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The practice of Xinyi Liuhe Quan is enjoyable, challenging, and energizing. Besides the fitness and self-defense benefits, regular practice brings out your decisiveness, drive, and resilience. It emphasizes simplicity over flowery movements, and has some sneaky strategy. Many masters were famed for their good health into old age.

In the Creation Mythology of the Art, it was created by the Chinese Song Dynasty Hero, General Yue Fei. He was a legend with the spear and created Xinyi Liuhe Quan using the principles of power generation for the spear in an open-hand system. I have no way of verifying this, but a student commented that learning spearwork in another style was easier because they had practice Xinyi Liuhe, especially the stepping. And when I practice two-handed Xinyi Liuhe Sword, many movements do feel a lot like trying to move a spear.

I made this course to pass on what I learned about this art, mainly from my thousands of hours with my teacher, Mr Li, Junhao in Zhabei Park, Shanghai. He is an smart, humorous teacher whose engineering background influences his teaching. He often uses to metaphors from physics or machines to explain movements or principles, which I found very helpful. He still teaches students in his eighties.

I have also made use of the copy of Master Ling HanXing's "A Portrait of the Art of Xinyi Liuhe Quan" given to me by Mr. Li to clarify some points. Master Ling was a direct student of Lu, Songgao, the person who brought Xinyi Liuhe Quan to Shanghai.

L to R: Li Junhao, Ling Hanxing, Alexander McLeod

Disclaimer

This course is intended to lead you through the gateway to Xinyi Liuhe Quan. It cannot replace face-to-face training, but I believe diligent practice of the exercises and principles laid out here will lead to some experiential understanding of Xinyi and its power. Some movements are quite vigorous, so check with your doctor before you proceed.

The Structure of this Course

Mr. Li taught "by prescription". That is to say, he would take each learner's background, interests, and body shape into account when choosing which moves to teach.

For example, I was one of his taller students, so after Chicken Step, he taught me chopping movements - moves that crash down from on top. Someone smaller, he might teach moves that strike upwards.

So for some time, I wondered how to structure a course for beginners. Which moves to include and in what order. Then it struck me that I could use the demonstration form Xinyi Ba and base a course around those movements, their variations, and the related nei gong exercises to build power.

It takes 45 seconds to perform, but hours to get to that level.

Big Thanks to Will from "Monkey Steals Peach" for connecting me with my old teacher, and inspiring me to start making this course.

"You Need Three Minds"

The first time I met my teacher, he told me that to be successful in Xinyi, I would need three qualities of mind*:
Determination 决心 juexin
Persistence 恒心 hengxin
Confidence 信心 xinxin

(*literally "3 hearts" 三个心 In Chinese, these 3 words all end with Xin 心 (Heart/Mind). It's also the first character in the name of the Art)

Qualities of Xinyi Liuhe Quan

I made a video on what I love about Xinyi Liuhe Quan. I hope you'll love it too.