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 — Cheng line, Old Eight Palms with applications

• 何靜寒 八卦拳 — Yin Fu → 宮寶田 → 劉雲樵 → He Jinghan line

• 程派八卦 八大掌 — 劉敬儒 · 游身連環掌

See also

Northern Kung Fu Styles — Bagua in the broader internal-arts family

Xingyi (形意拳) — Bagua's sister internal art

Sources

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

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