Xingyiquan (), also known as xingyi (), is a style of internal Chinese martial arts. The word approximately translates to "Form-Intention Fist", or "Shape-Will Fist".
The style is characterized by aggressive, seemingly linear movements, and explosive power most often applied from a short range. A practitioner of xingyi uses coordinated movements to generate bursts of power intended to overwhelm the opponent, simultaneously attacking and defending. Methods vary from school to school but always include bare-handed fighting (mostly in single movements/combinations and sometimes in forms) and using weapons with similar body mechanics to those in bare-handed intense fighting. Movement and body mechanics in the art were heavily influenced by the practice of using staves and spears.
Historically and technically related martial arts include Dai-style xinyi liuhequan, liuhe xinyiquan, and yiquan.
Origins
Legends
The earliest written records of xingyi can be traced to the 18th century, and are attributed to Ma Xueli of Henan Province and Dai Longbang of Shanxi Province. Legend credits the creation of xingyi to renowned Song dynasty (9601279 AD) general Yue Fei, but this is disputed.
According to the book Henan Orthodox Xingyiquan written by Pei Xirong () and Li Ying'ang ():
According to legend, throughout the Jin, Yuan, and Ming dynasties few individuals studied this art, one of them being Ji Gong (also known as Ji Longfeng or Ji Jike) of Shanxi province. After Yue Fei's death, the art was lost for half a millennium. 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.
General history (ancient times – 20th century) Aspects of xingyiquan (particularly the animal styles) are identifiable as far back as the Liang dynasty at the Shaolin Temple. Yue Fei therefore did not, strictly speaking, invent xingyiquan, but synthesized and perfected existing Shaolin principles into his own style of gongfu which he popularized during his military service. Nonetheless, Yue Fei is usually identified as the creator because of his considerable understanding of the art (as shown in the work The Ten Theses of Xingyiquan, credited to Yue) and his cultural status as a Chinese war hero.
Some martial artists and Chinese martial art historians hold that Yue's story is largely legendary. While xingyiquan may well have evolved from military spear techniques, there is no supporting evidence to show that Yue Fei was involved or that the art dates to the Song dynasty. These authors point out that the works attributed to Yue Fei long postdate his life, some being as recent as the Republican era, and that it was common practice in China to attribute new works to a famous or legendary person, rather than take credit for oneself. In addition, historical memoirs and scholarly research papers only mention Zhou Tong teaching Yue archery and not spear play.Toktoghan (脱脱). Song Shi-Yue Fei Zhuan (宋史•岳飛傳 – "History of the Song: Yue Fei Biography") (Volume 365), 1345. A rewritten version of Yue Ke's memoir. (See also, )Kaplan, Edward Harold. Yueh Fei and the founding of the Southern Sung. Thesis (Ph. D.) – University of Iowa, 1970. Ann Arbor: University Microfilms International, 1970., pg. 10. Yue historically learned spear play from Chen Guang (陳廣), who was hired by the boy's paternal grandfather, Yao Daweng (姚大翁).Yue, Ke (岳柯). Jin Tuo Xu Pian (金佗續編), 1234 – Chapter 28, pg. 16.Kaplan: pg. 13.
Beginning in the late Ming era, the evidence for the art's history grows clearer. Ji Longfeng, also known as Ji Jike, is the first person generally agreed to have both existed and practiced the art. Ji Longfeng's contributions to the art are described in the Ji Clan Chronicles (姬氏族譜; pinyin: Ji Shi Zupu). The Chronicles describe xingyiquan as a martial art based on the combat principles of the spear. The Chronicles attribute 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. Nowadays, many believe that the style Ji Longfeng was taught had been Shaolin Xinyiba (a style which still exists today, and bears some resemblance to xinyi liuhequan). Ji Longfeng referred to his art as liuhe, The Six Harmonies, a reference to the most highly developed spear style practiced in the late Ming military.
Li Luoneng was proficient in other martial arts before studying Dai-style Xinyi. Some claim his original art was qimenquan (奇門拳), perhaps his family's style, while others believe he actually studied tongbeiquan and gongliquan. Li came to study under the Dai family either because he heard of their fame in the martial arts and business, or maybe as suggested by others, after having fought and lost to a practitioner of their art. It is generally agreed that he then settled in the area of their village, and grew and sold vegetables, which earned him the nickname "Li Laonong" (李老農, literally "Old Farmer Li", but with the connotation of "Respectable Farmer Li"). Initially, members of the Dai clan refused to teach him, but he eventually won over their trust, and he was taught by Dai Wenxiong, Guo Weihan, or both. After learning Dai-style Xinyi for a number of years, perhaps over a decade, Li left the Dai territories and traveled across Shanxi and Hebei provinces, teaching for many years his own elaboration on the art, now called "xingyiquan". No reasons were ever recorded for the many changes Li made to the art, but there are those who claim that Li wished to compete with the Dai clan's fame, perhaps because of some grudge. Li and many of his students and grand-students were famous for offering bodyguard and caravan escort services.
Recent history (20th and 21st centuries) 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. This included armed techniques – such as bayonet and sabre drills – alongside unarmed techniques.
Sun Lutang became famous in the early 20th century for his skills (chiefly in the Beijing and Tianjin areas), and for the martial books he wrote about the Internal arts. During Sun Lutang's lifetime and martial career, he and several of his contemporaries began to classify xingyi, together with tai chi and baguazhang, as the "Wudang" style of martial arts. Sun also exchanged knowledge with his friend and colleague Fu Zhensong, who subsequently took this branch of the art to southern China (after centuries of it mostly being practiced in the northern parts of the country). Later, many others have spread the art across China and the world. Yiquan, which descended from xingyiquan by Wang Xiangzhai, became especially widespread during the 20th century, in China and across the world.
Following the Cultural Revolution in China, some xingyi forms have been adapted to fit the needs of modern practitioners of the competitive sport of wushu. This meant that various movement forms from the art were adapted to a competitive format, in which the emphasis was put on aesthetics and flowery movements, rather than on fighting. The style is nonetheless relatively rare in wushu competitions because all wushu practitioners must compete in several mandatory events, which make xingyi, a non-mandatory art, a secondary priority in wushu competitive circles.
As there has never been a single organizational body governing the teaching of the art, several variant styles and sub-styles developed. Although there are classical texts which include specific instructions and general guidelines for practice, many of these are ignored by most modern practitioners, and interpreted in different ways by those who follow their instruction (this is depicted in the lineage chart further down this page). As a result, over the decades and especially over the last few dozen years, branches of the art have become considerably different as they diverged. This trend was strengthened by the influence of other martial arts and the spread of xingyi to the Western World.
The art began to be taught in the West somewhere along the 1960s–1970s. However, it only rose to prominence among martial arts communities worldwide during the first decade of the 21st century. Currently, it is still not well known among the general public. One explanation for this 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 to the viewers as part of the film itself).
Arguably, the most common xingyiquan lineage in the West today is the yizong branch, which came down from Zhang Junfeng. Many of Zhang's students and grand-students, such as Kenneth Fish (martial artist), Hung I-Hsiang, Su Dongchen, Luo Dexiu, Hsu Hung-chi and others have taught his xingyi to Westerners since the 1980s – especially Americans. This branch became the most popular because Taiwan was open to Westerners during the 20th century, while throughout much of that century, the People's Republic of China did not allow Westerners to visit regularly, and thus people were not exposed to branches of the art from the mainland. Contrary to popular belief, spread by some Taiwanese teachers, the art had not 'died out' on the mainland, but was simply inaccessible to outsiders for several decades. Another popular Taiwanese branch in the West is Wang Shujin's lineage, which was chiefly transmitted by his student Wang Fulai.
There are also several lineages from Tianjin which are nowadays taught in the West, namely in Canada and Israel. Lines of Dai-style xingyi and xingyi liuhe are still rare in the West, and can be said to even be relatively rare in China, though they are not at risk of becoming 'extinct'. In the United States, Dai-style xingyi is taught by Li Tailiang and several of his students. Yiquan, on the other hand, has become exceedingly popular in the West, being taught in many schools, especially in Europe. There are no statistics as to the number of practitioners in any of these arts in either China or other countries.
Disputed history Ancient Chinese texts, like those which make up the "Xingyi Classics", often contain characters whose meanings are obscure or have disappeared completely from the Chinese language. Specialized terms which describe historically specific concepts (e.g. names of ancient weapons) are commonly interpreted with reference to their closest, modern linguistic equivalent. The results can be problematic, producing translations which are linguistically correct but inconsistent within a fighting or martial context.
The recognized founder of baguazhang, Dong Haichuan, was reputed to have fought Guo Yunshen with neither able to defeat the other – though it is possible that they were training together. It would have been controversial at the time for Dong Haichuan to have studied under Guo Yunshen, since Dong was the older of the two. The most neutral viewpoint would be to say that they trained together, which may explain the stylistic similarities between baguazhang and the xingyiquan monkey shape. Frantzis argues that this encounter never took place and that Guo and Dong had little contact with each other. Frantzis argues that a xingyi-bagua exchange was more likely to have occurred in Tianjin c. 1900 where xingyi masters Li Cunyi and Zhang Zhaodong, bagua master Cheng Tinghua, and four other xingyi and bagua teachers lived together (Frantzis, 1998, p. 179). Sun Lutang states in his autobiography that the legendary fight between Guo Yunshen and Dong Haichuan never happened. The book states that the truth of the matter is that Guo Yunshen actually fought one of his older xingyi brothers and lost. Sun Lutang was a student of both Guo Yunshen and Cheng Tinghua so this understanding on the subject seems to be one of the most accurate.