Xing Yi Quan is one of the three traditional Chinese forms of internal boxing, the other two being T’ai Chi Quan and Ba Gua Zhang. Each of these internal arts is a distinct style of boxing, yet the common denomination amongst the three that it is essentially a form of moving meditation.
At first glance, Xing Yi Quan looks like an external martial art with punching and kicking movements performed briskly in a straight line back and forth. Upon taking a closer look at the movements in the forms reveal an emphasis in circular and relaxed movements.
This discipline comprises of the simple five element fist forms:
- Metal – Chopping, a horizontal movement thrust from top to bottom
- Water – Drilling, a forward thrust moving upwards diagonally movement
- Wood – Crushing, a quick horizontal straight-launched movement
- Fire – Pounding, a cannonball like exploding outward movement while defending
- Earth – Crossing, a movement launched crossing the center line
and
Twelve animal forms:
- Dragon
- Tiger
- Monkey
- Horse
- Turtle
- Chicken
- Falcon
- Swallow
- Snake
- Dove
- Eagle
- Bear
Regardless of its simple looking build-up, its efficacy as a fighting art is hardly diminished. This is due to the various regulated competitions in China prior to World War II where several Xing Yi Quan practitioner emerged as top contenders.
This is because Xing Yi is characterized by aggressive, seemingly linear movements and explosive power that’s most often applied from a short range. A Xing Yi Quan practitioner uses coordinated movements to generate bursts of power intended to overwhelm the opponent, simultaneously attacking and defending.
The methods vary from school to school, but will always include bare-handed fighting training (mostly in single movements/combinations and sometimes in forms) and the training of weapons usage with similar or identical body mechanics to that used for bare-handed intense fighting.
The most basic notions of movement and body mechanics in the art were heavily influenced by the practice of staves and spears.
The linear nature of training in the art hints at both military origins and the influence of spear technique alluded to in its mythology. The goal of the Xing Yi exponent is to reach the opponent quickly and drive power through in a single burst, to close in and break your opponent’s structure so they can neither attack nor defend.
This is achieved by coordinating one’s body as a single unit, and the intense focusing of one’s Intent (Yi 意) and coordinated power (Jin 勁) utilizing tight circles usually in a forward direction, but can be applied on all 6 directions of energy (forward, backward, left, right, up, and down).
Issuing explosive power in Xing Yi is referred to as ‘Fa Jin’ (發勁) – whiplash power, the same term used in many other traditional Chinese Martial Arts
This is why as mentioned earlier the meditative portion of Xing Yi Quan practice is important to hone that laser focus and unity in breathing, movement, and explosion of energy.
