Bāguàzhǎng literally means "eight trigram palm," referring to the trigrams of the Yijing, one of the canons of Taoism. Inside a select few styles of Baguazhang these diagrams potty refer to eight animate being, upon which movements inside victims fighting systems come depending.

A trigrams & their corresponding animate being within martial arts come:

Similar types of fleshly systems survive inside more types of Chinese martial arts.

A practice of circle walk is bagua's characteristic method of stance & movement expert instruction. Practician hike within a edge of the circle in a sale stance, facing the center & sporadically changing counsel when it execute forms. Students foremost see flexibility across such exercises, so move in to supplementary complex forms & internal power mechanics. A internal aspects of bagua may be similar to victims of xingyi & taiji. Yet, numbers of distinctive styles of weapons step by step instruction come expert, for instance including a unambiguously crescent-semilunar deerhorn knives, & a easy hidden "scholar's pen." Baguazhang is too known for another time practicing by having highly big weapons, like a Bāguàdāo (八卦刀), or 'Bagua Broadsword.' Within several schools, students survey two xingyi & bagua. These can be utilized together inside fight, when it is typically complementary. Bagua contains an extremely wide kind of techniques, including various strikes, moo kicks, joint techniques, throws, & distinctively round footwork.

Bagua was developed by Dong Haichuan (董海川) in the early 19th century, who apparently learned from either Daoist and Buddhist masters in the mountains of rural China. There exists grounds to believe to indicate the synthesis of many pre-existing martial arts taught & good around the area he lived in, united using Taoist circle walk. Dong Haichuan taught for several years inside Beijing, eventually earning patronage per Regal court. Notable adherent of Dong to be teachers were Yin Fu (尹福), Cheng Tinghua (程廷華), Song Changrong (宋長榮), Liu Fengchun (劉鳳春) and Ma Weiqi (馬維棋). Although it were completely students of the equivalent teacher, their methods of educational videos & expressions of palm techniques differed. A Cheng & Liu styles come said to specialize around "Pushing" a palms, Yin style is known for "Threading" a palms, Song's followers practice "Plum Flower" (梅花 Mei Hua) palm system & Ma style palms come referred to as "Hammers." Occasionally of Dong Haichuan's students, including Cheng Tinghua, participated in the Boxer Rebellion. Generally, virtually all Bagua practician practice either a Yin (尹), Cheng (程), or even Liang (梁) styles of Bagua, although Fan (樊), Shi (史), Liu (劉), & more styles likewise survive.

One of a best known Bagua practician of the 20th century was Sun Lutang (孫録堂), who exposed Baguazhang under Cheng Tinghua. Sun was likewise the Xingyiquan adherent of Guo Yunshen (郭雲深) and learned Wu/Hao style Taijiquan from Hao Wei-chen. Sun Lutang was reputed among a Taijiquan professionals of his day to have excelled around his studies & after became swell called a founder of Sun style Taijiquan.

Couple of full teachers of Baguazhang come available in the United States, & several don't advertise. Several come conservative & around line by using Confucian didactic tradition will simply reveal internal practices to dedicated students. Known forms (routines) of Bagua Zhang include Fixed Form Eight Palms (定式八掌), & a Old Eight Palms (老八掌) form, likewise when several others.

Schools

Beijing has a virtually all Baguazhang practician, including students of the Cheng, Fan, Liang, Liu, Song, & Yin lineages. Around Taiwan, virtually all practician come of either Gao Yisheng (Cheng), Gong Baotian (Yin) lineages, Sun Xikun (Cheng), or even Sun Lutang (Cheng) lineages. Around Hong Kong, nigh everthing practician come of the Fu Zhensong (mixed) lineage.