A Casual Conversation at the Pengxiang Martial Arts Hall in Yongchun County, Fujian Province.
Interviewee: School Owner Zheng Xiaorong
June 22, 2024
Part 1
Zheng Xiaorong (郑晓嵘), male, born in November 1973, is from Taocheng Town (桃城), Yongchun County (永春), Fujian Province. At the age of 12, he studied martial arts from his father Zheng Qichuan and later uncle Zheng Qichuan, inheriting the Yongchun Pengxiang hall Zheng Family's Taoyuan Shrine White Crane Boxing. He won many awards in various martial arts com-petitions, including the 3rd place in the 5th Southern Shaolin Huaxia Wushu Competition, the first place in the Hong Kong In-ternational Wushu Festival and others.
Master Zheng’s accolades: chief coach of the Fujian Wushu Winter Camp and Quanzhou Assembly Camp Yongchun White Crane Boxing Pengxiang Training Course for overseas Chinese teenagers, Director of Fujian Wushu Association, senior coach of Fujian Provincial Social Wushu, Deputy Secretary-General of Quanzhou Wushu Association (Deputy Director of the Coaching Committee), and representative inheritor of Quanzhou Municipal Intangible Cultural Heritage Project “Yongchun White Crane Boxing”. Lead instructor group of the Yongchun County Public Security Bureau's “White Crane Boxing into the Police Camp,” the off-campus martial arts tutor of Yongchun County Taocheng Central Primary School, and the executive chairman of the Yongchun White Crane Boxing Pengxiang Research Association.
Main Interview
Q: Many of the Crane articles online mention hopes of commercialization and popularization. Are these actions effective at present?
A: The statement of these policies for scientific commercialization is like this: Because traditional martial arts are affected by the greater economic environment, the current popular thinking, etc., it is appropriate to do some online promotion and media publicity, which will play a certain role in expanding public awareness. However, for various reasons, people's thoughts on traditional culture are relatively simple and stereotypical, unlike before. In terms of actual results, traditional transmission still needs to be further improved.
Q: It is to give the public some superficial awareness of martial arts?
A: Yes, but it's still difficult to pass on the traditional authenticity. I personally have an understanding like this: It depends on fate or chance. There are people whose inevitable destiny is to train this. Others are just passers-by; although they like it for a while, maybe will set it aside in a year or two, or at most five or six years. Because ordinary people live to make money and for other reasons, life pressure, family, etc., their interest and energy are limited. Most of them will be passers-by, like guests in your life. As a result, only a small part of the lineage of martial arts is often left. It's like human DNA being passed down from genera-tion to generation. Although it is difficult, I am not worried that it will be lost. Some people will inherit it in the future.
Q: Nowadays, many young children say that they are not used to hardships and repetitive exercises, so it is difficult to attract them to practice martial arts. Do you have any ideas?
A: Children think differently than adults. The most important thing is to rely on parents for encouragement. If parents love martial arts, their thinking is different from others. They can reduce their children's tutoring classes and after school classes, ask for leave, and understand that there is no need to devote excessively to academic studies. Some parents also rely on experience to realize that properly allowing their children to participate in sports can make them more energetic than ordinary people, and even have a stronger efficiency when studying. Children do not have their own thoughts, and many spare-time activities rely on parental coaxing, so children's exposure to martial arts has an important relationship with the awareness of the parents. Martial arts practice is boring, but modern daily life is often boring, so the motivation for practicing martial arts comes from the differences in perception.
Q: Can Mr. Zheng share his experience and later situation after visiting the villagers of tiger boxing in Ningde city (宁德) Pingnan county (屏南)?
A: I visited Huzunquan (虎尊拳) in Pingnan, where there is a distant blood relationship with the Zheng family. Their Kung Fu is al-so passed down by us. After the exchange, I now suspect that differences arose because of the problem of different accents in southern Fujian, and there is a difference in communication, be-cause the pronunciation of “Tiger” (Ho) and “Crane” (Hok) in southern Fujian is very similar.
The form of the routine is the same as that of the Crane Fist. The boxing manual they preserve is also Crane Boxing, not Tiger Box-ing, and the seniors can't explain it; maybe it has something to do with cultural differences. Most of the people who practice tradi-tional martial arts still need to improve their cultural literacy. If the level of education is strong, there will be a deeper level of understanding, and only then will it be encouraged to start deeper exploration.
Q: Is Pingnan's San Zhan hand a tiger claw?
A: It's not a claw, it's a palm like ours.
Q: Did the martial arts of Fujian in the Qing Dynasty pay more attention to actual combat? Like defending a village or organiz-ing clan wars?
A: The era of cold weapons is different from the current martial arts. In the past, Kung Fu was an inheritance and the treatment of the teacher was very good; he would be respected by the whole village, and he had a professional standing, that is, he is set to make a living and support his family for the rest of his life by this manner.
Q: Mr. Zheng is planning to publish some new research on the origin of Crane Boxing recently, can you share it?
A: We currently know that the ancestor is called Fang Qiniang (方七娘), and her ancestral home is Lishui (丽水), Zhejiang (浙江). Her father's name was Fang Zhong (方钟). He was old, and because of a habit in southern Fujian, everyone called him Fang Gong (the elder). They initially moved to Xiapu (霞浦), Fujian (福建), at a place called White Lotus Temple. Her father invented crane fist at the temple. Later, the legend is that she married a Yongchun man named Zeng Si (曾四), then they returned to Yongchun and settled in Gucuo village (辜厝) - a certain Gu family owned a shrine and allowed them live at the back. Then it has been passed down to the present day in Yongchun. After re-search, I personally believe that her style’s formation was not ac-cidental. There are several theories; I quite agree with one statement: Many Kung Fu fantasy novels have the character of Chen Jinnan, who really did exist. After research, we know he was a native of Xiamen Tong'an, which was under the management of Quanzhou Prefecture before. At that time, Zheng Chenggong (郑成功) rebelled against the Qing Dynasty and was encircled and suppressed by the emperor Yongzheng (雍正) and ran to Taiwan. Chen Jinnan (陈进南) was in his army, and he was assigned to inland Fujian to hide, and organize some anti-Qing activities. It is recorded that when he was in Xiangyang (襄阳), Hubei, he pre-tended to be a Taoist priest, and he lived in a cave called White Crane Cave to establish a place of operations, and later called himself White Crane Priest. Regarding Princess Zhu, if it is calculated according to the dynasty, she happens to be the seventh princess of the emperor Chongzhen (崇祯), but it can only be guessed, and there is no evidence at present: Why Fang Qiniang (七公主meaning seventh lady) is an only child, but uses seven as her name? Under normal circumstances, it is named according to the sibling ranking. We can only continue to study and look for clues in the future.
Q: In the past, was Yongchun martial arts training open or hid-den?
A: Whether we are Fujianese, Cantonese, or Hakka, there was a saying in the eighties and nineties: Have you ever drunk porridge in the middle of the night (ban ye zhou 半夜粥 midnight porridge)? Fujian people like to drink white rice porridge, but they were very poor, and it is very rare to have white rice porridge. These people who practice martial arts ate porridge in the middle of the night. That is, they get up in the middle of the night and secretly practice martial arts at three, four or five o'clock. They cooked some white rice porridge when hungry after practice. So midnight porridge is connected with the practice of martial arts. Now the conditions are very good, the training of martial arts is open, and there is no longer drinking porridge in the middle of the night. Long ago, emperor Yongzheng began a nationwide ban on martial arts, especially to the Han people, so for hundreds of years, popular martial artists have been secretly practicing si-lently in the middle of the night, which is related to the overall social environment of the whole society, and is also related to the anti-Qing restoration activities, especially Crane Boxing. So, a folk saying is that Chen Jinnan secretly taught Fang Qiniang martial arts.
Another theory is that Fang Qiniang's father is related to Shaolin boxing, and later merged with Zhejiang province’s internal boxing. Because it is a new type of boxing, they think it is very good, so it is called good boxing. The pronunciation of “good” (Ho) and “Crane” (Hok) in Fujianese is similar. Another aspect is that ancient peoples were very superstitious, believing is various deities. The White Crane Spirit’s story can add a sense of mys-tery, and the “dream transmission” of boxing can improve the authority of the founder. In those times, ordinary people may have really believed in this story.
From another angle, talking about Fang Qiniang's imitation of the movements of wild cranes when she was in the White Lotus Temple, I led a team to drive to Ningde, four or five hours away, up and down the mountain for twenty minutes. There is a stream, Qiniang could have washed her clothes over there. There are a lot of white egrets by the water, but there are no cranes. I don't think it's very likely that the river washing of clothes and imitating cranes led to the creation of the style. Most likely, I think, is logical thinking and gradual evolution in the course of many years of practice based on personal experience. I personally agree with the theory of her father integrating Shaolin boxing and Zhejiang's internal boxing, as it is more in line with logic. Not only in ancient times, but even today many ordinary people are drawn to mythological stories, looking for emotional dependence. The current history of White Crane Boxing still needs to be explored in the future, but the more important key is still practical training and transmission.
The interview continues in part 2
