Tea Serpent's video: Cangzhou Sha Family Boxing

Sha Jiao Men / Sha Jia Men "Sha's Teachings School" / "Sha Family School" / Sha's Legs School This is a recent promo video for the Sha Family School which centers around 9th generation teacher Yang Zhigang who has recently opened school and has begun publicly teaching the system to both local and international students. Yang has been in the news a lot lately after the Sha Jiao Men style was recognized as an intangible cultural heritage of Hebei. Yang Zhigang began under Lu Guitong. Later he was also sent to study under other senior masters of the time such as Qi Jingchun, Ma Chuntao, and Ma Fuzen Yang's is the second major school to teach the system publicly to a large number of students. The first was formed in the 1980's by Yang Zhongsheng (student of Ma Chuntao). At the time it was one of the largest in Cangzhou with a couple hundred students and did well in regional and national level traditional wushu competitions. In 1987 Yang Zhongsheng gained national media attention after attending a martial arts competition in Beijing and fighting off a gang of hoodlums he found assaulting a woman near his hotel. The Sha Family style is an old style from Cangzhou's Dongguang county. The various lines contain a vast amount of material including a large number of boxing sets, a large array of traditional weapons forms, a large range of two person forms, drills, and practices, martial neigong practices, medical neigong practices, medical treatment methods, neidan practices, and oral teachings on martial practice and strategy. Despite the large array of traditional boxing and weapons forms the practice of forms the school puts major emphasis on paired drills leading into freeplay and sparring with both empty hands as well as the major weapons. San Shou, San Dao, San Gun, and San Dadao are listed as among the most important teachings of the school. The oral mythology of this school traces it's founding back to the early Qing transition period and a local doctor named Sha Yunbi (some versions say he was a Buddhist monk with Yunbi being his monastic name and Sha being a reference to his being a monk). Sha was hiking in the hills on an herb collecting trip when he met a Daoist ascetic who had fallen severely ill and who was close to death. Sha used his medical skills to save the man's life and as thanks he stayed and taught Sha a complete system of martial skills including Neigong methods, empty hand fighting, weapons strategy, etc. as well as Nei Dan methods. Sha, who lived either within Dongguang county or possibly somewhere close by within Cangzhou, passed this body of knowledge on to 7 disciples. These 7 students participated in a local uprising against the Manchu. The military was quickly sent with orders to put down the uprising and hunt down a list of major figures. However one of the 7 with the family name of Li escaped by hiding as a monk in a small shrine in Qinzhuang village in Dongguang county. There he continued to train his martial skills as well as studying various esoteric practices. Li taught a few people in the vicinity passing his complete art to Jin Zhaolin. Jin in turn passed on his skills to a man known locally as "Zhuang Ba". Zhuang Ba became very famous locally for his strength and skills. Today there are many tales around him such as in his extreme old age wrestling a bull and killing it by slamming it to the ground. There is also a tale told in some lines of his having learned directly from Sha and later went roaming in southern China where he met two Daoist hermits in the mountains named "Metal Legs" and :Wooden Legs". These two supposedly taught him advanced leg methods as well as various secret esoteric arts. At any rate Zhuang Ba taught his skills to Ma Xiang. Ma Xiang took on five students, each of these students had their own famous skill, Big Saber Li Mochun, Big Spear Liang Bangping, Iron Arm Liu Xizhou, Single Saber Zhao Youlu, and Double Saber Wang Huatang who was known for his ability to perform the entire double saber set within the space underneath a wooden table. Ma became famous after receiving imperial recognition after helping to suppress a White Lotus sect rebellion in the area. He was awarded with a yellow jacket as well as being made a 6th rank imperial guard. However he refused the rank and chose to return to his hometown where the emperor had a stele placed to commemorate his achievements. Ma was close friends with a boxer known as "Teacher Zhou" who was said to have studied at the Shaolin temple. From there martial exchanges the 12 road Tantui set was brought into the Sha Jiao Men system. Ma's last student Wang Huatang passed the system down to 8th generation teachers Lu Guitong and Qi Jingchun, both of whom represented the style in the 1928 Guoshu competition. Other famous teachers of the mid to late 20th century include Ma Chuntao and Ma Fuzeng