Along with Tai chi and Xingyi Quan, Bagua Zhang is one of the three major internal Chinese Martial Arts and literally means Eight Trigram Palm, referring to the trigrams of Yijing, one of the canons in Taoism.

The practice of circle walking is Bagua's characteristic method of stance and movement training. Practitioners walk around the edge of a circle in a low stance, facing the centre and periodically changing direction as they execute forms. Students first learn flexibility through such exercises, and then move onto more complex forms and internal power mechanics. The internal aspects of Bagua are very similar to those of Xingyi and Tai chi, eventually many distinctive styles of weapons training are practiced, sometimes including the uniquely crescent shaped deer horn knives, and the easily concealed scholar's pen.