Book Feature: Dong Haichuan by Sifu Kendra Mahon

For the sixth book in her Masters of Kung Fu series, Sifu Kendra Mahon, known as Kung Fu Kendra, turns to a master from a tradition far from her own: the poor villager from Hebei who founded Baguazhang. Dong Haichuan: The Founder of Bagua follows him from Zhujiawu village in Wen’an County to the princely households of Beijing, through 59 chapters in five parts. The book is coming soon to Amazon in Kindle and paperback.

Facts Before Legend

Dong is the least documented master in the series. He left no writings, no photograph of him is known to survive, and government records say almost nothing about him. Most of what is known comes from stone tablets at his grave, stories passed down through his students, and the work of modern historians. Even his birth year is unsettled: 1797 in traditional accounts, 1813 according to some modern researchers, 1804 in one lineage history. Mahon gives the main dates side by side and does not choose between them.

The famous stories are labelled for what they are. The hermit of Jiuhua Mountain appears in an inscription carved in 1930, almost fifty years after his death. The crowded banquet at Prince Su’s mansion cannot be confirmed, and historians do not regard his reported contests with Yang Luchan or Guo Yunshen as reliable. The book suggests those encounters probably reflect a later wish to show the founders of the internal arts as equals and friends. A chapter on how to read a legend uses the grave itself as the example: the 1883 tablet, carved by people who knew him, says relatively little about mountain hermits, while the inscriptions of 1904 and 1930 add more. “The further a story is from the man himself, the richer it tends to become.”

A Question Handled With Care

The long tradition that Dong served in Prince Su’s household as a eunuch receives two full chapters. The versions differ widely, the story was told mainly by third- and fourth-generation practitioners, and no official records have been found to confirm it, though his grave was known locally by a name that in old Beijing speech could refer to a eunuch. Mahon declines to settle what the evidence leaves open, and she refuses to treat the subject as a curiosity or a joke. “Either way, he deserves to be remembered as a person, not as a rumour.”

The Teacher and His Students

Many of Dong’s students came to him already skilled in wrestling, Shaolin-based styles or northern boxing, and tradition says he taught a common core of circle walking and a few palm changes, then adapted the rest to each student. The book profiles Yin Fu, “Thin Yin,” usually described as his first disciple; Cheng Tinghua, the eyeglasses maker known as “Spectacles Cheng,” who had studied shuaijiao and died during the Boxer Uprising in 1900; and Liang Zhenpu, his youngest disciple. The first stele lists dozens of students and supporters, and in 1980 more than a hundred Beijing practitioners led by Li Ziming moved Dong’s remains and tablets to the Wan’an Public Cemetery.

A Wing Chun Perspective

Mahon writes as a Wing Chun master and says plainly that she is not a Bagua teacher. She finds no evidence of any direct connection between the two arts in the nineteenth century, but she sets out the principles they share: relaxed structure over brute strength, a better angle in place of a head-on collision, sensitivity to an opponent, and teachers who fitted the art to the student. She compares the many branches that grew from Dong’s students with the branches of Wing Chun that grew from Ip Man’s. Every chapter closes with a lesson, every part with a reflection workbook, and a group guide, timeline and glossary complete the book. Her conclusion is a simple one: “The real Dong Haichuan does not need the legends. His achievement is remarkable on its own.”

About the Author

Sifu Kendra Mahon, known as Kung Fu Kendra, has trained since 2005 and holds Master level (purple sash). She teaches Traditional Wing Chun as it was passed down to her by Master Brian Lewadny, who learned it from Grandmaster William Cheung. She is the author of 13 books and counting, including The Way of Wing Chun and Masters of Kung Fu series, and created the Become a Sifu Wing Chun Online Certification Course. Read what her students say on the Kung Fu Kendra reviews page.

Where to Get It

Dong Haichuan: The Founder of Bagua is coming soon to Amazon in Kindle and paperback. Book 1 of the series, Bruce Lee: The Philosopher Behind the Fist, is available now. See all of her books on her Amazon author page and on kungfukendra.com.

Editor’s note: Wing Chun Magazine is published by Sifu Kendra Mahon.