TongBei is an ancient internal Martial art and is in fact one of the oldest arts still practiced today. The name HeYiTongBei mean unified through the back and is referring to the whole body along with mind and heart unifying harmonizing and working as one, the back is the central meeting place and transmitter of the body's unified power throughout the body.

HeYiTongBei has many similarities to other internal arts such as BaGua, XingYi and TaiJi. As internal martial arts there is emphasis on the six harmonies, DanTian as well as breathing and intention. TongBei has an even deeper relationship with TaiJi as TongBei FaJin served as a great influence in the development of Chen TaiJi.

There are some unique aspects of TongBei. In TongBei the practitioner never seeks to copy or imitate an animal or it's movements, in TongBei the practitioner wants to be as human as possible, to move and naturally be a human. TongBei also has some unique attributes to it's FaJin mainly BaiHuaJin or explosive power which is a specialty of TongBei.

Traditionally TongBei was practiced in secret to ensure that it's methods and skills would not be found out or copied by practitioners of other arts and each teacher would only teach one or two disciples to ensure that the maximum amount of skill would be passed on to the next generation. This has made TongBei a very long lasting unbroken and well respected tradition. It has also made TongBei a bit of a secret, even in China a martial arts practitioner would not know it is TongBei being practiced unless they have practiced it themselves.

When you say the name TongBei it is respected highly along with arts like BaGua and it is considered to be of the highest and most difficult skill level. Today TongBei is only practiced in two cities in China, mainly Shanghai and Tianjin.  TongBei is also taking roots in Germany with some dedicated students of Master Wu Mao Gui and in the US in Seattle with Michael Lee Belliveau.