Beijing Shuai Jiao
北京摔跤A Beijing branch of Chinese wrestling descending from Qing dynasty court wrestlers. The national heritage list includes it as Tianqiao wrestling.
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 Beijing Shuai Jiao
Beijing shuai jiao is an urban branch of Chinese wrestling whose roots lead to the wrestlers of the Qing imperial court. Since 2008 it has been on China's national list of intangible cultural heritage under number VI-21 as wrestling from Tianqiao (Tianqiao shuaijiao), nominated by Beijing's Xuanwu district. We have not found a single founder or a year of origin of the branch in the sources. The branch grew out of court wrestling.
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According to the national list, the Qing court set up a unit called Shanpuying, and wrestling then reached a high level as an official art. An article by Wang Xiaodong in the scholarly journal Tiyu xuekan places the formal founding of the unit in the reign of the Kangxi Emperor, after the arrest of the regent Aobai in 1669. According to the dynasty's code, which the article cites, the unit had 300 posts, of which 200 were wrestlers, 50 archers and 50 horsemen. After the fall of the dynasty, two leading wrestlers of the unit, nicknamed Rui Wuye and Wan Baye, opened a wrestling hall by the Red Temple in Beijing's Tianqiao district. Wan Baye's real name was Wan Yongshun. The list states that this moved official wrestling among ordinary people, and it came to be called guanjiao. In the nineteen-twenties Wan's pupil Bao Shanlin created in Tianqiao his own form of public performance that combined wrestling, witty commentary and juggling with a decorative pole. According to the list, the technique rests on thirty-six great trips, while small trips are said to be as numerous as the hairs on an ox. A bout is fought to two winning rounds. At the 2008 inscription, the list stated that the old masters are passing away, successors and a permanent place for training and performing are lacking, and the art is threatened with extinction.
History
According to the national list of intangible heritage, the court of the Qing dynasty set up the unit Shanpuying. A peer-reviewed article by Wang Xiaodong in the journal Tiyu xuekan from 2015 places its formal founding in the reign of the Kangxi Emperor, after the arrest of the regent Aobai in 1669, and cites dynastic annals according to which a unit under the leadership of close courtiers then arose. A study by Zhang Yun in the journal Revista de Artes Marciales Asiáticas from 2006 states that Kangxi founded the unit in 1669 and that it was at first open only to Manchus, later also to Han. Green writes in the encyclopedia Martial Arts of the World that the Manchu emperors supported the wrestling called buku among their people and also used it in politics and diplomacy toward the Mongols.
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The sources differ on the size of the unit. Wang, citing the dynasty's code, gives 300 posts, of which 200 were wrestlers, 50 archers and 50 horsemen, and 24 instructors, of whom 16 taught wrestling. Zhang Yun writes of an eastern and a western detachment in Beijing, each of about two hundred soldiers. The unit's wrestlers were called puhu. According to Wang they had to be members of the banners, in guard duty at first only from the upper three, and only at the end of the dynasty could wrestlers of the Hui and Han nationalities also be admitted by special favor. After 1911 the unit was, according to Zhang Yun, disbanded. The former wrestlers then taught publicly. The national list states that two of them, nicknamed Rui Wuye and Wan Baye (real name Wan Yongshun), opened a hall by the Red Temple in Tianqiao. Among their pupils the list names Zhu Liu, Wei Dehai, Li Lianfeng, Shen Yousan, Man Guangtian, Bao Shanlin, Sun Baocai and He Sheng. According to Zhang Yun the school by the Red Temple was the best known in Beijing from the nineteen-tens to the nineteen-thirties. Wang adds that later masters of other cities also came from the court wrestlers, so that Beijing, Baoding, Tianjin and Jinan became the four great cities of wrestling.
How it differs
Green lists Beijing, Baoding, Tianjin and Mongolian among the local forms of Chinese wrestling, but does not describe the technical differences between them. Wang Xiaodong states that the masters of Beijing, Baoding, Tianjin and Jinan all learned from former court wrestlers, so these cities became the four great cities of wrestling. Chinese Wikipedia describes the differences between the branches in more detail. Beijing wrestling, it says, works in a small stance, with movements seemingly slow and compact. Baoding wrestling, it says, has a large stance and is fast, and Tianjin wrestling stands between them and is rough, with forearm strikes. The Beijing branch is, it says, the orthodox school that continues the Shanpuying unit.
Technique
The national list says of technique that it rests on thirty-six great trips, while small trips are said to be as numerous as the hairs on an ox. Green states that, regardless of local style, the aim of Chinese wrestling is to throw the opponent, by grips, arm work, that is twists and turns, and leg work, that is trips and hooks. He does not state the technical differences between the Beijing, Tianjin and Baoding branches. A more detailed description is given only by Wikipedia. Chinese Wikipedia says that Beijing wrestling stresses strength, is strong in locks and holds of qinna, and works in a small stance, which is why it is called xiao jiashi, small stance. According to it the movements in a bout seem slow and compact. English Wikipedia describes back throws, leg trips and scooping throws as the main feature and adds that arm locks were also used.
Training
The national list states that training stresses the so-called three parts of the body, sanpan, but the list does not give their explanation. Wang Xiaodong cites a period guide to Beijing, according to which the legs were trained with wooden poles and preparation included stone dumbbells, stone locks shisuo, stone throwing, sandbags, pulleys and hanging posts. A study by Zhang Yun describes basic training in two parts. General preparation is called jiben gong, trip practice banzi gong, and one trains with and without aids, among others with a short and a long staff, with bricks that are pushed and turned, and with stone locks. Bouts are wrestled in a jacket called dalian.
Ranks and progression
We have not found any grade system for the Beijing branch today, nor have we found official grades of Chinese wrestling issued by national sports bodies. Wang Xiaodong states that the wrestlers of the Shanpuying unit were divided into three classes and could challenge a wrestler of a higher class, and that class decided promotion and demotion. Zhang Yun, by contrast, writes of four ranks on which pay depended.
Competition
According to the national list, bouts in Tianqiao are fought to two winning rounds out of three, and every bout must go through all three throws. The performance also includes forms that the list names liang huo and guankou, and running jokes. At the Qing court, according to a study by Zhang Yun, the wrestlers of the Shanpuying unit performed before the emperor around the Chinese New Year, among other things against foreign wrestlers, for example Mongols, and in a knockout competition between the eastern and the western detachment. There were no weight categories and the winner was usually decided by a single throw. Wang Xiaodong also states that wrestlers were selected into the unit in bouts of pairs regardless of weight.
Today
At the 2008 inscription on the national list it was stated that the old masters are passing away, successors and a permanent place for training and performances are lacking, and the market is hard for the art, so it faces extinction. The list names the Beijing Fu family folk art troupe, whose name contains the name Bao San, as the safeguarding organization. The government culture portal China Culture wrote in 2008 that around Tianqiao there are several wrestling venues, the best known bearing the names Shensan and Baosan. A study by Zhang Yun recalls that from the nineteen-fifties cities and provinces had state-supported wrestling teams. In the nineteen-nineties, however, the government favored Olympic sports, withdrew support and the teams fell apart, so the old masters teach in small clubs.
Did you know
Zhang Yun retells an account according to which the Kangxi Emperor picked fifteen boys who wrestled with him daily, and on 16 May 1669 captured the regent Aobai with them. Afterwards he is said to have set up a guard, from which Shanpuying arose. According to Zhang Yun, Bao Shanlin, nicknamed Bao San, was the best at juggling the decorative pole zhongfan, about twenty-five feet long, which he threw up and balanced on his arm, shoulder, head and forehead. The troupes in Tianqiao also sold medicines for wrestling injuries. English Wikipedia states that combining wrestling with the comic dialogue xiangsheng gave rise to the fighting dialogue wuxiangsheng.
Frequently asked questions
Who founded Beijing shuai jiao?
We have not found a single founder in the sources. The branch comes from the Qing court unit of wrestlers Shanpuying, and after the fall of the dynasty it was taught publicly by its former wrestlers, among them Wan Yongshun.
When was the Shanpuying unit created?
A peer-reviewed article by Wang Xiaodong places its formal founding in the reign of the Kangxi Emperor, after the arrest of the regent Aobai in 1669. The same year is given by a study by Zhang Yun.
How is a bout decided in wrestling from Tianqiao?
According to the national list of intangible heritage, bouts are fought to two winning rounds out of three, and every bout must go through all three throws.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.