Shi fu Gregg Zilb | DAOS Legends | The #1 Martial Arts Magazine

Shi fu Gregg Zilb has been practicing and perfecting the style of Drunken Boxing (Chinese: 醉拳; pinyin: zuì quán) for the last 30 years. also known as Drunken Fist, is a general name for all styles of Chinese martial arts that imitate the movements of a drunk person. As he explains the validity and effectiveness of the style as being shrouded in mystery, myth and stories. The true art of Drunken Boxing is the cultivation and development in the mechanics of the movements in the forms. It is an ancient style and its origins are mainly traced back to the Buddhist and Daoist religious communities. The Buddhist style is related to the Shaolin temple while the Daoist style is based on the Daoist tale of the drunken Eight Immortals.

Due to a scarcity of historical sources, it is nearly impossible to point to the time or place of drunken boxing's origin, nor to trace a credible lineage of teachers and students between drunken boxing's earlier documentation and present day practice.

Drunken boxing probably appeared and disappeared in different places and at different times, with little more than common cultural and martial arts context to relate the different cases of drunken boxing with each other.

Creation of the Buddhist style of zui quan is attributed to Shaolin temple. At the beginning of the Tang dynasty (618-907 AD), According to some, the drunken style was first introduced in the Song dynasty (960-1279 AD). It is said that a famous martial artist named Liu Qizan accidentally killed a person and sought refuge in Shaolin to avoid trial and to repent. Despite his monastic vows, he still continued drinking wine. This was not tolerable by the monks and they wanted to expel him from the temple. While completely drunk after consuming a huge amount of wine, he defied and beat the monks, some say more than 30 monks. The abbot, after seeing this, praised his skill. This drunken style of combat was adopted from him by the monks and refined over the generations.

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