As your study of Chinese martial art going on, you will find the whole process have becoming more and more interesting. The fist play, which takes a big part of Chinese Wushu, is also full of fun. And the Xiangxing Quan can be seen as a representative of it.
As your study of Chinese martial art going on, you will find the whole process have becoming more and more interesting. The fist play, which takes a big part of Chinese Wushu, is also full of fun. And the Xiangxing Quan can be seen as a representative of it.
General introduction
It is also called Animal-imitating Boxing. That's because it imitates the forms and movements of animals with the stress on the hitting features of their movements and actions. These are then developed into fist plays by combining the offensive and defensive skills of the martial arts. Such animal-imitating boxing styles include monkey boxing, mantis boxing and eagle-claw boxing. The movements look like a dragon flying, a tiger jumping, a clever monkey clattering, an eagle soaring, a crane standing, a snake roving, a duck waddling, a dog leaping, a rooster pecking and a mantis wielding its forelimbs.
Xiangxing Quan has a long history. The ancient book of Huainanzi recorded the exercises of ducks bathing, monkey looking for food,
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hawks roving and tigers watching. The six-animal exercises of the Han Dynasty and Doctor Hua Tuo's five-animal exercise as well as Ge Hong's animal-imitating exercises are all indispensable to the creation of the
animal-imitating boxing. Ge's animal-imitating exercises included movements of dragon flying, tiger walking, bear strolling, turtle swallowing, oriole flying, snake coiling, bird spreading wings, monkey squatting, and rabbit being startled.
Tricks in the animal-imitating boxing, and animal-imitating moves in other boxing styles are numerous. In the
Shaolin boxing there are five animal-imitating routines--dragon, tiger, leopard, snake and crane.
Features of Xiangxing Quan
The animal-imitating boxing does not merely confine itself to the imitation of animal movements. The movements are frequently a refinement of the animals. For instance a real mantis cannot wield its claws as rapidly as an animal-imitating boxer wields his fists.
Those animal-imitating boxing routines now in fashion are more concerned with the successful execution of imitations and adding difficult turns and twists. An excellent routine of the animal-imitating boxing is one which combines true-to-life imitation and the attack and defense skills of the
martial arts.