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Mi Zhong
Jet Li’s movie,
“Fearless”, is about Huo Yuanjia, the founder of Jing Wu Hue martial
arts, also known as Chin Wu. Huo
Yuanjia was the first martial artist in the history of Chinese martial
arts to combine several styles into one school.
Before him, all martial artists focused on only one style in
their training. Today, we
refer to this combining of several styles, as the Jia Jing Wu Spirit.
The major style in Jing Wu Hue is Mi Zhong Quan.
In this article I will talk about the basic characteristics,
history and principles of Mi Zhong Quan.
I
grew up in a martial arts family and learned Mi Zhong Quan in my
childhood, as part of my training. Literally
translated as “Secret Ancestor”, Mi Zhong Quan is a famous
traditional art in the northern style of Shao Lin Kung Fu.
It is very popular throughout China, and because of its great
influence, even in southern China, many Jing Wu associations and schools
have been established. The
style itself is divided into different and complex branches, each with
its own system, flavor, concept, techniques and methods.
From ancient times to the present, traditional masters accepted
different parts of the Mi Zhong system.
Because it was practiced in different regions of China, Mi Zhong
Quan eventually developed into several branches and styles, each with
its own unique fighting characteristics.
All of the Mi Zhong Quan styles belong to the “Long Fist”
category, although their frame and structure is mainly Shao Lin External
Fist.
Mi Zhong fist fighting posture is clear, precise, smooth, freely open,
firmly rooted and grounded, characterized by strong and heavy punching.
Although appearing to be gentle and light overall, it has sudden,
rapid attacks and shooting fists. It
seems to be in a straight direction, but actually goes to eight
different directions. The
foot and handwork respond to each other.
Retreating and other actions create a series of attacking and
defending forms inherent in this style, as this Quan form changes
unexpectedly and surprisingly with jumping feet, lightning dodges, with
solid and fixed stances.
Mi Zhong is rich in forms, strong in technique, specific in solid
footwork, and uses maximum strength in each punch. This
is achieved through five ways of linking hands, hopping, piercing
through, springing, jumping, leaping, dodging/hiding and galloping,
using hard and soft applications all combined, with clear and crisp
movements.
Mi
Zhong fist is designed for two person fighting drills, group practice,
wrestling and throwing. In the hand and foot work, there are many
wrestling and controlling moves. The bodies of the two who are
sparring contact with fist punching, arm blocking, shoulder striking,
foot hooking, and leg sweeping. With waist twisting and shoulder
shaking, one conquers and wins over the enemy. In a real fight setting,
Mi Zhong Quan often combines wrestling and hitting; but emphasizes the
use of less fighting to overcome greater effort.
The Mi Zhong system encompasses close to one hundred different kinds of
fists and weapons. Within Mi
Zhong there are many different types of schools, each with its own
techniques and style, yet all having similar effects and results.
As an example, wide stances are used for training, by all
schools, for a strong and powerful punching style. Within the Mi Zhong
system, traditionally based, there are twenty-four principles for
hitting, eight methods and twelve postures.
Moving and walking require use of the waist and Kung Fu legs.
Practiced externally, Mi Zhong also has internal martial arts
characteristics.
History
of Mi Zhong
There are many tales
about Mi Zhong fist. Sometimes
different names were used, such as Mi Zhong fist, Yan Qing fist, Mi
Zhong Art, and sometimes with different spelling. During my childhood, I
often listened to my masters, as they related stories from the Mi Zhong
heritage.
By the end of the Tang dynasty in the year 906 A.D. there was a great
grandmaster, named Zou Tong, who taught many historically famous martial
arts heroes, such as Lu Jun Yi, Shi Wen Gong, Wang Ling, Wu Song (who
killed a tiger with his fists), Yue Fei (a general in the Song Dynasty
Army), and Yen Qing. Yen
Qing passed down what people called the Yen Qing Fist form. Later
when Yen Qing rebelled against the Emperor, he escaped to Liang San
Mountain and from that point on, people called this style the Ancestor
Fist. While he was escaping to Liang San Mountain, Yen Qing used
special techniques and skills, making nine fast marks on the snowy
ground that caused the armies to lose him, so he was able to get away.
From then on, this form was called the Lost Track Fist.
By the end of the Kang Xi Emperor period (1662 – 1722 A.D.), in the
Qing Dynasty (1644 – 1911 A.D.), one of my ancestors, Sun Tong, who
lived in the Shandong Province, studied and spread the Lost Track Fist
style. From Shandong
Province, located east of the Taihang Mountains to the sea, the style
was passed to Changzhou, a city famous for Martial Arts in East Central
China on the Grand Canal. From
Changzhou it passed to a family living in Jing Hai County in He Bei
Province, a northern China province.
Another branch passed to Yan Tai City, a seaport town on Bohai
Bay (part of the Yellow Sea) in Northeast Shandong Province, and from
there, over the Yellow Sea it passed to Dang Dong City (where I grew up)
on the Yalu River, Liaoning Province.
In order to distinguish it from other Mi Zhong forms, we called
this branch Dong Bei (Northeast) Mi Zhong Fist.
Basic
Requirements of Mi Zhong Quan
1) Posture is upright,
firmly rooted, body relaxed and straight, head up, neck straight, relaxed
shoulders, elbows sinking, back stretched, waist rising, anus lifted up,
hands working, hitting and moving like a tornado wind, with a fixed
posture as quiet
as Tai Mountain. Foot and handwork are clear. One step leads to the
next.
2) Full powerful energy combines with hard and soft energy.
Rush-punch releases
in a sudden explosion of chop, smash, push, lift, cut, stab and spear.
Fast footwork uses heel kicks, toe kicks, flip-up kicks, side
kicks, round-house kicks, shovel kicks, stomps, poke kicks, and so on.
Full energy goes to the foot with a clear point. The
use of energy must be natural, harmonious, full-flowing and soft.
Attacking must be fully grounded, fiercely speedy, quick and agile, hard
and crisp, eventually looking as if the hands are like cotton, but
touching the body like iron.
3) Waist and legs move with agility. Body
and waist are forward, backward, dodging, and spinning.
Footwork is quick, light and agile, forward and back, hopping and
dodging, retreating, and coordinated up and down.
4) Spirit and body are one.
Chi sinks to the Dan Tian. Eyes
follow the direction of the movement.
Spirit is energy for the mind, hidden inside. Hands, eyes,
body and feet are the outer expression of the form.
Essence, spirit, energy, strength, and Kung Fu are the inner Kung
method. Eyes are like lightning.
Judge
the opponent, then adjust and be in harmony with nature. Conquer the enemy
and win the battle. Energy is solid inside.
Mind goes down to the Dan Tian and is calm.
The heart benefits, as energy flows naturally. Stances are
rooted firmly, and powerful strength is exposed at one point.
Basic
Characteristics of Mi Zhong Quan
The Quan forms are
organized logically. Postures
are upright, open, wide, natural and circular, dodging, spinning, jumping,
retreating, fast and slow, practical but not flowery. The
stress is on real Kung Fu qualities. Each movement is either
attacking or defending, although, attacking is the main focus.
Energy and strength are sometimes hard, sometimes soft.
Footwork is solid and grounded. Posture, like the
Tai
Mountain
, is straight up. When attacking, the fist moves in one line,
fiercely hitting and rushing forward with speed and strength.
Important in these attacking techniques is protection. Techniques
are clean in order to make an opponent misjudge one’s intention and be
unsure as to what defense to use. The Quan's essential techniques are full
with the flow of energy. Soft
and hard energy
are combined, while empty and solid are intertwined. Heart is the
master as chi sinks
to the Dan Tian.
Every part of the body can
be used as a weapon - hands holding, sticking, controlling, and grasping;
body lifting and rolling, scooping, wrestling, twisting, pushing,
squeezing; shoulders striking, elbows hitting and head striking.
Footwork is complex, although forward and backward movements are
done naturally and freely. Many,
many techniques are used. In
Mi Zhong, everything is done so that the performer and nature are as one.
In general, an opponent is prevented from attacking by the use of
fast spinning, the sudden moving from high to low, and by making tracks
cross each other so that foot marks are spread across a wide area.
Therefore the Quan is called, “Ten Sides of Hidden Fist”.
The Fist Proverb says, “Hands, eyes, body, feet, spirit, energy, and
strength are a great road of one-hundred eighty-thousand miles.
Where there is a will, there is a way.
When
one really has Kung Fu, dropping water can go through a thick stone.
Fist is practiced over one thousand times, and body method is
natural. Si Fu shows the
disciple the right direction at the entrance, but the disciple must
practice Kung Fu non-stop, then eventually you will find the Way."
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Praying
Mantis Boxing
Praying Mantis Boxing is
one type of animal style Kung Fu. The type of Praying Mantis Kung Fu
taught by SMMS originated from the Shan Dong Province of China. It was
created by Wang Lang from Ji
Mo County of Shan Dong during the late Ming Dynasty. Kung Fu was Wang’s
passion since he was young. He had learned martial arts in the
Shaolin
Temple
at
Song
Shan
Mountain
. He also traveled to several provinces and studied under the famous
martial artists of his time. Once he noticed the skillfulness of a praying
mantis catching a cicada. He then picked a straw to tease the praying
mantis. Out of his observation of the praying mantis’s arm strike, its
head movement and its swerving body against the attack of the straw, he
became enlightened to the meaning of using short power to overcome the
long power. Incorporated the Monkey Kung Fu’s footwork and offensive and
defensive techniques of martial arts he invented Praying Mantis Boxing. On
top of that, he blended in some Drunken Style elements and various famous
martial artists’ boxing techniques.
The basic Praying Mantis hand techniques simulate the praying mantis’s
two arms which are similar to hooks a.k.a. “Praying Mantis Claws”. The
various striking techniques include Gou
( horizontal hook) , Lou (grasp), Chai
( grab down), Gua (upward block ), Diao (vertical hook), Chan ( trapping
lock), Pi ( Chop), An ( Press), Peng (pounding)
, Zha (hammer punch), and others.
Major stances include the empty stance, the 40/60 stance and the Chi Lin
(a Chinese mythical animal with the head of a dragon, scaled body, hoofed
feet and short tail) stance. Major footwork includes sliding step, follow
step, Stomping and so on.
The basic body posture calls for an upright head, sinking shoulder,
sinking elbow, lively wrist, supple waist and low quad and hook footing.
The waist, upper body and limbs need to be nimble, flexible and
responsive. The hips and lower body need to be stable. Basically, like a
tree that has the trunk and branches flexible but the root stable, or like
a body that “moves only the waist but keeps the quad steady”.
The method of Jing depends more on soft trapping, hard explosion,
and a crisp, quick and spring-like strike. Normally it’s trapping and
locking together with torque power and springy attack. Unleashing of
energy originates from the torque power of the waist and the jerking of
the arms, and finally culminates -the attack through the hands. This Kung
Fu ameliorates the courage and daring of the praying mantis which
confronts its enemy without retreat. (Note: The Chinese legend had it that
a praying mantis insect once stopped a cart by using its two long arms
without any thought of retreating.) The strikes are short and quick with
non-stop interlocking attacks. Praying Mantis Boxing opportunistically
adapts to different situations and seizes every possible way of attack or
counterattack, exploits the opponent’s weaknesses and opening. It
attacks on the offence; it also attacks on the defense. Takes every chop
and blow to its enemy.
As the style of Praying
Mantis Boxing became popular, it also gradually adopted various other
boxing techniques into the system and a few varieties of styles were
developed. They are: the “Six Harmony Praying Mantis”, the “Seven
Star Praying Mantis”, the “Plum Blossom Praying Mantis”, the
“Throwing Hands Praying Mantis”, the “Shiny-board ( or Guang
Ban) Praying Mantis” and so on.
There was one other style adopted by the southern
China
, created during the Qing Dynasty by a Cantonese, Zhou Ya Nan. It is
called the “Southern Praying Mantis Boxing”. However, its technique is
basically that of the south and it should be classified under the Southern
Boxing system.
Seven-Star Praying Mantis
Boxing is what we teach in SMMS. It is also called “Hard Praying
Mantis” or “Lo Han Praying Mantis”. The founder was Wang Yong Chung
(1854—1926) from Fu Shan,
Shan Dong Province
,
China
. Wang initially studied Long Fist and Ground Tumbling Boxing. He later
became the direct successor of Li, the Lightning Hand, the master of
Praying Mantis Boxing. Using the Praying Mantis as its core, Wang combined
what he learned previously and developed a new style of Praying Mantis
which he called the “Seven-Star (Qi Xing) Praying Mantis”.
The system Wang developed emphasizes two basic elements: the Seven-Star
body and the Seven-Star footwork. Seven-Star body means Head as the main
star, with 6 other Stars (i.e. Shoulder, Elbow, Wrist, Arms, Knees, and
Ankles) arranged in a crooked form that similar to the arrangement of the
Seven Stars in the sky. Seven-Star Footwork means the footwork goes like
the path of the Seven Stars i.e. forward, retreat, swerve and stretch.
This Boxing requires low stances. Its movements are unrestricted, its
exertion of energy ballistic. Its forms include Downward Punch, Intercept,
Double Inserting Flower, the
Eighteen Shuttles, Blunt the Steel, Nine Turns and
Eighteen
Falls
, Essences of Seven Star etc…
This style is very popular
in Zhao Yuan (my Grandfather’s and father’s home town); almost
everyone knows this style. It is even more popular in places like
Qing
Dao
City
, too.
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