Bagua Swimming Body Palms

Book excerpt: Bagua Swimming Body Palms is the second book written by Wang Shujin, one of the world’s foremost exponents of Chinese internal martial arts and a renowned expert of Bagua Zhang. This volume continues the process of bringing Master Wang’s important art to Western readers. More intricate than the Linked Palms form, Swimming Body Palms helps practitioners achieve fluent body mechanics and the ability to connect and flow from one movement to the next with power. Master Wang, who taught Swimming Palms to only a few advanced students, described it as “swim-walking,” or swimming around the body. Bagua Swimming Body Palms offers a thorough grounding in the basics of Bagua principles and practice, and illuminates the connection between the cultural meanings of the I Ching and the physical movements of Bagua Zhang. The photographs from the Chinese book are reprinted, along with hundreds of new photographs of translator Kent Howard demonstrating the exercises in greater detail. Sifu Howard provides extensive commentary on Master Wang’s writings, and Daoist master Huang Jinsheng contributes a thoughtful essay on Master Wang’s spiritual practice with the esoteric Daoist sect Yi Guan Dao. The book’s engaging style, fidelity to the Chinese text, and comprehensiveness make it a welcome addition to any martial arts library.