Meishan Martial Arts
01 · Historical Records
The origins of Meishan martial arts can be traced back to before the Northern Song dynasty, while the style took shape in the late Song and early Yuan dynasties. In the final years of the Song dynasty, Zhang Hu and Zhou Long raised troops to resist the Yuan and founded the "Meishan Black Tiger Sect", centered on martial arts training, which formed the embryo of the Meishan martial arts school. It has had many representative figures, such as Chen Wangming, Liu Guolun, Li Zaihao, and Li Tinglu of the Ming dynasty; Liu Daoju, Liu Shengxiang, Yang Yuanqi, Wu Jialü, Wu Zaixian, and You Jiawu of the Qing dynasty; and You Shiming, Liu Chubao, Liu Chunshan, and Yang Sanheng during the period from 1912 to 1949.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
In the early Ming dynasty, while retaining its military lethality and practicality, Meishan martial arts developed in the direction of physical fitness; the number of participants surged, folk boxing societies sprang up in great numbers, and the various weapons also gave rise to a great many martial arts routines, exerting a far-reaching influence. Meishan martial arts is divided into three major categories: fist techniques, weapons, and training methods. The fist techniques consist of 36 single-drill hands used for combat and 86 boxing routines. The training methods include stance training, barrel training, tube training, iron palm, and iron fist. The weapons include the single saber, double sabers, the long spear, the large rake, the eyebrow-level staff, the iron ruler, double truncheons, and the wooden bench, among which the eyebrow-level staff, the bench, and the iron ruler are weapons distinctive to Meishan martial arts. The training routines are numerous yet short and powerful; the hand techniques are fierce and vigorous, flexible and varied; in unarmed combat it makes much use of punches, excels in the use of the palm, employs few kicks, and has a solid lower body and steady footwork. It reflects the development of ancient military and combat skills in the Meishan region and is a vivid practice of the combat techniques of traditional Chinese martial arts; it carries the martial ethic of "learn virtue before learning martial arts", kindness toward others, and harmonious coexistence, and is also of positive significance for building a harmonious society.
Thirty-six single drills and eighty-six routines
The body of Meishan fist work, thirty-six single drills for fighting and eighty-six sets, mostly short and compact.
Barrel, tube, iron palm and iron fist drills
The conditioning methods of Meishan martial arts, alongside standing practice, formed in warfare and rural labour.
The eyebrow staff, bench and iron rule
The three weapons peculiar to Meishan, alongside broadswords, spears and halberds, often drawn from farm tools.
The Meishan Black Tiger sect
The proto-sect founded by Zhang Hu and Zhou Long when they rose against the Yuan at the end of the Song.
Yan Xizheng and the Meishan troupe
The ninth-duan inheritor who opened a martial-arts school in 1982 and took a Meishan troupe abroad in 2013.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Meishan martial arts is a traditional school of martial arts created by the Meishan ancestors through long social and natural practice and warfare. Giving priority to defense while combining both attack and defense, it is plain and unadorned, simple and practical, and is distributed in the Meishan region of Hunan, notably Xinhua County, Lianyuan City, and Lengshuijiang City of Loudi City, Hunan Province.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Historically, Meishan martial arts has been transmitted mostly through the master-disciple relationship, and has now reached its twentieth generation. Since the reform and opening up, Meishan martial arts has relied on collective and educational transmission, and has achieved still more substantial continuity and development. Meishan martial arts is an important basis for understanding and studying the history, culture, and social development of the Meishan region. Yan Xizheng (according to the official records of the associated inheritor): male, Han ethnicity, born in May 1947, from Xinhua County, Hunan Province. A Meishan martial arts master holding ninth-degree rank in Chinese martial arts. In 1998 he was filmed for the video tape "Bearing of the Martial World". In 2005 he was commended by the State General Administration of Sport as an advanced individual in national mass sports. In 2013 he organized a Meishan martial arts performance troupe to perform abroad, taking Meishan martial arts beyond China's borders. He is a representative inheritor of Meishan martial arts, an intangible cultural heritage project of the fifth national-level batch. In 1982 he founded a folk martial arts hall, which over the years has trained tens of thousands of martial arts talents; he took part in the third and fourth National Martial Arts Hometown routine competitions and won gold medals, and was awarded the title of "One Hundred Outstanding Figures of the Chinese Martial World" by the State General Administration of Sport and the Chinese Martial Arts Association.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Yan Xizheng 05-2570
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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