Hong Boxing
01 · Historical Records
Hongquan (Red Fist) is a traditional martial arts style that originated in and spread through the Guanzhong region of Shaanxi Province; it has a long history, with influence extending to the Northwest, Southwest, Central Plains, and Northeast regions, and branches including Yu Hong (Henan Red), Long Hong (Gansu Red), Chuan Hong (Sichuan Red), and Dian Hong (Yunnan Red). Among its weapons forms, the spear art has fully preserved the Ming-dynasty Six Harmonies Great Spear method, including Great Flash Pole, Small Flash Pole, Great Six Harmonies, Small Six Harmonies, Push-Red Six Harmonies, Heart-Piercing Six Harmonies, Edge-Blocking Six Harmonies, Ambush Six Harmonies, Great Closure, and Small Closure; the staff art can be divided into sixteen routes of single-headed mother-and-son staff, twenty-four-route and thirty-six-route double-headed mother-and-son staff, yin-hand pipa staff, Mad Devil staff, Coiling Dragon staff, White Snake staff, and Eight Immortals staff; and the saber art includes the Eight-Step Saber, Green Dragon Saber, Turn-Over Saber, Plum Blossom Saber, Five Tigers Skirt-Sheep Saber, Five Tigers Eight-Gates Saber, and Five Tigers Gate-Cutting Saber.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The Hongquan routine set includes thirty-six routes such as Small Red Fist, Great Red Fist, Taizu Red Fist, Middle Red Fist, Taizong Red Fist, Second-Route Red Fist, Pink Red Fist, Old Red Fist, Long Small Red Fist, Bright Moon Red Fist, Guandong Red Fist, and Guanxi Red Fist. Hongquan weapons forms include spear, staff, whip-rod, saber, large and small chain flails, spring-and-autumn great saber, and line hammers, totaling more than forty sets. Hongquan takes the fist-manual records in the Fist Classics Essentials section of the Jixiao Xinshu (New Book of Effective Techniques) as the theoretical basis of its boxing methods, emphasizing combat effectiveness. Five Hongquan sparring songs survive to the present, namely: the Hongquan Fist Manual, Hongquan Running-Fist Crossed Hands, the Hongquan Eight Major Steps, the Hongquan Essentials for Applying Martial Arts, and Hongquan Training Methods (medicines and the like). The main characteristics of Hongquan are the dual cultivation of internal and external aspects, an emphasis on courtesy, deference, and modesty, yet a fierce style that strikes first to seize the initiative. Its routines are laid out with refined fullness, its hand techniques intricate and ingenious, its bearing majestic; practice flows smoothly with clear rhythm, vivid in imitative form and full of lingering charm, giving a sense of vigorous strength. The transmission of Hongquan proceeds along two parallel lines of family and master-disciple inheritance; in the Guanzhong region of Shaanxi it is mostly called Guandong Hongquan and Guanxi Hongquan, while southern Shaanxi and southeastern Gansu maintain a separate Guanlong line. Its routine practice stresses the six-character formula of rising, falling, twisting, wrapping, shaking, and springing; performing the fist requires coordinated movement of the upper and lower limbs with power issued from the waist, and its stance methods include the horse-riding stance, squat stance, and empty stance.
The thirty-six red boxing routes
Thirty-six named routes including the small red fist, great red fist, Taizu red fist, Taizong red fist, powder-red, old-red and moon-bright red, each with its own emphasis of power and stance.
The Ming six-union spear
Its spear work preserves the Ming six-union spear: great and small flash rods, great and small six-unions, the pushing, heart-piercing, side-blocking, ambush, great and small enclosures.
Mother-and-child staff routes
Staff work ranges from sixteen single-headed mother-and-child forms to twenty-four and thirty-six double-headed ones, alongside the pipa staff, madman staff, coiled-dragon, white-snake and eight-immortal staves.
Sabre forms
Sabre forms include the eight-step, green-dragon, turning, plum-blossom, five-tiger skirt and five-tiger gate sabres, part of some forty sets of weapons including maces and hammers.
Its textual basis in the Jixiao Xinshu
Its theoretical basis is the fist manual in the Jixiao Xinshu, which emphasises striking power; outwardly courteous yet inwardly resolute and always seeking the first move.
Five red-boxing manuals
Five surviving manuals — the fist score, the running-fist hand sets, the eight step methods, maxims on the use of force and training with medicaments — remain the principal source for teaching.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Hongquan has a strong flavor of regional culture; the philosophy, combat effectiveness, fitness value, and entertainment value it contains deeply express the character of Sanqin culture, displaying the spiritual connotations of Chinese culture: elegance, restraint, tolerance, peacefulness, and ceaseless self-improvement.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
At present, with the spread of foreign cultures and the arrival of martial arts from abroad, Hongquan, like other martial arts schools, is in a state of decline, and the protection and transmission of Hongquan culture has become an urgent task.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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