There are good reasons to believe that Dai Family Xinyiquan is the original art which Xingyiquan is based on. More will be written on that later.

One of the primary differences between Xingyiquan and Xinyiquan is the jibengong practice of Squatting Monkey.

An emphasis is also given to Standing Meditation with the saying, “Two years standing, three years walking.”

This is another feature of Dai Family Xinyiquan - using bow step (Gong Bu) and not Santi-based footwork. This is because correct and complete Dantian rotation can only be achieved in bow step. One learns not only to move forward, but also to retreat. The exercise should also be performed very slowly, although one can add some power emissions, which are called Fast Power (Kuai Jin). Because of health considerations, for one fast movement with power there should be at least three slow, “nourishing” movements.

One should practice Bu Fa for at least two years before learning Five Elements Fists (Wu Xing Quan). Hence the whole basic process takes at least five years (San Nian Zhuangfa Liang Nian Bu - Three Years of Standing Two Years of Walking).

However without these basics there is no true skill in Dai Family Xinyiquan and trying to skip this period and advance towards combat techniques would lead to nothing. For this reason Dai family Xinyiquan seems to be very difficult to promote and popularize. Even within traditional Xinyi community in Shanxi there are many who practiced hard for long time and still failed to acquire decent Dantian skill.cite>http://www.chinafrominside.com/ma/xyxy/daitech1.html</cite>