Marnix Wells: Coiling Dragon - Wáng Shùjin Baguà
Baguà palms is the martial art incorporating the rotation of the cosmos, by walking a circle. It comprises eight basic palm changes, to represent the eight compass directional points, symbolised by eight trigrams, the bagua from the classic book of Change.
Circular motion has a number of advantages. It is concentrated on a fixed centre, and therefore balanced and controlled. This aids meditation and steady aim. It is a study in the pivot which is the key to the mechanics of force. The circle, being the universal symbol of perfection, promotes a sense of spiritual calm and well-being. It is also an efficient defensive shape, apt to deflect blows, and turn forces back on themselves. It facilitates outflanking manoeuvres, and the action of taking an enemy in the rear. By winding back on itself, the circle generates an intrinsic spring power, recycling its own energy. Constantly returning to its start, it is economical of space. This means that as an exercise it can be practised in a small room, and is especially practical for short-range defence.
- Yet to achieve circular body movement is not as easy as it may sound. We may observe circular and spiralling movement in the most primitive organisms. Limbless snakes, and mythical dragons, use a coiled springing action from their spines to propel themselves. Humans too can use this energy by better use of the spine. This first step to smooth circular action is achieved through the standing posture. The spine must be constantly maintained vertically, the hips and knees slightly bent at the same height, unless a special higher or lower movement is called for. Superfluous vertical fluctuation, by bobbing up and down, is counter-productive and should be eliminated.
- The second step to smooth circular action is in the art of turning the pelvis while keeping one knee on the spot, balancing the weight on one foot, and then shifting it by the pelvis in a straight line to the other leg. The circle walked is in fact made up of a series of angled straight lines. It is imperative at all times to keep the knee vertically positioned above the ball of the weight-bearing foot. The hip, on the other hand, is free to be adducted and abducted laterally, and indeed must shift sideways, beyond the foot, both inside and outside.
- The third step is alignment with an external point, the centre of the circle. Focusing on one point is essential to prevent dizziness while walking the circle. When working with an opponent, the line between oneslef and the other person passes from one’s own centre, through the centre of the circle, and through the opponent’s centre. Therefore concentration on the opponent is the same as concentration on the centre of the walked circle.
The science of Coiling
To walk in a circle intrinsically demands the body to coil inwards. An example of this is the rotation of the moon around the Earth, while simultaneously rotating on its own axis. Since these two revolutions are exactly co-ordinated, the moon always presents the same face towards Earth. By contrast the Earth, in rotating around the sun, also rotates on its own axis, but does so about 365 times (days) for each revolution around the sun (year). Thus Earth presents a constantly changing face to the sun. Both moon-like and earth-like rotations occur in bagua. The lunar revolutions match the basic circle-walking exercise, while the terrestrial revolutions resemble the eight separate dynamics.
All these movements are performed both anti-clockwise (left-about), and clockwise (right-about). All circling and dynamics, with the exception of iv. lion rolls ball, are performed first left-about, and then right-about. In practice, the direction of circling may be alternated every one and a half orbits, but this may be varied at the discretion of the practitioner. The same direction is maintained throughout one dynamic. When opposing circles are linked in counter spirals, it is called ‘swimming dragon’, an exercise which may be practised at an advanced level.
To coil requires the practitioner to connect his body centre in vertical balance to the central point of the horizontal circle which his steps describe. Then in order to maintain this alignment as he walks, he must inevitably turn on his own axis in time with his steps. The steps must point to the centre (at 45% to each other in an 8-step circle, 90% in a 4-step circle), while the body travels sideways around the circumference. The inside foot ‘swings through’ bâi, while the outside foot ‘hooks around’ kòu.
This coiling generates springing steps, so that the steps propel one forward, each leg rising with the force of a kick or foot-sweep. The inward coiling generates a centripetal force to overcome the centrifugal force generated by his momentum around the centre, which increases proportionately to his speed. Every step taken tends to pull the practitioner out of the circle, shot out in a straight line away from the centre. In order to counteract this, without coiling the practitioner will find himself zigzagging in and out of orbit. His pelvis will swing outwards on an axis from the centre and will need to be re-adjusted, turned and swung back in with every step. This results in a jerky, uneven motion, dissipating energy and opening oneself to attack. It also impedes observation of the opponent on the opposite axis.
Rotation of the hip produces a steady alternation of swinging and hooking steps: the inside foot swings out while the outer foot hooks round, the line of pelvis and shoulders constantly bisected at right-angles by a line from the centre. The line of each foot forms an angle of forty-five degrees both with the central axis, and with the pelvis which is the hypotenuse of the triangle so formed by the feet in closed position. After the weight is shifted forward to the hooked foot, the pelvis coils inward along its line, while the swinging foot advances outwards and turns inwards at forty-five degrees to this line, to which the hooking foot loops round and in turn makes a forty-five degree angle, thereby forming a new triangle, similar to the previous one.
Applications
Baguà zhâng, literally ‘Eight Trigrams Palms’ is the martial system pioneered by Dông Hâichuan in Peking, under Manchu Qing dynasty, in the late nineteenth century.
The ‘eight trigrams’, binary combinations from the ancient Book of Change, symbolise the universe by paired opposites: Heaven and Earth, Fire and Water, Wind and Thunder, Mountain and Lake. Arranged in a circle, they are the eight directional compass points, surrounding the ‘double-fish’ yin-yáng symbol of dialectical unity in the centre. Baguà thus describes the circle, the key feature of Dông Hâichuan’s system of open-palm ‘boxing’.
Circling is a common movement in self-defence, or attack. We have seen films of predators circling their prey, seeking an opening to move in for the kill. Rather than attack front-on, the aggressor may attempt a flanking movement which the intended victim seeks to counter by facing round to meet the direction under threat. Alternatively a frontal attack may be countered by a lateral dodge or deflection, which if succesful can result in the exposure of the invaders rear to counter-attack.
All these natural manoeuvres have the elements of circling. Yet only baguà zhâng has developed a complete martial training method which is concentrated on the circle. Baguà zhâng is the natural complement to xíngyì quán which consists primarily of repeated straight-line attacks.
How is the circle reconciled with the straight-line? Circling permits continuity and regeneration, since it incorporates a turning back, a return to starting point. In this way energy can be gathered and concentrated on a point in preparation for new deployment. Yet the shortest distance between two points, as every school child is taught, is a straight line. The circumference of a circle is composed of an infinite number of points tied to a central point by an infinite number of straight lines, each of equal length. Each line represents a potential attack, and projection of force. The opponent, imaginary or real is at the centre or circumference of this circle.
Walking the circle involves two basic types of circling: rotation on one’s own axis, and orbital revolutions around an external point. Just as the moon always presents the same face to the Earth, walking the baguà circle requires the walker spontaneously to synchronise his or her own axial rotation with his orbital revolutions. In other words, by constantly turning towards the centre of the circle he is walking, just enough to keep facing with each step, the turn of one complete orbit matches exactly one complete axial rotation of the body on itself. It is as if one is physically connected to the centre of the circle, like a whirling ball tied to a stick. This means that one constantly faces a fixed point, and so avoids strain or the discomfort of dizziness, no matter how long or fast he walks in a circle.
The centre of the body is the intersection of a vertical line through the crown of the head, torso, pernineum, weighted knee and ball of the weighted foot; and a horizontal line between the dantián point, an inch odyor so below the navel, continuing back to the mìngmén ‘gate of life’ point between the kidneys. The nose is positioned vertically over the navel, and the thumbs point inwards to this central body line while the outer edges of the hands project energy along this vertical and horizontal line towards the external point, located at the centre of the circumambulated circle.