Chaquan (Cha Family Boxing)
查拳Chinese fist style of the Muslim Hui people from Guanxian County in Shandong, inscribed on the national intangible heritage list. It rests on tantui practice and ten routines.
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.
Catalogs & Databases for Chaquan (Cha Family Boxing)
About Chaquan (Cha Family Boxing)
Chaquan is a Chinese fist style tied to the Muslim Hui people. In 2008 it was inscribed on China's national list of intangible cultural heritage as item VI-32 for Guanxian County in Shandong Province. According to the state description, it was long taught only among Muslims in the Hui villages of Guanxian and only later spread among Muslims nationwide.
Read more
Sources tell the origin differently. The state description places its beginnings in the Tang dynasty. During the An Shi rebellion, it says, the Tang borrowed an army from the western land of Dashi, and the wounded young general Hua Zongqi was cared for by Muslims in the village of Zhangyinzhuang. Hua then taught them his fist style and invited his senior fellow disciple Zha Yuanyi from Hami. The names of both masters produced the name chahuaquan, shortened to chaquan. An article in the peer-reviewed journal Tiyu xuekan names the legendary founder Zha Mi'er, and the view of master Zhang Wenguang that this is a corruption of the name Sha Mi'er and that the creator was Sha Liang, a military jinshi graduate from the fifth year of the Yongzheng era. After field research, the author of the article concludes that Sha Liang was only an important master in the transmission of the style. We have not found documentation of the founder or the year of origin. The basis of the style is tantui, followed by ten routines of chaquan and practice with the spear, staff, saber and sword. According to the state description, the movements are expansive and the rhythm is clear. Around the Qianlong era two branches formed in Guanxian, the Zhang and the Yang. In modern times, according to the state description, chaquan spread to Shanghai, Beijing and other provinces, and after 1949 it began to spread widely, and the new routines of changquan and competitive wushu took many movements from it. The national bearers of the tradition are Wang Xiufen and Sha Zongchao, both of the Hui people.
History
Chaquan was inscribed in 2008 on China's national list of intangible cultural heritage as item VI-32 for Guanxian County in Shandong Province. The state description places its origin in the Tang dynasty. During the An Shi rebellion, it says, the Tang borrowed an army from the western land of Dashi, and the young general Hua Zongqi, wounded in battle, was cared for by Muslims in the village of Zhangyinzhuang in Guanxian. After recovering, he taught them his fist style jiaziquan, and because many students joined him, he invited his senior fellow disciple Zha Yuanyi from Hami, who taught the fist style shenfashi. After the death of both masters, the locals began to call jiaziquan huaquan and shenfashi chaquan, and because Cha and Hua have been one family since ancient times, both together chahuaquan, shortened to chaquan.
Read more
According to the state description, chaquan was taught only among Muslims and rarely spread outside, in Guanxian mainly in the western and southern streets of the county town, in Zhangyinzhuang and in more than ten villages of the Hui people. An article in the peer-reviewed journal Tiyu xuekan by authors from Lanzhou University calls it a famous fist style of the Hui religious community, known outwardly as huihuiquan. The same article names the legendary founder Zha Mi'er and cites Professor Zhang Wenguang, according to whom it is a corruption of the name Sha Mi'er and the real creator was Sha Liang. Sha Liang, nicknamed Flying Foot, was a military jinshi graduate from the fifth year of the Yongzheng era and is the first master of chaquan recorded in official histories. Based on field research and study of documents, the author of the article concludes that Sha Liang was only an important master in the history of the style's transmission, not its creator. We have not found documentation of the founder or the year of origin. Around the Qianlong era of the Qing dynasty, according to the state description, two branches formed in Guanxian, the Zhang branch, represented by Zhang Qiwei of Zhangyinzhuang, and the Yang branch, represented by Yang Hongxiu of the southern street of the town. The state description names masters of both branches, among them Zhang Yingzhen, Wang Ziping, Chang Zhenfang and Zhang Wenguang. The Tiyu xuekan article also names Ma Yongzhen and He Fusheng and recalls Wang Ziping by the nickname King of Divine Strength of a Thousand Pounds.
How it differs
According to the state description, the two Guanxian branches differ in approach. Zhang's chaquan is fast and nimble with a strict fist method, Yang's is sweeping and generous, with correct stances and round techniques. Chaquan and huaquan, written with a different character, the fist of master Hua Zongqi, are one family according to the state description, and both later merged as chahuaquan. This is not the huaquan of the Cai family of Jining, written with different characters. According to the state description, new changquan routines and modern competitive wushu took many movements and their style from chaquan.
Technique
According to the state description, chaquan rests on tantui, followed by ten chaquan routines and weapon work with spear, staff, saber and sword. The movements are expansive and the rhythm clear and marked. The state description does not give the number of tantui rows. English Wikipedia gives ten tantui rows for basic strength and ten longer chaquan routines, and adds the guandao and hook swords to the weapons. We have not found the ten tantui rows, the guandao or the hook swords in other sources.
Today
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, ethnic barriers fell according to the state description, and chaquan began to spread widely. Today it is one of the renowned martial arts schools, with great influence and many practitioners nationwide. It has a broad base in southwestern Shandong and in modern times spread to Shanghai, Jiangsu, Henan and Shanxi provinces, Beijing and Yunnan. According to the state register, the state bearers of the chaquan tradition for Guanxian are Wang Xiufen and Sha Zongchao, both of the Hui people. The state description also warns that with the overall decline of martial arts, complete transmission of chaquan is difficult and its rescue and protection urgent.
Did you know
In the world of martial arts, according to the state description, there is a saying nan quan bei tui Shandong Cha, that is, southern fists, northern kicks and the Shandong Cha. English Wikipedia states that in 1929 General Li Jinglin chose five masters to represent northern China at the southern guoshu institute, and among them was the chaquan master Wang Shaozhao. According to the daily China Times, Cai Longyun, a master of the Cai family huaquan of Jining, also wrote the book Five Roads of Chaquan.
Frequently asked questions
What is chaquan?
Chaquan is a Chinese fist style tied to the Hui people. In 2008 it was inscribed on China's national list of intangible cultural heritage for Guanxian County in Shandong.
Who founded chaquan?
We have not found a founder. The state description tells of the masters Hua Zongqi and Zha Yuanyi from the Tang period, while a peer-reviewed article names the legendary Zha Mi'er and Sha Liang as the first master recorded in official history.
How is chaquan connected with the Hui people?
According to the state description, chaquan was long taught only among Muslims in the villages of the Hui people in Guanxian and only later spread across the whole country. Both of today's state bearers of the tradition are from the Hui people.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.