The traditional Chinese martial art known as Eagle Claw (Yīng Zhuǎ Pài 鷹爪派) is thought to be one of the oldest and most complex of the surviving Northern Shaolin kung fu systems.

Along with the long strikes and kicks that typify Northern systems, the Eagle Claw system is distinguished by its gripping techniques and system of joint locks, takedowns, and pressure point strikes, which represent one of the oldest forms of the Chinese grappling known as Chin Na.

While the details of the history alter according to the teller, with names and places shifting as they tend to do in any oral history, in essence the story of Eagle Claw began in the Shaolin Temple and in Chinese military training, became a family tradition passed on from parent to child for generations, and eventually shed its air of secrecy with the advent of public martial arts schools.

Eagle Claw is said to have been created by General Yue Fei who lived at a time of warfare between the Southern Song Dynasty and the Jurchen tribes of the Jin Dynasty. Yue credited his victories in battle to his martial arts training under a monk named Zhou Tong at Shaolin. Zhou Tong taught Yue Fei a style of joint-locks called "elephant" and the General later expanded it to create the "108 Chinna locks" of his Eagle Fist style (Ying Kuen). He taught this new style to his soldiers and they were victorious in battle. In the late Ming Dynasty Yue Fei's material is said to have made a re-appearance at a Shaolin.

Lai Chin an expert in the Fanzi boxing encountered soldiers practicing the hand techniques they called Ying Quan (Eagle Fist). After taking the time to learn and master these skills he undertook the daunting task of combining them into his pre-existing Fanziquan sets.