wudang kungfu–Wudang Bagua Palm (Wudang Bagua Zhang)
Bagua Palm, also known as Youshen Bagua Palm (Body-Drifting Bagua Palm) and Bagua Lianhuan Palm (Bagua Linked Palm), was originally called “Zhuan Zhang” (Turning Palm). It is a traditional Chinese boxing style focused on changing palm techniques and circular stepping. As one of China’s three major internal martial arts (Neijia Quan), it also serves as a Daoist practice for health cultivation, physical fitness, and self-defense.
It was created by Dong Haichuan (c. 1813–1882) from Wen’an County, Hebei Province, during the Qing Dynasty. While traveling in the Jiangnan region, he received inspiration from Daoist cultivation methods and integrated them into martial arts. During the Xianfeng reign of the Qing Dynasty, Dong Haichuan taught “Bagua Lianhuan Palm” in Beijing, later shortened to “Bagua Zhang.”
Its movements crisscross in eight directions: the four cardinal and four ordinal directions, resembling the eight trigrams (Bagua) in the I Ching (Zhouyi), hence the name Bagua Palm. Many ancient Bagua manuals explain its principles using the eight trigrams, with each trigram representing one of the eight basic palms.
By the late Qing Dynasty, Bagua Palm flourished among the people and spread to Wudang Mountain.
The term “Bagua” (Eight Trigrams) first appeared in the I Ching:
“The Supreme Ultimate generates the Two Forces;
the Two Forces generate the Four Images;
the Four Images generate the Eight Trigrams.”
Originally, Bagua referred to eight directions: north, south, east, west, northwest, southwest, northeast, and southeast. Bagua Palm centers on palm techniques, with eight basic palms corresponding to the number of trigrams. Practitioners move in circles using Bai Kou steps (swing and lock steps), covering all eight directions—unlike most arts that move linearly or only in four corners—thus earning the name Bagua Palm.
Bagua Palm emphasizes changing palm methods and circular stepping (walking the circle). Practitioners trace a circle with a radius equal to the length of one arm and move along it. It combines martial techniques with Daoyin and Tuna (breath and movement cultivation), training both internal and external aspects. It strengthens the body and develops offensive and defensive combat skills.
One exception is a 64‑form set practiced in a straight line.
As one of the three most famous internal martial arts, Bagua Palm embodies the Daoist concept of Yin‑Yang palms for health, fitness, and self‑defense. It uses eight standing postures as foundational turning skills and integrates eight circling hands. Its basic steps include one to eight types of swing, lock, and forward steps. The core practice is circling and turning, with the body unified in motion, steps flowing smoothly.
Body requirements:
twisting, turning, rotating, and flipping in full coordination;
moving like a wandering dragon;
turning like an eagle.
Main hand techniques:
thrusting, inserting, chopping, raising, crossing, ramming, locking, flipping, lifting, and others.
Bagua Palm merges health cultivation and combat, refining moral character while unifying external skill and internal power. It draws from many traditions and focuses primarily on palm techniques.
Distinguished from other styles by its circular walking, Tangni Bu (mud‑treading step), Jianzi Tui (scissors legs), stability “like riding in a sedan chair,” locking and twisting transitions, and striking obliquely while avoiding direct confrontation, Bagua Palm shows remarkable effects in healing, internal power, combat, and moral cultivation—especially in internal alchemy and character refinement.
It emphasizes flexible body movement. Practitioners constantly circle to change distance and angle, avoid the front and attack the side, and seize opportunities to strike. Hand techniques adapt spontaneously, using the greater agility of palms over fists and hooks. Techniques include pushing, lifting, covering, chopping, ramming, shifting, intercepting, and grappling.
Its four characteristics:
1. Walking
2. Gazing
3. Sitting (posture)
4. Flipping
These conditions build speed, agility, and especially lower‑body strength. Bagua Palm begins with Xing Zhuang (moving postures) and Tangni Bu (mud‑treading steps). Twisting, rotating, and turning form its basic motion, with changing palms as its main combat method. It trains both inside and outside, unifying body and mind: the body is nimble like a dragon flying, palms transform endlessly while turning.
Every movement is a technique, combining hardness and softness, integrating kicks, strikes, throws, and grapples. Twisting, wrapping, drilling, and turning, it avoids the direct and strikes the oblique, circling and striking continuously. By using palms instead of fists and stepping in circles, Bagua Palm broke from traditional linear, fist‑dominant boxing, opening a new realm for Chinese martial arts.
Its steps focus on lifting, treading, swinging, and locking, rotating left and right without interruption. Bagua Palm values movement above all: intent like a floating banner, qi like moving clouds, rolling and drilling, contending and wrapping, stillness and motion supporting each other, hardness and softness blending.
A skilled practitioner moves like a wandering dragon—seen at the head, lost at the tail; swift like the wind—seen only in shadow, not in form. Appearing ahead, then suddenly behind, they often leave opponents disoriented. In combat, they avoid solidity and strike emptiness, using hands, shoulders, and intent freely.
Bagua Palm includes partner forms and free sparring. Weapons include the broadsword, sword, staff, and Mandarin Duck Moon Hooks (Ziyu Yuanyang Yue). Weapon methods follow the same stepping and palm principles.
Bagua Broadsword, also known as “Eight Plate Broadsword,” is 1.4 meters long and weighs 2 kilograms, longer and heavier than a typical single‑edged sword.
Main Weapons of Bagua Palm
– Ziyu Yuanyang Yue (Mandarin Duck Moon Hooks, also called Sun‑Moon Heaven‑Earth Sword)
– Bagua Broadsword
– Bagua Staff
– Bagua Spear
– Spring‑Autumn Broadsword
– Body‑War Spear
– Linked Sword
– Linked Pure Yang Sword
– Linked Coiled Dragon Staff
– Five Elements Staff
– Kunlun Shovel
The Eight Old Palms
Bagua Palm is also called the “Eight Old Palms”:
Single Changing Palm, Double Changing Palm, Following Palm, Back‑Turning Palm, Body‑Turning Palm, Grinding Palm, Three Thrusting Palms, and Returning Palm.
Lineages vary by region. Some use eight animal forms: lion, deer, snake, hawk, dragon, bear, phoenix, and monkey. Others use Double Ramming Palm, Shaking Palm, Thrusting Palm, Lifting Palm, etc. Each palm can evolve into many variations, leading to the saying:
“One palm produces eight palms; eight palms produce sixty‑four palms.”
Practice Forms
Bagua Palm includes solo practice, partner practice, and free sparring.
According to ancient manuals, the system also includes 18 Arhat Hands, 72 Hidden Kicks, and 72 Intercepting Legs, though these are rarely transmitted today.
Weapons include broadswords, spears, swords, halberds, and others. All follow the principles of changing while moving, weapons following the body, body following steps, and forms linking continuously. It also uses rare paired short weapons: Mandarin Duck Hooks, Chicken‑Claw Daggers, Wind‑Fire Wheels, and Judge’s Pens.
Bagua Palm improves flexibility, speed, and endurance, especially lower‑body strength.
Stepping Characteristics
Bagua Palm features agile body and steps, changing with every movement. In combat, the body rises, falls, twists, and turns with nimble variety. A martial proverb describes it:
“Body like a wandering dragon, gaze like a guarding ape, sitting like a crouching tiger, turning like a circling eagle.”
Basic training focuses on standing postures and moving steps.
Body requirements:
head up, neck straight, waist erect, hips relaxed, shoulders sunk, elbows dropped, abdomen full, chest open, hips tucked, crotch lifted.
Stepping requirements:
smooth rising and falling, clear swing and lock steps, distinct emptiness and solidity, walking like treading mud, advancing like riding in a sedan chair, feet brushing the ankles.
When circling:
inner foot steps straight, outer foot locks inward, knees close, crotch not open.
Body work emphasizes twisting, rotating, turning, and flipping, circular and unobstructed.
Hand shapes: Dragon Claw Palm and Ox Tongue Palm.
Sixteen main hand techniques:
push, lift, lead, guide, shift, block, intercept, lock, catch, grasp, hook, strike, seal, close, flash, display.
It allows advance and retreat, neutralization and generation, combining emptiness and solidity with endless variation. Every palm issues from the waist as axis, whole body unified, internal and external integrated. Externally: hands, eyes, body, methods, steps. Internally: heart, mind, intent, qi, power.
Movements require:
neck straight, head lifted, shoulders relaxed, elbows dropped, chest open, abdomen full, waist erect, hips relaxed, hips tucked, knees closed, toes gripping the ground.
Bagua Palm follows the principles:
“Rolling and drilling, contending and wrapping;
wonder and orthodoxy generating each other;
walking, turning, twisting, and flipping;
body following steps, palms following body;
moving like a dragon, turning like a monkey,
changing like an eagle, powerful like a tiger.”
It uses curve to neutralize straight, motion to disturb stillness, stillness to control motion.
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Three Stages of Skill
Bagua Palm is trained in three stages:
Fixed Frame, Living Frame, Changing Frame.
1. Fixed Frame
Basic training. Each form must be precise and regular, practiced slowly to ensure correct posture, stable stances, and smooth stepping. It requires mastering the “Nine Essentials”:
– Collapse (sinking waist)
– Lock (closing chest)
– Lift (lifting tailbone, anus gently contracted)
– Top (head up, tongue up, hands forward)
– Wrap (wrapping arms)
– Relax (relax shoulders, sink qi)
– Drop (drop elbows)
– Shrink (sink hips and shoulders)
– Rise drill, fall flip (arm rotation inward and outward)
Avoid three major flaws:
puffed chest and abdomen, forced breathing, rigid strength.
2. Living Frame
Focuses on coordinated movement, mastering the essentials while turning and changing smoothly.
3. Changing Frame
Unifies internal and external. Intent leads the body, changing freely, threading spontaneously without form restrictions: light as a feather, fast as lightning, stable as a rock.