Bāguàzhǎng

Baguazhang
(八卦掌)

Sun Lu-t'ang performing "Lion Embraces the Ball".
Also known as	Bagua quan, Bagua zhang, Pakua chang, Pa-kua chang
Hardness	Internal (neijia)
Country of origin	China
Creator	Dong Haichuan 董海川 (attributed)
Famous practitioners	Yin Fu, Cheng Tinghua, Ma Gui, Liang Zhenpu, Fu Chen Sung, Gao Yisheng, Jiang Rong Qiao, Sun Lutang
Olympic sport	No

Baguazhang (Chinese: 八卦掌; pinyin: Bāguà Zhǎng) is one of the three main Chinese martial arts of the Wudang school, the other two being Taijiquan and Xingyiquan. It is more broadly grouped as an internal practice (or neijia gong). Bāguà zhǎng literally means "eight trigram palm," referring to the trigrams of the I Ching (Yijing), one of the canons of Taoism.

The creation of Baguazhang, as a formalised martial art, is attributed to Dong Haichuan (董海川), who is said to have learned from Taoist and Buddhist masters in the mountains of rural China during the early 19th century. It must be noted that many Chinese authorities do not accept the Buddhist origin, instead maintaining that those teachers were purely Taoist in origin, in fact they were Taoist priests, the evidence lying in Baguazhang's frequent reference to core concepts central to Taoism, such as Yin and yang theory, I Ching and Taoism's most unusual paradigm, the Bagua diagram. The attribution to Buddhist teachers came from the 2nd generation teachers i.e. Dong Haichuan's students, some of whom were Buddhist. There is evidence to suggest a synthesis of several pre-existing martial arts taught and practised in the region in which Dong Haichuan lived, combined with Taoist circle walking. Because of his work as a servant in the Imperial Palace he impressed the emperor with his graceful movements and fighting skill, and became an instructor and a bodyguard to the court. Dong Haichuan taught for many years in Beijing, eventually earning patronage by the Imperial court.

Famous disciples of Dong Haichuan to become teachers were Yin Fu (尹福), Cheng Tinghua (程廷華), Ma Gui (马贵), Song Changrong (宋長榮), Liu Fengchun (劉鳳春), Ma Weiqi (馬維棋), Liu Baozhen (劉寶珍), Liang Zhenpu (梁振蒲) and Liu Dekuan (劉德寛). Although they were all students of the same teacher, their methods of training and expressions of palm techniques differed. The Cheng and Liu styles are said to specialize in "pushing" the palms, Yin style is known for "threading" the palms, Song's followers practice "Plum Flower" (梅花 Mei Hua) palm technique and Ma style palms are known as "hammers." Some of Dong Haichuan's students, including Cheng Tinghua, participated in the Boxer Rebellion. In general, most bagua exponents today practice either the Yin (尹), Cheng (程), or Liang (梁) styles, although Fan (樊), Shi (史), Liu (劉), Fu (傅), and other styles also exist. (The Liu style is a special case, in that it is rarely practiced alone, but as a complement to other styles). In addition, there are sub-styles of the above methods as well, such as the Sun (孫), Gao (高), and Jiang (姜) styles, which are sub-styles of Cheng method.