234. Genchitaofu Baguazhang’s Claw - 艮氣道福八卦掌の爪

The Way through Baguazhang - 八卦掌道

Recently, because my thoughts took me there, I found myself flicking through a Chinese book containing illustrations of Chinese southern style boxing or Nan Quan. To be more accurate, I was more interested in the different hand shapes contained within because we have baguazhang 八卦掌 which utilises mainly palm strikes and bagua quan 八卦拳 which employs fist strikes. Two historically related groups of styles. While looking at these images, I was wondering: Is there a baguazhua 八卦爪 or Eight Trigram Claw style? And the answer is no. While both current bagua schools of thought do use the claw from time to time, there isn’t one solely dedicated to the ways of the claw. But if there was a baguazhua, what would it look like? Already my mind envisages something quite vicious. And I doubt the person trained in it would care much for finding inner peace or proving themselves in the ring. At least that’s how I felt about it when I tried doing my palm changes as claw changes. All I could think about was wanting to hunt down a pest and rip it’s throat out. And it didn’t feel fun. It felt necessary to survival only. I know some of you would be reminded of tiger claw and eagle claw styles, and possibly dím mak strikes as a counter-argument but this felt different. This feeling felt more like whatever it is you have to say about it, the first thing you should do is just stop and shut up. Take a really good deep slow breath, and appreciate that you are alive and well and safe. And that your safety and well-being does not depend on the destruction of others. You can let that negative shit go and just be who you are.