Performed by Ma Xiaohui
Performed by Ma Xiaohui
Mei hua zhuang is said to belong to the Kunlun school and together with Baguaquan (a style of no relation to the famous Baguazhang popular today) comprise the fundamental boxing styles of the Kunlun sect1. In many of the rural areas in which mei hua zhuang has been practiced for centuries, the founding of the sect is attributed to the mythological figure Yun Pan. Villagers often say Mei hua zhuang existed since the beginning and folk legends claim that its history extends to the Han dynasty. Mei hua zhuang's oldest written records, genealogies and textual date to the records of 2nd generation master Zhang Sansheng. While these writings have been accurately dated by historians to 1588, the style itself is undoubtedly much older. Based on historical records, it is known that in 1588, Zhang Sansheng began his studies of mei hua zhuang publicly in Xuzhou, Jiangsu province. His student, Zou Hongyi, of the third generation, was born at the end of the Ming dynasty. By the 9th year of the Qing Dynasty emperor Qianlong's reign, Zou Hongyi went north to teach martial arts and settled in Mazhuangqiao village in Pingxiang county, Hebei.
Tong bei quan
Grandmaster Chen Fengqi performs the key fundamental set of Yan qing quan/Mi zong quan
Mian zheng quan (continuous attack boxing) of Yan qing quan.
First part of Yanqing jiazi, this set is the essential one of the yanqingquan system, it is long and arduous ..... conducted with slow and static movements to ensure the frame/structure is strong and accurate.
Jing wu tan tui demonstrated by Master Wang Yanji. For more information, visit www.wushu-qigong.com
Wushu Champion Liu Haibo demonstrates the 6th dan daoshu form (Wushu Broadsword.) For full step-by-step intructional VCD please visit www.kungfudirect.com
The earliest reference to Kalari payattu occurs in A Description of the Coasts of East Africa and Malabar in the Beginning of the Sixteenth Century by Duarte Barbosa, indicating that kalari payattu had already developed by this time. Phillip B. Zarrilli, a professor at the University of Exeter and one of the few Western authorities on kalari payattu, estimates that kalari payattu dates back to at least the 12th century CE. The historian Elamkulam Kunjan Pillai hypothesizes that kalari payattu was a product of battles between the Cheras and the Cholas during the 11th century CE. This theory was reiterated by later writers without question. Today, as the concept of the war has been questioned and rejected, the theory of the origin of Kalari payattu during this war has lost its ground. Until the 19th century, this martial art could be practised only by the warrior castes. All children of such castes were sent to a Kalari at the age of seven, where they learnt the art of warfare as a primary occupation. Kalari payattu underwent a period of decline after the introduction of firearms and especially after the full establishment of British colonial rule in the 19th century; however, Kalari payattu has been reinvigorated ever since the 1970s surge of general worldwide interest in martial arts. Claims that Chinese and Japanese martial arts come from kalari payattu via Bodhidharma and Shaolin Kung Fu are complicated by the documented existence of martial arts in China and specifically at the Shaolin templeprior to the purported arrival of Bodhidharma as well as disputes over Bodhidharma's origins and history.