Hundred Schools of Thought, Martial Arts

The art of Baguazhang is famous for it's Turning The Circle stepping methods. This staple of Baguazhang training can be seen more often than any application or technique drilling on YouTube or in books. But many forms of Baguazhang are trained specifically as forms, and much can be lost in this art when not taken out of the circle. Here at Hundred Schools of Thought Martial Arts, the Zhen Trigram Baguazhang course is a complete martial system, broken down and dissected to create a holistic approach for both combat and cultivation.


The name itself can be a bit of a mystery. Broken down, you have two parts. The Bagua is the famous symbol of the 8 Trigrams (3 lines, some solid, some broken) and the Taiji (Yin & Yang) symbol in the middle (as seen to the right). This symbol represents to many forms of change, and the 9 directions on can go to create these changes in life. North, south, east, west, the four corners, and staying still make up these changes. Additionally the term zhang can be compared to quan in Taijiquan. Here, zhang means "palm," as in the palm of the hand used for many of the striking methods in the system. To put this together, the art of Baguazhang is the study of applying the principles of the 8 Trigrams, Taiji, and Yijing (Book of Changes), into your martial training and theory.

The ideas in Bagua of attacking methods very greatly due to the many combat methods which may be applied. Much of this system involves moving to the outside of your opponent's attacks until an opportune moment is unraveled. Here, you then enter or guide the opponent to disrupt their center, and attack once they are out of their element for defense and attack. This all may take place in the brief span of a moment, but through Turning The Circle and Pushing Hands, a student develops the ability to sense this moment and capitalize.

An important concept in Baguazhang are its major two principles of Turning and Changing. These are interpreted many different ways in the many forms of Baguazhang offered, but here at HSOT-MA, these are defined as the two ways to deal with an opponents oncoming force. Never does a student meet force with force. This system is internal, in which the student borrows and utilizes the opponents force for their own benefit. Relying on sensitivity and agility, the Baguazhang student out maneuvers and out-waits their opponent.

Turning is considered the idea of turning on opponent's force. Many styles use this as redirection. But in Baguazhang, this turn can be so drastic, it may seem more like "jamming the strike" at times and not simply redirecting. By considering it to be turning the force, the turn can be as acute or obtuse as necessary.

The idea of Changing roots back to the Yijing where one force is necessary to bring about change in another. Be it natural, supernatural, or simply time. This is when a Baguazhang student is able to apply particular forces on the attacker to generate their own awareness of the situation. This will cause the attacker to change their attack plan, and generate a new vat of energy for the Baguazhang student to use.

Through applying changing and turning, the techniques stem, and the system appears as a tool to maintain movement, constantly be a muse for change in the opponent, never stagnant, and constantly turning force until the moment of entry. Even while taking your strikes, grabs, pushes, and sweeps, the Baguazhang student is listening for moments where he or she must turn and change also.

Continue onto Part 2