Bajiquan - Eight extremes boxing

Its notorious power is derived from the long, harsh, and often unbearable training in basic body usage. During fighting the Bajiquan practitioner would approach the opponent from a long-range position and close to a body-to-body contact distance.

History of Bajiquan

The first person that can be reliably linked to the lineage of Bajiquan is Wu Zhong. He was born sometime in the late Shunzhi period of the early Qing Dynasty, active during the Kangxi period, and died some time before the Yungzheng period. According to the Cang County Historical Record (CCHR), he was from the Mong Village in the southeastern part of the Cang County, and had received Bajiquan and the art of lance fighting by two Taoist monks, grand master Lai and his disciple grand master Pi. The origins of these two monks is not clear, but it is suspected that they might have been anti-Manchurian rebels in disguise. In the early period of the Qing dynasty, many pro-Ming rebels disguised themselves as Buddhist or Taoist monks so that they could hide their true identities in order to plan and execute underground anti-Manchurian activities. According to the Baji Secret Transmission Records passed down within the lineage (destroyed during the nationalist-communist civil war), Wu Zhong was jailed for most of his later life for anti-Manchurian actives. This seems to suggest the true identities of his two teachers.

The famous Baji Grandmaster Li Shuwen (1864 - 1934) nicknamed as "God of Spear" was born in the Zhangsha Village of Cang County. Because of his fame and the incredible fact that he was never defeated, he had a large number of students. Many of them already skilled in other styles of martial arts. Some of Li's disciples were also then-famous warlord generals, such as Li Jingling, Ren Guodong, Zhang Xiangwu, Na Yukuen, Liu Huchen, and Liu Xudong. Grandmaster Li's first disciple, Huo Diange, later became the bodyguard and teacher of China's Last Emperor, FuYi. Grandmaster Li 's students were also among the bodyguards of Sun Yat Sen (the first provisional president of the Republic of China after the fall of the Manchu), Chiang Kai Shek (the president of Nationalist China), and Mao Tsedong (the first head of state of the People's Republic of China).