View Shopping Cart Your Famous Chinese Account Shopping Help Famous Chinese Homepage China Chinese Chinese Culture Chinese Restaurant & Chinese Food Travel to China Chinese Economy & Chinese Trade Chinese Medicine & Chinese Herb Chinese Art
logo
Search
March 8, 2014
Table of Contents
1 Introduction
Baguazhang

Wikipedia

 
|-
colspan=2 align=center style="background:#ccf; border-top:1px solid; border-bottom:1px solid"|Image:Ba1-eight.gifImage:Gua4-trigram.gifImage:Zhang3-palm.gif
align=right|Pinyin: B??gu??zh??ng
align=right|Wade-Giles: Pa Kua Chang
align=right valign="top"|Also called: B??gu?? Qu??n<br>Pa Kua Ch'??an<br>B??gu??<br>Pakua<br>Pakua Boxing

B??gu??zh??ng is one of the three major Nei chia|internal Chinese martial arts, the other two being Xingyiquan (形意拳) and Taijiquan (太極拳).

B??gu??zh??ng literally means "eight trigram palm," referring to the trigrams of the Yijing, one of the canons of Taoism. In some styles of Baguazhang these diagrams can refer to eight animals, upon which movements in those fighting systems are based.

The trigrams and their corresponding animals in martial arts are:
Animal !!rowspan=2 style="background-color:#CCCCCC"| Chinese language|Chinese !!rowspan=2 style="background-color:#CCCCCC"|
Chinese language|Chinese !!style="background-color:#CCCCCC"| Pinyin
??? ??? ||align=center| Li ||align=center| Chicken ||align=center| ??? ||
??? ??? ||align=center| Kun ||align=center| Q??l??n ||align=center| ??? || Sometimes translated as "unicorn" or "Chinese unicorn"
??? ??? ||align=center| Dui ||align=center| Monkey ||align=center| ??? ||
??? ??? ||align=center| Qian ||align=center| Lion ||align=center| ??? ||
??? ??? ||align=center| Kan ||align=center| Snake ||align=center| ??? ||
??? ??? ||align=center| Zhen ||align=center| Chinese dragon|L??ng ||align=center| ??? || Often translated as "Chinese dragon"
??? ??? ||align=center| Gen ||align=center| Bear ||align=center| ??? ||
??? ??? ||align=center| Xun ||align=center| F??nghu??ng ||align=center| ??? || Often translated as "phoenix" or "Chinese phoenix"


Similar types of animal systems exist in other types of Chinese martial arts.

The practice of circle walking is bagua's characteristic method of stance and movement training. Practitioners walk around the edge of a circle in a low stance, facing the center and periodically changing direction as they execute forms. Students first learn flexibility through such exercises, then move on to more complex forms and internal power mechanics. The internal aspects of bagua are very similar to those of xingyi and taiji. Eventually, many distinctive styles of weapons training are practiced, sometimes including the uniquely crescent-shaped deerhorn knives, and the easily concealed "scholar's pen." Baguazhang is also known for sometimes practicing with extremely large weapons, such as the B??gu??d??o (八卦刀), or 'Bagua Broadsword.' In many schools, students study both xingyi and bagua. These may be used together in fighting, as they are often complementary. Bagua contains an extremely wide variety of techniques, including various strikes, low kicks, joint techniques, throws, and distinctively circular footwork.

Bagua was developed by Dong Haichuan (董海川) in the early 19th century, who apparently learned from Daoist and Buddhist masters in the mountains of rural China. There is evidence to suggest a synthesis of several pre-existing martial arts taught and practiced in the region he lived in, combined with Taoist circle walking. Dong Haichuan taught for many years in Beijing, eventually earning patronage by the Imperial court. Famous disciples of Dong to become teachers were Yin Fu (尹福), Cheng Tinghua (程廷華), Song Changrong (宋長榮), Liu Fengchun (劉鳳春) and Ma Weiqi (馬維棋). Although they were all students of the same teacher, their methods of training and expressions of palm techniques differed. The Cheng and Liu styles are said to specialize in "Pushing" the palms, Yin style is known for "Threading" the palms, Song's followers practice "Plum Flower" (梅花 Mei Hua) palm technique and Ma style palms are known as "Hammers." Some of Dong Haichuan's students, including Cheng Tinghua, participated in the Boxer Rebellion. In general, most Bagua practitioners practice either the Yin (???), Cheng (???), or Liang (???) styles of Bagua, although Fan (???), Shi (???), Liu (???), and other styles also exist.

One of the most famous Bagua practitioners of the 20th century was Sun Lutang (孫録堂), who studied Baguazhang under Cheng Tinghua. Sun was also a Xingyiquan disciple of Guo Yunshen (郭雲深) and learned Wu/Hao style T'ai Chi Ch'uan|Wu/Hao style Taijiquan from Hao Wei-chen. Sun Lutang was reputed among the Taijiquan professionals of his day to have excelled in his studies and subsequently became well known as the founder of Sun style T'ai Chi Ch'uan|Sun style Taijiquan.

Few good teachers of Baguazhang are available in the United States, and many do not advertise. Many are conservative and in line with Confucian didactic tradition will only reveal internal practices to dedicated students. Known forms (routines) of Bagua Zhang include Fixed Form Eight Palms (????????????), and the Old Eight Palms (?????????) form, as well as many others.




Beijing has the most Baguazhang practitioners, including students of the Cheng, Fan, Liang, Liu, Song, and Yin lineages. In Taiwan, most practitioners are of either Gao Yisheng (Cheng), Gong Baotian (Yin) lineages, Sun Xikun (Cheng), or Sun Lutang (Cheng) lineages. In Hong Kong, almost all practitioners are of the Fu Zhensong (mixed) lineage.



  • Neijia

  • Xingyiquan

  • Taijiquan

  • Sun style Taijiquan

  • Neijin

  • Pushing hands

  • Jing (TCM)



  • Robert W. Smith, "Chinese Boxing"

  • Bok Nam Park & Dan Miller, "The Fundamentals of Pa Kua Chang: The Methods of Lu Shue-Tien As Taught by Park Bok Nam."



<!-- Wikipedia isn't a link farm. A link should be here if it provides new info, not simply to promote business.-->
  • http://metal-tiger.com/Wu_Tang_PCA/YinYang.html The Yin and Yang of Ba Gua Zhang: The Legends of Thin Yin and Spectacles Cheng by Frank Allen & Clarence Lu

  • http://www.pa-kua.com The Pa Kua Chang of Lu Shui-Tian

  • http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/bagua.zhang/index.htm European Yin Style Bagua Zhang Association

  • http://www.traditionalstudies.org/ysb/ AST Yin Style Bagua

  • http://www.emptyflower.com/xingyiquan/drilling/bagua_links.html Emptyflower Bagua Links

  • http://www.ninedragonbaguazhang.com/ Nine Dragon The Gompa

  • http://www.kungfuinchina.com/bagua.html The Beijing Milun School of Traditional Kung Fu

  • http://www.pakua.org Pa-Kua International School


Category:Chinese martial arts
Category:Contemporary wushu
Category:Taoism
Category:I Ching
Category:Chinese terms

de:Baguazhang
es:Pa Kua Chang
ja:?????????
pt:Baguazhang
sv:Bagua
zh:?????????

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Baguazhang".


Last Modified:   2005-11-04


Search
All informatin on the site is © FamousChinese.com 2002-2005. Last revised: January 2, 2004
Are you interested in our site or/and want to use our information? please read how to contact us and our copyrights.
To post your business in our web site? please click here. To send any comments to us, please use the Feedback.
To let us provide you with high quality information, you can help us by making a more or less donation: