Bajiquan & Piguazhang

Bajiquan (八極拳) and Piguazhang (劈掛拳) are paired systems of northern China. Bajiquan fights at close range with explosive, short-power issuing; Piguazhang swings long, whipping palms across a wide arc. The proverb that pairs them — 「八極加劈掛，神鬼都不怕」 (“Baji plus Pigua, and even gods and demons need not fear”) — records how the arts were transmitted: as one curriculum, not two. A saying among practitioners states the division of labor more plainly: Bajiquan is the skeleton, Piguazhang the flesh.[1][2][3]

The name: eight extremes, open gates

The word Baji (八極) comes from the Huainanzi (淮南子·墬形訓): 「八紘之外， 乃有八極」 — beyond the eight corners of the world lie the eight extremes. In the art’s name it means force expressed to the farthest reach in every direction. The fuller name Kaimen Bajiquan (開門八極拳, “Open-Gate Bajiquan”) carries three senses at once: the six great openings (六大開) that generate its power; the directness of 开门见山, straight up the middle; and the tactical aim of breaking through the opponent’s “gate” — his guard.[1][2]

Wu Zhong, the first ancestor

The recorded tradition begins with Wu Zhong (吳鐘, 1733–1823), a Muslim boxer of Mengcun village, Cangzhou, courtesy name Hongsheng (弘聲). Lineage histories credit him with the art’s codification; gate tradition adds that a master named Lai Kuiyuan (賴魁元) taught him, and that he “fought Shaolin three times” (三打少林寺) — stories preserved inside the school rather than in independent records, and marked as such here. Wu Zhong’s daughter Wu Yong (吳永), called the heroine of Bajiquan (八極女傑), carried the line onward; her son Wu Ying (吳溁) compiled the first Bajiquan Manual (《八極拳譜》) and established the Mengcun Wu family transmission.[2][3][4]

Two villages, two branches

From Cangzhou the art spread chiefly through two village lines, and their characters still describe the art’s two registers:

• Mengcun Bajiquan (孟村八極) — the Wu family’s own line: measured postures, complete routines, equal weight on health and combat.
• Luotuan Bajiquan (羅疃八極) — founded by Li Dazhong (李大忠, 1811–1875): harder, combat-first, and unmatched at the spear. It became the more influential branch; most Bajiquan practiced worldwide descends from Luotuan.[3][5]

Other lines spread the art further: Xu Shengtai’s line in Tianjin and the northeast; the Ma brothers Fengtu and Yingtu, who folded Bajiquan and Piguazhang into the Tongbei curriculum of the northwest; Huo Diange’s line in Changchun; the Li family line of Li Jianwu and Li Etang; and Liu Yunqiao’s Wutan line in Taiwan. See Huo Diange and Liu Yunqiao.

The Luotuan line to Li Shuwen

The line that reached the English-speaking record runs through Luotuan, the “nest of divine spears” (神槍窩):

Li Dazhong (1811–1875) → Zhang Keming (張克明, 1838–1908, Li’s student and son-in-law) → Huang Shihai (黃士海, 1851–1910, the “Divine Spear Huang Sihai,” Li’s grandson by marriage as well as his student) and Zhang Jingxing (張景星, 1843–1924, Zhang Keming’s son) → Li Shuwen (李書文, 1862–1934) → Huo Diange (霍殿閣, 1886–1942).

Zhang Jingxing was also the first teacher of Li Shuwen, whose spear gave the line its name; Huang Shihai finished his spear training. The generation numbering inside Luotuan histories is counted differently by different compilers, so the archive states the chain without ordinals.[3][5][6]

The six great openings

The six big openings (六大開) are Bajiquan’s six methods of issuing force. Branches name them slightly differently; the version common to the Li Shuwen – Huo Diange – Liu Yunqiao line is:

1. Ding (頂) — to butt, driving through with the whole body.
2. Bao (抱) — to wrap, closing the opponent inside the frame.
3. Dan (單) — the single strike, one arm’s concentrated burst.
4. Ti (提) — to lift, breaking balance upward.
5. Kua (挎) — to carry across, the hip-and-arm throw.
6. Chan (纏) — to coil, winding around the opponent’s center.[2][6]

The eight great forms

The eight great forms (八大招), sometimes called the “guardhouse fist” of the art (八極看家拳), are its classic combat sequences. Again the common line’s naming:

1. 閻王三點手 — Yama points three times.
2. 猛虎硬爬山 — the fierce tiger climbs the mountain hard.
3. 迎門三不顧 — three disregard at the facing gate.
4. 霸王硬折韁 — the overlord hard-breaks the rein.
5. 迎風朝陽手 — hand facing the wind toward the sun.
6. 硬開門戶 — forcing the gate open.
7. 左右硬開門 — forcing the gate open, left and right.
8. 黃鶯雙抱爪 — the oriole clasps with double claws.[2][6]

Huo Diange’s line set its own eight “responsive” sequences (應手拳) with different names — a reminder that the eight招 are a family of traditions, not a single fixed list.

Pigua: the long-range counterpart

Piguazhang’s formal name is 劈掛拳, “the chopping-hanging fist” (also written 披掛拳, and taught as 劈掛掌): pi (劈) is the strike from above downward, gua (掛) the lift from below upward — one falling, one rising, long and hard beside Bajiquan’s close and sudden. Its salt-marsh tradition is traced through Yanshan county: a Daoist of the Han surname in the Ming dynasty (a legendary attribution), Zuo Baomei (左寶梅) in the Kangxi era, who fixed the Yanshan system, Pan Kui (潘奎) in the Qianlong–Jiaqing years, and in the Republican era the Ma brothers, who carried it nationwide inside the Tongbei curriculum. Generations of Bajiquan masters — Li Shuwen and Huo Diange among them — trained both arts together. Pigua’s method is 放長擊遠, striking far with a fully extended arm: big, open, the waist a turning axle. “At one zhang, the long art hits first” (遠打人一丈).[2][3][7]

The complete system

Bajiquan’s curriculum:

• Routines: the small frame (小架, foundation), the large frame (大架, complete form), single-form drills, and paired “docking” practice (對接).
• Power: the six great openings and the eight great forms.
• Weapons: the six-harmonies great spear (六合大槍), the art’s proof and its most guarded skill, plus the night-battle saber, Chunyang sword, walker’s staff, and nine-section whip.
• Standing: the two-powers post (兩儀樁), the three-butting auxiliary posts (三靠樁), the seven-star post (七星樁) — the line 「八極之根在兩儀」 names the root.
• Internal classics: the Yijin, Yigu, and Yisui works.

Piguazhang’s curriculum: slow and fast routines; the six hand methods 劈、掛、撩、掃、彈、點; the long-strike step, crouching step, and leaping step; the Pigua saber and staff.

Courts, armies, and consoles

Bajiquan’s history runs unusually close to power. Wu Zhong is said to have taught at court (a gate tradition, not an official record); Huo Diange became Puyi’s martial teacher and officer of the palace guard; Li Shuwen instructed in the armies of Xu Lanzhou and Li Jinglin; Liu Yunqiao trained the presidential guard in Taiwan; and the art’s close-range methods appear in modern Chinese military and police close-combat materials. A phrase current in Chinese martial-arts writing calls it the only boxing adopted by both the last emperor and the republic’s armed forces. In Japan, where Matsuda Takatoshi studied and wrote about the art, Bajiquan is arguably better known than in much of China — fighting games have made Li Shuwen’s name familiar to millions who have never seen a spear.[6][8]

The proverb, and the character of the art

「文有太極安天下，武有八極定乾坤」 — “In letters, Tai Chi settles the realm; in arms, Baji secures it.” The saying is attributed to the Qianlong emperor, but no official record carries it, and the archive marks it as likely a later embellishment. The art’s own character needs no embellishment: Cangzhou’s boxers called the style hard (剛), and Li Shuwen’s maxim 剛拳無二打 — “the hard fist has no second strike” — set the tone. The training adage runs 「寧在一思進， 莫在一思存」: in attack, think forward; never think of holding back.[2][9]

The Mengcun gatherings

Mengcun county, registered as the home of the art, holds an international Bajiquan exhibition and exchange gathering that has run for more than ten editions — several thousand practitioners from dozens of countries, routine competition, pushing hands, seminars, and ancestor-honoring rites at the tombs. In 2006 the State Council inscribed “Cangzhou martial arts — Bajiquan” as national intangible cultural heritage (Ⅵ-28), with Mengcun as the registering body; the 2021 fifth-batch extension added further lines. Ten to twelve generations, roughly three hundred years, stand behind the registration.[1][10]

Golden Eagle and the Baji line

The Golden Eagle schools in Alabama taught Bajiquan and Piguazhang alongside Mantis, Northern Shaolin, and Mizong Luohan in their 2010s programs, with a documented curriculum of 52 weapons. The archive’s historical document on Li Shuwen at this site’s original address became part of the English-language record of the art and is cited by encyclopedia articles on Bajiquan. See the archive’s own history.

Cautions

• Origins before Wu Zhong — Ming-era attributions, or claims connecting the art to Zhang Sanfeng — have no independent documentation; the archive treats Wu Zhong in the Qing dynasty as the art’s first verifiable organizer.
• The “three fights at Shaolin” and the master Lai Kuiyuan are gate traditions, preserved inside the school, not external records.
• The six openings and eight forms are named differently across branches; this page gives the version common to the Li Shuwen–Huo Diange–Liu Yunqiao line and notes the variation.
• The Qianlong proverb is likely a later ascription; it is quoted for what it records of the art’s reputation.
• Pigua’s early lineage is less firmly documented than Bajiqi’s; the Ming-era Daoist attribution is legendary.
• Superlatives (“the fiercest boxing”) are avoided; the art is described as known for hard, practical close combat.

[1] 孟村八极拳国家级非物质文化遗产申报文本, 2006; 国务院 Ⅵ-28 (secondary).

[2] 《沧州武术志》八极拳篇、劈挂拳篇, 1991 (primary).

[3] 《八极拳谱》, 吴溁编, 清嘉庆本及传抄本 (primary); 孟村吴氏族谱 (primary).

[4] 孟村八极拳研究会官网 (secondary).

[5] 八极拳古谱（罗疃系统）(primary).

[6] 刘云樵口述《八极拳》, 台北武坛 (historical); 《武坛》杂志合订本 1970–1992 (secondary).

[7] 劈挂拳谱（盐山左氏、潘家）(primary); 马凤图、 马英图著述 (historical).

[8] 松田隆智《图说中国武术史》《八极拳入门》 (secondary);溥仪《我的前半生》、李国雄口述《伴驾生涯》 (historical).

[9] 武林口碑, 记于各系拳谱与口述 (secondary).

[10] 国务院 2021 年第五批扩展项目 (secondary).