Xingyi Boxing
01 · Historical Records
Around the 1860s, Li Luoneng founded in Taigu the art he called “Xingyi boxing” (Form-and-Will Boxing): based on Xinyi boxing, taking the imitation of forms and the extraction of intent as its principle for choreographing movements, and adopting the holistic principle that the will is accomplished internally while the limbs take shape externally, with internal and external in accord, while also incorporating the strengths of other boxing arts.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Xingyi boxing is a school of traditional martial arts, created by Li Feiyu of Shen County, Hebei. Li Feiyu was commonly known as Li Luoneng. From childhood Li loved martial arts and studied them assiduously; by middle age he already possessed deep attainments in martial arts, yet he continued to seek out renowned masters far and wide, studying in various places and constantly refining his skill. Later, drawn by the fame of the Dai family's Xinyi boxing of Qi County, he went there to seek instruction. After ten years his art was complete. Xingyi boxing takes the theory of the five elements as its theoretical foundation, using the principles of the five elements to explain its boxing theory, its technical theory, its principles of attack and defense, and its principles of health building. Xingyi boxing takes the three-body stance (santi) standing practice as its introductory exercise and the five-element fists as its basic five fists, namely the splitting, crushing, drilling, cannon, and crossing fists. These are matched with the five elements of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth, applying the philosophy of the generation and conquest cycles of the five elements to the attack and defense of the boxing methods. It also draws on the hunting and defensive characteristics of twelve animals to fashion its forms, namely the twelve forms of the dragon, tiger, monkey, horse, alligator, rooster, swallow, sparrowhawk, snake, eagle, and bear. Li Luoneng's disciples were numerous and celebrated masters emerged in great numbers. Among them, Che Yonghong, Song Shirong, Song Shide, and Li Guangheng of Shanxi, and Guo Yunshen, Liu Qilan, Liu Xiaolan, and He Yunheng of Hebei, were all martial arts masters who enjoyed fame in their day.
Li Luoneng's ten years of study
Li Luoneng, known as Li Feiyu, studied the Dai family art in Qi county for ten years before founding Xingyi boxing in Taigu in the 1860s.
The Shanxi and Hebei branches
Li's many famous pupils split into the Shanxi and Hebei branches, sharing one source but differing in power, body method and teaching emphasis.
Beginning with the three-body stance
The three-body standing practice is the gateway of the art: body method first, then the five-element fists.
The five fists and their cycles
Splitting, crushing, drilling, cannon and crossing fists are matched to the five elements, whose cycles of generation and conquest govern the attack-and-defence logic.
The twelve animal forms
Twelve animal forms derived from the hunting and defensive traits of dragon, tiger, monkey, horse, alligator, rooster, swallow, sparrowhawk, snake, eagle and bear.
Inner-work transmission in the Song line
The Song brothers' line stressed the union of inner intent, power and breath with outer form, drawing on classical tendon- and marrow-changing exercises.
The inheritor Song Guanghua
Born in Taigu in 1932 and listed in the fifth batch of state-level inheritors, he has published three books and taught in Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, Europe and Southeast Asia.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
After Xingyi boxing was founded by Li Luoneng in Taigu in the 1860s, the Shanxi line, represented by Che Yonghong, Song Shirong, Song Shide, and Li Guangheng, was mainly transmitted through Taigu's county seat and the villages of the Shanxi merchant homeland such as Fancun, Yangyi, and Hucun, and spread along the trade routes and in answer to the guarding needs of merchant houses to Taiyuan, Yuci, Pingyao, Qi County, and even the commercial ports beyond Yanmen Pass (kouwai). Within it, the line of Song Shirong emphasized the transmission of internal work and related internal-work classics, while the Hebei school line of Guo Yunshen and Liu Qilan emphasized fierce short-range striking; each had its own emphasis. Both schools equally revere the three-body stance, the five-element fists, and the twelve-animal forms, and their genealogies and boxing theories are mutually interlinked.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Xingyi Boxing.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
They made indelible contributions to the perfection, transmission, and development of Xingyi boxing. Song Guanghua (per the official archival record of the associated inheritor): Male, of the Han nationality, born in April 1932, a native of Taigu County, Shanxi. He has published many articles and monographs on martial arts, including three books, and has repeatedly travelled throughout China and to the Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan regions as well as Europe, the Americas, and Southeast Asia to lecture and teach boxing. He is a representative inheritor of Xingyi boxing, a national-level intangible cultural heritage project of the fifth batch. He places great emphasis on the coordination of internal intent, internal power, and internal breath with external form, external force, and spirit-intent, as well as on the thorough integration of all techniques; drawing on classical training methods such as the tendon-transforming, bone-transforming, and marrow-cleansing exercises and the twelve great-strength methods, and taking sports biomechanics as his scientific basis, he teaches and trains in accordance with human physiological function, and has trained a large number of disciples.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Zhang Yulin 04-1736
- Song Guanghua 05-2548
- Gao Baodong
- Bubingquan
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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