Cheng Shi Bagua Zhang - Zhanshen Qiang - Liu De Kuan Spear

 

"Liu De Kuan (1826 - 1911)     Liu De Kuan was originally from Cangzhou, Hebei province. He was interested in the martial arts for most of his life and learned from many famous martial artists of the time. Liu Dekuan's original style was Yueh Style San Shou (also called Yueh Style Eagle Hand or Yueh Style Connected Fists). His teacher in this style was Liu Shijun, Xiong County, Hebei. De Kuan first studied with Shijun's student "Metal spear" Xu Liu and then later he studied with Shijun. Both Xu Liu and Shijun's excel in spear play anf they taught him "big spear of six co-ordinations". Using this big spear, he earned a reputation and the nickname "Daqiang Liu" ("Big spear Liu").
    "All the elder teachers got along with Mister Liu Dekuan. In the course of time, all was made clear to him, and he ultimately was enriched. ... He toiled to get pointers from the older generations"
    Guo Gumin student of Liang Zhenpo

    Liu De Kuan travelled throught out China seeking out new challenges and studied from different masters. In Hubei province he studied six sets of fangtian huaji (drawed pole-axe of square heaven). From the famous bandit, Lu Lin, he studied "18 devil's methods of using hands" and using the secret weapon "half-moon dart". In Beijing, he meet and studied with Chang Ting Hua before being introduced to Dong Haichuan. In addition, his friends such as Li Cunyi and Zhang Zhaodong taught him the fundamentals of Xingyi. He also learn and practice Yang style taijiquan from Xia Guoxun, Yang Luchan's son-in-law .
    "Guo Gumin followed Liu Dekuan around, thus searched to get secrets of the Bagua martial arts."
    Li Ziming

    Liu De Kuan provided many orginal contributions to the martial arts. De Kuan helped Cheng Tinghua to increase the popularity of the Bagua System. Liu De Kuan also contributed to the practice of Bagua. Cheng Style Bagua students train in "the Six Lines of the Halberd" - techniques that are directly attributed to Liu De Kuan. He also share the credit as one of the originator of Bagua Taijiquan - a style that is being practise in Jinan (capital of Shandong Province). [3]

    There are many stories describing the skills of Liu DeKuan. In one story, Cheng Tinghua's eldest son,Cheng Haiting, was teaching the art in a field outside the Suiwen Gate on Ximo Street. Famous practitioners from both Yin Style and Cheng Style Bagua often came in their free time to sit and linger. Big Spear Liu, in his old age, suffered form an eye disease. Both of his eyes were not bright. However numerous students still wanted to compare skills with him. They only needed to bring the shaft of their weapon in contact with Liu's spear shaft to try to lift it up. Liu would stick to their spear shaft and advance. The opponent would lose his weapon and be thrown by his strike."
Found: HERE