Yin Style Baguazhang - Overview

Overview

Yin Style as passed down by Xie Peiqi is notable for having eight distinct animal styles within the body of the art. In other words, Xie's Yin Style is a complete system, which is made up of other complete systems. These include the eight animal systems as well as several 'unorthodox' systems, such as the Penetrating Palm and Backhand systems. Each of the eight animal styles is related to one of the eight trigrams of the I Ching. The following table describes this relationship:

Each animal is a complete system in its own right, possessing its own personality, skills, applications, and functions. Each of the eight animal systems contains eight striking methods, and each striking method has seven strikes. Three of those seven are considered the 'primary' strikes and are emphasized more than the others in single practice. Therefore, the animal systems of Xie's Yin Style Bagua have a total of 448 unique strikes. However, Xie's Yin Style Bagua also contains other unorthodox systems outside of the eight animals, such as Penetrating Palm and the Backhand systems. Hence, there are more than 448 strikes, though 448 are contained within the animals. (Note that the animal relationships with the bagua diagram are not unique to Xie's art; these relationships are also often used for other styles of bagua, including Cheng substyles, such as that of Sun Lutang.)

Other substyles of Yin include different forms and methods. For example, Cao Zhongsheng's system's technical base is the 64 palms (also taught by Wang Peisheng); other substyles focus on only 8 main palms (such as that of Liu Zhenlin, Li Baosen, or other Men Baozhen lineages). Gong Baotian's version has many forms and a strong emphasis on Yin Fu's Luohan forms. Each substyle also includes many supplementary forms (such as luohanquan) and training methods (such as hand hardening methods).