denny Schools Periods & Styles book

Wújí Quán*, Kào Bǎn & Mián Shā Zhǎng "No Extremity (Chaos/Void) Boxing, Smashing Board & Soft Sand Palm" The Kao Ban is one of the most important training methods of Wuji Quan. All of the important methods of the 12 Shapes and five outer Shapes are meant to be drilled repeatedly on the Kao Ban in order to develop power, structure, stability and accuracy. The Kao Ban also conditions the body and limbs, allowing the tissues of the body to become strong and resilient and developing correct structure to both transmit force and deal with impact. The Cotton Palm methods are specifically for conditioning the hands for fighting. The practice trains blood and qi to flow instantly to the hands and strengthens the tissues and the protective"Wei Qi" of the hands. This system is practiced in a few villages in the Cangzhou area of Hebei and in Tianjin. It is sometimes referred to as "Tianjin Wuji Quan" although it was introduced to Tianjin relatively recently (1930's), it became very popular there very quickly within a few years. Oral tradition on the origins of Wuji Quan vary, sometimes the art is associated with Yue Fei or Song dynasty royal guards. The farthest back the art can be traced is the Jiaqing period of the Qing dyasty (1796-1820) when Liu XianDao from the Wenzhou area of Zhejiang went north and taught the art to Cai JinTang of Henan province's Xinyang prefecture, Huaibin county. Later Cai Jintang traveled to Tianjin's Jinghai county and exchanged skills with Gao Zupo ...