Wednesday, November 30, 2016

General Historical Trivia Regarding to Baguazhang



Source: Egreenway
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What is Baguazhang

"The power of the eight diagram palms knows no bounds-, the palms seem to strike even before the hands move.  When the hand threads upward, it's like a hundred birds paying tribute to the phoenix; when it threads forward, it's like a tiger swooping downhill.  Walking round and round, he is like a stray wild goose that has drifted from the flock; but when the palms are thrust forward, they can move a mountain.  Now dodging, now ducking, his body slithers in and out; using the opponent's force he delivers a counts, blow, with as little effort as, pushing a boat down the stream."  - Dong Hai Chuan
http://www.smilingtiger.net/origin.htm


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Records of Selected Dialogues between Dong Haichuan and his Disciples.

by Guang Xia

translated and edited by Joseph Crandall
 
Brief History of Baguazhang
At the time when Dong Haichuan was in Su Wang’s palace teaching fighting. 
 Su Wang asked:  "What is  the name of the art that you practice?"
 Dong replied:  "It is the Bagua School."
 Su Wang also asked:  "Who was your teacher?"
 Dong replied:  "I was taught by a Daoist in Anwei."  (Note:  Dong never gave his teacher’s name.)
 At a garrison in the northern county of Guanwai, Song Dehou (aka Weiyi) came to call, he said, "I received instruction from the Daoist Bi Yuexia."
 Dong replied:  "He is my teacher’s elder brother."

Why Some People Wanted to Learn Baguazhang?

One day, a group of students asked Master Dong when he was going to teach the leaping arts.
Dong replied;  "You all desire to study this. Do you want to use it to become thieves?"

The Significance of  Being Consciously Aware of One's Terrain Through the Practice of Baguazhang

Another time, a group of students were sparring outside his home. They planned to ask Master Dong to evaluate them.  They went into the house to ask him, but Master Dong was not inside the house anymore.  Upon going out again they saw Master Dong walking in the front courtyard.  The students asked: "Master, when did you walk out?" 

Dong replied:  "You people claim to practice martial arts, but ears and eyes that cannot see and hear both sides are lacking. I was  in the house and I walked out. Still, you did not sense me.  Suppose you have an enemy who wishes you evil, would you still have your lives? Therefore you were not practicing martial arts. To be practicing martial arts, you must be immediately aware of the entire surroundings, and in addition being on guard."

One time Master Dong was inside his house and wished to look out his window at people. He tore off a piece of the window paper,  put it in his mouth, chewed it up and spat it back out the window, it truly struck Quan Kaiting (who was at that time thinking to secretly trying to kill Master Dong)  in the eye. The next day Quan Kaiting went to his house, knelt down, and asked Dong to be his teacher. 

 Dong replied:  "You ask me to be your Teacher? I will not!" 

The Traditional Chinese Medicine Pointer

Also one day, a group of students observed that Master Dong ate sparingly. They asked why? 
 Dong replied:  "Eat to appease your hunger.  Eating too much creates problems."

The Essence of Baguazhang

One day, a group of pupils of Master Dong asked him about Baguazhang.  Master Dong said: "Grandmaster said:  ‘My way uses turning palms to make the root, it uses the fist tools to make the function, study and practice.  Skill is created to its utmost. You will have no enemy under heaven. By itself it is good for the body.’"

The Advanced Level of Baguazhang

Yang Junfeng asked:  "Grandfather, the way to raise the qi for the leaping body skills is so difficult that your disciples' disciples not dare make presumptuous demands.  It must be most difficult to use qi to strike men." 
 Dong replied:  "Concerning causing qi to strike men, where does qi come from? You must use strength to make the root."

Master Dong one time was chatting and laughing. It was evening and  the Master was happy and cheerful. He said:  "This evening you all will get a secret.  Put out the lamps. You try to find me. Whoever can touch me, tomorrow will get a private lesson."

http://www.smilingtiger.net/dialogue.htm


Why Some People Really Wanted to Learn Baguazhang

Anecdotes about Mr. Ruan Zhigu (A Minor Aspect of BGZ History)

The Myth
There was a student of Master Dong named Ruan Zhen’gu.  His skill was pure and deep. He would climb up and down the palace walls and roofs easily, walking like he was level ground.

Master Dong warned him: "Your leaping into the air and walking on walls is very good. But sure enough, you will offend people and make trouble for yourself. Come down or I will have to cut off your head."

Half a year passed, Ruan Zhen’gu now had to use double crutches. His legs could only move 3 to 4 inches when walking.  Dong asked him how he is?"  He replied:  "Teacher, my legs are injured."

Dong shook his head:  "That’s to bad! It is also good.  So as to avoid stirring up trouble."

http://www.smilingtiger.net/dialogue.htm

The Real Truth
Ruan Zhigu was a student of Mr. Dong Haiquan. His skill was pure and deep. He had a high degree of mobility. He could travel across the palace rooftops as if he were walking on level ground. Master Dong warned him, “Your skills for leaping into the air and walking of walls are very good. But if you misuse them, I will cut off your head.” Ruan heard this and became afraid. He thought to himself: “That would be inconvenient!”

One time, Ruan left Beijing and returned to Baoding to see his family. He was gone for about six months. When he returned to Beijing, he was using crutches and walking with great difficulty. His feet didn’t clear the ground by more than two or three inches as he dragged himself up the road. Master Dong saw his condition and asked what had happened. Ruan replied that his legs were bad. Master Dong felt sorry for him, but he also felt good, so to avoid causing trouble he left again.

After this, Ruan Zhigu was not involved with external affairs for many years. After Master Dong died, Ruan threw away his crutches. He resumed walking without restraints. He never again feigned injury.



The multiple meanings of certain Chinese phrases are always interesting.   . . .  Knowing how to critically read into a certain phrase is always a challenge.  .. .


The Origin of Eight-Diagram Palm by Liu Yida 

Baguazhang not only serves as a good means of self-defense but also helps improve one's health and prolong one's life.  In practicing it, one's mind must be highly concentrated in order to adjust one's breath and coordinate the body movements so that, according to traditional Chinese medicine, one's vital energy will circulate smoothly through the jingluo (a network of main and collateral passages in the human body).  The joints, muscles and internal organs should also be relaxed during practice so as to facilitate blood circulation and promote metabolism.  This has been proved to be helpful in treating many chronic diseases.

At present, baguazhang is a very popular health-building exercise all over China, with thousands upon thousands of people practicing it.  Quite a number of foreigners are also interested in this traditional Chinese martial art whose usefulness as a means of self-defense and efficacy in improving health and treating diseases are being studied by special research societies in Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai and other cities.  The people in the United States, Japan and Southeast Asian countries have also set up associations to promote this form of wushu.

http://www.smilingtiger.net/origin.htm



The Current Status on Our "Opening Plays Script" Book Project

(updated on 12.02.16)

While being busy working on this book and other projects, we have included a chapter on how to utilize the Opening Plays Script to other competitive terrains.


Whether one is running a 15 play script or a 25 play script, the smart strategist must develop plays to perform the following functions:
  •  Identifying the primary intent of the defense;
  •  Gaining positive yardage; and 
  •  Staging and Shaping the opposing team to become reactive;
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We will also cover the differences between  using a 15 plays script and a 25 plays script 


More to come.  ...

Thursday, November 24, 2016

Happy Thanksgiving 2016



Regardless the configuration of our settings,  it is important to stay centered and be thankful for the many simple things of life.   ...  Have a superb holiday. 

Sincerely Yours
Compass360 Consulting Group

Sunday, November 13, 2016

Post-Election Thoughts: Staying Focused on One's Target Objectives



Regardless of the election results,  physics does not care about the outcome. Change in any political-economic-social-technology-legal-environmental settings is inevitable.

Staying focused on completing your target objectives while avoiding contentment is more important than anything else.

One more note, ensure that your target objective is technically smart.

Wednesday, November 9, 2016

Victory Wears a Red Shirt for This Moment

Source: Stuarts London

"Victory has hundreds of fathers. But defeat is an orphan. "  - JFK

Victory Wears a Red Shirt

In our information-rich and attention poor society, the message is the medium, especially in a political election.  The underdog could only win if he or she utilizes a simple, clean and concise message that connects to the majority of the targeted group.. 

Quick Case Study

" ... The aides promptly canceled scheduled interviews with two New Hampshire stations and a taping for “Meet the Press.” Trump’s inclination was to do a TV blitz, but most of the advisers wanted him to go dark, and for several days he did. Every day he wasn’t on television, they believed, he was winning — especially while Clinton had become the story.
If Trump was doing interviews, they argued, he would be asked about every damaging story in the papers. Isn’t it true, an anchor would ask, that you avoided hundreds of millions of dollars in income taxes by using a dubious loophole? Isn’t it true that you claimed credit for major charitable donations that you didn’t make? And Trump would inevitably toss out the talking points and aggressively defend himself, drawing attention from the FBI probe that had cast a pall over Clinton’s campaign. 
Instead, an energized Trump, buoyed by the tightening polls, stuck to the prepared speeches, surrendering the TV weapon that had powered his rise to the nomination and beyond. “Stay on point, Donald,” his advisers would insist, and this time Trump complied, except for one swipe at NBC’s Katy Tur during a rally, which drew negative attention.


His strategists kept some of their internal polls from him -- such as one showing him trailing by low double digits in New York -- because they knew he would want to campaign there rather than in swing states he might actually win. After a year and a half, they finally had the candidate on track and on message.
At this moment, no one knows if this victory becomes a bellwether for the GOP. Positive momentum starts from the ground up.

Source:




Comments From The Compass Desk

In some situations, victory has hundreds of origins while a defeat could create thousands of "disconnective" orphans for a sole cyber moment and beyond. 

For this event, the message played a major role for the GOP. The process of managing the logistics for broadcasting this category of message is usually long, complex and challenging.  But the supporters and the public are only concerned about a short message that is clean and concise.   


Less is more.  ... 


Victory wears a red shirt on this day.  Nothing stays forever. 

Monday, November 7, 2016

Miscellanous Thoughts: Assessing the 2016 Presidental Elections


Some people are currently using Nate Silver's 538 as a guide to this year's U.S. election's. 

SurveyMonkey seems to be a popular tool for surveying the masses. 

GALLUP ,  Pew Research and Politico  have also offered their own perspective.

NY TimesReal Clear Politics and Wikipedia have done a superb job in aggregating the polls.

The old school strategists preferred the Iowa Electronic Markets as their guide.

It does not matter who is your choice,  just vote. ... 







Thursday, November 3, 2016

The Sign of the Times: The VIX Index

Source: David Wilson of Bloomberg
(Updated at 19:19 hrs)

The VIX might maintain its rise until the day after the election day. 

Some of the masses have speculated the following point, " ...  If Clinton wins, the VIX might decline.  If Trump wins, the Vix might continue to rise.  ... "

That innuendo is purely crap.  We expected some level of stability, days after the Tuesday election.




Tuesday, November 1, 2016

Strategic Food for Thought



Whenever something needs to be done now and if you know what to do,  you are a tactician.

Whenever something needs to be done in the future and you know what to do,  you are a strategist.

So are you a strategist or a tactician?