Piguaquan (Chop-Hanging Fist)
劈掛拳Northern Chinese style from Cangzhou known for long, flail-like arm swings. Traditionally paired with Bajiquan and the miaodao sabre.
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About Piguaquan (Chop-Hanging Fist)
Piguaquan, chop-hanging fist, is a northern Chinese style associated above all with Cangzhou county in Hebei province. Its hallmark is the long swinging arm. The arm is not driven like a rigid lever but released like a flail: the shoulder loosens, the arm falls along a long path, and the energy arrives in the palm only at the end of the movement. The name reflects this, since pi means to chop and gua to hang or to throw over. Strikes are delivered mostly with the palm, downward and across, accompanied by sharp rotation of the torso and low, fast footwork. The body method stresses loose shoulders, a supple spine and an uninterrupted transfer of power from the hips to the fingertips. In Cangzhou, Piguaquan is traditionally trained together with Bajiquan, and the two arts are regarded as complementary opposites: baji works short and percussively at close range, pigua long and swinging at middle range. Hence the well-known saying that whoever joins baji and pigua is feared by gods and demons alike. The curriculum includes the large frame da jia, the Qinglong and Feihu sets, and a range of exercises developing the swing. Among weapons the style is most closely tied to the miaodao, a long sabre whose handling follows directly from the arm swing. In the twentieth century the brothers Ma Fengtu and Ma Yingtu systematised the style and brought it into the syllabus of Chinese military and physical-education institutions. The attribution of the style to Wu Zhong belongs to family tradition; Wu Zhong is documented above all as an ancestor of the Bajiquan line, and his link to Piguaquan rests on oral transmission.
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