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Personalize your custom “Ba Gua” project by clicking the button next to your favorite “Ba Gua” title below...
1. Ba Gua
2. Ba Gua Zhang
3. Ba Ji Quan
5. Japanese Snapping Turtle / Chinese Soft Shell Turtle
6. Amparo
Martial arts term
八卦掌 is the title Baguazhang, a form of Chinese boxing.
Literally translated, this means “Eight Trigrams Palm.
You will see this romanized as “Ba Gua Zhang,” or “Pa Kua Chang” (same characters, just different romanization used in mainland China versus Taiwan).
八卦掌 is also known in Japan as hakkeshou or hakkesho.
八極拳 is “Ba Ji Quan” or “Eight Extremes Fist.”
Some also translate this as “Eight Extremities Fist,” though I don't feel that's accurate.
八極拳 (Bājíquán) is a Chinese martial art that features explosive, short-range power and is famous for its elbow strikes. It originated in the Hebei Province in Northern China but spread to Taiwan and other places.
The full title is 開門八極拳 (Kāimén Bājíquán), which means Open-Door Bajiquan.
Other romanizations include: BaJiQuan, Pa Chi Ch`üan, or Pa Chi Chuan.
In Japan, this is known as Hakkyokuken.
爸爸 is the colloquial way to say “Daddy” in Chinese.
Sometimes Chinese people will refer to their father with just one of these characters, “Ba,” which would be like “Dad.” With both characters, “Baba,” it's more like “Daddy.”
爸爸 is really a weird selection for a wall scroll, so consider this entry to be for educational purposes only (don't order this).
鼈 refers to a species of turtle.

鼈 is Trionyx Sinensis.
鼈 refers to different turtles in different languages. See individual language notes below:
Japanese: 鼈 means “snapping turtle” or “mud turtle.” But rarely used as a single Kanji like this in Japanese.
Chinese: 鼈 means soft-shelled turtle. A specific species, Trionyx Sinensis is native to Asia.
In China, this species is related to the “wang ba,” a soft-shelled turtle sometimes known in English as a banjo turtle (due to its long neck, and general shape). Unfortunately, there is a word, “wang ba dan” which means the egg of this species of turtle. That term has come to mean “bastard” in Chinese (a turtle hatches from an abandoned egg, and does not know who his mother or father is). 鼈 is not a good selection for a wall scroll if your audience is Chinese.
In Korean, this character can be pronounced (though most Koreans would have to look it up in a dictionary). It has not been in common use in Korea for at least a few hundred years.
General notes: You may notice that the bottom half of this character is the same as some other turtle-related titles. That bottom half is actually an ancient character that means “toad.”
Though not seen in this way today, most turtle-related characters hold the meaning of “a toad with a shell” in their ancient origin. That toad character is rarely used alone anymore but you can see what it looks like in the image to the right.
This in-stock artwork might be what you are looking for, and ships right away...
Gallery Price: $90.00
Your Price: $49.88
Gallery Price: $90.00
Your Price: $49.88
Gallery Price: $90.00
Your Price: $49.88
Gallery Price: $90.00
Your Price: $49.88
Below are some entries from our dictionary that may match your Ba Gua search...
| Characters If shown, 2nd row is Simp. Chinese |
Pronunciation Romanization |
Simple Dictionary Definition |
八卦掌 see styles |
bā guà zhǎng ba1 gua4 zhang3 pa kua chang hakkeshou / hakkesho はっけしょう |
More info & calligraphy: Ba Gua Zhang{MA} eight trigrams palm; ba gua zhang; pa kua chang |
The following table may be helpful for those studying Chinese or Japanese...
| Title | Characters | Romaji (Romanized Japanese) | Various forms of Romanized Chinese | |
| Ba Gua | 八卦 | bā guà / ba1 gua4 / ba gua / bagua | pa kua / pakua | |
| Ba Gua Zhang | 八卦掌 | hakkeshou / hakesho | bā guà zhǎng ba1 gua4 zhang3 ba gua zhang baguazhang | pa kua chang pakuachang |
| Ba Ji Quan | 八極拳 八极拳 | hakkyo ku ken hakkyokuken hakyo ku ken | bā jí quán ba1 ji2 quan2 ba ji quan bajiquan | pa chi ch`üan pachichüan pa chi chüan |
| Daddy Father | 爸爸 | bà ba / ba4 ba / ba ba / baba | pa pa / papa | |
| Japanese Snapping Turtle Chinese Soft Shell Turtle | 鼈 | suppon / supon | biē / bie1 / bie | pieh |
| Amparo | 安吧羅 安吧罗 | ān ba luó an1 ba luo2 an ba luo anbaluo | an pa lo anpalo |
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| In some entries above you will see that characters have different versions above and below a line. In these cases, the characters above the line are Traditional Chinese, while the ones below are Simplified Chinese. | ||||
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All of our calligraphy wall scrolls are handmade.
When the calligrapher finishes creating your artwork, it is taken to my art mounting workshop in Beijing where a wall scroll is made by hand from a combination of silk, rice paper, and wood.
After we create your wall scroll, it takes at least two weeks for air mail delivery from Beijing to you.
Allow a few weeks for delivery. Rush service speeds it up by a week or two for $10!
When you select your calligraphy, you'll be taken to another page where you can choose various custom options.
The wall scroll that Sandy is holding in this picture is a "large size"
single-character wall scroll.
We also offer custom wall scrolls in small, medium, and an even-larger jumbo size.
Professional calligraphers are getting to be hard to find these days.
Instead of drawing characters by hand, the new generation in China merely type roman letters into their computer keyboards and pick the character that they want from a list that pops up.
There is some fear that true Chinese calligraphy may become a lost art in the coming years. Many art institutes in China are now promoting calligraphy programs in hopes of keeping this unique form
of art alive.
Even with the teachings of a top-ranked calligrapher in China, my calligraphy will never be good enough to sell. I will leave that to the experts.
The same calligrapher who gave me those lessons also attracted a crowd of thousands and a TV crew as he created characters over 6-feet high. He happens to be ranked as one of the top 100 calligraphers in all of China. He is also one of very few that would actually attempt such a feat.
Check out my lists of Japanese Kanji Calligraphy Wall Scrolls and Old Korean Hanja Calligraphy Wall Scrolls.
Some people may refer to this entry as Ba Gua Kanji, Ba Gua Characters, Ba Gua in Mandarin Chinese, Ba Gua Characters, Ba Gua in Chinese Writing, Ba Gua in Japanese Writing, Ba Gua in Asian Writing, Ba Gua Ideograms, Chinese Ba Gua symbols, Ba Gua Hieroglyphics, Ba Gua Glyphs, Ba Gua in Chinese Letters, Ba Gua Hanzi, Ba Gua in Japanese Kanji, Ba Gua Pictograms, Ba Gua in the Chinese Written-Language, or Ba Gua in the Japanese Written-Language.
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