Martial Arts: Hsing (Hsing-I Chuan, Xing Yi Quan)

Hsing (Hsing-I Chuan, sometimes also spelled Xing Yi Quan or Hsing Yi Chuan), is known as Mind Boxing, or in another translation, Form-Will-Boxing. The pronouciation of Hsing-I is “Shing-ee”.

Hsing-I is characterised by five distinctive actions, namely the five fist elements. These elements are the Splitting Fist, Drilling Fist, Crushing Fist, Pounding Fist and the Crossing Fist. These five basic actions of splitting, drilling, pounding, crossing and crushing are related to the five elements of traditional Chinese medical theory and philosophy, ie. metal, water, fire, earth and wood, respectively.

In addition to these, Hsing also teaches the 12 styles of animal movements such as Dragon, Tiger, Horse, Cock, Turtle, Hawk, Swallow, Snake, Falcon, Eagle and Bear.

Each animal form has characteristic postures and stances, combined with a characteristic way of fighting.

Hsing-I belongs to the Chinese internal arts (together with Pa Kua and Tai-Chi), and shares some types of weapons training, namely the straight sword (Jen), the curved sword (Dao) and the long spear (Chiang). In contrast to Pa-Kua and Tai-Chi, movements in Hsing are more linear combined with a straight forward attack. The the emphasis is on developing very powerful strikes that are able to deliver inner energy (Chi) at the opponent.

Origin of Hsing: Northern China, also credited to General Yu Fei