Emei Martial Arts
01 · Historical Records
Emei martial arts is the collective name for the martial arts that originated in the Mount Emei region of Sichuan and spread widely throughout Sichuan and even the whole Southwest region. According to historical records, Emei martial arts originated in the Yin-Shang period, and a relatively systematic theoretical system had taken shape by the Southern Song dynasty.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Emei martial arts promoted its own development through mutual integration with the Buddhist, Daoist, and Confucian cultures of Mount Emei. It emphasizes the blending of hardness and softness and the dual cultivation of internal and external aspects; its movements seem fast yet are slow, alternating fast with slow, seem soft yet are hard, blending hardness with softness. The technical system of Emei martial arts runs along five parallel lines—stance work, routines, weapons, free fighting, and health cultivation—absorbing the strengths of the Shaolin, Wudang, Kongtong, and other schools to form a style of its own; the four categories of fist methods—the Emei high-stance, low-stance, guest-frame, and dharma-image fists—and the eight schools of boxing—the Seng (Monk), Yue, Zhao, Du, Hong, Hua, Zi, and Hui schools—compiled over many years by the representative inheritor Wang Chao, are the backbone of contemporary teaching and practice.
The four great styles
Emei boxing still preserves four major families — high-stance, low-stance, guest-frame and dharmalakshan — forming the backbone of present teaching.
The eight gates
Eight gates — seng, yue, zhao, du, hong, hua, zi and hui — each with its own repertoire of forms and weapons.
The eighteen boxing families
Eighteen named families including the fire-dragon and tiger-crescent forms, the lotus and monkey fists, the coiled-silk and snake fists, green-forest short hand and the eagle-hawk style.
Firm yet yielding, internally and externally trained
Shaped by the Buddhist, Daoist and Confucian cultures of Mount Emei, its movements seem swift yet slow and soft yet firm, training body and mind together.
Wang Chao at the world traditional martial arts games
The inheritor Wang Chao has won over fifty gold medals, captaining China at the fourth and seventh World Traditional Martial Arts Games and representing Emei martial arts abroad in 2009 and 2011.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Emei martial arts originated at Mount Emei and has a history of nearly three thousand years; it comprises more than eighty schools, with hundreds upon thousands of fist styles and routines, making it one of the three great schools of Chinese martial arts.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
At present, Emei martial arts still comprises 68 schools and 2,638 bare-handed, weapons, paired-practice, routine, training-method, and combat items. Taking Emei boxing alone, it still preserves four major categories (namely the Emei high-stance fist, Emei low-stance fist, Emei guest-frame fist, and Emei dharma-image fist), eight major schools (namely the Seng or Monk school, and the Yue, Zhao, Du, Hong, Hua, Zi, and Hui schools), and eighteen family styles (namely the Fire Dragon fist, Yu family fist, Emei sword-hand, Qian family string-tiger fist, Emei Six Harmonies fist, Emei Eight Trigrams lotus fist, Emei monkey fist, Emei arhat fist, Panbo fist, twining-silk fist, Emei-school snake fist, tiger-claw fist, greenwood short-hitting, Qingcheng Hong fist, full-hand fist, Mei silk fist, sparrowhawk fist, and Emei ground-skill fist). Under the impact of modern lifestyles, the complete transmission of Emei martial arts faces multiple difficulties and urgently needs protection. Wang Chao (recorded in the official archive of associated inheritors): Male, Han ethnicity, born in November 1962; a native of Emeishan City, Sichuan Province. In 2009 and 2011, he twice traveled abroad as a representative of Chinese Emei martial arts. He is a representative inheritor of Emei martial arts, included in the fifth national-level batch of intangible cultural heritage projects. He has repeatedly represented the province and city in international and domestic martial arts competitions, winning more than fifty gold medals; among these, he represented China as team captain at the 4th and 7th World Traditional Martial Arts Championships, winning four gold medals. For many years he has devoted himself to the development and transmission of Emei martial arts, training a group of outstanding martial arts talents for the country.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Wang Chao 05-2546
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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