Cheng Ting-hua (? -1900), one of Tung's students, and the teacher of Sun Luc-tang, was known as the Invincible Cobra because of his great skill and the fact that he owned an eyeglass shop. He was very brave and died in the Boxer Rebellion when he snuck among the soldiers and began cutting them down with two small swords he had hidden in his sleeves. He was shot to death, of course, but not before taking several of his oppressors with him. He was a true Warrior.
Sun Luc-tang (1860 -1932) was famous for his skill and so he, too, received several challenges in his life. But even though he was always sure to win, he always tried to beg his way out of a fight. So he was dubbed Sun the Coward. But even with a name like that, I still have not heard or read of any fights he lost.
Chang Chao-tung (1858 -1938) was another student of Tung's. I don't know that much about him, though, except that he was the teacher of Chiang Jung-chiao. Chiang (1890 -?) was also a great Warrior, and was the originator (I believe) of the eight palms/twelve animals system of Bagua. Up until his time, Bagua had only the eight palms sets. Chiang was also the one to institute the five fists/twelve animals system of Xing-i Quan, as he was also a great Xing-i master. Nowadays, this pairing of the twelve animals with the basic elements is popular, and it is because of Chiang.
Ho Ho-choy was a student of Chiang's, and it was he who taught my teacher, Erle Montaigue.
Tung Hai-ch'uan was a master of several martial arts, and so he knew that each student needed an art specifically fitted to them. So instead of expecting each student to just gravitate toward techniques that suited them best, he taught each of his students a slightly different type of Bagua, as they did with their students. Even the forms were different. I don't know of any modern masters who do the same thing today; so far as I know they all teach standardized sets. However, many of these different forms are the source for the different styles of Bagua today. The form which I am learning (and the learning never stops, does it?) from Erle Montaigue, is different from most I have seen. It is more martial and utilizes special walking methods I have seen in very few other styles of Bagua. This form was "invented" by Chiang Jung-chiao (although I believe the correct term is "altered"), and was the first form to be done continuously. Before this form, Bagua forms were always split into eight different Changes, but the difference is that before practitioners had to stop in between each set. In this form there are linking movements in between so that the eight different Palm Changes are performed as one continuous set, and the techniques are done on both sides. Most other forms of Bagua, even those that now are continuous forms, only do the Palm Changes once on each side, and many of them still carry on in the traditional manner with the practitioner having to stop in between each Change.
The forms of Bagua Zhang look rather odd when compared to other martial arts. For one thing, they are performed while walking around in a circle. For another thing, there is a lot of twisting and turning and changing of direction involved in them. This is because Bagua was invented for bodyguards, bouncers, and the like. In fact, Bagua is the taditional art practiced by bodyguards, and His Holiness the Dalai Lama has employed bodyguards skilled in Bagua several times. The forms make perfect sense even to those who thought them daffy, when two or more attackers come at a Bagua fighter. The twists and turns and odd techniques take on new meanings, because they can be seen in the way they were supposed to be used. You see, it is wise not to turn your back on an attacker, and that forms one of the basic rules of internal combat. So, we must always turn to face an opponent, and if there is more than one of them, we must turn to face each one of them in turn, and thus we make many changes in direction in the forms. Street fights and ambushes and what not do not happen with just an attacker and a defender. More often than not, there will be more than one assailant, and Bagua was designed to give us a better chance against a gang of thugs. In the old days, when Bagua fighters were employed to guard caravans, it was because the parties were ambushed by several people at once and the guard had to be skilled in fighting multiple attackers. Many arts focus on only one attacker, or two. But in Bagua training, it is always assumed that there are at least two attackers.
Today, there are basically three different popular styles of Bagua, which I guess can be likened to the four major families of Taiji. The first of these is the Original Style of Chiang Jung-chiao, which is the most martial. The second system is the twelve animal forms, also invented by Chiang (although some styles have taken the idea only and invented their own twelve animal forms). And the third popular style, which is the most popular of the three thanks to the Chinese Government, is the Body Swimming form. This is the one taught in most training halls around the world, and is the one used for competitions, being the one sanctioned by the Chinese Government. There are other styles, of course, like the Emei style, Gao style, etc, but they are not as well known as the above.
