Summoning Dragons

The Xingyiquan I was taught had twelve Animal forms - these forms are the source of all combat applications under the system, and are in turn elaborations of the Five Fists. I haven't been practicing this lately, and I have not been in contact with the teacher that taught me Xingyi. For those who don't know, it's saddening when this happens, more so perhaps for the teacher; they pin their hopes on their treasure being passed on to the next generation, and the loss of a student means a waste of their time and resources.

In honor of that teacher I had,  I am now going to somehow try to reconstruct what I was taught and somehow attain mastery of the forms I was given. It's not too much of a drain on time, since I can do the forms wherever so long as I am guaranteed to be alone. The Xingyi forms are really very simple and can be performed in any decently-sized space. Also, Xingyiquan is a great gateway martial art in that it focuses a lot on the fundamentals that define all the great kung fu. I'm sure it will be able to benefit me in my current martial art.

The nice thing I've found is that the principles that I've learned under my current style also do apply to Xingyi. This largely informs how I perform the Five Fists now.

The Fist I am concentrating on now is Pi Quan, or the Splitting Fist. As in, Splitting someone's arm at the elbow; your forearm is the axe and it falls down to separate everything that is in the way. One can also use one's hand for this purpose; there are a number of different schools of Xingyi and for each school they have a different take on the movement.

The above video should give one an idea of the use of the Fist form, and the idea of the application is sort of universal even if the outward execution may vary. I hesitate to describe how the movement goes because of two reasons: one is my understanding being woefully incomplete, and second is the movement itself is so simple there's a risk that one will try to patch it with effort in order for it to "feel more powerful." Speaking from bitter experience, Xingyi is that simple, the problem is making everything more natural. I won't be responsible for any slips and broken bones. Not unless we're talking about my future self, here...

The Dragon form of the Twelve Animals has a very clear connection to Pi Quan. The video at the top of the page shows just one interpretation of the form; here's another:

I was told by my former teacher that the movement in this video is what I should be emulating with my performance of Dragon. Since then, I've pored on other resources - two that I recommend would be Xingyimax and Andrea Falk's work with Di Guoyong - and my initial form has changed quite substantially.

Now, I follow the joint angles prescribed by Di Guoyong. Another thing I noticed is that there's a three-step process to generating the power in Dragon form, that also applies to Splitting fist. First, one must push off with the rear leg for the step forward; second, the lead leg must stamp down into the ground, not just step forward. Third, one must drop one's full weight straight down while still pushing forward with the rear leg and pushing back with the front leg.

The stamping down of the lead leg enables a Xingyi player's lead foot to land at an angle that otherwise would slip on the floor. Indeed, Di Guoyong had counseled against this by developing "trampling" energy in the lead foot. I'd always assumed that this meant like the feeling when pawing the ground; now it feels to me like using the lead leg as a stake to "trample" something in front of you. Visualize moving the lead knee back and the rear knee forward, and you've got it.

In a Splitting Fist maneuver the rear leg would try to "chase" the lead leg - that is, maintain the distance between the feet. What's different with the Dragon Pattern is that you drop the body down. For both, the rear  leg must learn to fold under the person's body. To make this easier, imagine the hips falling back as the rear leg takes the step to adjust/the body falls down. In Dragon this hips-falling-back is even more important to ensure that the center of gravity does not rotate with the lead foot as the fulcrum. Furthermore, I feel this makes me more stable when dropping down - the ischeal tuberosity (those pointy things you feel in your butt when you sit up straight) of one hip must fall to meet the corresponding heel; since you'll be moving to balance on the ball of the rear foot and the rear leg will handle most of the weight there's a very real danger that your center of gravity will be unstable, either causing you to fall to the side or causing your center of mass to move forward, putting huge strain on your rear knee.

Refining the movement will take time, but practicing this is very fun. I'm still not sold on how good some of the details in my movement are, and more research will be necessary.