Jingang Bashi 金刚八式

Name

Vajrapani

The term Bashi 八式 means "eight styles" and refers to the 8 routines or "lines".

Training

The Jingang Bashi are generally trained linearly, consisting of repeating a single movement multiple times. They can be practiced using only one side of the body, or by alternating left/right.

The Form

Names are presented in their Chinese terms, followed by Pinyin, and finally an English Translation. If you are on the mobile page, please slide the table to the left to view the rest of it.

Style	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th
Shaolin	降龙 Xiáng Lóng Subdue Dragon	伏虎 Fú Hǔ Beat Tiger	分心掌 Fen Xin Zhang Divide Heart Palm	穿捶 Chuan Chui Piercing Hammer	盖捶 Gai Chui Covering Hammer	野马掌 Ye Ma Zhang Wild Horse Palm	捧肘推山 Peng Zhou Tui Shan Hold Elbow Push Mountain	单凤掌 Dan Feng Zhang Single Wind Palm
An	撑捶Chēng Chuí	穿掌 Chuan zhang	降龙 Xiáng Lóng	伏虎 Fú Hǔ	劈山掌 Pī Shān Zhǎng	探马掌 Tàn Mǎ Zhǎng		虎抱 Hǔ Bào
Baji Association	撑捶Chēng Chuí Punter's Fist Lü Baochun	穿掌 Chuan zhang Piercing Palm Lü Baochun	劈山掌 Pī Shān Zhǎng Mountain Splitting Palm Lü Baochun	降龙Xiáng Lóng Taming The Dragon Lü Baochun	伏虎 Fú Hǔ Take Down The Tiger Lü Baochun	探马掌 Tàn Mǎ Zhǎng Spying Palm Lü Baochun	虎抱 Hǔ Bào Tiger's Embrace Lü Baochun	圈抱掌 Quān Bào Zhǎng Three Circle Embrace Lü Baochun
Huo	撑捶 Chēng Chuí	迎面掌 Yíng Miàn Zhǎng	降龙 Xiáng Lóng	伏虎 Fú Hǔ	劈山掌 Pī Shān Zhǎng	探马掌 Tàn Mǎ Zhǎng	圈抱掌 Quān Bào Zhǎng	虎抱 Hǔ Bào
Ma
TianJin	降龙 Xiáng Lóng Zhou JingXuan	伏虎 Fú Hǔ Zhou JingXuan	Cheng Zhang Zhou JingXuan	撑捶 Chēng Chuí Zhou JingXuan	Long Na Zhou JingXuan	探马掌 Tàn Mǎ Zhǎng Zhou JingXuan	劈山掌 Pī Shān Zhǎng Zhou JingXuan
WuTan	馬步衝捶 Mabu Chong Chuei Horse Step Punch	左右攬捶 Zuǒyòu lǎn chuí Hammerfall Strike	崩捶靠 Bēng chuí kào Collapsing Palm	連環捶 Liánhuán chuí Chaining Fist	小纏衝二捶 Xiǎo chán chōng èr chuí Coiling Double Strike	劈挑掌捎捶 Pī tiāo zhǎng shāo chuí Split Palm Cleaving	左右橫打 Zuǒyòu héng dǎ Horizontal Strike	磋步托天掌 Cuō bù tuō tiān zhǎng Hold the palm of the sky
Wudang
Xu

Characteristics of each style

An

The An Family teaches Jingang Bashi as part of its initial Bajiquan training. The lines are practiced with opening and closing movements facing the side, and feature a distinctive turning movement at the start and finish of each line. They are used to teach practitioners fa li(发力, force generation) principles prior to learning Taolu. 降龙 Xiáng Lóng and 劈山掌 Pī Shān Zhǎng are generally taught together, out of sequence, as they use similar but opposing principles.

An JianQiu translates the name into English as: "the eight hardest fighting movements", with "hardest" not referring to difficulty but to the feeling of indestructibility that is cultivated in Bajiquan. After stances, this is the first set of Bajiquan movements learned at the school.

Baji Association

Baji Association uses Jingang Bashi as a basic training method, alongside XiaoJia. Believing that it should be performed at a "moderate pace" with focus on structure and quality of movement, it is one of the most fundamental sets in the curriculum. Lü Baochun has been quoted to have advised training 200+ repetitions (100 for each side) of Cheng Chui, in particular, as a method of developing power.

Huo Family

Huo Family Bajiquan teaches the Jingang Bashi at the third "stage" (out of a total seven) of their practice, following learning foundational movements, XiaoJia, DanDa and Pigua Zhang taolu.

Ma Family

The Ma Family takes a rather different approach to the set than other schools; current practice in Ma family is to break up Ganggong Bashi and spread them out into the Ma family’s basic curriculums, as opposed to learning it in the Bajiquan curriculum.

WuDang Pai

The WuDang Pai / Shizaam school, created by Ismet Himmet, appears to have a routine known as the "Nine Fists" which seems to be based on the JinGang BaShi and includes some of the same techniques including PiShan Zhang and the first two techniques bear heavy similarities to Cheng Chui and Chuang Zhang. This version is said to come from Long Jin-Ju.

WuTan

Wu-Tan continues to follow the principle of "Basic Movements" before forms, in this case Xiao Baji. While Jingang Bashi is taught early on, especially to newly advanced Tanglangquan students, Following after 'Mabu Chong Chuei stage 1'. The layers are slowly revealed as the student progresses, gradually adding on and expanding after grinding repetitiously and meticulously.