Liu Yun Qiao Baguazhang Part 2

The Deeper Meaning of Baguazhang

A song of bagua goes:

Ba gua zhang; zou wei xian.

In Bagua; the feet come first.

Shou ji fang; qu ji huan.

Receiving is sending; leaving is returning

Bian zhuan xu shi, bu zhong can.

Turning and changing between empty and solid, there is majesty in the footwork.

‘can’ (pronounced ‘tsaan’) is a tricky word. Today, it commonly means ‘to participate’ but in classical Chinese it is used as an honorable term of address. It sometimes means, ‘to explore’ or ‘to examine’. I would need a gong-fu expert to explain the meaning of the last line as it doesn’t seem to be addressed in the following explanation of the poem.

The poem directly and clearly emphasizes bagua’s characteristic footwork. How does one walk? The root of baguazhang is the twisting and turning of the body. Baguazhang’s great invention was the walking of the circle (palms).

When walking the circle, the body must be loose and comfortable, like riding in a palanquin. The attention is focused on the lower legs, ---no energy must be wasted. The heart should be even and the qi, peaceful. It is extraordinarily comfortable. At the beginning there is no particular form or set of rules. Just start slowly and then form one of the palms. There’s no need to immediately drop down into your stance. There are 3 ways of training, upper, middle and lower basin. Lower basin is extremely difficult. People used to say you can train circle walking on a table big enough for 8 people; you could also train underneath it. This shows how deep the stances can get during walking. 

When walking, both legs strength is directed along the circle but the can’t be doing any work, they just move along naturally. The speed must be smooth and even with no sudden changes. Not to slow and not to fast. It must be one energy

down to the end. The feet rubbing on the ground causes jing to be generated. The character jing in this passage means essence, a rice radical. The character associated with the trio of jing, qi and shen, not the other jing that can represent a kind of internal power as used in the term fa jing.

This causes the yang to rise more easily. At this time the attention should be on advancing.

The single palm change is the mother of ten thousand palms. The mother palms give birth to them all. It’s place is between stillness and motion. It could be moving; it could be still. Towards movement but not moving. The San Jian Zhao (3 points stance) of Baji, the San Ti Shi of Xing Yi Quan, the Bu Chan Shi (Snatching a Cicada Stance) of Preying Mantis, The Ti Shou Shi (‘rising hands stance; the opening position) of Taijiquan, all of them follow this logic. The incredible power of baguazhang can all be found within the single palm change.

The single palm change is heavy on the strength but not on the qi. When training the single palm change you must be opened up and comfortable. You can not be too loose, limp and wobbling along the ground; The double palm change is heavy on the qi but not on the strength. The qi is long and fine. The body is hidden and appears empty. In the middle of the single palm change, you attention should be focused on the space between the fingertips of the hand on the inside of the circle you are walking. Qi starts in the dan tian and though your vision is bought all the way out to your fingertips. It’s only when you walk until you forget yourself that you are really doing the real thing.

Speaking of walking, we can’t really separate stepping from the footwork of bagua. There are many kinds. The main ones are luo (sinking; dropping), bai (opened up, turned out), kou (hooking), ning (twisting/turning, like pinching someone), xuan (turning/spiraling, like a tornado), zou (walking), zhuan (yet another word for turning, more like a wheel this time) and the most distinctive, tang ni bu (muddy stepping).

When walking in tang ni bu, backs of the feet (or possibly the feet and the back, in Chinese zou bei) very evenly move forward. The yong quan sticks to the ground. (the yong quan is thenbubbling spring acupoint in the middle of the bottom of the foot), The face of the feet is very even upon the ground, like walking in mud, the foot must turn deeply, move lightly and can’t move up or down very much. When changing feet (i.e. advancing a step or changing direction) the rear foot must grasp the earth with all five toes. It is as if the yong quan in the ‘heart’ of the foot is taking a breath of air and then digging a tiny little hole in the ground. This is truly marvelous spirit in walking! The lines of force in the thighs connect straight into the back and then push the head up and unify the body into a single line of force. This kind of walking is like a cat walking on snow.

Gong Bao Tian’s qing gong (lightness skill) let him move around like a ghost. This skill most certainly developed out of his circle walk practice.

Bagua emphasizes twisting and turning movements. This especially allows the practitioner to take advantage of every portion of the body, putting it to work. The twisting of bagua places primary importance on the spine. At a certain level you must twist, but every position must be comfortable. While twisting you should be like a spring. There is force from the outside - in and there is also force going from the inside – out, chan si. There is twisting throughout every part of the body. Even from the meridians, the tendons of the entire body are twisted into a single pillar. This allows the agility to come out from every bit of connective tissue. It commands the liquid blood to circulate. (as opposed to the broader sense of the word ‘word’ within the context of TCM.)

In Gaguazhang there are the ‘Pre-heaven Palms’ and the ‘Post Heaven Palms’. The pre-heaven palms do not have very specific shapes. The post heaven palms are more specific as to their external form. There are the heart, liver, lungs and kidney on the inside and the head, back, waist and belly on the outside. Training progresses from the external post heaven palms to the internal post heaven palms. Then training further progresses to the pre heaven palms. There is also a progression from conscious, mindful training to training without thinking about it. (wu yi ; no-mind. Not mindlessness but more of a ‘zen’ meditative state) By the time one has trained the pre-heaven palms, he has brought together the ‘6 harmonies’. In the circle, secrets hide in the legs. Throughout the day, there are 6 yin and six yang. In a year there are 4 seasons and 4 energies. All of these patterns are connected.

So then, Gong Bao Tian said of Lan Tai Shan:

Ci chu xi wu jin bu shen su!

(In this place, training gong-fu, you can advance magically fast!)

This was his way of entering into Dao. This is a wonderful feeling of all the ten thousand changes harmonizing together.

Bibliography:

• 1. Liu Yun Qiao’s Thoughts on Studying Martial Arts; Liu Yun Qiao Da Shi ji qi wu xue si

     1. xiang.

  2. The Life of Gong Bao Tian; Gong Bao Tian Zhuan