The first article to appear on Tian family Ba Gua said that the Ba Gua that Tian Hui practiced was over 400 years old and had been a closely guarded, closed door art, only taught within his family. In the second article Tian said that at the end of the Ming Dynasty his ancestors Tian Hao Jie and Tian Xuan left the family without notice. They became Taoists and separated themselves from the world. The two went to Emei Mountain and studied Ba Gua from two Daoists named Bi Yun and Jing Yun. After several decades Tian Xuan returned home and taught the head of the Tian family clan what he had learned. From this time on, Ba Gua was taught to each generation in their family. The tradition was passed down from the elders who were frequently involved with anti-Qing organizations.
During the reigns of Kāngxī (1662-1722) and Yōngzhèng (1723- 1735), a second generation practitioner of Tian family Ba Gua, Tian Li Yu was in opposition with the Emperor. He secretly entered the Palace in Beijing on several occasions and killed people. During the Dàoguāng Emperorʼs reign (1821-1850), a third generation practitioner, Tian Fu You, had great battles in front of the Emperor regent palace and killed several scores of people. This news was said to have shaken Beijing at the time. This story was told 100 years later by Tian Hui, who at the time was 60 years old.
When Professor Kang Ge Wu read these two stories, he was naturally very interested and so he went to visit Tian on three separate occasions. Each time Tian Hui refused to discuss the origins of his “closed-door” system of Ba Gua and refused to say where the Tian family had originally lived. He also would not present any evidence that the story he told to the magazines was true.
Having hit a dead end with Tian Hui, Kang investigated the claims Tian made in his story. If it was true that members of Tianʼs family had killed people in the Forbidden City and outside the Prince regentʼs palace, there certainly would have been some record of it if, as Tian said, “the news shook Beijing.” The result of Kangʼs investigation into these stories was that this “earthshaking” news does not appear anywhere in the documentation of the time. Based on his experience with Tian Hui, Kang could not help but be very suspicious of his story.
The next step Professor Kang took was to examine the article Tian had written about his Ba Gua and compare it to the Ba Gua of Dong Hai Chuan. Interestingly enough the Tian family Ba Gua Zhang footwork, special characteristics of the style, and the palm methods of the style were not only similar to the Ba Gua of Dong Hai Chuan, but the words Tian used to describe these aspects of his system were exactly the same words Jiang Rong Jiao had used in his book Ba Gua Zhang Lian Xi Fa. What a coincidence!
Other aspects of Tian style were also similar to what is practiced by many practitioners in the Dong Hai Chuan lineage. He stated that his system utilizes the “crane” stepping technique throughout the practice. This technique is utilized by many practitioners in Tungʼs lineage. Practitioners in the Yin Fu lineage use this step when practicing the Phoenix Gua of their system. Based on the similarities between the two Ba Gua systems, Kang concluded that this was not an art that had been kept within the Tian family.
In the summer of 1984, Kang sent members of the Beijing Martial Arts Association to the Tian familyʼs original home in Tianjin city, Tang Zhang district, Shan Chang Township. The investigators were Zhao Da Yuan and Shao Guo Yong. The Tang Zhang District Athletic Committee accompanied Zhao and Shao. The group interviewed people who lived near the Tian family homestead. They spoke with members of the Tian family, their friends, and elders of the community who had grown up with them.
Zhao reported that it was clear that the names shown in the Tian family records of the past nine generations are different than the names Tian Hui used in his article. Also, the individuals who were interviewed went to great lengths to emphasize that no member of the Tian family had ever practiced martial arts. The people interviewed had grown up with Tianʼs father and three brothers and said that not one of them were martial artists. After reading Zhaoʼs report, Kang visited the Tian family homestead to follow-up and he found their investigation to be accurate.
During the investigation, Kang also talked with Xie Pei Qi, a well- known Ba Gua Zhang stylist in the Yin Fu lineage who resides in Beijing. Hsieh was a student of Men Bao Zhen, one of Yin Fuʼs students. Xie said that Tian Hui was a Ba Gua Zhang student of his senior student Shi Qin Jie (1924-1984). In light of the information which was collected, Kang concluded that the Ba Gua which is practiced by Tian Hui is not separate from Dong ‘s Ba Gua and the story printed in the magazines was totally fabricated by Tian Hui. Another one bites the dust.