Zuijiuquan (醉酒拳), commonly known as Drunken Boxing or Drunken Fist, but also translated as Drunkard's Boxing, is a southern style of Wushu that imitates a drunkard in its movements. The postures are created by momentum and weight of the body, and imitation is generally through staggering and certain type of fluidity in the movements. It is perhaps the hardest of the Wushu styles because it needs extremely powerful joints and fingers, but is very effective combat-wise.
WÇ”shù Wushu (Simplified Chinese: 武术; Traditional Chinese: 武術; pinyin: (  listen)) literally means martial art. It is the correct term for the more commonly known but misused term kung fu, which roughly translates to skill and refers specifically to the energy, feeling and effort expended in doing or making something. ...

Style

Drunken boxing includes almost everything contained in any other Wushu style (defences, attacks, gymnastics and extreme power) and above all that it contains a deceptive philosophy. As you stagger about, you are concentrating on creating momentum and avoiding attacks with the style's trademark unorthodox adaptive moves; for example, if someone is going to push you, you roll over his arms and hit him, and sometimes sink your weight upon him, according to the situation. Gymnastics is a sport involving the performance of sequences of movements requiring physical strength, flexibility, and kinesthetic awareness, such as handsprings and handstands. ...

There are two kinds of Drunken Boxing, traditional and contemporary wushu. Traditional Drunken Boxing is fight oriented. Contemporary Wushu Drunken Boxing is acrobatic and is very different from the Traditional Drunken Boxing. Contemporary Wushu exaggerates it's drunken appearance, so much so that anyone on alcohol would have a tough time performing such actions. Traditional Drunken Boxing also stumbles and staggers, but not as extreme as Contemporary Wushu Drunken Boxing.

Origins

The style is ancient, so much so that its conception is shrouded in myth. According to legend, it originated with the poet Li Po in the Tang Dynasty, but there are two other stories of its beginnings. Li Bai or Li Po (701-762) (李白; Pinyin: Lǐ Bái), Zi Taibai (太白; Pinyin: Tàibái), was a Chinese poet living in Tang Dynasty. ... The Tang Dynasty (唐朝 pinyin: tángcháo; 618–907) followed the Sui Dynasty and preceded the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period in China. ...

The first is that Shaolin monasteries had tournaments between each other; one year, a master spoke to his pupils. He said that should they win that year, they would celebrate for six months. When the competition came, they won, and, true to his word, the master began the celebrations. However, the other monasteries sought revenge, and when they came to the monastery of the celebrating monks, the monks were so drunk that it seemed that they would be unable to defend their home. The master still managed to defeat the vengeful monks, and thus was created 'The Drunkard's Fist'. Gate of the Shaolin Temples, Henan Province, China. ...

The other story is that an unnamed hermit (his drinking habits are unmentioned) lived alone in a cave in the Wudang Mountains, well placed to learn styles from which to create his own. When he became old, he soon felt that he needed to transmit his art so that it may continue. He began teaching a child, his only disciple. However, realising that he would not be able to teach the whole style to the student before his own death, he taught him a poem in which the precepts of his style were contained. He then told the student to study the paintings upon the cave walls, so that he may know the style. After the master's death, when the student attempted to read the paintings, he found that he couldn't understand the paintings and, disheartened, he decided to leave. Before he did so, he got drunk and returned to the cave. When he gazed at the paintings, he found that they began to move, and he discovered the workings of the style. Cliffside Temple at Wudangshan The Wudang Mountains (Simplified Chinese: 武当山; Traditional Chinese: 武當山; pinyin: ), also known as Wu Tang Shan or simply Wudang, are a small mountain range in the Hubei province of China, in the city of Danjiangkou, just to the south of the manufacturing city of Shiyan. ...

Media

The style is portrayed in the 1978 Jackie Chan film Drunken Master, in which he plays Wong Fei-Hung, a juvenile delinquent sent by his father to learn Zuijiuquan from his uncle, a master in the art. This is followed up by the 1994 film Drunken Master II or The Legend of the Drunken Master, in which Jackie Chan returns as Fei-Hung, now skilled in Zuijiuquan (after the first film). 1978 was a common year starting on Sunday (the link is to a full 1978 calendar). ... Jackie Chan, born Chan Kong-sang on April 7, 1954, is a Hong Kong martial artist, film actor, director and stuntman. ... Film refers to the celluloid media on which movies are printed Film is a term that encompasses motion pictures as individual projects, as well as the field in general. ... Drunken Master (醉拳, Zui quan--literally Drunken Boxing) is a movie directed by Yuen Wo Ping, starring Jackie Chan and Hwang Jang-Lee, first released in 1978. ... 1994 was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International year of the Family. ...

Drunken Boxing was used in the anime Dragonball; it also featured on a episode of the Late Night with Conan O'Brien, in which martial arts expert Jet Li explained this style. A scene from Cowboy Bebop (1998) Anime (アニメ) is Japanese animation, sometimes referred to in the Western world by the portmanteau Japanimation. ... This article is about the Motorola Dragonball microprocessor. ... Late Night with Conan OBrien is an American late night television talk show on NBC featuring varied comedic material and celebrity interviews. ... Jet Li Jet Li (Traditional: 李連杰; Simplified: 李连杰; pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Li Lien-chieh; Cantonese: Ley5 Lin4 Git6) (born April 26, 1963) is a martial artist and film actor. ...

A popular book describing one of the forms is Zuijiuquan (A Drunkard's Boxing) by Cai Longyun and Shao Shankang (ISBN 962-238-003-4; 1982; Chinese and English). The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ...

External links

• IMDB entry for 'Jui kuen', aka. 'Drunken Master'
• IMDB entry for 'Jui kuen II', aka. 'Drunken Master II' or 'The Legend of the Drunken Master'
• German page about Zuijiuquan (Google translation here)
• English translation of a French page on Zuijiuquan.