A conversation with Xu Xiangdong – Buddhistdoor Global

You are not standing on the ground; you are in space, like an eagle soaring in the sky.

The above is a small excerpt from my conversation earlier this year with Xu Xiangdong (徐向東), a world famous Chinese martial arts master, at Bamboo Grove Vihara on the outskirts of Beijing. The vihara was recently created by Venerable Master Miaojiang, Abbot of the Monastery of the Great Sages of the Bamboo Grove on Mount Wutai. Having known Ven. Miaojiang for many years, Xu wanted to pay his first visit to vihara when he was not traveling for work. Throughout our speech, Xu emphasized the importance of traditional Chinese thought.

“What we see in martial arts are just branches. The root of Chinese martial arts is Taoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism. Can you hit a hanging rope hard? Can you stand still on a trackball? It’s not about your physical strength, but your understanding of the object and the space, ”Xu explained, eyes shining. “The fight is not about what is in the form, but what is in the spirit.”

Born in 1961, Xu began his career in Chinese martial arts with the Hebei Wushu team in Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province. At the age of 19, he won the all-around champion title at the Chinese National Wushu Championship. A few years later, Xu was cast as one of the main cast in the 1984 film. The sacred robe of the Shaolin temple (木棉 袈裟) directed by Tsui Siu-Ming. Since then, while keeping his ties to the television and film industries as a martial arts director and actor, Xu has explored the world of martial arts in many directions: he studied at the University of Sports from Beijing, was a judge at the Asian Games, and taught Chinese martial arts in Paris while writing her doctoral thesis with French sinologist Catherine Despeaux. He was also invited to Brunei to teach martial arts to Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah.

While the description of martial arts may seem self-explanatory, Xu defines Chinese martial arts as “a systematic search for the human body in traditional Chinese culture.” Essentially, it is about the relationship between the mind and the body. Xu specifies: “Qi is the energy that moves blood through your body, but qi follows what’s on your mind. When you are happy, angry, or when you see someone you like, your body reacts differently. In Chinese martial arts, when you have the sword in your mind, you have it in your hand; when you don’t have it in mind, even if you’re holding a sword, it’s not a sword.

This understanding came to Xu while he was learning martial arts from his first master, who was very accomplished in neigong (內功, internal skills) and often cited the Taoist canon. Part of Xu’s daily exercise at that time consisted of hitting Master’s stomach 100 times. Xu was intrigued that although he felt exhausted himself, his master, who was in his sixties, remained unharmed.

As a martial arts master himself, Xu is best known for his innovation of the Eagle Claw Fist (鷹爪 拳). While Xu trained in all styles when he was a member of the Hebei Wushu team in the 1970s, he wanted to develop his own specialty. The choice of Eagle Claw Fist was inspired by Russian literature, in particular The song of the falcon and The song of the storm petrel by Maxim Gorky, which were popular in China during this period. For months, Xu went to the zoo every week to observe the eagles. What Xu observed was not their form, but their spirit. For Xu, eagles are high and noble, and there are swords in their eyes. While the most powerful tiger can only crawl on the ground, eagles can fly in the sky, adding another dimension to space. Caged eagles did not fly, but Xu could imagine how eagles hovered and how he could fly like an eagle. This is how he invented many flight movements and breathed new life into the traditional style of Chinese martial arts.

* The original text is “為 學 日益 為 道 日 損 損 之 又 損 以至於 無為” from chapter 48, translated by Gia-Fu Feng and Jane English (1972).