Bouyei Martial Arts
01 · Historical Records
Before the 1990s, because of the need to guard against banditry, protect homes, and perform folk customs such as dragon and lion dances, most young and middle-aged people in Buyi villages practiced martial arts; from elderly men in their eighties down to small children, everyone knew a few sets of boxing and kicking techniques.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Buyi martial arts is a mass traditional sports activity of the Buyi people with the aims of building physical fitness and protecting the homeland. Anlong County has a strong martial arts atmosphere, with Buyi martial arts transmitted in more than 70% of its villages. Buyi martial arts includes boxing methods such as Opening-Mouth Boxing and Inserting-Tiger Boxing, and combat content with the single-headed staff, combined staff, wolf-tooth club, bench, broom, rake, hoe, carrying pole, prod pole, double crutches, sickles, and single and double sabers, with sub-events such as routine performance and paired live practice. Buyi martial arts has simple movements and agile body and hands; it can both attack and defend, emphasizes the harmonious unity of essence, qi, and spirit, and stresses self-cultivation; it is plain and practical, forming a school of its own, and has strong characteristics of agricultural culture. It emphasizes respect for teachers and devotion to the way, values the master-disciple relationship, and stresses 'cultivating oneself first before practicing martial arts,' reflecting the plain, honest, and persevering spiritual qualities of the Buyi people. Practicing it can cultivate the self and strengthen the body, and is of important practical significance for promoting ethnic unity and building cultural confidence.
The opening boxing and tiger-insert boxing
Representative bare-hand routines, compact in action and alert in movement, stressing the harmony of essence, breath and spirit.
The langya club of mengzi thorn
The most distinctive weapon of the tradition, made from locally grown hard mengzi thorn and doubling as a farm implement.
Rake, hoe, shoulder pole and broom
Rake, hoe, carrying pole, broom, bench, sickle and crutch are all worked into routines, reflecting a farming culture.
Single-head and joined staffs
Two staff forms: the single-head staff for solo practice and the joined staff for paired or composite work.
Three transmission lines in Anlong
The three transmission lines running through the county town, Pairong village and Dadang village, now in their fifth generation.
Cultivate yourself before the martial art
The tradition stresses respect for teachers and self-cultivation before martial skill, expressing Buyi steadfastness and simplicity.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Most of its routines derive from the Buyi ancestors' practices of hunting, farming, and warfare, and its weapons are mostly the everyday production and living tools of the Buyi people; the most distinctive is the wolf-tooth club made from the locally hard mengzici wood. Anlong County has a strong martial arts atmosphere, with Buyi martial arts transmitted in more than 70% of its villages. Its transmission lines comprise three branches: the county town, Pairong Village of Zhaodi Subdistrict, and Dadang Village of Qianxiang Subdistrict, with a clearly documented lineage reaching the fifth generation. Most routines derive from the Buyi ancestors' practices of hunting, farming, and warfare, and the weapons are mostly everyday production and living tools, the most distinctive being the wolf-tooth club made from the locally hard mengzici wood. The boxing methods include Opening-Mouth Boxing and Inserting-Tiger Boxing; the weapons include the single-headed staff, combined staff, wolf-tooth club, bench, broom, rake, hoe, carrying pole, prod pole, double crutches, sickles, and single and double sabers; and the events are divided into two categories: routine performance and paired live practice.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
It was created in production and daily life and was accumulated and developed over generations of inheritors, giving it a history of more than 1,000 years. It is widely transmitted in the Buyi villages of Guizhou Province, and is most typical of Anlong County in the Qianxinan Buyi and Miao Autonomous Prefecture. Buyi martial arts is transmitted mainly through master-to-disciple relationships within villages; in recent years, school training has been added as a new mode of transmission. Its transmission lines are clear, with three main branches: the county town, Pairong Village of Zhaodi Subdistrict, and Dadang Village of Qianxiang Subdistrict, and a clearly documented lineage reaching the fifth generation. Buyi martial arts embodies the production, lifestyle, and moral concepts of the Buyi people; it is rich in content, unique in form, and plain and practical, carrying and preserving much historical and cultural information about the Buyi people, and has important research value.
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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