Tongbei

[lifeforce]

Greetings.

Recently, I had one of those "a-ha" moments that comes along every now and again while practicing the arts we love.

As some of you may know, I've been practicing Xingyi for 16 years now. My main focus has been Xing Yi Nei Gong, San ti shi and the five fist forms. I haven't diverted from that formula but sometimes I break into some movement, combination and form which, to my knowledge, isn't part of any xingyi lineage. I've even tried these things out on my training partner. It's just something that 'comes to me' and feels very natural.

While watching some xingyi videos, I clicked on a link to some Tongbei training films. Jibengong, forms, striking, applications etc.

What I saw amazed me. It was EXACTLY what I'd been spontaneously playing around with, and I mean EXACTLY. Right down to footwork, entering and striking, exercises, the lot. I had never seen Tongbei before, ever. To me this is really strange and my training partner was really spooked by it when I showed him the videos.

Has anybody any experience with this ? Not Tongbei as such, but knowing something really well, without ever having ANY exposure previously.

 

[Gerard]

Edit: unrelated post.

Edited June 18, 2018 by Gerard

[CityHermit!]

I've heard there was some relation between Tong Bei and Chen style Taiji, something about the proximity of their origins and similarity between manuals of the two.

[Fa Xin]

Some would say Tongbei, as well as Bajiquan are closer relatives to the internal arts than some of the other Chinese styles that exist out there. 

 

I did a quick YouTube search of Tongbei shenfa and can definitely see how you went from

Xingyi to that. The first movement I saw of the video I watched looked a lot like Zhuanquan. 

 

I think there was a massive amount of “melting pot” techniques when many of these styles were made. Lots of influencing each other. Maybe that’s how some styles were made - someone just doing spontaneous type movements like you were doing. 

 

Maybe you should look into studying it as it seems quite natural to you 

Edited June 19, 2018 by Fa Xin

[lifeforce]

6 hours ago, Fa Xin said:

Some would say Tongbei, as well as Bajiquan are closer relatives to the internal arts than some of the other Chinese styles that exist out there. 

 

I did a quick YouTube search of Tongbei shenfa and can definitely see how you went from

Xingyi to that. The first movement I saw of the video I watched looked a lot like Zhuanquan. 

 

I think there was a massive amount of “melting pot” techniques when many of these styles were made. Lots of influencing each other. Maybe that’s how some styles were made - someone just doing spontaneous type movements like you were doing. 

 

Maybe you should look into studying it as it seems quite natural to you 

 

Couldn't agree more. Pigua and Baji are very similar to the 'Big 3' internal arts also. 

 

[beingnature]

I experience things like that the whole time.i just practiced zhang zhung and sitting meditation.then sometimes spontaneous movements appeared.and sometimes its like like years later i understand that the stuff i am doing exists in other styles.