Pi Quan - “Splitting fist” or “Chopping fist”
Posted: Sat Aug 05, 2017 3:01 am
Remember when this board used to be about Xingyiquan?
https://youtu.be/X3ANmWxsUWQ
I made this video because:
a) I clearly have nothing better to do on a Saturday morning.
b) I saw a discussion on Facebook with a who-shall-remain-nameless XY guy who trotted out the old mantra of “Pi Quan is striking in a downward direction” and obviously that all the 5 Elements are energy/force going in different directions.
I personally think this is flawed logic, but it’s hard to convince people with words, and since a picture paints a thousand words, a video must paint two thousand. Hence, the video.
In terms of directions when you learn “Pi Quan” it’s always done the same way - down - but as the video (hopefully) shows, this isn’t the end of the story…
6 Directions:
————————
When we talk about directions in internal arts we normally talk about the 6 directions - up, down, left side, right side, and towards and away. Already trying to shoehorn this down to 5 seems like squashing a round peg into a square hole. But that’s beside the point really, once you start looking at the animals of xingyi the strictly direction-based approach can’t hold fast.
The written character for Pi
—————————
I don’t speak Chinese, or write it, but I don’t believe there’s anything inherent in the character for Pi “劈” which indicates a direction. It is usually translated as “chopping” or “splitting”.
Finally, this is just my personal opinion, I’m not presenting this as the way YOU have to think or DO XY. As always, I’m interested in hearing other opinions especially with anybody who can debate this using reason and logic. Beyond that, not so much…
May your Pi Quans be always golden.
G
https://youtu.be/X3ANmWxsUWQ
I made this video because:
a) I clearly have nothing better to do on a Saturday morning.
b) I saw a discussion on Facebook with a who-shall-remain-nameless XY guy who trotted out the old mantra of “Pi Quan is striking in a downward direction” and obviously that all the 5 Elements are energy/force going in different directions.
I personally think this is flawed logic, but it’s hard to convince people with words, and since a picture paints a thousand words, a video must paint two thousand. Hence, the video.
In terms of directions when you learn “Pi Quan” it’s always done the same way - down - but as the video (hopefully) shows, this isn’t the end of the story…
6 Directions:
————————
When we talk about directions in internal arts we normally talk about the 6 directions - up, down, left side, right side, and towards and away. Already trying to shoehorn this down to 5 seems like squashing a round peg into a square hole. But that’s beside the point really, once you start looking at the animals of xingyi the strictly direction-based approach can’t hold fast.
The written character for Pi
—————————
I don’t speak Chinese, or write it, but I don’t believe there’s anything inherent in the character for Pi “劈” which indicates a direction. It is usually translated as “chopping” or “splitting”.
Finally, this is just my personal opinion, I’m not presenting this as the way YOU have to think or DO XY. As always, I’m interested in hearing other opinions especially with anybody who can debate this using reason and logic. Beyond that, not so much…
May your Pi Quans be always golden.
G