Most people are surprised to hear, or would disagree, with the statement that XingYi is primerily a weapons art. It is. The historical record of its origins is that it comes from spear fighting, yet in the modern age it's done almost exclusively barehand. While XingYi is a proven martial art for barehand fighting, many of the techniques of XingYi still make a lot more sense with a weapon in your hand.
Modern Arnis / Filipino Martial Weapon and Arms self-defense seminars cover single stick, double stick, knife disarms, empty hand techniques, ground fighting, Tapi-Tapi and other topics.
When: Saturday, September 26th, 2009 9AM-4PM (Lunch from 12-1PM)
Where: Arizona Ploynesian Kenpo Academy 1058 N. Higley Rd. Mesa, Arizona 85205
All Chinese martial arts that are considered "traditional" have interesting and disputed histories. The history of XingYi (one of the three main Chinese internal martial arts) is particularly interesting because its verifiable history is so incredibly long. We can (pretty) accurately trace it hundreds of years back to the 1600s when a man named Ji Long Feng was recorded as practicing Xin Yi... and that's where another particular problem starts - are Xin Yi and XingYi really two different arts, or the same thing?
It's often written in Tai Chi books that we should attempt to mimic the natural movements of small children. The Tao Te Ching frequently admonishes us that to become a great sage we must become more like children, chapter 55, for example:
"He who is in harmony with the Tao is like a newborn child. Its bones are soft, its muscles are weak, but its grip is powerful."
Following on from my last post (Push hands is not fighting) it's time to ask the next logical question. What is? What's a "fight" supposed to look like if you do Tai Chi? It's an interesting question, and to some extent I'm thinking out loud here, so please bear with me. Practicing applications from the form to work on your technique is fair enough, but when it comes to actually applying your art in a free situation against a resisting opponent what would it look like? Would you expect to see picture perfect Single Whip poses?
One of the early pioneers of Tai Chi Chuan in the West was the noteable Cheng-Man-Ching. Like many modern day Tai Chi mavericks he divides opinion, people in the Tai Chi world seem to either love him or hate him. He looked like the stereotypical "Tai chi master" - a small, elderly Chinese gentleman who could push around much bigger, younger and stronger opponents with ease. True to his image as the Taoist sage he extolled the vrtues of Chi over using muscular strength, the soft over the hard and yielding over force.
There's more to the Dragon Xing in XingYi than I posted in my previous article. That was about the physical aspect and how the Dragon helps to make up the fundamental San Ti Shi posture of XingYi. Dragon in XingYi does relate to the mind too - its has a kind of 'spiritual' quality that goes along with the phrase that has been passed down from XingYi teacher to student - "the human spirit wants to rise up" - that is, to seek our most noble nature, ascending beyond our animal nature. Finding out what it means to be a human being.
Modern Arnis / Filipino Martial Weapon and Arms self-defense seminars cover single stick, double stick, knife disarms, empty hand techniques, ground fighting, Tapi-Tapi and other topics.
