xing yi quan form of the month: chicken

xing yi quan form of the Month (2): chicken 鸡形

Why bother learning animal forms these days ?? They seem quaint and old-fashioned in the face of UFC, K-1, and other almost-full contact tournaments filled with brawlers and martial artists both (not many of whom I would like to face in the ring, mind you).

In xing yi quan (hsing I chuan) we have a set of 12 animal forms (10 in some systems). We are not meant to mimic the actual motions of animals, as in some other Chinese martial arts. Rather, we should find the essence of certain kinds of motions, and bring this essence into our fighting style.

Anyway, this month’s focus is the chicken in our class, so it will be so here in the blog as well.

Maybe the chicken not the first animal that comes to mind when thinking of awesome attacks and fierce fighting ability. But recent classes have helped me find many good principles in the motions of the chicken form. And hey, there is a tradition of having roosters fight each other, after all.

Movement names drawn from the chicken appear throughout the Chinese martial arts. Maybe the most common is Golden Cock Stands on One Leg, which seems to be obligatory in every tai ji quan form. Curiously, there are very few movements in which you stand one-legged in this xing yi quan form: a front heel kick, preceded by some rising knees (blocks?) as hands drive up the middle.

So what can we learn from the chicken? The upward wrist strikes in the opening sequence work nicely as blocks. What appears to be a punch under the left palm with the right fist is of course a block-counter combination. And the “chicken spreads its wings” move, about which I had doubts, works nicely as a strike to the opponent’s kua or inner hip/thigh/something joint, while blocking or grabbing and pulling across overhead. And so on. More than met my eye, anyhow.

Last month was the swallow (燕形), a bird even less known for its fighting abilities. Yet the form offered many insights into quick up/down changes and the like. This month the chicken. Next month? Who knows, there are several more birds in the xing yi quan flock.