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Bagua
Bagua, or ba gua zhang, literally means "eight trigram palm. It is also known as pa kua or pa kua chang.
Physical bases:
-Zhan Zhuang (standing posture)
-Xing Bu (moving steps)
-walking while circling
Basic Steps:
-Bai Kou Bu (sway and buckle step)
-Tang Ni Bu (walking in mud step)
I have met a master of pa kua in the St. Louis area that stated this art is one of the most difficult to learn or even comprehend. I studied it for a very short while. I learned the eight palms but did not go much into applications so the rest of my research is from other martial artists, books, etc. I must admit that once mastered the art would be a very strong weapon!
Founder
Dong Haichuan
Said to have created the art around the early 19th century. He trained with Buddhist masters and possibly taoist somewhere in the mountains of China.
Some of Master Dong's famous disciples include Fu Chen Sung, Yin Fu, and Cheng Tinghua.
The art is derived from many different arts (it is unclear which arts are incorporated). They also added the concept of taoist circle walking. Practitioners focus on using the palm as a more effective form of striking, rather than the fist. Some other methods used include pushing, taking, buckling, catching, hooking, closing, and pointing.
Another aspect is constant movement. Basically the practitioner is harder to hit because they no longer occupy the space that the opponent was aiming for.
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Actually, bagua is not hard to learn, with the right teacher. The problem is that bagua is a beltless system based upon the book of changes, and therefore ...