Ying Jow Pai (Eagle Claw)
鷹爪派The northern Chinese eagle claw style, adding grips and joint locks to long fist. Its documented lineage begins in the nineteenth century, not with Yue Fei.
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About Ying Jow Pai (Eagle Claw)
Ying Jow Pai, the eagle claw style, is a northern Chinese art distinguished by adding grips and joint locks to long fist. Tradition derives it from the twelfth-century Song general Yue Fei, a common way for Chinese schools to lend themselves antiquity — **that lineage cannot be documented**. Documented history begins in the nineteenth century with Liu Shijun and continues with Chen Zizheng, who from 1911 taught the style at the Jingwu Athletic Association in Shanghai; it was from there that it spread across China and later overseas. The technical core is qinna, seizing and immobilising: fingers closed into a claw take the wrist, elbow, neck or muscle attachments and lead the opponent into a lock or to the ground. Tradition speaks of 108 gripping techniques, which is more a mnemonic number than an exact list. Alongside this the style contains the usual northern Chinese repertoire: long strikes, kicks, jumps and low stances, so the practitioner must handle both reach and close work. Its best-known forms are xingquan and lianquan. The style is demanding on finger and wrist strength and its training includes separate grip conditioning.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.