The very historical origin of Xin Yi Liu He Quan (translated roughly as: Heart Intention Six Harmonies Kungfu-system, XYLH for short) was Master Ji Long Feng, who lived in Shanxi province in China, more than 300 years ago. It is said that master Ji had the martial arts basic from the inheritor of Yue Fei, who was an outstanding Gong Fu master and an army general in Song dynasty of China.

The legend says that one day, Master Ji climbed upon a mountain to practice Kungfu, and suddenly he found an eagle was flying around the top of the hill. Meanwhile, there was a black bear standing on the hill, with the defense gesture, staring at the eagle. It seemed like, the eagle wanted to attack the bear’s face, but he was afraid of the strong arms of the bear. If the bear prey on the eagle, the eagle could not escape; however, the bear was also careful about the eagle’s claws, for if the bear attacked firstly, he exposed his face, then the eagle got the chance to peck the bear’s eyes. In that way, maybe the eagle could be killed by the bear’s arms, but the bear could also starve to death because if he loses sight by the eagle’s claws. Therefore, in this situation, none of them could attack firstly, and at last, the eagle flied away, and the bear went back into the forest.

Master Ji marvel at this battle between eagle and bear, although both the two animals had not really attack, there was a fantastic battle in Master Ji’s mind. He called it “yīng xióng dòu zhì” (鹰熊斗智, Battle of wits between Eagle and Bear). In the next several years, he combined his knowledge of Yue Fei Gong Fu with many imitations of animal fighting types to develop his very own Gong Fu style, and he named it Xin Yi Quan (Heart Intention Fist Fighting System) or XYLHQ.

During Master Ji’s life, he was always fighting against the Manchu government, for revival the Chinese Ming Dynasty. Although that political struggle was never successful, he still taught his XYLH Gong Futo some native Chinese (i.e. people from the Han ethnic group). Several decades later, so tells the legend, two of his student’s became very powerful and important. One was the Ma Xue Li, who lived in Henan province, and labelled his Gong Fu style the same name XYLHQ. The other was Dai Long Bang, who named his branch Dai Shi Xin Yi. Then Ma and Dai developed their Gong Fu families independently and established the two major branches of this style at this time.

Indeed, both were very conservative. Ma only taught his Muslim relatives (in China, the Muslim Chinese ethnic group called Hui Zu), and Dai taught in his own family only, and never opened the door to public. However, there was a Chinese Gong Fu Master named Li Luo Neng, who really wanted to learn Xin Yi Gong Fu. He was already a Gong Fu master when he visited the Dai family, but the old Chinese masters disliked students who had their own Gong Fu style already. Nevertheless, Li pleased the Dai family repeatedly for several years, and finally Dai family members began to teach him Xin Yi. But master Dai didn’t teach him everything of Xin Yi, so Li combined this half Xin Yi and his own basic Gong Futo develop a relative style, which named Xing Yi Quan (XYQ). Since the first XYQ master Li Luo Neng taught publicly, nowadays there are lots of people practice XYQ and plenty know the name XYQ.

Ma Xue Li, the second important student of master Ji, taught his son and nephew, and they continued this tradition to teach only within their ethnic Hui family for six generation. In the seventh generation, one of the famous XYLH masters named Yuan Feng Yi, who had a skilled student named Lu Song Gao. Lu had a very good Gong Fu friend called Song Guo Bin. Song was also a martial artist before he got to knew Lu, but he was not satisfied with his own skills, and planned to improve his Gong Fua lot. Since Lu trusted him, Lu taught him some XYLHQ secretly. After Song knew there was so much effective training in XYLHQ, he wanted to learn directly from master Yuan. Yuan was moved by his sincere request, and told Song there were two commandments that Song must obey if he wanted to be Yuan’s family student. Firstly, Song couldn’t challenge any person of the Hui Zu (Hui ethnic group) during his whole life. The second, Song was allowed to teach the next generation only after the death of Yuan. Song promised this missions then he became the first Han Chinese who really inherit XYLHQ.

During the time of old China, Song’s family was a big landlord in An Hui province, and there were lots of employees in his family. In that time, the poor Chinese couples always bring their children to richer families where they could work for shelter, food and money. One day, Song supervised his workers in the yard, and suddenly, he saw several teenagers attacking a child. The child however was so fast and mobile that the other wicked guys couldn’t really hit him. Sometimes, the child moved like a bear, and then flipped quickly like a cat. Song walked towards them and shouted: ”Stop!” He asked the talented child what kind of Gong Fu he used to defend so many attacks, but the child answered honestly that he never learned anything about Gong Fu. With the flash in Song’s mind, he knew he met the boy who had great talent of Gong Fu. He asked what his name was, and the child answered: ”Li Xing Gong”.

Li Xing Gong was the first non-Hui person and master of XYLHQ who came to Beijing to teach XYLHQ, and lived in Beijing until now, being 94 years old. Master Zhang Zhi Yong is his youngest family student and Shifu for Zheng Jingming, a teacher of EFeXX, who holds the lineage until today.