Eagle Claw

Yue Fei

The creation of the Eagle Claw method is normally attributed to General Yue Fei, who lived at a time of conflict between the Southern Song dynasty and the Jurchen tribes of the Jin dynasty. Despite being literate, young Yue Fei chose the military path because there had never been any tradition of full-fledged Confucian civil service in his family history.^[1] However, the Yue family was much too poor to afford military lessons for their son, so the boy's maternal grandfather Yao Dewang hired Chen Guang to teach the eleven-year-old how to wield the Chinese spear. Then a local knight errant named Zhou Tong was brought in to continue Yue's military training in archery after he had quickly mastered the spear by the age of thirteen.^[2][3]

None of Yue Fei's biographies mention him learning boxing as a child, but martial researcher Stanley Henning states "[Yue] almost certainly did practice some form of bare handed fighting as a basic foundation for use of weapons."^[4] However, he does not venture to guess if either of his teachers or someone else taught him boxing. Despite this, many modern day martial arts masters have assigned Zhou Tong this position. For instance, the internalist Yang Jwingming claims Zhou was a scholar who trained at the famed Shaolin temple and later taught Yue other skills beyond archery, such as various forms of internal and external martial arts. Yang believes this later led to Yue's creation of Eagle Claw and xingyi, another style associated with the general.^[5] The history that Yang presents does not mention the spearplayer Chen Guang and erroneously casts Zhou as Yue's only teacher.^[5] Eagle Claw proponent Leung Shum does this as well and goes so far as to claim Zhou was a full-fledged Shaolin monk who trained Yue Fei inside of the temple itself.^[6] Leung believes Zhou taught him "Elephant Style" which the general later expanded to create the "'108 Locking Hands Techniques' or Ying Sao (Eagle Hand)."^[7] There is no evidence that Zhou was ever associated with the Shaolin Temple, though.^[8]

The general's biographies are also silent about him creating any styles of his own.^[9][10] The historian Meir Shahar notes Yue's mention in the second preface of the Sinew-Changing Classic (1624) is what "spurred a wave of allusions to the patriotic hero in later military literature". He continues, "By the eighteenth century, Yue Fei had been credited with the inventions of xingyiquan, and by the nineteenth century the 'Eight Section Brocade' and weapon techniques were attributed to him as well."^[11] The Ten Compilations on Cultivating Perfection (c. 1300) assigns the creation of the Eight Section Brocade to two of the Eight Immortals, namely Zhongli Quan and Lü Dongbin.^[12]

Shaolin

According to legend, in the late Ming dynasty Yue Fei's material is said to have made a re-appearance at one of the sister schools of the Shaolin temple. Lai Chin/Liquan Seng, an expert in the Bashanfan boxing method, encountered soldiers practicing the hand techniques that was called Yue Shi San Shou. After taking the time to learn and master these skills he undertook the daunting task of assimilating them into his pre-existing Fanziquan sets. Some earlier exponents nicknamed it "Ying Quan/Eagle Fist" due to the numerous grabbing skills present.

Qing dynasty

In 1644 the Ming dynasty was overthrown and replaced by the Qing dynasty. The earliest mention of a traceable lineage of Eagle Claw comes from the Liu Family of Hebei Province.

Liu Shi Jun and Liu Cheng You

Liu Shi Jun (1827？-1910) of Xiong County, Baoding City, Hebei is considered the Sijo (founder/ancestor) of the yīng zhǎo fān zi quán. He took up martial arts at an early age and studied under several exponents. Around middle age, he learned Yue Shi San Shouand Fanzi from Fa Cheng and Dao Ji Seng. He later was appointed as the military arts instructor for one of the barracks in the capital city of Beijing. He taught the troops fist and spear skills.

Liu Cheng You first learned martial arts from his uncle Liu Dekuan, who had been a student of Liu Shi Jun. He continued his instruction under other prominent martial artist of the region. He later received advanced training under Liu Shi Jun when he retired to his home village. Liu Chen You turned out to be a very strict teacher and only accepted a few students. The main 2 were Liu Qi Wen & Chen Zizheng. From them, the system expanded and became popular when associated with the famous Chin Woo Association.

Chin Woo Athletic Association

The Chin Woo Athletic Association was fronted by the famed martial artist Huo Yuanjia in Shanghai. Its purpose was the dissemination of not only Martial Arts but sports and other educational systems to the public. The Eagle Claw system remained relatively restricted to the Xiong County, Baoding City in Hebei until Chen Zizheng was invited to teach at the Chin Wu.

After initial success with the first School in Shanghai, Chen went to his training brother Liu Qi Wen to offer his students careers as Martial Arts instructors in the Chin Woo Association. In time, Eagle Claw was being taught in Shanghai, Hong Kong, Guandong, Futsan, Singapore, Malaysia etc.