8 Trigrams (Bagua) in Beijing

Today was especially noteworthy, and I know you’re all thinking it’s because I went to one of the top tourist attractions of Beijing, but I must tell you it is not.  Instead, I was able to go able to go and practice Baguazhang (八卦掌；Eight Trigram Palm), an internal style of Chinese martial arts.  Baguazhang, although an internal style like Tai Chi, is based around walking in a circle, which is often personified by the yin yang symbol surrounded by eight trigrams from the I-Ching (易经；Yi Jing), or Book of Changes, in an octagon.  The eight trigrams in the symbol each have their own significance in regards to the cardinal directions, the body, times of day and the zodiac, and are taken from the 64 hexagrams (shown below) in the Yi Jing. 

Above: the Eight Trigrams (Bagua)

 

As this was my first time using the Beijing Subway to get somewhere, it was a rather interesting and long journey.  I had to transfer trains twice, which wasn’t that complicated thanks to signs in Chinese and English that showed how to transfer.  My destination was Xizhimen Station (西直门站；Shi Zhir Men Zhan), slightly Northwest of the center of the city and close to the Beijing Zoo and Beijing North Railway Station (in fact, the railway station can be accessed right after one exits the subway).  From the station I walked a bit and eventually ran into the American I had contacted about Bagua, who then led me across a foot bridge to an island park where I was able to meet his Shifu, Sui Yunjiang, before taking a bit to stretch out and warm up before class began.  During class, my American acquaintance, Keoni, explained to me that Master Sui not only taught Baguazhang but another style called Meihuazhuang (梅花桩；Plum Flower Pillars), which, after seeing a bit of it, seemed somewhat like Long Fist and Bagua combined, but with slightly different movements.  While I wanted to get some pictures of the Meihuazhuang students practicing, it was difficult to catch a shot.  The course began with some Contemporary Wushu-like exercises such as crescent moon kicks, sidekicks, and other kicks before moving into combinations of these with sweeps, hits and jumps before moving onto butterfly kicks and 50 jumping inward and outward crescent moon kicks.  Following this, we stretched out again and then I was able to begin some training in Bagua.  I trained with Keoni in his “circle”, which was a piece of ground that had been walked on so much that it had itself become a circle, the only one that was deeper was Shifu Sui’s Circle (see below),

 

 which was unfortunately covered in water from the rain earlier that day.  That day I went over the basic stepping movement and direction changes of Bagua, while Keoni explained to me that the style they practiced Liang Baguazhang, was different than the style I had practiced in Arizona, Sun Baguazhang (from what I can remember, as I had only jumped on my interest in seriously training in Bagua this past year), in that there were no forms based on the 8 Animals of Bagua, but the animal forms sometimes showed up in the various forms within the Liang system.  So, until around 6 PM that night I practiced basic stepping and direction changes, as well as the positioning of the feet, lowering the qi into the Dantian and just making sure to get the little things right, all the while paying attention to the sun setting on the old Beijing Exhibition Center across the canal and the people walking past, watching and listening. 

 

Following this, we went to Shifu Sui’s apartment (which was close by) for tea.  Keoni explained to me that even though the area around Xizhimen had changed over the years, Shifu Sui and his apartment had changed very little during this period.  Sure enough, the apartment building itself was small compared to other places I had been in China, with concrete staircases and very small rooms when looking at the other buildings I had been in.  Nonetheless, it was a nice and cozy place, as when you walked in, there was a brief hallway where one removed their shoes before finding a small bathroom to the left (as small as the one in my dormitory) and a kitchen to the right, before one entered the living/television room.  The living room was an amazing sight, as the walls to the left and right consisted of shelves that were packed with various trinkets, artifacts, weapons, and other things that had been given as gifts by Shifu Sui’s students (who came from around the world to study under him, as could be seen from the variety of the things on the shelves) over the many years he had taught.  Over tea, Shifu Sui discussed his experiences in Baguazhang and went into his thoughts on the Shaolin Monastery -- on which he had some interesting insights -- and life as a martial artist in Beijing during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1975).   All in all, a good day in which I learned quite a lot.  So much so, in fact, that I intend returned the following Sunday and intend on trying to attend class as often as possible once becoming more settled in to university and city life, as I probably learned more about Baguazhang and modern Chinese history in a few hours than I could have anyplace besides my wushu school in Phoenix.