Drunken boxing (Chinese: 醉拳; pinyin: zuì quán), also known as Drunken Fist, is a general name for various styles of Chinese martial arts that imitate the movements of a drunk person. It is an ancient style and its origins are mainly traced back to the Buddhist and Daoist religious communities. The Buddhist style is related to the Shaolin temple while the Daoist style is based on the Daoist tale of the drunken Eight Immortals. Drunken boxing has the most unusual body movements among all styles of Chinese martial arts. Hitting, grappling, locking, dodging, feinting, ground and aerial fighting and all other sophisticated methods of combat are incorporated.

Due to a scarcity of historical sources, it is nearly impossible to point to the time or place of drunken boxing's origin, nor to trace a credible lineage of teachers and students between drunken boxing's earlier documentation and present day practice. Drunken boxing probably appeared and disappeared in different places and at different times, with little more than common cultural and martial arts context to relate the different cases of drunken boxing with each other.

The earliest written reference to drunken boxing is probably in the classic novel Water Margin, in which the Song dynasty rebel Wu Song is depicted as a master of drunken boxing.^{[citation needed]}

In the kung fu manual "Boxing Classic" (拳經; quán jīng) from the 18th century, Shaolin monks are described as practicing the style of eight drunken immortals boxing. This style is described as a technical derivative of ditangquan.

The bayingquan (八影拳; Bāyǐngquán) lineage from Henan attributes its wine boxing to the Shaolin Kung Fu style.^{[citation needed]}

Hung Ga lineages stemming from Wong Fei-hung attribute their drunken boxing to So Chan.^{[citation needed]}

Drunken boxing is not a single martial art with an established lineage and hierarchy, but rather a group of loosely related kung fu styles. In this respect, drunken boxing could also be understood as a phenomenon within kung fu. Furthermore, drunken boxing rarely appears as a complete and independent system, but rather as an advanced feature within a broader system. A martial art may include a few drunken boxing techniques, one or more drunken boxing forms, a complementary drunken boxing fighting tactic, or a more developed drunken boxing sub-system. A great variety of kung fu schools have drunken styles, but the two major schools are the Buddhist and Daoist styles:

Creation of the Buddhist style of Drunken boxing is attributed to Shaolin temple. At the beginning of the Tang dynasty (618–907 AD), 13 monks from the Shaolin temple intervened in a great war to help Li Shimin against rebel forces. The role of the monks was prominent so Li Shimin, as the next emperor, appreciated the monks' help and bestowed on them officialdom, land, and wealth. In ceremony of the victory, he sent the temple a gift of meat and wine. Because of the emperor's permission, the monks could abandon the Buddhist rule of not consuming meat and wine. This happened around 621 AD and since then, some Shaolin monks have consumed wine.