Zui Quan

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Zui Quan (Traditional and Simplified Chinese: 醉拳; pinyin: Zuì Quán, literally Drunken Fist, also known as Drunken Boxing or Drunkard's Boxing) is a traditional Chinese martial art concept as well as a classification of Wushu form. It is a category of techniques, forms and fighting philosophy that appear to imitate a drunkard's movements.[1] The postures are created by momentum and weight of the body, and imitation is generally through staggering and certain type of fluidity in the movements. It is considered to be among the more difficult wushu styles to learn due to the need for powerful joints and fingers. Zui Quan is sometimes called Zuijiuquan (醉酒拳, literally "Drunken Alcohol Fist").

Contents

[edit] Zui Quan Within Chinese Martial Arts

Many Traditional Chinese Martial Arts utilize drunken techniques and fighting philosophy within forms and techniques. For example:

  • Some lineages of Choi Lei Fut contain "drunken" forms. CLF drunken technique teaches feints, explosive power generation, swaying motions and various other distraction techniques.[2][3]
  • Monkey Kung Fu contains a variation of monkey style called "Drunken Monkey" which involves "a lot of throat, eye and groin strikes as well as tumbling and falling techniques. It incorporates a lot of false steps to give the appearance it is defenseless and uses a lot of off balance strikes. The practitioner waddles, takes very faltering steps and sometimes fall to the ground and lies prone while waiting the opponent to approach at which time a devastating attack is launched at the knees or groin areas of the opponent."

Performance Wushu contains several exhibition forms called "Drunken" forms that bear no actual connection to the forms found in Traditional Chinese Martial Arts. [4]

[edit] Zui Quan in Mixed and non-Chinese Styles

Shaolin-Do teaches Drunken forms beginning at the first degree blackbelt level.[5] It has not been verified whether or not Shaolin Do is a Chinese, Japanese or Indonesian style, or a mix of these and/or other arts.

[edit] Zui Quan Practiced as a Style in Modern Times

[edit] Description

'Drunken Boxing' techniques are based on the legend of the 'The Eight Immortals'.[6] Each of the techniques in the Drunken Set demonstrate an attribute of one of the Immortals. These "elements" from all eight Immortals' styles are combined to form an effective fighting art.[7]

Drunken boxing includes techniques contained in other kung-fu style and applies its deceptive philosophy.[8] As the pugilist staggers about, he or she is concentrating on creating momentum and avoiding attacks with the style's trademark unorthodox adaptive moves; for example, if someone is going to push the pugilist, he or she rolls over his arms and hits him, and sometimes sinks his or her weight upon him, according to the situation.

[edit] Media

[edit] Film

  • The style is portrayed in the 1978 film Drunken Master, in which Jackie Chan plays a juvenile delinquent sent by his father to learn Zui Quan from his uncle, a master in the art. This is followed up by the 1994 film Drunken Master II or The Legend of Drunken Master, in which Jackie Chan returns as Wong Fei Hung, now skilled in Zui Quan (after the first film).
  • The style is portrayed in the film, Heroes of the East.
  • In Last Hero in China, Jet Li's character Wong Fei-Hung broke his toes when attempting to perform a No Shadow Kick on an enemy. As a last resort, he started drinking from nearby wine-jugs, and thus began to use Zui Quan, referring to it as "The Drunken Disciples of God".
  • In The Forbidden Kingdom, Jackie Chan's character Lu Yan specializes in Zui Quan. In the middle of the fight between Lu Yan and "The silent Monk" Jet Li Li's character switches to Tanglang Quan or Praying Mantis Kung Fu and ends up beating Chan's Zui Quan, upon which Chan's character switches to Tiger style.
  • The character of So Chanin the Donnie Yen movies "Heroes Among Heroes" uses the style (as thaught to him by his foster father) to defeat the main villain.
  • Neo, in The Matrix, is taught Drunken Boxing during training on the Nebuchadnezzar via direct implantation into his brain.

[edit] Television

  • Zui Quan was featured on an episode of Late Night with Conan O'Brien, in which martial arts expert Jet Li explained this style.
  • In the television special Fight Science, Alex Huynh displayed drunken boxing in a segment on Chinese martial arts.
  • In the MTV2 television series The Final Fu one of the competitors, Jonathan Phan, used Drunken Boxing to fight against one of his opponents.
  • In the anime "Naruto", Rock Lee, an expert in taijutsu, can utilize drunken boxing each time he gets accidentally drunk with sake (Elixir in the English Anime, due to censorship of alcoholic references). Rock Lee fights Kimimaro during the Sasuke retrieval saga, though his alcoholic lapses are relatively brief, and he has no memory of his actions once he has returned to his normal self.
  • In the anime "Yu Yu Hakusho", Chu uses drunken fighting as his main style of fighting. He becomes proportionally stronger with every drink he has.

[edit] Books

  • A popular book describing one of the forms is Zuijiuquan (A Drunkard's Boxing) by Cai Longyun and Shao Shankang (ISBN 962-238-003-4; 1982; Chinese and English).
  • In the manga series Naruto, the character Rock Lee is a natural-born user of the Drunken Fist. Rock Lee mistakes a bottle of sake for his medicine, and Might Guy tells the Hokage (village leader) that he witnessed Rock Lee using Zui Quan at a level he had never seen before. [9]
  • The folktale Swordplay Under the Moon, created by noted Yangzhou storyteller Wang Shaotang (1889-1968), tells of how the Water Margin bandit Wu Song comes to learn swordplay from Zhou Tong, the military arts teacher of Song Dynasty General Yue Fei. After Wu is sent to Kaifeng to deliver a load of gold for government officials, he retires to a local inn and, that evening, begins to practice his drunken boxing in the rear courtyard. However, his practice is interrupted when the screams of another martial artists breaks his concentration. He stands on a stool and peers over a tall wall to see Zhou performing drunken swordplay for a group of aristocrats. Zhou invites Wu over the wall and eventually takes him as his student.[10]

[edit] Videogames

  • The character Bo' Rai Cho from Mortal Kombat uses Drunken Fist as his primary fighting style. (secondary in Deception). The name Bo' Rai Cho comes from the Spanish word "borracho", meaning drunk. Bo' Rai Cho has a love for alcoholic beverages (most notably rice wine), and is credited as being the creator of the Mortal Kombat universe's version of the style.
  • Brad Wong of Dead or Alive 3 and Dead or Alive 4 is a practitioner of Zui Quan; as is Shun Di of Virtua Fighter series, and Chin Gentsai, of the King of Fighters series.
  • Lei Wulong of Tekken features Zui Quan techniques as part of his move set.
  • In the Wu-Tang Clan game Wu-Tang: Shaolin Style, the rapper Ol' Dirty Bastard used the Drunken Boxing technique.
  • A character from the videogame Ōkami seems to practice Zui Quan, as seen in the E3 2005 trailer.
  • In the Warcraft Universe Pandaren are known to use a combination of the drunken boxing technique and the Shaolin fighting style.
  • In the video game Def Jam: Fight For NY, rapper Flava Flav uses Drunken Boxing as his fighting style.
  • In the BioWare title Jade Empire, drunken boxing is one of the fighting styles available later in the game. But the code will be available in the first seconds of the intro to unlock it before.
  • In the Hudson Soft 1989 title China Warrior, the final boss of the final level uses the Drunken Boxing fighting style. Also notable is that when the boss takes a swig from his flask he regains a small portion of his health.
  • In Jet Li: Rise to Honor, there is a club manager who appears to use drunken boxing.
  • In Double Dragon for Neo Geo, Cheng Fu fought using Drunken Boxing and is probably the first 2D characters in fighting games to use it.
  • In the arcade game Martial Masters there was a fighter known as the Drunken Master who used Zui Quan.
  • In the MMORPG game 9Dragons, one of the four leagues, the League of Beggars, uses slightly modified techniques of the Drunken Fist as its secondary weapon.
  • The online fighting game Rumble Fighter has a fighting style named 'Drunken Boxing' which mimics Zui Quan. Its Korean counterpart, Gem Fighter, has another version called 'Drunken Master' which is more complex and slightly more "drunken".

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Six Shaolin Boxing Styles". Shaolin International Federation. Retrieved on 2008-04-02.
  2. ^ " Choi Lei Fut Drunken Form". The Martialarm.com. Retrieved on 2008-04-07.
  3. ^ " Choi Lei Fut Drunken Boxing". Flying Eagle Martial Arts. Retrieved on 2008-04-07.
  4. ^ " Drunken Kung Fu". Kung Fu Tai Chi Magazine. Retrieved on 2008-04-07.
  5. ^ Shaolin-Do Forms. Austin Shaolin Do. Retrieved on 2008-04-02.
  6. ^ Lai, T. C., "The Eight Immortals", Swindon Book Co., 1972
  7. ^ Stephen Little: "Taoism and the Arts of China", page 313, 319-334. The Art Institute of Chicago, 200
  8. ^ Zuijiuquan (Cai Longyun and Shao Shankang, "A Drunkard's Boxing", ISBN:962-238-003-4, 1982, Chinese and English
  9. ^ Kishimoto, Masashi (2007). "Chapter 210-211", Naruto, Volume 25. Viz Media. ISBN 1-4215-1860-0. 
  10. ^ Børdahl, Vibeke. The Oral Traditions of Yangzhou Storytelling. Richmond, Surrey: Curzon Press, 1996 (ISBN 0-7007-0436-1), pp. 365-376

[edit] External links

  • IMDB entry for 'Jui kuen', aka. 'Drunken Master'
  • IMDB entry for 'Jui kuen II', aka. 'Drunken Master II' or 'The Legend of the Drunken Master'
  • Flying Eagle Martial Arts Academy gives a much more in-depth background on 'Drunken Boxing'and other forms of wushu
  • German page about Zuijiuquan (Google translation here)