Philosophy

Xing Yi‎ > ‎

Xing Yi theory is based on the Chinese philosophy of the six combination, five elements as well as the combat spirit of the twelve animals.

Contents

1. Six Combination

2. Five Elements

3. Mutual Creation / Destruction

4. Twelve Animals

Six Combination

Six Combination (六合) is a central idea behind Xingyi practice. It summarise the internal and external connections that are to be made during the performance of a Xingyi technique.

The Internal harmonizes (內三合) are represented as follows:

心與意合，意與氣合，氣與力合

Xing (形; Shape) combines with Yi (意; Intention)

Yi combines with Chi (氣; Energy), and

Chi combines with Li (力; Strength)

While the External harmonizes (外三合) are described as:

手與腳合，肘與膝合，肩與胯合

Hands combine with feet

Elbows combine with knees, and

Shoulders combines with hips.

The idea of three internal and three external combination can be applied to other parts of the body. For example, internally, there is a connection between

The heart and the eyes
The liver and the tendons,
The spleen and the muscles
The lungs and the entire body
The kidneys and the bones.

Similarly, there are connections between the different parts of the body,

The left hand and the right foot,
The left elbow and right knee
The left shoulder and the right hip.
The head and the hands,
The hands and the body
The body combines with the stepping.

All those pairs relates to the concept of “Six Combination”. The number six only selects the most important points as a reminder. The key concept is that “one place moves, everywhere moves; one place combines, every place is combined.” .

Five Elements

The Wu Xing (Chinese: 五行; pinyin: wǔxíng), or the Five Movements, Five Phases or Five Steps/Stages, are chiefly an ancient mnemonic device, in many traditional Chinese fields. For the ancient Chinese, the universe was thought to be composed of five elements: Metal, Water, Wood, Fire and Earth. Hsing Yi practitioners use this theory as a basic memory aid to teach the various attacks and defense sequences of this style. The relationship between the five elements and five fists is as follows:

Element	Fist	Chinese	Pinyin	Description
Wood	Crushing	崩	Bēng	To collapse, as a building collapsing in on itself.
Fire	Pounding	炮	Pào	Exploding outward like a cannon while blocking.
Earth	Crossing	橫	Héng	Crossing across the line of attack while turning over.
Metal	Splitting	劈	Pī	To split like an axe chopping up and over.
Water	Drilling	鑽	Zuān	Drilling forward horizontally like a geyser.

Mutual Creation and Destruction

The idea of the Five Elements leads to the theory of Mutual Creation and Destruction. Each element naturally creates the next element and can also be destroyed by another element. This can be seen as a memory aid to understand how a series of techniques can be used and countered.

The cycle of creation is as follows:

1.Metal Produce Water - Pi turns to Zuan

2. Water produces Wood - Zuan turns to Beng

3. Wood produces Fire - Beng turns to Pao

4. Fire produces Earth - Pao turns to Heng

5. Earth produces Metal - Heng turns to Pi

The cycle of destruction are as follows:

1. Metal conquers Wood - Use Pi to defend against Beng

2. Water conquers Fire - Use Zuan to defend against Pau

3. Wood conquers Earth - Use Beng to defend against Heng

4. Fire conquers Pi - Use Pau to defend against Pi

5. Earth conquers Water - Use Heng to defend against Zuan

A two man pair practice is often used to illustrate these concepts.

Twelve Animals

Once the bases of the five elements are understood, the practioner will then continue with the theory of the twelve animals. The twelve animals is based on the form and spirit of a particular animal. For example: Dragon, Tiger, Monkey, Horse, Chicken, Hawk, Snake, Bear, Eagle, Swallow, the Tai (a mythical bird) and the Tuo (a type of water lizard, akin to the aligator).

Features

Tthe features of the traditional Xing Yi are described as follows:

敢打必胜、以我为主；
后发先至、快攻直取；
七拳并用、贴身靠打；
捕捉战机、一招制胜；
攻防一体、打守相兼；

Which can be translated as:

Choose your moment to attack and once you attack be relentless.
Your last technique delivers first, in a straight forward manner.
Use your whole body as a weapon.
If you choose the right moment to attack, then you have already won the battle.
Attack and defense are carried out at the same time.

The following four sentences are also used to described the features of Xing Yi:

朴实明快；
严密紧凑；
沉实稳健；
协调整齐；