Baguazhang

Bagua is another name for Baguazhang (Pa Kua Chang), Bagua (Pa Kua) means the ‘eight directions’. Zhang (Chang) is ‘hand palm’ in Chinese. The practice of Bagua is based on a multiple of palm and stepping techniques. There are eight basic hand techniques and four basic stepping techniques.

The circle walking of Bagua is a very special way of walking that demands much concentration and effort of the practitioner before he or she can even begin to comprehend it. Bagua has some similarities with Tai Chi and Xingyi: Practicing Bagua demands mental focus and relaxation in its practice.

It is difficult to detemine who created Bagua. In the ‘Jin Bian Ji’ of ‘Lan Yi Wai Shi’, (written in 1798), says that when Niu Cheng-Liang saw Ke Shan performing the Eight Directions stepping, he said ‘Your stepping looks like the Bagua…’

The golden years of Bagua were from 1836 to 1881. There were many Bagua practitioners in the Beijing area at this time. Dong Hai-Chuang was the most famous of the Bagua masters. Dong Hai-Chuang’s students were Cheng Ting-Hua, Yin Fu, Song Chang-Rong en Zhang Zhan-Kui and Jiang Rong-Qiao. Jiang Rong-Qiao, one of the most recent Bagua masters was a student of Zhang Zhan-Kui.

Another famous Bagua master is Sun Lu-Tang, who was also proficient in the sister internal arts Taijiquan and Xingyiquan.