Zui Quan (Drunken Boxing)
醉拳Chinese fighting methods imitating a drunkard, not one school. The Eight Drunken Immortals set is attested in a Ming to Qing text, and the film Drunken Master (1978) helped make it famous.
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About Zui Quan (Drunken Boxing)
Zui quan, in English drunken fist, is not a single school but a group of fighting methods that imitate the movement of a drunken person. According to Stanley Henning in the encyclopedia Martial Arts of the World (ABC-CLIO, 2001), the drunken style is said to have developed from an old dance, and together with the animal styles it belongs among the folk styles with a performance element, not among the austere military styles of close combat. An essay in Kung Fu Tea (2014) says that zui quan imitates the unpredictable movements of a drunkard, requires exceptional balance, serves to confuse the opponent and for unexpected attacks, and that it is used as an element across various classical styles.
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The best-known traditional set is Drunkenness of the Eight Immortals, where each section corresponds to one of eight figures of Taoist mythology. The rhymed song is attested in the work Quanjing quanfa beiyao, which Hong Kong's HK01, citing a study by Jiang and Lin (2008), places in the late Ming or early Qing, and the historian Tang Hao attributed it to the monk Xuanji from the Ming period. The edition under this title is from the 20th century, and Wikisource gives 1929 and HK01 1936. The eight sections name Han Zhongli, Lü Dongbin, Han Xiangzi, Cao Guojiu, He Xiangu, Lan Caihe, Zhang Guolao and Tieguai Li. We have not been able to confirm in the sources popular stories about the Shaolin monk who defeated his fellow monks after drinking wine and about Wu Song from the novel Water Margin. HK01 says that today's Shaolin zui quan collection cannot be linked continuously with the Ming and Qing periods. The sources name neither a founder nor a year of origin. Zui quan has no separate item on the national list of China's intangible heritage, but it is mentioned in the description of the Drunken Dragon dance from Zhongshan, which combines nanquan, zui quan and acrobatics. It is not a competitive wushu discipline, as the IWUF rules know only changquan, nanquan and taijiquan, and at kung fu championships it falls under imitative styles. The film Zui quan (Drunken Master), directed by Yuen Wo-ping with Jackie Chan, which premiered in Hong Kong on 5 October 1978, helped make it known worldwide.
History
Zui quan is not one school with a documented lineage but a collection of fighting methods that imitate a drunkard. Stanley Henning writes in the encyclopedia Martial Arts of the World (ABC-CLIO, 2001) that the drunken style is said to have developed from an old dance, and ranks it with the animal styles among the folk styles with a performance element, not among the austere military styles of close combat. The sources name neither a founder nor a year of origin.
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The oldest attested text is the rhymed song Drunkenness of the Eight Immortals in the work Quanjing quanfa beiyao. Hong Kong's HK01 (2020), citing a study by Jiang Bailong and Lin Xinhai (2008), places the work in the late Ming or early Qing and says that the historian Tang Hao attributed it to the monk Xuanji from the Ming period. Sources disagree on the publication date. Wikisource gives a lithographic print from 1929 by publisher Dasheng shuju and attributes a commentary to Cao Huandou from 1784, while HK01 gives the edition under this title as 1936. HK01 also states that a Shaolin zui quan collection exists today, but its continuous transmission since the Ming and Qing periods cannot be confirmed. China's national list of intangible cultural heritage has no separate item for zui quan. The drunken fist appears only in the description of the Drunken Dragon (Zui long) dance from Zhongshan in Guangdong Province, inscribed in the category of traditional dance in 2008, which the description says combined elements of nanquan, zui quan and acrobatic juggling.
How it differs
The main difference from styles such as changquan or nanquan is that zui quan is neither a separate school nor a competitive discipline but a way of moving that is used across various classical styles. So states the essay in Kung Fu Tea (2014), according to which Jet Li and Donnie Yen also used it in their films. Henning, in the ABC-CLIO encyclopedia (2001), ranks the drunken style with the animal styles among the folk styles with a performance element. We have not been able to confirm in federation sources or specialist literature the claim that the Hung Gar and Choy Li Fut schools have their own drunken sets. Kung Fu Tea mentions Hung Gar only as one of the styles shown in the 1978 film. The connection with dance is attested, though, as the description of the national item Drunken Dragon from Zhongshan says the dance combined elements of nanquan, zui quan and acrobatics.
Technique
According to an essay in Kung Fu Tea (2014), zui quan imitates the unpredictable movements of a drunkard, requires exceptional balance and is used to confuse the opponent and for unexpected attacks. We could not find a detailed analysis of stances and strikes in federation-level sources or specialist literature. The traditional set Drunkenness of the Eight Immortals has, according to the work Quanjing quanfa beiyao, an introduction and eight sections, each devoted to one immortal. In song order they are Han Zhongli, Lü Dongbin, Han Xiangzi, Cao Guojiu, He Xiangu, Lan Caihe, Zhang Guolao and Tieguai Li. The text uses attributes of the figures from folk iconography, mentioning a gourd on the shoulder for Han Zhongli, two flying swords on the back for Lü Dongbin and a golden ring worn reversed for Tieguai Li.
Today
Zui quan is not a separate discipline of competitive wushu. The 2019 IWUF taolu rules list only changquan, nanquan and taijiquan as bare-hand disciplines, and the trial rules of traditional wushu from the same year do not name zui quan. The regulations of the 8th IWUF World Kung Fu Championships in Emeishan (14 to 19 June 2019) place it at most among the general imitative styles in the category of other styles. We did not find a federation or association that would cover zui quan on its own. HK01 mentions the existence of a Shaolin zui quan collection, but its continuous transmission cannot be confirmed. On the national list of China's intangible heritage, the drunken fist has a place only as an element of the Drunken Dragon dance from Zhongshan.
Did you know
The film Zui quan (Drunken Master) was directed by Yuen Wo-ping, produced by Ng See-yuen and made by the company Seasonal Film Corporation. According to the Hong Kong Movie Database, it ran in Hong Kong cinemas from 5 October to 3 November 1978 grossing 6,763,793.4 Hong Kong dollars. The cast includes Jackie Chan as Wong Fei-hung, Simon Yuen Siu-tin as Beggar So and Hwang Jang-lee as Yen Tieh-hsin. An essay in Kung Fu Tea (2014) says that the film was made after the success of Snake in the Eagle's Shadow from the same year with the same crew, and that the Eight Drunken Immortals style in it was probably assembled by the filmmakers from elements of real styles. After the success of the film, according to the same essay, zui quan came to the fore for a time, but a false impression arose that a practitioner must be drunk.
Frequently asked questions
Is zui quan inscribed on China's national list of intangible heritage?
No, it has no separate item on the national list. It is mentioned only in the description of the inscribed Drunken Dragon (Zui long) dance from Zhongshan, which combines nanquan, zui quan and acrobatics.
Must a zui quan practitioner drink alcohol?
No. The style imitates the movements of a drunkard and, according to an essay in Kung Fu Tea, requires exceptional balance. The idea that a practitioner must be drunk arose, according to the same essay, only after the success of the 1978 film.
Where does the Eight Drunken Immortals set come from?
The rhymed song Drunkenness of the Eight Immortals is part of the work Quanjing quanfa beiyao, which HK01 places in the late Ming or early Qing. The edition under this title is from the 20th century. Sources give the year 1929 or 1936.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.