Baguazhang, also known as the wandering Baguazhang and Bagualianhuanzhang, is a traditional Chinese boxing style that focuses on palm changes and walking and turning. It is also one of the famous boxing styles in traditional Chinese martial arts and is widely spread.
Because Baguazhang moves in a crisscross pattern and is divided into eight directions, which are similar to the hexagrams in the “Book of Changes” Bagua diagram, it is named Baguazhang. Some old Baguazhang boxing manuals often explain boxing theory with hexagram theory, and use eight hexagram positions to represent the basic eight palms.
Baguazhang · Origin
According to records, Baguazhang originated from Dong Haichuan (about 1813-1882), a native of Wen’an County, Hebei Province in the Qing Dynasty. He was inspired by Taoist practice when he traveled in Jiangnan, and combined it with martial arts to organize it.
Dong Haichuan was a boxer in the Su Wang Mansion of the Qing Dynasty, so Baguazhang first spread in the Beijing area. In the past hundred years, it has spread throughout China and spread to all parts of the world, such as Southeast Asia.
Baguazhang · Efficacy and Value
There are five major schools of Baguazhang with great influence, namely Yin School, Liang School, Cheng School, Zhang School and Shi School.
Baguazhang is a martial art that integrates health preservation and martial arts into one, and cultivates morality; it is a unique palm-based technical means created by Master Dong Haichuan that integrates martial arts and internal strength.
Baguazhang uses walking along the circle and stepping on the mud, scissor legs, sitting as steady as a sedan chair, buckling and switching, and avoiding straight and hitting diagonally as the forms of movement, which is different from other martial arts.
In walking and turning, the qi can be practiced to penetrate the four tips, reach the limbs and bones, open the Ren and Du meridians, and the whole body is relaxed and floating. It is an advanced dynamic exercise in internal strength.
In addition, practicing Baguazhang has obvious effects in curing diseases, internal strength, martial arts and cultivating morality, especially in internal strength and cultivating morality.
Baguazhang · Techniques
The characteristics of Baguazhang’s techniques are that the body is agile and flexible, and it changes with the movement. When fighting with the opponent, the body rises and falls and twists, and it is agile and changeable. A boxing proverb says that it is “shaped like a swimming dragon, looks like a monkey guarding, sits like a tiger, and turns like an eagle.”
Palm shape and palm technique
Baguazhang’s palm shapes include upward palm, downward palm, vertical palm, hugging palm, piercing palm, chopping palm, lifting palm, picking palm, collapsing palm, bumping palm, and tucking palm.
The main palm techniques are: pushing, supporting, leading, moving, hooking, and chopping; penetrating, dodging, intercepting, sticking, and following; cutting, smashing, chopping, and twisting; lifting, collapsing, tucking, and bumping, and exploring, cutting, and flipping.
Step type and step technique
Bagua practitioners start with walking, with internal strength as the foundation, correcting the shape, communicating, understanding the power, mastering the skills, and changing clearly. There are four types of steps: bending, buckling, kneeling, and half horse step. There are three types of footwork: rising and falling, swinging and buckling, advancing and retreating, and opening and bending.
Leg shape and leg technique
The two legs are shaped like scissors, and walking is like wading through mud. The leg shape and leg technique of Baguazhang are also very particular. The leg techniques are divided into swinging, buckling, kicking, and splitting. Baguazhang also has the use of open legs and hidden legs, but the hidden legs are mainly used when the legs and palms are together.
Body shape and body technique
The body shape of Baguazhang is like a swimming dragon, and the waist is like an axis. The body technique emphasizes twisting, wrapping, drilling and flipping, which is flexible and not stagnant. The body moves with the steps, the palms change with the body, and the steps turn with the palms, and the upper and lower parts are coordinated.
The whole body moves without any movement, twisting and turning like flowing water, and flipping up and down like a proud dragon.