The army roots of Xing Yi

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So, as a sort of counterpoint to my earlier publish questioning whether or not all Chinese language martial arts come from army strategies, I’d wish to give attention to one which undoubtedly does – Xing Yi. Though, this actually simply emphasises my earlier level as a result of Xing Yi appears to be like very totally different to most different Chinese language martial arts and the explanation it appears to be like totally different is as a result of it comes from weapons-based army strategies and is subsequently extra concerened with army engagements than civilian. As our podcast sequence is displaying, there’s a verifiable historic connection between Xing Yi and troopers – for instance, the oldest traditionally verifiable practitioner linked to Xing Yi – Ji Lengthy Feng, was an actual life soldier within the Ming Dynasty military.

However the actual motive you’ll be able to inform Xing Yi descends from army strategies is you could merely have a look at it. The legs and arms are usually shut collectively and near the physique, the posture is slender and the course of strategies is straight in entrance of you. All the things is completed inside the profile of the physique. There are two principal causes for this 1) you have been carrying armor and needed to accommodate for the load of it, and a couple of) you have been utilizing weapons, which have been most likely fairly heavy, since they needed to penetrate armor.

The Xing Yi we’ve at present is what army arts would appear to be should you did them with out carrying armor and utilizing hand strategies as an alternative of weapons. After all, many individuals nonetheless do Xing Yi with a spear, but it surely’s uncommon to see anyone carrying armor doing it today, which I feel leads individuals to get the flawed concept about it.

Check out this video of my buddy Byron Jacobs from Beijing doing Xing Yi Zuan Quan (Drilling fist). Look how tight every thing is to the physique and the way the fingers are saved inside the profile of the physique:

Right here’s an instance:

All this leads me to this wonderful new video by Karate Nerd, Jessie Enkamp referred to as “I skilled like a Samurai for a day”. Right here he will get Dr. Kacem Zoughari, a Japanese martial arts professional to take him across the Samurai Museum Berlin. It’s fairly attention-grabbing then half approach by, it will get tremendous attention-grabbing as a result of he will get to put on previous Samurai armor and have a go together with a number of genuine weapons. Now that is actually worthwhile as a result of he tries to do Karate actions within the armor and really rapidly realises that it’s utterly inefficient and exposes all of the important components of the physique to strikes from the opponent. The professional, Dr. Kacem Zoughari, will get him to vary his actions in order that every thing occurs inside the profile of the physique and makes him use the footwork, momentum and physique to energy the arm actions. The strikes turn into hidden, and tight to the physique quite than telegraphed and open… and bingo! It begins to look identical to Xing Yi! He suggests a cross step at one level and it appears to be like so much like Xing Yi Dragon step. The strikes he has to do begin to appear to be components of the 5 Components – Pi, Beng, Tzuan.

Have a look:

Now chances are you’ll be pondering Japanese armor isn’t the identical as Chinese language armor and subsequently none of that is related, however you’ll be flawed. That armor on the prime of this publish will not be Samurai armor, (though I guess should you took the common particular person off the road and requested them what it was they might suppose it was Samurai armor). It’s primarily based on Chinese language armor from the Track Dynasty. This could have been officer armor, not what your common soldier was carrying, however the identical ideas would apply – you need your actions to guard your susceptible areas – the neck and joints particularly.

Xing Yi is predicated on these ideas – minimal motion, a good profile, utilizing the physique, momentum and the step to energy the arms, strikes primarily based on timing quite than velocity, and so forth. And that’s why it appears to be like so totally different to one thing like Karate or Norther Shaolin or Lengthy Fist, and so forth.

Additional studying:

Take heed to components 7 and eight of our podcast on Xing Yi which focuses on Chinese language armor and its affect on Xing Yi.

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