The name Ba Ji implies 8 characters.
The name Ba Gua means 8 trigrams.
Any connection? Or is it just the name that is similar.?
No connection. Look at body method, not words. There’s a good chance Baji is related to Chen Taiji somehow though, if you’re looking at the same things I am.
Bajiquan = Eight extremes/polar fist
no connection to Baqua
WD,
There are similarities in Chen Taiji and Baji. I read many accounts that said the info was shared between a chen master and a baji master who where friends.
Just to reinforce a couple of points.
Liu met Chen Fake in 1928 in Beijing at a military academy demonstration. The stomping of both styles caught their attention. They met the next day and exchanged information behind closed doors. No one for sure knows what they exchanged.
Liu had no alterior motivation of associating baji and Chen’s taijiquan. Both systems stand on their own merits. Liu always said that Chen’s taiji had to be preserved (1970s and 1980s in Taiwan, before Chen’s made its impact in the U.S.) Liu sent most of his disciples to Du Ye Ze to learn lao jia and pao tui. Du Ye Ze learned from Chen Fake’s father, Chen Yen Xi. Liu also had a close relationship with a zhaobao master in the 1940s but we do not know much about the influence.
In baji, on average so to speak, the chan si ing is tigther, smaller circle and so the deiivery of power is somewhat different. Here is where baji might come closer to resembling Xing Yi. I can’t quote you the person or study but one of the senior kungfu masters explained to me that all of the jings found in Chen’s taiji are also found in baji. The rotation of the dan tian in baji is developed primarily through the use of the da qiang. We do store energy somewhat different in our punches and movements regarding our waist (xu jing —> fajing).
There is no relationship of baji to bagua. Liu never mixed the two and insisted that bagua was the most complex of all the Northern Chinese martial arts (not to be read as better).
Any system can be good, depending on the individual practitioner.
I hope this helps answer your question in a little more detail.
Bajiquan = eight extremes fist
Baguazhang = eight triagram palm
They have similar names, but that’s it. I’ve taken both and they are really nothing alike.
Of course, all northern kung fu styles that I’ve ever seen share some similarities, but Baji and Bagua are no more similar than any other two northern styles.