A brief discussion of the evolution of Hebei style Xingyi

The evolution of Hebei style Xingyi Quan:

I practice Hebei style Xingyi Quan, it is a specific style of the art with many substyles based on the teachings of famous masters.

In this article I will explain about the evolution of Hebei style according to my understanding and try to show how to understand the approach of this school of martial arts.

Xingyi is much more than Hebei style as there is also Shanxi style, a method practiced in the nearby Shanxi province which also has its own substyles.

Hebei and Shanxi style are both Xingyi, but they are practiced quite differently and I don't have any experience with Shanxi style, so as far as I'm concerned it is off limits for me to talk about.

1: How Xingyi came into being:

Xingyi Quan originally came from another style called Xin Yi Liu He Quan.

Xin Yi Liu He means Heart and Mind Six Harmonies, it is a mostly Muslim style popular in Henan province and practiced mainly by the Hui ethnic group.

It has many interesting features such as animal routines, basic fists, excellent weapons work, and a highly developed view of the Dantian as a force vector.

Xin Yi Liu He also gave rise to a style called Dai family Xin Yi Liu He, which has many unique characteristics and cannot be considered exactly the same as other methods. I'm not well versed in either Xin Yi Liu He or Dai Style, although my friend Jon Dyer is very knowledgeable about them, so if you ever want to know more, he is a good source and I'll be glad to introduce him. My understanding is that basically Dai Style has a highly developed Dantian method where multidirectional force can be sent from the Dantian to the martial postures.

Eventually an individual named Li Luoneng learned Dai Style and went on to adjust the style into what we call Xingyi Quan.

2: Early Xingyi:

I've met the great grandson of Li Luoneng as well as another practitioner of Li style named Cui Jieli in Hengshui Hebei in 2011.

My impression of the style is that it still maintains many of the old characteristics of the styles which came before it just as specialized crouching and Dantian rotation.

The style is mostly back weighted and looks extremely different from most other methods of Xingyi which are popular today.

Li Luoneng's student Guo Yunshen further developed the style and there are also representatives of his method still alive in Hebei today. Guo Yunshen still emphasized back weighted training, but there are claims in the community that he also advocated double weighted posture. This is partly because of a text credited to him called Neng Shuo Xingyi Quan/Master Li Luoneng Explains Xingyi Quan, but there is a common belief in the Xingyi community that this text is a fake document created after the death of Guo Yunshen. These questions of veracity are a little higher level than my ability to study, but I include them just to give voice to the dissenting opinions in the community.

Another figure is Liu Qilan who was the teacher of Li Cunyi and Zhang Zhaodong.

3: Li Cunyi:

Li Cunyi was a major third generation master of Xingyi, his style is still performed in the old way with a back weighted posture and round back, but for combat purposes it is practiced in a dual weighted posture. The methods are very direct and still fairly simple. The advantage of this style is that it is easy to learn, the disadvantage is the simplicity of the body method can be limiting.

4: Zhang Zhaodong and Shang Yunxiang:

Zhang Zhaodong should be fourth generation since he started out as a student of Li Cunyi, but people often count him as third generation since he also studied with Liu Qilan.

Zhang started out in Shaolin and preferred a longer posture which emphasized turning of the chest.

His posture is mainly double weighted, takes long strides, and emphasizes larger opening and closing movements than Li style.

Zhang's Xingyi was also deeply influenced by Bagua and he created his own synthesis style called Xingyi Bagua Zhang which uses Xingyi animal movements with a Bagua walking and turning method.

Zhang and Li's students were mainly in Tianjin and their styles are both very popular today. I practice both styles, but have been especially focused on Li style as I prepare to begin teaching in 2025 and I think Li style is easier to learn.

Shang Yunxiang is fourth generation and he is famous for his use of a closed fist in the Pi Chuan movement which is usually done as a palm strike.

Shang style is also one of the best expressions of Gang Jin, or hard force in the entire Xingyi school. My friend Trevor Locke is a Shang style practitioner who's teacher is in Hengshui Hebei province and I found his power to be formidable.

There are other fourth generation figures such as Huang Bonian who learned from Li Cunyi, but the most famous of them all is Sun Lutang who wrote many books about the martial arts and was one of the first masters to attempt to master all three internal arts of xingyi, bagua and taiji. Sun was slight in figure so his method is modified for a smaller frame whereas Zhang and Shang who were big guys emphasized longer posture and harder striking. Sun style is very popular today and I had the good chance to meet Sun style masters in Tianjin and Shanghai between 2010 and 2015.

5: Xue Dian and Fu Jianqiu:

Xue Dian was a fourth generation student of Li Cunyi, but had to leave Tianjin as a result of losing a fight when he first tried to open his school.

He traveled all over Northern China and learned many martial arts, compiling them into his Xingyi body method and ultimately creating a new style called Xiang Xing Shu which imitates animal movements.

I learned Xue Dian's five elements and twelve animals from my teacher, but I only know a couple movements of Xiang Xing Shu.

One of the major points of Xue Dian's work was he was the first Xingyi master to deeply understand internal alchemy and attempt to apply it on its own merit within his practice.

Many other Xingyi masters advocated Qi methods such as the small orbit, but from the perspective of traditional internal alchemy training they are mostly post heaven and do not actually serve the true function of transforming energy in the primordial state.

Xue Dian wrote an important document called Dantian Filling and Activation Method which explains how to attain basic Dantian Qi and circulation from a more orthodox Neidan perspective, however the method is a supplement to Xingyi practice and cannot be considered as something which would generate regular occurrence of the small orbit unless the practitioner was already proficient in Neidan.

Unfortunately Xue Dian was executed by the Communist party as a result of his role in the Yi Guan Dao religious sect and there are only a handful of people in Tianjin today who practice his style, as well as my teacher who although being from Tianjin now lives in Canada.

Fu Jianqiu was a major 20^th century figure in Xingyi responsible for teaching Xingyi and other methods to the monks at Wudang. Much of the current curriculum of Wudang internal martial arts was influenced by Fu Jianqiu, and having met his grandson in 2011 I feel a bit bad that Wudang claims their Xingyi is directly derived from the legendary general Yue Fei without giving credit to the true master who taught them. More people should visit the Fu family, they are in the outskirts of Tianjin and are very skilled as well as being tremendously nice people (we had a great heart to heart conversation on the train that day).

There are so many other masters worthy of mentioning, but I don't want to be here all day...

Some interesting points about how masters of Hebei style thought about Xingyi training:

Hebei style has two major affects:

1: martial,

2: civil,

Martial practice refers not only to fighting, but how to train if you want to develop strong force and fast reflexes. Martial practice is often emphasized at the outset of training, and as a way to keep the body powerful into middle age.

Martial practice tends to be dual weighted, emphasizes powerful Fa Jin, loud sounding of the feet and breath, and vigorous shaking power among other things.

Civil practice refers not to health practice, but rather less forceful methods of training which tend to be back weighted, emphasize the “pure yin back” and other features which develop soft force, improved posture, lengthening and opening of the body, and increased flexibility among other things.

Both Martial and Civil practice use the same movements, but the affected posture differs and they are two sides of one coin.

Both modes of practice can be used for health and martial arts, although most Xingyi people think martial proficiency is important and so there are only one or two famous masters in Beijing who emphasize Xingyi for health and performance rather than its martial power.

Having said that, as people grow older they usually begin to emphasize Civil practice in Xingyi because they want to keep their bodies healthy, and after a certain age using strong martial power every time one practices can be hard on the body.

If a person is already older, or has physical limitations when they begin practice they may also emphasize Civil practice, but ideally most practitioners can do both and spend some time to gain martial proficiency before going into the more self cultivation oriented Civil approach.

Like any internal style, Xingyi can be used to open and relax the body, but the term Song as applied to Hebei style Xingyi definitely does not mean soft, it means to be relaxed in the sense of being prepared.

According to my teacher, the goal is to have unforced force, in other words you should become coordinated enough to achieve your goal without having to “muscle up,” but that certainly doesn't preclude the use of muscular strength, it simply requires better coordination of the muscles so they work together.

You might or might not know that I lift weights quite often and train at a gym, what I've found as a result is that athlectic coordination is conceptually quite similar regardless of whether you practice martial arts or fitness, but whether or not someone achieves such coordination is a matter of correct training and proper application in practice.

Anyway, there is much to say about Hebei style and what I've written about today just reflects my fairly limited, but very involved study of the method over the last 18 years or so.

Hebei style Xingyi is a big family and there are plenty of masters I didn't mention, but I'm not trying to elevate one method over another, just talk about some differences and developments in the style over the years.

Today Hebei style Xingyi continues to change, sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse, but if you want to learn it I think it is a good choice and there are increasing numbers of venues where you can discover this excellent art.

That's enough for now.