ChangWuJi
Orange Belt
Joined: 23 Jul 2001
Posts: 144
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 Posted: Sat Nov 17, 2001 10:17 am Post subject: |
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"Pa Kua Chang is a Chinese Martial Art thought to have been created in the middle of the 19th century by Tung Hai Ch'uan.
It is characterised by complex palm turning, evasive footwork, walking the circle exercises, a circular nature, Taoist philosophy, 'internal emphasis' and excellent tactics and strategy. It also happens to be a part of the 'nei ja'- a term describing all the internal martial arts, or Taoist chi practices as one family. Pa Kua Chang is also a byword for adaptability as any and all means are used in defence inc. open hands, elbows,shoulders, arms, hips, knees, legs, feet, and the head plus throwing and joint-locking. This is why it is said that Pa Kua 'uses movement as its foundation and transformation as its principle'. In action then it is described as 'a tornado hitting a brick wall' due to its footwork and explosive power.
It is these factors which separate it from the all pervasive Shaolin based martial arts. Indeed Pa Kua Chang is also distinctive in that it offers a comprehensive analysis of the five traditional branches of the martial arts, Health, Healing, Peak Performance, Self-defence and Spirituality.
Meaning:
Pa kua chang is Mandarin Chinese for 'Eight Diagram' Palm. Since there are three major systems for translating the language into there are also three correspondingly different ways for spelling and pronounciation. Pa kua chang is from the Wade-Giles option whereas ba gua zhang is from the Pinyin system and ba gua jang is from the Yale system. Wade-Giles is the most popular which is why I have used it although ba gua jing is probably the closest in pronounciation.
Origins -
Tung Hai Ch'uan supposedly chose the name as he wanted to connect the theory of his fighting art to the theory of the pa kua, or eight trigrams of the 'I Ching' , a philosophical book which treats life and the universe as being within a continuous state of motion governed by the Tao (see Taoism for an explanation).
It has survived for over 150 years as it has proved to be highly adaptable and extremely skillful. It has variously been described as 'a martial art to defeat other martial artists', a 'guerilla' martial art, a more active light-exercise alternative to Tai Chi and a martial art based on natural principles.
It was deemed to be so good that Yin Fu, Tung's most able student, was allowed to escort the dowager princess out of Beijing during the Boxer Rebellion of 1900. This was a great honour and proof of its capability as traditionally only the best martial artist in China was allowed to escort her. More recently Chinese Communist leader Mao Tse Tung was noted for having a well trusted bodyguard who was a 'pa kua' man.
There are four popular styles and numerous minor ones. They are from the Yin Fu, the Cheng Ting Hua, the Liang Zhenfu and the Ma Wei Chi lineages. Each person was taught by Tung Hai Chuan. Whilst differences exist between them due to the ability of the founders and their students they all essentially conform to the same basic principles.
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SaiFightsMS
KF VIP
Joined: 28 Oct 2001
Posts: 6397
Location: Ohio
Styles: Shotokan, Shorin Ryu, Shi-to Ryu
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| Posted: Sun Nov 18, 2001 9:54 pm Post subject: |
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Thanks for all the informations ChangWuJi. When I was in Korea in 1976 I started working a bit with Pa Kua, and was recently considering the possibility of picking it back up.
I remember there were 8 basic movements with a seemingly infinate number of applications. |
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on the post.
