HomeZong Wu MenYiZong BaGuaInternal Arts Community Contact

 

YiZong Bagua Men Qian Kun She

Luo Dexiu Laoshi

Luo Dexiu Laoshi -

Luo Dexiu (whom we often just refer to as Laoshi, meaning "teacher" in mandarin Chinese) is one of the foremost experts on internal martial arts in the world today. From his decades of experience in training, fighting, researching and teaching, he is now known as an expert in the performance, use and teaching of Gao style Baguazhang, Hebei Xingyiquan and Chen Panling's Taijiquan.

A start ...

Luo Laoshi first began training in the late 60's, while still in his early teens. His real start in martial arts began when he followed a friend and classmate of his from school to Hong Yixiang's school in 1971. From there he went on to become Hong Yixiang's youngest, most promising and eventually one of his most successful students. His early experience including study of Hong Yixiang's Tang Shou Dao program. He also began early on to enter full-contact fighting competitions. Along with these competitions he was introduced to the study of internal martial art of Xingyiquan and thus began a life-long pursuit of further skill and learning in the arts.

His early period of study can be broken down as first beginning with his attempts to attend Hong's school full time - he did have to deal first with some concerns from his mother over this. His early starts in the school were therefore mostly concerned with the basic Shaolin training that Hong taught in his school that he termed Tang Shou Dao (The Way of the Tang Hand).

Soon after reentering Hong's school, he began to train along with his friends in the school for competitions. This training was primarily devoted to the study of Xingyiquan as it was being taught for competition by Hong Yixiang. Luo entered his first fighting competition in 1972, a competition among all the martial arts schools of Taipei, Taiwan. He won first place. Months later he entered the national competition and took second place. He later went on to take first place in a number of successive tournaments.

After these experiences, he continued to train, he began to help his teacher by helping to teach newer students, he continued to enter competitions and he continued to take challenges for his teacher. He and his classmates also later began to research further the arts that their teacher taught. They learned that Hong's primary martial arts teacher was named Zhang Zhunfeng. Luo then began searching out other students of Zhang Zhunfeng so as to further research his systems of teaching.

Searching for more...

Taiwan has mandatory military service, so Luo Dexiu Laoshi eventually entered service in the Navy and was stationed further south in KaoHsiung. He found that he had a lot of free time on his hands while serving and decided to devote that free time to further practice of the martial arts. He continued to take challenge matches and did well for himself and the name of his teacher. One such incident was his defeat of the all-Army fighting champion, whom he dispatched in just a few seconds with a single bengquan to the chest that sent his opponent to the ground, unconscious, with foam appearing at his mouth.

Another big break for Luo Laoshi was when he found a bagua teacher by the name of Liu Qian. Liu was an early senior student of Sun Xikun, who came to Taiwan with the Nationalist Army. Luo Laoshi's study with Liu Qian was eye-opening in many ways. Liu had a firm command of the theories and training methods unique to Baguazhang. Luo Dexiu spent many hours listening and asked many questions of Liu Qian so that he could understand the essence of Bagua theory and training. Luo Laoshi also learned many fighting methods, forms, weapons, neigong and throwing methods from Liu.

Luo Laoshi also continued to research further on his own family of internal martial arts, Yi Zong. He sought out anyone and everyone that he could find that practiced the system, comparing and contrasting how and what they taught. In this manner, he greatly broadened his understanding of how Zhang Zhunfeng taught during different periods of his time in Taiwan. He also discovered that Zhang's primary fighting skills came from his training and teaching of Gao style Baguazhang.

At Zhang Zhunfeng's death, there was a tape played containing the will and last wishes of Zhang Zhunfeng. In this will, Zhang stated that if anyone wished to understand the essence and breadth of his arts, they should seek out the three Hong brothers. That is exactly what Luo Dexiu continued to do, even though it would often cause difficulties with his main teacher, Hong Yixiang. But after spending decades of study, not only with Hong Yixiang but also with Hong Yiwen and Hong Yimian, Luo came to know the whole of Zhang's fighting arts of Gao style Baguazhang and Li Cunyi's Xingyiquan.

A new beginning...

Although Luo Dexiu spent nearly two decades helping Hong Yixiang to teach in his Tang Shou Dao school, it was not until 1990 that Luo Laoshi began to separately teach a lone student of Hong Yixiang's who requested to learn Baguazhang, Marcus Brinkman. Soon after starting with Marcus, Luo Dexiu later expanded his class to include other students. Many of this early group of students later became Luo Dexiu's first group of disciples. Many of them later went on to become skilled and successful martial artists and teachers in their own right.

Luo Laoshi has continued to teach to this day. He has been teaching regular classes in Taipei, Taiwan and currently teaches under the eaves of the National Theater Building at Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Park. His classes in Taiwan continue to produce skilled students in the art of Baguazhang.

In addition to teaching in Taipei, he also travels around the world each summer to his various student groups giving seminars. These seminars have been incredibly successful and he has also had many students come to a good level in the Internal Arts through their annual intensive studies.

His own personal school is now known as Qian Kun She. Therefore the full name of our family of internal martial arts is Yi Zong Ba Gua Men Qian Kun She.

 

Yi Zong Ba Gua Men Qian Kun She -

Yi Zong Ba Gua Men Qian Kun She is the full name of Luo Dexiu's school of martial arts. Luo chose to honor his grand teacher Zhang Zhunfeng with the carrying on of his school name of Yi Zong Bagua Men. Luo Dexiu studied and learned with many of Zhang's senior students, most notably he was a student of one of Zhang's original disciples, Hong Yixiang, for over two decades.

The meaning of Qian Kun She...

Qian and Kun are the two opposing opposites of the traditional Bagua symbol in the YiJing. In modern Chinese, when one uses Qian and Kun together, it is like saying Alpha and Omega in English and Greek, it is also similar to saying yin and yang - it refers to everything, all possibilities, the universe. "She" means association in Chinese.

 

 

 

Click here to link directly to Luo Laoshi's web site in Chinese.

For a translation of Luo Dexiu's web site, go to the section on Yi Zong Resources for translations of each page.