 Hi everyone, welcome back to Kung Fu, what is Jing Yi Chuan? Now this is part two of the series, so we have not yet seen the first one, please be sure to go check that out as we talked about the history and development of the art that leads up to this point. Today we're going to get an introduction of the curriculum itself and see how a lot of the methods developed are applied in practice as we continue to explore the history of the fists of the shape and the intention. So stick around for the good stuff. In the previous video we summarized the role that Dao wasn't played in the art, particularly the concept of the 10 celestial sems and the 12 earthly branches. Jing Yi Chuan is based on this Daoist theory. Its curriculum is structured on the 10 celestial sems and 12 earthly branches via what are called the five phases and the 12 animals. Again, please check out the first video for more information on that. So what comes after the five phases or the five fists of Jing Yi Chuan? You might remember that the five fists stand to represent the 10 celestial sems. This leaves us with the 12 earthly branches. Now the representation of the 12 earthly branches comes to us in the form of 12 animals. These 12 animals are dragon, tiger, monkey, horse, alligator, rooster, swallow, sparrow hawk, snake, eagle, bear, and tie, which is a mythical bird. Now are the 12 animals of Jing Yi Chuan something like the animal systems of kung fu that you need to learn? Hmm, not exactly. The different animals are either combinations of movements or talu, and typically each animal has several of these combinations or forms. For each of these animal combinations or forms, there are of course numerous ways supplied in combat. Interestingly, every lineage of the art also tends to feature small or even possibly major modifications for the animal movements, and it is common to find variations among schools and teachers. The animals of Jing Yi Chuan also use the mechanics of the five fists and novel in interesting ways. Just to reiterate, the five fists or five movements are, Pi Chuan, Juen Chuan, Bong Chuan, Pao Chuan, and Hung Chuan. The five fists laid a foundation for the techniques and body methods whose more advanced versions are studied through the animals. Now the idea is not to make oneself appear like the animals. This is not an animal mimicking martial art. The concept of having the animals in the system is for the practitioners to borrow two things from them. First, their specific fighting spirit, and second, their strategies and tactics. The practitioner is supposed to adopt a psychological framework on the animal and adapt its unique way of moving for human combat. Now here's just a few examples of some of the animal concepts. The monkey is quite agile, quick, and sneaky. It presents you with a facade and then seemingly randomly goes in another direction. The monkey is therefore unpredictable and playful, with arguably even itself not knowing where it may come next, but it easily adapts once it does. The monkey is light rather than heavy, fleeting rather than committed, and it uses the opponent like a branch to hang onto and thus turns itself into a weight which the opponent is forced to carry. It also prefers using open palm heel strikes over fists. The rooster is direct and unrelenting, attacking continuously without retreat but fortunate itself through openings rather than via brute force. It is vicious and it does not surrender. It has the characteristic of sharp pecking through penetrating action and its beak is the phoenix eye fist. The rooster can also suddenly and violently flap its wings causing the opponent to lose his footing. Its strength is found in its courage and intensity more so than its physical prowess. The alligator is a heavy beast, which swings from side to side as it advances. It waves its massive tail left and right and it can slam into somebody causing massive damage. The alligator can also bite or grab into someone with its mouth and aggressively pull him sideways and break him apart. It is powerful and oppressive, but it achieves its goals by adhering to circular movements and the acceleration of its own weight horizontally to drag down and drown his opponent. It also preserves conserving energy only exploding when the timing is right. The swallow has the characteristic of soaring and then diving. While it soars, it is totally committing upwards. When it dives, it turns sideways. The swallow then goes up and down swiftly changing direction. As it dives, it reaches between passageways, like walls and trees, spiraling among them. In Xingyi Chuan, the trajectory of the flight pathways of the swallow have therefore been adapted for upward drilling movements aimed at the head and lowering of the body to topple the opponent. Swallow movements may also incorporate jumping forward into a sideways takedown and borrowing from this animal's character. Now apart from the five fists in the animals, there are also various talu for solo and partner practice. Now talu is sort of the equivalent of kata and karate, but with some distinctions. And we talked about this more in depth in Muadis Kung Fu, which you can find above or in the link below in the description. Now these talu tend to tackle a very specific topic. Some will focus on connecting all the five fists and adding some combinations to them. Others link up together all the animal movements. There are even forms which combine the entire curriculum into a single, well-organized choreography. Though the talu may differ between lineages, typically there are at least four of the five of them in each school. Some forms are even specifically designed to bridge the gap between cooperative partner practice and full-blown sparring. Though the main emphasis on Qing Yi Chuan is the practice of single movements and single combination, forms are still important, especially for beginners and intermediate practitioners. Accompanying the forms are various partner drills, which are semi-cooperative or freestyle, culminating into full sparring, traditionally without protective equipment. Now the method for developing whole body sensitivity through partner grappling is called rolling hands, as opposed to the pushing hands of Tai Chi Chuan or other arts. It is an effective measure of learning how to transition between both grappling and striking movements, and rather than being technique-oriented, rolling hands thus teach the movement mechanism which are taught between techniques. The art and its unique outlook are further explored with the practice of weaponry. Chief among them is the big spear. So for training purposes, such giant spears can be three to five meters long, and they're usually made from a flexible white wax wood. The spear is important for learning how to generate the art's famous and formidable vibrating power, connect the entire body as a single unit, and guide movements with ones Dantian or energy center. Other weapons vary between lineages, and they might include staves, swords, or specialized daggers. The spear is the most important weapon because the mechanics used to wield it are used in all the five phases and twelve animals. Many are of the opinion that the primary inspiration of creating Qing Yi Chuan was the use of the spear. A common mistake uttered by many is calling Qing Yi Chuan a linear art. That cannot be further from the truth. Now while it is true that Qing Yi Chuan prefers a straightforward manner of attacking, as well as viewing narrow steps and postures, it is not all linear. Proper traditional Qing Yi Chuan contains small circles and spirals in every single movement. Such minute articulations of the body might be large, but they're often minuscule and undetectable to inexperienced observers. They cannot be understood and put to use unless much time is invested in the practice of single movements and Zhang Jiang. Using these tight circles and spirals allows a seasoned practitioner to either control the opponent or slide past his defenses. To the opponent though, these mechanics feel like a strong force or vibration. Now fighting Qing Yi Chuan exemplifies two Chinese idioms. The first is that one should do combat like he is on fire, and the second one is fight the opponent attempting to wear him like a shirt. When a person is on fire, he tends to run amok and get through any person and obstacle in his path. Trying to wear the opponent like a shirt is a metaphor for feeling the enemy as being pliable in your hands, something you can rip apart, manipulate, and draw very close to your body while still maintaining control. This is all different from sports fighting in which there is often a touch and go dynamic or a play of giving and receiving. Qing Yi Chuan, being oriented towards self defense rather than sport, strives to engage the opponent with a continuous, committed flow and barrage of blows until either winning or survival of the encounter is achieved. Qing Yi Chuan is furthermore famous for its shocking explosive power, which can be used from short or long ranges alike. This type of method is called power emitting, or Fajin, in the Chinese language. Only quality traditional instruction will lead to the development of such power. To have the ability to Fajin means that the practitioner can put power into a technique without the need for withdrawing the arm or foot back to gather extra momentum. Now, as we all know in those of you who fight, this can be very, very useful when every second counts. So this concludes our series on Kung Fu, what is Qing Yi Chuan. Now, I hope you enjoyed the presentation and please feel free to share your thoughts and experience in the comments, but please try to do so respectfully. Now there's so much more we can talk about in this art, but we've got a lot more martial arts topics to cover as well. And for those of you who enjoy this and wish to learn more, should find a qualified teacher and seek hands-on instruction. And as before, I would like to give my extreme thanks to Shifu Jonathan Bluestine for providing us with the research and a narrative in both of these episodes so that we could present them to you today. His contribution is valuable and very much appreciated. Shifu Bluestine is also the author of two great books on the martial arts called Research of the Martial Arts and the Martial Arts Teacher. And you can find a link to them both in the video description. Now, he's also the headmaster of an international martial arts organization called Blue Jade. Now, in Blue Jade International Schools is taught the art of Xingyi Quen alongside several other arts. To reach Shifu Bluestine, search for Shifu Jonathan Bluestine on Facebook or you can click the link in the description. And as for Blue Jade International Schools, we also have a link for that as well. So thank you all so much for watching. Please like and subscribe and please be sure to sign up on our Patreon page so that we can bring you more videos like this and cover many, many, many more arts that you guys are asking for. Thank you so much and we'll see you all next time.