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Posted By: Franksv
All 5,I can't really say I like one more than another. Although I do have a fist or two that still needs work and I am not 100% confident with. The 5 together make a mini-complete stand up game. As I do see the value in the animals, you could defend yourself just fine if you had the 5 fists down pretty well. | ” |
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Funny you should say that.
There are many schools of thought on the relationship between the 5 fists and the 12 animals in Xing yi. Many believe the five fists are part of the Yi quan training of Xing Yi, and the 12 animals are part of the Xing quan.
However most Xingyiquan scholars believe that the 5 animal fist precedes the 12 animals - that 5 animals is all there was. The fellow "Superspear" who is usually accredited as inventing the art, denied that claim, saying he inherited the 5 fists from a secret scoll given to him by a strange hermit in the mountains, and he claims the scroll was authored by a great Chinese hero from 400 years earlier.
Then, Superspear invented the 12 animals, beginning with the Bear and Eagle, after having seen a bear and eagle fighting together. The 12 animals are considered simply extensions of the 5 fists - mixing and matching of the different concepts of drilling, pounding, etc, and that all you really need in Xing Yi is the 5 fists, because the 12 animals are more or less an 'example' of mixing the 5 concepts.
However, most people say Superspear was a great big liar and much too modest and he actually invented the whole thing.
I however concede to the idea that the 5 fists must somehow predate the 12 animals, because when you analyse the 12 animals they truly are a mixing of the 5 concepts, and if you know the 5 fists inside and out - the 12 animals, and more, come naturally as an extension of concept. Therefore I believe the 12 animals must be a later invention, and not wholly necessary to Xing Yi.
But look at it this way - its a pretty small system as it is - it can't get any smaller.
~Monkey Lifting Water