Great Compassion Boxing (Da Bei Quan) - [大悲心驼罗尼拳]

Da Bei Quan (Great Compassion Boxing) is a rare style which was passed in Beijing by Buddhist monk Qi Yun (1904-1966), who created it by combining some of the basics from martial methods of the central plains such as Chaquan, Hongquan and Huaquan that he studied in his youth with Buddhist ideologies thus whilst slow like Taijiquan its movements contain structure like those parent styles. Since after marrying in his twenties, his wife passed away of illness and then Qiyun did not know how to care for his daughter so he took her to his family home and then left decided to become a monk at Fayuan Temple. He had much regrets and was saved by the Great Compassion Sutra (Da Bei Zhou) which he then took as the symbolism of his boxing practice, thus Dabei Quan was founded. (Another story tells of learning from other monks and that he was the last descendant of this dying art but this is less likely).. In the 1960's it became nicknamed as Shaolin Rouquan (Soft Boxing) which this name also prevailed in 1980's when Shaolin was trying to re-construct its lost arts. Today it is also known as Chanmen Taijiquan (Zen Style Taijiquan) or sometimes as Fomen Taijiquan (Buddhist Style Taijiquan). It exercises the body, and the mind, with stress on the latter. The movements combine hardness with softness, stretch tendons and relax joints, movements are connected, light and open.