Xingyiquan

A practitioner of Xingyi uses coordinated movements to generate bursts of power intended to overwhelm the opponent, simultaneously attacking and defending.

[1] According to the book Henan Orthodox Xingyiquan written by Pei Xirong (裴錫榮) and Li Ying'ang (李英昂), Dai Longbang "...wrote the Preface to Six Harmonies Boxing in the 15th reign year of the Qianlong Emperor [1750].

Then, during the Ming and Qing dynasties in Shaanxi province's Zhongnan Mountains, Yue Fei's boxing manual was said to have been discovered by Ji Gong.

Yang Jwing-Ming, who is not a practitioner of the art, argues that aspects of xingyiquan (particularly the animal styles) are identifiable as far back as the Liang dynasty at the Shaolin Temple.

[7] According to Yang, Yue Fei therefore did not strictly invent xingyiquan, but synthesized and perfected existing Shaolin principles into his own style of gongfu which he popularized during his military service.

In such a way, the art of tai chi is attributed to the legendary Zhang Sanfeng, and Daoism to Laozi, even though as in the case with Yue Fei, there exists no proof for such claims.

[10] In addition, historical memoirs and scholarly research papers only mention Zhou Tong teaching Yue archery and not spear play.

[11][12] Yue historically learned spear play from Chen Guang (陳廣), who was hired by the boy's paternal grandfather, Yao Daweng (姚大翁).

The Chronicles, however, attributes this stylistic influence to Ji himself, who was known as the "Divine Spear" (神槍; pinyin: Shén Qiāng) for his extraordinary skill with the weapon.

Some speculate that during that period of the development of the art, either Ji Longfeng or some of his students had a connection with monks at the famous Shaolin Temple on Song Mountain.

There exists a martial art called "xinyiba", which is still taught at the general location of the temple, and bears a few similarities to xingyi-related styles.

One branch came down from Cao's student Ma Xueli,[16] and became xinyi liuhequan – an art still widely practiced today, which compared to other lineages, have not undergone many changes over the generations.

A condensed version of xingyiquan was taught to Chinese officers at the Military Academy at Nanjing during the Second Sino-Japanese War for close quarters combat.

[2] Sun also exchanged knowledge with his friend and colleague Fu Zhensong, who subsequently took this branch of the art to southern China (after it had been mostly practiced in the northern parts of the country for centuries).

One explanation for this situation is that unlike other traditional oriental martial arts, xingyi was not a notable style in movies which became popular in the West (and though a modified 'wushu' version of it appeared in The One, starring Jet Li, this was not told or hinted to the viewers as part of that film's script).

Many of Zhang's students and grand-students, such as Kenneth Fish (martial artist), Hung I-Hsiang, Su Dongchen,[23] Luo Dexiu, Hsu Hung-chi and others have been teaching his xingyi to Westerners since the 1980s – especially Americans.

Specialized terms which describe historically specific concepts (names of ancient weapons for example) are commonly interpreted with regards for their closest, modern linguistic equivalent.

Treating the story of Dong Haichuan and Guo Yunshen as allegory, however, reveals a common training protocol among xingyiquan and baguazhang practitioners.

Schools of the Hebei branch emphasize xing and yi before developing a higher level of relaxed structure, and have a slightly different evasive footwork.

This may be attributed to the fact that the Muslim community of China was historically a very closed culture in order to protect themselves as a minority, thus retaining the older addition to the name of xingyi.

After a short amount of time though, the practitioner would be taught how to move the muscles and connective tissues on a minute level from the inside of the body, making these stances very dynamic internally and more challenging to train.

The use of the santishi zhan zhuang as the main training method in xingyi dates back to Li Luoneng, the founder of modern version of the art.

In Dai-style xinyi, the central and most important training method is called 'Squatting Monkey' – a dynamic movement exercise rather than a static posture held in place.

Also called 'friction stepping' (摩擦步; mócā bù), this exercise is meant to ingrain in the practitioner the correct forward-stepping habits and methods of xingyi, which are different from those of other arts (though similar to those found in some styles of baguazhang).

Shi li movements are basically simplified versions of the more advanced body mechanics and circles found in the Five Elements and the Animals.

The eight bazigong are: Cutting Down/Severing (Zhǎn 斬), Intercepting (Jié 截), Wrapping (Guǒ 裹), Carrying (Kuà 挎), Lifting/Raising (Tiāo 挑), Pushing Upwards (Dǐng 頂), Leading (Lìng 令) and Cloud (Yún 雲).

He also got Dai-style xinyi liuhequan true legacy through his gong fu brother Peng Tingjun (彭廷雋), who also studied from Dai Kui (戴奎).

Sifu Jose Marín-País Costa Rica (Actualmente el maestro Jose Marín del país de Costa Rica es el único heredero activo del Xing Yi Quan a nivel mundial, sistema heredado por su Maestro ya fallecido Alejandro Fung Yang.

Most yiquan oral traditions have it that Guo Yunshen, a student of the founder of modern xingyi (Li Luoneng), had been Wang Xiangzhai's teacher.

This can be discerned in the following paragraph by Sun Lutang:[79] "Before training, there is no thought or intention, no figure or image, no self or others, only qi exists in the chaos of the body.