Baguazhang
八卦掌A Chinese martial art built on circle walking, with palm strikes, kicks, locks and throws. Linked with Dong Haichuan, who arrived in Beijing around 1864.
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ChinaCharacter & Origin
Training
Who It Suits
Organisation & Competition
What the style is built from
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Catalogs & Databases for Baguazhang
About Baguazhang
Baguazhang is a Chinese martial art whose beginnings are associated with Dong Haichuan (1797 or 1813–1882) from Wen’an County in Hebei province. It is documented that around 1864 Dong came to Beijing, served in the household of Prince Su, later was a tax official and finally taught publicly. The stories of the Taoist and Buddhist masters from whom he is said to have learned the art are tradition without evidence from before the modern era, and many accounts of him came from popular novels.
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The technical foundation is circle walking. The practitioner walks around a circle in low stances facing the centre and regularly changes direction. Palm strikes, kicks, locks and throws are tied to this footwork. From Dong’s main students came the Yin, Cheng, Liang and Gao styles, the Cheng style being described by an emphasis on pushing palms, close fighting and locks, and the Yin style by piercing with the palms. Circle walking runs through all the forms. The art also includes weapons, among them the sickle-shaped deer knives, the large bagua sword, the staff and the spear. Sun Lutang, who studied baguazhang from 1891 with Cheng Tinghua, ranked it together with taijiquan and xingyiquan among the internal arts and in 1916 published the book Baguaquan xue about it. Since 2008 baguazhang has been on the national list of intangible cultural heritage of the PRC as an item from Hebei province, and in 2011 the entry was extended by the Beijing branch. The national entries name the eight basic palms, the Old Eight Palms and the Sixty-Four Palms, and mud-walking exercises for beginners. It is not among the disciplines of the IWUF rules for taolu competitions from 2005, and we did not find a study with numbers on its effects on health or fitness.
History
Dong Haichuan from Wen’an County in Hebei province is considered the founder of baguazhang. The sources state that he was born on 13 October 1797, or 1813, and died on 25 October 1882 in Beijing. A China News Service report of 2001 places his birth in the Jiaqing era (1796–1820) and gives the village of Mijiawu as his birthplace, other sources the village of Zhu. Around 1853 he left Hebei and travelled for years, around 1864 he arrived in Beijing, where he served in the household of Prince Su and later worked as a tax official. We were not able to document the year he began teaching publicly. According to the same report his grave lay east of the Beijing gate Dongzhimen and was later moved to the western suburbs of Beijing, and a stele was erected by it by students of the second generation.
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Tradition says he learned the art from Taoist and Buddhist masters in the mountains. A Buddhist origin is attributed only by the students of his students, and many Chinese authors reject it. Transmission among Taoists before Dong has no evidence from before the modern era, and it is accepted only that Dong became acquainted with Taoist methods, including circle walking, on his travels. Many stories about him come from popular novels. His main students were Yin Fu, Cheng Tinghua, Liang Zhenpu and Gao Yisheng, after whom the Yin, Cheng, Liang and Gao styles are named. Ma Weiqi and Liu Fengchun are also counted in the first generation of students. Cheng Tinghua (1848–1900) died during the Boxer Rebellion when German soldiers shot him, because he resisted being forcibly conscripted into a labour gang.
How it differs
Sun Lutang classed baguazhang with taijiquan and xingyiquan as internal styles. In his view internal boxing relies on intuition, the flow of qi and health, external mainly on muscular strength. This is Sun's definition, not a measurable criterion.
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The listings on China's national list of intangible cultural heritage show a different basis for the three styles. Baguazhang rests on the principle of using the palm instead of the fist and moving in steps along a circle, and its palm changes interweave with circle walking. Xingyiquan builds on the theory of the five elements, the basic stance santi shi, the five basic fists pi, beng, zuan, pao and heng and twelve animal forms, and the listing from Shenzhou describes it as an art of short strikes at close range and fast direct attack. It describes Chen-style taijiquan as practice combining fighting, toughening and health with the concepts of yin and yang, movement and stillness. Accounts differ on the relationship of baguazhang to other styles. Sun Lutang regarded it as a derived art with many similarities to xingyiquan, and the historian Kang Gewu, according to Benjamin Judkins, derives it from the style Ba Fa Quan, which Dong Haichuan studied after leaving his native village. Kang Gewu also found no evidence that the bagua trigrams were the theoretical basis of the art, in his view adopted for their symbolic value. Fu Zhensong (1872–1953, the year of birth is disputed) created the Dragon Baguazhang branch, which he combined with taijiquan under Sun Lutang's influence and which is practiced today mainly in Guangdong, Hong Kong and abroad.
Technique
The characteristic movement is walking in a circle. The practitioner circles the edge of the circle in low stances, facing the centre, and changes direction at regular intervals. For beginners the circle has a diameter of roughly 1.8 to 3.7 metres. The repertoire includes strikes, kicks, locks and throws combined with markedly evasive circular footwork. Among the palms, for example, the piercing and the crushing palm are described. Descriptions of the technique also mention that the practitioner can get behind the opponent, where the opponent cannot hurt him. The branches differ in emphasis. The Cheng style is described as focused on palm pushing, close-range fighting and locks, with the dragon claw palm as its basic palm. The Yin style is known for piercing with the palms and the ox-tongue palm, the Ma Gui style for palms called hammers. This is a traditional characterization of the branches, not measured differences.
Training
Circle walking runs through the training in all forms. It is not a separate exercise but the foundation to which the work of the palms and the changes of direction are tied. The Hebei entry on the national intangible heritage list of the PRC describes eight basic palms, among them danhuanzhang and shuanghuanzhang, and the basic steps qi, luo, kou and bai. According to it, beginners start with mud-walking (nibu), and the movement is summed up by the formulas one walking, two looking, three sitting, four turning. The Beijing entry names as the basis of the content the Old Eight Palms and the Sixty-Four Palms, the training methods of mud-walking and turning the palm in a fixed stance, and routines with the broad sword and the sword. How Dong Haichuan taught the eight palms is described differently by the sources. According to some he passed on only the first three of the eight palms and varied the others for each student, others state that he taught considerably more, and the dispute remains open.
Ranks and progression
We have not found a grading system of baguazhang itself in the sources. Progress rests on two things, the nationwide duanwei system and the state list of inheritors. The General Administration of Sport of China introduced the duanwei system in 1998 and, according to an academic article, it has nine duan in three levels, beginning, middle and high. A series of textbooks for it also includes a separate volume on baguazhang, but we know this only from a seller's listing. Liu Jingru, born in 1936 in Gaoyang, is according to the state portal a holder of the ninth duan. On the state list of baguazhang inheritors are Liu Jingru and Sun Zhijun (1933–2016) for the Beijing district of Xicheng and Ren Wenzhu, born in 1950 in Wen'an, for the city of Langfang. Wen'an is the birth county of Dong Haichuan, whom tradition considers the founder of the style. Beijing's Xicheng was added to the list in 2011 as an extension of the 2008 inclusion.
Competition
The IWUF rules for international taolu competitions of November 2005 list in Article 7 changquan, nanquan, taijiquan, jianshu, daoshu, qiangshu, gunshu, taijijian, nandao, nangun, duilian and jiti, and baguazhang is not among the disciplines. We have not found it by name in the 2019 IWUF traditional wushu rules. In sport wushu baguazhang is listed among the more frequently performed forms. As a non-standard taolu discipline it is judged without a difficulty component. Wushu is not a summer Olympic sport, and for the 2008 Games in Beijing the IOC for the first time permitted a wushu tournament alongside the Games as a separate event.
Gear
Baguazhang has its own set of weapons. It includes the sickle-shaped deer knives, hidden weapons such as the judge’s pen or a pair of knives, the wheels of wind and fire, the large bagua sword and the large bagua broad sword. Training also uses the staff, the spear, the guai staff and the hook sword. The Beijing entry on the national intangible heritage list of the PRC names among the weapons ziwu yuanyang yue, jizhua yinyang rui and qixing gan. Weapons are optional in training, and we did not find compulsory equipment or a prescribed outfit in a verifiable source.
Philosophy
The Hebei entry of baguazhang on the national intangible heritage list of the PRC from 2008 describes walking the circle to the left as yangyi and to the right as yinyi. According to it, the guiding principle is movement as the foundation and change as the method, and practice relies on calming the mind and on balancing inner and outer training. The Beijing entry from 2011 states that Dong Haichuan combined earlier martial arts with the principles of the Book of Changes (Yijing). This is an interpretation given by the national intangible heritage portal, not a documented historical finding. We did not find an interpretation of the philosophy of baguazhang by a historian.
Today
Baguazhang has been on China's national list of intangible cultural heritage since 2008, in the second batch, as item no. 797 (code VI-25) in the category of traditional sports, entertainment and acrobatics. The application came from the city of Langfang in Hebei province, the representative bearer is Ren Wenzhu, and the protected unit is the Wenzhu wuxiao school in Wen’an county, where Dong Haichuan came from. In the third batch in 2011 the item was extended by the Beijing branch from the Xicheng district, with the Beijing Wushu Association as the protected unit. The representative bearers of the Beijing listing are Liu Jingru (born 1936), a student of Luo Xingwu since 1957, and Sun Zhijun (1933–2016), who from 1946 studied with teachers of the Cheng branch.
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Today the Yin, Cheng and Liang styles are practised most, while Sun, Gao and Jiang are described as sub-styles of the Cheng method. The Beijing listing distinguishes the branches by palm shape, the ox-tongue palm and the dragon-claw palm. Sun Lutang studied baguazhang with Cheng Tinghui from 1891, according to the historian Benjamin Judkins from 1889, and in 1916 he published the book Baguaquan xue. The xingyi-bagua direction also came from the Cheng school, because Zhang Zhankui first learned xingyiquan from Liu Qilan and then baguazhang from a representative of Cheng Tinghui. We have not found a study with figures on the effects of baguazhang on health, fitness or balance, nor an injury study, even in Chinese sources.
Did you know
According to its listing in China's national list of intangible cultural heritage, baguazhang was originally called zhuanzhang, the turning palm. The eight trigrams bagua, after which it is named, were according to a legend cited by Britannica discovered on the back of a turtle by Emperor Fuxi. The Baguazhang Research Society of the Beijing Wushu Association, founded in 1982, was according to the national listing the first civil society in China devoted to a single style. According to Judkins, Dong Haichuan claimed that he had been a court eunuch, which historians reject. He never declared himself the founder, and by his own account he received the art from a wandering holy man. According to Judkins, no evidence exists that he was literate. Fu Zhensong was appointed in 1927 chief instructor of the Wudang section at the Central Guoshu Institute in Nanjing, and in 1928 he demonstrated baguazhang at the first national martial arts examination. According to Judkins, Sun Lutang was advised by his teacher Cheng Tinghua to study Daoism.
Styles & Branches
A branch of baguazhang bearing the name of Yin Fu, one of five students of Dong Haichuan who, according to Green, founded today's baguazhang schools.
The baguazhang branch bearing the name of Cheng Tinghua, one of five students of Dong Haichuan who, according to Green, founded today's baguazhang schools.
Baguazhang branch bearing Gao Yisheng's name. According to Wikipedia, it has a circular xiantian part and sixty-four straight-line houtian palms.
Branch of baguazhang bearing the name of Liang Zhenpu, one of five students of Dong Haichuan who, according to Green, founded today's baguazhang schools.
Frequently asked questions
What is baguazhang?
Baguazhang is a Chinese martial art that, according to China's national list of intangible cultural heritage, was originally called zhuanzhang, the turning palm. Its principle is to use the palm instead of the fist and to move with steps along a circle. The name refers to the eight trigrams bagua.
Who founded baguazhang?
China's national list of intangible cultural heritage names Dong Haichuan from Wen'an County in Hebei Province as the creator of baguazhang. He accepted students in Beijing during the reigns of the Xianfeng and Tongzhi emperors (1851–1875). The year of his birth differs among sources, both 1797 and 1813 are given. He himself never declared himself the founder.
Why do you walk in a circle in baguazhang?
Circle walking is the foundation of the whole training, and according to China's national list of intangible cultural heritage the palm changes are interwoven with walking on a circle. We were unable to document why Dong Haichuan chose the circle. According to Benjamin Judkins, historian Kang Gewu derives it from the moving meditation of the Daoist Long Men school, which Dong combined with the Ba Fa Quan style.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.