Ba Gua, Pa Kua, Bagua, Pakua, Bagua zhang, Bagua Quan, Pakua Chuan, which ever way you
prefer to spell or pronounce it, it is the same sysytem. Usually if the chuan or zhang is
left out of the spelling then one would be referring to the philosophical aspects of the
art, but to me you cannot have one without the other. I have also heard bagua referred to
as eight trigram boxing and eight diagram boxing, being the art is based upon the I-Ching,
I believe Eight Trigram Boxing would be the most appropriate.
The origins of pakua can be traced back to I Ching, which is said to be over 3000 years
old. The I Ching, or Book of Changes, contains the outline for a source a divination. The
technique originally involved the use of tortoise shell that was heated then cracked, the
cracks correlated to the eight trigrams, which in turn, could predict future events. The
I-Ching method was developed by Fu His, at a later date the I Ching was
"updated" by King Wang and his son.
The idea behind the I Ching is that there is a singularity that all things derive from.
This singularity devided, this was represented by a whole line and a devided line. These
two continually split until it created the eight trigrams, or the pakua. Each of the kua's
relate to a planet, season, color, time, family member, element, and many other things.
The kua's are set in a circle and have a creative and destructive cycle, it is through
this that the martial art of pakua was formed.
Unlike most martial arts, Ba Gua can be traced back to its founder, and like other
systems, this also has been twisted and filled with falsehoods in hopes to further the
mysteries that surround the martial arts. Dong Haichuan is accredited as the originator of
Ba Gua; Dong Haichuan's martial skills were already at a very high level, when he began to
study with some Doaist monks who used circle walking as a form of moving meditation. Dong
Hai Tuen incorporated their philosophies and circular methods to create Bagua. Some say
Dong Hai Tuen learned Pakua from a monk named Bi Deng Xia, who himself learned bagua from
the real originator. There are, of course, other versions of the origins of pakua, too
numerous to name here. For all that it is worth Dong Hai Tuen's students definitely
contributed to the popularization of this style through out the world, and many of the
recognized styles of Ba Gua can be traced back to the students of Dong Haichuan.
Ba Gua usually consists of various circle walking techniques, followed by two "palm
changes" (ways to reverse direction on the circle), and eight postures, sometimes
named after animals, and sometimes not. These eight postures in turn create an endless
array of combination; the most widely used is the 64 combination sets, because eight times
eight equal sixty-four. Chi gung is usually practiced along with exercise and warm up
sets. Some systems offer weapons and others don't, the most common weapons include the
straight sword, saber, broadsword, deer horns, staff, and double daggers. The original
version is usually referred to as dragon or swimming dragon style.
Web link for Ba Gua:
http://www.bodyelectricmethod.com, http://www.plumflower.com/ba_gua_zhang_2_.htm,
http://www.pa-kua.com/, http://www.shenwu.com/bagua.htm, http://site.netopia.com/bagua, http://www.circle-of-light.com/fengshui/bagua.html,
http://www.hsing-i.com/pa_kua/, http://www.chiflow.com/pakua_overview.htm,
Written by:
Jay C Shrewsbury
martialarts@oberlin.net
www.bodyelectricmethod.com
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