Frank Allen
www.liujingrubaguazhang.comFranks has studied and practiced the Internal Energy Arts since 1973. He was an early student of Master B. P. Chan from whom he learned the Internal Martial Arts of Ba Gua Zhang, Xing Yi Quan and Tai Ji Quan as well as the healing art of Qi Gong. Frank began to study with Master B. K. Frantzis in 1976 and over the next two and a half decades studied Frantzis’ Internal Arts, including Ba Gua Zhang, Tai Ji Quan, Xing Yi Quan Nei Gong, and Taoist Meditation. Frank Allen was the first person certified to teach the Ba Gua of B.K. Frantzis. Since 1984 Allen has been the disciple of Western Boxing Master, Verne “The Bulldog” Williams. Currently Frank travels annually to Beijing where he studies Northern Wu Style Tai Ji Quan with Grandmaster Li Bing Ci, and Cheng style Ba Gua Zhang, Xing Yi Quan with Grandmaster Liu Jing Ru and became a formal disciple in 2006.
In 1979 Allen founded The Wu Tang Physical Culture Association of New York City which has a brother branch in Frankfurt Germany. Over the years the Wu Tang P.C.A. has produced many tournament champions and a core of competent instructors. 35 years of martial arts practice and professional martial arts instructor, Frank Allen is a truly respected martial art Master in the world.
Tina Chunna Zhang
www.qigongforwomen.comTina has experienced Chinese Martial Arts and dance since her childhood in Beijing, China, and moved to the U.S. in the 1980’s. She has studied and trained with the most skillful and respected internal martial arts masters in China. She is a disciple of Master Li Bing Ci, the president of Beijing Northern Wu Style Tai Ji Quan research center and a disciple of Classical Cheng Style Ba Gua Zhang Master Liu Jing Ru of Beijing. She also is studying Chen Village Style Tai Ji Quan with master Chen Zheng Lei and Zhu Tian Cai. She is a nationally high ranked medalist in both Tai Ji Quan and Ba Gua Zhang in forms, weapons, and push hands; 2005 U.S. National Champion in Women’s Wu Style Tai Ji Quan. She twice champions in Women's Sparring. She is the co-author of Classical Northern Wu Style Tai Ji Quan, and The Whirling Circles of Ba Gua Zhang, and the founder of Earth Energy Qi Gong for Women's Health program and author of Earth Qi Gong for Women.
Serving as a cultural bridge between the East and West, and as a professional Tai Ji Quan instructor and personal trainer, Tina Zhang has helped many people achieve their physical and emotional health and fitness goals through her training methods. She actively teaches Tai Ji Quan, Qi Gong, Ba Gua Zhang classes, and retreats in New York, and workshops in Canada and Europe.
My Grand Master
Liu Jing Ru holds an eighth degree ranking in China’s national martial arts rankings. There are no Ba Gua masters in China with a higher ranking and only one Ba Gua master in all of China with the same rank. Liu Jing Ru is from an esteemed lineage with only two masters between himself and the founder of Cheng Style Ba Gua Zhang, Cheng Ting Hua.
Li Wen Biao was an inner door student of Cheng Ting Hua who was known for his size and for the power of his rolling palm heel strike, known as Ta Zhang. In this palm strike the hand rolls into the opponent, first touching the finger tips and then rolling the surface of the palm on to the opponent’s body, ending with a power release from the palm heel. It was said of Li that if he hit an opponent with 30% of his Ta Zhang power that the opponent was sure to be injured and if Li used 50% or more of his power that it always brought blood from the opponent’s mouth. As a young inner door student in the Cheng School, Li sometimes accompanied and assisted his senior brother Sun Lu Tang on his teaching journeys. Later Li became an Imperial Guard of the late Qing Dynasty and served as a martial arts instructor to the troops. Due to their traditional hair style Li’s top military students were known as Li’s 20 Best Braids. Li Wen Biao’s death came about due to an offer he made to guard his post alone over a holiday in order to allow the other guards to go home and celebrate with their families. This left Li completely out numbered when a bandit gang decided to pick that day to raid the post and try to steal the arms there. Li didn’t lie down quietly and legend has it that he exterminated a dozen of the brigands before they shot him to death. In its circumstances of the empty hands of a master versus the firearms of a group and the number of deceased attackers, Li’s demise is strangely reminiscent of that of his master Cheng Ting Hua.
Luo Xing Wu was one of Li Wen Biao’s 20 Best Braids. Luo managed to make the transition from the Imperial Qing army into the army of the new Republic of China. During the Sino-Japanese of the 1930’s Luo was in Manchuria and it was there where his most famous encounter took place. At some point Luo found himself under attack by a Japanese gentleman who was wielding a Japanese katana sword. This Japanese warrior was considered the best swordsman in the entire area. Having no weapon on his person, Luo picked up a near by slender tree branch. Although his weapon was vastly inferior, Luo’s clever Ba Gua footwork completely confused his attacker, allowing him to disarm the Japanese warrior and beat him into submission. After the liberation of the People’s Republic in 1949 the 1st martial arts school to open in Beijing had two sections. The Tai Ji Quan section was headed by the famous student of Yang Shao Hou and Wu Jian Quan, Wu Tu Nan and the third generation Northern Wu Style Tai Ji master Yang Yu Ting. The Xing Yi and Ba Gua section of the school was led by Liang Zhen Pu’s top student, Guo Gu Men and Luo Xing Wu. Luo was one of the few martial arts masters to bridge not only the Late Qing and Republican eras, but also from the Republic to the People’s Republic.
Liu Jing Ru began to study Ba Gua Zhang, Xing Yi Quan with Luo Xing Wu in 1957, when Liu was 21 years old. In 1963 the last national martial arts tournament before the Cultural Revolution took place and the twenty seven year old Liu Jing Ru won the gold medal in Ba Gua Zhang. When there was finally another national martial arts tournament in 1979, a forty three year old Liu Jing Ru again took the Ba Gua gold medal. Liu says that he felt like a youngster in that tournament as the average age of the competitors was forty seven. The following year Liu again won the national Ba Gua Championship after which he became a martial arts teacher. Even at the age of seventy two, Liu Jing Ru is fast, loose, powerful and full of energy. He has trained many champions of forms and fightings in China and he now teaches regularly in Europe as well as at home in Beijing. He has seven Cheng Style Ba Gua Zhang DVDs and four books on Ba Gua Zhang that have been published in China and Hong Kong. Most importantly, he is the master who practices in Taoranting Park EVERY DAY.
(ALL PIX AND BIO'S FOR THE "MASTERS" PAGE WERE PROVIDED BY MASTERS FRANK ALLEN & TINA ZHANG)
