Wu-Tan Styles

GM Liu’s desire to preserve the old martial arts of China, he encouraged many of his students to teach their respective styles at Wu-Tan. So various Wu-Tan schools curriculum may slightly differ depending on whom they studied from initially. Though this may be the case, Wu-Tan is united under GM Liu’s three core styles.

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Bajiquan

Bajiquan, or “8 extremities boxing", is a ruthless and direct style that teaches a person to defeat an attacker with one single technique. One of the main features of the baji is its loud stomps, which punctuates discharging of power. The name baji implies that the style uses the 8 extremities of the body (head, shoulders, elbows, hands, feet, back, hips (kua), and knees) to issue explosive strikes. Bajiquan specializes in close range combat, making use of elbow and shoulder strikes. The essence of bajiquan is taken after the bear and tiger. Baji utilizes the bear’s heavy footwork and tiger’s aggressiveness. It is a complete style in that it contains the four major combat usages da (striking), ti (kicking), shuai (wrestling), and na (controlling). Bajiquan is a physically demanding style with an “all or nothing” attitude.

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Piguazhang

Piguazhang is a style that emphasizes palm strikes. The style’s origins are still not quite clear as to who was the founder, but there are some mentions of the style during the Ming Dynasty. One of the perhaps most famous masters of the style was Li Su Wen, who ingeniously (re)combined the art of piguazhang and bajiquan to create a very formidable fighting system.  The essence of the pigua style is taken after the eagle and monkey. The term pigua zhang can be broken down into three terms: pi refers to splitting, gua refers to hanging or suspending, and zhang refers to the use of the palms. The jings taught in pigua are long and continuous. Its movements are wide and circular, the opposite of bajiquan. The two styles compliment each other: Baji is a hard, linear, and close-quarters style; Pigua is a soft, circular, and long-range style.  To illustrate the effectiveness of bajiquan and piguazhang, there is a famous saying, "When Pigua is added to Baji, demons and spirits will be terrified" and "When the Baji is added to the Pigua, heroes will sigh knowing they are no match against it." 

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Baguazhang:

Baguazhang, or 8 trigram palm style, is the younger of the three main internal styles (xingyiquan, taijiquan, baguazhang). It can be traced back to the mid-1800s to a man named Dong Hai Quan.  Baguazhang is a unique system in terms of training methods and combat usages. The style emphasize on continuous motion, changing of techniques and direction, and making each movement flow from one to another. Although style focuses primarily on palm strikes, it also employs fist strikes and a wide arrange of strikes utilizing the whole body. It’s most unique training tool, and perhaps most easily visible feature, is its usage of circle walking. 

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