Bājíquán
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Bājíquán (Traditional Chinese: 八極拳; pinyin: Bājíquán; literally "eight extremes fist"; Japanese: 八極拳, Hakkyokuken) is a Chinese martial art that features explosive, short range power and is famous for its elbow strikes. It originated in Hebei Province of Northern China, but is also well-known in other places as well today, especially Taiwan.
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[edit] Origins
Bajiquan was originally called Baziquan, or "rake fist", due to the fact that when not striking, the fist is held loosely and slightly open, resembling a rake. However, the name was considered to be rather crude sounding in its native tongue, and so it was changed to the more pleasing Bajiquan.
The essence of Baji Quan lies in "Jìn" (i.e. power or power methods). Unlike most western forms of martial arts which require swinging motion to create momentum. Most of Bajiquan's moves utilise a one hit push-strike from a very close distance. The bulk of the damage is dealt through the momentary acceleration that travels up from the waist to the limb and further magnified by the charging step "zhèn jiǎo". Jìn has many forms and is developed through many years of practice and "horse stance".
Made famous in (by Chinese history standards) recent times by Li Shu Wen (1864-1934), a fighter from Shandong province whose skill with a spear earned him the nickname "God of Spear Li." His most famous quote about fighting was, "I do not know what it's like to hit a man twice." Certainly a bit of hyperbole, but still speaks for the shocking power Baji training develops. Li Shu Wen's most famous students include Huo Diange (bodyguard to Pu Yi, the last emperor of China), Li Chen Wu (bodyguard to Mao Zedong), and Liu Yunqiao (secret agent for the nationalist Kuomintang and instructor of the bodyguards of Chiang Kai Shek). Because of this, Bajiquan has come to be known as "The Bodyguard Style."
Today, the lineage holder of Bajiquan in China is Wu Lianzhi. He is also the prototype of Akira Yuki in Virtua Fighter. Through more than 50 years of training, he collected much material and records which were passed from generation to generation.
Baji, which comes from the oldest book in China named I Ching, is an extension of all directions. In this case, in Chinese Baji means including everything or say, universe.
In Chinese Martial Arts, Baji is famous for its very violent and fast movements.
[edit] Features
The major features of this somewhat rare school of Chinese Martial Arts include elbow strikes, arm/fist bashes, hip checks, and strikes with the shoulder. All techniques are executed with a very distinctive form of short power, developed through rigorous training. Strategically, Baji focuses on in-fighting, entering from a longer range with Baji's distinctive Charging Step and issuing power up close.
Baji contains 6 series of type of Jìn, 8 kinds of ways to hit, and several different principles to use the power. Its "horse stance" is higher than the typical Longfist "horse stance". Like others, there are also "arrowbow stance", "one-leg stance", "Xū stance", "Pū stance", etc. There are 8 different poses of hands, plus different types of breath and "Zhèn Jiǎo".
The forms of Baji are divided into Fists (non-weapon) and Weapons. In Fist, there are more than 20 different forms, including 12 Baji Small Structure Fists, Baji Black Tiger Fist, Baji Dan Zhai, Baji Dan Da/ Dui Da, Baji Luo Han Gong, Baji Si Lang Kuan, etc. In Weapons, there are more than 8 different kinds of weapon, including the very famous "Liu He Big Qiang (Spear)" and "Liu He Flower Qiang (Spear)", "Chun Yang Jian (Sword)", "San Yin Dao (Blade)", "Xing Zhe Bang (Staff)", Pudao, "Chun Qiu Da Dao (Long Two-Hands Heavy Blade, used by General sitting on horse)".
[edit] Popular culture
Bajiquan was in some ways made famous by the Sega video game Virtua Fighter, as the style that the main character Akira Yuki practices, though none of the many representations of Baji Quan in popular media has ever been very accurate. Other video game characters that use this style are Kokoro from the Dead or Alive series, Li Mei from the Mortal Kombat series, and Xiuying Hong from the Shenmue video game series. Despite poular belief, Ling Xiaoyu does not practice bajiquan, rather she practices Piguaquan (Hikaken in Japanese) and Baguazhang (Hakkesho in Japanese), similar to Wang Jinrei.
