Emei Martial Arts

Emei martial arts arose in the Mount Emei region of Sichuan, said to reach back nearly three thousand years, maturing into a complete system through the Ming and Qing dynasties. Ranked with Shaolin and Wudang as one of China's three great martial traditions, it took on its distinctive character through long exchange with the Buddhist, Daoist and Confucian cultures of the mountain. It entered the second national ICH list in 2008 under traditional sports, games and acrobatics.

Emei martial arts comprises more than eighty lineages and hundreds of routines and forms, its technique balancing hard and soft, stillness and movement, with branches such as the Monk, Yue, Zhao, Du and Hua schools, valuing weapon and empty-hand alike and prizing stillness to overcome motion and the later strike to defeat the first.

Emei martial arts carry the religious, philosophical and bodily culture of the Ba-Shu region, an important vehicle for studying the diversity of Chinese martial lineages and the meeting of regional cultures, and have been carried to the wider world through the tourism of Mount Emei.