Soft martial arts

Since written Chinese is pictographic, several methods have been developed to romanise it. The two generally accepted systems are the Wade-Giles and the pinyin systems. Pinyin is gaining wider appeal, but I will use both in this lens, referring firstly to the pinyin romanisation followed by the Wade-Giles version in parentheses:

eg. taijiquan (taichichuan)

My personal journey through the martial arts started 20 years ago, when I started learning a northern Shaolin style of kung fu. Actually the style was a mix of all sorts, heavily influenced by the tiger claw system but with seven other animals styles added, and some choy li fut and pak mei. It involved lots of stretching - the splits was a kung fu stance we had to do, called 'character one stance'! And it was an extremely external style, very physical.

I took some time off training when I moved to another town, and then tinkered for a while with praying mantis kung fu, before deciding to move from external to internal styles.

My internal styles are the Cheng Man-Ching style of taiji, Gao style of bagua, and Hebei style of xingyi. These days, I'm pretty minimalist, practising mainly 'the eight methods' of taiji, the five-elements of xingyi, and the 64-palm straight line forms of bagua.

There are several distinct styles of taiji (tai chi), each having its own history, exponents and methods. Some of the major styles are:

• Chen style
  
• Yang style
  
• Wu style
  
• Sun style
  

There are numerous other styles which can trace their roots back to these four - for example, the Wudang style and the Cheng Man-Ching style.

(Picture of Yang Chengfu performing Single Whip posture. Public domain image.)

Martial Arts Master Practising Routine in Xihai Park in Tongzhou, Beijing, China Photographic Print
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Baguazhang is a complex art which falls between taijiquan and xingyiquan on the 'scale of softness'. As the name of the art makes clear, bagua is primarily - though not exclusively - an open hand art. Some punches are used, and are similar to those of xingyiquan.

To an observer, baguazhang (often refered to as simply bagua) is perhaps the strangest of all martial arts. The practitioner moves at high speed in circles and spirals, swooping down and then back up again, rapidly changing direction. In fact the defining characteristic of bagua is change. It can be a beautiful art when performed fluidly, but the moves contained within are extremely effective for self-defense.

Bagua is a relatively young martial art, its historical records going back only 300 years, but the philosophy behind the art dates back over 3000 years - to the ancient Chinese classical text called the I Ching, or Book of Changes.

There are three main training methods in baguazhang:

1. Qigong (Chi Kung)
   
2. Empty hand forms
   
3. Weapons forms
   

The qigong training is very good for improving balance, posture and health, as well as providing a solid foundation for the more martial aspects of the art. Most styles of bagua have a circle-walking form containing eight fixed arm positions. For example, the picture of Sun Lutang shows him demonstrating the Lion Plays Ball posture.

There are numerous empty hand forms, many of which also consist of circle-walking, and at certain points on the circle, performing a set of self-defense movements. Each form concentrates on a particular aspect of the training, whether it be stances, or opening the shoulders, or issuing force (fa jing).

Bagua has a comprehensive set of weapons for training. The deer-horn knives are typical of bagua, used as a pair, and each having four sharp points. Bagua also employs some of the largest weapons in the martial arts world, for example, the bagua giant broadsword. These oversized weapons are designed to exhaust the practitioner's arms and shoulders (while strengthening them)! The real power generation in taiji, bagua and xingyi comes from connection with the earth by the practitioner sinking his weight and directing the force via the waist. This is easier to practise when the arms and shoulders are exhausted. Otherwise, the arms are used instead, which is incorrect.

Several styles of bagua (pa kua) have been developed, and include:

• Yin style
  
• Jiang style
  
• Cheng style
  
• Liang style
  
• Gao style (and also a Beijing Gao style)
  
• Fu style
  

Xingyiquan (hsing-i chuan) is a profound martial art, which has been described as 'easy to learn but difficult to master'. To the casual observer, it looks like an external art, and is indeed the hardest of the three soft martial arts.

The mental focus is on relentlessly advancing on an opponent. But the ultimate aim of xingyi is to control the body using the mind; in using will to control external manifestation.

There are four major aspects to training in xingyi:

1. San ti shi - a form of standing meditation
   
2. Five element fists
   
3. Twelve animal forms
   
4. Linking forms
   

Each of these is described in more detail below.

The standing meditation called san ti shi - or Three Body Posture - is at the root of xingyi. Standing meditation (zhan zhuang, pronounced 'jam jong') is a form of qigong (chi kung) commonly used in most Chinese martial arts, internal and external. In the picture above, Sun Lutang demonstrates the san ti shi posture.

It is sometimes referred to as the 70:30 stance as 70% of your weight is on the back leg and 30% on the front. If you have your right leg forward, then your right hand should be held up at face height, palm forward-facing, the left hand down at waist height, palm downward-facing.

Points to consider when training this:

• Weight should be sunk, as if sitting on a stool
  
• Shoulders relaxed and sunk
  
• Elbows sunk
  
• Head held as if suspended from above
  
• Chin tucked in
  
• Tongue on roof of mouth
  
• Breathe down to abdomen (dan tien)
  
• Gaze should be off into the distance
  

When you can hold the stance for an hour, you'll be doing pretty well! But as with bagua broadsword, the training really only starts once your palms and soles are burning and your legs are shaking, as this is a meditation designed to develop your mind, not your body.

The Five Element Fists are the fundamental moving forms in xingyiquan. Each technique has a basis in the Chinese philosophy of the five elements - metal, water, wood, fire and earth - and their interrelationships, both productive and destructive.

It is also claimed that each technique has a beneficial effect on the organ that relates to that element. The five elemental fists are as follows, with the name of the element and organ it relates to:

• Pi Quan (Splitting fist) - Metal - Lungs
  
• Zuan Quan (Drilling fist) - Water - Kidneys
  
• Beng Quan (Crushing fist) - Wood - Liver
  
• Pao Quan (Pounding fist) - Fire - Heart
  
• Heng Quan (Crossing fist) - Earth - Spleen/stomach

Each of these techniques is demonstrated by expert Luo De Xiu in the Five Elements clip below.

Practising these exercises can help improve chronic conditions - for example, hypertension can be helped by doing the pounding fist technique.

The twelve animal forms are the more advanced aspects of xingyiquan, and many of them use movements and punches from the five elemental fist techniques. It is therefore usually better to become proficient in both the san ti shi and the five element fist training before progressing onto the twelve animal forms.

The twelve animals add a bit more variety to the repertoire of xingyi, with new hand shapes, and footwork and movements that mimic the animals the forms are named after. These are the twelve animals of the Hebei style of xingyiquan:

1. Dragon
   
2. Tiger
   
3. Monkey
   
4. Horse
   
5. Snake
   
6. Rooster
   
7. Swallow
   
8. Sparrow Hawk
   
9. Turtle (sometimes also referred to as Alligator)
   
10. Tai - a Chinese mythical animal like an ostrich
    
11. Eagle
    
12. Bear
    

For an example of one of these advanced animal forms, see the clip below Luo De Xiu performing the xingyi rooster form, along with some self-defence applications.

There are several linking forms in xingyi, which you will not be surprised to hear, link together techniques from the five element fists, and some aspects from the twelve animal forms, to produce a form. They may look similar to, for example, kata from karate, but each technique has its own feel according to which element or animal technique is being used.

The three major styles of xingyi (hsing-i) are:

• Hebei style
  
• Shanxi style
  
• Henan style
  

In reality, the boundaries separating styles of xingyi - and bagua - are very blurred. A great deal of 'cross-training' happened during the development of all these styles, and in fact, it is extremely common for xingyi and bagua to be taught together.