Like a lot of xingyi practitioners, I am intensely curious about how xingyi was actually trained in the early days of the style, i.e. the second and third generations of practitioners who really made the Read more…
I recently received Byron Jacob’s comprehensive reference book on xingyiquan “Dragon Body, Tiger Spirit” as a birthday gift. The more I read through the book, the more I realised how thorough the book is, certainly Read more…
One thing that is fascinating to me about traditional CMA is discovering connections between teachers from traditions that were ostensibly separate but were around the CMA scene at the same time. One such connection I Read more…
In early June I sat down for a fun conversation centering on Song style xingyiquan in Beijing with Raphael Smith (dialling in via Zoom), ably hosted by xingyiquan lover Byron Jacobs, who is an accomplished Read more…
Of course, as a student of Song style a visit to Taigu would not be complete without reporting in to the Song family courtyard to get corrections from the Song family. They very kindly allowed Read more…
Thanks to an introduction from a Song style kungfu brother (shixiong) who lives in Taigu, our group had the privilege of meeting several of the local teachers of Che style xingyi. As Che style is Read more…
The next teacher in our Xingyi Roots series was Tang Shengjun, whose great-grandfather, Tang Weilu, was another prominent disciple of Li Cunyi. After being forgotten for most of the 20th century, Tang was again catapulted Read more…
I recently had the opportunity to be part of a mini-documentary series filmed by my friend Will, a fellow kungfu aficionado who runs the informative website and Youtube channel Monkey Steals Peach (https://monkeystealspeach.com/). As part Read more…
Many xingyi practitioners will be familiar with the ‘3 stages of development’ codified by Guo Yunshen, dividing the power generated by a xingyi practitioner into ming jin [obvious power], an jin [hidden power] and the Read more…
The following translation is an excerpt taken from this article . “Pei Xirong was born in 1913 in Raoyang county in Hebei province. His father was a core member of the Yi He Tuan [1], and his Read more…