Migration Period art Animal style When did the Animal Style art develop? animal art of the period roughly from 400 to 900 into three phases: Styles I, II and III.
What distinguished the three styles of animal art from each other?
What distinguished the three styles of animal art from each other?
The study of Northern European, or "Germanic", zoomorphic decoration was pioneered by Bernhard Salin in a work published in 1904. He classified animal art of the period roughly from 400 to 900 into three phases: Styles I, II and III. The origins of these different phases are still the subject of considerable debate; the development of trends in late-Roman popular art in the provinces is one element, and the older traditions of nomadic Asiatic steppe peoples another. The first two styles are found very widely across Europe in the art of the "barbarian" peoples of the Migration Period.  Style I. First appears in northwest Europe, it became a noticeable new style with the introduction of the chip carving technique applied to bronze and silver in the 5th century. It is characterized by animals whose bodies are divided into sections, and typically appear at the fringes of designs whose main emphasis is on abstract patterns.  Style II. After about 560-570 Style I was in decline and Salin's Style II began to replace it. Style II's animals are whole beasts, but their bodies are elongated into "ribbons" which intertwined into symmetrical shapes with no pretence of naturalism, and rarely any legs, so that they tend to be described as serpents, although the heads often have characteristics of other types of animal. The animal becomes subsumed into ornamental patterns, typically using interlace. Thus two bears are facing each other in perfect symmetry ("confronted"), forming the shape of a heart. Examples of Style II can be found on the gold purse lid.  After about 700 localised styles develop, and it is no longer very useful to talk of a general Germanic style. Salin Style III is found mainly in Scandinavia, and may also be called Viking art. CANNOTANSWER
Style I. First appears in northwest Europe, it became a noticeable new style with the introduction of the chip carving technique applied to bronze and silver in the 5th century.
Migration Period art denotes the artwork of the Germanic peoples during the Migration period (c. 300 – 900). It includes the Migration art of the Germanic tribes on the continent, as well the start of the Insular art or Hiberno-Saxon art of the Anglo-Saxon and Celtic fusion in Britain and Ireland. It covers many different styles of art including the polychrome style and the animal style. After Christianization, Migration Period art developed into various schools of Early Medieval art in Western Europe which are normally classified by region, such as Anglo-Saxon art and Carolingian art, before the continent-wide styles of Romanesque art and finally Gothic art developed.

Background

In the 3rd century, the Roman Empire almost collapsed and its army was becoming increasingly Germanic in make-up, so that in the 4th century when Huns pushed German tribes westward, they spilled across the Empire's borders and began to settle there. The Visigoths settled in Italy and then Spain, in the north the Franks settled into Gaul and western Germany, and in the 5th century the Angles, Saxons and Jutes invaded Britain. By the close of the 6th century the Western Roman Empire was almost completely replaced with smaller less politically organized, but vigorous, Germanic kingdoms.

Although these kingdoms were never homogeneous, they shared certain common cultural features. They settled in their new lands and became farmers and fishermen. Archaeological evidence shows no tradition of monumental artwork, such as architecture or large sculpture in permanent materials, but a preference instead for "mobile" art for personal display, usually also with a practical function, such as weapons, horse harness, tools, and jewelry which fastened clothes.  The surviving art of the Germanic peoples is almost entirely personal adornment, portable, and before conversion to Christianity was buried with its owner.  Much art in organic materials has no doubt not survived.

Three styles dominate Germanic art. The polychrome style originated with the Goths who had settled in the Black Sea area. The animal style was found in Scandinavia, north Germany and England. Finally there was Insular art or the Hiberno-Saxon style, a brief but prosperous period after Christianization that saw the fusion of animal style, Celtic, Mediterranean and other motifs and techniques.

Migration art

Polychrome style

During the 2nd century the Goths of southern Russia discovered a newfound taste for gold figurines and objects inlaid with precious stones. This style was borrowed from Scythians and the Sarmatians, had some Greco-Roman influences, and was also popular with the Huns. Perhaps the most famous examples are found in the fourth-century Pietroasele treasure (Romania), which includes a great gold eagle brooch (picture). The eagle motif derives from East Asia and results from the participation of the forebears of the Goths in the Hunnic Empire, as in the fourth-century Gothic polychrome eagle-head belt buckle (picture) from South Russia.

The Goths carried this style to Italy, southern France and Spain. One well known example is the Ostrogothic eagle (fibula) from Cesena, Italy, now at the museum in Nuremberg. Another is the Visigothic polychrome votive crown (picture) of Recceswinth, King of Toledo, found in a votive crown hoard of c. 670 at Fuente de Guarrazar, near Toledo. The popularity of the style can be attested to by the discovery of a polychrome sword (picture) in the tomb of Frankish king Childeric I (died ca 481), well north of the Alps.

Animal style

The study of Northern European, or "Germanic", zoomorphic decoration was pioneered by Bernhard Salin in a work published in 1904. He classified animal art of the period roughly from 400 to 900 into three phases: Styles I, II and III. The origins of these different phases are still the subject of considerable debate; the development of trends in late-Roman popular art in the provinces is one element, and the older traditions of nomadic Asiatic steppe peoples another.  The first two styles are found very widely across Europe in the art of the "barbarian" peoples of the Migration Period.

Style I. First appears in northwest Europe, it became a noticeable new style with the introduction of the chip carving technique applied to bronze and silver in the 5th century. It is characterized by animals whose bodies are divided into sections, and typically appear at the fringes of designs whose main emphasis is on abstract patterns.

Style II. After about 560-570 Style I was in decline and Salin's Style II began to replace it.  Style II's animals are whole beasts, but their bodies are elongated into "ribbons" which intertwined into symmetrical shapes with no pretense of naturalism, and rarely any legs, so that they tend to be described as serpents, although the heads often have characteristics of other types of animal. The animal becomes subsumed into ornamental patterns, typically using interlace. Thus two bears are facing each other in perfect symmetry ("confronted"), forming the shape of a heart. Examples of Style II can be found on the gold purse lid.

After about 700 localized styles develop, and it is no longer very useful to talk of a general Germanic style.  Salin Style III is found mainly in Scandinavia, and may also be called Viking art.

Christian influence
Byzantine enameling highly influenced Migration period metalwork. The Church in the early Migration period emerged as the only supranational force in Europe after the collapse of the Roman Empire. It provided a unifying element and was the only institution left that could preserve selected rudiments of classical civilization. As the conversion of Germanic peoples by the end of the 7th centuries in western Europe neared completion, the church became the prime patron for art, commissioning illuminated manuscripts and other liturgical objects. The record shows a steady decline in Germanic forms and increasing Mediterranean influence. This process occurred quickly with the Goths of Italy and Spain and more slowly the further north one looked. This change can be observed in the 8th century Merovingian codex Gelasian Sacramentary, it contained no Style II elements, instead showing Mediterranean examples of fish used to construct large letters at the start of chapters.

Insular art

Insular art, often also known as Hiberno-Saxon art, especially in relation to illuminated manuscripts) was confined to Great Britain and Ireland and was the fusion of Germanic traditions (via the Anglo-Saxons) with Celtic traditions (via Irish monks). It can first be seen in the late 7th century and the style would continue in Britain for about 150 years until the Viking invasions of the 9th century (after which we see the emergence of Anglo-Saxon art), and in Ireland up until the 12th century (after which see Romanesque art).

History

Ireland was converted to Christianity by missions from Britain and the continent, beginning in the mid-fifth century, while simultaneously pagan Angles, Saxons and Jutes were settling in England. The extreme political fragmentation of Ireland and its total lack of urban development prevented the emergence of a strong episcopal structure. Monasticism consequently emerged as the dominant force in Irish Christianity, and thus in Irish Christian art.

Celtic Christianity also developed a strong emphasis on missionary activity. Around 563 Saint Columba founded a base on the Scottish island of Iona, from which to convert Pictish pagans in Scotland; this monastic settlement became long remained a key center of Christian culture in northern Britain. Columban monks then went to Northumbria in 635 and founded a monastery on the island of Lindisfarne, from which to convert the north of England. However Rome had already begun the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons from the south with a mission to Kent in 597. Conflict arose between the Irish monks and Rome on the date to celebrate Easter, leading to withdrawal of the Irish mission from Lindisfarne to Iona. However, the widespread use of Irish decorative forms in art produced in England, and vice versa, attests to the continuing importance of interaction between the two cultures. England would come under increasing Mediterranean influence, but not before Irish Celtic and Anglo-Saxon art had profitably fused.

The first major work that can be called purely Hiberno-Saxon is the Book of Durrow in the late 7th century. There followed a golden age in metalworking, manuscripts and stone sculpture. In the 9th century the heyday of the Hiberno-Saxon style neared its end, with the disruptions of Viking raids and the increasing dominance of Mediterranean forms (see Anglo-Saxon art).

Illuminated manuscripts

The surviving evidence of Irish Celtic art from the Iron Age period is dominated by metalwork in a La Tène style.  Hanging bowls such as those found at Sutton Hoo are among some of the most important of these crafts. As Irish missionaries began to spread the word of the Gospels they needed books, and almost from the start, they began to embellish their texts with artwork drawing from the designs of these metalworking traditions. The spirals and scrolls in the enlarged opening letters—found in the earliest manuscripts such as the 7th century Cathach of St. Columba manuscript—borrows in style directly from Celtic enamels and La Tène metalworking motifs.

After the Cathach of St. Columba, book decoration became increasingly more complex and new styles from other cultures were introduced. Carpet pages—entire pages of ornamentation with no text—were inserted, usually at the start of each Gospel. The geometric motifs and interlaced patterns may have been influences from Coptic Egypt or elsewhere in the Byzantine Middle East.  The increasing use of animal ornamentation was an Anglo-Saxon contribution of its animal style. All of these influences and traditions combined into what could be called a new Hiberno-Saxon style, with the Book of Durrow in the later 7th century being the first of its type. The Lindisfarne Gospels is another famous example.

The Book of Kells was probably created in Iona in the 8th century. When the monks fled to Ireland in the face of Viking raids in 807, they probably brought it with them to Kells in Ireland. It is the most richly decorated of the Hiberno-Saxon manuscripts and represents a large array of techniques and motifs created during the 8th century.

Metalworking
In the 7th century there emerged a resurgence of metalworking with new techniques such as gold filigree that allowed ever smaller and more detailed ornamentations, especially on the penannular and pseudo-penannular Celtic brooches that were important symbols of status for the elite, and also worn by clergy as part of their vestments. The Tara Brooch and Ardagh Hoard are among the most magnificent Insular examples, whilst the 7th century royal jewelry from the Sutton Hoo ship burial shows a Pre-Christian Anglo-Saxon style. They brought together all of the available skills of the goldsmith in one piece: ornamentation applied to a variety of techniques and materials, chip carving, filigree, cloisonné and rock crystal.

Stone sculpture

The skills displayed in metalworking can be seen in stone sculptures. For many centuries it had been Irish custom to display a large wooden cross inside the monastic building enclosure. These were then translated into stone crosses called high crosses and covered with the same intricate patterns used by goldsmiths, and often figure sculptures.

See also
Viking art
Hercules' Club (amulet)
Confronted-animals
Anglo-Saxon art

Notes

References
Martin Werner, "Migration and Hiberno-Saxon Art", Dictionary of the Middle Ages, vol-8, 
"Hiberno-Saxon style". In Encyclopædia Britannica Online.

Further reading
Boltin, Lee, ed.: Treasures of Early Irish Art, 1500 B.C. to 1500 A.D.: From the Collections of the National Museum of Ireland, Royal Irish Academy, Trinity College, Dublin, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1977, .

Malcolm, Todd, The Early Germans

External links
Images from History, see "Iron Age Europe".
Eagle Fibula at the Walters Art Museum

Art
Medieval art
Early Germanic art
5th century in art
6th century in art
7th century in art
8th century in art
9th century in art
10th century in art
Art by period of creation
Animal style art is an approach to decoration found from China to Northern Europe in the early Iron Age, and the barbarian art of the Migration Period, characterized by its emphasis on animal motifs. The zoomorphic style of decoration was used to decorate small objects by warrior-herdsmen, whose economy was based on breeding and herding animals, supplemented by trade and plunder. Animal art is a more general term for all art depicting animals.

Eastern styles

Scythian art makes great use of animal motifs, one component of the "Scythian triad" of weapons, horse-harness, and Scythian-style wild animal art. The cultures referred to as Scythian-style included the Cimmerian and Sarmatian cultures in European Sarmatia and stretched across the Eurasian steppe north of the Near East to the Ordos culture of China. These cultures were extremely influential in spreading many local versions of the style.

Steppe jewellery features various animals including stags, cats, birds, horses, bears, wolves and mythical beasts. The gold figures of stags in a crouching position with legs tucked beneath its body, head upright and muscles bunched tight to give the impression of speed, are particularly impressive. The "looped" antlers of most figures are a distinctive feature, not found in Chinese images of deer. The species represented has seemed to many scholars to be the reindeer, which was not found in the regions inhabited by the steppes peoples at this period.  The largest of these were the central ornaments for shields, while others were smaller plaques probably attached to clothing.  The stag appears to have had a special significance for the steppes peoples, perhaps as a clan totem. The most notable of these figures include the examples from:
the Arzhan kurgan, Tuva, Siberia, with animal style artifacts (8-7th century BC).
the burial site of Kostromskaya in the Kuban dating from the 6th century BC (Hermitage)
Tápiószentmárton in Hungary dating from the 5th century BC, now National Museum of Hungary, Budapest
Kul Oba in the Crimea dating from the 4th century BC (Hermitage).

Another characteristic form is the openwork plaque including a stylized tree over the scene at one side, of which two examples are illustrated here. Later large Greek-made pieces often include a zone showing Scythian men apparently going about their daily business, in scenes more typical of Greek art than nomad-made pieces. Some scholars have attempted to attach narrative meanings to such scenes, but this remains speculative.

Although gold was widely used by the ruling elite of the various Scythian tribes, the predominant material for the various animal forms was bronze. The bulk of these items were used to decorate horse harness, leather belts & personal clothing. In some cases these bronze animal figures when sewn onto stiff leather jerkins & belts, helped to act as armour.

The use of the animal form went further than just ornament, these seemingly imbuing the owner of the item with similar prowess and powers of the animal which was depicted. Thus the use of these forms extended onto the accoutrements of warfare, be they swords, daggers, scabbards, or axes.

A distinct Permian style of bronze or copper alloy objects from around the 5th–10th centuries AD are found near the Ural mountains and the Volga and Kama rivers in Russia.

Germanic animal style
The study of Germanic zoomorphic decoration was pioneered by Bernhard Salin in a work published in 1904. Salin classified animal art from roughly 400 to 900 AD into three phases. The origins of these different phases remain the subject of debate; developing trends in late-Roman popular provincial art was an element, as were earlier traditions of the nomadic Asiatic steppe peoples. Styles I and II are found widely across Europe in the art of the "barbarian" peoples during the Migration Period.

Style I. First appearing in northwest Europe, first expressed with the introduction of the chip carving technique applied to bronze and silver in the 5th century. It is characterized by animals whose bodies are divided into sections, and typically appear at the fringes of designs whose main emphasis is on abstract patterns.

Style II. After about 560–570 Style I, declining, began to be supplanted. The animals of Style II are whole beasts, their bodies elongated into "ribbons" which intertwined into symmetrical shapes with no pretense of naturalism—rarely with legs—tending to be described as serpents, though heads often have characteristics of other animals. The animals become subsumed into ornamental patterns, typically interlace. Examples of Style II can be found on the gold purse lid (picture) from Sutton Hoo (c. 625).

Eventually about 700 localised styles develop, and it is no longer very useful to talk of a general Germanic style. Salin Style III is found mainly in Scandinavia, and may also be called Viking art.  Interlace, where it occurs, becomes less regular and more complex, and if not three-dimensional animals are usually seen in profile but twisted, exaggerated, surreal, with fragmented body parts filling every available space, creating an intense detailed energetic feel. Animals' bodies become hard for the unpractised viewer to read, and there is a very common motif of the "gripping beast" where an animal's mouth grips onto another element of the composition to connect two parts. Animal style was one component, along with Celtic art and late classical elements, in the formation of style of Insular art and Anglo-Saxon art in the British Isles, and through these routes and others on the Continent, left a considerable legacy in later Medieval art.

Other names are sometimes used: in Anglo-Saxon art Kendrick preferred "Helmet" and "Ribbon" for Styles I and II.

See also
 Migration Period art
 Thracian art
 Persian-Sassanid art patterns
 Confronted-animals

Notes

External links
 Perm Animal Style: Photo gallery (Virtual museum)
 Perm Animal Style
Nomadic Art of the Eastern Eurasian Steppes, an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on and examples of animal style
Andreeva, Petya, "Fantastic Beasts of the Eurasian Steppes: Toward a Revisionist Approach to Animal-Style Art", University of Pennsylvania, 2018: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/2963/
Salin Styles in The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology

Visual arts genres
Archaeology of Central Asia
Archaeology of Siberia
Medieval art
Iron Age art of Europe
Indo-European art
Early Germanic art
Animals in art Yin Style Baguazhang is a style of Baguazhang.

History
Yin Fu had multiple students, but is said to have taught his complete baguazhang system to only a few.  Of these students, Men Baozhen (門寶珍) taught Xie Peiqi. In  an interview with Xie Peiqi, dated to 1999, Xie stated that his teacher, Men Baozhen, was considered to be the third best pupil of Yin Fu, after "Wan Tong" Li (i.e. Li Yongqing) and Ma Gui (Yin's oldest disciple). Dr. Xie died in 2003 and his top student, He Jinbao, is now teaching the system.  Other famous students of Yin Fu included Yin Yuzhang (his fourth son), Cao Zhongsheng (who also learned from Ma Gui), Gong Baotian, and others.  Ma Gui, Yin Fu's first disciple, stated that he changed nothing in the bagua he learned from Yin Fu. Included among Ma Gui's students were Wang Peisheng, who is more famous for his Wu style taijiquan, and Liu Wanchuan.

Overview
Yin Style as passed down by Xie Peiqi is notable for having eight distinct animal styles within the body of the art.  In other words, Xie's Yin Style is a complete system, which is made up of other complete systems.  These include the eight animal systems as well as several 'unorthodox' systems, such as the Penetrating Palm and Backhand systems.  Each of the eight animal styles is related to one of the eight trigrams of the I Ching.  The following table describes this relationship:

Each animal is a complete system in its own right, possessing its own personality, skills, applications, and functions.  Each of the eight animal systems contains eight striking methods, and each striking method has seven strikes.  Three of those seven are considered the 'primary' strikes and are emphasized more than the others in single practice.  Therefore, the animal systems of Xie's Yin Style Bagua have a total of 448 unique strikes.  However, Xie's Yin Style Bagua also contains other unorthodox systems outside of the eight animals, such as Penetrating Palm and the Backhand systems.  Hence, there are more than 448 strikes, though 448 are contained within the animals.  (Note that the animal relationships with the bagua diagram are not unique to Xie's art; these relationships are also often used for other styles of bagua, including Cheng substyles, such as that of Sun Lutang.)

Other substyles of Yin include different forms and methods.  For example, Cao Zhongsheng's system's technical base is the 64 palms (also taught by Wang Peisheng); other substyles focus on only 8 main palms (such as that of Liu Zhenlin, Li Baosen, or other Men Baozhen lineages).  Gong Baotian's version has many forms and a strong emphasis on Yin Fu's Luohan forms.  Each substyle also includes many supplementary forms (such as luohanquan) and training methods (such as hand hardening methods).

Four Basic Practices
There are four basic practice methods in Xie Peiqi's Yin Style Baguazhang: standing, turning, striking, and changing.  These practices are the basic pillars of the style, and are all considered equally important.

Standing
The standing practices involve nine static strengthening postures specific to a given animal.  Each posture requires precise body alignment and distinct isometric pressures necessitating full body exertion to maintain properly.  These postures are undertaken to develop and check the structure of every part of the body.

Turning
Turning (or turning the circle), is the practice many people associate with Baguazhang.  "Yin style Bagua is the art of striking while you are moving.  You ceaselessly move and strike, and are always trying to get to the outside [of your opponent] by turning.  No matter what, position yourself to avoid the heavy blows and let the light ones fall.  It is within turning that these movements and techniques are honed to perfection or to a higher level.  All movements and techniques are linked smoothly together."

Striking
Striking is the most fundamental way of developing power in Yin Style Baguazhang.  It is introduced through the stationary drilling method, unaccompanied by footwork.  It is intended to establish the harmony between hand and waist that is necessary for generating power.

The moving strike practices consist of:

 One-step drilling method, of which there is the zig-zag stepping or dominating the side, straight stepping, or dominating the center, and closing or turning the back method.
 Two-step, or square drilling, which consists of advance-back-step, advance-advance, or back-step-advance, and back-step back-step.
 Three-step, or horizontal drilling method, which combines the stationary strike, advance step, and back-step.

Changing
Changing is most obvious when changing hands to face opposite directions.  Changing also includes the changing or redirecting of force, or alterations in stepping.

Animal Styles in Xie Peiqi's Yin Style

Commonalities Between the Animal Styles
Each animal style in Yin Style Baguazhang is its own complete system; however, each system contains practices and movements from all of the other animal  systems.  Example: when practicing forms in Yin Style Bagua, a practitioner may practice, for example, the Lion System Windmill Sweeping Strike Form.  The strikes come from the lion system, but the Windmill movements come from the Phoenix system.

Thus, each animal has a specific movement technique in addition to its 8 striking methods.  Each animal also has its own kicking technique, which is not included in its striking methods.

Qian Trigram Lion System
The lion is pure Yang energy, or hardness, and is one of two animals represented by a pure trigram; the other is the Unicorn.  The lion trigram is characterized by powerful and ferocious full-body force generated from the waist.  The lion's eight striking methods are: sweeping, cutting, chopping, hooking, shocking, blocking, seizing and grasping.

The lion's characteristic movement technique is Linking the Forms.

Kan Trigram Snake System

The Snake's striking methods are: shoulder, elbow, knee, hip, shooting, binding, entrapping, and grasping.  The style is characterized by a smooth and flowing motion of the force-palm, with many of the strikes targeted at vital organs.

The snake's characteristic movement technique is Moving with the Force.

Gen Trigram Bear System

The bear system is distinguished by a strategy of taking advantage from a losing position.  The Bear's striking methods are: rushing, penetrating, withdrawing, carrying, leaning, shocking, soft and following.  The Bear's power is generated from the back, and is short and blunt.

The bear's characteristic movement technique is Turning the Back.

Zhèn Trigram Dragon System

Known as the lifting and holding palm.  Its striking methods are: pushing, lifting, carrying, leading, moving, capturing, chopping and entering.  The Dragon's power is emitted through a forward motion of back and waist.  The Dragon style, although practiced differently in Yin Style, is the animal practiced by Cheng Style Baguazhang.

The dragon's characteristic movement technique is Lifting and Upholding.

Xun Trigram Phoenix System

In the phoenix system, force is emitted from the shoulders, and characterized by whipping action.  The striking methods are: dodging, extending, chopping, shocking, transforming, removing, curling in, and cutting.

The phoenix's characteristic movement technique is Windmill.

Li Trigram Rooster System

The rooster focuses on long, deep footwork with one's center of gravity close to the ground.  Power comes from the elbows.  The Rooster's striking methods are: dodging, extending, lifting, shifting, entering, whipping, rushing and stabbing.

The rooster's characteristic movement technique is Reclining Step (also known as Lying Step).

Kun Trigram Qilin/Unicorn System

The Unicorn is the opposite of the Lion, being pure Yin.  The Unicorn's striking methods are: sticking, kneading, soft, following, hip, striking, chopping and cutting.  It issues force by employing all joints to produce a flexible, snapping power.

The unicorn's characteristic movement technique is Reversing the Body.

Dui Trigram Monkey System

Concentrates on leg techniques, referred to as the interlocking leg.  Its striking methods are: bending, thrusting, straightening, hip, chopping, swinging, stopping, and ending.

The monkey's characteristic movement technique is Compacting the Body.

Distribution

Yin stylists are most concentrated in Beijing, where practitioners of the lineages of Ma Gui, Yin Yuzhang, Cao Zhongsheng, Li Baosen, Li Yongqing, Men Baozhen, and others still practice and teach today.  Certain Yin styles have moved to other locations as well, however, such as the Cui Zhendong lineage in Shanghai and the Gong Baotian lineage in Shanghai, Shandong, and Taiwan.  Famous practitioners in Beijing today include Zhang Zhao Ren, He Puren, Wang Shangzhi, Xu Shixi, Zhang Lie, Zhu Baozhen, and He Jinbao.  Others include Huang Zhicheng of Shandong, He Jinghan of Taiwan, Michael Guen of California and Tu Kun-Yii of New Jersey, USA.

References

Baguazhang styles
Chinese martial arts
Neijia
I Ching