Baguazhang - an introduction
Image from Unsplash
Baguazhang or ‘Eight Trigram Palm’ is a core part of the Wutan syllabus, and we learn the Cheng style.
A short introduction and explanation…
Baguazhang (Chinese: 八卦掌; pinyin: bā guà zhǎng; Wade–Giles: pa-kua chang) is one of the three main Chinese martial arts of the Wudang school, the other two being tai chi and xingyiquan. It is more broadly grouped as an internal practice (or neijia). Baguazhang literally means "eight trigram palm", referring to the bagua "trigrams" of the I Ching, one of the canons of Taoism.
and…
The practice of circle walking, or "turning the circle", as it is sometimes called, is baguazhang's characteristic method of stance and movement training. All forms of baguazhang utilize circle walking as an integral part of training. Practitioners walk around the edge of the circle in various low stances, facing the center, and periodically change direction as they execute forms. For a beginner, the circle is six to twelve feet in diameter. Students first learn flexibility and proper body alignment through the basic exercises, then move on to more complex forms and internal power mechanics. Although the internal aspects of baguazhang are similar to those of xingyiquan and tai chi, they are distinct in nature.
Wushu competition examples
Wudang Style
The Wushu demonstrations are incredible of course, but see also the grace and power of this more traditional form…
Cheng Style - tutorial
First a short overview clip. Note the characteristic stepping known in some styles as the ‘mud wading’ step…
And now the full 45 minute tutorial…
The content linked (as with all content in this blog) is the copyright of the creator and is not official material endorsed by my school, Wutan International. It is offered here as reference material only. Please ask your instructor for advice and guidance on training in Baguazhang.
Blog post cover image of King Wen "Later Heaven" bagua arrangement. Benoît Stella alias BenduKiwi, CC BY-SA 3.0 <http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/>, via Wikimedia Commons.
