Chuojiao
Chuōjiǎo "poking foot" comprises many jumps, kicks, and fast fist sequences. The fist and feet work in unison and strike continuously forward, like “falling meteorites”, never giving the opponent a moment to recover. The qinggong portion of this style's training involves a practitioner jumping against a wall with heavy weights affixed to his/her calves. This style is practiced mainly in central Hebei, northern China, Beijing and Liaoning in North-eastern China.
Qing Gong translates to "light body skill", and consists of two main skills: One being the ability to perform vertical jumps of a height many times that of the human body, and the other being the ability to travel long distances with a flitting, continuous motion as if flying. In popular culture, its practitioners perform improbably exaggerated feats of acrobatics, such as easily scaling walls, flying over rooftops, gliding on water or walking on trees. As such, qing gong wirework is a staple of wuxia film.
Chuojiao has evolved into many branches named after the families developed them.
The martial routine was the origin of Chuojiao (feet poking Chuan). It features powerful, but comfortable moves and its blows are accurate and incorporate a variety of subtle feet tricks. Hands and feet cooperate well for better advantage and longer reach. Its strikes are short, but fatal. Hardness is the core of Chuojiao, which it combines with suppleness. Its routine consists of nine inter-connected twin feet routines. These routines can be practiced either one by one, or linked together. The feet plays call for close cooperation between the feet, which is why it is called twin feet play. Another feet poking Chuan is called nine-tumble 18-fall Chuan.
History
Chuōjiǎo originated in the Northern Song Dynasty (960–1127) and became popular during the Ming and Qing Dynasties (1368–1911). The source from Wu Binlou, a famous Chuojiao expert and founder of Beijing style, believed Chuōjiǎo comes from the Wen Family Boxing style of the Song dynasty (960–1279).
Chuōjiǎo is attributed to Deng Liang, who is said to have created the style on the basis of the 18 basic feet plays. He developed the basics according to calculations of the Chinese abacus to form a chain of feet plays incorporating 108 tricks. According to legend, he later taught the monk Zhou Tong the style, who later passed it on to his pupil General Yue Fei.
Some of the outlaws who appear in the famous novel The Water Margin, such as Wu Song, were experts in this style; this is why Chuojiaoquan was alternately known as the "Water Margin Outlaw style". It is also known as Yuānyāng Tuǐ (鴛鴦腿) or "Mandarin Duck Leg." In The Water Margin's 28th chapter, "Drunken Wu Song beats Jiang Menshen innkeeper", it mentions that Wu Song uses the following moves: "step of nephrite ring, leg of mandarin duck".
Feng Keshan (冯克善), a general in the failed Taiping Rebellion of the early 19th century, was a Chuōjiǎo Fānziquán master. After the failure of the rebellion, Feng went into seclusion with two other experts Tang Youyi in Hebei Province in Raoyang, where he taught Fānziquán, which emphasizes the hands, to the Wang family and Chuōjiǎo, which emphasizes the feet, to the Duan family. During practice, the families would exchange techniques.