DAIXINYI

Interview with Ren Da Hua (Monday 18th of April, 2011)

2011-04-24T23:34:00.000-07:00

Can you please state your full name and date of birth Sir. Your families background (their profession) the village you were born and number of siblings.

I was born "Ren Hua" on January 23rd (lunar calender) 1917. In 1945 I changed my name to Ren Dahua to avoid the Japanese.

I was Born In Qixian, Jialing town then moved to Baotou, then to Tianjin and then in September 1954 moved back to Taiyuan.

I had 2 sisters and one older brother. I was the third child, everyone else now is deceased

Previously I used to work in China’s farmer’s bank.

When were you first aware of DXYQ and what made you interested in studying DXYQ or MA’s in general.

I started studying MA in 1929 (12 years old) with my brother (Ren Rong). The reason was to keep healthy and to be able to protect myself. I started with Fan Jia Xin Yi Liu He Quan and then at the age of 17 or 18 started learning Dai xinyi from Dai Kui

How did you become a tudi of Dai Kui and what was the requirements for becoming a student?

When I was in Baotou, a factory that made lamps and flour invited Dai Kui in Baotou to come and teach. Dai Kui wouldn’t teach people that had bad ethics or were stupid. He would only teach kind hearted people.

For people outside that have not heard of Dai Xin Yi, can you explain to them what it is, and what which makes it different than other arts?

Dai Xinyi is unique because of yong meng (bold and vigour), duan du (short venomous fist) and dong zhuan kuai li. As far as I know none of the other internal martial arts have these.

How does someone learn this art, what are the requirements to be a student and how does the basic training start underway?

Dun hou shi(zhuang gong), ban dantian, cai dantian, zha dantian and then cai bu. All these make up the system’s jibengong. However one needs to practice jibengong for at least 3 years before he can be taught anything else. Otherwise his gong fu will be useless.

Can you please list the DXYQ curriculum as taught to you.(forms, single moves, nei kung and weaponry)

Ban dantian cai dantian, zha dantian and then cai bu. Siba, wuxing, san quan, shi er xing and then wu bang qi pao. Zha shi chui.

If you were able to learn these you would be taught more, but it takes a lifetime to learn these. No weapon forms

(note: There are weapon forms in Dai Xin Yi Quan, but I am not sure if Mr Ren Da Hua learnt them or not?)

How do you feel about someone who is already learning another art, wanting to learn Dai Xin Yi as well?

One cannot study two martial arts at the same time. If someone wants to learn Dai Xinyi he/she must start from the beginning and just practice that. Otherwise he will get confused. Once you master the art you can learn whatever you like.

Everyone has heard about Dai styles unique shen fa and dan tian building methods are you willing to go into this more and what is the difference in your opinion in regards to shen fa and dan tian in the other internals?

I can’t go into much detail regarding shen fa and dan tian building methods, to do that I would have to teach you (he made it clear that he was more than willing to teach).

How long did it take for your body to adapt to Dai shen fa, meaning where your physical dan tian was distinguishably separate from the other part of the stomach and could noticeably roll?

3 years

Is there a certain number of basic moves, which you practice with a partner, before you practice freestyle and then how do you move into free fighting practice?

There are no two man forms in Dai Xinyi. These are unrealistic. You cant expect to progress into real fighting by practicing two man forms. First you master the body methods and then you practice throwing or hitting your opponent whilst sparring. In the past Dai Kui would have people spar on a circle of dried leaves to avoid getting hurt. Also avoiding hitting vitals is important.
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Are there additional solo movements (apart from mo jin/mo jin) which build sensitivity?

Mo Jin/mo Jin teaches you how to switch between hands whilst fighting with someone.

Is there any san ti methods, taught within the Dai curriculum? Are you are aware of Chen Mingjie san-ti Dai style practiced in Shenyang, Liaoning?

There are no santi methods in Dai Xinyi.

Does DXYQ adopt a more closed or defensive fighting posture in actual conflicts? For example in Western Boxing the chin is tucked and the shoulders are positioned to hide the jaw and the hands are always up. In the DXYQ forms the hands are usually down and not much attention it seems to protect the head. Why is this?

When you fight someone your elbows should protect your ribs(heart) and your hands should cover your face. However you don’t put on a guard up in the same way boxing does. You wait for your opponent to attack and then you respond accordingly.

Master Yan Long Chang performing, Si Ba (4 grasps)

2010-06-08T18:00:00.000-07:00

Hi,

I have some recent (May/2010) footage of master Yan Long Chang to share with you. This time it is Si Ba (4 grasps).

I hope you enjoy it and look forward to more footage coming in the not so distant future.

DZQ

Master Yan Long Chang performing Pao Quan (cannon fist)

2010-06-03T18:44:00.000-07:00

Hi,

It has been a long time coming but finally the wait is over (3 years) and I have some new material of master, Yan Long Chang, performing, Dai Xin Yi Quan's Pao Quan (from Wu Xing Quan aka "5 elements fists".

I hope you all like it and this is just the start of things to come as me and other students (Vladimir and Oleg, etc) will make more video available when we can.

Here is a link to my youtube page http://www.youtube.com/user/DAIXINYI , so readers can view older entries as well.

Remember if there is anything in relation to Dai Xin Yi Quan that you are interested in (travelling to Qi Xian/Shanxi to see master, Yan Long Chang or any question relating to Dai XIn Yi Quan, please feel free to email me (Jon Dyer aka Dai Zhi Qiang) at daixinyi@gmail.com.

DZQ

A First Encounter with Dai style Xinyiquan (Tian Ruwen)

2010-05-31T17:12:00.000-07:00

A First Encounter with Dai style Xinyiquan

(originally posted to www.wushuren.com on 15 Dec 2009 – author is 'Shangwu', an internet nickname)

Translated by Jon Nicklin.

In recent days, via an introduction from my friend 'Dong-er', I arrived at a place I have long wished to visit, Xiaoyi village in Qi county, where Dai Kui, a great master of Dai style xinyiquan, lived in his old age. I visited Mr Tian Ruwen, who is a direct inheritor of M Dai's art. In Xiaoyi village, I not only experienced the sincerity, kindness and hospitality of Shanxi people, but also witnessed the outwardly simple Dai style xinyiquan.

Brief Intro of Tian Ruwen shifu: Tian Ruwen is 71 years old, about 1.6m tall, in terms of body size a bit on the thin side, and so down-to-earth that you would never imagine he is a martial arts master. But the moment you make contact with M Tian, you realise he's no ordinary old man; his jin, driven by qi from the dantian, launched me, and I could do nothing about it. Because Dai Kui passed his later years living in the house of Tian Jiuyuan (Tian Ruwen's father), Tian Ruwen and Dai Kui slept on the same kang [heated bed common in northern China] and received the true transmission of Dai Kui's dantian gong. M Tian has practiced [xinyiquan] every day for decades without fail. The strength built up over the years means that he can send people flying with just a touch. His dantian gong and shu zhan jin (contracting and expanding power) in particular, left me totally convinced. Although I have visited many martial arts teachers, I have never seen this kind of dantian gong before.

A first glimpse of Dai style xinyi's dantian gong and shu zhan jin

That evening after dinner, those present asked to compare the differences and similarities between Dai style xinyi and xingyiquan. First, one of M Tian's disciples demonstrated 4 Seizes (si ba) and the 5 Elements (wu xing), and then M Tian himself demonstrated launching people with dan tian power. M Tian took up the 'shu' (contract) posture, while I went into the San Ti pose, with my leading hand placed between M Tian's chest and abdomen (the top of the dantian ball).

M Tian then showed 'zhan' (expanding) jin, uprooting me and throwing me on to the bed. I then tried several more times, each time increasing my downward force, but each time the result was the same. His dantian jin was like being bounced out by a spinning ball, I had never seen anything like it. Afterwards, M Tian explained in detail the movements of the dantian ball when contracting and expanding, and even allowed me to feel the movements with my hand.

In the past, very few masters were willing to let their own disciples, never mind outsiders, feel the changes in their body as they released power [fa jin]. I felt very fortunate to be able to experience the wonder of Dai style xinyi's dantian jin, thanks to the openness of M Tian. I also sighed and remarked that I had heard that one could use the dantian to launch people, but I had never seen someone who, barely moving their feet, could launch people away with just dantian jin from contracting and expanding.

It was even more remarkable given the disparity in size between myself and M Tian (I'm 1.8m tall, weigh 100kg and have practiced xingyiquan for many years).

'Savouring' the difference between Dai style's 5 elements and Xingyi's 5 elements

Later on, I demonstrated Xingyi's 5 elements and M Tian's disciples also performed some xingyi from Taigu. There is a certain difference between the 5 elements in xingyi and Dai style. Looking at the martial 'songs' (note 1), although they are simple and look similar to those of xingyi, in terms of power methods and 'flavour' of performance, the two styles are very different. I append Dai style's 'songs' for the 5 elements below, those readers so inclined can mull over these formulas, their inner meaning is profound:

- Piquan is like an axe and is classed as metal, but it is not an axe, its momentum is like picking up and carrying plates;

- Zuanquan looks like evading and is classed as water, but it is not evading, its momentum is like a mountain collapsing;

- Bengquan is like an arrow and is classed as wood, but it's not an arrow, its momentum is like a boat on the crest of the waves;

- Paoquan is like a cannon and is classed as fire; but it is not a cannon, its momentum is like waves slapping on a riverbank;

- Hengquan is like a bullet and is classed as earth; but it is not a bullet, its momentum is like wheels rolling over trenches.

Dai style Xinyiquan is not just a boxing style, it is an art, one can only gain the true transmission from a wise teacher.

That night, I slept at the house of M Tian's disciple Gangzi [nickname]. After I had seen off all the visitors, Gangzi, Dong'er and Bowen investigated our arts together until midnight. These three kungfu brothers are all passionate about Dai style xinyi, they share their insights into xinyi and test out their jin [power] on each other, I envy them a lot. In their eyes, Dai style xinyi is not just a style of boxing but an art. During our discussions, Bowen urged me to grab this opportunity to learn Dai style. I decided to ask M Tian about Dai style's training methods the next day.

The next morning, Gangzi had to leave to go teach martial arts, so Dong'er and I went to M Tian's house. M Tian took us to their old residence (the house in which M Dai Kui had lived). When we got to the inner room, at my request, M Tian taught me how to practuce Dai style's jiben gong - the squatting monkey (dun mao hou). The core of Dai style xinyi is its dantian gong and shu zhan (contracting and expanding), these two core elements pervade every Dai style routine.

How to practice Squatting Monkey:

Stand with the feet together, bend the knees and squat down. At the same time, the hands should hang down in front of the thighs with the palms facing outward. At the same time relax the chest (diaphragm), sink the qi, raise the anus, push the buttocks forward and support the dantian, the 'empty' chest and 'full' abdomen will cause qi to collect in the dantian, forming the 'contracted' posture, the dantian will assume the shape of a ball. At the same time, one must be sure to contract the neck and naturally raise the chin , with the eyes looking straight in front.

Then, stand up from the squat, with the two hands moving to 'hug' the dantian area. The left hand should be inside, with the right hand outside. At the same time, the chin should be tucked in and the crown of the head should feel as if pushing upwards, as if the jin is straightening the body by travelling from the soles of feet to the crown of the head, this is called 'zhan' (expanding). The eyes should still be looking straight ahead.

Contracting (shu) and expanding (zhan) embody the way the body is used in Dai style, the readers can experience it for themselves. Another unique requirement of Dai style xinyi is 'overturning of the internal and external heaven and earth' (nei wai tian di fan). The 'external heaven and earth' refers to the head: the forehead is heaven, the chin is earth. The 'internal heaven and earth' refers to the dantian, the lower abdomen is earth, the upper abdomen is heaven. The contraction and expansion, coupled with 'overturning heaven and earth' allows for rotation and training of the dantian ball. External overturning, on the other hand, trains the 'butting' jin (ding jin) of the head, connecting the power of the lower and upper body and allowing full expression of expanding jin (zhan jin).

Breathing: when contracting (shu), you should breathe in, when expanding (zhan) you should breathe out. One must breathe out when expanding rather than holding the breath in, when the dantian has a certain amount of strength one can make a sound as you expand.

The 4 Extremities:

"The 4 Extremities: the hair is the extremity of blood, nails are extremities of tendons, teeth are the extremities of bones, the tongue is the extremity of flesh. One must practice as if one's hair wants to stand up, the nails want to push through bone, the teeth want to snap the tendons, and the tongue wants to destroy the teeth. As soon as the heart trembles, the 4 extremities arrive, when the 4 extremities are coordinated internal power comes out. Thus qi is born from the dantian, like the mercilessness of a tiger or a dragon in fright. Expression of qi comes out as a sound, the sound accompanies the falling of the hand. As soon as one part moves, a hundred parts shake, with the 4 extremities acting together, internal power cannot fail to come out".

This text, copied onto the internet, brings out the concept of the "Important Points on the 4 extremities". Those interested can try and experience this through dantian gong, I won't discuss it any further here.

My time learning from M Tian was short, it seemed like in a blink of an eye I had to leave again, in the afternoon M Tian and a crowd of his disciples saw me off. I intend to spread traditional wushu and recommend 'folk' [min jian - i.e. not affiliated with any university or institute] teachers, and so I asked if I could take some pictures of M Tian for my readers. If I have the opportunity in the future, I will have more material to share with you all, watch this space.”

Captions to pictures at bottom of article:

1. Picture of M Tian Ruwen

2.Picture of M Tian Ruwen in the beginning posture of Piquan

3. Certificate of the only competition M Tian Ruwen has ever entered (Certificate states he won the Dai style xinyiquan tuishou event, 70kg weight class, as part of the Dai style forms, san da & tuishou competition held in Qi county in 2007)

4. The main entrance of Tian Ruwen's former residence (where Dai Kui lived in his later years)

5. The main room of the Tian Ruwen's former residence (where Dai Kui lived in his later years)

6. Master of Dai style xinyiquan, Dai Kui

7. Dai Kui's disciple, Tian Jiuyuan (who looked after M Dai in his later years)

Notes

The 'songs' (quan jue) quoted above are formulas common in CMA which often express insights into the nature or usage of some part of the art. Traditionally they were not written down, but passed down orally.

May 2010 visit to master Yan Long Chang (Vladimir and Oleg)

2010-05-31T16:42:00.000-07:00

Hi,

I recently got sent some pictures from my friends and fellow students of master, Yan Long Chang (Vladimir and Oleg) from Moscow, which they have graciously decided to share with readers of my blog.

We hope you enjoy the photo's and they help generate an interest in Dai Xin Yi Quan.

Vladimir can be contacted at chizv68@mail.ru for tuition in Dai Xin Yi Quan in Moscow and surrounding areas.

Dai Kui's teaching in Baotou by 'The years pass by without trace' [web nickname]

2010-05-13T02:39:00.000-07:00

(article translated by Jon Nicklin)

I went to M Ren Dahua's house yesterday and listened to him talk about this photograph, now I'm writing what I heard for other martial friends to refer to. People have already discussed the people shown in the photograph; [of the people in the photo] there are 3 who I do not know. All M Ren could remember is that the person standing on the far right was one of his colleagues from the bank, he did not do martial arts.

I will provide some context to the photo below. This photo was taken when Dai Kui came to Baotou to teach his disciples. In the picture are M Ren Dahua himself, his brother Ren Rong, Zhang Yuchen, Ge Yunpu, Li Lanxiu; I think only these few had actually gone through the baishi ceremony.

Of them, Zhang Yuchen was an engineer whose family were well-off, he had his own car which he used to run a haulage business. He lived outside Baotou itself, had originally practiced Hebei style xingyi and was very strong [gong li chun hou].

Li Lanxiu was from Dingtao in Shandong, he was the one M Ren got on with the best, the two of them once lived in the same compound. Li originally practiced Luohan (Arhat) boxing and worked as a chief electrician. As M Ren tells it, Li was unusually strong, he was just born that way. While working he would carry two poles on his back as he drove in stakes. Li's eldest daughter was good at music and singing. After liberation, she secretly joined a performing arts troupe in the PLA. When she joined up and went south with the PLA, she didn't tell anyone in her family. As soon as Li found out, he hurriedly packed all of his household valuables and chased southwards after her.

Ge Yunpu was a Manchu Bannerman, later on he went missing for many years and only returned to Baotou after the Japanese had surrendered.

Ren Rong was M Ren Dahua's elder brother. He had originally practiced Fan style xinyiquan (a branch of xinyiquan in Qi county coming from Mai Zhuangtu's line). He was both unusually strong and had extremely good lightness skill [qing gong]. His gongfu was possibly the best among all the Baotou disciples. He worked in a bank. He was also multi-talented, being good at both writing poems and painting. He passed away in 1945. M Ren Dahua had originally learned martial arts from his brother and was good at Tan Tui [springing legs]. He first worked at the Qiao family 'piao hao' [note 1] in Qi county, and later worked in a bank. He was the youngest of the disciples, and would have been around 21-22 years old at the time of the photo.

According to M Ren, there were 2 men who followed Dai Kui to Baotou. One was He Shaojiu, a wealthy tycoon from Qi county who was also one of M Dai's disciples. To him, the trips to Baotou were a bit of fun, he would stay in Baotou for a few days and then return to Qi county.

The other person was [Yue] Guining, he would stay in Baotou for extended periods before returning to Qi county.

The two of them [He & Yue] paid not just for all of M Dai's meals, but also bought him 2 liang (~100g) of opium a month. At that time, M Dai didn't smoke opium, he would grind the opium into powder and then drink it in hot water. Also one carton of 'Da hong pao' rolling tobacco, and one stick of white wax (bai la). Apart from that, disciples could give as they wished.

Dai Kui was an introverted man with a mild disposition, always alert. M Ren says that Dai Kui never slept unclothed. M Ren's explanation for this is that he was a bit oversensitive and was afraid of being attacked in his sleep. In the past, people used to use 'foot wraps' (guo jiao dai), M Dai would just tie his foot wraps and then sleep with his head facing inwards, never outwards. You can see that Dai Kui is wearing foot wraps in the photo.

Dai Kui's aunt's family were rich merchants in Taigu with the family owning dozens of stores. As soon as Dai Kui came to Taigu, his cousin would not allow him to go out. But Dai Kui could not enjoy the easy life, he would often go out without telling anyone. When fighting people in Taigu, as soon as he made contact he would knock the person to the floor, injuring them. Later he was locked up [in the local jail] and had to be bailed out by the same cousin.

Apart from teaching in Baotou, Dai Kui also taught in the army in Guihua (old name for Hohhot city in Inner Mongolia). He was introduced to teach there by Shi Xiongba. Shi Xiongba had once worked for the Beiyang government in Beijing [note 2], and later worked as a martial arts instructor to the army of Gen. Shang Zhen in Guihua, one of the warlord Yan Xishan's important generals. At that time, Shang's rank was a Commander-in-chief [du tong]. Dai Kui was introduced by Shi to be a martial arts instructor in [Shang's] army. There, a dispute occurred between M Dai and a local martial arts teacher named Li Ling. Actually, Li Ling's senior disciple was from Qi county too, M Ren mentioned his name but I have forgotten it. At that time, there were a lot of Shanxi merchants in Guihua, and there were even more people from Qi[xian] and Tai[gu]. After Dai killed Li, one of Li's disciples, out of a sense of honour, wanted to assassinate M Dai in revenge, but because of M Dai's alertness, his secret attacks failed. Later, when the same disciple challenged M Dai, he found out he was nowhere near M Dai's level and decided to study under M Dai. It was only then that the disciple gave up his thoughts of vengeance.

Ren shifu said that when learning the Dai family art one should first practice moving 'heavily' (zhong dong) to produce gongfu. However, the kind of gongfu trained in this way is too inflexible, too rigid, and so once moving 'heavily' has been mastered, one should train moving lightly (qing dong) in order to train adaptability and nourish the internal (nei yang). The final stage is to train agile movement (ling dong). The final product of this process is 'rousing' jin (dou sou jin) and vibrating jin (jing chan jin). When you face the enemy it is as if there is a fire on your body, that is, as if sparks from a fire are landing on your body. He then went on to demonstrate.

Ren shifu said that in a fight, the faster you strike the better, use 'crisp' jin (cui leng jin) and vibrating jin (jing chan jin). As soon as you make contact with the opponent you change. The core of xinyiquan is the overturning, both internal and external (note 3). All strikes are powered by the dantian. It's only enough if you can hit people in a real fight. The kind of situation where the opponent 'strikes a pose' and then the defender launches them away won't work in a real fight. Even people who have never trained in martial arts can be difficult to hit. So the commonly seen situation of someone thinking they have gongfu just because they can launch someone away while explaining applications is not enough, you need to be able to hit someone in a real fight.

The Dai family art doesn't have paired routines, because paired routines don't suit Dai style. Its jins and body methods are very distinctive. As soon as you attack, you 'smother' your opponent so that he can't dissolve your attack, which is what is meant when the boxing manuals speak of 'heaven and earth have no intent to oppose' (note 4). That is why it isn't suited to paired routines, victory or defeat is decided at first contact.

When practicing, one should 'enliven the 4 extremities' (jing qi si shao), it is only in this way that you will have courage and will not be afraid.

Ren shifu said that Dai Kui learnt from Dai Liangdong, who had learnt from Dai Erlu.

The Dai family originally ran an inn in She Qi Dian, in Henan. Later on, this inn developed into a caravan agency. Sometime afterward, the Dais offended two groups of people, one group from Hubei, and one group from Henan; there might have been some local officials involved too. These two posses joined up and rode [their horses] straight for Qi county, riding at night and sleeping by day. In the middle of one night they attached the Dai household. The Dai family and their guests awoke and fought back. Because the ground was slippery [because of blood of those killed and hurt], Dai Dalu slipped over [in a puddle of blood], hurting himself in the process, and was captured. The attackers escaped with Dai Dalu at dawn, and killed Dai Dalu by 'lighting heaven's candle' [note 5] somewhere in southern Shanxi. Dai Erlu lead a posse of people to look for his brother, but only found his corpse 3 days later.

From then on,the Dai family closed their doors and retreated from the martial arts world, never mentioning martial arts. In his old age, Dai Erlu taught Dai Kui's father Dai Liangdong. Dai Liangdong taught Dai Kui, but Dai Kui didn't actually like martial arts, so his achievements [in MA] did not reach those of his forebears. He started to practice the 'squatting monkey' stance at the age of 6.

I have said so much in one afternoon, I can only recall this much. Later I will write more about other things that Ren shifu talked about for everyone to read.

Notes

A 'piao hao' was a precursor to modern banks in China. They originally only engaged in remittances of cash. By the Qing dynasty they had also started to offer savings accounts. The main difference from modern banks is that they did not offer loans.

Beiyang government is the name given to a series of warlord regimes that ruled China from 1912 to 1928.

Original text has 'nei wai tian di fan', lit. 'overturning of internal and external, heaven and earth'. Tian Di Fan (Heaven and earth overturn) is a term to describe the movement of Dantian, chest and head.

For example temple of the head is called Heaven, while chin - earth. During Shu/Zhan they "turn", change positions - which is also described as "Head of the Tiger and Leopard".

Same with Dantian - in Shu its lower part is further to the front, while upper is drawn back, in Zhan - it is the opposite.
Original text is 'qian kun bing wu fan yi'. Not sure of meaning in xinyi context.

'Lighting heaven's candle' (dian tian deng) was a way of killing someone by wrapping them in cloth, dipping the cloth in oil then burning the person to death.

(Thanks to Jarek Szymanski for additional explanations for the notes)

10 Questions About Xinyiquan by Zhang Fang(Jing Wu magazine, issue 6, 2004)

2010-04-24T14:10:00.001-07:00

10 Questions About Xinyiquan

by Zhang Fang

(translated by Jon Nicklin)

Jing Wu magazine, issue 6, 2004

In spring of 2003, a Japanese man, Anteng Zhizai (Chin. pron.; Jap pron. Ando Naoya?) came to Liaoning TV station to interview me. Mr Ando said that he was an inheritor of Dai Kui's xinyi and was a disciple of Ren Dahua and Wang Yinghai, and so we compared our dantian methods (squatting, moving and 'shooting'), the 3 old fists (drilling (zuan), wrapping (guo) and cutting (jian) and the 5 element fists. It was only after confirming that he was, indeed, a Dai stylist that I went on to compare other things with him. Because Mr Ando's chinese was not yet fluent, and I don't understand Japanese, even though Mr Ando asked me many questions in writing, I was unable to answer his questions completely.

In the last few years, I have received letters from xinyi enthusiasts from both at home and abroad asking about how xinyi has changed during its development, and also about various problems encountered during practice. I answer these questions below.

1) How was Xinyiquan created? Which other styles of martial arts is it related to?

This issue was covered as early as the 13th year of Yongzheng reign, in the late Qing dynasty by Wang Zicheng in his 'Preface on Uncertainties of Boxing Classics', in which he related that 'divine spear' Ji Longfeng from Pingyang in Shanxi, who lived during the late Ming/early Qing dynasties, applied his knowledge of spear methods to create a bare-handed martial art and called it 'Six harmonies' [liu he] boxing. In recent years, experts such as Sun Yemin and others have found evidence proving that Ji Longfeng was indeed the creator of xinyi liuhe. As for the claim espoused by Dai Longbang's inheritors that xinyi liuhe was created by Yue Fei, there is not a shred of historical evidence to support this - not only is it not mentioned in official histories, there is not a word about it in the unofficial histories either. The only related evidence is a novel called 'The Complete Biography of Yue Fei' (Shuo Yue Quan Zhuan), in which it is said that Yue studied martial arts from Zhou Dong, but there is still no mention of xinyi liuhe. The recently discovered 'Wennan Yue family Genealogy', which was written during the Jiaqing reign of the Qing dynasty, merely states that Yue Fei could "lift up to 300 pounds, draw a bow with a draw weight of 8 dan (1 dan being approx. 60kg), and shoot a bow from both left and right" as well as "unusually skilled at climbing slopes and jumping ditches" - all of which are military skills, with no mention of martial arts specifically. That said, it is understandable that martial artists would want to co-opt the famous general Yue Fei as the originator of their art. Xinyi liuhe is not alone in this regard: the various kinds of 'Yue Family boxing' which have been made public in recent years, all treat Yue Fei as their originator and even the Chuojiao Fanzi styles have his ancestral tablet on display in their wuguan.

Ji Longfeng's creation of xinyi liuhe was definitely not as simple as 'turning spear methods into fist methods'. He must have drawn on his experience and research into several different styles before he could possibly create a martial art of his own. I am certain that Ji Longfeng's reason for going to Henan from his hometown in Shanxi was to study martial arts at Shaolin temple. Leaving aside for the moment that the very phrase 'Xinyi' itself comes from the Buddhist Classic (Abhidharma-Kosa), the 'ba' in the name for xinyi liuhe's oldest routine, '4 seizes' (Si Ba) is a Henan dialect word. Ji Longfeng was from Shanxi, Shanxi people call one routine 'yi tang quan' (as opposed to the more common 'yi tao quan' or 'yi lu quan' used in other parts of China), hence the 'tang' character in the 'Si tang zha shi' created by Dai Longbang from praying mantis routines. Therefore, the arts studied by Ji Longfeng were likely to be Shaolin Xinyiba and Shaolin five fists among others. There are people who say that it was Ji Longfeng who taught Xinyiba to the Shaolin monks; this assertion is slightly ridiculous, given that Shaolin gongfu originated before the Tang dynasty and Ji lived during the late Ming/early Qing.

2) Given that they are all from the same root, why are the arts practiced in Henan, Shanxi and Hebei so different?

Ma Xueli, the forefather of Henan Xinyi Liuhe, had not studied martial arts prior to studying under Ji Longfeng, and so his xinyi liuhe was not infused with elements from other arts. Ma Xueli's art was mainly passed down amongst the Hui (Chinese Muslims), who rarely interacted with Han martial artists, so Henan's xinyi liuhe more closely resembles the original art taught by Ji Longfeng. Dai Longbang, on the other hand, combined Li Zheng's xinyi liuhe and Jin Shikui's praying mantis to create his own art, which he then taught in Shanxi. Hebei's xingyiquan also derives from Dai Longbang's teaching, and during the late Qing was brought to the cultural, political and commercial hub of China at the time - Beijing and Tianjin. In so doing, xingyiquan gained the chance to interact with the main big styles of the time and to be listed as one of the 3 neijia arts. However, there are some intrinsic differences, both in theory and practice, between xingyiquan and xinyi liuhe.

3) Why are there so many differing opinions as to the Dai family boxing manuals, as well as the names and dates of Dai Longbang and Dai Wenxiong?

For a long time now, research into Dai style xinyi has been supported by assumptions from unscientific stories and legends. Real, credible historical records are severely lacking, which is why the whole area has seemed confusing and complicated. It was only when the Dai family genealogy and 'shen zhou' [sheet with names of ancestors of a clan written on it, brought out so that living can pay respects to their ancestors] were discovered in Dai county in 2001 that outsiders realised that the characters we have been using for Dai Longbang and Dai Wenxiong/Dai Wenxun for decades were incorrect. This cannot but make people suspicious of the manuals and genealogies previously made public. If the manuals previously coming from the Dai family were really the work of Dai Longbang, he could not possibly have written his own name wrongly in the preface, annotations and postscript. It would be understandable if Li Luoneng or Che Yizhai (who were both illiterate) weren't clear about which characters to use to write their shifu or shiye's name, but Dai Liangdong and Dai Kui, who in recent years have been revered as 'orthodox', were both fairly well educated, how could they possibly write the names of their shifu or shiye wrongly on their 'bai shi' slip or on their lineage chart?

There is only one possible explanation: the Dai style manuals previously made public were not the work of Dai Longbang. It is very likely that the famous 'Xinyi Liuhe quan preface' was actually the work of Li Zhen (Li Zheng), as Song Tielin had said. If the 'preface' really was written by Li Zheng in the 15th year of the reign of Qianlong (1750), then the birth and death dates for Dai Longbang and Dai Wenxiong 'proved' by one Mr Cao (referring to Cao Jizhi, another Dai stylist) and others should be treated with suspicion. If only Mr Cao and others had not rashly come to a conclusion that suited their own agenda, then a lot of mistakes could have been avoided. These kinds of 'taking something as read' deductions have also led me astray in the past. Many years ago, I was training with a few of Chen Mingjie's disciples. Wang Shande said: M Chen has mentioned in the past that the 'xiong' in Dai Wenxiong should be written with the character for bear. Jiang Tiesen and I both said 'That's impossible, who would choose a name with 'bear' in it?'. However, Chen Yiming said that when he was young, he had seen a boxing manual brought over from Qi county on which Dai Wenxiong's name was, indeed, written with the character for 'bear'.

The Dai Liangdong/Dai Kui branch's usage of the wrong names and dates for Dai Longbang and Dai Wenxiong amply demonstrates that Dai Liangdong was not a direct disciple of Dai Wenxiong. The idea that just because someone is surnamed Dai they automatically receive the true transmission doesn't hold water. Trying to 'ride on the coat-tails' [of Dai Wenxiong] for material gain will only end in humiliation for those concerned.

4) Why do some people say that Dai Liangdong was a direct disciple of Dai Wenxiong, whereas Li Luoneng learnt from Guo Weihan?

This is a groundless distortion with an ulterior motive. In recent generations there has been a saying within the martial art community "Dai family boxing, was passed on by the Li family". Outsiders only came to know of Dai Longbang and Dai Wenxiong through the efforts of Li Luoneng, his disciples and grand-disciples, in particular the written works of Li Cunyi, Sun Lutang, Jiang Rongqiao etc, which all praised the Dai family art highly. If Li Luoneng were really the disciple of Guo Weihan, the 'founding father' of xingyiquan would have been Guo Weihan rather than Dai Longbang; Li would not have promoted another 'founding father' at the expense of his own teacher. The name of Dai Liangdong only started to appear in articles after the 1980s, and all in articles written by grand-disciples of Dai Kui from Qi county praising him to the skies. However, historical documents only discovered recently clearly show that Dai Liangdong was Dai Wenxiong's uncle. Under the rules of feudal Chinese society, seniors within the clan could not possibly become disciples of their clan juniors. Dai Liangdong may have learnt some martial arts from Dai Wenxiong, but he could not possibly have been his indoor disciple, as according to the Dai style prohibitions in the olden days, one could not become a formal disciple without kowtowing to your teacher in a baishi ceremony.

There are people who say that the Dai Liangdong-Dai Kui branch must be the orthodox and directly transmitted (di chuan) because it has the 'squatting monkey' (dun mao hou) and the '3 fists and 3 sticks'. In actual fact, both of these elements are present in the Cheng Tianxiang/Cheng Tianlu branch as well as the Guo Weihan branch. In the gongfu that Li Zheng taught to Dai Wenliang and Dai Wenxiong there were 3 'shapes' (san xing) composed of both moving (quan fa) and static postures (zhuang gong). The 'squatting monkey' posture was from the monkey shape, whilst the other two shapes, Dragon and Tiger, also had static postures associated with them. Not only does the Cheng Tianxiang/Cheng Tianlu line have 'squatting monkey' within its routine, called 'Gorilla emerges from the cave' (xing xing chu dong), but also has a routine composed of all 3 shapes, called '3 immortals present their claws' [sic], but you can't say that just because of this the Cheng line is orthodox and all other lines are mere 'offshoots'. This kind of 'only my branch is authentic' (wei wo du zun) prejudice comes from the limitations of being a 'frog in a well' (jing di zhi wa) [common chinese phrase describing someone who has an inflated sense of how good they are because of limited horizons/experience].

5) Which is better, the 'squatting monkey' posture of Dai style xinyi or the San Ti stance common to Taigu xinyi [sic] and Hebei xingyi?

Objectively speaking, the 'squatting monkey' stance is an element from the period before Dai style became an internal (neijia) art, actually it is San Ti which is the symbol of Dai style's transition to become an internal art. The thinking behind neijia arts comes from Daoism, and their basic neigong is derived from Daoist practices, whereas xinyiquan pre-Dai Longbang was only an offshoot of the Buddhist martial arts of Shaolin temple. There are no traces of Daoist cultivation methods in the 'Shi Yao Lun' (Ten Important Treatises), or the 'Jiu Yao Lun' (Nine Important Treatises), the practice methods are not entirely the same as those of internal arts. The term 'San Ti' originates from a 7-line poem in the text 'Insight into Reality' (Wu zhen pian) written by Zhang Ziyang, the founder of the Southern Daoist tradition, in the lines "The Dao is born of emptiness and becomes the one qi, the one qi then produces yin and yang. Yin and yang then combine to form the 3 bodies (San Ti), from which are produced the myriad things [of this world]". There are some who say that the San Ti stance was the creation of Li Luoneng. Given that 'Insight into Reality',long praised as the 'fount' of internal alchemy, is extremely profound and abstruse, and that Li Luoneng was basically illiterate, I'm afraid that Li might not have even been able to explain the meaning of the term San Ti, let alone create xingyi, based as it is on the Daoist theories of Yinyang and the 5 elements! Looking back at Dai Longbang, Guo Weihan, Dai Wenxiong and Li Luoneng, Dai Longbang had both the highest martial attainment and also the deepest understanding of traditional culture amongst the four, only he could have created the neigong system around the San Ti stance. The practice methods of the San Ti [system] involve a combination of static and moving postures, Sun Lutang and others call it 'Pi quan' (splitting fist), Li Cunyi and others in his line call it 'Shun Bu Ying Zhuo' (Sync-step eagle grasp). I consider that these two names are not accurate enough. The San Ti (set of exercises) is a combination of the San Cai (3 abilities) stance from Dai style xinyi's original 'Gorilla emerges from the cave' neigong set with the 'Single Seizing' (dan ba) and 'Eagle Grasping' (ying zhuo) of xinyi liuhe. Looking over the practice methods for San Ti in the various styles [of xingyi], many have lost the initial Daoist element of the practice. In fact, the secret to practicing San Ti is to have 'water and fire counterbalanced, transforming of hard yang', in order to achieve Zhang Ziyang's aim of 'thunder breaking through the niwan point (acupoint on top of head), true body riding a fire dragon, know not who is doing it , break through the great void' (v. hard to translate, meaning not clear!). Sun Lutang's saying 'If you want to become an immortal, practice pi quan more' has a lot of sense to it.

Compared to the San Ti stance, 'squatting monkey' has a few technical deficiencies to it, in particular, it is not suitable for middle-aged or elderly people to practice. Mr Dai Yongbo from Hunan told me, he had seen high blood pressure in a few young people who practiced 'squatting monkey'. The phenomena of strokes and/or hampered leg mobility in later years seen in the Dai family has also occurred in my own lineage.

6) There used to be a saying in martial arts circles that 'taiji isn't ready to 'go out' (i.e. compete with others) for 10 years, xinyi can kill people within a year' (taiji shi nian bu chu men, xingyi yi nian da si ren). Can the level of 'someone dies in the space of one contraction and expansion' (shu zhan er zi yi ming wang) really be reached?

There is an element of exaggeration in these martial arts sayings, but it is true that, comparatively, xinyi/xingyi does produce gongfu more quickly than taiji, especially the 5 element fists. Someone with decent ming jin can already hurt people. But, one year is too short, it would be difficult to build gongfu in that time. 'Contraction [shu] & expansion (zhan)' is the combination of contraction & storing jin with expanding the body & releasing power (fa li). Originally, xinyi only had two moves, the Eagle and the Bear. The bear was for defending and blocking [gu fa], one should contract while rising up; the Eagle was for attacking, one should expand while dropping down. Contracting and expanding must be smooth and natural, the move that best highlights the characteristics of 'contraction and expansion' is 'raising & leading' (tiao ling). The xinyiquan taught by Chen Mingjie requires that the student 'sticks to it a bit longer' (?) whilst contracting. As for whether 'someone's life lost in the space of one contraction & expansion', I think it's best to not take it too seriously. Shu and zhan are just practice methods for opening and closing. In a real fight, if you completely use shu zhan as your fighting principles, I'm afraid it might be hard to adapt to the split-second changes involved.

7) Jin family gongfu and Dachengquan (Yiquan) both place great emphasis on stance holding and single movement practice, is the main method of practice in xinyi/xingyi single movements or routines (taolu)?

The founder of Jin family gongfu was surnamed Jin. The materials available to us show that the only personage in the history of Dai style surnamed Jin was Jin Shikui, the praying mantis master who exchanged knowledge with Dai Longbang. The quan pu passed down within my lineage records that Dai Longbang taught Jin Shikui '4 seizes' and the '12 animals', whilst Jin taught Dai Longbang his praying mantis. However, the founder of Jin family gongfu did not know praying mantis, so clearly could not be Jin Shikui. Mr Dai Yongbo from Hunan is a direct inheritor of Jin family gongfu, he has described to me the methods for practising opening and closing in his style, they closely resemble the 'princeling' (tai zi gong) and 'hai sound' (hai zi gong) methods from the Emei styles, and are extremely close to the 'Wild Goose qigong' (da yan gong) that was at one point so popular in China. Perhaps there is a link between Jin family gongfu and the martial arts passed down by master Bai Yun of Golden Peak in the Emei mountains? What I can be sure of is that, at most, Jin family gongfu contains only fragments of xinyi, it is not a direct transmission.

Wang Xiangzhai also only learnt fragments of Hebei xingyi in his youth, he could not even perform the whole of '4 seizes' or 'zha shi' (note: normally written as 'mixed postures' in xingyi, here Zhang Fang has used the xinyi way of writing it as 'floodgate posture'). He was fortunate in that he encountered some descendants of Li Zheng, as well as going to Shaolin temple to learn Xinyiba, learning crane boxing in Fujian and befriending many masters of bagua and taiji. Dachengquan is a new martial art produced by combining the essence of the bits and pieces he had learnt from various systems in his life.

I think the steps of development of Jin family gongfu and Dachengquan must have been roughly the same. In his famous contests, Wang Xiangzhai must have not encountered equal to his level, otherwise he couldn't possible have won with one move. Consider this: in contemporary sanshou or leitai competitions, bouts between two challengers of similar ability are overwhelmingly won on points; even where victory is achieved by K.O., this is usually achieved through punch or fist/foot/elbow/knee combos. For this reason, [someone who] purely trains single movement practice will find it very difficult to get used to modern sanshou. Not only do boxing and Muay Thai have advanced combo training, Tae Kwon Do and karate also have many routines for high dan grades to practice. Xinyi (xingyi) routines are the essence of combo practice, the training progression is first stance holding, then single movement practice, then finally forms practice. We cannot give up a complete system of martial training simply because of the extreme viewpoints of one famous master of the past.

8) Why does the Qi county group of practitioners call themselves 'Dai style xinyiquan' whilst Chen Mingjie's group in Shenyang call themselves 'Dai family xinyiquan', even though they both derive from the teachings of Dai Kui?

In the 1980s, Dai Kui's grand-disciples in Qi county, with an 'only direct transmission is family' mindset, formally named the xinyiquan being practiced in Qi county as 'Dai style xinyiquan' in order to differentiate themselves from the xinyi in Taigu and the various branches of xingyiquan and make clear that they were the orthodox inheritors of the teachings of the Dai family. Leaving aside for the moment the issue of whether the description is accurate, this kind of 'only direct transmission is family' mindset is childish and laughable. The founder of internal alchemy thousands of years ago opposed this narrow-minded 'only direct transmission is family' way of thinking, why do the people in Qi county of today want to go in the opposite direction? As for Chen Mingjie's choice of 'Dai family xinyiquan' for the system he passed down, the meaning is completely different to the thinking of the modern-day Qi county group. Firstly, ever since he moved to Shenyang from Qi county at the age of 18, when interacting with other martial artists, M Chen always called what he had learnt 'Dai family boxing' (Dai jia quan). It is said that Li Luoneng, Che Yizhai and Song Shirong all called the art they had learnt 'Dai jia quan'. When Yan Zhigao (master of Wu Yuxiang) style taiji] came to Shenyang, after seeing M Chen perform his xinyiquan, he called it the 'old Dai family boxing' (dai jia lao quan); Gao Fengwu and Wang Jingfeng, who were both from Qi county and had studied xinyiquan from a young age, also called the art 'Dai jia quan'. Chen Mingjie not only studied under Dai Kui, he also received teachings from Cheng Tianxiang ('Big Cheng') and Cheng Tianlu ('2nd Cheng'). Both Chengs were personal disciples (i.e. directly taught by the shifu, as opposed to taught by the kungfu brothers) of Dai Wenxiong and Guo Weihan. In Dai Wenxiong's later years, the two Chengs were chosen to run the Dai family armed escort agency. After M Chen arrived in Shenyang in 1927, he practiced his xinyiquan with over 10 other Qi county natives (including Gao Fengwu). They would compare skills every day, M Chen extracted the essence of the internal arts from these masters. Later on, M Chen studied taijiquan under Yan Zhigao, who was also a master of xingyiquan. M Chen also learnt bagua from Ying Shijiu, who had learnt bagua and xingyi under Hao En-guang. The insights and thinking of these two masters must have had an effect on M Chen. In the 1950s, M Chen exchanged [experience] with the famous Che style xinyi (sic) master Xu Chenglin. M Chen combined his own xinyiquan with elements from other lines of both xinyi and xingyi, being careful to discard the false and preserve the essence. By the late '50s, the style he taught gradually acquired its own unique flavour. As such, he named the material he taught as 'Dai family xinyiquan', both in order to distinguish what he taught from the 'Dai style' moniker of Qi county and also to encompass the meaning of 'all branches coming from Dai Longbang are one family'.

9. In the book 'Secret methods of Xingyiquan' given away free with issue 5 of 'Jingwu' magazine, 2003, the lineage and birth and death dates of the relevant masters are different to those given by today's practitioners from Qi county, why? Exactly which member of the Dai family is the 'Master Dai' listed in that lineage?

I read this boxing manual back in the early 1980s, its author, Gao Jiangheng was from Qi county. Many people in Qi county have a copy of this book, but have not been willing up to now to reveal it to the public. A few years ago, some people from Qi county treated xinyiquan history as a commercial secret, hid the real history and instead started promulgating their own carefully fabricated lies in various magazines. Of course, when the real history started to resurface, their [the fabricators] stories couldn't stand up and they ended up humiliated. This book has historical value in that it tells us at least two things. Firstly, Dai Wenxiong, Dai Wenliang and Guo Weihan did indeed study and teach together, and it is an incontrovertible fact that Li Luoneng was taught by Dai Wenxiong, which tallies with the inscription on Che Yizhai's gravestone. Secondly, it records that Dai Wenxiong and Dai Wenliang, because of their advancing years, returned to Qi county and taught xinyiquan in the first year of the reign of Emperor Guangxu (1875), which means that there is a difference of at least 20 years between the birth and death dates for Dai Wenxiong 'proven' by Mr Cao and others and this quanpu. In the first year of Guangxu, Dai Wenxiong was only 60 years old, because he worked in a job that involved where 'one's sword would taste blood' (dao tou tian xue), there were very exacting requirements as to one's age and stamina. As for the photo of 'Master Dai', based on Gao Jiangheng's lineage,it may be of Dai Wenxiong. Based on the period when photography was introduced and popularised in China, it shows that the 'proven' birth and death dates quoted in the last 20 years are mistaken.

10. Are there deficiencies in xinyiquan/xingyiquan? Which aspects need to be improved? Can xinyiquan practitioners compete in modern sanshou competitions?

Although I am a direct (di xi) inheritor of Dai family xinyiquan, but I'm not afraid to discuss its weak points. Firstly, xinyi (xingyi) is deficient in leg methods (tui fa), because in the neijia approach to fighting there is the concept of 'as soon as you raise the leg, half the body becomes unstable' (tai tui ban bian kong). The kicks that do exist in taiji and xinyi never go above the knee. Actually, this deficiency in traditional CMA has long been obscured by a halo of blindness and arrogance. Mainland martial artists are unwilling to mention incidents such as the one in the 1930s, when the renowned master Chen Zizheng was knocked out by a kick from a Muay Thai boxer. The most effective and most commonly used techniques on the modern leitai are tui fa, leg sweeps and side kicks are powerful techniques with which to attack your opponent. From this perspective, there is no way that the traditional concept of 'not raising the leg too high' can adapt to modern sanshou. Another weak point of xinyi is that the footwork is relatively monotonous, most routines are linear; hence, a lot of famous masters of xingyiquan of recent times have studied bagua as well, such as Song Shirong, Li Cunyi, Zhang Zhankui, Sun Lutang, Jiang Rongqiao, etc. There are also imperfections in xinyi's body methods (shen fa): particularly in Henan's Xinyi Liuhe and the Dai style xinyi from Qi county, a lot of postures end up leaning forward after issuing power (fa li), which is a big no-no in a real fight, as it would give a skilled martial artist the perfect opportunity to attack. Actually, an expert who has really mastered dousou ('shaking') neigong can swiftly retract their body, returning the body-weight to the back leg in an instant, leaving the opponent with no weakness to exploit.

As for whether xinyi can gain a foothold in modern sport fighting, apart from needing to have a certain amount of strength, [a xinyi practitioner] would have to practice sparring with gloves and other protective gear on. The most tragic aspect of traditional CMA today is that it is limited to shadowboxing, with practitioners intoxicated by a feeling of their own invincibility. Some people from my own xinyi group did sparring training with protective gear on in the early 1980s, but a sparring accident left someone injured; after that no-one dared to try out their kicks and punches on other people. Actually, xinyiquan's reputation was gained through fighting - it is said that Dai Wenxiong and Li Luoneng were originally good friends, then later Dai Wenxiong taught Li xinyiquan. The two of them would hit each other for real in fighting, regardless of the traditional teacher-student distinction, wearing protective vests made of cow tendons and bronze mirrors. Once, Li Luoneng shattered the bronze mirror covering Dai's chest with the move 'Hu Pu' (tiger pounce). If xinyiquan does not reform itself, in fists it will not be able to compete with boxing, in legs it will be no match for Taekwondo, in throws it will be inferior to Sanda, and its elbow and knee methods will be no match for those of Muay Thai; [if xinyi does not reform] many years from now, a martial arts system with no reason for existing will gradually die out.

On another note, Dai Yongbo from Hunan once asked me about the relationship between the 'yi' character practices of Jin family gongfu and xinyiquan's 'thunder sound' (lei sheng). 'Thunder sound' comes from the dantian, through the jingmai (meridians) it affects the bodily organs to produce various sounds. The 'thunder sound' practices of the various branches of xinyi are not identical, some have 7, 6 or 5 sounds, the 'yi' sound (of Jin family gongfu) is probably the 'head' [first, most important] of the various sounds. In my humble opinion, the practice of 'thunder sound' can be traced back to the Daoist 'Roaring art' (chang xiao shu) that was popular during the Wei, Jin and Northern & Southern dynasties (from about 220 - 589 AD).

Dai Kui & Dai Style Xinyi Liuhe Quan By Rong Xiang-geng (translated by Jon Nicklin)

2010-04-22T04:05:00.001-07:00

Dai Kui & Dai Style Xinyi Liuhe Quan

By Rong Xiang-gen (translated by Jon Nicklin)

Caption for photo: taken on 28th day of 28th year of the Republic to commemorate M Dai coming to teach in Baotou. L1: Ren Dahua, L2: Zhang Yu?huan? (unclear), L4: Ge Dengfu, L5: Li Lanxiu, L6: Ren Rong. L1 = 1st from left, etc.

Since Ji Longfeng, Xinyi Liuhe Quan split into 2 branches. The southern branch from Henan consists of Ma Xueli's '10 Great Shapes' (shi da xing), 4 Seizes (si ba chui). Despite its conservativeness, over the last 200 years of development it has flourished, so that today there are practitioners all over the country. The northern branch, of Dai Longbang and Dai Erlu (also called Dai Wenxun) of Qi county on the other hand, is elusive and little-known. Over the last century or so, outsiders have only managed to learn from the legends of xingyiquan that Dai Longbang or Dai Erlu taught Li Luoneng, who then taught his own '8 great disciples'. Other than that, people knew nothing about the Dai clan or the methods of Dai style. 65 years ago, an incident occurred in a small town beyond the Great Wall that once more pushed Dai style back into history's spotlight. The incident itself was a tragedy, but for the martial arts community it was a piece of good fortune, for it helped to preserve and spread Dai style xinyiquan. One of the protagonists of this incident was a 4th-generation inheritor of Dai style xinyi, Dai Kui.

In Issue 9 (1992) of Wuhun magazine, I recently read the article (Knight of Xinyi - A Potted Biography of Dai Kui). The whole article is written in a tone more suited to a movie script or folktales. The time, date and details of the incident itself are all inaccurate, and some of the article is entirely fictional. The (Ridding the Plains of a Tyrant) paragraph from the article (Dai Kui Punishes Wrongdoing) of issue 8 (1992) Wuhun, which describes the same incident, also deviates from facts. The first thing to acknowledge is that the authors of the above articles are both martial artists, writing is not their forte. One can understand a certain amount of fulsome praise, given their admiration for earlier generations, but this should not be taken to extremes. As was stated above, Dai style xinyiquan was passed down within the family for generations, from Dai Longbang to Dai Wenxun (Dai Erlu) to Dai Liangdong. Because the period in question is far removed from the present and because written records were few and far between in the first place, most of Dai style's history is impossible to verify. We rely on legends to fill in the gaps in the history only because we have no other way of doing so. Dai Kui was born less than 120 years ago, and slightly more than half a century has passed since the incident described by the two authors mentioned above. It is worth mentioning that it was only because of Dai Kui's accidental killing of his opponent that Dai style xinyi was once again came to the public's attention, and that led to Mr Dai accepting more than ten people as his disciples; indirectly, it was what allowed this treasure of the martial arts world to be passed down basically intact. For this reason, the incident was a turning point in the history of Dai style xinyi, and so we should record it as fairly and accurately as possible.

The authors of the two above articles, Dong Zhenglong, Cao Jizhi and Yue Jianzu, as well as myself, are all grand-disciples of Dai Kui, we all shoulder the responsibility of passing on the art. In the eyes of outsiders, for students of the same generation and similar age to write about the same incident differently smacks of internal strife. But in order to not pass on one's misunderstandings to others, I am willing to stir up a little strife, so that we can distinguish fact from fiction and dispel misunderstandings, and hopefully in the end shake hands and make peace.

It should be pointed out that, as this incident took place more than 60 years ago, the authors of the two articles as well as myself are all remembering the accounts of the older generation of masters, rather than our own experiences, so it is difficult to be accurate, but I have striven for similarity [in accounts]. For the reader's convenience, I have chosen to abbreviate the article (Knight of Xinyi - A potted biography of Dai Kui) as (Xin), and (Dai Kui Punishes Wrongdoing) as (Dai).

(After this, article refers to these articles by these abbreviations. For my own ease of distinguishing, I have used (Knight) as the abbreviation for the first and (Punish) for the second]

Both (Knight) and (Punish) mention the time that Mr Dai spent in Baotou. (Knight) says: Mr Dai "moved to Qinzhou in Shanxi for business at the age of 16....during his 2 years doing business in Qinzhou, someone introduced him to work as a bodyguard at a private bank in the Qiao family's Zai Zhong Courtyard." Mr Dai was born in 1874, hence we can infer that this must have been in 1892 (i.e. when he was 18).

(Punish) says: "On the eve of the Lugouqiao incident, Mr Dai was invited to Baotou by a friend in order to teach his art there." This puts Mr Dai in Baotou in 1937, i.e. when he was over 60 years old. There is a gap of 45 years between the two versions.

So why did Mr Dai go to Baotou?

(Knight) gives the reason as 'to be a bodyguard', but also adds that 'many people sought him out to learn his art'.
(Punish), as mentioned above, simply says he went there 'to teach his art'.

What about the reason for fight which eventually led to his opponent's death?

(Knight) says: "One year Baotou held a mule and horse expo, the local government set up a 100-day leitai....it was already the 99th day and the ringmaster had not met his match....The ringmaster was a heavyset, burly man around 40 years old..... there stood a row of 10 shirtless, solidly-built men with menacing expressions. The ringmaster stepped forward and said, "My fellow heroes and onlookers, today is the 100th day of the leitai, if there's anyone who dares to come up here and meet his death, I'm here waiting for him!"..... It was at this moment that Mr Dai, with a swish of his robes and having handed his pipe to a disciple, leapt upwards, 'sticking' himself to the pole of the ornamental gate of the leitai. This skill is called 'a beauty hanging a picture'".

(Punish), on the other hand, says: "Mr Dai's arrival in Baotou to teach students should have been positive event, an opportunity to promulgate this treasure of Chinese culture and rouse people's spirits. However, there was a little local tyrant called 'Liu Shi-er' who considered the plains his territory and considered anyone teaching martial arts in Baotou as a challenge. And so he instructed his henchmen to put Mr Dai on notice: he could either get out of town, or fight Liu Shi-er. Liu was big and tall, and unusually strong....he was nicknamed 'wrestling king of the plains'. Because he could split a poplar with an arrow at 100 yards and never missed when throwing pebbles (shi dan), he was nicknamed by locals as 'Liu Shi-er' [can be interpreted to mean "flowing arrow" - hence Liu Shi-er may have been a nickname, not his name]....He could not tolerate the appearance of other masters on the plains, and so as soon as Mr Dai arrived in Baotou Liu set up a leitai in order to drive off this outsider."

On the actual fight itself:

(Knight) says 'Dai signed a death waiver, and was asked whether he wanted a civil or martial bout. Mr Dai replied "A martial one would be more interesting", to which the ringmaster laughed and said "Good! Take this!" As he spoke, he launched a punch at Dai's heart. Mr Dai didn't dodge, but first contracted (shu), then used xinyi's drilling fist (zuan quan) to simultaneously deflect the ringmaster's blow and attack at the same time. With a yell, the ringmaster was knocked 3 meters away and lay on the ground spitting blood. It turned out that the ringmaster was a famous master called Liu Shi'er'

(Punish) on the other hand says 'There was no actual platform, the two fighters fought within a circle drawn in the ground....Dai Kui's skills were at a high level, following the principles of 'using martial arts to make friends' and 'stopping at contact'...Dai only used less damaging techniques like ba (pluck), shuai (shake off), diao (seize), kou (hook), shan (evade), tie (stick), tui (push) and guo (wrap) and generally went easy on Liu for a few rounds....seeing that Liu still hadn't realised [that Dai was just playing with him], the next time Liu Shi-er charged at him, r Dai used 'wrapping fist' (guo quan) to spin him around half a circle, causing him to expose the ribs on the left side of his body, whereupon Dai, using a move from 'stealing peaches from within the leaves' (ye li tou tao), struck the jia li point Liu's ribs. Even though Dai only used 70% of his full strength, Liu instantly was benumbed and squatted down on the ground.'

With two such disparate accounts of the same incident, how are those readers interested in Dai style xinyi to tell who's right and who's wrong?

In fact, neither of the authors of (Knight) and (Punish) have looked into the time, date, place, cause, the result or the full name of Mr Dai's opponent. All they have done is 'filled out' a legend they have heard with suppositions and confabulations on behalf of their martial forebears - and reported it as fact. This isn't just 'fulsome praise', it's closer to fabrication, and will make outsiders think that even we, who have always put martial morality (wu de) first, have also started to chop and change history as we wish. Having read these (articles), what would happen to our past and future articles on the training methods, principles and the history of Dai style xinyi? Who would take them seriously? Who would believe in their truth, seriousness and scientific approach?

In relation to this historical incident, I would like to write a correction [to (Knight) and (Punish) based on Dai Kui and Shi Xiongba's accounts of the incidents as told to my teacher Zhang Yuchen. I have also verified my teacher's account against those of Ma Erniu and Ren Dahua.

From the beginning of the Republican Period to the Sino-Japanese war, many warlords all over the country hired martial arts masters to work in their armies. During the period in which the warlord Yan Xishan controlled Shanxi and the Northwest, he and the commanders underneath him hired many famous martial artists to work in his army. For example, the Sanhuang Paochui master Yu Jian was invited to work in Shanxi; even more numerous in the Shanxi militia were xingyi masters such as Liu Qilan's son, Liu Wenhua, who was commander of the Zhidan battalion; Li Weifu, Liu Xiaolan's disciple was one of the early martial arts instructors in General Shang Zhen's battalion (?). Dai Kui was also employed by Yan Xishan as one of the martial arts instructors under Shang Zhen.

Dai followed Shang's militia to Suiyuan [what is now called Hohhot in Inner Mongolia, formerly known as Guihua city) in 1927-1928. Shi Xiongba was one of Shang Zhen's aides, and it was during this period that he started to learn Dai style xinyi from Mr Dai. On one of his excursions around the city, Shi came across 'Liu Shi-er' using performances of his kungfu to sell medicine in front of Dazhao temple (my teacher remembers that his real name was Li Zheng, but this is as yet unverified). 'Liu Shi-er' (written with characters that mean '62') can be seen as the man's childhood name (ru ming). If this name was given in accordance with folk traditions in the northwest of China, then he must have been born when his grandmother or grandfather was 62. (Knight) mistakenly assumes Liu was his surname, whilst (Punish) infers that he must have been someone like the character from the classic Chinese novel The Water Margin, who was known only by his nickname, 'Bury the arrow' (Mo Yu Jian) for his ability to split a poplar with an arrow at 100 paces and never missed with his stone pebbles.

Shi had actually studied martial arts under Liu (I will still call him Liu for convenience] prior to joining the army. When asked by Liu asked Shi how he'd been doing, Shi mentioned how he had become a disciple of Dai Kui, learning Yiquan (sic) and Tang Lang Dao (praying mantis saber), aka liu he dao (6 harmonies saber). Liu, upon hearing this, took out two wooden sabers and suggested that the he and Shi have a match. Shi, being young, strong and hot-headed, accepted the saber without so much as a word. Almost as soon as they crossed sabers, Shi had cut Liu's wrist. When Liu let loose a stream of invective at Shi, he dropped the saber, turned on his heels and left. Liu chased Shi all the way to the Governor's Residence (in what is today the New Quarter of Hohhot; after Liberation, it was used as the site of the High Court of Inner Mongolia), where he was stopped by the guards, but continued cursing Shi and Dai Kui. After that, he came to the gates of the Governor's Residence every day to shout curses.

When Dai found out about this, he instructed the guards to ignore Liu. One day, Shang Zhen had gone out and his aides were at a loose end, when one of the guards came to report that Liu was standing outside cursing again. Some troublemakers amongst the aides said: 'Ever since Dai took up his post as a martial arts instructor, all he's done all day is smoke and drink tea, who knows whether he actually has any real skill or not? Why don't we let Liu in and let the two of them cross hands?' And so the guards let Liu into the compound and led him to Mr Dai's door. Dai, hearing someone shouting 'Who is Dai Kui?' outside, hurriedly put on a coat and shoes and opened the door. After Dai had asked what was the matter, Liu recounted the contest with Shi Xiongba and challenged Dai to a bout. Mr Dai tactfully declined the challenge, saying "We're both in the same boat: you're trying to make a living from teaching students and selling medicine, I'm trying to do the same from this job". Dai on the one hand was determined not to accept the challenge, but Liu on the other hand wouldn't take no for an answer. At this point the aides and guards all crowded round, egging the two of them on. Dai Kui repeatedly refused but in the end gave in. He invited Liu to attack first; no sooner had the words left his lips than Liu had advanced within range. Dai used 'wrapping' (guo) and 'drilling' (zuan) to hit Liu in the ribs. Because they were so close together, Liu was able to grab Dai's lapel before spinning half a circle and collapsing at Dai's feet. Dai hurriedly reached down to help Liu up, saying 'I lost control!' At this point, Liu forcibly swallowed the blood that had welled up in his throat and said "You give no quarter." Dai hurriedly had some people take Liu back to Liu's home. Liu's doctor tried his best, but Liu was too badly injured and died within a week.

(Knight) says that "Most of Liu's disciples wanted to avenge their teacher's death...The second night after his teacher had died, Liu decided to make an attempt on Dai's life....he managed to return to Qi county without being assassinated." In reality, the attempt on Mr Dai's life occurred almost a year after (Liu's death). Ma Erniu, who was an apprentice chef in Guihua city at the time, approached Mr Dai, who was still working in the army and asked to become his disciple. In 1931 Mr Dai returned to Qi county, where he accepted Yue Yunzhong as a disciple (Yue Yunzhong took care of Dai's accommodation and daily expenditure). In order to fund Dai and Yue's opium habits, within the space of a few years, Yue was forced to sell a building he owned and several acres of good land, to the point where he could no longer support Mr Dai. Dai then went back to his old position in the army. In 1937, when Yan Xishan's subordinate Li Fuying's battalion left Datong for the front-line against the Japanese, Mr Dai was with them as martial arts instructor.

To sum up, then, the incident that both (Knight) and (Punish) are certain occurred in Baotou actually happened in Hohhot (over 100 miles away). However, Mr Dai did indeed, as (Punish) states, go to Baotou to teach, in 1939. By that time, Mr Dai was already 64 years old. Given his age, it is extremely unlikely he would have gone there to be a bodyguard, as stated in (Knight).

At that time, several young men who had heard of Dai style xinyi and Mr Dai's gongfu through various channels, jointly chose Ren Rong to officially invite Dai to come to Baotou to teach. Of the people who went with Mr Dai to Baotou there was Yue Yunzhong (the father of Yue Jianzu, the author of (Punish) and the initial teacher of Cao Jizhi), who stayed just over a month before returning to Qi county, as well as Qiao Jiushao (my teacher remembers his pen-name as Qiao Jiushao and his real name as Qiao Julan, whereas my shishu Ren Dahua thinks his name was He Jiushao, and was from a rich family which had come down in the world; in this article I provisionally follow my teacher's recollection), who came down with a fever and ended up staying for half a year before he went back to Qi county.

Mr Dai accepted 5 disciples in total in Baotou: the two brothers Ren Rong and Ren Dahua (from Qi county), Li Lanxiu (from Shandong), Ge Dengfu (from Beijing) and Zhang Yuchen (from Tianjin, my first teacher). After two years teaching them, he returned to Qi county.

(Knight)'s assertion that Mr Dai 'engaged in business' at the age of 16 is also incorrect. By Dai's own account, he was forced to practice the long spear for 14 years by his strict father; if he didn't practice, he wasn't allowed to eat. How could he possibly make his way in the world at the age of 16? As for the same article's assertion that 'many people came seeking instruction, Dai had many students' at the age of 18, this is sheer nonsense. Dai only started teaching in middle age at the urging of his friends when his wife had died, he had no children and was in dire straits financially. According to the 'Students List' written by Mr Dai and copied by my teacher, before 1941 Mr Dai had only accepted slightly over 10 disciples. In 1948, when Shi Xiongba and his son stayed at my teacher's house in Baotou for more than half a year on their way to Houtao, Shi often mentioned how Dai, in his later years, accepted 'peach orchard' and 'lucky dog' (the childhood names of Wang Yinghai and Wang Buchang) as disciples, and how they looked after him (Chinese word fengyang implies that they not only gave him a place to live, but met all his expenses, etc). As for (Knight)'s assertion that Mr Dai taught over 1000 students, that's just irresponsible exaggeration.

I strongly disagree with (Knight)'s statement that 'Mr Dai's name was known throughout the north China plains'. In that period of history the famous style in the north of China was the xingyiquan of Li Luoneng and his outstanding disciples. People only knew of Dai Longbang and Dai Erlu through Li Luoneng. Because of the Dai clan's tradition of secrecy and conservativeness, not many people in Qi county even knew of Dai style xinyi, never mind the North China plains! Amongst Mr Dai's disciples, Yue Yunzhong originally practiced gong li quan, and it was only after losing to Ma Erniu, who was visiting family in Qi county at the time, that Yue decided to study Dai style xinyi after Mr Dai returned to Qi county in 1931. Ma Erniu had moved to Suiyuan from Qi county when he was 18; when he was 20 he heard some acquaintances who were also from Qi county discussing the 'Liu Shi-er' incident, and finally was accepted as Mr Dai's student in Suiyuan 1929. The trickle of students who sought out Mr Dai in the following few years had mostly heard of Mr Dai because of the 'Liu Shi-er' incident. The news of this incident was restricted to a very small circle of people in the first place, how could Mr Dai's name possibly 'be known throughout the North China plain'?!

It is true that Mr Dai didn't care for fame or fortune; however, as for his other opinions, we have no way to guess. And yet (Knight) fabricates that Mr Dai 'loathed the local gentry', based on what evidence I do not know. In particular, the sentence 'He did not teach the offspring of rich men, instead teaching only the poor' is contrary to known facts. The old saying 'qiong wen fu wu' (lit. the poor study books, the rich study martial arts - i.e. only the rich have the time, energy and money to study MA), although not absolute, has a grain of truth to it. Of the disciples that Mr Dai accepted in his life, only Ma Erniu (who was an apprentice chef when he was accepted by Mr Dai) as well as Wang Yinghai and Wang Buchang (both farmers) could be considered 'poor'. Of the others, Yue Yunzhong in Jialing and Guo Yingtian in Fanshi were both considered local gentry; Shi Xiongba brought with him an exceedingly generous cash gift when he sought to learn from Mr Dai; both Ren Rong and Ren Dahua worked in banks, although not rich they were comparatively well-off; Li Lanxiu and Ge Dengfu were both factory workers earning around 60-70 silver dollars a month, while my own teacher, Zhang Yuchen, apart from his job at a factory earning 70 silver dollars a month, also owned two trucks which he used to carry on a haulage business - all of these men would have been considered well-off by the standards of the time. If they hadn't been well-off, how could they have afforded to provide Mr Dai with opium to smoke, or to pay for Mr Dai to stay in a hotel in Baotou for two years, fully catered? From morning to night, Mr Dai's pipe never left his side - how could poor people have afforded that kind of expenditure?

I myself am a disciple of Dai style xinyi, and sincerely wish that Dai style xinyi and its masters could be famed through the North China plain or even the world, but this doesn't mean that one can use fictions and flatteries to achieve that goal. In my view, all the heaped praise for Mr Dai's martial skills and morals are no match for the bearing of a true master displayed in Mr Dai's concise summary of the 3 'titans' of Shanxi MA: "the Yang family spear, Zuo family staff and Dai family boxing".

It's been 42 years since Mr Dai passed away. Looking at his own account of his early life and his later years, he was rarely happy, more often depressed even though he carried on his family's art and today is considered a great master, at the time he had no choice. According to his own account, as a child he liked academics [calligraphy, literature, etc] and didn't like training at all, but his strict father forced him to train, or else he would not get any food to eat. In actuality, all Mr Dai's subsequent actions (working as a martial arts instructor in the Shanxi militia, accepting his friends' advice to start teaching his art, and hurting Liu Shi-er) were all because he had no other choice at the time. Mr Dai married three wives, but none of them bore any children. Mr Dai became dispirited and became addicted to opium, leading to him eventually selling off his family property. He sold off the yellow robe which had been gifted to his family by the Emperor before the Lugouqiao incident; in his old age he was impoverished and relied totally on his disciples for financial support, passing away at the age of 77. By now, even his grave cannot be found.

I consider that Mr Dai's greatest achievement in his life was to pass on his art to his 10 or so non-family disciples (regardless of his original reasons for accepting those disciples), so that the family art has been passed down to the present. With such an enduring achievement, what need is there to further laud Mr Dai with contrived praises?

Below I introduce the content of Dai style xinyi liuhe quan. It should be pointed out that Mr Dai's teachings varied from person to person, so that, even though the principles and rules are consistent, the actual movements for a given posture can vary wildly from teacher to teacher. This will be discussed further in another article. Below are the Dai style routines, weapons and training methods that I know:

1. Dantian gong, also called 'squatting monkey stance' (dun hou zhuang), which is divided into 5 practice methods, namely squatting (dun), turning (zhuan), moving (ban), pounding (za) and discharging (she).

2.Tiger stepping (hu bu gong), whose requirements and practice methods varied from person to person.

There is a Dai family saying about the above two practices, saying that "3 years squatting monkey and 2 years of stepping, before learning the fists [i.e. routines], first learn da [striking] and gu [usu. means to look to the side, but in MA context usu. means blocking/defense]".

3. The 5 fists, namely Pi (splitting), Beng (crushing), Zuan (drilling), Pao (pounding) and Heng (Crossing) (even amongst just Ma Erniu, Ren Dahua, Yue Yunzhong and Zhang Yuchen there are differences in the performance of these fists), which are completely different to xingyiquan's 5 fists. The practice methods and jin [trained power] in each fist is different, for example, for pi quan it is written "Piquan is like an axe and belongs to Metal but it is not an axe; it has a posture of taking and pushing a plate upwards" - you just think, what jin is being practised? How should we practice it?

4. The 12 animals, also called the "10 plus 2 animals" by the older generation; there is also a differentiation into the 10 'big' shapes and 7 'small' shapes. Apart from dragon, tiger, snake, monkey, horse, eagle, chicken, swallow, hawk, bear,alligator and tai (mythical bird like an ostrich), there are also cat, praying mantis, crane, 'magpie alights on the plum branch', 'dragonfly skims the water', 'bull rolls its head', 'lion shakes its mane', 'deer runs through the forest' and 'mo jing' (feeling for the mirror'), and finally halberd hand (ji shou). There are numerous different ways of practising the first ten animals mentioned.

5. Four seizes (si ba chui). Some of the movements were changed from the original four seizes so that it would have more of a Dai style 'flavour'. There is also much variation between teachers in this set.

6. 8 postures fist (ba shi chui) consists of 8 moves performed in a straight line. When reaching the end of the straight line, the practitioner does not turn around, but goes back to the starting point using 'cat washes its face'. There is also another routine consisting of 8 postures, but my teacher could not remember the posture names.

7. Zha shi chui (floodgate fist), composed of ten sub-routines. Mr Dai usually taught 5 of these routines to his students: they are xinyiquan with praying mantis elements added in.

8. Dai style drilling (zuan), wrapping (guo) and cutting (jian). Sun Ye-min, in his article "Clarification of the origin of Xingyiquan" which appeared in Wuhun 92.7, mistook this 'jian' (cutting) for another 'jian' meaning to step forward. This 'jian' means cutting, and is one of the 'fists' of Dai style, not a footwork method (bu fa). In addition, there are practice methods called '7 cannons' and '7 shoulders' (qi bang).

9. There are six body qualities, namely: chicken legs, dragon body, eagle arms, monkey back, bear waist, tiger guards his head. Leisheng (lit. 'thunder sound', using sounds to augment power) comprises the sounds han, yang, yi, hou, he (pronounced as they would be in Qi county).

10. Weapons: xinyi spear, xinyi saber (also called tanglang dao or liuhe dao), xinyi staff (can also use whip-staff), emei piercers. Of these, the piercers are of a rare type, they use a single piercer which is held in the right hand. The piercers themselves have blood grooves and a hand-guard. The directions walked in the routine look like the Chinese character for 'water-well' (井：looks like hash key on phone-pad), each subdivision of the routines is composed of 8 strikes, making for a total of 65 strikes, with the routine finishing back in the middle of the 'hash'.

Besides this, there is also acu-point striking (dian xue) and point striking pegs (dian xue jue); each peg is about 10 cm long and made of hardwood, with one end being rounded and the other sharpened. When Mr Dai took his leave of my teacher, he said "Yuchen, once I bid my farewells today I don't know when I shall see you again, I'll tell you this, in future you've got to pay attention to 'heart empty, abdomen full' [kong xin shi fu]". With that, he gifted Mr Zhang with a pair of point striking pegs, and with tears in his eyes, said good-bye (the last time my teacher ever saw Mr Dai).

Later, my teacher was unjustly imprisoned and the pair of pegs disappeared when his house was ransacked, a great pity.

The 'Knight' of Xinyi - A potted biography of Dai Kui by Dong Zhenglong

2010-04-22T03:55:00.000-07:00

The 'Knight' of Xinyi - A potted biography of Dai Kui

by Dong Zhenglong, head of the Zhenglong Wuguan in Yuci city, Shanxi (translated by Jon Nicklin)

Dai style xinyiquan was founded by Dai Longbang of Qi county in Shanxi, who lived during the late Ming and early Qing dynasty. His grandfather, Dai Guangqi, became a jinshi (passed the highest imperial examinations) and long held a post as a official in China's border areas.

In his youth, he patrolled the borders of Shaanxi and Gansu. Later on in life, he was transferred to China's southern border. Dai Guangqi was well versed in both the civil and martial arts. The Wanli emperor praised him as an 'all-round talent' (wenwu quancai), a real scholar and a gentleman. His son, Dai Yunchang, inherited his father's aptitude in both spheres, and was a local county magistrate of the 7th rank (NB. 1st rank was highest, officials directly under the Emperor. 9th rank was the lowest). He later withdrew from the civil service and became a businessman.

Dai Yunchang's son, Dai Longbang was an advocate for the restoration of the Ming dynasty, and carried on his family's tradition of "Neither becoming a Qing dynasty official, nor doing things for the Qing". He was fast friends with the famous scholar Fu Shan, and organized a secret organization called 'Dan Feng Ge' [Flaming Maple Pavilion] which aimed to restore the Ming and had close connections with the anti Qing society 'Shui Hui Tu' (Water-colour Painting) in the South of China.

Dai Longbang had practiced martial arts since childhood, receiving teaching in the family art, Qi style boxing (Qi shi quan xie), and was also adept at Daoist dantian neigong. Like his grandfather, he was talented at both the civil and martial arts and was dedicated to restoring the Ming. He forged connections with many far-sighted men of the time and started up a caravan escort agency in Lushan county in Henan.

Dai Longbang and his children (first son Dai Wenliang, second son Dai Wenxun and his daughter Dai Jinfeng) were all outstanding masters of martial arts. Dai Longbang, Jin Shikui, Ma Xueli, Li Zheng and Niu Xixian were collectively known as the '5 tigers of the central plains' and were famed both sides of the Yangtze. Dai Longbang's second son, Dai Wenxun, was famed in the martial arts community for 'defeating the iron-headed monk of Shaolin temple' and 'flying the flag past Cangzhou' (NB.Bodyguard agencies usually flew flags with the name of the agency on the caravan they were guarding. There is a famous saying in Chinese martial arts circles that no caravan-guarding agency would fly their flag while passing Cangzhou, for fear of the Baji and Pigua masters there). All over China, wherever the flag of Dai's bodyguard agency was seen, none would dare attack.

Once, the Dai's mistakenly saved one of the Emperor's caravans from attack, and Longbang was rewarded by the Emperor with a yellow robe and offered the post of provincial commander. Dai Longbang refused and returned to Qi county with his family. Back in Qi county, he lived a secluded existence, researching xinyiquan. With his writing of the 'Liuhe Xinyiquan Pu' (The 6-harmonies xinyiquan manual) in the 15th year of Qianlong's reign, Xinyiquan was perfected, becoming the secret art of the Dai family. The only outsider to learn the art was Li Laoneng from Shen county in Hebei. Dai Wenxun taught his son Dai Wuchang, his daughter Dai Hua-nu and his nephew Dai Liangdong. Dai Liangdong in turn taught his son Dai Kui. Dai Kui then taught the art to outsiders.

Dai style xinyi is also called 'Liu he xinyiquan' (6-harmonies xinyiquan). Among locals it is just called Yiquan ('Intention boxing', exactly same characters as Wang Xiangzhai's art). Dai style xinyi mostly focuses on training neigong whilst also training the external. As soon as one part moves, the whole body moves (yi dong ju dong), its punches are like the wind. "Rise like an awakening dragon to the sky, fall like a thunderbolt striking the ground" (qi ru zhe long sheng tian, luo ru pili ji di). It is an extremely effective fighting art, the more one practices it, the more one appreciates the wonders within.

In breaking with his family's tradition and teaching the art to outsiders, ensuring that Dai style xinyi was not lost to future generations, Dai Kui's contribution was invaluable. While Dai Kui was extremely strict with his tudi (disciples), his teaching was patient and systematic, and he adapted it to suit his students' abilities. Because of this, his students were from various classes. His teachings are carved into our hearts and flesh before our eyes. The relationship between teacher and student is often closer than that between father and son, our nostalgia is hard to express.

Dai Kui was indifferent to fame and fortune and detested the oppression of commoners by the greedy, scheming Mandarins. He often came to the aid of the needy and hungry and loathed the local gentry. He enjoyed helping people, and it was his acts of righteous justice that led to him being called a 'knight-errant of Xinyi'[note]. He was born in 1874 and died at the age of 77 in 1951 after a period of illness in Xiaoyi village, Qi county. Even though he has passed away, his spirit of chivalry will live on eternally in our hearts.

Although Dai Kui's martial arts prowess was known all through the north of China, in person he was very approachable. He did not fawn upon those with money and power, but rather liked to travel among the mountains and rivers, wandering by the simple temples and huts in the countryside, which gave rise to another nickname, 'leisurely immortal of the MA world' (wulin san xian).

Dai Kui started to make his mark on the martial arts community in 1890 when he went to Qinzhou in Shanxi to do business. The merchants of Qinzhou were often harassed by local gangs. Dai dealt with the gangs, to the point that they would do just as he said. After doing business for 2 years in Qinzhou, Dai was introduced to work as a security guard for a bank in Baotou, where he continued to display his skills. Many people came to learn from him, and soon Dai had many students in Baotou.

One year, there was a mule and horse expo, where the local magistrate had set up a Leitai, stating that whoever could last 100 days would be declared the champion. The leitai itself was high off the ground with colored flags fluttering in the wind, and surrounded by people, making a lively scene. What drew the observer's eye the most were the two couplets written either side of the leitai. The top one read 'a master without equal in China' while the lower read 'frightening heroes and angering bulls'. Any number of brave men were eager to challenge the 'ringmaster' of the leitai. However, the 99th day came and still no-one had managed to defeat the host. Everyone was hoping that some master would come and win some respect back for those the ringmaster had beaten. By this point, Dai Kui and his students had been keeping an eye on the leitai for several days. Many of Dai's students were infuriated by the ringmaster's arrogance and boastfulness and had been tempted to step onto the leitai, only to be stopped each time by Dai. "Though this man is indeed a braggart, he is nonetheless extremely skilled. Let him win his 100 ounces of silver, 10 bolts of satin and ride in a sedan chair for 3 days [the prize for the leitai winner].

On the 100th day of the leitai, Dai and his students arrived at the leitai early on to watch the last challenges. The ringmaster was heavyset, burly man around 40 years old, and was fighting shirtless. As soon as he walked out on to the leitai, there stood a row of 10 shirtless, solidly-built men with menacing expressions; it made quite an imposing sight. The ringmaster stepped forward and said, "My fellow heroes and onlookers, today is the 100th day of the leitai, if there's anyone who dares to come up here and meet his death, I'm here waiting for him!". His opening remarks sent a ripple of indignation through the crowd, with some shouting "Come on, won't some hero stand up and be counted, don't let him flaunt his strength any more!" Dai Kui watched all of this impassively, seeming to concentrate only on smoking the tobacco in his copper pipe. His disciples whispered amongst themselves "This guy has gone too far!""Master Dai is too timid, his gongfu is at least at the same level as that ringmaster's!" One of Dai's more impulsive disciples made as if to jump on to the leitai, only to be grabbed by Dai, who said "So you'd like to die, would you?" Seeing that Dai seemed determined to stop them from challenging the ringmaster, Dai's disciples stood by and watched sullenly.

In the next 4 hours, not a single person got up onto the leitai. Lunchtime came with the ringmaster still sitting on the leitai leisurely drinking his tea. The crowd, disappointed, started to disperse. It was at this moment that M Dai, with a swish of his robes and having handed his pipe to a disciple, leapt upwards, 'sticking' himself to the pole of the ornamental gate of the leitai. This skill is called 'a beauty hanging a picture'. Dai's actions were met by cheers from the crowd and silent amazement from his disciples. The ringmaster cupped his fist (gong shou, traditional kungfu greeting): "Where is this hero from? Your lightness skill (qing gong)is not half bad! You'd better hurry up and register your name, else you'll miss your chance!" Dai dropped to the ground lightly in front of the registrar, and cupping his fist, said "I am Dai Kui, from Qi county in Shanxi." The registrar wrote down Dai's name and asked "Do you know the rules of the leitai? No medical care if you're injured, no responsibility if you die!" "I know" "So I guess you're brave enough to sign a death disclaimer form then!" Dai inked his thumbprint onto the disclaimer. At this moment, the ringmaster cupped his fist again, saying "This way, hero, today is the last day of the leitai, would you prefer a 'civil' or a 'martial' bout?" "What is a 'civil' bout?" asked Dai, at the same time mentally preparing himself for the fight ahead. "In a 'civil' bout, I receive 3 of our punches, then you receive 3 of mine. In a 'martial' bout, anything goes." Dai replied "The martial bout sounds more interesting." The ringmaster laughed and said "Great! Have at thee!" As he spoke, he launched a punch at Dai's heart. Mr Dai didn't dodge, but first contracted (shu), then used xinyi's drilling fist (zuan quan) to simultaneously deflect the ringmaster's blow and attack at the same time. With a yell, the ringmaster was knocked 3 meters away and lay on the ground spitting blood.

The crowd below erupted in cheering, shouting "Well done!" Mr Dai leapt from the leitai down into the crowd of his disciples, who lifted him up into the air on outstretched hands, like the stars frame the moon. Back on the leitai, ten burly men lifted the prone ringmaster backstage. It turned out that the ringmaster was a famous master called Liu Shi'er. Not long after being injured by Mr Dai, Liu died. Most of Liu's disciples wanted to avenge their teacher's death. The senior disciple, Liu Hongyuan was from Yuan Tai Gou village in Qi county (same county as Dai’s) and had incredible arm strength. He could lift a millstone a foot thick and was called a "Thousand Catty Strongman" (qian jin li shi). Liu was distraught after his teacher died, and started carrying throwing blades in his belt and a dagger in his boot. Every night, he would make enquiries as to Dai's whereabouts. The second night after his teacher had died, Liu decided to make an attempt on Dai's life, only to find that Dai had already left Baotou. Liu followed Dai.

One day, as he was just about to creep through Dai's window to kill him, Liu felt a cold wind on his wrist. He knew that he was in trouble, but it was too late, in an instant his wrist was throbbing with pain. It turned out that Dai had thrown a pebble at Liu's wrist with pinpoint accuracy. Liu realized that Dai was on guard now and did not dare to attack lightly. M Dai was a veteran of the jianghu (term for the 'underworld' inhabited by itinerant monks, bandits, thieves and martial arts masters in ancient China) was always on his guard. When staying at a hostel, he would not take off his clothes or sleep on the bed; instead he would sleep on the floor in a corner in his day clothes, with a weapon next to his pillow, so that he could respond if there was any disturbance.

It is said that Dai had a level such that mosquitoes couldn't bite him, dust could not settle on him and he could see in the dark. Thus he managed to return to Qi county without being assassinated. Liu Hongyuan knew that it would be even harder to make an attempt on Dai now that he was back home, so returned to Yuan Tai Gou village. However, Liu's desire to avenge his teacher had not died, he still wished to settle things with Dai once and for all. The following year, a grand temple fair was held at the ancient Gaobei village on the 18th day of the 4th lunar month, with 3 days of Chinese opera laid on. Liu Hongyuan sent Mr Dai an invitation to attend a banquet in Yuan Tai Gou during the temple fair; in reality, this was a challenge letter.

Mr Dai's disciples, friends and family all urged him not to go. Mr Dai said "Hongyuan is a loyal man, at least he is direct and sincere in his desire to avenge his teacher. If I don't go this time, when will this vicious cycle end?" When the 18th day of the 4th month came, Dai first made one circuit of the temple fair, then, accompanied by 10 of his disciples, made straight for Yuan Tai Gou village. Hongyuan had sent men to wait at the village gates, who greeted Mr Dai when he arrived. As Mr Dai walked into Liu's home, Liu said "I have invited you here today for no other reason than to avenge my teacher in a challenge against you. If I should be unable to defeat you, I shall bow to you as your student." Mr Dai laughed and said "A straight talker!" After lunch, Liu's men set up Liu Shi'er's spirit tablet (small piece of wood inscribed with name and dates of the deceased), lighted a few sticks of joss and brought out lots of benches and tables for onlookers.

News of the challenge match had long since spread throughout Qi county, meaning that Liu's courtyard was full of other martial artists and interested locals. What with the temple fair and the Yuan Tai Gou challenge, it made a lively scene. Hongyuan stood in the centre of the courtyard and, clasping his fist, said "This way!""Very well then!" With this, Dai had jumped up from his seat until he was in right in front of Hongyuan. With gritted teeth and blazing eyes, Hongyuan charged at Dai, aiming a haymaker at Dai's head. Dai merely turned his body to evade the attack, letting Liu fall over. However, Liu instantly sprang back on his feet again and drew his straight sword (jian), the cold steel glinting in the sunlight. He hacked and stabbed repeatedly at Dai in a ferocious onslaught. Mr Dai kept on dodging Liu's attacks, until suddenly he darted inside Liu's guard. All the crowd heard was an 'Argh!' and Liu was thrown 10m away, leaving Dai holding Liu's sword.

The sheer speed of this 'sword-snatching' move of Dai's surprised the crowd. Unexpectedly, Hongyuan rolled back towards Dai and jumped up, using both his fists to hit Mr Dai's ears. Mr Dai moved slightly and hit Liu so that he sailed upwards, but caught him just in time, and then set him down on the ground lightly. Amiably, he said "Do you want to carry on?" Hongyuan was moved to tears by Dai's honorable behavior and was filled with respect for him, and so kowtowed to Mr Dai 3 times, calling him 'shifu' as he did so.

After Mr Dai had helped Hongyuan up, they walked into the hall, where everyone cheered and applauded. Later on, Liu Hongyuan became one of Dai's 10 top disciples, a story often retold in local circles. Because Dai Kui's wife died young, and he had no children, he made his home wherever he was. He did not teach the offspring of rich men, instead teaching only those in need. In his later years, he was often seen out and about in Qi county's villages and markets. He took on disciples from all over Qi county, teaching over 1000 people. His 10 famous disciples were: Shi Xiongba, Guo Yingtian, Ma Erniu, Duan Xifu, Gao Shengzhen, Yue Yunzhong, Wang Buchang, Wang Yinghai, Liu Hongyuan and Ren Dahua. By the present time, Mr Dai's students and grand-students all over the country number in their thousands.

10,000 hit's on www.daixinyi.blogspot.com

2009-09-01T17:57:00.000-07:00

Hi,

I am just here to thank everyone in supporting daixinyi.blogspot over the past couple of years.

It has not been an easy job in getting this information put out, but I know it is very important that I release as much information as I have access to, without holding back anything.

I have a wealth of information in Chinese, so if anyone wants to contribute to the site, please email me at daixinyi@gmail.com and I will provide you with all of the information to get translated. Once translated I need to sort through everything and cross reference things to come to a conclusion to see if it is worth publishing.

I know the site has focused more on technique and theory and is seriously lacking in the history department, but for anyone who has gone to Shanxi and tried to get reliable information (regardless if they can understand the local dialect) they will acknowledge how there is a lot of fairy tales to decipher.

So I hope in the near future to fill this void with something of substance.

Regards

DZQ.

Yan Long Chang - Dai Xin Yi Quan, Shi Da Xing (Xióng Xing)

2009-07-25T17:46:00.000-07:00

Yan Long Chang - Dai Xin Yi Quan, Shi Da Xing (Yàn Xing)

2009-07-25T17:41:00.001-07:00

Yan Long Chang - Dai Xin Yi Quan, Shi Da Xing (Yào Xing)

2009-07-25T17:36:00.000-07:00

Yan Long Chang - Dai Xin Yi Quan, Shi Da Xing (Yīng Xing)

2009-07-25T17:26:00.000-07:00

Yan Long Chang - Dai Xin Yi Quan, Shi Da Xing (Ji Xing)

2009-07-25T17:24:00.001-07:00

Yan Long Chang - Dai Xin Yi Quan, Shi Da Xing (Ma Xing)

2009-07-25T17:22:00.001-07:00

Yan Long Chang - Dai Xin Yi Quan, Shi Da Xing (Hou Xing)

2009-07-25T17:19:00.000-07:00

Yan Long Chang - Dai Xin Yi Quan, Shi Da Xing (She Xing)

2009-07-25T17:17:00.001-07:00

Yan Long Chang - Dai Xin Yi Quan, Shi Da Xing (Hu Xing)

2009-07-25T17:16:00.001-07:00

Yan Long Chang - Dai Xin Yi Quan, Shi Da Xing (Long Xing)

2009-07-25T16:28:00.000-07:00

Yan Long Chang - Dai Xin Yi Quan, Wu Xing Quan (Heng Quan)

2009-07-25T16:25:00.001-07:00

Yan Long Chang - Dai Xin Yi Quan, Wu Xing Quan (Pau Quan)

2009-07-25T16:24:00.001-07:00

Yan Long Chang - Dai Xin Yi Quan, Wu Xing Quan (Tzuan Quan)

2009-07-25T16:12:00.000-07:00

Yan Long Chang - Dai Xin Yi Quan, Wu Xing Quan (Beng Quan)

2009-07-25T16:11:00.000-07:00

Yan Long Chang - Dai Xin Yi Quan, Wu Xing Quan (Pi Quan)

2009-07-25T15:37:00.000-07:00

Letter from Master Yan Long Chang addressing Dr Stephen Yan

2009-03-22T03:50:00.000-07:00

Dai Shi Xin Yi Quan is a archaic and secret martial art, the practitioners must have to put a lot of effort in it and there is no visible effect in a short period of time. The practitioners have to totally concentrate on it before they could make achievement.

Yan Ziyuan was learning and training different types of quan fa from a lot of different styles and has never concentrated on Dai Shi Xin Yi Quan alone or any other quan fa, so his time and energy was limited and so could not really understand and cannot learn the essence of Dai Xin Yi Quan.

During 1998 and 2006, which was almost 10 years, Yan Ziyuan have visited shifu for only a short period of time, so there were a lot of errors in his quan fa. Although he trained a lot, but not in a correct way and it's not real pure Dai Xin Yi Quan.

In the year 2006, shifu had tried to correct his Dai Xin yi Quan when shifu was in NZ, but he has trained in a wrong way for too long time and also he was training a lot of different styles of quan fa at the same time, he was not serious in this matter. Shifu could do nothing to help but leave it alone. Basically he didn't realize the essence of Dai Xin Yi Quan.

Furthermore he also violated the rule that can not accept any tudi (disciple) when shifu is still alive. He accepted a lot of tudi while he didn’t really understand DXYQ, which was very bad for himself and his students, and all DXYQ practitioners. If one has to learn correctly, he has be under correct guidance.

Dai Zhiqiang started to learn Dai Xin Yi Quan in 1999 in NZ after Shifu went back to china from NZ in the 1998. In the beginning he didn't get the real correct Dai Xin Yi Quan from Yan Ziyuan, both of them were wrong.

(note; this is when me and master Yan Long Chang first met, though I did not start to learn from Dr Yan until many years later. I guess around 2003?)

When shifu went to NZ again in the year 2006, shifu tried to correct him, Dai Zhiqiang was working really hard on it and was very eager to learn the real quan fa, he listened to shifu and got a lot better in Dai Xin Yi Quan.

After that, he has came to china twice, stayed very long time in shifu's, trained hard and learned real quan fa.

When Dai Zhiqiang came to china again during the summer of 2008, he made a huge progress in that trip. I think if he keeps training under shifu's help, Dai Zhiqiang will get giant effort in Dai Xin Yi Quan and become incomparable.

Dear Dai Zhiqiang:

You mentioned that you want to know something about Yan Ziyuan in your last letter ,so I wrote something about it.

I know you must be very busy when you are running the restaurant, so you should put most of your energy in training shen fa, bu fa, si ba and wu xing quan. If you have extra time , you can train all quan fa.

There is big influence here too because of the economic crisis, a lot of factories are nearly closed too, bad influence of people's income. We don't know how long it will last, we can do nothing but wait.

My father stayed in the hospital for a long time after you left, but he is fine now, very healthy, so please don't worry too much.

Me and shinian are fine too, my whole family is good.

Yan Longchang

2009/1/11

Addressing Dr Stephen Yan (unfortunately)

2009-03-11T06:00:00.000-07:00

There has been some ongoing internet discussions in Chinese martial art forums about my and my teacher (Yan Long Chang's) affiliation with a Dr Stephen Yan.

Since my name has been brought up in this discussion I thought I would introduce myself to the martial community and address some of the subject matter. I will however make myself very clear, I have not come on here to indulge in any internet war or slander, but I will be putting forth some facts that maybe some people are not aware of.

I am only really going to talk about Dai Xin Yi Quan as this is my chosen art and I am somewhat of a representative of master Yan Long Chang and his system. I do have permission to speak on his behalf, so I choose my words wisely.

I met Dr Yan back when I was 19 years old. Previously the year before I had studied some Wu Shu basics with a student of master Shi Mei Lin and before that I have had some training in Japanese martial arts (karate, aikido, ninjitsu) and a little bit of Muay Thai.

So now I have been studying martial arts going on 18 years.

I started to learn initially Bei Shaolin Quan from Dr Yan and then later on started to concentrate on Nei Jia Quan starting with Hebei Xing Yi Quan and then finally concentrating on Xin Yi Liu He Quan.

Back roughly 10 years ago Dr Yan hosted master Yan Long Chang to New Zealand for the first time. I was quite excited as I had heard some pretty unreal stories about his skill and was curious of this style of Kung Fu he practiced (Dai Xin Yi Quan).

Although me and master Yan Long Chang could not communicate (my Chinese was non existent back then) we struck up a unusual bond.

Master Yan was kept somewhat of a secret when he was over and I like others never got a chance to see him practice or perform.

My first exposure to Dai Xin Yi Quan was when I was sitting in Dr Yan’s waiting room practicing Cha Quan form number 5 and in between breaks I would exercise with the aid of a hand spring.

Master Yan took it into his hand, squeezed it a couple of time and then started to talk to me about the importance of dan tian over local power and proceeded to get up and demonstrate a couple of moves.

I was shocked, I had never seen anyone move so swiftly and light, but at the same time felt he was generating a lot of power. To tell you the truth I felt a little scared.

Like I said while he was in NZ, I never had the chance to learn from him, to which I deeply regret.

(I think to myself if I had started to learn Dai Xin Yi Quan back from him then, what would be my level be by now?)

I did not get the chance to be reunited with master Yan Long Chang, until maybe 7 years later when I travelled to China the first time with Dr Yan.

At this time I guess I would of been studying XYLHQ from Dr Yan for roughly a year. He taught me a combination of Dai Xin Yi Quan and Henan XYLHQ.

I was always told that Dr Yan was Yan Long Chang’s successor and his only student to which I had no reason to doubt him. After all I am a foreigner with little contact with practitioners in China and also the language barrier becomes somewhat of a problem at times.

Upon arriving in Shanxi I met several of master Yan’s students to which I was surprised ( I thought Dr Yan was the only one?). I had previously asked him why master Yan Long Chang did not accept any more students and he said that everyone before was a disappointment and also they could not comprehend its depths (meaning only he could ?)

I did not really get a chance to practice with master Yan Long Chang directly until he came to NZ for the 2nd time which would of been in 2007. This was straight after I had seen him in China for the 2nd time. We had travelled to Hua Shan together and also he accompanied us to Yong Ji/Shanxi where I performed bai shi to Dr Yan in front of the statue of Ji Long Feng (I will address this more later on).

In New Zealand I really applied myself to my training with a lot of enthusiasm, we would practice every day for at least 2 hours (which carried on for 6 months) Even though we could not openly communicate I would go out of my way to make him and his wife comfortable as much as I could, by bringing them around to my house, getting my wife to cook for them and putting on Chinese DVD’s for them.

Casually one day when I was at Dr Yan’s house I asked master Yan Long Chang “Yan Shifu, are you interested in accepting any foreign students?” to which he surprisingly answered “Ok, no problem!”. This is a big surprise to me as I had been told from Dr Yan that he was not interested in accepting any students.

So I then said to him “Ok, if you want me to help you to find some students, can you provide me with some information about the art, photo’s and some video?” to which he openly agreed. So from this moment on I kind of took on the job of being master Yan Long Chang’s agent, putting in maximum effort to help promote him and his art.

Dr Yan at first did not present any problems and seemed to be happy that master Yan Long Chang could make himself a little money and get some recognition. At least I thought so.

After coming home one day with the video footage, I downloaded the video from the video camera into the timeline program in my laptop and we all sat down and proceeded to watch it.

Dr Yan then started to tell me to edit out the beginning opening sequence of “dun hou shi” as he did not want anyone seeing the shen fa. I was a little surprised as it was not his video, it was his teachers and my shiye, so why did he think he could tell his teacher what to do? he had always talked about master Yan Long Chang with a lot of respect, but now he was not showing any at all.

For those of you that do not know master Yan Long Chang I can tell you, he is a very humble, quiet and relaxed type of person. He does not like to talk too much, he does not boast and he is a man who is very reserved, and somewhat sensitive, which is surprisingly as he is home to some very deadly skills.

So being a guest of Dr Yan, master Yan did not bring up any protest of the editing of these clips, though obviously it was not his intention to hide anything. What is the point of putting up video in the first place, if you are going to cut the clip into pieces? the reason to begin with is to share the art, not to be selfish and only give the public a tease.

After I took the video I was quite excited and I contacted my friend and fellow classmate and student of Dr Yan, Ding Wen (Evan Chen) to which he asked me if I could provide him with a copy of the videos I took.

Of course I did not have a problem with providing him with a copy of the video, but Dr Yan got very angry about me mentioning I had taken the video and now that I had mentioned it he felt obliged to give it to him, even though he had originally not wanted to give anyone, he wanted the video to be kept exclusive.

This is when Dr Yan started to give master Yan Long Chang a very big headache. He told him to promise him he would not let anyone take any more video. This considerably upset master Yan Long Chang so much that he prayed to master Yueh Gui Ning and promised to him he would not let anyone take any more footage for 3 years.

Hence this is why the only clips of master Yan Long Chang on the net are the ones on my you-tube page (http://www.youtube.com/user/DAIXINYI) and there will not be any more video until after May 2010.

From this moment on things stared to get very uncomfortable for master Yan Long Chang and he started to wish he was home with his family in Qi Xian. His health started to suffer too, his blood pressure was up and was he was under considerable stress.
The student he once loved was not the man he made himself out to be.

On top of the video problem, there was also the issue of us setting up a independent martial arts organization, meaning a Dai Xin Yi Quan international body, a formal organization where we could maintain a high quality of teaching people and in time setting up other branches in other countries once the practitioners had reached a certain level.

The other reason was because truth be told master Yan Long Chang wanted himself to be independent and not in the same organization as Dr Yan, due to his affiliation with a myriad other martial art styles.

When this was mentioned Dr Yan started to get very agitated and was asking who was going to be the chairperson, who would run NZ, etc. We all knew that if Dr Yan was going to be on board he was going to cause huge problems and we would get nowhere as a group as he would not follow anyones else direction, it would be like a dictatorship, it was either going to be his way or no way.

Now I would like to address the previous Dai Xin Yi Quan training I had received previously from Dr Yan.

On the first day of training me and my classmate, Ding Wen (Evan Chen) were asked to perform some basic movements that we had been taught for master Yan Long Chang.

Within a couple of minutes or less, he was shaking his head and having a good laugh at us. Everything that we had been taught was completely wrong, right from the very basic stances like “hu bu zhuang”.

For you non Dai Xin Yi Quan practitioners, hu bu zhuang is a forward stance having the hips square (1 1/2 feet length in between front heel and rear toe) and the weight placement should follow from the crown of the head down into the ground, not 70/30% as we were taught by Dr Yan with a horrible forward lean of the head, which causes the sacrum to stick out. You must retain ding jin (upward pressing of the head) even though the chin is slightly tucked in aligning the cervical vertabrae.

This is solely a cause of someone mixing styles and confusion. Remember Dr Yan has a foundation in the Henan XYLHQ styles (as well as probably 20 other styles of Kung Fu), so he had took it on himself to mix them together.

(Actually he has mixed the Dai Xin Yi Quan and XYLHQ arts considerably. His version of Dai Xin Yi Quan’s mo jing/mo jing is basically XYLHQ, lun jin in a horse stance. It bears no resemblance to the original movement at all)

I also began to find out some of the moves I was practicing were even made up as when I was doing some moves (mao xing, guo feng bang, bai he lian chi, mor bian pao) master Yan Long Chang could not even recognize them and asked me what I was doing?

It was not long after this that I decided that Dr Yan was not the man he made himself out to be in Dai Xin Yi Quan and what he taught us was absolute rubbish. It was not the money I had spent to learn this what angered me, it was the time I had wasted learning from him, his lies and also him causing me bad habits for future training.

All the while I was learning from master Yan Long Chang I had ceased to practice the Henan style, which is what Dr Yan was more or less concentrating on. His personal belief that because they were related and there was more or less a marriage between the arts, to which he could not be more wrong.

If we follow the common accepted history of Li Zheng teaching Dai Long Bang and his sons we can see even though they share the same root they are totally different arts and cannot be confused with each other.

From our viewpoint Dai Long Bang further refined the Henan style and removed all the unnecessary gross movements, transforming it into something very unique. The stances are more compact, the footwork light and agile and the body movement really sets it apart from the other styles.

People talk about zong jie jin, but in all of the practitioners I met in other XYLHQ styles no one had any visible dan tian or the ability to rotate it freely like Yan Long Chang, so I have come to the conclusion that this is something unique to our style. Especially how we combine dan tian rotation with our movements. I am aware of other arts (Chen Shi Taiji Quan, etc) have similar methods, but to me they are not the same.

When I confronted Dr Yan as to why the huge difference in how he had taught me, he acted very nervous and tried to tell me in the case of one movement, that master Yan did not know how to explain it to me so he taught me the easy version. He then tried timidly to say that master Yan had observed our foundation and had commented that we had not wasted our time. By the look on his face he knew he was busted, he was seriously back-peddling.

Master Yan, truth be told, told Stephen that he was not ready to teach Dai Xin Yi Quan, but Stephen knows best and decided to accept students anyway.

Now onto the tudi business.

There is a specific Dai Xin Yi Quan law that states that while the master (in our case, master Yan Long Chang) is alive, none of his students (no matter how high their level is) can accept tudi, meaning to perform bai shi ceremony with anyone.

Dr Yan broke this law several times, with me and also with other students. I did not know at the time until after I had performed it. But was very surprised when I found out.

As for me being called a traitor and going behind my teachers back, I will say this, there is only so much someone can take. 10 years or so of my life was wasted with this person. If I had learnt from the right person, irrespective of style, I could of been a world class Judo or Muay Thai fighter and it would not have cost me the money it did to learn a bunch of wrongly taught forms.

I practiced a year or so of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and in that time I probably learnt more about real fighting then I did with 10 years with Dr Yan.

I am not saying however everything he taught me has no merit. But in general a lot of what he taught me was just constant repetition of forms and little combat application.

I am one of many other students who have left after they had realized what they were promised were never going to come true. We all followed tradition and loved our Shifu (Dr Yan), but he never loved us back, this is a fact.

I think Dr Yan abused the Chinese tradition as much as he could. He used us students as something expendable and even told me on more than one occasion that if his students on the weekend were sick of doing his garden, then no stress he could find some more. This shows he has no respect for us NZ’rs as a people and he thinks because he is a educated Dr and he is a martial arts teacher he can abuse us and treat us like peasants. Well he is wrong.

In the case of one of my friends who wanted to learn XYLHQ from him, he only accepted him as he knew he had suffered a severe injury to his neck and had slight paralysis on one side of his body. He said to me that he could never get good, so he had no reservations teaching him and he also needed to use him to build his webpage for him.

I could go on and on and on about shit he has talked about people, but really I do not have the energy to waste on this.

To me martial arts is firstly about combat, secondly about good health, this is achieved by regular, correct practice. Fun is just as important. If you do not love something with passion and enthusiasm, then there is not much point in doing something.

I will now address the challenge matches as published in his Taiji and Xing Yi books preface.

http://rapidshare.com/files/205953461/lies.JPG

http://rapidshare.com/files/206212963/lies2.JPG

It falsely tells a tale where Dr Yan defeated Dan Brooks (a very talented Muay Thai fighter and a old friend of mine) using his Taiji supposedly and he has listed me (Jon Dyer) as witness to this.

The incident which he is talking about never happened, well not the way he is telling it, that is for sure.

I will recall the incident just for your information.

Dan had just came back from Japan and Hong Kong (we are talking over 10 years ago). In Hong Kong he had won a fight against their local champion (who had just come off 9 straight wins in Thailand) and I know he travelled to Japan with Ray “sugar foot” Sefo (this was at the starting of the K1).

I had contacted him by phone and we decided to meet (I used to live around 45 minutes by train from Wellington City), so him and his Japanese girlfriend popped into Dr Yan's office to see me.

I introduced Dan to Dr Yan and Dr Yan asked us to do some light free sparring as he wanted to see how me and Dan moved.

Of course Dan had it over me easily, so Dr Yan wanted to point out what I was doing wrong, so he decided to demonstrate some techniques on Dan.

This is when things started to get very uncomfortable as Dr Yan took advantage of Dan's good will and started to apply the techniques on him too rough. Note Dan was not resisting in any way, he just basically gave him face and let him use him as a compliant partner, to which Dr Yan abused.

Now comes the funny part. Dr Yan asked Dan to get him into a Muay Thai clinch to which Dan obliged. Dr Yan was trying to tell us he could use his Taiji Quan to neutralise to which he tried and failed miserably (he looked like a fish out of water) I also remember he tried to scratch Dan's eyes in this position, to which did not work.

After this incident I was put in a very horrible position as it put me in the middle, I am Dan's friend and was at the time Dr Yan's student.

I did not find out about the contents of the preface until many years later when I had my friends wife translate it. I was totally shocked, I could not believe what was written and why did he have to ruin my friends good name to make himself look better?

Truth be told Dr Yan is in a world of hurt when my friend finds out and it is going to be pretty funny watching him try and get talk himself out of it.

There is also this very funny article Dr Yan has written

http://www.taiji.net.cn/BBs/dispbbs.asp?boardid=19&Id=6715&star=1

Here below is the translation of the above article.

(The first Australia & NZ Wu Shu/San Shou competition (mixed martial arts) was held in 8th November 2005.

The two Xin Yi Liu He Quan, Wu Shi Taiji Quan indoor students, David Stella & Stu Dun of the chairman of NZ Wu Tao association (the successor of XYLHQ, Wu style Taiji & Yijinjin) Mr Yan Zi Yuan both won the 1st & 2nd places of the 85kg division and 90kg divison.

Yan Zhi Yuan has inherited the true art from Wu style Taiji masters, master Ma Yu Liang, Wu Yin Hua, again also inherited Mai Zhuangtu style XYLHQ from Li Zun Si, Wang Shu Wen etc. Dai Long Bang XY (the most excellent grand master Yan Long Chang of Qi County/ Shanxi Dai Xin Yi Quan, Ma Hong Xian (the only grand master level in Luoyang XYLHQ)..

While inherited the above 3 systems true arts. He (Stephen Yan) also inherited the true art of yi jin jin (muscle/tendon changing) and tie’t tang kung (iron crotch) from master Zhu Yun Fei

The indoor students of Yan Zhi Yuan utilized the essentials of XYLHQ, Taiji & Yi Jin Jin in their San Shou competition and therefore obtained the gloried result... in the 85kg division final, David Stella defeated his Muay Thai opponent (who won Australia champion) by KO and followed by the opponent who gave up.

Real traditional Chinese martial arts now still exist even not many..and not just boxing + kicking + throwing to present the essentials of chinese martial arts).

This competition did take place, but the people who are in it do not practice this esoteric IMA as proposed by Stephen Yan. Dave Stella was and still is to my knowledge training in the Bei Shaolin Quan as taught to him by Dr Yan, though before he had entered this competition he had previous fighting experience and held the rank of Shodan in Zen Do Kai Karate.

More interesting in the case of Stu Dunn I contacted him and he mentioned to me he had only attended 2-3 classes with Dr Yan and when I mentioned him using these arts in this competition he did not know what I was talking about.

Dr Stephen Yan has said that he is one of master Ma Yueh Liang and master Wu Yin Hua's indoor disciples and one of only 3 people to learn the complete Wu Taiji Quan system.

After some investigation and contacting Shanghai, one of the Ma family confirmed one of my suspicions.

Dr Yan was never an indoor disciple of master Ma and Wu, but in fact learnt from master Shi Mei Lin, who was master Ma and Wu's adopted daughter, who was also married to Dr Yan for some time.

Here attached copy of the Commemorative Manual from the Shanghai Jianquan association dated May 2000, hence printed before Dr Yan stirred most of his mess on the chinese magazines.

As you can see he is nowhere to be found among the full list of the Ma's disciples, where you can find his (ex) wife Shi Meilin of course.

There was also published in his Taiji book a photo of a master Yek Sing Ong (a student of Huang Xingxian, who was a student of Zheng Man Ching) with the description bearing something akin to "Stephen leading Yek in with his neutralising" or something very close to this.

So for the readers get the impression that Dr Yan was the victor. What he failed to tell anyone that he was getting pushed over repeatedly back into a couch behind him. I am sure professor Yek would like to set this straight. Maybe Stephen would be so good as to put up the video he took, so we can all see the truth. I myself have viewed this and so have a few of my classmates so we can all verify this.

Last but not least I will address this teaching certificate that me and my classmate were presented from Yan Long Chang.

Here is also photo's of me performing bai shi (initiation ceremony) with master Yan Long Chang, becoming 7th generation tudi. This happened on 18th November 2007.

I am not putting too much time into explaining this, but basically I have been given permission to teach Dai Xin Yi Quan on master Yan Long Chang’s behalf. I do not consider myself a expert in any shape or form, but have completed the basics satisfactory so as to teach others.

The certificate is not so important as the authority assigned to it, it is just something that is formally made out so no one can dispute that I have the right to teach the art and the undeniable affiliation with my teacher. It also affirms my commitment to the art and it’s transmission.

There is also published on Dr Yan’s website http://www.tai-chi.co.nz/index.html that he is master Yan Long Chang’s chuan ren (successor) as well as him inheriting the chuan pu and complete Dai Xin Yi Quan system. Master Yan Long Chang has not chosen his chuan ren, so I do not know where Dr Yan gets off appointing himself one.

As to his statement of him knowing the whole Dai Xin Yi Quan system, I know that he does not know “tian di yin yuan bu dao gong” as well as what he has learned he has deformed it by changing it into his own hybrid. As for his statements of him going to Beijing to learn from Yueh Jian Zhu (Yueh Gui Ning's son) the dian xue hue and da qiang carries no weight due to him lacking a good foundation in basics.

He is not welcome in Qi Xian/Shanxi again in our Dai Xin Yi Quan family and has no affiliation with us in any shape or form, my teacher, master Yan Long Chang has disowned him and does not want to hear from him ever again.

It is a sad day to put forth all this information, but it has to be done. I do not want any more young men from my country to waste any of their time or money with this person, so I put all of the fact plain for everyone to see.

I think the people that are trying to promote him at the moment need to emotionally detach themselves for a moment and need to listen to what we have to say. I can back up everything I say and can call witnesses to many other old students regarding his false claims as well as other old school martial artists.

Dai Zhi Qiang

Si Ba Yong Fa (4 strikes application) 蜻蜓形 Qingting Xing.

2008-12-27T13:09:00.000-08:00

Yan Long Chang continues his assault after Zhan Shou Pao (cutting hand) and urges inwards with the Dragonfly, striking my (Jon Dyer) dantian.

Dai Xin Yi Quan, Yong Fa (applications) Tzuan Quan

2008-12-22T02:15:00.000-08:00

(caption for photo 1)

Me (Jon Dyer) throw a right straight towards, master Yan Long Chang, to which he sticks and coils with his arm from the inside of my right arm to the outside. At this time his right arm is resting against my chest and his leg has already begun to penetrate my centre.

(caption for photo 2)

Yan Long Chang now delivers, expanding forwards cutting my root and spitting me out. His hand has run up to the edge of my neck and viciously files against my neck.

Dai Xin Yi Quan, Yong Fa (applications) Pi Quan

2008-12-21T17:32:00.000-08:00

(caption for photo one)

Me (Jon Dyer) have initiated an attack towards master Yan Long Chang, which has been checked (trapped) and my elbow pushed into my body, my hand is on his chest and to which he contracts, neutralising the push.

(caption for second photo)

Master Yan Long Chang pushes my elbow further into my centreline and leads my hand across my centre, now I am beginning to lose balance to my left. Master Yan Long Chang's right edge of his right hand starts to slice the left edge of my neck.

All this is beginning to lift me off the ground backwards, cutting my root, while at the same time causing my upper body to lean backward.

(caption for 3rd photo)

Yan Long Chang takes advantage of my precarious position and expands suddenly useing Pi Quan (or Zhan Shou Pao) to cut down my centre line, causing a lot of damage due to my stomach sticking out from my backward lean.

Dai Xin Yi Quan, Yong Fa (applications) Heng Quan

2008-12-21T14:31:00.001-08:00

(caption for photo 1)

Me (Jon Dyer) throws a right straight in a unmatched lead to master, Yan Long Chang. Master Yan Long Chang leads the punch down

(note; he does not grab the punch, just deflects it and leads it down and in).

His body is contracted and storing.

(caption for photo 2)

Master Yan Long Chang, steps deep into between my legs and expands violently, punching my ribcage, heart area.

Note; both hands are communicating with this strike the supporting hand giving it more power and added velocity.

Dai Xin Yi Quan, Yong Fa (applications) Beng Quan

2008-12-21T13:48:00.000-08:00

(caption for photo one)

Me (Jon Dyer) attacks with a right straight (southpaw), which is led in and neutralised by master Yan Long Chang. Master Yan Long Chang is in the cross body position, with his shoulder pointing towards me, which I have naturally covered with my left palm.

Note that master, Yan Long Chang's body is contracted (storing) at this moment.

(caption for photo 2)

Master Yan Long Chang expands suddenly and steps deep into my centre, the beng quan uppercutting my jaw.

This is a very dangerous move as it will damage the brain and neck due to the trajectory.

Dai Xin Yi Quan, Yong Fa (applications) Pau Quan

2008-12-21T03:59:00.001-08:00

(caption for photo 1)

Me (Jon Dyer) throws a straight left, which is covered by Yan Long Chang and redirected to his right. At the same time, Yan Long Chang steps in between my legs (though stil contracted).

(caption for photo 2)

Yan Long Chang (expands), leading my attack to his right hand side, in which you can see my balance is completely taken. I am now leaning backwards and my right hand side is completely unprotected, in case Yan Long Chang decides to attack it with his left hand. Note (there is a lot of pressure on my spine in this awkward position.

Wang Guo'an (5th Generation Dai Xin Yi Quan expert)

2008-10-25T15:17:00.000-07:00

Wang Guo'an (1896-1994)

Wang Guo'an was born priviledge into a very wealthy family, he loved martial arts from a very young age and disliked to study literature and other subjects at school.

When he was 13 years old he started to learn "Dai Shi Liu He Xin Yi Quan" directly from Dai Kui. One year later, when Wang was 14, he was accepted formally (bai shi-initiation ceremony) and became a indoor disciple.

Dai Kui had no children, so Wang was basically adopted as Dai's son. In fact Wang was Dai Kui's first official tudi (disciple). Wang studied hard and possessed natural talent. Dai Kui loved Wang very much for his persistance and bravery.

When Wang was 19 he got into a fight with another man, which resulted in Wang severely injuring the man, so Wang fled Qi Xian and went to Tianjin. In Tianjin he located a relative and started to work in trading. It was during this time that Wang joined the "Hu Tao Bang" (Tiger head gang).

After the war against the Japanese, Wang returned home to Qi Xian/Shanxi. Due to the Chinese Cultural Revolution, wealthy landowners were punished, so Wang suffered much due to this. This is one of the main reasons Wang never accepted students before.

Wang Guo'an and Yan Long Chang were related through Yan Long Chang's wife, Sun Yu Ying. After Yan Long Chang was poisoned when he was around 29 years of age, Wang helped him recover using "Nei Li" and other various internal methods, it was also during this time that he started to further teach him "Dai Shi Liu He Xin Yi Quan".

Wang Guo An, lived to the ripe old age of 98 years old (1896-1994)

End.

Dun Hou Shi (Squatting Monkey)

2008-09-29T18:47:00.000-07:00

I have come to the conclusion that Dai Xin Yi Quan is becoming more well known as time passes by. I guess this is due to the efforts of myself and other teachers outside China passing on these methods.

Dai clan martial arts are still very closely held secrets and it only in the past 20 or so years, that people were aware it existed. It had been thought to be a lost art.

There is a saying translated roughly from Chinese, “Everyone has heard about Dai Xin Yi Quan, but no one has seen it”. This paragraph reflects how closely held Dai clan martial arts were and still are.

Since the revealing of some of this knowledge, people have put much interest in, “dun hou shi” aka squatting monkey. This is a good thing, but it does have it’s share of problems as well, which I would like to discuss.

Squatting monkey is the most important exercise in Dai style, it is trained every day for considerable periods of time during a practitioners life. There is no short cut to attaining skill in this method, it takes years of diligent perseverance.

After some time of practicing this method, physical development begins to show, not in a tight muscular abdomen, but the development of the “dan tian”.

Dan tian in Dai style is very different than some concepts in internal medicine, such as the development of an etheric field that is responsible for governing ones health or used externally outside ones body to heal others. What I am talking about is nothing invisible, what I am talking about is developing a special muscle in the lower abdomen.

I really cannot tell you what physically has happened to an advanced practitioners abdomen as I am not a physician (I do have plans on bringing my teacher to a advanced x ray machine to try and find out more about this mystery, but that is another story), but from talking to my teacher, from his experience and knowledge, he tells me in time the abdomen changes shape.

The area is below the navel roughly and I guess extends all the way to the pubis. This area is not a dead mass, it is like a ball rotating in multiple spheres, independently of any part of the body.

In squatting monkey, the sphere that is trained predominantly is the vertical sphere. This is trained by contracting the body as tight as possible while squatting and then very slowly expanding, concentrating on the “ding jin” pressing upward force of the head.

For a beginner he does not concentrate rolling this sphere as it is literally not present.

In Qi Xian/Shanxi this exercise is taught very early to some children who are prospective practitioners, but due to the difficulty and boredom, most of the children give up.

Traditionally in China this exercise is trained for 3 years before the student gets taught anything else. Reason being as I have explained before, it is to develop the strength and root of the stance as well as develop the dan tian.

Many people will never get past this first stage as they do not have the will required for the training process and drop out.

My main reason for writing this was to address a few people who out of curiosity or due to the difficulty of having a teacher in their vicinity are taking it upon themselves to teach themselves by viewing you-tube or by imitating pictures shown on the net.

Though I commend their keen spirit, this can be doing more harm than good, due to giving them bad habits if they do get a teacher further down the road or due to them unintentionally injuring their body, due to not having someone to guide them through this method.

Squatting monkey as quoted by Jarek Szymanski (www.chinafrominside.com)

“The exercise, although looks simple, is in fact very complicated - there are many specific requirements for all parts of the body and overlooking any of them may not only hinder one's progress, but also be harmful, especially because of vertical movement of backbone on its whole length. The key to proper practice is understanding of "Three Curves Gathered Together" (San Yuan Ju Yi), e.g. correct alignment of lower, middle and upper part of the body”.

Personally I have heard of stories of people suffering from high blood pressure, tightness in the chest, thoracic problems and in extreme cases stroke, but upon speaking to my Shifu, Yan Long Chang, he addressed them as myths and said to not worry about them.

There are a very strict set of principles that must be addressed from day one, they are as outlined in the Dai Xin Yi Quan quan pu.

Hu Bao Tau (Tiger Leopard Head)

Hou Bei (Monkey Back)

Ying Bang (Eagle Shoulders)

Han Xion (compress chest)

Gu Kua (sink hip)

Bao Jiang (wrap shoulder)

Wei Lu (tuck tailbone)

I will go over them very briefly and as my knowledge of these principles grows I will add information as time allows.

Hu Bao Tau (Tiger/Leopard Head). The reason the head is addressed in this way as when you are expanded or standing straight up in “squatting monkey” the chin is neutral or to be more correct is tucked in slightly, keeping the cervical vertebrae (neck) in alignment, just as a tigers head does not move around. The head should have the feeling of being suspended and the Bai Hui Shu (meeting of all the points) should feel as if hanging off a string.

The eyes in this position should focus on a distant point on the wall, straight in front of you, with the intention as neutral as possible.

The other aspect expressed is the (Bao) or the Leopard. This reflects a leopard tilting it’s head up and surveying for prey. In the “squatting monkey” this is expressed by tilting the chin up, while you are squatting.

The eyes in this position should now be looking up, due to the fact that when you squat you are still looking at the focal point you were focussing on when you were standing straight up.

Hou Bei (Monkey Back), this is something which is merely a consequence of other postural requirements held properly.

The upper back should have a natural curve in it, it should not be straight, even though the spine is in correct alignment and erect. This curve will usually only be present when the chest is in the right position.

Ying Bang (Eagle Shoulders), so called due to the Eagle dropping it’s wings. In Dai Xin Yi Quan this is achieved by keeping the elbows tucked in protecting the ribs and also due to the tight contracted position (shu) one seeks to achieve before delivery.

Han Xiong (compress the chest). This attribute is only really achieved when several postural requirements are held in check. The focus should not be on compressing the chest as this may cause unnecessary strain on the lungs or heart, so it should be subtle, though enough to be insubstantial (hollow).

Gu Kua (sinking the hip). The Kua or the hip should be soft and able to sink and relax, instead of being tight or restrictive, which shall hinder the low posture required.

Bao Jiang (wrap shoulders) This is called so by the shoulders squeezing together, which is evident in “dun hou shi”, but should also be present in all other Dai movements.

Wei Lu (tuck tailbone) Maybe one of the most obvious, but maybe overlooked or underestimated requirement is the tucking of the tailbone. Though simple in theory in practice is another thing all together, once you squat to the maximum, the buttocks will want to protrude easing the load off the legs. You need to roll the pelvis basin and tuck the tailbone as much as you can and more when you have control of that area.

The above article however brief was not supposed to be used as an instructional, but as a rough guide to someone who already has a teacher and needed a reminder so to speak. Believe me Dai Xin Yi Quan is a very profound art, you cannot learn it’s depth from a casual observation, it requires constant practice and a teacher with a wealth of experience to guide you.

San Jian Zhao (三尖照 - in Squatting Monkey tip of the nose, tips of the knees and toes on one vertical line/plane).

The above requirement is usually practiced standing very close to the wall, due to when you squat your knee’s will stick out, so you are trying to keep everything in alignment as much as possible.

In Squatting Monkey we talk about Three Tips (nose, knees, toes) being on one vertical line - two planes - both sagittal and coronal, this can be achieved when the chest is compressed properly and the pelvic basin is tilted and tailbone lifted.

Another consideration is the length of the femur (thigh) of the individual, in some Western students, this alignment can be anatomically impossible.

Speaking to master Yan Long Chang regarding these alignments, he said it is a basic guideline and not to be too pedantic. The most important thing is to squat as much as you can, to tuck the tailbone in to the maximum, elbows touching, shoulders down, chin tilted up and to attain a state of relaxation.

For beginners the first thing they should do is to sit in the posture and have their teacher physically mold them, to show them where and how the body is formed and by observing their teacher, then after they are familiar with the requirements, they should mentally scan their body in their own practice to the point where the body is formed naturally and there is no longer any attention warranted.

How deep do you squat?

This is really something to be improved upon as your ability to hold the posture requirements become more natural. Like has been discussed between me and others on this topic (as different schools emphasize their own training methods) we have pretty much agreed that squatting very low does not equal “shen fa” aka body method. There is no point in squatting very low and suffering the sickness of a forward leaning posture and the buttocks protruding, it is better to be in a higher posture with the alignments in check.

As the way me and other students of, master Yan Long Chang are taught, we are told to squat to the maximum and really emphasize the buttocks being tucked (wei lu). I will guess that a more contracted posture has the potential to expand more, thus generating more power in time, but this will take time as naturally we do not use this posture in daily life, so we need much training to be able to use this instinctively.

Getting back to the people who are trying to learn from you-tube I decided to give them a rough guide as to how to form the posture. I am only doing this due to however how much I tell people not to do it, they are going to do it anyway.

Note: I take no responsibility for any injuries caused by practicing this posture, practice this at your own risk.

Stand with both feet together, thighs pressing firmly together. Hands are placed one on top of the other (right palm on the dantian, with the left hand on top). The lao gong shu (point on the inside of the palm) directly on the back of the hand. The elbows should not protrude, but hug the ribs, there should be no space showing in the armpit. Looking at a distant focal point directly in front of you. The chin should be slightly tucked, aligning the cervical vertebrae, the head should be pressing upward (ding jin).

Very slowly start to squat, paying strict attention to the buttocks being tucked, squeeze the thighs together and bend the knee’s to the maximum. At this time the chin should naturally start to tilt upwards, so at the bottom of your squat you are still looking at the same focus point as you started (note you should never shift from your gaze from this point).

The hands at this time slowly separate from the dan tian until the fingers point down the thigh (note at this point pay attention to the elbows that they do not flare out), the elbows should begin to close tightly together. Now the hands slide down the thighs rubbing them until you fingers tips are just above the knees,until they rotate 180 degrees, until the palms are facing away from you. Elbows tightly together.

Now you are in the squatting monkey posture, I suggest for beginners to hold the position as long as they endure and then slowly expand, putting the emphasis on the “pressing upward force” as discussed previously.

Relating to the hands, you just reverse the process as described above, so as you slowly stand up, your hands fold back to dan tian and your chin straightens up.

Like I have said many times before, you really need to learn this from a teacher, there is a lot of stuff to address and words do not suffice.

A basic introduction to Dai Xin Yi Quan's San Gun (3 Stick)

2008-06-09T01:50:00.000-07:00

San Gun (taken from a interview with grand master Yan Long Chang, conducted by Evan Chen. Translation by Ken Wong Guo Long)

San Gun

Dai Style San Gun uses short pole, because of the practicality, accessibility and it is easier to bring along. Normally, the length of a pole goes from thirteen to sixteen times the width of the user's palm. The thickness of the pole is determined by the body structure of the user.

The material of the pole uses hard wood, "shang jia bai la gan" or "niu jing zhi" from Taixing mountain. Of the two materials, "niu jing zhi" is the best material for the pole.

"Niu jing zhi", also known as xiang long mu (dragon subduing wood), or "liu dao zi" is shaped like the tendon of a bull and is hard yet soft, and doesn't attract insects. The weight is also suitable for a pole. A good pole made of "niu jing zhi" is considered a treasure to martial artists.

The dragon subduing wood grows on Taixing mountain, normally on the rock walls. The quantity of the material is very little and time taken for the wood to grow is long. It may take ten years for the wood to grow to a size of a finger. The shape of the wood is naturally straight and for it to grow to the size of a pole is uncommon.

One should choose a naturally straight wood with slightly red in colour as it would be harder because of the age of the wood. White coloured wood would be the next best choice.

The making of pole has strict emphasis. The outer covering should be peeled off, using fine sand of the river to rub with hands. Avoid rubbing too much or using knife to scrap as the wood will lose its hardness. This kind of pole will develop a red shiny glow the more you practice, and can last forever.

It was said that the mountain guardian Mu Gui Ying used this type of wood, and peopl regard, Niu Jing Zhi as the treasure in the mountain. Mu Gui Ying was said to be skilled in warefare and the pole she used was made using the dragon subduing wood.

There is also saying that having dragon subduing wood with you can avoid poison, snakes and insects. Buddhists also used the wood as an auspicious object.

The name of san gun (three poles) means the three distinctive pole techniques, bang gun, pao gun and fan bei gun.

Dai style pole techniques are unique, execution of the strikes comes from dan tian. Thus, it can only be practised after having foundations of the hand movements, body movements and foot steps. The techniques are unpredictable, high or low, long or short and can attack at all angles, body and pole strike together.

Dou(1) gun and dou(3) gun are the most important basics. Under the condition of superb coordination, together with flexibility of holding the pole, you can reach to a level whereby you can use short pole for long range attacks and long pole for short range attacks. You would also be able to use the power of your dan tian on the strikes and change the techniques flexibly.

Internal Strength

Dai Xin Yi Quan uses dun hou shi (squatting monkey) as the fundamental movement to cultivate the dan tian and further improve the connection between the dan tian and the bodies movements. After the cultivation of dan tian, there will be internal strength in every step or punch you make.

Dai Xin Yi Quan has a unique method for better health and closing of practice. This nei gong (internal exercise) is called "tian di, yin yang gong" (heaven and earth, yin yang exercise). This exercise involves the practitioner to touch and to trace around the natural flow of the qi (life force) in the channels (jing luo) and rubbing the dan tian in clockwise directions, maintaining healthy circulation. This exercise is very helpful in maintaining the health and as a rejuvenating exercise.

This special exercise was taught to master, Yan Long Chang by his teacher (and wifes uncle), Wang Guo'an. Master Wang Guo'an was Dai Kui's first disciple and he started learning Dai Xin Yi Quan when he was very young. The relationship between Wang and Dai was like father and son, as Dai had no children of his own.

Wang Guo'an in his lifetime solely taught one person this technique and this person was, Yan Long Chang.

Interview with master Yan Long Chang (by Evan Chen)

2008-02-20T04:02:00.000-08:00

Interview with grand master, Yan Long Chang by Evan Chen

Q; How did you first get admitted as a student of Dai Shi Xin Yi?

YLC; I met my master, Yueh Gui Ning through his daughter, she took me to meet her father and upon meeting me he first asked me “Do you love Dai Xin Yi Quan?”, I replied “I do, very much”. “Do you have a passion to learn this art?”, I replied “Yes, I do”. He then asked me “What if asked you to write just the character for, yi, every day for many years, would you do this? I said “I would”.

After becoming Yueh’s Gui Ning’s tudi, the first thing he taught me was dun hou shi (squatting monkey), aka shen fa (body method), which I practiced relentlessly for 2 years, before he taught me anything else.

The time was actually shorter than most people as I practiced so hard, the normal time for most people is 3 years, though many people never get pass this stage as it is very hard and somewhat boring. This weeds out the chaff from the grain so to speak, people who leave are obviously not suitable for the art.

After I had met the suitable requirements in shen fa (dun hou shi) I got started to get taught the footwork, which I practiced diligently for another 2 years. So you can see the normal training process for the jibenkung is 5 years, I myself did it in 4. Once the body method and the footwork were completed, the hand forms came very easy to me.

Q; Is there a special requirement for being a Dai Xin Yi Quan student?

YLC; In Dai style we have our own special rules and regulations, which I guess are similar to most other traditional Chinese kung fu schools.

These are (San Chiao, San Bo Qiao), which means 1. Filial Piety (respect your parents) 2. Loyalty to your friends and 3. Integrity (morals and general character traits). The master will want to test the students character and how he treats everyone around him and if he respects himself. After the master has some confidence, he will then consider admitting him.

For example if the student is a drunkard, womanizer, thief or hoodlum and basically does not care if his ill actions effect people around him, he will never become a student.

Q; When did you make a decision, that Dai Xin Yi Quan was the art you wanted to concentrate on?

YLC; “Aiya!, before for me, I never learnt any other art, so once I began to practice Dai Xin Yi Quan, I fell in love with it . When I was with my my teacher practicing every day, we felt like father and son.

Q; Can you give a brief introduction to beginners in Dai Xin Yi Quan?

YLC; Shen Fa (dun hou shi) Bu Fa (yi zi bu) These make the art unique as I don’t believe other arts have such a emphasis on basics and train them as much as we do. The shen fa in my opinion is so unique and special, really words do it no justice. The bodies contracting and expanding (shu/zhan) the dan tian, is responsible for all the power. You really don’t know how much power you can generate.

Q; This uniqueness is due solely to the shen fa or is it the way we practice?

YLC; Every move in Dai Xin Yi Quan, must have the foundation of shen fa or bu fa.

Q; If a normal person wants to learn, are there any physical or mental attributes necessary?

YLC; For foreigners we can’t really say what is inside them, at first you can’t know someone well, it takes time. Traditionally before when people used to come and learn Dai Xin Yi Quan, they were required to follow the codes of conduct, they still had to kneel down and do, bai shi (initiation ceremony), it is because of the culture. Back then they still had to follow the rules of 3 year shen fa and 2 year, bu fa.

Q; For the people who already are studying martial arts, can they still learn Dai Xin Yi Quan?

YLC; Yes they can, but they need to know Dai Xin Yi Quan is different than other art’s, so they will need to start from scratch.

Q; From your point of view, what is the difference between Dai Xin Yi Quan and other martial art’s?

YLC; Aiya! for me firstly I never practiced any other martial arts, so I don’t really know if other art’s are better than Dai Xin Yi Quan. Since I have only practiced Dai Xin Yi Quan, I don’t think I should comment.

Q; It appears that Dai Xin Yi Quan never talks about circulating the Qi, why is this?

YLC; In Dai XIn Yi Quan the first requirement is to not hold your breath, this is forbidden. Because Dai Xin Yi Quan is a internal art, the breath should be natural and never strained or forced. The Qi should flow naturally when you need to use it.

Q; Can you please recount the incident when you were poisoned?

YLC; When I was 19 I had just been married and went to Qi Xian/Shanxi to work in a warehouse at this time I had just turned 20. Since I was a security guard and was often alone, this provided me a good environment to practice my art.

I got poisoned when I was 32, from the time I was 32 and 38 my life was critical. The effect of the poison lasted until I was 48. So for 20 years my health was suffering. I constantly had a headache, was dizzy and suffered high blood pressure and my heart and liver were malfunctioning.

At that time I was transferred to a underground storage facility and when I arrived there they had a massive problem with insects ruining the food supply, so they decided to use a very strong pesticide.

The underground bunker was capable of holding 1.5,000,000 kilo, so we needed to use the strongest chemical agent we could find. This chemical we used has the appearance of a large bucket, which when activated explodes and the gases suddenly release.

If a human has direct contact with this gas, they maybe have but more than a couple of seconds to live. The standard procedure is to detonate it and throw it into the bunker and close the lid, you then leave the bunker closed for one month before you open the lid and use a special machine to blow clean air through it.

I followed the normal procedure and used the air cleaning method above for 3 days before I entered, so I did not expect to get poisoned. As soon as I entered the bunker I felt something was very wrong there and fear overcome me, I run out as fast as I could, but it had already done it’s damage.

I was immediately rushed to the hospital, though once the Dr saw me, he said there was nothing he could do for me, so he sent me home to die.

Q; Can you please tell us about what effect the poison had on your training?

YLC; After I was poisoned, I could not even lift a 25kg bag of flour, my body was emancipated, weak and without strength. At this time I could not even walk properly, but I still insisted to still practice some shen fa (body method) and bu fa (stepping method) as much as I could bear.

Probably because of my stubborn attitude this saved my life, I never did admit I was going to die and if I did I would be training even in death, I love my art that much.

At this time my bodies equilibrium was very bad, that when I went to the toilet to pee, I would pass out and fall in the toilet.

I remember when I was aged 40 years old (been poisoned for roughly 10 years at this time), I travelled to Taiyuan to get health checks. At this time I met a fellow martial artist from Henan (he was my senior by about 8 years in age). After talking for some time we decided to cross hands. After this bout he wanted to kneel down and call me shifu (bai shi), but i declined him, due to the fact he was senior to me in age, so I asked him to call me his friend instead. This man became my first student, but I don’t know where he is now and have not heard from him in a very long time.

He was very good to me and would accompany me to my health checks. During this time I found out through tests run by the hospital, that my health had returned to normal.

While I was in Taiyuan I also met another martial artist who wanted to cross hands with me and afterwards he felt very humble and presented me with a jian’ (double edged sword). He was amazed due to my condition with my health, how I could still move well.

Q; It looks like you don’t support and type of hard Qi Gong (iron shirt, iron head, iron palm, etc) or the lifting of weights to build the muscles, why is this?

YLC; Before I started to learn martial arts, I was very fond of lifting stone locks to build up my strength, but after I became a tudi, my shifu (Yueh Gui Ning) forbid me to practice them any more. He said to me “Most priority is to get rid of this dead power (Zhou Li), therefore to get rid of rigid force, you must not practice this”. My shifu also forbid me to practice any type of conditioning, he did not think it was good for the tendons or bones and is highly likely to injure your body. Therefore in Dai Xin Yi Quan our sole priority is to develop (dan tian) power. Once you have dan tian power, you have kuai jin (fast power emissions).

Even your single finger can be powerful as steel. The real martial arts are not partially, but whole body, not relying on one section. For example you suddenly deliver from dan tian to your back, fist, palm, elbow, stepping. Your whole body together at that moment is steel there is nothing which can stand in your way.

Q; Why in Dai Xin Yi Quan we emphasize, mun jin (soft power)?

YLC; Mun jin is very, very important and why is this? for example we practice shen fa (body method) and bu fa (stepping method) and the only way we can put attention to detail is to practice it slowly and then further develop coordination of the whole body and dan tian power.

More to come soon.

Interview with master Yan Long Chang, October 2007

2007-12-10T19:01:00.000-08:00

These are just some random questions I asked GM Yan Long Chang, during my recent visit to Qi Xian/Shanxi.

JB) I read of a story witnessed by someone in which he was witness to a Dai practitioner using dan tian to jump, are you familiar with this skill?

(YLC), (laughing), “No, I am sorry, I have never heard of this”.

JB) What you think about people relating “wu xing chuan” with TCM theory (zang fu, jing luo, etc)?

(YLC) “This must be a new development as traditionally in Dai style, we do not have this.

(JB) Are there head attacks in Dai Xin Yi?

(YLC) “Yes, that is a option, but in my personal opinion, I would rather prefer to use the hands. Also using the head can restrict your vision and leave you open for a counter attack to the neck.

(JB) Some people talk about kung fu being a way to the tao, do you agree?

(YLC) “Yes, I agree”.

(JB) Can you please tell me why now all of a sudden you decide to open your doors?

(YLC) “Obviously if I do not teach the art will die with me and secondly, there has been a recent trend for people who are unqualified to claim lineage superiority and to use my name for their own self promotion. People who know what they are looking for, will see who carries my characteristics, without it, what they are practicing is only a imitation.

I have unselfishly devoted my life to this art and stayed loyal to my teacher, even though he has long since passed away. I remember his lessons well and have tried to keep his art intact the same way he taught me and his teacher before him (Dai Kui) Other teachers may have felt the need to change things or create things of their own, but I have never felt it necessary.

JB) What is the best method to check dan tian development?

(YLC) “The best method is for the student to see and to touch the teachers dan tian and to feel it roll. You can’t really talk about dan tian if you don’t have it. It is up for the teacher to sit the student in his posture and to physically mold him and see if he if his obeying all the posture requirements.

JB) How you see the difference in people learning Dai style now and when you were taught it?

YLC) (laughing) “You guy’s get it fairly easy now, I remember being witness to a brutal reminder from my teacher (Yueh Gui Ning), when one of my class mates asked him the application for hern chuan. My teacher walked up to him and struck him directly on the heart and he collapsed. After that we never asked him about the applications any more, (laughing).

(YLC) “In the old days if your master asked you to kneel for 3 days, you kneel. If you did not listen you get expelled, it’s as simple as that. You must not only listen, you must act and do!

When I was 30 years old, I could eat 4 bowls of rice and 2 plates of red date bread. If you practice martial arts properly (very hard), then you have a healthy appetite, though you never get fat.

As a young man, before I got married all I did was eat, sleep and train, I had no t.v and no distractions, my job was to look after the communist food supply in the mountains. The reason the food was in the mountains was because the Chinese communists were paranoid the Russian’s would invade, so they hid the food where no one could find it.

JB) I see there is some Dai practitioners who descend from Guo Weihan, have you had a chance to see what they practice and do you consider it authentic? I also had heard that Guo had a Tong Bei background as well, is that why their cirriculum is so extensive, etc?

YLC) Yes, from what I have seen, what they practice is mostly Tong Bei.

JB) To you what is the meaning of Xin Yi?

YLC) When you think, you get him. Your xin relects nothingness, when you hit the intention is there, though once you think, you lose your connection.

JB) So is this theory the same as, wu wei?

YLC) Basically.

JB) How do you develop fighting skill in Dai Xin Yi?

YLC) Perfect your basic structure, become natural, smooth and connected, then you can deliver power. Once you are familiar with the moves and they start to become natural, then you do special free sparring exercises. You 1st start to spar against your teacher (Dai vs Dai), the reason if you start to spar against other arts first you will become a mess. Once you understand how to apply your art against your teachers attacks and defenses, do you move on to understanding how to fight with everyone else.

JB) I have seen you standing very close to the wall practicing, dun hou shi. What is the reason for this?

YLC) When you stand very close to the wall, you need to look straight ahead, it is for training your focus.

JB) Do you have a favorite move?

YLC) Yes, song ba.

JB) I have heard you talked about the importance of sticking to one style, though we have talked about training in a grappling style at the same time, can you go more into this?

YLC) The thing is every style has their own specific way of doing things and not all are compatible with each other. I have only trained in Dai style solely since I was around 20 years old, so I only know Dai style. What I do know though, that my art has our own unique body requirements, that I believe other styles do not have.

For example say you practice Dai style and Taiji, they have completely different requirements. Dai style has a small, compact and narrow frame and ever strike has a contraction, followed by a expansion, this is achieved by rolling the dan tian on a vertical axis. Taiji does not have this, so practicing Taiji will damage your Dai style and vice versa. I don’t believe it is good to try and practice many arts at the same time, to me my art gives me all I need and more. You got to ask yourself, do you really want to master your art, or do you want to be somewhat of a collector?

(JB) So you don’t think it is a bad idea to practice shuai jiao or bjj while you are learning Dai?

YLC) To me solely concentrating on Dai is best, but I don’t really mind people training in a grappling style as long as they train technique over brute force. The reason I don’t mind is as long as they don’t train striking from other arts, otherwise they will never progress as other art’s don’t use dan tian like we do.

(JB) How you think Dai style would face against against MMA?

YLC) For one thing most Dai practitioners don’t have the luxury of training 8 hours a day and having a nutritionist, dietician, etc on hand. Sure my art can hold it’s own against any art, though it comes down to the individual and how hard he trains. Most people in the area where I live have families and make little money, so they don’t have the available time to train as much. Another thing is Dai style was not created for the sports arena, so there are a lot of techniques that are considered illegal, etc.

(JB) Thanks for your time!

(YLC) No problem.

JB.

Vladimir and Dima

2007-12-10T15:27:00.000-08:00

Vladimir and Dima

I 1st met Vladimir on "emptyflower" regarding some photo's I posted, of my teacher, master Yan Long Chang performing some postures from when he was 1st in New Zealand around 10 years ago.

Vladimir had commented, master Yan Long Chang's movement looked very accurate and wanted to know more about my teacher, so I put up some video's on youtube and he was instantly addicted.

We kept in touch through "yahoo" and in time were good friends, rambling on about the arts.

Meeting Vlad and Dima

Waking up, I headed straight to Taiyuan to pick up my 2 Russian friends, Vladimir and Dima. It took as expected 2 1/2 hours to get to the station and then I had to wait for over an hour for my new friends to get out.

Speaking to Vladimir I realized that he spoke mostly Russian and the way we had been speaking together was through “yahoo messenger”, so he at least knew written english. I was lucky Vladimir’s friend Dima’s english was pretty good, so we had no major problems communicating in the end.

Jon.

1st Day of training (includes other training as well)

2007-12-10T15:17:00.000-08:00

1st day of training (12/11/07)

Getting up in the morning at around 7, we get ready to be picked up downstairs at 8 and travel to master Yan’s house which is roughly 30 minutes away. We then sit down and have a light breakfast and a 15 minute break before getting straight into training.

We start out with mak jin/mor jin (roughly translated as polishing and wiping mirrors), which is a essential part of our jibenkung (foundational training). After going over the move for a good portion of time, master Yan then took us aside and showed us some applications, which involved a sensitive type of adhesion and ways to force the opponent off balance.

Then we moved onto xuan zhang (coiling palms) also called di pan (lower basin), which trains the coiling and contracting of the body and also piercing palm attacks.

After covering these essential basics we moved onto the most famous exercise in Dai style, dun hou shi (squatting monkey), which just involved us forming the posture and master Yan checking over our alignments and then progressing into,shu, zhan (contraction and expansion) as slowly as possible.

After spending a good amount of time repeating the basics over and over again, master Yan started to teach some fundamentals related to the footwork, such as dan tui zhuang (single legged posture) and 1 legged squats (pistols).

Then it was time to move into, yi zi bu (walking on the character yi), which involves walking on a straight line, which is difficult as the posture is very narrow (one foot in front of each other), so you struggle to maintain balance and also it requires strong legs for the height of the posture.

This footwork trains, hu bu zhuang (tiger stance), which is required for full rotation of the dan tian while walking. This is one of the major difference between Dai and it’s sibling Xing Yi Chuan, which favors a san ti shi (3 body posture), which has a 70/30 backward weighted posture. Even though hu bu gives the viewer an impression that it is a forward stance, the body weight is 50/50 distributed.

After training for 2 hours we go inside for lunch, which I can tell you is always excellent and then followed by a walk through the village to go visit master Yan’s orchard, etc. Then after a short rest we get straight back into training.

Note; I won’t cover every single day’s training as I cannot remember the exact sequence we were taught, though I will cover it briefly here; mak jin/mor jin, di pan, guo feng bang, dun hou shi, dan tui zhuang, yi zi bu, si ba, pi chuan. Since I had previous training from the rest of the group, I also practiced wu xing chuan, shr da xing, za shi, shi fa zhai yao, etc.

We trained 4 hours a day, which involved 2 x 2 hour sessions with lunch between them. I can tell you the training was not easy and waking up I was still sore from the day before, but once I warmed up, I did not notice the discomfort.

Pingyao

2007-12-10T15:06:00.000-08:00

Pingyao

Pingyao is maybe my favorite place in China, other places being Hangzhou, etc.

It is a absolute must for anyone who has a interest for Chinese culture, history and architecture. I wont go into detail on this as there are many more people qualified to give you a rundown of it’s history. Use google, it’s your friend!

One thing I would like to let you know, please barter with the salespeople on the side of the road, they are there to make as much money as they can (you can’t blame them), so their prices are as high as they can get away with. Usually offer them around a 1/4 of what it is worth and take it from there.

I watched my friend pick up a copy of the “yi jing”, which though looking old (I am no expert), was definitely a copy, maybe stained with tea to give it, that old look. I cannot remember their original pitch, but I think my friend walked away with it for a 10th of his original asking price!

Same goes for anything that is a antique or sold as one, people selling aged bronze, is usually a new product dipped in acid to give it that old green look. I do not doubt that there is some treasures there for sale, but unless you are already in that field and you can spot a fake from something that is real, be skeptical.

Dai graveyard

2007-12-10T14:52:00.000-08:00

Dai graveyard.

This was a 1st for me, so I was just as excited as the other guys. We headed off with master Yan and one of his friends in a van together and started to head towards something akin to a ranch. The journey was not easy and it was full of bumps as the van struggled up the steep hill.

The road was very narrow and I could not wonder what would happen if one of the wheels happened to come off the mountain path?

We 1st arrived at an old house, which is part of the village there, I was later told that this village was home to descendant's of the Dai’s servants. The Dai’s if you did not know where at one time so wealthy they actually owned half of Qi county!

We then left the van and headed up the mountain by foot, sad to say for one of my friends who was carrying too much stuff, such as video camera’s, bag’s, etc. After trekking up the mountain and admiring the beautiful view, full of mountain brooks and large rock faces we finally reached our destination, Dai graveyard.

The graveyard seemed to be set out on a apple orchard and had maybe 4 tombstones on it, Dai Longbang, his father? and others.

After paying our respects, we then started to descend slowly down the hill, finally passing the old remains of the servants houses until reaching our van and heading home.

Shanxi training camp 10th Oct to 21st Oct.

2007-12-10T13:09:00.001-08:00

Me and my friend travelled from Singapore to Shanghai, which took about 5 hours arriving 1st in Pudong international airport and then transferring to Hongqiao, where we had to wait another 4 hours until flying to Taiyuan/Shanxi, which took at least another 3.

Arriving in Taiyuan airport I noticed the change in weather, though I did not find it cold or unsettling, I was a little tired from the flight’s, but knew I had to undertake a drive to Qi Xian, which is something like 2 1/2 hour’s.

Arriving in Qi Xian, I felt a little jaded, but checking my luggage in at “Fen He hotel”, which I let you know, I can get a deal of 80RMB a night, which is roughly equivalent to $11 USD. The rooms have 2 beds in it, so you and your friend can split the cost, so you are spending around $5.50USD a night.

I then went to enjoy the company of master Yan Long Chang and his family, sitting down to some tasty local food, which includes local made bread, soup and nice cuts of beef, etc. I then got a ride to the hotel, where I showered and passed out.

Some thoughts on Dai Xin Yi

2007-10-21T15:43:00.000-07:00

My first exposure to Dai Shi Liu He Xin Yi Chuan was probably 10 years ago when my teacher at the time, Yan Zhi Yuan, brought grand master Yan Long Chang to Wellington, New Zealand. I at the time was training in Bei Shaolin Chuan and had already been a student going on 3 years.

I would go to Dr Yan's office to train in the waiting room in between patients as we at the time were without a training space. In between training one of the forms (Cha Chuan number 5, I think?), I decided to work on my finger strength with the aid of a spring like device, used by guitarists as it has keys on it. After practicing for a little while I passed it to Yan Long Chang, who decided to give it a go. After giving it a couple of squeezes, he passed it back to me and stood up.

Now I let the reader know, I do not know Chinese (unfortunately), though he started to talk to me about the importance of dan tian over local power, coming from the muscles.

I really cannot remember what movement he performed for me, but I was in total awe, I had never seen anything like it. It was very light, soft, but at the same time it radiated such power to the point I felt somewhat frightened.

It was during this time we started to develop a friendship aside from the fact that we could not understand each others language.

After Yan Long Chang returned to Qi Xian, Shanxi, I did not get the chance to see Yan Long Chang until many years later, when I visited China for my 1st time.

I first arrived in Shanghai and visited Mai Zhuangtu, Xin Yi Liu He Chuan masters such as Li Zun Si (Mai Jing Kuei's top student), Wang Shu Wen (Lu Song Gao's 2nd term tudi) and I also went to Wu Ying Hua and Ma Yueh Liang's (Wu Taiji) house to pay my respects. During this time I had been practicing the internal arts for around 5 years, 1st starting in Hebei Xing Yi and finally moving onto Xin Yi Liu He Chuan.

Arriving in Qi Xian, Shanxi I was warmly greeted by GM Yan Long Chang and enjoyed the local food and company with members of his family and a couple of his students which were present. We went to Pingyao together (which is a must for anyone interested in Chinese culture) and also he took me to see descendants of Guo Weihan and also to Dai family mansion, where Dai Long Bang and his family once lived. The mansion now houses some memorable photo’s of past Dai Xin Yi masters and also has a statue of Dai Long Bang.

Departing Shanxi was rather sad as I did not know when I would see him again, though I kept as much as contact as I could, ringing him now and then through a translator, etc.

It was not until later on this year, that I returned to China, that I got to be reunited with GM, Yan Long Chang. I had been traveling from Shanghai, Jiaxing, Hangzhou, Ningbo, (Henan)-Zhenzhou, Zhumadian, Zhoukou, Kaifeng, Dengzhou, then to X'ian, until meeting GM Yan Long Chang on the outskirts of Huayin City, 120 kilometers (about 75 miles) east from Xi'an City of Shaanxi Province, home to Mt. Huashan. It is one of the five sacred mountains in China. The other four mountains are Mt. Taishan in Shandong, Mt. Hengshan in Hunan, Mt. Hengshan in Shanxi, and Mt. Songshan in Henan.

After leaving Hua Shan with very sore legs, we headed to Yong Ji, Shanxi, arriving at the descendants of Ji Long Feng (credited founder of Xin Yi Liu He Chuan). Here we spent time with the Ji family and we performed our Xin Yi in front of master Ji Long Feng's statue.

After bringing GM Yan Long Chang back to Qi Xian, we said goodbye, which this time was a little easier as we were expecting him in New Zealand a month or so later.

Returning back to New Zealand myself (I was with family in Thailand), I was warmly greeted and we got straight into training.

The training itself was very hard (it is never easy or you are not pushing yourself enough), GM Yan cannot stress the basics enough, without them perfect your art has no root or base.

Now I would like to address the reader to some foundational principles that are not to be overlooked.

The focus is on doing the movements as slow and as soft as possible. This is all about feeling the right body mechanics going on, making sure everything is aligned properly, such as ding jin (pressing upward power), wei lu (the tailbone tucked under to the maximum) and also developing the sensitivity of the back leg in it’s straightening, responsible for it's contribution to power delivery.

For a beginner the sole objective is to concentrate on all these thing’s and at the same time trying to be as relaxed as possible, then when some basic proficiency has been achieved, you then work at making the movements more smoother and trying to make them flow together.

Once you start to progress slightly, you then start to work on power. If power is focused on too earlier on, you will fall into a bad habit of using local strength, instead of whole body power and dan tian kung.

The term for this soft, relaxed power is rou jin (mandarin) or mun jin (Shanxi dialect). This rou jin is the foundation of kuai jin (fast power delivery). Without making the focus of the training, soft and relaxed movements, there is less chance of a sudden explosion. It is like you are burnt with a cigarette while you are sleeping, you go from 0 to 100 mph, in a split second.

Dai Xin Yi is rou, gang (soft, hard), the ratio for every fast movement is 1 to 4, so 4 slow movements, followed by 1 fast movement.

I will also describe some practices forbidden in Yan Long Chang’s Dai Xin Yi.

1. No weightlifting or building of the muscles.

This might seem a bit of a shock to you, but building up local muscles is detrimental to proficiency in Dai Xin Yi. The reason being is that the body needs to be as relaxed as possible, so the constant tension that body builders welcome is not warranted, also it is believed to retard speed, as it acts as a break on the joints, etc.

2. No conditioning or striking the body to harden anatomical surfaces.

Reason being Dai Xin Yi is a internal style, so once skill is achieved the muscles are supported by the qi. The qi (internal force) supports the physical body, so hardening the body is not necessary. Once the body is energized, the area striking will not be in harm of being damaged. Other reasons striking objects is not really the focus of training, is because people get into the habit of not developing correct body alignments first and end up using local power (li).

In the Dai Xin Yi chuan pu (discourse on the essence of Dai style) it writes of a theory “your body is like a virgin, you don’t let anyone easily touch you”, meaning the goal of martial arts is to avoid being hit. This is very different than some martial arts, who condition the body to withstand getting struck. A Dai practitioners goal in in combat is to end the conflict asap, striking as hard and as fast as possible and afterwards looking down at his victory.

Iron shirt is forbidden for many reasons, to stand in front of someone like a punching bag is not considered a high skill or intelligent, what happens if that person has a knife?, do you still stand there and get stabbed?

Another reason beating the body is unnatural and in the long run is not good for your health and in our opinion removes sensitivity needed for listening skills.

When you have a chance to touch hands with someone of master Yan Long Chang’s calibre, you notice that, the contact is very soft and changeable, you are always off balance, he is behind you or to your side and you always in a position of great danger.

I will tell you a story I was personal witness to 10 years ago on master Yan Long Chang’s first trip to New Zealand.

Me, Dr Yan and master Yan Long Chang, were heading back from Wellington city to Lower Hutt in Dr Yan’s 4 wheel drive at the time (a Suzuki Vitara).

Master Yan Long Chang and Dr Yan were locked in deep conversations about the arts (their favorite topic), when master Yan Long Chang delivered a fa jin (power delivery) in the front seat.

At once the little 4 wheel drive swerved on the road, if I was not there I would not believe it, it was incredible! what the reader should know is Dai Xin Yi is unique in the fact it can can deliver huge amounts of power in the 0 range or body contact range. To be able to produce this much power and with no grounding (feet floating) reflects a very high skill level. Most people need their feet on the ground so they can bounce the force up from the ground and out the extremities, but not someone like master Yan, he can deliver in any position, in a split second.

Dan Tian in Dai Xin Yi

Now everyone who practices Nei Jia Chuan has heard of dan tian, most practitioners dream of replicating the skills of masters in the past and some who are lucky enough to see first hand what benefits are of this unique training, stand in awe of their teacher.

Now I will only go into dan tian training in Dai Xin Yi, I do not in any case deny it’s existence in other internal styles, though Dai style has it's own unique methods, which in my personal opinion are not trained in other arts.

From the first day in Dai Xin Yi you are introduced to dun hou shi (squatting monkey posture). Called a squatting monkey due to the posture a monkey holds before he is ready to jump, etc. This posture though looking simple, is in fact a very advanced internal exercise, which works the body both internally and externally.

Externally it trains the bones, tendons and muscles, stressing the quadriceps, hip flexors, knee ligaments, gluteus maximus, the strength and the endurance of the feet, etc. Also due to the closed position of the arms, the tendons are stretching in the elbows. Internally it trains the ligaments, dan tian and the general energy of the body.

Much attention is paid to this position, traditionally 3 years was required to sit in this posture, to develop strength and endurance in the muscles all over the body and also to train the development of the dan tian (field of elixir). The 3 years was also a way to weed out lazy students and to see who was serious about the art.

When you contract (squat), you roll the dan tian back and when you expand, you roll it forward. We do not talk about compressing it and sticking it out, we only practice this rolling forward and backward motion. We also do not train bouncing things off this area either, this shu, zhan is solely for power generation and also aids in certain neutralizations once some skill is achieved in shen Fa (mandarin), song hua (Shanxi dialect).

Note; there is also movement through the other spheres, but since we are talking about “squatting monkey”, I am only mentioning the vertical plane.

The goal is to have it move freely like a ball, which only comes through decades of diligent perseverance. Master Yan Long Chang's Dan Tian is amazing and words do it not real justice. I always had the impression that the dan tian was something purely etheric and had no anatomical appearance at all, until I got to see 1st hand what dan tian is all about in Dai style.

I had been having a pain in my chest and asked him if it was due to putting too much focus on hollowing it (which is a no, no). He looked at my posture as he sat on a chair in the hotel we were staying in, and then proceeded to move his dan tian freely like a ball. It is huge, nothing etheric about it at all.

I asked master Yan, how long it takes to be able to freely roll dan tian and to generate trade mark Dai power delivery? he answered, for him since he has practiced so hard, the time was much shorter than normal people, normal people maybe take 15 years, but if you are persistent, you can half that.

Now I would like to address some dangers which could arise from dun hou shi, however if you are under strict guidance of a competent teacher, the risk shall be minimum.

Because of the squatting and expanding motion the spine is moving on it’s length vertically. If attention is paid to the tailbone being tucked under to the maximum and the back being kept straight, you should be on the right path.

Another thing which needs to be covered is the chest. The chest when contracting hollows and the same time the dan tian is full. The chest is hollowed because of a consequence of other parts of the body being in the right position, it should not be a focus of your training.

Squatting monkey when practiced properly does not raise the shoulders at any point, the shoulders are always down and relaxed. The neck in the the contraction stage is tilted up, so you are still looking at the same focus point you were looking at when you were standing straight up.

The way dun hou shi, is taught is the same as all basic zhuan zhuang (post standing) training. First you learn to hold the posture for as long as you can, all the while the master corrects your posture, checking all the alignments are sound. Once you are on the right track you then perform the shu, zhan (contraction and expansion), very, very slowly and work at trying to be smooth and relaxed.

Like I said before 4 slow, followed by 1 kuai jin (fast power delivery) and then flowing straight into the next rou jin movement. When you deliver, you are required to emit the lei shen (thunder, lightening). This refers to the unique way of releasing force through sound. It is not a scream or a shout, in fact you do not rely on any aspect of the voice for it’s execution, the sound comes deep from within your body when you violently expand.

It is very hard for me to explain the exact tone or pitch or the sound, but I guess it sounds more like “Ha”. The mouth is opened wide and you release all the power through the exhalation, none of the breath is to be kept inside for health purposes, etc.

It is not advised to perform this sound without the expansion and likewise it is not advised to expand independent from the accompaning sound, they go hand in hand.

A brief introduction about myself

2007-05-29T03:45:00.000-07:00

My name is Jon Dyer, I am 30 years old and live in Wellington, New Zealand. I am a father to a beautiful half Thai/half Kiwi daughter called Karina.

I have been practicing the martial arts since I was around 15 years old, I first started out training in Japanese martial arts (Karate, Aikido, Ninjitsu, Jiu Jitsu) and then started to concentrate on Chinese Kung Fu when I was 18 years of age.

In the past 13 years I have trained in Bei Shaolin Quan (Northern Shaolin), Chin Na (seize and restraint methods), Xing Yi Quan (Hebei) and recently for the past 3 or so years concentrated obsessively on the rare internal systems of Xin Yi Liu He Quan (emotion/intent 6 harmonies style).

The purpose of this blog is to share some of my personal thoughts about the arts occasionally, but the main reason is to promote my teacher, grand master Yan Long Chang.

I always had the impression that his doors were closed and he was done with admitting new students, but I was wrong.

My mission is to spread this beautiful art (Dai Shi Liu He Xin Yi Quan) to all corners of the globe, to sincere prospective students. If there are any enquiries into coming and training in Shanxi, or hosting a seminar in your part of the world, please don't hesitate to write to me with any enquiries.

I will in time have pictures, articles (there is a web site in progress at the moment) and other information regarding this highly treasured art.

Some people may get upset that we are selling the art, but our actual real intention, is not to make money from offering tuition, but to promote our particular branch as we think it is very unique and deserves some recognition. Plus it would be a nice offering to my teacher, for him to get some respect for all the hard work he has put in, over the 50 years he has dedicated to this art.

Check out my you-tube account (http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=DAIXINYI) ,here you will see for the 1st time, Yan Long Chang perform.

I will post more articles as time permits.

Jon Dyer.