Xiliangzhang
01 · Historical Records
It originated in Bozhou City, Anhui Province, and evolved gradually from the "Gulan fitness art" created at the end of the Yuan dynasty, combined with the confrontational patterns of Chinese chess. Xiyang Palm was created by an imam of a mosque at the end of the Yuan dynasty, spread widely in the army in the early Ming, and subsequently played a positive role in the anti-wokou wars of the Ming dynasty, in the Qing dynasty's resistance to foreign aggression, and in the War of Resistance against Japan. During the nationwide excavation of martial arts heritage in the 1980s, it was included by the State Physical Culture and Sports Commission among the 129 boxing styles of Chinese martial arts.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Bozhou Xiyang Palm is a traditional martial art of China. "Xi" means "clear"; because the raised-palm movement is performed before practicing martial arts, the style is named "Xiyang Zhang" (Xiyang Palm). Xiyang Palm is a major martial arts school composed of basic exercises, boxing routines, weapons routines, hard qigong, and light-body skill. Its basic exercises comprise seven boxing sets — the chess-capturing posture, Gulan Palm, lion's head, nine-dragon claw, wandering-dragon twenty-four palms, horse boxing, and eighteen chain-linked elbows — with 354 techniques; among them, the imitation-of-animal techniques of sixteen animals are a distinctive feature. Its weapons routines include the thirty-six mandarin-duck hooks, the twenty-eight yin-yang moons, and the nine-palace five-form hook-and-sickle spear. Its hard qigong includes iron-sand palm, yin-wind palm, and four-gate shaking. Its light-body skill includes plank-running and "hanging a picture on a wall". Xiyang Palm is a boxing style based on the movement principles of intent and form, form and body, body and qi, qi and striking, striking and release, release and intent. It generates force from the ground; qi fills the dantian and is pushed to the corresponding parts of the whole body, flowing through the Ren and Du meridians so that qi assists force in moving the limbs. It is strongly practical.
Seven routines and 354 techniques
Seven routines—grasping-the-piece, Quran palm, lion head, nine-dragon claw, twenty-four wandering-dragon palms, horse boxing and eighteen linked elbows—hold 354 techniques.
Sixteen animal-imitating techniques
Sixteen animal-imitating techniques are the style's hallmark, their imagery meshed with the attack-and-defence positions of Chinese chess.
Mandarin-duck hooks and hooked spears
Weapon routines include thirty-six mandarin-duck hooks, the eight-two yin-yang crescent and the nine-palace five-form hooked spear.
Hard qi-gong and lightness skill
Hard conditioning includes iron-sand palm, yin-wind palm and four-gate shake, while lightness skill covers the running-board art and hanging on the wall.
Where the fitness art meets the chessboard
Originating in Bozhou, the style evolved from a late-Yuan fitness art combined with Chinese chess positions; its name refers to the clarity of the opening palm gesture.
Power through intent, form and breath
Its power principle runs from intent to form, body, breath, strike and back to intent, driving qi from the ground through the dantian along the two principal channels.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Through more than seven hundred years of practice and application, it has spread throughout the country, being most flourishing in Anhui Province, and is also distributed in Henan, Shandong, Hubei, Jiangsu, and even Taiwan. Over the seven hundred years of its transmission, Xiyang Palm has been most flourishing in Anhui Province, with Bozhou as its place of origin and central transmission area; the Bozhou Xiyang Palm Association is the protecting unit. It is also distributed in Henan, Shandong, Hubei, Jiangsu, and even Taiwan. It was created by a mosque imam at the end of the Yuan dynasty on the basis of the "Gulan fitness art", using the confrontational patterns of Chinese chess to work out attack and defense. In the early Ming it spread widely in the army, and it played a role in the anti-wokou wars of the Ming dynasty, the Qing resistance to foreign aggression, and the War of Resistance against Japan. During the nationwide excavation of martial arts heritage in the 1980s, Xiyang Palm was included by the State Physical Culture and Sports Commission among the 129 boxing styles of Chinese martial arts, and the way its boxing methods illuminate and are illuminated by chess patterns and the meridian theory of Chinese medicine also came to scholarly attention.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Xiyang Palm is transmitted mainly through master-to-apprentice inheritance. Bozhou Xiyang Palm takes reverence for martial arts and virtue, observance of courtesy, and trustworthiness as its fundamental aims; it helps cultivate in practitioners the fine qualities of diligence, endurance, tenacity, and enterprise. It has absorbed the theories of yin and yang, the five phases, the viscera, the meridians, and the movement of qi and blood from Chinese medicine, emphasizing the unity of form and spirit and the combination of movement and stillness; it has value for fitness, health preservation, and therapy. It is a natural combination of ethnic culture, martial arts culture, and the culture of Chinese chess, and a witness to the radiance shed by many cultures together; it has important historical value for the study of the development of traditional sports among China's ethnic minorities.
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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