Baoding Shuai Jiao (Kuai Jiao)
保定摔跤The Baoding branch of Chinese wrestling called kuaijiao, or fast wrestling, which Wikipedia and a family website link to the master Ping Jingyi.
Quick Facts
ChinaCharacter & Origin
Training
Who It Suits
Organisation & Competition
What the style is built from
Editorial rating on a 0–3 scale, based on how much room each area gets in ordinary training.
About Baoding Shuai Jiao (Kuai Jiao)
Baoding shuai jiao is the city branch of Chinese wrestling from Baoding in Hebei province, called kuaijiao, fast wrestling. Green, in the encyclopedia Martial Arts of the World, names it among the local forms of Chinese wrestling alongside the Beijing, Tianjin and Mongolian ones, but does not describe it technically. The daily Renmin ribao counts Baoding among the four great wrestling cities. We have not found a founder or a year of origin for the branch in the sources. We have not found the branch on the national list of intangible heritage, and the daily Hebei ribao quotes a coach according to whom it is inscribed on the municipal list.
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The Ping family website, citing the Baoding local chronicles office, links the master Ping Jingyi, 1830 to 1908, a member of the Hui nationality, with the formation of the Baoding style. According to the same website, he learned Shaolin art from Meng Liu of Nangong. English Wikipedia gives Ping Jingyi's adaptation of Shaolin art as a hallmark of the style, and we have not found sources of higher reliability for it. Chinese Wikipedia explains the name by saying that the wrestlers close in quickly before taking a stance, and throw as soon as they touch hands. According to it, the style values speed of technique and works in a large stance. According to English Wikipedia, Chang Dongsheng studied under a local master named Zhang Fenyen, who had learned Baoding wrestling from Ping Jingyi. Green writes that after 1949 Chang went to Taiwan and spread Chinese wrestling beyond Asia with his students. In 2026 the daily Hebei ribao wrote about a demonstration of Baoding fast wrestling at the Great Wall.
History
We have not found Baoding wrestling on the national list of intangible heritage. In 2026 the daily Hebei ribao quoted Yang Hongzhi, a coach of the Baoding wrestling hall, according to whom Baoding fast wrestling is inscribed on the municipal list and was developed by Manchu, Mongol, Hui and Han wrestlers along the Great Wall. We have not found the year of inscription. A peer-reviewed article by Wang Xiaodong in the journal Tiyu xuekan states that modern wrestling masters, among them Zhang Fengyan, learned from former wrestlers of the Qing dynasty court unit Shanpuying, and that Baoding became one of the four great wrestling cities.
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The Ping family website, citing the Baoding local chronicles office, states that Ping Jingyi, who lived from 1830 to 1908 and was also called Luo Jing, was a member of the Hui nationality from Guogong Street in Baoding and contributed to the origin of Baoding fast wrestling. The website cites a 1930 work by Xu Zhedong, according to which Meng Liu of Nangong handed down Shaolin art to Ping Jingyi. Among his students the website names Zhang Fengyan, Bai Junfeng and Ma Liang. Chinese Wikipedia counts the four Chang brothers, among them Chang Dongsheng, among the later Baoding masters. According to Chinese Wikipedia, Ma Liang, as an official of Shandong province, founded a martial arts team in Jinan in 1915, later renamed a school, and among the masters he hired there it lists Zhang Fengyan with the epithet grandmaster of Baoding wrestling. Ben Judkins reprinted on the website Kung Fu Tea a 1920 essay by Rodney Gilbert, who saw Ma Liang's demonstrations in Jinan. According to him, the wrestling there was quick and fierce, and all holds were taken on a canvas jacket. Green states that after 1949 several masters of Chinese wrestling went to Taiwan, among them the champion Chang Dongsheng, and that Chang spread Chinese wrestling beyond Asia with his students. Green does not explicitly tie him to Baoding, and according to English Wikipedia Chang, born in Baoding, studied under a student of Ping Jingyi, whom Wikipedia writes as Zhang Fenyen.
How it differs
Green places Baoding wrestling among the local forms of Chinese wrestling alongside the Beijing, Tianjin and Mongolian ones, but gives no technical differences. According to Chinese Wikipedia, Baoding wrestling is a large-stance style that stresses speed, whereas Beijing wrestling works in a small stance and values strength and qinna levers. According to it, the Tianjin one stands between the two.
Technique
Sources of higher reliability do not describe Baoding technique. Chinese Wikipedia explains the name fast wrestling by saying that both wrestlers close in nimbly before taking a stance, and throw as soon as they touch hands. According to it, the style values speed of technique, works in a large stance and is known for the techniques si, beng and tong. English Wikipedia gives quick execution of technique as a hallmark of the style. The coach Yang Hongzhi described Baoding fast wrestling in the daily Hebei ribao as a style with economical movements and great practical value for self-defense.
Ranks and progression
We have not found the grades of the Baoding branch as such in the sources. Green describes a ten-grade system that Chinese wrestling uses today and that Chang Dongsheng was the first to create for the Central Police Academy in Taiwan. Beginners advance through five jie grades from fifth to first, advanced wrestlers through ten deng grades from first to tenth, and the grade is worn as a colored belt. According to Green, the present form of the system was put together by Chang and Chi-hsiu D. Weng. Chinese Wikipedia adds that after Chang's arrival in Taiwan a wrestling association with a complete system of referees and promotion examinations arose there.
Competition
Only Wikipedia describes the competition results of the Baoding masters. According to English Wikipedia, Chang Dongsheng won the heavyweight class at the fifth national guoshu tournament in 1933 and then, in Taiwan, led unarmed combat training at the police university in Taipei for over thirty years. A study by Zhang Yun in the journal Revista de Artes Marciales Asiáticas states that Chinese wrestling had been part of the national games since 1928 and that wrestling in weight categories took place in it for the first time.
Today
The daily Hebei ribao reported that on 26 August 2026 Baoding fast wrestling was demonstrated in the Bailixia tourist area near Yesanpo in Laishui county, at an intangible heritage event at the Great Wall. In 2025 the daily China Daily wrote about Bai Hejiang, a former professional wrestler who for twelve years taught Chinese wrestling free of charge to more than a thousand children in the village of Goutou near Baoding, using homemade equipment such as old tires and weighted bricks. The article does not explicitly name the Baoding branch. According to Chinese Wikipedia, the Italian line of Chinese wrestling in Europe, handed on by Chang's descendant Chang Dawei, belongs to the Baoding fast wrestling system.
Did you know
The Ping family website states that Ping Jingyi ran a guard agency in Baoding and a baozi shop on South Street where weapons were on display, and that Feng Yuxiang was among his regular guests. According to the same website, he defeated a wandering monk from a monastery on Mount Tai in a match under the Drum Tower. According to Kung Fu Tea, Gilbert in 1920 recorded General Ma Liang's statement that one or two of his best wrestlers had thrown every jiu-jitsu champion the Japanese brought to Jinan.
Frequently asked questions
Why is Baoding wrestling called fast wrestling?
According to Chinese Wikipedia, because the wrestlers close in quickly before taking a stance, and throw as soon as they touch hands. According to it, the style values speed of technique and works in a large stance.
Who founded Baoding shuai jiao?
We have not found a founder or a year of origin in the sources. The Ping family website, citing the local chronicle, states that the master Ping Jingyi, who lived from 1830 to 1908, contributed to the origin of the style.
Is Baoding wrestling inscribed as intangible heritage?
We have not found it on the national list. In 2026 the daily Hebei ribao quoted a coach according to whom Baoding fast wrestling is on the municipal list of intangible heritage.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.