genealogy

BaGuaZhang is a Chinese martial art developed during a long period of time as an internal style for fighting and health. Its origin comes from the time of the Qing Dynasty, under the reign of Xian Feng (1851 - 1861). Then, Dong HaiChuan developed a unique style based on the use of palms, and henceforth the name BaGuaZhang, that is to say Palm of the Eight Trigrams.

BaGuaZhang techniques, based on scientific principles, reached an incredibly high level of effectiveness; that is the reason why they had been adopted in the house of the Emperor, kept secret and never taught outside of the Emperor’s palace.

BaGuaZhang is the dragon style because it reminds its graceful movements. Furthermore, the movements of eight animals are also studied: Dragon, snake, tiger, swallow, horse, eagle, phoenix and monkey.

Dong HaiChuan had four disciples: Yin Fu, the first one who eventually became his successor, Cheng Tinhua, Liu Fengchun e Ma Weiqi.

Yin Fu had a student whose name was Gong BaoTian, who is considered to be the best one among all other disciples thanks to his great skills in BaGuaZhang.

When the Imperial Regime came to an end and the Forbidden City was declared property of the People’s China, Gong BaoTian was free to go away.

When a rich gentleman saw his incredible ability, he convinced him to start teaching this martial art to his young son-in-law Wang ZhuangFei.

Wang ZhuangFei helped the spread of BaGuaZhang by teaching it to innumerable disciples throughout the Chinese territory.

His son, Wang HanZhi, became his successor.

*Grandmaster Zhang DuGan

Grand Master Zhang DuGan was born in Shanghai and, living near Wang ZhuangFei's house, he began the practice of BaGuaZhang began under the leadership of Grand Master Wang HanZhi at the age of twelve.

After years of studying with his Master, he went away from China, leaving the young Zhang in the hands of Grand Master Wang Zhuang Fei with whom he studied for many years.

After many years of study, Grand Master Zhang DuGan became the First Disciple (internal disciple) of Grand Master Wang HanZhi.

On the 13th August 2016, during a traditional ceremony called Bai Shi, Grand Master Zhang DuGan chose internal students – the so-called disciples – so to become the Seventh generation of BaGuaZhang, which is aimed to spread BaGuaZhang throughout the world. One of these disciples is Master Vincenzo Spasaro, who had been studying hard for almost 20 years with Grand Master Zhang DuGan.

With the consent of Grand Master Zhang DuGan, Vincenzo Spasaro created our school, aimed to share BaGuaZhang Kung Fu with the rest of the world.

In our schools learning follow structured programmes. In this way, Chinese traditional attention by the elder Masters to each student’s qualitative growth is balanced by the Western approach which requires an overt teaching style.

Nowadays, Master Vincenzo Spasaro and his fellows are authorized to teach BaGuaZhang Kung Fu in Europe; moreover, our school is opened to students coming from all over the world.