Imagine the scene, Amir Khan or Joe Calzaghe, Britain’s premier boxers, check their horoscopes and indulge in a spot of yoga before they enter a match. Well this is pretty much what the Chinese do when they practise the holistic and esoteric martial art of Ba Gua. To the Western eye, Ba Gua is basically placed in the Tai Chi camp with the added symbolism of the Chinese I Ching that divides up the different elements within it. This makes for an interesting martial concept that is deeply philosophical in its approach, which I would like to see in practise, particularly against an opponent who may be holding a broken bottle.

“Walking the I Ching” explains the sixty four different movements of this Chinese style of internal martial arts within eight different chapters, the eight houses with their own cultural and symbolic significance and most importantly, their I Ching hexagram. The idea being that eventually, when the student has been through the whole system or, “the system has been through them” they can then, “discover their predispositions toward certain houses.” Needless to say in the West, most people will be clamouring to join the Thunder hexagram as the symbolism associated with that is called “House of the Arousing.” Personally, I rather think I would be more likely to be aligned with the Water hexagram which is sub-titled the “House of the Absymal” which I mistook to read ‘abysmal’! Each hexagram’s style has different body parts of the body associated with it, which can then be related to certain elements of Chinese healing as well as the style of the movements themselves. Although the movements in Pitmann’s guide are done in a straight line, traditionally they are taught in a circular pattern in order to, “protect space and the people within the space.” Thereby making this a defensive and soft martial art not designed to “take territory or kill.”

So far, so good. Meditation also makes up a large part of this martial arts system with each of the eight houses also having their own method of contemplation. Such is the faith in meditation and its place within the lives of the Ba Gua practitioners that Pitmann tells us, “My yoga teacher once recommended forty days of watching the sunrise to cure depression for the rest of one’s life.” We may scoff in our cynical Western way but it might be worth a go for those popping blister packs of Prozac to stave off the blues.

Although this guide to Ba Gua is interesting, it doesn’t always live up to the claim in the opening lines of, “It is part philosophical treatise, part health manual, and part self defence text.” It does fulfil this up to a certain level but I didn’t get the feeling of how effective this internal martial art would be as a self defence system. Although we are given lots of clear diagrams illustrating the movements, none of the techniques are given an application which would make the ‘martial’ part of this system much clearer. We are also given three chapters introducing the history and philosophy of Ba Gua at the beginning of the book which would have benefitted from more depth as this was by far the most interesting part of this ancient Chinese martial art and which most Tai Chi enthusiasts would like to know more. Overall, this is an interesting introduction to the internal Chinese style of Ba Gua but not a comprehensive ‘how to’ guide, which in the book’s defence it doesn’t claim to be. If you do want to take up this martial art though, it would act as a useful guide alongside a good instructor.