Xingyiquan, Hebei

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.

Hebei XingYi 12 Animal postures

Some pictures of postures from Hebei XingYi's 12 animals. Interesting to compare the similarities to photos of Dai Xin Yi's 10 Animals featured here:

http://daixinyi.blogspot.com/

Chicken (Ji Xing)

Dai for comparison, here.

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.

In the circular, regurgitative way the Internet works, Tom over at RSF dug up an old post by Tim Cartmell from Shen Wu, which I'm going to regurgitate here. Now the necessary crediting is over here's Tim's excellent thoughts on sparring:

When working on Beng Chuan (one of the three fundamental attacking energies of XingYi) the main way of learning is by being hit, and hitting your training buddy, with it. One thing that practitioners of other styles find curious when they start XingYi (at least with me), is the amount of being hit that's involved. It's all a matter of perspective though: If you compare XingYi to kick boxing training, for example, I imagine there's a lot less 'being hit' going on in general, but if you compare it to the average Tai Chi Chuan class, there's a lot more.

Well, here we are - a new home for my blog. A big thanks to fellow Rum Soaked Fist member Ashe for providing this place for me to blog in. We'll see how this thing progresses, but I'm thinking it will turn into a general blog on XingYi.