TUNBAY-QIAN

 

 

It is difficult to understand the origin of this style because even the Chinese are confused about it. The point is that there are several styles with similarly pronounced names, spelled differently by the second character. It would probably be more correct to read "tunbei-quan" both styles, but to distinguish in Russian one style should be written as "tunbei-quan" and the other as "tunbi quan", because it is allowed by the rules of the Chinese language. So, the first character in all names is the same "tun" - "through". The style with the second character "bei" meaning "preparation" translates as "through preparation fist" and we write it down as "tunbei chuan".

 

In the Qing dynasty book "Tunbi chuan pu" ("Notes on Tunbi chuan") it says that in the Ming dynasty, during the "Wan li" reign, Master Fei Qinghuan created five paths of tunbei chuan and wrote the book "Tunbi chuan lun", where he briefly described the meaning of using "tunbei" as a rule for fist techniques. This is the earliest known reference to "Tunbei chuan", moreover from here we can see the origin of the connection between "Tunbei" and "TunBi" (as the hieroglyph "hand" has two readings - "bei" and "bi").

 

During the Qing dynasty, at the junction of the reigns under the mottos "Daoguang" and "Xianfeng", in the Yanshan school in Qangxian county an interpreter of edicts Pan Wensue taught civil and military sciences, transmitted both fist methods and tunbei weapons, and, following the ideas of early Qing dynasty scholars Yan Sichai and Li Shugu, introduced the motto as a tunbei chuan concept: "through spirit to attain metamorphosis, to have in reserve the ten thousand pervaded by the one; in rules and forms to understand the pervasive. Body and use - to have in reserve ready."

 

His best disciple and successor was Li Yunbiao of Yanshan. But since Pan Wenxue declared the teachings of tunbei to be non-transferable, Li Yunbiao carefully preserved the family methods, internally recognizing tunbei, but externally calling tunbi. Therefore, the fist methods passed down by Li Yunbiao and the local tunbi chuan are often mixed in Qianxian and Yangxian counties.

 

During the Qing dynasty, during the Guangxu years, Ma Fengtu, a native of Qianxian County, learned tunbei chuan from Li Yunbiao's immediate successor, Huang Linbiao. From the Huang family, the tradition was passed on to the Ma Fentu and Ma Yintu brothers. In the first quarter of the twentieth century, through their labors, this style absorbed the techniques of fanzzy-tsüan and chuotszyao and spread throughout northern China, and it also came to be known as "machi wui" (the martial art of the Ma family). Nowadays, thanks to the activities of Ma Fengtu's sons, Ma Xianda and Ma Minda, the style has become one of the five largest schools of traditional wushu.

 

- Another style of Tunbi-tsyuan is written with the second character "back" ("bei"); in this case we translate the name as "power ejection fist through back" or "power ejection fist through hands". The name of this style should be written as "tunbi chuan". This style was created in Qing Dynasty by Qin Xin, a native of Zhejiang province (laotsipai - "direction of old Qi") and was revised by his son (shaoqipai - "direction of young Qi"). Fighting is done at the longest possible distance, for this purpose the shoulders are trained in a special way, which makes it possible to lengthen the throw of the arm. There are no kicks (in the classical version; they have been introduced in the sporting version), apply five blows with straight arms; piercing (punching forward fist or fingertips), chopping (fist palm edge from top to bottom), dumping (fist outside to inside), drilling (fist upwards) and slamming (palm downwards).

 

In addition to these two, there are a number of smaller styles with the word tunbei or tunbi in their names, but unrelated in any way to the aforementioned (such as hundong tunbei in Hongdong County, Shanxi Province).