Inside Xingyi Wuxingquan 02

It has been five months since the first part of Inside Xingyi Wuxingquan has been published at XingyiMax.com. Previously, we look at the background and the definition of Five-Element-Fist and the logic behind doing Splitting-Fist first, part two of this series brings you into the logic behind the learning/training sequence of Five-Element-Fist.

Li Cunyi's Wuxingquan

The logic behind XingYi WuxXingQuan sequence

The standard Xingyi Wuxingquan (Five-Element-Fist) training sequence is in the order of the five Chinese classic elements, i.e., in the order of metal, water, wood, fire and earth. We start our Wuxingquan with the lead hand strikes in Piquan (Splitting-Fist) and Zuanquan (Drilling-Fist). Bengquan (Crushing-Fist) is the transition of lead hand strikes to rear hand strikes training with a combination of lead and rear strikes while the stance remains unchanged (left lead) throughout the whole process. Paoquan (Pounding-Fist) and Hengquan (Crossing-Fist) focus on the rear hand strikes training.

It is the human nature that to connect the upper limbs with the opposite lower limbs, i.e. connect the left arm with the right leg and the right arm with the left leg. The power of Xingyi Wuxingquan should come from the rear foot even in rear hand strikes. It is easier to work on the lead strikes powered by the rear foot than rear strikes with the power comes from rear foot, thus the rear strikes should to be trained with intention as in the standard Wuxingquan learning curve.

A lot of Xingyiquan practitioners thought they are doing the rear strikes correctly, however, when you observe closely, you would notice that they have to place their front foot firmly on the ground, then utilize the strength of front foot and leg to pull their rear upper limb for the delivery of rear hand strike.

Variation of Wuxingquan training, such as rear hand Piquan, rear hand Zuanquan, etc., would be worked on after the standard Wuxingquan has been “mastered” by the practitioners. Xingyiquan system from Li Cunyi lineage has a 36-diversification in Wuxingquan.

Notes:

• You may see the natural connection between the opposite upper and lower limbs much clearer in most of the “Superman Punch” videos.
• Taijiquan also has the similar intention of training the rear hand strikes by putting the LouXiAoBu moves right after the basics and repeat 5 times in the first section of the taolu (form).

Sun Lutang's Wuxingquan