Rating: 
Summary: Sorry, I don't trust bullies...
Review: My personal feeling on "The Fundamentals of Pa Kua Chang" is that I wish another student of Lu's had written it; in essence, I wish an inherently nice person had written it. I glanced through both volumes of Park Bok Nam's "Fundamentals." If Nam had removed all the anecdotes and rhetoric spread throughout both volumes such as why Lu threw an Aikido instructor friend of his when he confronted Lu, he probably could have compressed all the information into one book.In the introduction of the first volume, he is a confessed bully. He would use his training in Korean Karate to get into fights along side his gang during his younger days. Park Bok Nam would always fall back on his father, who was obviously rich because he paid for all his training - including that which he received from Lu. Nam's father told Lu what kind of trouble maker his son was. As a result Lu exercised special disciplinary action on Nam such as making him ask humbly many times to be admitted to the school and making him rake leaves in the rain for many weeks before actually allowing Nam to train in Pa Kua. My experience with bullies is that once a trouble maker - always a trouble maker. No matter how reformed you think a bully might be after so much discipline - looming in the back of his mind are ways to get vengeance on the world for all his suffering. That's what Lu did to Park Bok Nam; he made him suffer. Nam paid special attention to write about all the ways Lu made him suffer. Nam did not write about Lu torturing any other of his students. My argument is that Nam's torture did not necessarily make him a better student. If you ask me, I believe Nam's father provided the financial backing, so he could find a segueway to an English publisher for getting rich off a two volume set of "Fundamentals." Nam's father being the slick businessman that he was probably suggested it and procured all the necessary professionals for putting "Fundamentals" together. Unfortunately, looming in the back of my mind is how Nam's trouble making ways may have sublimated into this book by missing or distorting a step some where in Pa Kua philosophy or stepping techniques. Nam most certainly seeks to appeal to the Anglo-Saxon mind set with all his anecdotes and rhetoric. He knows how the Anglo-Saxon mind set enjoys "stories" and gossip a là "National Enquirer" or "Weekly World News." He knows that the convenience oriented, Anglo-Saxon mind set loves to get its information on a silver platter and think inside of a box, so Nam provided. Any Chinese martial artist will tell you that a book can only supplement one's training - never replace it. Nam seeks to replace live instruction and alternate points of view with his two volume set; one might say they're a "box" set because they teach inside of a convenient, "complete" box of thought. Kudos to Nam. His next book should be "How to get rich off martial arts books."
Rating: 
Summary: After reading dozens of books on martial arts this is.....
Review: the absolute best! Put very simply, if you have studied internal kung fu, or any style of kung fu for that matter, and want to get REALLY good, study this book and then apply it! All aspects of your training will be greatly enhanced.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: The Park Bok Nam book on the fundametals of bagua chang is the best book I have seen to date on the subject. I also have the companion videos and the combination of the books and videos is a fantastic instructional tool.
Rating: 
Summary: Incomplete without the first volume
Review: This book presents a lot of information, and presents it well. However, it makes VERY frequent references to techniques presented in Vol I, and it does not present those techniques again. Several pages are dedicated to the sole purpose of explaining how important it is that the reader master the techniques of the first book before moving on to the techniques in this book. Therefore, if you are looking to build a practice out of this book, you will need to also read the first volume.
Rating:
Summary: Incomplete without the first volume
Review: This book presents a lot of information, and presents it well. However, it makes VERY frequent references to techniques presented in Vol I, and it does not present those techniques again. Several pages are dedicated to the sole purpose of explaining how important it is that the reader master the techniques of the first book before moving on to the techniques in this book. Therefore, if you are looking to build a practice out of this book, you will need to also read the first volume.
Rating:
Summary: Likely the most important book written on Internal Arts.
Review: This book won't teach you any fancy forms, but it will teach you everything you really need to know about Pa Kua (and any other internal martial art, for that matter). This is a book of the true fundamentals of Pa Kua. Each lesson is there to teach you to progress as smoothly and efficiently as is about humanly possible. Park really stresses the necesity of basic drills, practiced properly, to allow the body to learn to 'relax' enough for efficient martial use. Exercises begin with footwork drills, progress to combined footwork drills, and then to basic palm techniques. Later both the combined footwork and palm techniques are combined. Also taught in this book is basic Pa Kua Chi Kung, enough for the beginner to develope a feel for Chi flow and are sufficient exercises for Chi development until the practice of one's martial techniques take over one's Chi work. There is a Volume 2, but it doesn't seem to be listed here at Amazon.com as of this review. This is as good as Volume 1, but isn't needed until you've absorbed everything from Vol.1 (good luck!) Again, if I had to own only one book on internal martial arts I would most certainly make it this one. No art is ever any better than its basics. So, the more strongly developed your basics, the more developed your skill will be. I feel this is the best book from which to learn those basics.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent book
Review: This is a detailed and in-depth but very readable book on this still little known form of Chinese boxing, tai chi and even hsing-i still being probably better known outside of China, although none of the so-called internal boxing arts are still as well known in the west as kung-fu. After an introduction and chapter on the history of the art and the exploits of Master Lu Shui T'ien, the senior author's teacher, the writers launch into a discussion of the techniques and philosophy of pa kua. Chapters cover footwork and stepping methods, hand and palm training, body training, pa kua philosophy, the production of chi energy, and a final chapter on pa kua chi kung methods. Pa kua is most known for its unique stepping and footwork and I was most interested in that, and the book has a nice 50-page chapter on it. The descriptions of several stepping and circle methods were very clear and so were the illustrations and diagrams. However, it would be very difficult for someone who hadn't actually seen a practitioner stepping the circle to get an idea of what it's really like from just reading; but as I'd seen it before that wasn't a problem for me. Compared to karate, kung fu and other martial arts, pa kua is most likely to strike while moving or stepping rather than being planted in a rooted or powerful stance. Although I was exposed to pa kua many years ago when I was intensively studying wu-style tai chi and chin na, I was most interested in the stepping methods and whether they could be adapted to the system of knife-fighting and knife-fighting defenses I've developed over the last 25 years, which are a combination of escrima/kali, Indonesian silat, European fencing, and American Bowie-style methods. I'd already incorporated several pa kua turning and stepping methods into the system and was interested in whether the book might show me anything new or different, and I may have gotten a few extra ideas for things that might work, although I was familiar with most of the material from my previous studies. So although my main interest is not in pa kua I still found the book useful as an interesting review of the material, and as I said, may have picked up some things that might be useful in my present teaching and training in karate, kobudo weapons, and the knife. If you're beginner to intermediate practitioner this is still a good book with much good information and I can highly recommend it. Also, the first chapter on Master Lu's adventures and exploits, and his ideas and approach to training (which was very strict in those days) make for entertaining reading.
Rating:
Summary: Find both volumes
Review: To find volume one search under Dan Miller, the other person listed as author. Amazon has listed both volumes under the same title and their software can't handle this.
Rating:
Summary: Find both volumes
Review: To find volume one search under Dan Miller, the other person listed as author. Amazon has listed both volumes under the same title and their software can't handle this.
Rating:
Summary: Superb introduction into BaGua mechanics
Review: ~I'm finally glad they got Vol. 1 on this website. I'd written a review for Vol.2 awhile ago, but had to imply that there was a Vol.1 to be read, as well. It's been a while, and others have already gotten to it, but I thought I'd plug in my 2 cents... WONDERFUL! In retrospect, there is some mystery here. BaGua, as with many Chinese martial arts styles, is all about your instructor, your instructor's instructor, etc.. Your lineage is key. BaGua has a very complex geneaology, stemming~~ from Dong Hai Chuan (various phonetic spellings) the legendary Grandmaster. In fact, two key branches of BaGua (since Dong Hai Chuan only taught experienced martial artists-- most whom he purportedly defeated in combat) are those that seem very BaGua like, and those that seem Hsing-Yi-ified. Those are my terms. In my experience, you can take the forty or so BaGua styles, and classify them as fairly "pure" BaGua (circular, evasive, fine, intricate), and those that have integreated~~ significant Hsing-Yi principles-- linear, power, direct. Park Bok Nam's style is more pure BaGua in terms of evasiveness, footwork, and hand-techniques. His teacher, the legendary Lu Shue-Tien, is a bit of an unknown... Even in this book, there is no real claim as to who taught Lu Shue-Tien. Other sources I have speculate... That being said, this book is a wonderful, detailed work that describes basic techniques-- footwork, some foot-trapping, and elementary strikes down to the~~ smallest level of biomechanics. How to move your feet, knees, pelvis, abdoman, to generate power, for example. In more detail than in any other book on any other style I've ever read. Superb for anyone who is trying to understand the underlying principles of this art, or even for the advanced practitioner trying to compare this or that, or to glean insights. This is not a forms book. Park Bok Nam gives some simple palm changes that are basically qi gong postures with circle walking. ~~ It's a mechanics book. A superb one. Finally, the lineage is important. BaGua varies significantly from style to style. The techniques can be dramatically different, as can the mechanics at the more superficial level. But I think from a basic concepts level, the biomechanics are all pretty much the same. So this is an insight into one family, not all. But I think confining it to mechanics kept it manageable, and pure. No hullabaloo or flash. And eminently useful. Wonderful,~~ clearly written, adequate pictures (get the videos for better illustration of Park's technique). A must for the martial artist.~
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