Changjia Boxing
01 · Historical Records
The founder of Chang School Boxing, Chang Naizhou (1724-1783), was from Changjia Village, Sishui County, Henan, in the Qing dynasty (now under the jurisdiction of Xingyang). He came from a family of scholars and authored the eight-volume Lectures on the Book of Changes, which was included in the Complete Library of the Four Treasuries. Chang Naizhou (1724-1783) was from Changjia Village, Sishui County, Henan, in the Qing dynasty (now part of Xingyang). Born into a family of scholars, he wrote the eight-volume Lectures on the Book of Changes, included in the Complete Library of the Four Treasuries, and also authored martial arts treatises such as the Discourse on Central Qi. He fused the principles of the Book of Changes, medicine, and boxing into a single whole; his illustrated manuals of boxing and weapons, with pictures and annotations, were thorough and clear, establishing a tradition of transmission that valued letters and boxing equally. His disciples and second-generation disciples carried the art to Shanxi, Shaanxi, Fujian, and other provinces, as well as to Hong Kong and Taiwan.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Legend says that Chang Naizhou loved martial arts from childhood. He studied under Zhang Ba of Hulao, learned the Yu family spear method from Yu Rang, later received guidance from Yan Shengdao of Luoyang, and was further taught by Liang Dao of Sichuan. Comprehending the principles of the rising and falling of yin and yang, he gathered the greatest achievements of the principles of the Book of Changes, medicine, and boxing, and fused internal qi, external form, and technique into a single whole, creating the Chang School of boxing, which is now nearly three hundred years old. Chang School Boxing possesses methods of qi training, fully realizing the wonder of vertical and horizontal opening and closing. Its sets number several dozen, covering boxing, staff, sword, saber, spear, whip, sickle, and pellet (bow), all transmitted in illustrated manuals with pictures and annotations that are thorough and clear. Beyond Xingyang, practitioners of Chang School Boxing are spread throughout Shanxi, Shaanxi, Fujian, and other provinces, Hong Kong and Taiwan, as well as Zhengzhou, Kaifeng, Anyang, Gongyi, and Xinmi; the art is also transmitted in the United States and other countries. In recent years, Chang School Boxing practitioners and martial arts enthusiasts have continually come to Xingyang to seek their roots and honor their ancestors, and to exchange and practice together.
The twenty-four character routine
The master routine built on twenty-four characters, whose breath work exhausts the possibilities of opening and closing.
The weapon sets
Dozens of weapon sets, all recorded in illustrated and annotated manuals that match the empty-hand method.
Body method formulas
A rhyming formula likens head, fist, waist and foot to a dragonfly, a goat, a crowing cock and a swallow in the wood.
The founder's writings
The founder left both a Confucian classic commentary and a treatise on central breath, uniting cosmology, medicine and boxing.
The three non-transmissions
Rules against display and on whom one may teach kept the art pure but drove it toward decline.
Chang Hongjun and free teaching
Born in Xingyang in 1963, he coaches young pupils and teaches the art to schoolchildren free of charge in the holidays.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Chang School Boxing is an important school of Chinese martial arts, standing alongside Shaolin and Taiji as a traditional martial practice form. The Xingyang branch of Chang School Boxing is centered on Changjia Village and is distributed through Xingyang, Gongyi, Xinmi, Zhengzhou, Kaifeng, and Anyang. The school's content falls into three categories: boxing, weapons, and internal training. The boxing takes the Twenty-Four-Character Boxing as its overarching framework; the weapons include several dozen types such as staff, sword, saber, spear, whip, sickle, and pellet (bow); internal training emphasizes the cultivation of central qi and stance work. Because the school maintains disciplinary rules for selecting disciples, such as not showing off before others and the three non-transmissions, the art has mostly been taught among members of the same clan and the same village. In recent years the national-level representative inheritor Chang Hongjun has used winter and summer vacations to teach boxing free of charge to primary and secondary school students and to mentor young disciples.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Chang School Boxing inheritors have clear masters and orderly transmission; theoretical materials and boxing manuals have survived to the present day in good condition, which is of great significance for excavating and organizing traditional martial arts culture. However, constrained by disciplinary rules for selecting disciples, such as not showing off before others and the three non-transmissions, Chang School Boxing has grown increasingly obscure and endangered, with many boxing methods on the verge of being lost and in urgent need of protection. Chang Hongjun (related inheritor, official archive records): Male, Han ethnicity, born in October 1963, from Xingyang, Henan Province. His performance of Chang School Boxing is characterized by the dual cultivation of inner and outer, the unity of form and qi, the complement of hardness and softness, and the integration of offense and defense; his body methods are described as the head like a dragonfly skimming the water, the fist like a goat butting, the waist like a rooster crowing with curling tail, and the feet like a purple swallow threading through the forest. He is a representative inheritor of Chang School Boxing, a national-level intangible cultural heritage item from the third national batch. He actively mentors the younger generation of disciples and uses winter and summer vacations to teach Chang School Boxing free of charge to primary and secondary school students.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Changhongjun 03-1216
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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