Xing Yi Quan emphasizes a close relationship between the movements of armed/unarmed techniques. This technical overlap aims to produce greater learning efficiency.Traditionally Xing Yi was an armed art. Students would train initially with the spear, progressing to shorter weapons and eventually empty-handed fighting. This gradually changed throughout the 20th century, as the emphasis in most traditional Chinese Martial Arts shifted from the use of weapons to fighting empty-handed. Weapon diversity is great in many lineages, with the idea being that an experienced Xing Yi fighter would be able to pick up almost any weapon available (or an object to use as such) irrespective of its exact length, weight and shape.Common weapons in the art:Spear. This is the most synonymous weapon with the art. Spears are usually 1.8–5 meters in length, though those over 3 meters long are meant solely for increasing training intensity and challenge, and historically people would not commonly fight with spears that large. The Five Fists of Xing Yi have variations which are trained with the spear.[10]Chinese Straight swordChinese SabreLess common weapons:Large Sabre (used by infantry against mounted opponents)Long StaffShort Staff (at maximum length you could hold between the palms of your hands at each end - techniques with this weapon may have been used with a spear that had been broken)Needles (much like a double ended rondel gripped in the centre - on the battlefield this would mostly have been used like its western equivalent to finish a fallen opponent through weak points in the armour)Fuyue (halberds of various types)Chicken-Sabre Sickle. This weapon was supposedly created by Ji Longfeng and became the special weapon of the style. Its alternate name is "Binding Flower Waist Carry".[51]