---
title: Pigua (劈掛掌)
---
**Piguazhang** (劈掛掌, "chop-and-hang palm" — sometimes written 劈掛拳) is a northern art of **long-arm whipping power**. The arms extend fully and travel huge circular arcs around the body — **滾勒劈掛** (roll, rein, chop, hang) — generating force through a supple, twisting waist. *"Big open, big close"* (大開大合) is the structural signature. Pigua looks dramatic — the practitioner appears to be throwing the arms loose — and it is the **long-range complement to Baji's close-range short power**. Trained together as **八極對劈掛** they form one of the most respected paired systems in northern Chinese martial arts.
## Origin and the Ma-family synthesis
Pigua is rooted in **Cangzhou (滄州), Hebei**, in the same Hui Muslim martial belt as Baji. The art was systematized and elevated by **Ma Fengtu (馬鳳圖, 1888–1973)** and his sons, who created the **通備 (Tongbei — *****"unified preparation"*****; distinct from the *****Tongbei***** whipping-arm style despite the homonym)** framework that integrates **Pigua + Baji + Fanzi + Xinyi** into one curriculum.
The famous **李書文 (Li Shuwen, 1864–1934)** — *Divine Spear Li*, Baji master — was also celebrated for his Pigua. The traditional saying:
> **八極參劈掛，神鬼都害怕；劈掛參八極，英雄歎莫及。**
> *"Baji with Pigua — gods and ghosts are afraid; Pigua with Baji — heroes sigh they cannot match it."*
In effect: **Baji** without **Pigua** lacks reach; **Pigua** without **Baji** lacks the close-range finish.
## What it looks like
- **Long whipping arms.** The shoulders stay loose so the arm can travel a full vertical or horizontal arc. The strike *lands* via the arc, not via a planted-in push.
- **Twisting waist (擰腰).** The waist coils and uncoils as the central engine; arm whip is the *output* of body coil.
- **Stepping forward and through.** Pigua advances boldly — the *闖步 (chuangbu)* — and many of its signature strikes complete their arc as the body passes through the line of contact.
- **Open structures.** Stances are wide; the practitioner is *"open and extended"* rather than compact. (The structural opposite of Baji on this axis, which is why they pair.)
## Signature material
The **郭長生 (Guo Changsheng) / Ma-family Tongbei** system orders the empty-hand art as **four roads (四趟) plus a big-frame set**:
- **一路 劈掛 (掛拳)** — the first road, the core chop-and-hang material.
- **二路 青龍 (Azure Dragon)** — also called **抹面拳 ("wiping-the-face fist")**.
- **三路 飛虎 (Flying Tiger)**.
- **四路 太淑 (Taishu)**.
- **大架子拳 (Big-Frame Fist)** — the expansive frame.
(Other lineages teach the first two roads as 劈掛一路/二路 with 青龍 and 飛虎 as separate higher forms — the same material under different orderings.)
- **苗刀 (the Miao sabre)** — Ma Fengtu added the two-road Miao-sabre set to fill the system's weapon gap; Pigua's long whipping body method translates beautifully into the two-handed long sabre (the older association is with the great single-edged 大刀).
## Primary sources
**No dedicated standalone public-domain manual for Pigua has been located** in the open reservoirs (NLC-on-Commons, Taiwan eBook, archive.org). Pigua content appears inside the **多style compendium 北拳匯編** which we hold, and through 20th-century lineage publications that remain in copyright.
For Pigua, the major living-tradition references — **馬賢達 (Ma Xianda)** and the Ma family's Tongbei materials, and the **郭長生 (Guo Changsheng)** lineage publications — are in copyright. Documented gap in the open record.
## Video
- [劈掛一趟 / 二趟 — both forms, clear demo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XCukF9oGwM)
- [李書文 劈掛拳 (Li-style Pigua, BAB Japan) Pt 1](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6XkZgRtBPI) · [Pt 2](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=On7w3tmyAnc)
- [劈掛拳一路 (冼灝英)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QH6eWfv6R08) — clean first road
- [大聖劈卦門 — 李飛標 (HK heritage archive)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIlZCXbkeGM)
## See also
## Sources
**[1]** *Piguaquan*, Wikipedia ([en.wikipedia.org](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piguaquan)) — Cangzhou roots, the Ma-family Tongbei synthesis, the Baji pairing.
**[2]** *北拳匯編* — held in the codex as the only PD source touching Pigua.