Questioning about these arts listed. ^^

Hello, everyone! My name is Raff! ^^ I am new here. I already made my introduction...so let's move on! So, to start this off I found this place called - "Golden Eagle Martial Arts." And, I looked onto their website(Thank you Google, you are praised.) Now most of the arts on there I knew. Or, at last have heard about. Except for these here listed:

Piguazhang
Bajiquan
Xing Yi Quan
Shaolin Qin Na

Those are the ones. Could someone explain these to me? Also, I would like to know what the difference between the Northern, and southern Kung Fu styles is? Also, what is the difference between Yang Family Tajiquan and Tajiquan? e.e...I'm so confused. I need some help...Thanks guys!

Bajiquan is a style with short, powerful strikes, a lot of "qin-na" (locks/holds/joint-manipulation/etc...) and some grappling. It is not very aesthetical, but it is direct and effective. It was a style used by many bodyguards (one of Mao Zedong's personal BG's, for instance) and is the one currently used by the Chinese special forces. Here's a video of my former instructor (from when I was in Tianjin) doing a bajiquan form:

Bajiquan - 3rd "small frame" form - Zhou Jingxuan

Piguazhang is a style that is somewhat related, both arts are often taught together. As the name implies (zhang = palm, as opposed to quan = fist), it relies on a lot of open-hand strikes. I'm not very familiar with it, but here's my instructor again, demonstrating a few basic moves of that style:

Piguazhang - basic hands

Xingyiquan is usually classified as a so-called "internal" style, which doesn't mean much really as the elements on which people base themselms to classify it as such are MEANT to be found in all other Chinese arts anyway (even though they seldom are nowadays, especially in the West). A few techniques from it:

Xingyiquan - applications

As for qin-na (Sholin or otherwise), as stated above, it is the Chinese name for grabs/locks/holds/etc.

Hope it helps.

Thank you Shi Ronglang. ^_^ You helped a lot with the info. I think I want to take Bajiquan. O_o

I enjoy baji very much, over the years it has become my main style too.

By the way, despite the fact that it's still used today for strictly practical purposes, it IS, nonetheless, a traditional style and is several centuries old.
I even heard that some of its practitioners train in a da-gua (that long, Qing-period Chinese robe) rather than in a Tang-zhuang (the so called "Mandarin shirt" most gongfu practitioners wear).

Hello Shi Ronglang:

Incredibly well said, thank you for such elliquence!

Jeff <Bowing Formally & deeply> (in gratitude for such exquisitly honed explaination)

Hey, hi there Ronin!
Nice to see another name from the old days of this board... Not everyone has deserted it, after all!

If by eloquence you mean the uselessly pedantic way in which I clutter my sentences with dependant clauses, it's actually a trace of my native tongue's grammar, which uses them a lot (too much for its own good, really). I've honestly tried to simplify my speech when using English, but I just can't seem to. I guess it's too deeply ingrained in me.

By the way, should I infer from your comment that you're a practiotioner of one of the styles above? I've been off the board for so long I tend to forget which martial profile is associated with each persona...