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Baguazhang, or Bagua (older romanisation: Pa Kua or Pa Kua Chang), meaning “Eight Triagram Palm” is just like Xingyiquan one of the “internal” sisters arts of Taijiquan. If you don’t know about this art or have no interest in it, I doubt that you will have any interest in what I write here. Hang on if you want.
The origin of Baguazhang is debated, but it has become generally accepted that a eunuch and tax collector with the name of Dong Haichuan(1797 or 1813 – 1882), would be the inventor of this art. But in fact, there are some evidence that points to that the art of Baguazhang should be older and might have been taught by other people.
Dong Haichuan lived in closed quarters as a bodyguard for Prince Su, and later he got the mission from the Prince to collect taxes. This means that he only had a few students and not much time to teach except for Yin Fu who travelled nine years with Dong. The others he didn’t teach for a long time, and also, he acted as a teacher mostly later in life when he was old and poor and lived together with his students. As his students learned from Dong in different times and for different amount of times, they adapted Dong’s teachings in very different ways. Most people associate Bagua with the expression of Cheng Style from Cheng Tinghua, which was also adapted to Sun Style Bagua, but in fact, the variations of Bagua Styles and schools are big and they can look very different.
However, all Bagua styles have in common so called “circle walking”, some basic movements and the same kind of structure, though the content of what is taught can be more or less complex. The most common story, of how Dong originally learned his art, says that Dong learned exercises from Daoists and adapted them to martial arts. But the thing is that no one knows exactly what kind of exercises he learned. No one seem to be able to even come up with anything similar. Some people suggest that the circle walking comes from chants or religious ceremonies.
As this is a theory not backed by any kind of proofs and made up without any kind of explanation, I would suggest to leave those speculations alone and look at facts. One fact we can mention, is that it’s a very common thing in Chinese duel kind of swordplay, to walk around in circles, in order to try to find openings and angles to attack the opponent. Also, the basic movements of Bagua can all be made with a Chinese broadsword or dao (large saber). Even the rear hand in broadsword play, that is used to support and stabilise the weapon mostly for defensive movements, is evident in the basic Bagua movements.
So it’s very simple really, the circling and basic movements all come from basic swordplay, things that Dong had to practice and become skilled in due to the services as a bodyguard and tax collector. In many Chinese styles, the exact same movements that are performed in barehanded boxing systems can be performed with different kinds of weapons, so this adaption is not something new or original. But the footwork in Bagua is not adapted from what was commonly used in battlefield combat, and that you can see in many other martial art styles, but comes more from one-against-one duelling and defence against only a few opponents, as robbers and burglars.
However, there is still no evidence that it was Dong Haichuan who invented Baguazhang. One of the clues is something we can find in Sun Lutang’s book The Voices of Sun Lutang’s Teachers. First, when Sun Lutang cites his teacher Chen Tinghua, no one of them ever claim that Dong Haichuan invented Bagua. But even more revealing, Chang Tinghua said to Sun Lutang:
“To practice the method of Bagua Boxing, first find a knowledgeable teacher to instruct you who knows the meaning within the boxing art and the order of the sequence.“
Read it carefully and let this sink in for a moment. What is clearly indicated here is that there are other Bagua teachers. Cheng doesn’t say anything about that only a few taught the art, or that it would be hard to find a Bagua teacher. He says it in the way like it was possible to pick and choose amongst teachers. So from this statement, I can only presume that there must have been other Bagua teachers around except the few well known students of Dong Haichuan.
There are a few others than me who believe that history points to that Bagua should not have been created by Dong Haichuan. Very well respected Martial Arts Historian for instance, William Hu (who was more or less raised in an imperial library and probably has more knowledge than the very most people about traditional Chinese arts, and also a vast knowledge about Chinese culture and history in general), thought that Dong Haichuan was only one of several who taught Baguazhang at his own time. He also claimed that he had seen evidence that the name Baguazhang should be have been in use earlier than his time. Exactly what proofs he had is something he never explained. Sadly he had planned to write books and the internal arts and Taijiquan, but for different reasons, he abandoned a book that was already partially written. However, you can read his basic view about Baguazhang in this classical article.
And the third evidence that Dong Haichuan did not invent the art is maybe the most evident. And this is a related art, a very similar art with a similar name: Yin Yang Bapanzhang. From the records, this art is even older than Baguazhang. Some people believe that Dong Haichuan originally learned this art and was one of three disciples of Yin Yang Bapanzhang teacher Dong Linmeng. However, there is no evidence of this.
That two very similar styles should be developed around the same time by two different people is highly unlikely. Using my own judgement examining the clues together, it seems very unlikely that the art of Baguazhang would have been invented by Dong Haichuan. As this tradition seems to have been mostly practiced by bodyguards, security personnel and similar, some of the art might have disappeared after the need for this kind of people decreased and as firearms became more frequently used. Or it might have vanished as martial arts was banned. We don’t know for sure, maybe we’ll find more clues in the future. But still, it seems like some things might have been lost.