---
title: Bagua Palm (八卦掌)
---

**Baguazhang** (八卦掌, "Eight-Trigram Palm") is one of the three classical **internal arts** (內家) of northern China — alongside *Taiji* and *Xingyi*. Its method is unmistakable: the practitioner **walks a continuous circle**, training spiraling whole-body power, evasive change of direction, and a vocabulary of palm techniques that flow without interruption. Bagua is the *Yijing*'s eight trigrams made into movement — change, reversal, and emptying-filling expressed as footwork.

## Origin

Founded by **Dong Haichuan (董海川, c. 1797–1882)** in mid-19th-century Beijing. Dong was a eunuch at the Qing imperial court, said to have learned a Daoist circle-walking practice in the mountains and refined it into a martial system. He took students from already-accomplished northern martial artists, and the major branches diverged through his senior disciples.

The two main branches:

- **程派 (Cheng style)** — from **Cheng Tinghua (程廷華, 1848–1900)**, a wrestling specialist before he took Bagua. The Cheng line tends toward **larger frames** and palm-striking with body weight committed.
- **尹派 (Yin style)** — from **Yin Fu (尹福, 1840–1909)**, Dong's senior disciple and a long-fist man before Bagua. The Yin line is **tighter, more percussive, and weapon-like** — palms move like blades.

Other significant lines: **Liang style** (Liang Zhenpu), **Gao style** (Gao Yisheng, a Cheng offshoot with 64 linear forms), **Sun style** (Sun Lutang's synthesis with Xingyi and Taiji), and **Yin–Yang Eight-Plate Palm** (陰陽八盤掌, taught by Dong's contemporary Li Zhenqing).

## What it looks like

- **Walking the circle (走圈)** is *the* defining practice. The student walks a circle the size of a small room with one specific palm held out toward the center — for sustained periods, building the spiraling whole-body connection that powers everything else.
- **Eight Mother Palms (老八掌 / 八母掌)** — the eight foundational palm techniques, each named for a trigram. From the Mother Palms come the **Linked Palms (64 palms / 64 changes)** that recombine them.
- **Constant change** — the circle is broken by directional reversals (the **擺扣步**, *swing-and-hook step*) that pivot the practitioner around suddenly. Nothing stays still; nothing repeats.
- **Distinctive weapons** — Bagua's signature weapons are oversized and unique: **deer-horn knives (子午鴛鴦鉞)** for trapping, a big **sabre** (八卦刀), and a famously long spear and long sword.

## Signature material

- **走圈 (Walking the Circle)** — never absent. The single most-trained item.
- **八母掌 (Eight Mother Palms)** — the basic vocabulary.
- **64 Linked Palms / 64 Changes** — Cheng-line core form; **64 linear sets** in Gao style.
- **Body method:** loosening the waist (**鬆腰**), suspending the head, sinking the shoulders, twisting and untwisting along the spine.

## Primary sources

We hold these public-domain originals in the codex's `Sources/internal-arts-manuals/`:

- \*\*孫祿堂 \*\****八卦拳學*** (Sun Lutang, 1916) — the foundational printed treatise on Bagua. Sun was Cheng Tinghua's student. *PD.*
- \*\*孫祿堂 \*\****八卦劍學*** (Sun Lutang, 1925) — its weapons companion.
- \*\*孫錫堃 \*\****八卦拳真傳*** (1934, 2 vols) — Yin Fu line, comprehensive.
- \*\*任致誠 \*\****陰陽八盤拳法*** (1937) — the Dong-Haichuan sibling art.
- **八卦掌簡編** (Qingdao Guoshu Institute, 1932) — institutional primer.
- \*\*黃介子 \*\****龍形八卦掌*** (1930) — Dragon-Form Bagua.

Reference scholarship (in copyright; cited not reproduced): Sun Lutang's later writings reissued by his daughter Sun Jianyun; Frank Allen and Tina Chunna Zhang, *The Whirling Circles of Ba Gua Zhang* (2007); Park Bok Nam, *The Fundamentals of Pa Kua Chang* (1995).

## Video

- [老八掌 使用法 — Zhou Yue Wen](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiZFgHJj2BU) — Cheng line, Old Eight Palms with applications
- [何靜寒 八卦拳](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_6KGaB4ggo) — Yin Fu → 宮寶田 → 劉雲樵 → He Jinghan line
- [程派八卦 八大掌 — 劉敬儒](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPAlImtWj3w) · [游身連環掌](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2N7MNFruUwc)

## The forms

Bagua's curriculum is the **circle-walking and the palm-changes** rather than a long fixed routine. The core is the eight palm-changes:

<PageRef space="notes" slug="bagua-eight-palms" text="八大掌 The Eight Palms — Bagua's core: the trigram-animal palms + the single/double change scripts" />

## See also

<PageRef space="notes" slug="bagua-video" text="Bagua on Film — video index (archival + lineage demos)" />

<PageRef space="notes" slug="northern-styles" text="Northern Kung Fu Styles — Bagua in the broader internal-arts family" />

<PageRef space="notes" slug="xingyi" text="Xingyi (形意拳) — Bagua's sister internal art" />

## Sources

**[1]** *Baguazhang*, Wikipedia ([en.wikipedia.org](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baguazhang)) — Dong Haichuan, the lineage tree, the trigram framework.

**[2]** Sun Lutang, *八卦拳學* (1916) — the foundational printed treatise, held in the codex.