goes to church, and has a family has the potential to become the president of the United States of America.  In God we trust.   Long live the republic.

Pa kua is a highly esoteric exercise practiced solely in China.  History reveals that anything Borte loved became sacred to the Chinese and possibly Borte practiced Pa kua chang.  Pa kua means “eight diagrams” and the eight diagrams are the eight way to produce unconsciousness in an adversary.   Pa kua is a circular style and most martial art practitioners feel the exercise is looping and slow and has no basis in reality.  Pa kua reveals the predatory postures of the praying mantis which is the most ferocious predator of the insect kingdom.   In Pa kua, a practitioner circularizes all their actions and once mastered they become fast.  The circle forms the basis of Pa kua and any strike delivered by a Pa kua boxer is 3.14 times more powerful than a straight strike derived from a given moving mass.  3.14 is Pi and this factor accounts for the power in Pa kua.   Force = mass x velocity/radius.   Pa kua is easily learned but incredibly difficult to master because a boxer circularizes their strikes off of a horizontal circular footwork.  The foot work, like in Tai Chi and Hsing-I is the all of the art and force springs from a boxer moving in a horizontal circle.   Most boxers feel Pakua is too hard to learn and incredibly difficult to apply.  This might be true, but Pa kua is an exercise to be practiced for life that circularizes your actions. From this discipline comes perfection as is written in the Tao.   From this art comes the adage,”dance like a lady, fight like a tiger”.  If a student of the martial arts goes to YouTube and views videos of a preying mantis, they see that the insect punches twice the prey, grabs the prey and starts eating.  Any insect bigger than a Mantis immediately induces motionlessness and the mantis will move in a circle should that insect attack,   The most essential point in Pa kua is the fact that circling is both an evading tactic and an attacking method at the same time and only those people proficient in the art can accomplish this.  If a boxer attacks a Pa kua expert the expert will instinctively circle and counter attack.  The relevance of Pa kua lays in the fact that Yun-shen Kuo, “the divine crushing hand” and leader of the Hsing-I school was defeated in a match by a Pa kua expert. Now Pa kua and Hsing-I are coupled and complementary systems taught together. In Pa kua chang a boxer circles, extends his arm or arms, backhands and circles the other way.  This footwork is also known as the single palm change;

The single palm change

Circle with one foot turning out and the other turning in. Turn in the back foot severely when brought up to the lead foot.  Extend the lead foot to the center of the circle.  Bring the back foot up to fore foot in horse posture. Cross hands.   Step out with the back foot, foot turning out and circling the opposite way of the beginning. 

All the movements in Pa kua chang are a variation of the single palm change.   The exception is the double palm change used to attack an adversary closing in from the rear.   “Chang” means open hand.  In Pa kua chang a boxer can punch or grab, or cut with his or her hand while executing a move.  In whipping back in the single palm change, a boxer can use the hand, as a fist, or as a sword to the throat. In other words, in a fist fight, the grasp is just as important as the fist.

The double palm change is a spinning backhand followed by a one two punch and then completing the single palm change and swinging back to a new direction,

Moves of Pa Kua chang

Single palm change

Double palm change

Dragon

Bear

Lion

Hawk

Snake

White monkey bears fruit

The single palm change is the mainstay of the art.  All the others are variations of this single theme

Double palm change faces an adversary in the rear

In dragon, a boxer puts two hands to the sides of his or her head in an effort to block a hook.  Then with the blocking hand, a boxer hammers down one-two with the other hand and then completes the single palm change

Bear is similar to dragon except the back hand cocks back to an overhand right while the lead hand protects the mouth.   The back hand hammers down when attacking and with the same hand completes the single palm change.  The movement looks like a boxer is swinging their hand in a figure eight, this is a circular overhand right changing into a back hand after striking. After the single palm change, this is the second basic move of Pa Kua chang.

Lion is similar to fan penetrate back in Tai chi, also known as the straight right hand.   Afterwards complete the single palm change

Hawk happens as a two handed strike or grab to the midsection like a hawk swoops down and holds its prey.  Afterwards complete the single palm change

Snake is the same as splitting in Hsing-i.    Turn your foot inward and swing the hookercut to the groin of the adversary.  Cross hands and complete the single palm change. Please remember that the single palm change ends with a cut to the throat or fist to the face.  This fact is important in that if a boxer misses with the primary punches, he or she swings back with the palm change and connects.  This seems ridiculous, but it works, consistently.

Two hands cutting is the white monkey.   Holding the hands vertically in front of the face like a mantis, the boxer turns his hands up and the boxer swings his arms, both together in a two handed hook. This effort normally directs at the throat. Then from the other side he swings back with both hands  to complete the single palm change.   This movement is also known as a two handed hook or haymaker.

Circle in a clockwise circle, and then make the single palm change and circle counter clockwise.  Circle the foot movements and circle in a figure 8.   When someone is chasing you circle in a figure eight and end up facing your opponent from the side and attacking.  Circle in a large circle if he or she has a lot of room.   Circle in a small circle in a small room.   Circle unto yourself in a holding cell.   In Pa Kua chang, the only movement is the single palm change executed from both directions.   How you use your hands is up to your discretion.   A boxer can punch with their hands.  A boxer can cut with their hands.   A boxer can grab with their hands then cross hands and then cut the throat with the single palm change. 

All the movements in Pa kua are circular.   Those that aren’t, are circular when viewed from above.  Eight diagram boxing is fighting in a round horizontal plane unlike to and fro, right or left in the other internal systems.  The single palm change is the beginning and the end.   Like swinging a weight on a string, the movements become powerful when a boxer becomes expert and his or his movements have been circularized.

The martial movements of insects are circular because they as so small, to make power is to swing their arms in a circle or an arc.   In eight diagrams boxing and expert that has integrated the circle into his or her movements can evade and attack without thinking.   This effect is what makes the style of the praying mantis so great.  It probably can be adapted to commercial boxing.   In a nutshell, in the eight diagram boxing, when a threat converges, a boxer circles and swings their arms in a circle, connects and then circles away. This effort may sound simplistic or down right stupid except that it works.   Insects are the most efficient predators of the animal world and what they do helps them survive.

This writing is Pa Kua chang delivered to the west.  Although esoteric and strange, this system forms the most efficient predatory system in existence if and only if a boxer can master it.   The “if” is a big if because Chinese monks devote their entire lives to walking in a circle, if the government lets them.  I imagine that twenty years of practicing every day, making the right turns and coordinating your movements is necessary to integrate the art in ganglionic memory. Good luck to all who endeavor to grasp knowledge in the dog days of boredom.

Hsing-I means the shape a person takes.  In Hsing-I, a person becomes a predatory dinosaur and attacks its prey until the prey falls and the dinosaur can feed.   Hsing-I is a mental state akin to self-hypnosis and the attacker becomes a Tyrannosaur until the prey succumbs.  The form of mind is an attacking system and as such is defective against a system based on defense.   An attacker eventually gets tired and the system does not work so well in a defensive mode.  D’Amato taught Mike Tyson Hsing-I and the only way to beat him was to stay away until he tired.  The form of mind is a system revered by the Chinese and they do not teach it in the West.  The Japanese tried to imitate the system with Shotokan, but it is not the same.  In the form of mind, the six simple actions require very little thinking, and this is why the system is so efficient.  From practical aspects, the form of mind works best for small people because its actions are based on vectorial footwork and big people don’t move as well and are better suited to Tai chi.   As in Tai Chi, the footwork is the all.  Accelerating the body mass coincident with the punch produces a devastating effect and the six simple movements are all designed to stun with one punch. A tyrannosaur must stun its prey before it feeds.  

Footwork

Walking step

Conservative step

Modified step

Flying step

Step to the side

Inch step

In the walking step you step forward, revolve your torso, and punch with the other hand.    The Conservative step is the step of a killing dinosaur.  A boxer steps forward, revolves his torso, and strikes with the same hand.  It is the most powerful but makes a practitioner walk like a robot.  The modified step is stepping forward and bringing the rear foot into horse posture to punch.  A boxier uses this step when the prey is close.  In the flying step, a boxer lifts his lead foot and turns it 45 degrees out, leaps forward, and punches in the conservative step into an archery stance, then follows the step.  The side step is to counteract another attacking dinosaur.   A boxer steps to the side and then begins to advance with one of the steps.   Inch step is used with crossing and a boxer uses it to measure an opponent when in guard to begin an attack.

As in all the internal systems, the steps are all and power derives from accelerating the body mass.

The forms

Crossing (heng)

Crushing (peng)

Pounding (Pao)

Splitting (Pi)

Drilling (tsuan)

Decking (Zhuang shi ban )

Crossing is the mother of Hsing-i.   All forms derive from crossing.  When in doubt use crossing, then begin the lien chuan (combinations) to overwhelm the opponent.   When attacked, side step then use crossing and begin the combinations.  Heng is earth and is the beginning and the end.  Heng is the same as bending the bow in the white crane and Kun bui,  the backhand.   Heng is done with any step but boxers prefer the inch step transiting to the modified step.   

Crushing is the mainstay of Hsing I.     All combinations utilize crushing.   Crushing focuses on the solar plexus although a person can use it to the face.  An expert like Mike Tyson delivers crushing to the body and then finishes with pounding or the hook.   In a fight crushing can stop the heart or bring the hands down in preparation for pounding or decking.   

Pounding is the long hook and the same as horizontal flying in a white crane or return tiger to a mountain in Tai chi.   Pounding can be delivered with any step but is taught with the Z step because an attacker is usually close when they deliver pounding.  Horse, step to the diagonal and deliver a hook with the arm outstretched, then follow the step to the horse.  Pounding is fire and a boxer does this as fast as they can. 

Drilling is the same as the spear hand in shoaling boxing and is used extensively in commercial prizefighting because professional boxers are big, and fast, and to survive a boxer must keep their hands up in front of their face.  Using any step and the hands in front of the body and lower face, a boxer drill outwards their hand using the flat fist. Drilling is the fastest of the forms and this is why boxers use it extensively in the ring. 

Splitting is the same as the hookercut.   It is a vertical hook delivered to the groin.    If a boxer has a reach advantage they use splitting to soften up an opponent.  In prizefighting,   splitting is delivered to the lower ribs or liver, but it is defined as a punch to the groin only. 

Decking is the overhand right or brush knee and press in Tai chi.   In a drilling stance, a boxer pulls a hand up above their shoulder and strikes downward like a hammer.  Remember to move the body forward as you deck someone.  Decking is the sky and unifies with the earth and water.   This is the way of saying you deck someone using the right cross and hookercut.  

In your living room, go through the forms and link them as you please, this is your persona or lien chuan.

Crossing combines with anything,   pounding combines with splitting,   and drilling combines with decking.   Heng becomes peng, then pao into drilling or decking.   The turning step links the forms and is used to confront an attacker from behind or to attack a boxer who dodges out of the way. This is the seventh combination.  Hsing-I chuan Hsueh is a unique and prime number.  

This is Hsing-I in a nutshell delivered to the west.  Hsing-I originated in the Luhan province of China where dinosaurs used to roam.  Southern Shaolin is part of Hsing-I and can be taught separately. These static forms are:

Komodo dragon

Sparrow

Hawk

Phoenix

Turtle

Horse

Mantis

Bear

Eagle

Monkey

Tiger

                There are two more that I cannot remember.

The internal systems are to be practiced every day for exercise until a boxer dies.   When a boxer wants to die they stop practicing the internal systems.  They are above all a means for health and self-defense if necessary.   If a person thinks he or she is tough, go to a boxing gym and show them what you got.  This is the way of the Tao.

The Chinese word “Tai Chi Chuan” means supreme ultimate boxing.  Is Tai chi a sedentary exercise relegated to the old or is it a potent, modern, martial arts system?  Is Tai Chi taught correctly or is it the basis of western boxing that prizefighters use to make millions of dollars annually?  A long time ago, the Chinese nobility used to promote free-for-all fights because they did not have the internet or planes to take them on vacation.   The nobility chose several martial arts systems to be part of the aristocracy or “Internal sect” and they became what is now known as the internal systems. These systems that the aristocracy chose for their own are, Hsing-I,  Pa-kua,  and Tai Chi.  Only  Tai  Chi Chuan made it to the United States.  The internal systems are first and foremost an exercise system to be done solo every day to promote cardiovascular health.   If a student practices the movements of the internal systems daily,  within twenty years they become a potent system of self-defense.   The reason a student practices every day is to integrate the movements into ganglionic memory and install a no-mind response when confronted by an adversary. 

The fundamentals of Tai Chi Chuan are:

The idea

The steps

The five postures.

The idea behind Tai Chi is the oscillation of a string or the sine wave.   When a string is plucked,  it bounces back and vibrates, so it is with Tai Chi as in saber fencing.  Lunge, Parry, and redouble. When an enemy attacks, a student parries, and punches, and if they miss they redouble.  This action must be a no-mind response to be effective.

Tai Chi Chuan is also known as “One step boxing.”     In boxing a practitioner usually only needs one step to carry out their admonition.   This is why Tai Chi is known as an exercise for the old because old people can’t move around or dance like they could when they were young.  The steps in Tai Chi are:

Waist drawback stance

Toe step

Archery posture

Heel stance

Step to the side

The waist draw-back stance or posture puts sixty percent of the weight on the back leg in an on-guard stance.  This is a comfortable posture that readies a person to step forward and punch.  The toe step is when a practitioner brings back one leg in front of the other and is akin to the cat stance in Okinawan Karate.  The toe stance is the parry.   From the toe stance, a boxer accelerates his or her mass forward with a punch or strike to an archery stance.   In archery stance, a student has sixty percent of his or her weight on the front foot.   This is the one step.   After entering the archery stance a student follows steps on the rear foot to enter into the waist drawback stance again.   The heel stance is a specific posture used when a boxer has a reach advantage.   They put sixty percent of their weight on the rear foot, and forty percent on the front foot sitting on the heel and lunged forward into an archery stance to deliver a punch. Step to the side starts from the waist drawback and a boxer steps one foot to the side and brings the other foot to cat stance to evade a lunge punch or flurry of punches.

The steps are all of Tai Chi Chuan.   Everything else derives from the steps.  The feature that makes a punch powerful is the acceleration of the body mass coincident with the punch.  An expert boxer can deliver their body weight in a punch in the blink of an eye.

In all of Tai Chi, there exist 108 postures.   Only five make up the basis of the art which evolved from the martial art postures of the Kodiak bear.   Tai Chi is the art of the bear.  This is why orthodox practitioners use the palm.   Bears do not have fingers and use their palm.   Human beings should use their first instead.  The fist causes more damage than the palm. The five basic postures used in Tai Chi are:

The single whip

Brush the knee and press

Fan penetrates back

Hands build clouds

The expansive push or step up and punch.

There exist many more and some instructors place more emphasis on some rather than others.  The most lethal postures in Kung Fu include tai chi.   The five basic postures make up the whole of Western boxing.   All the boxers in stadiums, or on TV, utilize tai chi to make money.

The single whip is also known as the jab.   From a ready position, a boxer moves his weight to an archery stance and accelerates his hand in a straight fashion.   Then he or she initiates the follow-step.

Brush knee and press is the same as an overhand right.   A boxer circles his left hand to brush away a kick to the knee and circles the other hand in a looping punch.  A boxer can eliminate the circling left hand if not necessary.   Then a boxer follows steps up to the waist drawback stance. 

Fan penetrate back is the most used posture in all the martial arts.   It is also known as the straight right hand.   A boxer waves his left hand upwards to block a looping left or overhand right,  then he or she punches outward with the right standing fist to the face.

Cloud build hands are the same as bumping in a White crane or flapping in the style of the phoenix.    A boxer circles both hands, one clockwise and the other in a counterclockwise fashion like he or she is building clouds with their hands.   The effect is a short hook to the face that Muhammed Ali tuned to perfection.   The open hand is slightly faster than the fist and in Cloud build hands a boxer uses the open hand.   A person can use the fist if necessary.   Use an archery stance and initiate a follow-step..   This is one-step boxing.

The expansive push is what all bears use initially before they engage.   Step forward into an archery stance and push forward directly with two open hands.   A boxer can use their fist.   This is the Tai Chi version of crushing used in Hsing-i.   It is directed against the body, more specifically the solar plexus…   A person can use step up and punch instead which is the same as the spear hand in Pa-kua and Okinawan Karate.

These are the basics of Tai chi.   There exist only two leg movements in Tai Chi.   They are kicking against the kick and the lotus kick. Kick against a kick is used against a kicking expert who dances around and throws kicks at your knees or head.   In kick against the kick,   when an enemy lifts a foot, any foot to kick, a Tai Chi boxer snap kicks their groin.   The only time a tai chi boxer uses a kick is to kick another foot expert in the genitals.   The other kick is the lotus kick which is the same as the crane kick in Soft Wing Chun.   It is called the lotus kick because if you connect, the adversary falls asleep.  Swing your extended leg in a big circle that connects with the head.    When your hands hurt or you are holding a weapon, a boxer can use the lotus kick.

Like stated before there exist 108 movements to Tai Chi.   One of the movements is using your head to beat someone into unconsciousness.   This movement is not recommended.   Another called the shoulder strike is for advanced students to use their shoulders to strike a grappler.   There exist many others in many other tai chi styles.

The other basic movements of  Tai Chi  Chuan are:

Send tiger back to mountain-  a huge hook

Repel the tiger-  the hookercut directed against the groin

Slanting flight- an open-handed backhand directed against the throat

Step up and form seven stars.   A cross-hand punch with both hands to the carotid arteries against a grappler

Golden Cockerel hangs on the ears-   A straight hook simultaneously with both open hands to the ears meant to deafen an opponent

Backstep the monkey – The only posture where you defend against a karate expert with a flurry moving backward.   This is the only movement in the martial arts meant to be done backward

This is the system of Yang Cheng Fu.  The author practices Hsing-I and Pa-ku instead.   There is simply too much to know.  Hsing-I is consecutive step boxing, and Pa-Kua is circling step boxing.   There is too much to master in a lifetime.   Choose one internal system and become adept in it.  The main benefit is cardiovascular health.  If a boxer does the postures on both sides religiously, he or she becomes ambidextrous.   The perfection of the self is paramount in the quest for the TAO as outlined in the I-Ching.