Meihuaquan (Plum Blossom Fist)
梅花拳A northern Chinese style that divides the school into a civil and a martial branch. Since 2006 it has been on China's national list of intangible heritage.
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Training
Organisation & Competition
What the style is built from
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About Meihuaquan (Plum Blossom Fist)
Meihuaquan, the plum blossom fist, is a northern Chinese style found mainly in Hebei, Shandong and Henan. According to a study by Zhang Guodong and Li Yun (2015), it probably arose in Jiangsu in a family or clan setting, and under the Qianlong Emperor teaching opened to the wider public. According to local chronicles, it reached southern Hebei at the end of the Ming dynasty or the beginning of the Qing. We have not been able to verify a single founder. Its peculiarity is organization. The civil branch (wen) runs the school and the martial branch (wu) trains the students, hence meihuaquan is also called the cultural fist. Its theory draws on the trigrams of the Book of Changes and the five elements, and training has four parts, basic stances, linked forms, twisting techniques and weapons. The Liangshan branch also trains on flower posts. The Boxer Rebellion drew Western historians' attention to meihuaquan. The master Zhao Sanduo led an uprising in Guan county in 1898, but according to the study the Boxer movement was not a direct continuation of the style. Since 2006 Xingtai meihuaquan has been on China's national list of intangible cultural heritage as item VI-12, and in 2021 the Liangshan branch from Shandong was added. According to the national portal, experts regard it as a living fossil of the Chinese martial arts.
History
According to a study by Zhang Guodong and Li Yun (2015), summarized by the historian Ben Judkins, meihuaquan probably arose in Jiangsu in a family or clan setting. It later spread to Hebei, Shandong, Anhui and Henan. Under the Qianlong Emperor teaching opened up and students were recruited at markets and in villages. According to local chronicles, it reached the Guangzong and Pingxiang area in southern Hebei at the end of the Ming dynasty or the beginning of the Qing. The Boxer Rebellion drew Western historians' attention to meihuaquan, above all Joseph Esherick in The Origins of the Boxer Uprising. According to English Wikipedia, which relies on Esherick, the meihuaquan master Zhao Sanduo led an uprising in Guan county in 1898. According to the study, however, the Boxer movement was not a direct continuation of meihuaquan, and the main teachers distanced themselves from the new faction. The national portal lists Zou Hong and Jing Tingbin among the notable masters of the Xingtai branch, and the school reached its seventh generation.
How it differs
Meihuaquan differs from most styles in its organization. According to the national portal, the Xingtai branch divides into a civil branch (wen), which runs the school, and a martial branch (wu), which trains the students, hence meihuaquan is also called the cultural fist. According to the study by Zhang Guodong and Li Yun, meihuaquan was not regarded as a family style, but it used kinship terms and was embedded in local clan structures.
Technique
Per the national portal, meihuaquan theory rests on the Book of Changes trigrams, yin and yang, and the five elements. The Liangshan branch from Shandong combines five-stance work with strikes, kicks and holds. According to the English Wikipedia, jiazi consists of five static wushi positions interspersed with xingbu stepping, which joins light fast footwork with large flowing movements. The Leijia branch uses only four stances, dashi, aoshi, xiaoshi and baishi. The eighth-generation master Zhang Congfu created the small frame xiaojia alongside the older large frame dajia.
Training
According to the national portal, training has four parts: basic stances, linked forms, twisting techniques and weapons. The Liangshan branch trains on flower posts, where practitioners walk between the five stances. According to the portal, post training has almost disappeared. According to Wikipedia, wuchang combat training includes jiazi, shoutao, chengquan, yingquan and gongquan. In the Baijiazhi line, partner drills expand from two opponents to groups of five.
Ranks and progression
We have not found any grading system of its own in the sources. The national bearers of Xingtai meihuaquan are Zhang Xiling, who studied under Han Baiguang of Changyuan in Henan from 1973 to 1987 and trained over 460 students, and Li Yuzhuo, born in 1948 in the village of Qianwei, who belongs to the 13th generation and founded a training station and school in 1982.
Today
Xingtai meihuaquan has been on China's national list of intangible cultural heritage since 2006, in the first batch as item VI-12 with serial number 294. Xingtai city was the applicant, and it is protected by the cultural centre of Guangzong county and an association in Houmazhuang, Pingxiang county. In 2021 the fifth batch inscribed an extension for Liangshan meihuaquan from Shandong province, which according to the portal arose under the Jiaqing Emperor and is over two hundred years old.
Did you know
According to the national portal, experts call meihuaquan a living fossil for studying the origins of Chinese martial arts. According to English Wikipedia, Zhao Sanduo, a meihuaquan master from Wei county, opened schools with more than two thousand students in 1895. Meihuaquan is nicknamed fuziquan, the father and son fist, because it was passed down only through the male line. Teaching covers around eighteen traditional weapons, among them the meteor hammer liuxingchui and the three-section staff sanjiegun. According to Wikipedia, no other source confirms the legend of the nun Wu Mei, which is sometimes linked to the style.
Frequently asked questions
Is meihuaquan connected to the Boxer Rebellion?
The meihuaquan master Zhao Sanduo led an uprising in Guan county in 1898. According to the study by Zhang Guodong and Li Yun, however, the Boxer movement was not a direct continuation of meihuaquan, and the main teachers distanced themselves from it.
What do wen and wu mean in meihuaquan?
The civil branch (wen) runs the school and the martial branch (wu) trains the students. Hence, per the national portal, meihuaquan is also called the cultural fist.
Is meihuaquan on the intangible heritage list?
Yes. Xingtai meihuaquan has been on China's national list since 2006 as item VI-12, and in 2021 the Liangshan branch from Shandong was added.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.