Bajiquan & Piguazhang

Bajiquan (八極拳, “Eight Extremes Boxing”) and Piguazhang (劈掛掌, “Chopping- Hanging Palm”) 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 — “eight extremes for close, piagua for far” — records how the arts were transmitted: as one curriculum, not two.[1]

Bajiquan

Bajiquan is recorded from Cangzhou, Hebei, in the eighteenth century. Its signature is the elbow-and-shoulder burst: the six big openings (六大開) drive force from the ground through a compact frame, typically at the range of a single step. Stamp-and-issue footwork (震腳) anchors each delivery. The art’s most storied figure, Li Shuwen, connected the boxing to its proof — the spear — and his students carried the system into the modern era.[1][2]

Piguazhang

Piguazhang supplies the long game. Its palm swings — chopping, hanging, slicing — cover distance and connect the torso’s rotation to a whiplike extension of the arm. Trained beside Bajiquan, it completes the range chart: what the close art finishes inside a step, the long art reaches before it.

Transmission in North America

The Golden Eagle schools taught Bajiquan, Piguazhang, Mantis, Northern Shaolin, and Mizong Luohan in their 2010s Alabama 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 The archive’s historical document on Li Shuwen at this site’s original address became part of the English-language record of the art and is cited by encyclopedia articles on Bajiquan.[1][2]

[1] Bajiquan, English Wikipedia — history, method, and references.

[2] “Li Shu Wen,” Golden Eagle Martial Arts Center — historical document restored at lishu-wen.html.