Xiang Xing Quan (Imitation Boxing), also known as Fang Sheng Quan (Animal-imitation Fist), imitates the characteristics and forms of animal behaviors and certain habits in people’s lives and then cleverly blends them into offensive and defensive skills of martial arts.

Animal imitation has been a common phenomenon in Chinese martial arts since ancient times. Xiang Xing Quan consciously adopts animal movements and incorporates them into martial arts techniques in a more focused way. It can not only provide physical fitness, but also proves valuable in cultivating people’s pictographic thinking and artistic beauty.

There is a long history behind Xiang Xing Quan. In Book of History of the Spring and Autumn Period (770 B.C. – 476 B.C.), the “Chart of a Hundred Beasts” is included. The great ancient Chinese physician, Hua Tuo (?-208), constituted the Wu Qin Xi (Five-animal Play), which can be regarded as the prototype of Xiang Xing Quan.

Xiang Xing Quan has a very rich repertoire of movements and drill forms. It is mainly divided into two categories. One is the imitation fist techniques that combine martial arts attached with animal movements, such as the Monkey Fist, Eagle Fist, Snake Fist, Mantis Fist and the Duck-shaped Fist. The other is the movements that imitate various postures of a drunken person, such as Zui Quan (Drunken Fist), Zui Gun (Drunken Staff) and Zui Jian (Drunken Sword).