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| Traditional martial arts of Xiluo Qikan in Yunlin, Taiwan |
In the rural communities around Xiluo (西螺) in Yunlin County survives one of Taiwan's most remarkable martial traditions.
Known collectively as Xiluo Qikan (西螺七崁), these communities became famous for their martial arts, lion dancing, local defense organizations and traditional martial halls.
Today, when people speak about Taiwanese martial arts, Xiluo is often remembered as one of the island's great centers of traditional Kung Fu.
But its history is more complicated than the popular story of a single “Kung Fu village.”
Xiluo Qikan was not one village, nor did all of its martial arts descend from one master.
It was a network of communities shaped by migration, clan organization, local defense, religious life and several different martial traditions.
And remarkably, parts of that culture survive today.
The Zhang-Liao Clan Comes to Taiwan
The story begins across the Taiwan Strait in Zhao'an County (詔安縣), Fujian.
One of the distinctive groups that migrated from this region was the Zhang-Liao clan (張廖).
The unusual compound surname is connected with a clan tradition preserving both Zhang and Liao ancestral identities.
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| Xiulo kung fu |
According to Zhang-Liao genealogical tradition, Liao Chaokong (廖朝孔) and several relatives crossed to Taiwan in 1701, during the Kangxi reign of the Qing dynasty.
They initially settled and developed land in the area that today includes parts of Erlun and the wider Xiluo region.
Over succeeding generations, Zhang-Liao communities spread through numerous settlements.
These communities eventually became organized into the famous Seven Qikan — 七崁.
Research commissioned by Taiwan's Hakka Affairs Council describes the Zhang-Liao population of the region as migrants from Zhao'an who settled around Xiluo, Erlun and Lunbei, eventually forming communities traditionally divided into seven major groups.
So I would correct one point from my original article:
Four men did not simply “found Xiluo village.”
What developed was a much larger settlement network over several generations.
Why Martial Arts Became Important
Qing-period Taiwan was not an easy environment.
Government authority existed, but local security could be limited, particularly in rural areas.
Communities faced banditry, disputes over land and water, competition between settlement groups, clan conflicts and periodic large-scale violence.
Under these conditions, communities frequently had strong reasons to organize their own defense.
Martial training therefore had purposes considerably more practical than what we normally associate with a modern Kung Fu school.
It could contribute to:
community defense,
protection of property and agricultural resources,
religious processions and temple activities,
lion formations,
and the maintenance of solidarity between settlements.
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| Xiluo Kung Fu |
The Hakka Affairs Council's field research specifically connects the development of Xiluo's martial organizations with local defensive requirements, including protection against bandit activity.
This is one reason Xiluo is so interesting.
Here martial arts were not originally a hobby separated from everyday life.
They were embedded within the community.
The Seven Qikan
The name 七崁 — Qikan does not refer to seven martial artists, despite a famous later television interpretation.
It refers to the organization of Zhang-Liao settlements into seven territorial groups.
These covered communities across what are now Xiluo, Erlun and Lunbei and surrounding areas.
The Seven Qikan participated in shared religious celebrations and community activities, while individual settlements also developed their own martial organizations.
This is an important distinction.
There was no single homogeneous “Xiluo Kung Fu.”
Different martial halls and lineages existed within the wider cultural network.
The Arrival of A-Shan Shi
The most famous martial artist associated with Xiluo Qikan is A-Shan Shi (阿善師).
His name was Liu Mingshan (劉明善), although historical and local sources preserve some variation concerning his personal name and birth date.
Taiwan's National Cultural Memory Bank gives his dates as 1792–1867 and identifies him as originally from Zhao'an County in Fujian.
He arrived in Taiwan in 1828.
He initially lived around the area historically called Damao (打貓), approximately modern Minxiong in Chiayi.
In 1831, he moved to Dayuan/Guangxing in Xiluo, where local Zhang-Liao residents asked him to teach martial arts.
This became associated with the famous martial organization:
振興社 — Zhenxing She.
The National Cultural Memory Bank records that his martial and medical knowledge contributed to his reputation and that his teaching helped establish the martial-hall culture for which Xiluo Qikan later became famous.
Was A-Shan Shi Really a Southern Shaolin Master?
Here we need to be more careful than my original article.
Local tradition associates A-Shan Shi with training at Jiulian Mountain in Putian (莆田九蓮山) and with Southern Shaolin martial culture.
That tradition is historically interesting.
But I would no longer state simply:
“The village government invited a Southern Shaolin expert.”
The documentary evidence is not strong enough for that formulation.
Even the National Cultural Memory Bank describes his supposed Jiulian Mountain training as 相傳 — according to tradition.
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| City temple |
That means we should preserve the story while identifying it correctly:
It is part of the transmitted tradition surrounding A-Shan Shi, not presently demonstrated historical fact.
This distinction becomes especially important whenever the term Southern Shaolin appears.
What Did A-Shan Shi Teach?
This is another place where the history becomes fascinating.
My original article called his system simply Golden Eagle Boxing.
Taiwanese sources preserve more complicated terminology.
The National Cultural Memory Bank identifies A-Shan Shi particularly with 揲仔拳, while government-sponsored field research discusses the Zhenxing She tradition as part of what later became identified with a Golden Eagle Boxing (金鷹拳) system.
Rather than forcing these names into a modern style classification, I would preserve both.
That is often safer when studying older Chinese martial traditions.
A martial community may preserve:
a hall name,
a boxing name,
a curriculum name,
a lineage name,
and individual form names
without these categories corresponding neatly to our modern idea of a single “style.”
Zhenxing She
A-Shan Shi became the central figure in the Zhenxing She (振興社) tradition.
According to local records, he taught martial arts and was also remembered for medical knowledge, particularly treatment associated with injuries.
His reputation spread widely.
The martial tradition subsequently continued through his students and later generations, producing branches and related organizations throughout the Xiluo area.
There is even uncertainty about the exact institutional origin of Zhenxing She.
Although tradition identifies A-Shan Shi as its founder, field interviews recorded by Taiwan's National Cultural Memory Bank suggest that the formal organization may actually have been established by his student Cai Qiufeng (蔡秋風, 1841–1916).
This is exactly the sort of distinction worth preserving.
A-Shan Shi may have established the teaching tradition without necessarily creating every later institutional structure attributed to him.
Xiluo Had More Than One Martial Tradition
This is one of the most important corrections to the old article.
Xiluo Qikan did not simply develop seven versions of A-Shan Shi's boxing.
Other martial systems existed.
One important example was the Wuyeguan (武野館) tradition.
According to Taiwan's National Cultural Memory Bank, after A-Shan Shi began teaching at Dayuan, Zhang-Liao residents around Gangwei faced problems with banditry and sent people back to their ancestral region in Zhao'an to recruit another martial teacher.
The resulting tradition was associated with Liao Jinsheng (廖金生) and a method known as Bujiquan (步雞拳/布雞拳 in different records).
He established the Golden Lion Formation Wuyeguan (金獅連陣武野館) and taught martial skills together with other traditional practices.
Other organizations developed as well.
The government field survey identifies traditions including:
Zhenxing She (振興社)
Wuyeguan (武野館)
Qinxitang (勤習堂)
and
Zhenxing Guan (振興館).
This makes Xiluo considerably more interesting than a simple single-lineage story.
It was a martial ecosystem.
Martial Arts, Lion Dancing and Medicine
The martial halls were also not simply places where people learned boxing.
Traditional martial culture frequently connected fighting methods with other community skills.
Lion formations were particularly important.
Medicine—especially knowledge connected with injuries—also appears repeatedly in the historical memory of Xiluo martial teachers.
A-Shan Shi himself was remembered not only for martial ability but also for medical knowledge.
This combination was common in traditional Chinese martial culture.
A teacher might simultaneously occupy several roles:
martial instructor,
community organizer,
lion-dance teacher,
traditional injury specialist,
and respected local figure.
The modern commercial martial-arts school is therefore not necessarily a good model for understanding what these organizations originally were.
A-Shan Shi: History and Legend
Over time A-Shan Shi became much more than a historical martial teacher.
He became a Taiwanese folk hero.
Stories about his martial ability grew, and his reputation eventually entered popular culture.
The 1970s television series 《西螺七劍》 — The Seven Swords of Xiluo dramatically expanded his fame.
The television story also helped create one enduring misunderstanding: that “Seven Qikan” referred to seven great martial heroes.
It did not.
The name referred to the communities.
A-Shan Shi's later cultural importance became so great that his grave was restored and he eventually became commemorated at Zhenxing Temple (振興宮) in Xiluo. Taiwan's National Cultural Memory Bank records both his burial site and the later cultural memory surrounding him.
Here again we can watch history becoming legend almost in front of us.
Did Xiluo Preserve Qing-Dynasty Kung Fu Unchanged?
My original article ended with a claim I would no longer make:
Kung Fu in Xiluo changed little from the Qing dynasty and therefore gives us a good picture of martial arts at the end of the eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth centuries.
That is too strong.
No living martial tradition should automatically be assumed to have survived unchanged for two centuries.
Teachers modify curricula.
Forms change.
Branches exchange material.
Some practices disappear.
New methods enter.
Names change.
Political conditions affect transmission.
The Japanese colonial period affected martial organizations.
Modern schools, performance requirements and cultural-preservation programs affect them again.
And we already have direct evidence of this process inside Xiluo itself.
The National Cultural Memory Bank notes, for example, that one branch associated with Zhenxing traditions changed from 揲仔拳 toward what is today predominantly Yongchunquan (永春拳).
That alone warns us against describing the entire tradition as frozen in time.
But That Does Not Make Xiluo Less Important
Quite the opposite.
Xiluo is valuable precisely because it allows us to study transmission.
Instead of imagining martial arts as fixed packages handed unchanged from master to student, we can observe how they live inside communities.
Methods survive.
Methods disappear.
Lineages divide.
New teachers arrive.
Communities exchange material.
Names change.
Organizations split.
Religious festivals preserve practices that might otherwise vanish.
Family identity keeps some traditions alive.
And historical memory gradually becomes folklore.
That process is martial-arts history.
A Living Window Into Taiwanese Martial Culture
We therefore should not describe Xiluo Qikan as a perfectly preserved museum of Qing-dynasty Kung Fu.
It is something more valuable:
a living historical community in which martial traditions have been transmitted, adapted and remembered across generations.
Some of those traditions can be traced to nineteenth-century teachers such as A-Shan Shi.
Some preserve connections with earlier immigrant communities from Fujian.
Some have changed considerably.
Others still require much more research.
And because these arts survived in Taiwan while related traditions elsewhere changed, disappeared or developed differently, Xiluo remains an exceptionally important place for anyone interested in the history of Southern Chinese martial arts.
The Real Kung Fu Village
There is something appealing about calling Xiluo a “Kung Fu village.”
But the historical reality is better.
It was never simply one village filled with masters practicing one ancient style.
It was a network of agricultural communities.
Immigrant families settled there.
They organized themselves.
They built temples.
They protected their communities.
They hired martial teachers.
Different halls developed different traditions.
Martial arts became connected with lion dancing, medicine, religious festivals and local identity.
Some traditions disappeared.
Others changed.
Some survived.
Nearly two centuries after A-Shan Shi arrived in the region, people are still practicing martial arts associated with that history.
That is remarkable enough without adding anything to it.
Xiluo Qikan does not need to be frozen in the Qing dynasty to be historically important.
Its real importance is that the tradition is still alive.
Xiluo Township
ources and Further Reading
National Center for Traditional Arts (國立傳統藝術中心). Taiwan traditional performing arts and martial cultural heritage resources, including material concerning Song Jiang formations and Taiwanese martial traditions.
https://www.ncfta.gov.tw/
Taiwan Cultural Memory Bank (國家文化記憶庫). Historical and cultural records concerning Xiluo (西螺), Xiluo Qiqian/Seven Qian (西螺七嵌), local martial traditions, temples and community organizations.
https://tcmb.culture.tw/
Ministry of Culture, Taiwan — National Cultural Heritage Database (國家文化資產網). Records concerning traditional martial formations, local cultural practices and intangible cultural heritage in Yunlin and surrounding areas.
https://nchdb.boch.gov.tw/
Yunlin County Government, Cultural and Tourism Department (雲林縣政府文化觀光處). Local historical and cultural materials concerning Xiluo, traditional settlements and the Xiluo Qiqian cultural tradition.
https://content.yunlin.gov.tw/