---
title: Internal-Arts Lineage Map — Bagua · Xingyi · Baji
---

A single map of the **transmission trees** this wiki documents in depth: **Baguazhang** and **Xingyiquan** (two of the three classical *internal arts*), and the closely-allied **Baji / Pigua**. It exists to turn the scattered biographies into one navigable picture — and to show the **cross-threads** that individual pages cannot: the way these lines touch one another and converge in the Republican-era synthesis. *(Taiji, the third internal art, has its own tree on the sister wiki *[*taiji.openmindspace.org*](https://taiji.openmindspace.org)*. For the separate, extinct Ming "internal family" of Wang Zhengnan, see the *[*Wang Zhengnan Epitaph*](https://wulin.openmindspace.org/wang-zhengnan-epitaph)* and *[*內家拳法*](https://wulin.openmindspace.org/neijia-quanfa)*.)*

<Callout type="info">
  **"Internal arts" is a modern grouping.** Taiji, Bagua, and Xingyi were drawn together as the **內家 ("internal family")** triad only in the early 20th century — the famous formulation is **Sun Lutang's** (1915–1924). **Baji** is by character a *hard / external* art, included here because its modern transmission is woven into the same lineage web (through Liu Yunqiao). See [Internal vs External](https://wulin.openmindspace.org/internal-vs-external).
</Callout>

## 八卦掌 Baguazhang

[**Dong Haichuan**](https://wulin.openmindspace.org/dong-haichuan) (董海川, c. 1797–1882) — *founder; circle-walking*

- [**Yin Fu**](https://wulin.openmindspace.org/yin-fu) (尹福) — **Yin style** (tight, hard, ox-tongue palm)

  - [**Gong Baotian**](https://wulin.openmindspace.org/gong-baotian) (宮寶田) — imperial bodyguard; to Shandong

    - [**Liu Yunqiao**](https://wulin.openmindspace.org/liu-yunqiao) (劉雲樵) — *carried the Yin-Bagua into the Baji world ↘ (see Baji)*
- [**Cheng Tinghua**](https://wulin.openmindspace.org/cheng-tinghua) (程廷華) — **Cheng style** (open, large frame; wrestling)

  - [**Sun Lutang**](https://wulin.openmindspace.org/sun-lutang) (孫祿堂) — *Bagua component ↘ (see Convergence)*
  - Gao Yisheng (高義盛) — **Gao style** (64 linear palms)
- Liang Zhenpu (梁振蒲) — **Liang style**

## 形意拳 Xingyiquan

*Legendary origin:* Ji Jike (姬際可, 17th c.) → … → Dai Longbang (戴龍邦, Dai-family Xinyi)
[**Li Luoneng**](https://wulin.openmindspace.org/li-luoneng) (李洛能, c. 1808–1890) — *reshaped Dai Xinyi into modern Xingyi; the fountainhead*

- [**Guo Yunshen**](https://wulin.openmindspace.org/guo-yunshen) (郭雲深) — *"half-step Beng Quan beats all under heaven"*

  - Wang Xiangzhai (王薌齋) — founded **Yiquan / Dachengquan**
  - → (via Li Kuiyuan) [**Sun Lutang**](https://wulin.openmindspace.org/sun-lutang) — *Xingyi component ↘*
- [**Liu Qilan**](https://wulin.openmindspace.org/liu-qilan) (劉奇蘭) — **Hebei branch** pillar

  - Li Cunyi (李存義) — founded the Chinese Warriors' Association (1912)
  - Liu Dianchen (劉殿琛) — author of *形意拳術抉微* (1920)
  - Zhang Zhaodong (張占魁) — Tianjin Xingyi-Bagua
- [**Song Shirong**](https://wulin.openmindspace.org/song-shirong) (宋世榮) — **Song style** (內功四經; soft-neutralizing)
- [**Che Yizhai**](https://wulin.openmindspace.org/che-yizhai) (車毅齋) — **Shanxi branch** leader

  - Li Fuzhen "Chang You" (李復禎), Bu Xuekuan (布學寬), Fan Yongqing (樊永慶)

## 八極・劈掛 Baji & Pigua

*Mengcun Wu family (吳氏)* → Huang Sihai (黃四海)
[**Li Shuwen**](https://wulin.openmindspace.org/li-shuwen) (李書文, 1864–1934) — *"Divine Spear"; married Baji to *[*Pigua*](https://wulin.openmindspace.org/pigua)

- Huo Dian'ge (霍殿閣) — bodyguard to the last emperor Puyi
- [**Liu Yunqiao**](https://wulin.openmindspace.org/liu-yunqiao) (劉雲樵) — founded **Wutan (武壇)**, Taiwan, 1971

  - [**Su Yu-Chang**](https://wulin.openmindspace.org/su-yu-chang) (蘇昱彰) — Baji to the West
  - Adam Hsu (徐紀) — Baji + traditional method in the West

## The convergence — and the cross-threads

What the separate trees hide is how tightly they are woven:

- [**Sun Lutang**](https://wulin.openmindspace.org/sun-lutang)** is the great knot.** He studied **Xingyi** (Guo Yunshen's line), **Bagua** (Cheng Tinghua), and **Taiji** (Hao Weizhen) — and in his 1915–1924 books argued the three were *one* internal art, creating **Sun style** and, in effect, the modern "internal arts" category itself.
- [**Liu Yunqiao**](https://wulin.openmindspace.org/liu-yunqiao)** ties Bagua to Baji.** His primary art was Baji (under Li Shuwen), but he also inherited **Yin-style Bagua** through [**Gong Baotian**](https://wulin.openmindspace.org/gong-baotian) — so the Dong Haichuan → Yin Fu line and the Li Shuwen Baji line meet in one man, and travel together to Taiwan.
- **The Hebei heartland.** **深縣 (Shen County), Hebei** alone produced Xingyi's **Li Luoneng** and **Guo Yunshen**, Bagua's **Cheng Tinghua**, and Xingyi's **Liu Qilan** and **Li Cunyi** — a single county at the root of much of the whole map. **滄州 (Cangzhou)** plays the same role for Baji.

## See also

<PageRef space="notes" slug="bagua" text="Bagua Palm (八卦掌) — the style overview" />

<PageRef space="notes" slug="xingyi" text="Xingyi (形意拳) — the style overview" />

<PageRef space="notes" slug="baji" text="Baji (八極拳) — the style overview" />

<PageRef space="notes" slug="sun-lutang" text="Sun Lutang (孫祿堂) — the synthesizer at the center of the map" />

<PageRef space="notes" slug="internal-vs-external" text="Internal vs External — what 'internal' means, and its limits" />

<PageRef space="notes" slug="history" text="A Short History of Chinese Martial Arts" />

## Sources

**[1]** The individual biography and style pages linked above, each with its own sourcing (Chinese/English Wikipedia, Sun Lutang's 1924 testimony via Brennan, and the held codex manuals).

**[2]** 孫祿堂 (Sun Lutang), *拳意述真* (1923) and his Xingyi/Bagua/Taiji treatises — the texts that first framed the three arts as one internal family and supply much of the cross-lineage record.