--- title: Dong Haichuan (董海川, c. 1797–1882) --- **Dong Haichuan** (**董海川 / Dǒng Hǎichuān**, c. 1797–1882) was the **founder of Baguazhang** (八卦掌) — the circle-walking palm art that, together with Taiji and Xingyi, forms the classical triad of **internal arts (內家)**. Operating in mid-to-late-19th-century Beijing as a eunuch at the Qing imperial court, Dong taught a small circle of already-accomplished northern martial artists, and the major modern branches of Bagua all descend through his senior disciples. He never wrote a treatise; the art's textual record begins with his students. ## Life Born in **文安縣 Wen'an County, Hebei**, c. 1797 (some sources give 1813). The accounts of his early life are mixed with legend: traditional sources say he wandered south and learned a **Daoist circle-walking meditation** in the mountains, possibly from a Daoist named **畢澄霞 Bi Chengxia** or other unnamed teachers; he then synthesized this with his existing martial training (the family records suggest some Northern Shaolin background) into the martial system that became Bagua. By middle age he was a **eunuch at the Qing imperial court**, employed in the residence of Prince Su (肅王府). His teaching career as a martial artist begins in Beijing roughly in the 1860s; his students were drawn from the already-accomplished northern martial artists of the capital, many of whom adapted Bagua to their existing arts rather than discarding them. He died in **Beijing in 1882**. His tomb at Beijing's **萬安公墓 Wan'an Cemetery** carries an inscription summarizing his life and is still visited by Bagua practitioners. ## What he gave the art Dong gave the system three things that survive: - **The circle-walking core (走圈).** The practice of walking a circle with one fixed palm held toward the center is the *defining* element of Bagua — and is what no other Chinese martial art does. Whether Dong invented it or inherited it from Daoist sources, it is his transmission that put it into the lay martial-arts mainstream. - **The eight foundational palms** — what later teachers systematized as the **老八掌 / 八母掌** (Old Eight / Eight Mother Palms), each named for a trigram of the *Yijing*. - **A teaching method that adapted to each student.** Dong did not teach a fixed curriculum; he taught each student in light of what they already knew. The major branches that descend from him differ substantially because they reflect what each *senior disciple* already brought to him as much as what Dong added. ## The branches that descend from him Through his senior disciples, three to four main modern branches: - **程派 (Cheng style)** — from **Cheng Tinghua (程廷華, 1848–1900)**, a wrestler before Bagua. The Cheng line tends toward larger frames and palm-striking. - **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, more weapon-like. - **Liang style** — from **Liang Zhenpu (梁振蒲, 1863–1932)**, Dong's youngest direct disciple. - **Gao style (高式)** — a Cheng-line offshoot via **Gao Yisheng (高義盛)**, characterized by 64 linear post-circle forms. Later: **Sun style (孫式八卦)** — Sun Lutang's synthesis with Xingyi and Taiji; **Yin–Yang Eight-Plate Palm (陰陽八盤掌)** — a related sibling system taught by Dong's contemporary Li Zhenqing. ## Tomb and continuing memory Dong's tomb at Wan'an Cemetery, restored by the Bagua community in the late 20th c., carries lineage inscriptions naming his senior disciples; it is the major pilgrimage site of the Bagua community. ## See also ## Sources **[1]** *Dong Haichuan*, Wikipedia ([en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dong\_Haichuan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dong_Haichuan)) and the Chinese Wikipedia counterpart — biography, lineage, the tomb. **[2]** *孫祿堂 八卦拳學* (Sun Lutang, *Study of Bagua Boxing*, 1916) — the foundational printed treatise on Bagua, which describes the system Sun received via Cheng Tinghua. Held in the codex's `Sources/internal-arts-manuals/`. **[3]** *孫錫堃 八卦拳真傳* (1934, 2 vols) — a Yin Fu line published treatise, also held.