Small Baji (小八極) — Bajiquan

小八極 (Xiǎo Bājí, "Small Baji" — also 八極小架, "the small frame") is the **foundational form of **Bajiquan — the first set every Baji student learns, and the form that banks the art's whole short-range vocabulary. Baji is the explosive, close-quarter art of Li Shuwen (李書文) ("Divine Spear Li") and Liu Yunqiao (劉雲樵), who carried it to Taiwan through his 武壇 (Wutan) school. Small Baji drills the heart-thrusting elbow (頂心肘), the silk-reeling (纏絲), the propping palms (撐掌), and the stamping advance (震腳) that issues the famous Baji power — in 36 postures, in the Wutan (Liu Yunqiao) curriculum below.

What it trains

• 頂心肘 (the heart-thrusting elbow) — Baji's signature close strike, here drilled twice (postures 6, 15)

• The six openings (六大開) in embryo — 頂 (butt), 抱 (embrace), 單 (single), 提 (lift), 胯 (hip), 纏 (coil) — the methods 小八極 plants

• 震腳 / fa-jin — the stamping step that delivers whole-body short power

• Silk-reeling (纏絲) — the spiralling 大纏 / 左右纏絲 that links the strikes

The form — move-by-move (拳譜)

The 36-posture sequence of the 武壇 (Wutan / Liu Yunqiao) 小八極, reproduced under fair-use citation; the English are the wiki's own working glosses.

Place in the curriculum

小八極 is the entry form; it is followed by 大八極 (Large Baji, the major form), the core method sets 六大開 (Six Big Openings) and 八大招 (Eight Big Techniques), and the weapons — above all the 六合大槍 (Six-Harmony Big Spear), Li Shuwen and Liu Yunqiao's signature.

See also

Baji (八極拳) — the style, the six openings, the lineage

Li Shuwen (李書文) — 'Divine Spear Li,' the Baji great

Liu Yunqiao (劉雲樵) — who brought Baji to Taiwan, founder of Wutan

Mantis Forms — the script-and-video map (Eight Step Mantis shares the Wutan/Su Yu-chang thread)

Sources

[1] 劉雲樵 (Liu Yunqiao) Wutan curriculum, 大內八極拳：小八極 — the 36-posture sequence reproduced here under fair-use citation, with the wiki's own glosses. The list is corroborated by the 小八極 article on Chinese Wikipedia (CC BY-SA) and two independent Wutan-lineage transcriptions.

[2] The Mengcun small-frame and the broader Baji form/weapon inventory derive from 姜容樵, 國術教範大小八極拳圖說 (1928, public domain by age) and the Mengcun (吳連枝) lineage materials.