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Zui Quan /
Drunken Boxing
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Drunken Boxing is a
pictographic boxing in Chinese Martial Arts. As the name states, it
contains movements depicting a person in a drunken state. With steps
faltering and body stumbling, the performer now raises his cup and
pours out wine for himself, now wriggles and staggers along like a
drunken man, as if on the verge of falling. With its unique and
fantastic movements, this beautiful style has been handed down from
generation to generation.
 The characteristic features of
Drunken boxing are:the skill of boxing resides in drunkenness and the
scheme of pugilism hides in pouncing and falling. The drunken state of
wriggling and stumbling contains the strokes, the footwork and the
skills of attacking and evading, such as tricking and puckering,
shoving and smashing, springing and kicking, hooking and hanging,
brushing and gazing, rising and falling, there conceal the skills of
attacking and defending, such as pouncing, rolling, somersaulting, and
winding. In a word, Drunken Boxing has merged the boxing, the
wrestling and the drunkenness into an organic whole and formed an
unique style which is interesting and fascinating.
Execution of
the drunkard boxing demands extreme flexibility of the joints as well
as suppleness, dexterity, power and coordination all of which can be
developed in the course of practice.
The main
feature of the drunkard boxing is to hide combative hits in
drunkard-like, unsteady movements and actions so to confuse the
opponent. The secret of this style of boxing is maintaining a clear
mind while giving a drunken appearance.
Drunkard boxers are required to be responsive with good eyesight and
fist plays. They move in unconnected steps but with a flexible body
combining hardness and suppleness. They have to be fast to get the
better of their opponents but their main tactic is to feign defense
while trying to attack and aiming in one direction but attacking in
another. Various degrees of drunkenness are demonstrated by different
ranges of movements and expressions in the eye.
The secret
behind Drunken style kung fu is the sudden release of power from
awkward positions. The agile footwork enables the exponent to totter,
sway and fall without harm, confusing his opponent, rising up on the
tips of his toes then dropping to low, crouched positions. The
hand-form which is readily identified with the Drunken style is the
Cup-Holding hand-form.
'Drunken Boxing'
techniques are based on the legend of the 'Eight Immortals' of the
Taoist Sect from Chinese Mythology. Each of the techniques in the
Drunken Set demonstrates an attribute of one of the Immortals.
According to legend, they were invited to an undersea kingdom to a
banquet, but all of them became intoxicated and rowdy. All the
kingdom's guards attacked, and although the group seemed too
inebriated to defend themselves, they created an impromptu style and
defeated the guards with their new "Drunken" technique. They are
respectfully: Liu Dong Bin, Lam Choy Wah, Ho Sen Ku, Cho Quat Kau,
Cheung Guo Lo, Han Sing Tu, Han Chung Li and Tit Gwai Li.
Click here to read more about the eight
immortals
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