Fanzi Quan (Tumbling Boxing)
    
    Fanzi Quan or tumbling boxing is also known as Bashanfan (eight-flash boxing). It is so called because of its eight major flashing movements, which are executed as fast as lightning and thunderclaps. The movements in tumbling boxing are varied and continuous.
　　The Fanzi Quan ballad says: ＾Wu Mu has passed down the Fanzi Quan which has mystery in its straightforward movements.￣ Wu Mu is the other name for Yue Fei, a famous general of the Southern Song Dynasty. Some people have taken this to mean that Fanzi Quan was created by Yue Fei, but no historical record has verified this.
　　Earlier mentions of Fanzi Quan appeared in A New Essay on Wushu Arts written by anti-Japanese general Qi Jiguang of the Ming Dynasty. In Volume XIV of Quan Jing (Boxing Text), it says: ＾Throughout the history of fist fights, there have been the 32-form Changquan of Emperor Taizu of the Song Dynasty, Liubuquan (six-step boxing), Houquan (monkey-imitating boxing), E'quan boxing, etc. Though their names are different, the routines are roughly the same. As for today's 72-move Wen-family boxing, 36-move locking fist fight, 24-move reconnoitre boxing, eight-flash boxing and 12-move short style boxing, they are among the best styles.￣
　　The eight-flash boxing mentioned by Qi Jiguang is exactly tumbling boxing of today. Bashanfan was the old name used in the Ming Dynasty. From Qi's account, it is evident that Bashanfan was already a comparatively complete and perfect style of fist fight in the Ming Dynasty. Fanziquan centers on the Bashanfan (eight-flash moves) while others are merely derivatives of this.
　　During the Qing Dynasty, Fanziquan was popular in north China, especially in Raoyang, Lixian and Gaoyang areas in Hebei Province. During the reigns of Qing emperors Xianfeng and Tongzhi (1851-1874), a recluse called Zhao Canyi lived at Raoyang in Hebei. Zhao was not only proficient at Fanziquan but was also well known for his mastery of Chuojiaoquan (feet-poking boxing). He taught the boxing arts to Duan and Wang families respectively. The brothers of Duan Zhixu and Duan Zhiyong learned Chuojiao while Wang Laozi and Wang Zhan'ao studied Fanzi Quan. Later on, the two families taught each other and exchanged their knowledge. Fanziquan stresses the use of hands, whereas Chuojiao emphasizes the use of feet. Modern Fanziquan experts often practise feet-poking skills as well.
　　Fanziquan spread far and wide after it was introduced into Hebei, developing many branch styles. The eagle-claw tumbling boxing was evolved on the basis of a combination of the eagle-claw moving boxing, eagle claw running boxing and tumbling boxing. When hitting, the hand is in the form of clenched fist. When retrieving, it is in the form of an eagle claw. Fist jabbing can be as fast as the swing of a whip and as relentless as teeming rain. Another combination is Digongquan (ground stroke boxing) and Fanziquan (tumbling boxing), called Digong Fanzi Quan (ground stroke tumbling boxing). It absorbs both the tumbling boxing tricks of fastness and variation and the ground stroke boxing moves of falling, pouncing, wrestling and leg locking. Because there are some feet-poking tricks in the ground stroke tumbling boxing, it is also called by some the feet-poking tumbling boxing. Other combinations include Shaolin tumbling boxing, long-style tumbling boxing, short-style tumbling boxing, Yanqing-style tumbling boxing and soft palming tumbling boxing.
　　Contemporary Fanziquan master Yu Boqian not only inherited the tumbling techniques from his predecessors but also improved it by programming two new routines of wave-poking tumbling boxing and backrolling tumbling boxing.
　　Fanziquan stresses the combination of external and internal strengths and energies. Exercises involving the circulation of air- flows inside the body are carried through the water conduit, blood vessels and network of sinews which Chinese medicine believes exist in human bodies. These