Introduction Muslim development and participation at the highest level of Chinese Wushu has a long history. Many of its roots lies in the http://muslimwikipedia.com/mw/index.php/Qing_Dynasty" title="Qing Dynasty - Qing Dynasty persecution of muslims. The http://muslimwikipedia.com/mw/index.php/Hui" title="Hui - Hui chinese muslims started and adapted many of the styles of wushu such as http://muslimwikipedia.com/mw/index.php/Ba_Ji_Quan" title="Ba Ji Quan - Ba Ji Quan , http://muslimwikipedia.com/mw/index.php?title=Pi_Gua_Zhang&action=edit" class="new" title="Pi Gua Zhang - Pi Gua Zhang , http://muslimwikipedia.com/mw/index.php/Liu_He_Quan" title="Liu He Quan - Liu He Quan .. etc. There where specific areas that where know to be centeres of http://muslimwikipedia.com/mw/index.php/Muslim" title="Muslim - Muslim wushan, such as Cang County in http://muslimwikipedia.com/mw/index.php/Hebei" title="Hebei - Hebei Province . These traditional chinese martial arts where very distinct from the turkic chinese muslim styles practied in http://muslimwikipedia.com/mw/index.php/Xinjiang" title="Xinjiang - Xinjiang .

The Chinese Muslim practioners where so adept at their martial arts, and there styles such as Pu Yi and http://muslimwikipedia.com/mw/index.php/Ba_Ji_Quan" title="Ba Ji Quan - Ba Ji Quan , where so renowned, that they formed the backbone of the bodyguards of the Chinese Emperors. Most where students of http://muslimwikipedia.com/mw/index.php?title=Li_Shu_Wen&action=edit" class="new" title="Li Shu Wen - Li Shu Wen . Such as http://muslimwikipedia.com/mw/index.php?title=Huo_Diange&action=edit" class="new" title="Huo Diange - Huo Diange bodyguard to Pu Yi (the last emperor of China), http://muslimwikipedia.com/mw/index.php?title=Li_Chen_Wu&action=edit" class="new" title="Li Chen Wu - Li Chen Wu bodyguard to http://muslimwikipedia.com/mw/index.php?title=Mao_Tsedong&action=edit" class="new" title="Mao Tsedong - Mao Tsedong and http://muslimwikipedia.com/mw/index.php?title=Liu_Yunqiao&action=edit" class="new" title="Liu Yunqiao - Liu Yunqiao secret agent for the Kuomintang and instructor of the bodyguards of http://muslimwikipedia.com/mw/index.php?title=Chiang_Kai_Shek&action=edit" class="new" title="Chiang Kai Shek - Chiang Kai Shek . As a result http://muslimwikipedia.com/mw/index.php/Ba_Ji_Quan" title="Ba Ji Quan - Ba Ji Quan became known as the 'Bodyguard' style http://club.ntu.edu.tw/%7Entubachi/Bajiquan/en_kungfu.htm" class="external autonumber" title="http://club.ntu.edu.tw/~ntubachi/Bajiquan/en_kungfu.htm" rel="nofollow - [1]

Like many http://muslimwikipedia.com/mw/index.php/Hui" title="Hui - Hui , Ziping's parents were poor. His father was a formidable pugilist, but was wise enough to know that Wushu would bring no fortune to the young boy. European guns were increasingly making the art obsolete, enticing even the Chinese army into procuring them and training in their use. Elder Wang thus dreamt of the day when his son would leave hardship and work in the Forbidden City as an official.

Ziping was adamant about learning Wushu, however. Wushu was the http://muslimwikipedia.com/mw/index.php/Hui" title="Hui - Hui identity. No http://muslimwikipedia.com/mw/index.php/Hui" title="Hui - Hui worth his salt would dare go through life without the rudiments of the "eighteen fist fighting exercise" and "eight diagram boxing" etched in his mind and body.

Besides Wushu, Hui were also steeped in Sufi teachings. They belonged almost overwhelmingly to the http://muslimwikipedia.com/mw/index.php?title=Naqshbandiyya&action=edit" class="new" title="Naqshbandiyya - Naqshbandiyya school. http://muslimwikipedia.com/mw/index.php/Hui" title="Hui - Hui life was thus a mixture of pitiless labor, harsh training and deep spirituality. Their astonishing ability in Wushu is hardly an accident.

Amidst traditional lessons in Koran reading, Ziping lifted rocks to build up his strength and dug ditches that got progressively wider as his leaps improved. Fine balance was honed on dangerously narrow stakes that Ziping planted into the ground. Even as he memorized http://muslimwikipedia.com/mw/index.php?title=Dikhr&action=edit" class="new" title="Dikhr - Dikhr (invocations), his strength and balance increased exponentially. The concentration that http://muslimwikipedia.com/mw/index.php?title=Sufism&action=edit" class="new" title="Sufism - Sufism demands became the rock-solid backbone of Wushu's fluid movements.

Cangzhou's climate is mild in the summer and cold in the winter. In winter months, snow is not uncommon. Ziping trained in all the elements, toughening his body. By the time he was fourteen years old, he could already leap more than three meters from a standing position. The precocious boy had all the qualities of a pugilist, but no teacher. His father's stubborn refusal to initiate him must have stung. Searching desperately for companionship, he fell under the sway of a secret society that called themselves "The Righteous and Harmonious Fists". Their stated aim was to overthrow the Ch'ing government and expel all "foreign devils" from China.

Because Ziping lived most of his life in semi-colonialism, he knew firsthand the humiliation that was heaped on the Chinese by Europeans. Austria, France, Germany, Britain, Italy, Japan and Russia all claimed exclusive trading rights to different parts of the China. They "carved up the Chinese melon" into "spheres of influence", claiming that they owned the territory within their spheres.

Empress Ci'xi hated the European presence as much as any member of the secret society did, and plotted to remove them as quickly as possible. She became aware of the "The Righteous and Harmonious Fists", a group that the Europeans casually dismissed as "Boxers" because most of them were Wushu fighters. In a fit of inspiration, she devised a way to use them for her own ends. Through her ministers, she began to woo and finance the Boxers. It wasn't long before a new slogan appeared on the Boxers' banners: "Support the Ch'ing. Destroy the foreigner!"

The Boxers roamed across China, attacking lone European settlements and emptying churches of their congregations and priests. When they closed in on the Forbidden City, where many of the European embassies were located, Empress Ci'xi made a great show of deploying troops, but secretly allowed the Boxers to enter. The Europeans were ready with far more advanced weapons than just 'fists and legs', though. Rifles quickly decimated the invaders. The rebellion collapsed. Empress Ci'xi was forced to outlaw the secret society and imprison all surviving Boxers.

Wang Ziping thus became a fugitive. He fled to South Jinan, where he took refuge in the Large Mosque. As soldiers hunted the remnants of the secret society, Ziping prayed for succor. Events passed him by. In the relative quiet of the mosque's prayer hall, Ziping met a man who was like him, a Boxer on the run. This was Yang Hongxiu, a Grandmaster of Wushu. At last! The one thing his father had refused him was within reach. Excited, Ziping discarded his loyalty to the fallen Boxers and swore allegiance to Yang instead.

Armed with an intense fondness for life outdoors, Ziping traveled all over the countryside, allowing himself to be inspired by the grace and beauty of nature. Sufis are particularly sensitive to the beauty of creation. A verse from the http://muslimwikipedia.com/mw/index.php/Qu%27ran" title="Qu'ran - Qu'ran that is particularly beloved by Sufis reads: "Wherever you turn, there is the face of God." They complement this with a well-known http://muslimwikipedia.com/mw/index.php/Hadith" title="Hadith - hadith of the Prophet: "God is beautiful, and He loves beauty."

Ziping hence studied with great care the movements of the birds and mammals- such as an eagle descending on its prey, a rabbit moving quickly across a prairie, a dog leaping skillfully to put itself out of danger. He absorbed all these characteristics to create a unique style of his own. His strength and reflexes allowed him to be both strong and quick- a deadly combination in Wushu.

A Grandmaster is able to use any implement or tool as a weapon. Improvising is as much an art as it is a necessity in Wushu. Ziping came to be extremely well-versed in all the major weapons. He was particularly adept at qinna, which could lock the joints and muscles of opponents in preparation for a devastating attack; shuaijiao, a bare-handed fighting style incorporating principles of Tai Chi; hard qigong and light body technique.

He was acclaimed as a well-rounded martial artist. At the same time, he was also a specialist in bone trauma. He combined his adept knowledge of qinna with his bone setting skills and invented a system of treatment for sports and Wushu-related injuries in Northern China.