Bagua zhang: A Brief Overview

In some respects Xingyi chuan practice forms the hub or the core of our methods in the school.

However, gaining a firm understanding and deep appreciation of its sister art, Bagua zhang, is essential for the higher skills necessary to become a dynamic and informed internal martial arts practitioner.

Like Xingyi, Bagua has its roots deep into ancient Daoist concepts, and indeed the martial art evolved from early Daoist ‘circle walking’ practices, a method used by the Daoists (and probably shamanic in origin) to “communicate with heaven and earth”, and integrate celestial and earthly energies with that of the practitioner.

Ba Gua places a (natural) emphasis on circular movement and on constant motion, and has neigong practices that are similar to those of Xingyi, although they may be more static in their development and horizontal in their application.

It too aligns with the ancient Daoist concepts, having been developed to conform with the Ba Gua (eight directions of energetic movement and influence) theory of constant change.

The only constant is change