Introduction
I’ve always been fascinated with Xingyi Quan, ever since I saw my sifu teach it a long time ago. Fast forward several years, my sigung (my sifu’s sifu) was giving one of his end of the year seminars. That time he taught Xingyi Quan’s Five Element Liking Form. Of course I couldn’t pass the opportunity to learn it. A few years later my sifu taught it at one of our training camps. When the pandemic hit my sifu started teaching online. Monday through Tuesday was normal classes and Friday he taught something new. Given that we were all stuck in our houses the smart thing was to teach something that didn’t require much space. So my sifu decided to teach Xingyi, but this time with more emphasis on the basics, i.e. the five elements.
There are books by experts and teachers on the subject of Xingyi. I’m as far from being an expert as the Moon is from the Earth. But I really love this style and I thought a very brief article would work as introduction. I want to put special focus on how Xingyi uses five element theory. Both as a theoretical frame and as a teaching method.
What is Xingyi?
Xingyi Quan (形意拳, form intention boxing) is a traditional Chinese martial art. It’s considered one of the “internal arts” with Taijiquan and Baguazhang. What that means requires an entire article (watch out for it in the next print version of Martial Journal). But in short that generally means there’s an emphasis on the refining of body mechanics. Also internal styles tend to have a strong theoretical frame. Xingyi uses the five elements and the twelve animals. One a more practical level Xingyi’s body mechanics derive from spear techniques. It doesn’t matter which branch of the style, all favor the big spear as a weapon.
A Bit of History
Xingyi’s origin is not entierly clear. Legend credits the creation of Xing Yi to renowned Song Dynasty general Yue Fei, but this is disputed. Most, if not all, branches of Xingyi agree that Ji Longfeng, also known as Ji Jike, is the first historical person to train Xinyi Quan (心意拳, heart/mind intention boxing), around the late Ming era. From Ji the art passed to Cao Jiwu, and from him the art split into its two biggest branches. Dai family Xinyi and Xinyi Liuhe Quan, both still practiced to this day. Some believe Ji’s Xinyi Quan comes from a Shaolin style by the name Xinyi Ba. While others say it’s the other way around. Whatever the truth Xinyi Lihue Quan and Shaolin Xinyi Ba share a lot of similarities.
Around the 19th century Li Luoneng learned the art from the Dai family and his students spread it across Northern China. From Li Luoneng’s students the art split again in two main branches Shanxi style (mainly Song and Che families) and Hebei style which is the more widely spread of all.
Five Element Theory
Part of Chinese classical cosmology deals with the five elements and their interactions. The five elements are fire, earth, water, metal and wood. Similar to the four elements of Greek philosophy, the idea is that everything in the universe derives from a combination of those five elements. Each element feeds/generates the next in the cycle. At the same time there is another cycle but of control. Each element can control or overcome another element which in turn does the same to another. Five element theory is used in a lot of things in Chinese culture. From the zodiac, religious and mystical practices to traditional medicine and of course martial arts. Given it’s relationship with Daoist philosophy the five elements are also present Baguazhang and, less so, in Taijiquan. Hung Gar, a famous southern style, also uses the five elements as fighting principles.
How do they work?
Each element corresponds with a basic technique which in turn is really the simplest expression of a fighting principle. Metal corresponds with pi quan or chopping fist. Wood is beng quan or crushing fist. Water is zuan quan or drilling fist. Finally fire corresponds to bao quan or exploding fist and earth with heng quan or horizontal fist. Even though they are all called “fists”, they’re not just techniques. Each of the Five Element movements has many vectors of movement contained within it. Together, they are used to explore all the useful ways through which one could advance on a straight line. Each is really a principle that can be applied in different ways. As each element creates another in the cycle, techniques work the same. Also the control cycle kind of works, in how a principle or technique can overcome another.
Now, you might think this is a useless vestige from old times. And you may have a point, traditional martial arts tend to have a bit of that. But, besides what value you might find in this theory as a cultural item, I believe it’s an excellent teaching tool. It’s a useful method of encoding principles. And it’s not just for hand to hand. As most Chinese martial arts, Xingyi includes weapons in its curriculum. And guess what, you can still apply five elements there. And, in my humble opinion, a frame as the five elements can help to refine training methods and ultimately fighting skills.
Some parting words
As stated at the beginning, it was not my intention for this article to be a treaty on Xingyi Quan. It’s not my main style, though I’d very much like to dive a little deeper into it. You could call me a Xingyi fan if that makes any sense. And as such I wanted this to be an introduction for anyone interested. I really hope you’ll find this useful and I hope the outgoing links help you a bit. For a bit more info on this style check out this Masters of the IMA and this documentary by Monkey Steals Peach. Last but not least Mushin Martial Culture by an actual Xingyi practitioner.
As always, leave any comments in the section below. They’ll be highly appreciated.
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