Baguazhang is a curious beast. Grounded in the philosophy of the Yi Jing, the eight trigrams and sixty-four hexagrams, it lays claim – at least in some schools of thought – to a profound relationship with the channels and flow of Qi within the body.
And yet, for all its surface appearance as something ancient and tribal – a primitive shamanic circle dance – it is actually a modern phenomenon. Can it really be so meaningful, then? Can it really be so profound? Or are its ties with the oldest book in the world, that classic Book of Changes, of divining the great flow of all things, just a pretext, a ruse?
Dong Haichuan is credited with devising Baguazhang in the early nineteenth century, although of course there are the obligatory legends about it having much earlier roots. The Yi Jing has been around since the start of the first millennium BCE, by some accounts. There are Daoist circle-walking meditation practices, and (more distantly) whirling dervishes, ecstatic dances… wheeling birds and spinning hurricanes…
Taijiquan, with slightly earlier origins (which hazily wobble around the seventeenth century) also heavily correlates certain postures with opening particular lines of energetic release within the body. Single Whip and Roll Back relate to the Heart; White Snake Creeps Down through the Lungs…
But let’s go much further back. In 1973 in Hunan Province a silk painting was found in a tomb dating 168 BCE: the Dao Yin Tu. Dao Yin is a more active precursor to modern Qi Gong – more about release and enlivenment than about nourishing and calming, although probably that too. Essentially, it depicts 44 figures in various postures – Daoist asanas.
And who knows about Yoga? At least another 500 years before the Dao Yin Tu. But it seems likely, I would surmise, that we have been experimenting with posture for millennia; since beginningless time, in fact. From being babies we play with posture, naturally. We experiment. We explore our bodies and their relationship to the world. I suspect humanity has been exploring the significance of posture since its infancy.
Hunched in our tilting, rotating office chairs, and slumped in our sofas, in our own modern era we have lost some connection with the significance of posture. But we can’t escape it. When we grieve we round our shoulders and close and protect our hearts. When we feel connection to others we open up our hearts, we open wide and embrace. Soldiers stand to attention, chests thrust forward. When we are fearful or threatened we curl up, present our bony backs, hug our vulnerable bellies. These things are instinctive. But we can utilise them if we understand them.
In meditation practices – Hindu, Daoist, Buddhist, and no doubt others – there is much emphasis placed on hand position. Certain mudras express certain qualities of mind. If we place our hands near our abdomen we draw downwards and stabilise. If we turn our palms face up on our knees we are open, receiving. Place the palms together, we connect and balance, find harmonious union. And things get complex – a contortionist science in its own right. Although many modern minds ridicule it, of course. But I’m not so sure…
A little exercise might be instructive. Stand with your arms in an embracing posture. Stand there for a good while. Try to relax into it and be still. Let your mind settle into the posture. Listen to what your body feels. Then ask yourself, what is my quality? What has changed? Now turn the palms out. How does that feel? Raise the palms up, overhead. Press them downward. Out to the side. Palms forward; palms back, resting in each one for a while. Each posture has a different quality. It’s subtle, but it’s there, and with a bit of guidance – suggestion if you like – it can be much more profound.
The first of the Eight Silk Brocades (Ba Duan Jin) lifts the sky to harmonise the Triple Heater (San Jiao) and stabilise the Pericardium, or Heart Protector. As the hands rise up and the lungs inhale there is an internal movement that follows, spreading through the cavities of the body and helping its disparate parts to communicate, to become one whole, integral entity. As the hands circle down we exhale and wring out anxiety and defensiveness, and we find stability and external connection. With this in mind, the practice becomes even more powerful. We express ourselves through out bodies, through their movements.
Mind, breath, body, emotion, energy. All moving together. One session might not make much difference. But a daily practice over years…? It takes time for the body to open, for stuck emotions to release, for energy to move. I wonder – maybe the claims that Bagua circle walking postures relate so closely to our internal workings are not so fanciful after all?
In his book, Bagua Circle Walking Nei Gong (Outskirts Press, 2012), acupuncturist and Baguazhang practitioner Tom Bisio draws a very direct parallel between certain postures and their effects. Upholding the Heavens opens the Stomach channel and benefits digestion, for example. At first I thought this was a bit of a leap of faith, to say this palm cures this, and this palm cures that. Postures aren’t medicine… are they?
A skilled acupuncturist can run their fingers along a channel and feel the blockage. Their diagnosis is guided by palpation as much as by interrogation, observation, and intuition. The gutter is blocked, so we’ll clear out the mulch that’s gathered here, and water will flow again. Energy will flow. In Nei Gong we stretch open the palm and physically open Lao Gong. It’s not so vague and ‘spiritual’ as some people might assume. At least not in the beginning. We work with something we know, or should know – our bodies.
And so, by walking the circle with arms raised in Spear Holding posture, we connect with the Kidney and Heart channels, with rising Fire. By Downward Pressing the palms we stretch Du Mai and Ren Mai. We sink to Earth; to ultimate Yin. And so on, each mother palm carefully constructed to work with a particular energy, with a particular organ meridian in the body. A sophisticated and complete system.
Is this medicine? In a sense, yes, it is. Particularly when you consider preventative medicine. Try walking hunched for a year and see how you feel. Feel how you contract, stagnate – physically, emotionally. By lengthening and aligning with gravity, finding ease in body and mind, walking with precision and gracefulness, moving with fluidity and power, we promote vitality, flow, organ function, internal connectivity. When these qualities manifest it’s hard for illness to get a foothold. It is simply washed away.
By walking the circle we create the correct conditions in the body for healing. We lengthen the tendons, relax the tissues, work the spine, open the relevant sinew channels in the body, suggest something to the mind, and walk. Trancelike, we walk. Alert, aware – but mesmerised, absorbed – we walk.
For millennia mankind has known the power of posture. Perhaps in some dark cave of prehistory primitive man was walking the circle, arms outstretched. Shadows dancing, drums beating. Or in silence, bar his beating heart and his rhythmic, echoing steps. Walking, walking – absorbed into his inner being. A walk of health, of life, of vitality. Perhaps not so primitive…
The Azure Dragon 