Cao Jiwu had a disciple named Dai Longbang who had previously been
a taijiquan master. He trained his two sons, who introduced him to a farmer
named Li Luoneng (Li Lao Nan). Li Luoneng studied for ten years and took
xingyi back to his home province of Hebei. In the Hebei province, xingyi-
quan absorbed some of the local techniques of another boxing system,
baguazhang, to become the Hebei style. Two stories exist of how this oc-
curred. The more colorful one is that a Dong Haichuan, the founder of
baguazhang, fought Li Luoneng’s top student, Guo Yunshen, for three days,
with neither being able to win. Impressed with each other’s techniques, they
began cross-training their students in the two arts. More probable is the story
that many masters of both systems lived in this province, and many became
friends—especially bagua’s Cheng Tinghua and xingyi’s Li Cunyi. From these
friendships, cross-training occurred and the Hebei style developed.
The Yiquan (I Ch’uan) school derives from Guo Yunshen’s student
and kinsman, Wang Xiangzhai. His style places a great emphasis on static
meditation while in a standing position. During World War II, Wang de-
feated several Japanese swordsmen and jûdôka(practitioners of jûdô).
When invited, Wang turned down an opportunity to teach his art in Japan.
However, one of his opponents, Kenichi Sawai, later became his student
and introduced Wang’s style of xingyi into Japan as Taiki-Ken.776 Xingyiquan (Hsing I Ch’uan)
Two students at the Shen Wu Academy of Martial Arts in Garden Grove, California, hone their xingyiquan skills.
(Courtesy of Tim Cartmell)