Martial Arts Of The World - Webs

Baguazhang (Pa Kua Ch’uan)
Of the four internal martial arts of China, the most distinctive appearing is
baguazhang. The name means “eight-trigram palm,” in reference to the
bagua (eight-trigram) pattern used in Chinese philosophy, magic, and fortune
telling. Part of the training in baguazhang is walking a circle while
practicing certain moves, and this walking a circle gives the art its distinctive
appearance. The bagua practitioner walks a circle of various sizes, reversing
his movement, twisting and turning through eight sets of movements
(called palms for the hand position used). Between the sets of
movements, he walks the circle with his hands in one of the eight positions.
While a few claims of baguazhang’s origins go back to the fifteenth
century, most experts believe the art originated with Dong Haichuan
(1789–1879), who claimed to have learned the method of divine boxing
from a Daoist, who is sometimes given the name of Dong Menglin. Dong
Haichuan used no name, claiming only that he learned from an old man in
the mountains. He became a servant or possibly a eunuch in the Imperial
Palace and, because of his graceful movements, was one day asked to
demonstrate his skill at martial arts. The twisting, turning beauty of
baguazhang impressed the emperor, and Dong Haichuan became a bodyguard
and instructor to the court. Of his many students, five learned the art
fully and formed the schools of baguazhang taught today: Cheng Tinghua,
Li Cunyi (Li Tsun-I), Yin Fu, Zhang Zhaodong, and Liang Zhenpu. Many
variations of baguazhang are practiced today and, depending on who is
counting, there are five to fourteen substyles. The most popular today appear
to be Emei, Wudang, Cheng family, Yin family, and Yin Yang.
Many stories are told about Dong Haichuan. The most famous tells
how Dong fought Guo Yunshen for three days, with neither being able to
win. Impressed with each other’s techniques, they began cross-training
their students in the two arts. More probable is the story that many masters
of both systems lived in this province, and many of them became
friends, especially bagua’s Cheng Tinghua and xingyiquan’s Li Cunyi (Li
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