Gao Baguazhang Kungfu in Murfreesboro - 高八卦掌广华哲宗同易派

Gāo Yìshèng 高義盛

Gao Yisheng was born in Da Zhuang Zi Village, Da Shan Township,
Wu Di County, Shandong province, China in 1866. During his childhood
his family fortune was lost so they moved to Wu Ching County, Shaogao
township in Hebei province to find employment. When he was young his
leg was broken by a mule cart and the bone was set incorrectly so Gao
walked with a cane the rest of his life. As a boy he learned the art of
Da Hong Chuan (Big Red Fist) in his home village.

In 1892 when Gao was twenty-six years old he began his study of Baguazhang
with Dong Haichuan’s student Sung Zhangjun (Song Changrong). After three
years of practice with Sung all he had learned was basic circle walking and the
single palm change. Gao asked for more instruction, but Sung refused and Gao
left to find another teacher.

At age thirty, in 1896, Gao met Zhou Yuxiang. Zhou was a talented student of
Cheng Tinghua. Zhou’s skill in fighting had earned him the nickname “Peerless Palm”
Zhou. Gao and Zhou “crossed hands” three times and Gao was defeated each time.
Gao knelt and asked to become Zhou’s disciple. Zhou said they were too close in
age for him to bring him into the system so Zhou took Gao to Beijing to meet his teacher
Cheng Tinghua. Cheng accepted him as his student because of his previous experience
with Sung and on Zhou Yuxiang’s recommendation. Gao learned the majority of the
system from Zhuo and would travel to Beijing periodically to study with Cheng, until
Cheng’s death four years later. Gao learned the eight Xian Tien palms, weapons forms
and applications.

After six years of intense study Gao began teaching Cheng Tinghua Style Ba Gua Zhang
in Shao-gao township, Wu Ching County, Hebei province. Some time between 1902 and
1911 Gao also studied Xingyi Quan with Li Cunyi. In 1911 he returned to his home village
Shandong province at the age of forty – five at which time he started teaching his Gao
style Baguazhang.

Around 1912 Gao met Sung Yi-Ren, a Taoist from Guang Hua Mountain
who gave him the Hou Tien sets and completed his baguazhang training.

Between 1911 and 1917, Gao moved to Yang village, Wu Ching county,
Hebei province, about ten miles from Tianjin city. He taught in Yang village
and in Tianjin city. Gao would also periodically return to his home village in Da Shan
Township in Shandong province to teach. Tianjin was a rough and violent place
with many experienced martial artists, gangsters and coarse people. Anyone who
taught martial arts in Tianjin City had to have real fighting skill.

Gao’s main source of income was teaching martial arts classes so his class structure
was designed to teach anyone who wanted to learn. His public classes contained
multiple levels, each level of study costing more money; some students only wanted
to learn Baguazhang for health, others for show, some could not afford to learn more
than what was taught in the basic class and still others wanted fighting skill. He trained
his students according to their interests, attitude, and physical condition.

In 1942 he fought with a Taiji Quan teacher in the park. Gao defeated him but injured
him so badly he died three days later. To avoid the police Gao fled to Wu Ching village
outside Tianjin city. He never returned to Tianjin and spent his remaining years living in
the back of a Chinese medicine shop; he died in 1951 at the age of eighty-five..