Eight Trigrams School

Eight Trigrams School

Contents

The Eight Trigrams School (simplified: 八卦门, traditional: 八卦門, pinyin: Bāguà Mén, jyutping: baat3 gwaa3 mun4) was a school of palm and dao arts fought on the positions of the eight trigrams. Its great name of the previous generation was Wang Weiyang, “Whose Might Shook Heshuo” (威震河朔), Escort Chief of the Zhenyuan Armed Escort in Beijing, who made his name in the jianghu and the greenwood with a pair of Eight Trigrams palms and a Eight Trigrams dao (SIDE ch. 3). In Hu Fei’s time the school was represented by Wang’s sons Wang Jianying and Wang Jianjie, who served Fuk’anggan, and by the family of his disciple Shang Jianming at Shang Family Fort (SIDE ch. 3).

Overview

Standing in the jianghu

Wang Weiyang’s name was such that the underworld had a saying: “Better to meet the King of Hell than cross Old Wang” (宁见阎王，莫碰老王). With the school’s Eight Trigrams Wandering Body he once fought “Fiery Hand Judge” Zhang Zhaozhong without losing ground (SIDE ch. 3). He had opposed the Red Flower Society, which did not defeat him by force but tricked him into yielding (SIDE ch. 3); outside Hangzhou its chief Chen Jialuo had disguised himself as Fuk’anggan and captured him (SIDE ch. 19). He had died five years before the Wang brothers came to Shang Family Fort, and with his sons in official service the Zhenyuan Armed Escort had long since closed (SIDE ch. 3).

Shang Jianming’s branch

Shang Jianming of Wuding County, Shandong, known as “Eight Trigrams Dao Shang Jianming”, was Wang Weiyang’s disciple and strong in both Eight Trigrams Palm and Eight Trigrams Dao; his golden darts were engraved “Eight Trigrams School, Shang” (八卦门商) (ch. 4). Master and disciple were not close, and Shang seldom wrote after leaving; the Wang brothers, rising in official service, paid their shixiong no mind, and did not even hear of his death (SIDE ch. 3). Wang Jianying later said Shang had not been upright even while learning from his father (SIDE ch. 4).

History

Shang Jianming and the Miao Family

Shang Jianming, refusing to accept Miao Renfeng’s title “He Who Has Fought All Under Heaven and Found No Equal”, went to challenge him while he was away and killed his two brothers and a sister. Hu Yidao rode overnight to Wuding and back, catching seven of Shang’s golden darts and breaking his Eight Trigrams bladework with Miao Family Swordplay, and brought his head and darts to Miao Renfeng (ch. 4). At home Shang had built an iron hall meant to trap Miao Renfeng, but died before he could use it (SIDE ch. 4).

At Shang Family Fort

Shang’s widow, Old Madam Shang, refused to let her son Shang Baozhen take a shifu from another school, since his father’s arts were a family inheritance, though the boy had been too young to learn much of them (SIDE ch. 3). When the Wang brothers arrived at the fort with Fuk’anggan, the boy Hu Fei beat Old Madam Shang and then held off Wang Jianjie with her own dao. Old Madam Shang threw seven poisoned golden darts at Hu Fei; Zhao Banshan caught them all and asked whether Wang Weiyang had ever taught anyone to poison darts. Old Madam Shang then taunted the brothers that since Shang Jianming’s death the school had no heroes left, only men who fawned on outsiders, and that she would send her son to the Taiji School instead. Goaded, Wang Jianying fought Hu Fei, who wounded his palm with one of the poisoned darts (SIDE ch. 3). She then shut the Wang brothers in the burning iron hall with the others, and died in the fire herself (SIDE ch. 4).

After the fort was destroyed, Shang Baozhen learned under his two shishu, and on their recommendation entered Fuk’anggan’s service (SIDE ch. 12, 13). He killed Xu Zheng with Eight Trigrams Palm and was killed by Ma Chunhua with his own family’s Eight Trigrams dao (SIDE ch. 12).

The zhangmen seat taken

In Beijing, Yuan Ziyi challenged Wang Jianying for the Eight Trigrams School’s zhangmen seat on the stools of a garden pavilion. He drove her back with his father’s Eight Formations Eight Trigrams Palm, but she moved the fight onto the table top, dislocated both his arms and held him at her mercy until Wang Jianjie agreed to yield the seat (SIDE ch. 14). At the Grand Assembly of Zhangmen under Heaven she addressed Wang Jianying publicly as “zhangmen of the Eight Trigrams School” and gave up her claim (SIDE ch. 19).

Martial arts

The school’s fighters stepped on the eight trigram positions (乾、坤、巽、坎、震、兑、离、艮) (SIDE ch. 14). A sign of deep Eight Trigrams skill was toes turned slightly inward as the feet came down (SIDE ch. 13). Wang Weiyang drilled his sons strictly, and Wang Jianying would strike only once his feet stood on the proper positions (SIDE ch. 3).

  • Eight Trigrams Palm (八卦掌) and Eight Trigrams Dao (八卦刀): the school’s core arts. The dao alone had large, small, inner and outer frame variations (SIDE ch. 3)
  • Eight Trigrams Wandering Body (八卦游身): circling footwork that kept the fighter behind his opponent (SIDE ch. 3)
  • Inner Eight Trigrams (内八卦): short, compact palm work that could be begun only after the outer Eight Trigrams was mastered (SIDE ch. 3)
  • Eight Formations Eight Trigrams Palm (八阵八卦掌): Wang Weiyang’s secret, taught only to his two sons, which worked the eight battle formations into Eight Trigrams Palm (SIDE ch. 14)
  • Golden darts (金镖): used by Shang Jianming; his widow’s were poisoned (ch. 4; SIDE ch. 3)

Notable members

  • Wang Weiyang: “Whose Might Shook Heshuo”, Escort Chief of the Zhenyuan Armed Escort (SIDE ch. 3)
  • Wang Jianying: Wang Weiyang’s elder son, the foremost Eight Trigrams fighter of his day (SIDE ch. 3)
  • Wang Jianjie: Wang Weiyang’s younger son (SIDE ch. 3)
  • Shang Jianming: Wang Weiyang’s disciple (ch. 4; SIDE ch. 3)
  • Old Madam Shang: Shang Jianming’s widow, wielder of his Purple-Gold Eight Trigrams Dao (SIDE ch. 3, 4)
  • Shang Baozhen: Shang Jianming’s son (SIDE ch. 1, 12)
  • Yuan Ziyi: held the zhangmen seat briefly by contest (SIDE ch. 14, 19)

Relationships

  • Fuk’anggan: the Wang brothers served in his household as bodyguard chiefs (SIDE ch. 3, 13, 19)
  • Red Flower Society: opposed by Wang Weiyang (SIDE ch. 3, 19)
  • Miao Family: Shang Jianming killed three of Miao Renfeng’s siblings (ch. 4)

See also

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