Yiquan意拳

What Yiquan is, where it comes from, and what sets it apart from other martial arts.

“Training of forms has been popular for long time, but actually it is something harmful, leading people astray.”— Wang Xiangzhai, Essence of Combat Science (~1940)

The name and its history

Wang used the name Yiquan from the mid-1920s onwards (attested from about 1926). Dachengquan appeared in 1939/40: Zhang Yuheng (Zhang Bi), a friend and supporter of Wang's, coined the name and made it public in Beijing through a newspaper article on 2 April 1940. Wang found “great accomplishment” presumptuous and returned to Yiquan in 1947:

“Knowledge really has no end. How then can we call it ‘Great Accomplishment’? There is no finishing point.”— Wang Xiangzhai

Two aims, one foundation

The same standing practice is distinguished by purpose: Yang Sheng Zhuang (养生桩, health cultivation) and Ji Ji Zhuang (技击桩, combat). Both rest on the same principles; the martial art is built on the health work. Wang always taught visitors Yang Sheng Zhuang first.

“Practice is cultivation, and cultivation is practice.”— Wang Xiangzhai

Six philosophical roots

“Learning yiquan without it’s [sic] philosophy will not bring proper results.”— Wang Xiangzhai, Essays 1940

Yiquan training is a progression from the static to the dynamic and from solo practice to combat application — carried throughout by the same principles. The stages describe a logical order, not a timetable: in practice several run side by side.

Every stage carries the same force into a new domain. Fa Li is both synthesis and hinge: “Fa Li is the synthetic expression of Zhan Zhuang, Shili and Mocabu” (Yao Chengguang). Without Fa Li, Tuishou and Sanshou remain technically sound but lack explosive power.

Constant principles — the same at every stage

The chain of learning according to Yao Chengguang

“In combat science we start from zhan zhuang. Through shi li we learn to know it, in fa li we use it, thanks to tui shou we understand it, with shi sheng we can strengthen it, in san shou we learn all the variability of changes.”— Yao Chengguang, Yiquan Essays

The maxim of the whole system: “Zhan Zhuang is the basis, Shili is the key.”

The physical foundation

Beneath the work with intent lies sober mechanics: fighting force is trained bodily force — jin (劲) is shaped bodily force, not qi (气) — and draws on the ground reaction force (Newton’s actio = reactio). The force runs from the ground along the chain leg → hip → trunk → hand. This is not a doctrine of Wang’s or Yao’s — neither of them cites Newton anywhere. It is, however, the mechanical foundation of demystification: “the phenomena are all verifiable”.

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Every term in the wiki with a detailed explanation — methods, principles, postures, types of force and technical vocabulary.

A – D

Action and ReactionPhysics · Background

Newton’s third law as a mechanical foundation — background, not doctrine (neither Wang nor Yao cites Newton): forces occur in pairs on two bodies, and for exactly that reason they do not cancel out. The most important form is the ground reaction force — the foot presses against the ground, the ground drives the body; force begins at the ground and runs along the chain leg → hip → trunk → hand (Shenfa, Fa Li). In fighting: take up the opponent’s impulse on the diagonal instead of blocking it (Shun Li Ni Xing). Cleanly distinguished: external force pairs (ground, opponent) accelerate the centre of mass and issue force; internal ones (六面争力, co-contraction of the antagonists) cancel out externally and produce only elastic pre-tension — the “taut ball” (Hun Yuan Li). It underpins the demystification (拳学是科学).

Agonist / AntagonistBiomechanics

Opposing pairs of muscles at a joint — flexor (agonist) and extensor (antagonist). Their simultaneous, weak activation is called co-contraction, and in Yiquan it is the physiological basis of Hun Yuan Li: flexors and extensors work gently against each other, so that the body is elastically pre-tensioned and joined into a unit (the image of the “taut ball”). As an internal force pair, the antagonists’ pulls cancel one another outwardly — they produce no acceleration, but joint stiffness and pre-tension. In this way Zheng Li / 六面力通试 does obey the principle of interaction (Newton’s third law), yet stays internally bound. Mo Jin is what first makes this co-contraction perceptible (level 2: “finding the surroundings”).

Alexander TechniqueBodywork · ComparisonIn detail

The oldest of the three Western bodywork methods Leos Horky sets beside Yiquan (Yiquan Essays 1996–2010, pp. 23–32) — and the root of the other two: both Ida Rolf (Rolfing) and Moshé Feldenkrais had studied it. Frederick Matthias Alexander (1869–1955), a reciter, kept losing his voice on stage and found the cause by watching himself in mirrors: he was habitually pulling his head back and down. What grew from that is teaching, not treatment. Four terms carry the work: primary control (head–neck–back organises the whole body), inhibition (stopping the habitual reaction), direction (thinking a direction instead of producing a position) and faulty sensory appreciation (the correction feels wrong). Not a Yiquan term, kept as a foil — the closeness is striking all the same: both begin at the head (Zhan Zhuang: “a silk thread at the crown”), both let an image lead rather than a muscular command (Yi), and inhibition is the closest equivalent to Wu Wei and Song as the falling away of superfluous doing. Horky’s Alexander quotation also grounds the priority of head carriage: if the head is off, the balance system is on alert and the musculature tightens protectively — a circle no instruction to relax dissolves while the cause remains. ⚠️ A popular-guide source, kept as interpretation. ⚠️ Distance: no force, no Fa Li, no partner; the target quantity is use, not Jin. Evidence: the best of the three — the ATEAM trial (BMJ 2008, 579 patients) found 18 fewer days of pain per four weeks twelve months after 24 lessons. What is established is clinical benefit in back pain — nothing about strength or fighting (demystification).

Autonomic Nervous SystemPhysiology · BackgroundIn detail

The autonomic nervous system regulates heartbeat, breathing, digestion and vascular width without conscious involvement — influenceable “not directly, at most indirectly”: through breath, posture and deliberately shaped imagery. It has two poles: the sympathetic (“ergotropic”, readiness to perform, for fight or flight) and the parasympathetic (“trophotropic”, recovery and building up) — opposites that, according to the textbooks, act “complementarily (synergistically)” and can regulate finely for exactly that reason. No primary Yiquan text knows these terms; they come from modern explanatory models brought to bear on classical practice. The point of contact is precise: the sympathetic system explicitly raises “perfusion and tone of the cardiac and skeletal musculature” — which makes Song not merely an instruction about posture but one about regulation. What is decisive, though, is the direction: the parasympathetic system innervates no skeletal muscle. Muscular relaxation therefore does not come about because a “relaxation nerve” loosens the muscle, but because the sympathetic tone falls away. The same pattern holds for the breath: inhalation does not excite the sympathetic system but inhibits the vagal brake, whereupon the pulse rises (respiratory sinus arrhythmia) — and falls again on exhalation, which gives the relaxation on the out-breath its physiological counterpart. Twice over, independently: in the autonomic system the change happens by taking away, not by switching on — the physiological counterpart of what Yiquan says through Song and Yi: not to do more, but to disturb less.

Ba Fa 八法Founder’s system

The “eight methods” (提顿吞吐沉托分闭) from Wang Xiangzhai’s combat manuscript (拳谱, 1959). Part of his late system, which unfolds in stages: out of the six forces (六力) come the eight methods, and from them nine types of fist (九拳型), twelve animal-inspired fists (十二仿生拳) and 56 model fists (模式拳). A clarification from the founder: 蠕动 (worm-like micro-movement) is not 不动 (motionlessness) — a confusion handed down through mishearing.

Baguazhang 八卦掌Internal martial art · Context

Baguazhang (八卦掌, “eight-trigram palm”) is, alongside Xingyiquan and Taijiquan, the third of the internal martial arts. It is recognisable by its circle walking: the practitioner walks a circular path while the body winds in a spiral against the direction of travel; the work is done with open palms rather than fists. The style becomes historically traceable from the mid-nineteenth century through Dong Haichuan in Beijing; its two main branches go back to his direct students — the soft, flowing Cheng style after Cheng Tinghua and the powerful, explosive Yin style after Yin Fu. Relation to Yiquan: Bagua is context, not root. Yiquan came out of Xingyiquan — but Bagua was the art of several men in Wang’s circle. He remembered Cheng Tinghua admiringly all his life: “truly like a divine dragon passing through the void”. His regard, however, was for the people, not the system: in his late writings Wang sketches a story of decline for Xingyi and Bagua alike. Yiquan took over neither the circle-walking choreography nor the trigram system; where it works in circles, that is the result of the contending force in Shili — the logic of force yes, the cosmology no (demystification).

BonesAnatomy · Background

Bones (Latin os) are “organs resistant to both compression and tension” — and in Yiquan both matter. Their compressive strength carries the load and conducts the ground reaction force upward (action and reaction); their tensile strength makes the tendon insertion zones load-bearing, where the chain muscle–tendon–bone closes. This is the anatomy behind the Song maxim “the bones support, the flesh sinks down”, and behind the metal quality of force in Hun Yuan Li: “bones and muscles hard as iron or stone; skin and flesh like cotton”. For Zhan Zhuang what counts above all is Wolff’s law of transformation: the trabeculae of the internal scaffold always lie along the actual lines of compression and tension, and bone is “no rigid structure” but in permanent remodelling. Holding under load is therefore precisely the stimulus to which the skeleton answers structurally — which is what gives the talk of “biomechanical reshaping” in Mo Jin its sense. Organically, bone consists 95 % of type I collagen, the same protein as the fascia; it is, in a manner of speaking, mineralised connective tissue. What is established is that loading shapes the architecture — not that static standing suffices for it, or protects against osteoporosis.

BreathingPrincipleIn detail

“The bridge that joins the body to nature.” The basic rule: breathe entirely naturally — neither lengthening the breath nor holding it. It develops in three steps: natural breathing → deep abdominal breathing that arises of its own accord (“the qi sinks to the dantian”) → and at the highest level, “forgetting that one breathes”. Exhalation strengthens the parasympathetic system and deepens relaxation. The image: a sea turtle swimming calmly in the depths.

Bu Dong Zhi Dong 不动之动PrincipleIn detail

Bu Dong Zhi Dong (不动之动, “the movement of non-movement”) is the Zongxun line's formula for why standing still is training: in Zhan Zhuang and in the finest Shili movement does not stop — it becomes so small that it is invisible from outside, and then works through the whole body at once. Yao Zongxun: “The movement in non-movement is the eternal movement — always growing, never ceasing.” It is usually handed down as a chain: big movement < small movement < no movement < movement in stillness. ⚠️ But Wang's original word in the third link is 蠕动 (rúdòng, worm-like micro-movement: “one stirring, and everything moves”), not 不动; the version with “no movement” he himself calls a mishearing and asks: “How can you strike anyone without moving?” (Ba Fa, 1959). Yao's formula is the continuation, not the counter-position: for him non-movement is movement — the micro-tremor of Mo Jin, growing ever finer. Three distinctions: not Wu Wei (the Daoist foil, not a training instruction), not standstill (Wang's objection is the guard-rail), not relaxation — the link runs through 身松意紧, body loose, Yi taut. Model fist no. 33 in Wang's late system.

Centre Line 中线Principle · CombatIn detail

The centre line (中线) is the most important reference in partner and combat training — and already in the stance the measure of one’s own alignment. It is the vertical line running down from the philtrum; the nose serves as a reminder. On the ground it corresponds to the “middle gate” (中门), the space between the feet: “脚踏中门夺地位” — whoever steps there takes the other’s footing away. Yao Zongxun puts it in four characters: 守中用中, guard your own centre and use the other’s. In the stance head, hand and foot stay on one line (三点一线); whoever loses the nose from the centre during sideways Mo Jin loses the structure. In Tuishou every hand threatens the other’s centre line, even the side hand; force does not act at the point of contact but through it to the centre. In Fa Li and Sanshou the front foot steps onto the partner’s centre line, and with the staff (Gun Fa) the tip aims at his nose. The centre line is a reference for force in all directions (Hun Yuan Li), not a rail: whoever only pushes straight ahead leaves his own centre precisely by doing so.

Chan Si Jin 缠丝劲Neijia mechanics

Chan Si Jin (缠丝劲, “silk-reeling force”) is the winding whole-body connection of the internal martial arts — according to Mike Sigman merely another name for six-harmonies movement (六合). The body moves as one connected unit governed from the dantian, carried by ground force (Peng Jin) and gravity — “peng + connection” are the two building blocks of internal force. A distinction to keep: 缠丝劲 (winding, spiralling) as against 抽丝劲 (drawing in a straight line). The cycle of closing → opening (顺/逆 = yin/yang) is Taiji, here as body mechanics rather than cosmology. ⚠️ Not to be confused with Shun Li Ni Xing: there 顺/逆 are a principle of combat, here they are directions of winding. Yiquan trains no visible silk-reeling choreography as Chen Taiji does, but the same elastic trunk-to-fingertip substrate as its internal connections.

Chengbao Zhuang 撑抱桩Posture

“Propping and embracing post” — 撑 “to prop, to stretch outward” and 抱 “to embrace, to hold inward”: the name already states the pair of contending forces that makes up the posture. It is the basic posture of Zhan Zhuang and counts as the most essential posture of Yiquan (20–30 minutes). Stance: feet parallel and shoulder-width apart, knees slightly bent, the seat as if set on a high bench, the crown of the head drawn upward in imagination. The hands rise in front of the chest, about 30 cm from the body, palms facing inward and higher than the elbows, fingertips towards each other, two to three fist-widths between the palms; the elbows hang down. Two images not to be confused: between each finger lies a ball of cotton wool — so the fingers are neither stiffly closed nor splayed, but naturally slightly open; the arms, by contrast, embrace a balloon in front of chest and belly: too much force and it bursts, too little and it falls. Exactly this measure is the co-contraction of the opposing muscles, and thus the physiological basis of Hun Yuan Li. To this add the image of water: standing in water that carries the arms and gives resistance at every micro-movement (→ Mo Jin). As Pingbu Chengbao Zhuang it is called “the gate to Yiquan and at the same time its temple”.

Chinese Wrestling 摔跤Martial art · Context

Chinese wrestling (摔跤 Shuaijiao) is China’s old art of gripping and throwing: you take hold of the opponent and bring him to the ground through leverage, footwork and breaking his balance. The Qing court kept its own corps of wrestlers and bodyguards for it, the 善扑营. Relation to Yiquan: wrestling is context and a source of imagery, not a root — the root is Xinyi and Xingyiquan. Yet it reaches into Yiquan at three points. (1) Two combat postures come from traditional wrestling according to C. S. Tang — the only source for this, and it does not quote Wang: Xiang Long Zhuang (“taming the dragon”) and Fu Hu Zhuang (“subduing the tiger”). As early as 1928 Wang Xiangzhai names both among the stances that are subsumed into Hunyuan Zhuang, but says nothing about where they come from. As the fighting application of Xiang Long Zhuang, Bo Jiacong describes above all throws (摔法). (2) People: Cheng Tinghua, whom Wang admired all his life, was a renowned wrestler before he learnt Baguazhang, and he fused throwing and wrestling techniques with Bagua. Within the Yiquan lineages, too, several people brought wrestling with them as prior training — Han Xingyuan, Wang Xuanjie and Li Quanyou, who practised it from childhood. Among Wang’s own students, Bu Enfu was a champion of boxing and Shuaijiao; Wang let him fight his classmates with wrestling but insisted on standing practice for explosive power, and in the 1960s lived for half a year at his wrestling school. (3) Distinction: Yiquan did not adopt a throwing system of its own. Its Tuishou is expressly “not wrestling, not a mere contest of strength”, but Shili for two. Where the hands get stuck together in free fighting, Yiquan resolves the situation not with grip and throw but with explosive Fa Li: the opponent is thrown away, not thrown down (→ Da / Fa).

ConditioningMethod · Training

Conditioning — endurance, strength, speed, mobility — is built up in Yiquan in two ways. The first is the stance itself: in Zhan Zhuang the muscles work with almost no outward movement (→ The Two Kinetics). Wang Xiangzhai describes how the muscles are mildly stimulated and the breath becomes even and calm — without the breath-holding of crude exertion (→ Breathing). Deep fighting stances such as Hunyuan Zhuang in Dingba Bu explicitly serve the endurance of the legs. The second way is ordinary conditioning for Sanshou. Yao Chengguang lists slow and fast running, skipping, hill climbing, press-ups, shadow boxing, the heavy bag and daily sparring: “Technique and physical ability cannot be separated — physical ability is the vehicle that carries your technique to its goal.” Training is done in rounds as in competition, for instance three times three minutes on the bag at full force, circling it rather than standing still. The bag and focus pads were added only under Yao Zongxun in the 1980s; his students then also trained in a stadium, linked to the research institute of the sports commission. Speed is practised only when fresh, never when tired.

Da / Fa 打 / 发Type of force

The two ways issued force takes effect: Da (striking) — short distance, small area, brief contact, penetrating effect, high risk of injury. Fa (projecting) — large area, longer contact, throws the opponent far away, low risk. “Once Fa Li is mastered, one can strike or project at will.”

Da Luan Cheng Xu 大乱程序Method · Mo Jin stage 4

“Thoroughly scrambling the order” — the fourth of five Mo Jin stages: the directions of force practised separately before (forward/back, left/right, up/down) are now switched freely, with no fixed sequence. The point is not variety but breaking free of the pattern: as long as the directions arrive in a fixed order, the order is trained along with them — only arbitrary switching separates the ability from the choreography. Yao Chengguang: “In fighting, changes of force are extremely fast. If you practise Mo Jin only in a fixed order, you will hardly be able to adapt to changing conditions.” Introduced after roughly ten months of basic practice — the stage presupposes settled single directions, otherwise it merely mixes the approximate with the approximate. It is explicitly a bridge, not a summit: that follows at Mo Jin stage 5 with Liu Mian Li Tong Shi, where the directions are no longer switched one after another but held at the same time. ⚠️ Three names for one stage: 大乱程序, 换向 Huan Xiang (“change of direction”) and 综合摸劲 Zonghe Mojin (“mixed”) → Zong He.

Dachengquan 大成拳Name

“Fist of great accomplishment” — an alternative name for Yiquan, coined in 1939/40 by Zhang Yuheng (Zhang Bi) and made public through a newspaper article; used by Wang until 1947. Wang rejected the name as presumptuous (“knowledge has no end”) and returned to Yiquan. Today both names are used synonymously. While the main Yao Zongxun lineage prefers “Yiquan”, the Wang Xuanjie branch carries “Dachengquan” as its own name and brand — with compendia of its own (health Zhan Zhuang, eighteen fighting forms).

Dan Cao Shou 单操手Training method

Dan Cao Shou (单操手, “hands practised singly”) is the repeated drilling of individual techniques outside free fighting. Rather than searching for a movement only in sparring, one drills it on its own until it is available as a reflex — the complement to Sanshou. The solo exercises prepare free application and then accompany it as a constant drill. The repertoire begins with loosening and axis work for head, shoulders, waist and hips. Then come the hand exercises — among them the snake-coiling hand, a basic skill of Tuishou, and the monkey form — followed by leg and stepping exercises and a separate training for the eyes. The conditioning against blows (抗击打) is no hard qigong: impacts are led away by yielding (泄力), the way one receives a thrown ball. Above all of it stands one maxim: the body works harder than the hands. The hands stay almost in place; trunk and legs carry the movement. What is trained is Shenfa and Fa Li, not fixed striking patterns.

Dan Tian 丹田Concept · disputedIn detail

“Cinnabar field”, the traditional energy centre — critically renegotiated within Yiquan. Wang used the term positively in 1928, then criticised it in the 1940s as anatomically wrong (“what is there is stomach, intestine, liver — no place for qi”). The Yao lineage reframes it: an area between the navel and Ming Men (not a point), condensed into a “motor”. Yao Zongxun: “the whole body must become a dantian.” In traditional language: qi must not stagnate in the dantian but should fill the whole body — meaning that force must not lodge in one place.

DemystificationLeitmotifIn detail

“Martial art is science, not myth” (拳学是科学而不是神话). In his principal work (1988) Yao Zongxun rejects occult myths five times over: the empty force (空劲), killing by pressure point (点穴), “running over walls and roofs”, the doctrine of generation through the five phases, and mystery-mongering in general (神秘). This is the sharpest primary contrast to the empty-force line around You Peng Xi and Liang Zi Peng — “Yiquan” is no monolith: on 空劲 the main and southern lineages stand opposed. Put positively, mechanics supplies the sober counter-explanation: fighting force is trained bodily force (劲 jin is shaped bodily force, not 气 qi), resting on action and reaction and on the ground reaction — “you need not believe me, the phenomena are all verifiable”.

Dingba Bu 丁八步Stance

The T-and-eight step: one foot opens to 45°, the other points straight ahead, offset outward by one foot’s width; the heel of the front foot slightly raised, about 70 % of the weight on the rear leg. “Half 丁 (ding), half 八 (ba).” It combines a stable base with quick reactivity; the basis for Shili, Mocabu, Tuishou and Sanshou.

Du Li Zhuang 独立桩Stance · CombatIn detail

The one-leg stance among the combat stances: the standing leg carries alone, the other hangs some 30–40 cm above the ground, as if holding a ball between foot and shin. The arms are placed as in Hunyuan Zhuang; head, front hand and standing foot lie on one line. The image: merged with a tree reaching to the sky, with a spring between the head and each foot. What is sought is the same Hun Yuan Li as in the two-legged stance — through Mo Jin in six directions, each with one main force and two supplementary ones (forward: closing and pressing down; up: forward and closing; down: back and opening …). The movement stays barely visible and stops as soon as it can be felt; later the directions change without fixed order (Da Luan Cheng Xu). An advanced stance: it presupposes a sound Hunyuan Zhuang, strengthens balance and legs, and prepares for low kicks and stamping kicks. If tension creeps in, the image is suspended until muscles and joints are loose again; if the raised leg tires, it may hang lower.

E – K

Empty Force / Ling Kong Jin 灵空劲disputed

A “force acting without contact”, developed by You Peng Xi (with the mesmerist Le Huan Zhi) and inspired by tantric practice. Not part of standard Yiquan, and in contradiction to the main lineage (Yao Zongxun: no supernatural powers; Yiquan as a science of combat). Controversially discussed in the West.

External Connections 身外争力 / 假借Principle · Practice

External connections (身外争力, “contending force outside the body”; the tool for it is “borrowing”, 假借) are the counterpart to the internal connections (身内争力). What is meant are the lines of force projected outward into the distance through the intent, between the body and distant objects in the surroundings: threads or springs running from the fingers to a far-off tree, to the horizon, to the air, or to an imagined opponent. Where the internal connections couple one part of the body to another, the external ones couple the body to the outside world. The tool is Jiajie (假借, “borrowed imagination”): external anchors that are not there are treated in the Yi as real, and from them one “borrows” force (假借之力). The model case is Gou Gua (勾挂, “hook and hang”): springs run out to the distant tree — moving forward one compresses them, and with the hooks of the fingers one draws them back; the force lives in the taut line between hand and distant anchor, not in the arm alone. This is how 宇宙争力 arises (the contending force between body and surroundings) — the external force pair alongside the internal pre-tension. With it grows the mature aim of being “merged with every part of the surroundings”: the force does not end at the palm but reaches out into space (the basis for Fa Li through the target and for the sense of distance in Sanshou). Not to be confused with the three external harmonies (外三合) of the Six Harmonies (六合), which are mere coordination of the limbs.

Fa Li 发力Method · Stage 5In detail

Explosive issuing of force — the synthesis of Zhan Zhuang, Shili and Mocabu in one sudden, whole-body impulse. Four factors: nervous activation, ground reaction, contradictory forces, and pulsation. Two phases: gathering → issuing (and straight back into relaxation).

Fang Song 放松Principle · fundamentalIn detail

“True relaxation” — the mark that distinguishes real Yiquan from false: “if there’s no FangSong, there’s no YiQuan” (Yao Zongxun). Outwardly soft as dough (“like flour mixed with water, like the body of a newly born baby” — Wang), inwardly alive and full. It is the precondition for the Yi Nian to flow freely through the body, and one of the three inseparable factors of Zhan Zhuang.

FasciaAnatomy · BackgroundIn detail

Fascia (Latin fascia, “band”) are the sheet-like connective-tissue sheaths of the muscles — in the broad reading, all collagenous fibre structures. No primary Yiquan text speaks of them; the term comes from modern explanatory models brought to bear on classical practice. Three properties touch the training directly. Deep fascia are densely furnished with proprioceptors and are thus the tissue in which Mo Jin finds anything at all. “Mo” means groping in the dark; what is groped for is one’s own proprioception, not objects — and out of that Ting Jin is sharpened. They transmit force, which therefore does not travel by muscle–tendon–bone alone. And their stiffness is adjustable rather than constant, which corresponds to the Song/Jin alternation. On this tissue Mike Sigman bases his image of the “suit”: when the centre moves, hands and feet follow through the tensile connection — the same idea that explains the outer Six Harmonies. The underlying model of continuous myofascial chains originates with Ida P. Rolf (Rolfing) and became, through her student Thomas Myers, the widespread line anatomy. A blanket “disputed” is too coarse for it: a systematic review (Wilke et al. 2016, 62 anatomical dissection studies) examines the lines one by one and find the Back Line and both Functional Lines strongly supported, the Spiral and Lateral Lines in part, and no evidence for the Front Line. What was examined, though, is only tissue continuity in cadavers. The core therefore stands: that fascia conduct and feel force is anatomy; that they hang together is established for the back; that these pulls can be trained deliberately remains interpretation (demystification).

Feldenkrais MethodBodywork · ComparisonIn detail

Awareness Through Movement — somatic learning work by the physicist and judoka Moshé Feldenkrais (1904–1984): small, slow movements performed with alert attention, verbally guided in a group or one-to-one through touch. Not a Yiquan term, kept here as a foil — though an unusually close one, because it comes out of martial art: Feldenkrais met Jigorō Kanō (嘉納治五郎) in Paris in 1933, earned his black belt in 1936 and co-founded the Ju-Jitsu Club de France — the same judo root (柔道) as Kenichi Sawai. The documented point of contact is Leos Horky’s essay (Yiquan Essays 1996–2010, pp. 23–32), where he is the most substantially quoted Western author. Three parallels carry weight: his rule of posture — “the bones counteract gravity so that the muscles stay free for movement” — is the mechanical aim of Zhan Zhuang (bones); his criterion of reversibility — an act must be stoppable and reversible at any instant, without preliminary adjustment and without effort — describes almost verbatim the contradictory force (Zheng Li); and the deliberate smallness of the movement, justified by the Weber–Fechner law, is the same logic as the slowness of Shili and the micro-movement of Mo Jin. ⚠️ The purpose remains fundamentally different: Feldenkrais aims at learning, not force — no Fa Li, no partner, and repetition counts there as a danger where Yiquan treats it as the path. Evidence: a 2022 meta-analysis (16 RCTs) found better mobility in older people but only parity with conventional physiotherapy for pain — quality mostly “fair”, no blinding.

Fu Hu Zhuang 伏虎桩PostureIn detail

“Holding down the tiger” — the lowest and most demanding combat posture in Yiquan. A large stance (about 60–70 cm), the front heel empty, knees bent, the seat settling; palms on the inside of the knees, fingers pointing down; weight 70 % on the rear leg — here the system standard applies, unlike in Xiang Long Zhuang. Sense and purpose: (1) strong legs for atypical fighting positions — Yao Chengguang names Fu Hu and Xiang Long in one breath for this; (2) explicitly the building of force for large steps in every direction — the posture is thus the reservoir of power for the third Mocabu stage, the large step; (3) a resistance that works back: where Hunyuan Zhuang embraces a motionless tree, this posture holds down an animal that breaks out tirelessly in every direction — which makes the Mo Jin dialogical, every direction an answer to an attempted escape; (4) and with it the search for force travels from the arm into the whole body: left and right here is not an opening of the arms as in Hunyuan Zhuang but a movement of the whole body, with opening and closing taking place between the legs; (5) purpose in application: the large stance is the starting position for withdrawing the leg (撤腿). The front foot pushes off, the lower leg draws back, the upper body tips forward, and the protruding kneecap becomes the weapon (膝发力, issuing force with the knee); then one lands back in the stance. It is meant as an answer to a kick against the shin: the kick slides off the slope of the withdrawn leg, and in the same movement the knee goes into the opponent. The maxim: 神意足，不求形骸似 — let the spirit-intent be full; outward likeness of form is not required (Bo Jiacong). Its counterpart is Xiang Long Zhuang; both names come from the Buddhist formula 降龙伏虎 (“subduing the dragon, holding down the tiger”), the imagery from Shaolin wall paintings.

Gun Fa 棍法Weapon

The staff method — the weapons training of Yiquan and, in the Yao lineage, the only weapon practised systematically. The basic idea: the staff is the “extension of Hun Yuan Li into space” — not a weapon system of its own but the unarmed force carried over onto the staff. Wang Xiangzhai puts it in 拳道中枢: 拳成兵器就，莫专习刀枪 (“when the fist is complete the weapons follow — do not practise sabre and spear in isolation”); whoever possesses the force of the fist can wield any weapon (刀 / 枪 / 剑 / 棍) after brief instruction. The prerequisites are therefore the basic skills Zhan Zhuang, Shili, Mocabu and Fa Li. Grip: 半把杆 Ban Ba Gan (half grip) — thumb parallel along the staff, fingers only lightly closed; it protects the fingers when the opponent strikes along the edge of the staff. Two core exercises carry the Shili → Fa Li scheme over onto the staff: 摩杆试力 Mo Gan Shili (rubbing the staff against a tree, forward and back in Ding Ba Bu — inward spiralling force going forward, outward coming back) and 划杆发力 Hua Gan Fa Li (the tip of the staff glides onto the opponent’s centre line or nose, penetrating — on the spot and with a step). To these is added a two-staff partner exercise — the weapon counterpart to Tuishou.

Half Step 半步Footwork · Combat principle

The half step (半步) is not a step for getting forward but a means of regulating distance: the opponent attacks, and one goes half a step back and immediately forward again. The measure is the whole point — the retreat goes just far enough that the attack grasps at nothing, but not so far that one gives up one’s own striking distance. A full step back would let the opponent escape; the half step keeps him within range, and going forward again catches him at full extension. That this belongs to footwork and not to hand technique is stated by the maxim 脚打七分，手打三 — “the foot strikes seven parts, the hand three”. It came from Xingyiquan by way of Guo Yunshen, bound to that art’s crushing fist 崩拳; hence Guo’s byname 半步崩拳打天下 — “undefeated through the world with the half-step Bengquan”. Tradition has it that Guo developed the step in the condemned cell, where leg irons confined him to a short step; this is not documented. The best-known application story is told by the southern lineage: when Ma Cheng Xin challenged Wang Xiangzhai and would not give up after the first exchange, Wang asked him what he had eaten — “noodles”. In the second round he struck him in the stomach with 半步崩捶, whereupon Ma vomited up those very noodles. Wang laughed: “at least you are honest.” An anecdote from a single late source, not evidence.

Hun Yuan Li 混元力Target forceIn detail

“Force of the original unity” — the target force of Yiquan: elastic, explosive, available in every direction; it coordinates all parts of the body into an organic whole. Wang defines it (1928) through a syncretism of the five phases read as qualities of force: metal (hard as iron, skin like cotton), wood (bent-and-straight), water (fluid as dragon or snake), fire (explosive as thunder), earth (round, heavy, solid). “In movement, all the joints always hold the two contending forces.” Physically this six-sided counter-tension is an internal force pair (co-contraction): it obeys Newton’s third law but cancels out externally, producing elastic pre-tension rather than movement. Only the external ground reaction (与地心争力) delivers it as force.

Hunyuan Zhuang 混元桩PostureIn detail

“Embracing the tree” — the most important combat posture and the basis for Mo Jin and Fa Li. T-stance (Dingba Bu), 70 % of the weight on the rear leg; the left hand at mouth height, the right at shoulder height; the image: a giant embracing an enormous tree, with “springs” connecting hands, limbs and tree. In some schools the same stance goes by the name Maodun Zhuang (矛盾桩, “contradiction posture”) — after the principle of simultaneous contending forces; there is no evidence that Wang renamed it. Defined in 1928 as the synthesis of all the stances.

Internal Connections 身内争力Principle · PracticeIn detail

Internal connections (身内争力, Shēn Nèi Zhēng Lì, “contending force inside the body”) are the practical, step-by-step training form of the internal contending force (争力). The principle of simultaneously acting, mutually opposed force pairs is translated into named connections between concrete parts of the body: finger to finger, the wrists, elbow to elbow, knee to knee and, in the stance, the diagonal “main connections” front knee to rear hip and head to front foot. Each connection is formed through the intent and given a material quality (thread, rubber band, “magnetic feeling”, steel spring) that determines how it behaves. The build-up runs in three stages: feel the connection → let it draw together and press apart while relaxed → actively press and pull while tensed, in the Song/Jin alternation. It is worked through stance by stance: parallel stance (Píng Bù), step stance (Dīng Bā Bù), friction step (Mocabu, fixed and walking) up to Shili while walking (Zǒu Bù Shì Lì), where the arm and leg connections are deliberately decoupled. Physiologically this is the co-contraction of the antagonists broken down joint pair by joint pair — the same elastic pre-tension that is sought in Zhan Zhuang as a whole-body “ball” (Hun Yuan Li) and felt out in Mo Jin.

Ji Ji Zhuang 技击桩CategoryIn detail

The combat standing postures (as against Yang Sheng Zhuang). All follow the same principle — Mo Jin in six directions and mixed — and differ only in the position and angle of the body, “so that Hunyuan Li can be used in any fighting situation” (Yao Zongxun). The standard weight distribution is 70 % on the rear leg; the exception is Xiang Long Zhuang (70 % forward). The combat postures too are practised in three bodily positions — standing, sitting, lying (站坐躺). This is emphatically not a makeshift for the infirm: when sitting, the feet are lifted clear of the floor, the drive from the legs falls away, and Hun Yuan Li must be carried by the Yi alone — sitting detaches the search for force from the ground reaction. What is trained is holding the whole-body force even in unfavourable positions: on the ground, lying down, under one-sided load.

Ji Yang Yi Ti 击养一体Guiding idea

“Unity of combat and health cultivation” — the guiding idea of Wang’s late period: 技击 (combat) and 养生 (health) are not opposites but two sides of the same practice. Condensed in the sentence “practice is cultivation, and cultivation is practice”. It is the reason Wang always taught visitors the health standing first.

Jiajie 假借Method

“Borrowed imagination” — the visualisation images of Zhan Zhuang and Mo Jin (standing in the ocean, embracing a balloon, a silk thread at the crown …). To be applied in pulses, never fixed permanently; chosen according to the aim of training and the state of health. At the Ji Ji posture the images change to the situation of an enemy (wild animals, powerful opponents).

Jian Jia 间架Combat principle

Jian Jia (间架, “framework”; synonymous 肩架, “shoulder frame”) is the fighting frame: the arrangement of arms, trunk and legs from which one guards and strikes. It is not a stance of its own but the fighting stance (Ji Ji Zhuang) in Dingba Bu, ready to move. Yao Chengrong sums up the connection in one sentence: “The frame of standing is the frame of fighting” — what is practised in Zhan Zhuang is already the framework of combat. What it looks like: weight mostly on the rear leg, knees slightly bent, arms rounded; the front hand does not reach beyond one’s own toes, the rear hand protects chin and chest, the head stays behind the hands. Bo Jiacong stresses that the triangle between neck and elbows stays fixed and that the frame does not collapse even after a miss. What it does: it guards and redirects the opponent’s force in the same instant, it keeps distance and the centre line, and it carries whole-body force (Hun Yuan Li). Outwardly it resembles a boxer’s guard (Western boxing), inwardly it does not. Open: some teachers ask for the frame to be “fixed”, others say “the body has no fixed position, the hands no fixed shape” and use high, middle and low frames. Most likely the frame is a relationship — angles, distances, weight — not a rigid pose.

Jian Wu 健舞Method · Stage 8In detail

“Health dance” — the highest stage of training: a free, dance-like synthesis of every method, “between intent and no intent”. Four classical sequences (after Tang): stirring waves 挥浪, swimming dragon 游龙, crane at play 鹤戏, startled snake 惊蛇 — the same four images that Wang analyses as fighting forms (→ Si Xing).

Jin, Li and Qi 劲 / 力 / 气Basic terms · Force

Three Chinese words that in English all come out as “force”, “strength” or “energy” — and the difference between them explains why Yiquan is not qigong. 力 Li is ordinary strength, the kind with which you lift a suitcase. 劲 Jin is shaped force: it begins at the ground, runs through the connected body and is directed by the intent. Everyone has Li; Jin has to be earned. And it is not an energy but a skill; in someone who is tense, Jin decays back into Li. 气 Qi, finally, is the term on which Yiquan contradicts tradition most plainly: where Chinese medicine sees a circulating life energy, Yiquan means something tangible — the breath, the warmth that appears of itself during standing, or the forces present in things: the ground, gravity, air resistance. In short: fighting force is trained bodily force — jin is shaped li, not qi (demystification). This is why the target force of Yiquan is called Hun Yuan Li and not “Hun Yuan Qi”. ⚠️ The southern lineage around You Peng Xi sees this differently and practises the “empty force” (空劲, empty force).

Jing 精Philosophy · TCM

Jing (精, “essence”; literally fine, pure, gathered) is the densest of the Three Treasures (三宝): 精 → 气 → 神, essence → qi → shen. In Chinese medicine it is the stored life substance — partly inborn (先天), partly replenished through food and breath (后天) — the basis of constitution and endurance. In Yiquan jing is not a training term. It appears explicitly in health cultivation: Wang Yufang, Wang Xiangzhai’s daughter, names the three treasures 精气神 in class as the inner substance that standing strengthens (→ Yang Sheng Zhuang). More often 精 sits in compounds where it means “gathered, vital”: 精神 (spirit, mental force), 精神集中 (gathered attention), 精神假借 (borrowing through the imagination, → Yi Nian). As with qi, the lineage stays sober: 精 means constitution and vitality, not a secret substance; inner alchemy (炼精化气, “refining jing into qi”) is background, not doctrine (→ demystification). Not to be confused with 劲 jìn (shaped force, → Jin, Li and Qi) or 静 jìng (stillness).

Kua 胯Body · StructureIn detail

The joint region between trunk and leg — the hip joint together with the inguinal crease, the place where the body folds as it settles into a posture. No English word quite fits it, which is why the Chinese term is kept. Yao Chengguang calls it the big spring: “Fit a shock absorber at the hip — all later force generation comes out of the hip.” The Kua is at the same time the handover point of the force chain: in the scheme 三段九节 (Three Sections, Nine Segments) it appears twice — as the last link of the middle section and the first of the lower one, exactly where the ground reaction passes into the trunk. In standing two of the “eight balls” lie in the Kua; the visible check is the crease line across the thigh — if it does not appear, only the knees are bent. It is coupled through the back to Ming Men (opening Ming Men opens the Kua), sits lower in the side postures (Ji Ji Zhuang) than in the front ones, and carries a direction of force of its own in Fa Li, Kua Fali. Unlike Dan Tian or Ming Men it was never mystically charged — it has been described mechanically from the outset (→ demystification).

L – S

Large Step 大步Footwork · Combat principle

The large step (大步) is the third and last stage of the Mocabu progression (fixed → step → large step) — and not merely a “bigger step”. The first two stages practise even resistance (“as if through mud”); the large step deliberately breaks that continuity: the rear leg gives force suddenly, the body springs forward as though colliding with something and hurling it away. The step is twice as long as Dingba Bu, the front foot lands evenly, and the rear one restores the starting stance; it can also be practised backwards. It is therefore the point at which footwork and Fa Li merge (Zou Bu Fa Li). In Sanshou, 大步 serves to close the distance quickly — unlike the half step, which regulates it. Not to be confused with 大步桩 / 大步鹰桩 (大式桩) — that is a standing posture, not a step.

Liu He Ba Fa 六合八法拳Internal martial art · Context

Liu He Ba Fa (六合八法拳, “six-harmonies eight-methods boxing”; in full 华岳心意六合八法拳, also widely known as 水拳, “water boxing”) is a martial art in its own right — not part of Yiquan. It appears in this glossary for two reasons: its name is built from the same two components as two Yiquan terms, and the man who transmitted it belonged to Wang Xiangzhai’s closest circle of exchange. The confusion at issue: both arts carry a “六合” and a “八法” in their vocabulary — meaning different things. Yiquan’s Ba Fa are 提顿吞吐沉托分闭 (from Wang’s 1959 manuscript); the eight methods of Liu He Ba Fa are 气骨形随提还勒伏 (qi · bone · form · following · lifting · returning · reining in · concealing). Of eight characters each, exactly one is shared: 提. Likewise, Yiquan’s Six Harmonies are the 三合 scheme inherited from Xingyiquan, which Wang in 1928 expressly attached a warning to — not the name component of this other system. Wu Yihui’s own formula runs 六合为体，八法为用 (“the six harmonies are the substance, the eight methods their application”). Origin: the art is attributed to Chen Tuan (陈抟, also 陈希夷), a Song-dynasty Daoist scholar of Mount Hua — an attribution without evidence, which Chinese accounts themselves expressly mark as unsubstantiated. It becomes historically tangible only with Wu Yihui (吴翼翚, 1887–1958), the first to teach it publicly and head of education at the Central Guoshu Academy from 1936. The point of contact with Yiquan is personal, not methodological: Wang and Wu were friends in Shanghai from 1928, and Wang counted Wu among the “two and a half” true connoisseurs (通家) he ever met — Wu being the “half”. The Four Diamond Warriors also trained with him. What remains unresolved is whether Wang sent them there, as widely repeated accounts claim, or whether Han Xingqiao, for one, had already studied there before his time with Wang; the four-students claim carries no external citation. Any substantive influence on Yiquan methodology is nowhere documented — what is documented is personal contact, not adoption of teaching.

Liu Mian Li Tong Shi 六面力通试Method · Mo Jin stage 5

“Testing the six-directional force throughout” — the fifth and highest stage of Mo Jin. Its purpose is not to master more directions but to abolish the decision: switching between directions (→ Da Luan Cheng Xu) takes a moment, and in contact that moment is the gap. Hence no preferred point of reference: all six directions tensed simultaneously, the body “as if merged with everything on earth”. The level aimed at is a conditioned reflex — contact = immediate discharge of force, with no delay. Wang Xiangzhai: “on the whole body there is no place without a spring; touch it and the force discharges at once.” Yao Zongxun: “the entire body is as if fully electrically charged.” Both images describe stored, undirected readiness — a spring chooses no direction, it returns whatever meets it. Explicitly framed as a simplification rather than a summit of technique: “it is not 18 or 36 fa, it is ten thousand fa — gathered into one highest fa.” The posture itself thereby becomes a fighting posture: the same combat readiness at rest. ⚠️ Spelling: the Correspondence Courses write 六面力通试 (“testing throughout”), Joseph P. Lau (Yao Chengrong line) 六面同时摸力 (“sensing simultaneously”) — two attested spellings from two lines, short form 六面力. The underlying principle of force — the six-sided opposing force 六面争力 — has its own entry: Liu Mian Zheng Li.

Liu Mian Zheng Li 六面争力Types of forceIn detail

Six-sided opposing force (六面争力, “contending force of the six faces”) — the full form of Zheng Li: all three axes of the body are tensed against each other at the same time — up ↔ down (crown lifts, feet press into the ground), front ↔ back (push ↔ pull), left ↔ right (open ↔ close). When this counter-tension is in balance, it is Hun Yuan Li — “a tyre full of high-pressure gas that answers every touch”. In short: Zheng Li is the building block, Liu Mian Zheng Li the complete structure, Hun Yuan Li the state. It is built up step by step — Wang Xiangzhai in 1939: first two opposing forces, then all parts of the body and all planes; in Mo Jin it is level 3, “finding the hunyuan”. Mechanically it is an internal force pair (co-contraction of the antagonists): it does not move the centre of mass but creates pre-tension — the store that Fa Li suddenly breaks (“the body like a drawn bow”). No muscular effort: whoever clamps all six directions turns stiff. ⚠️ Not to be confused with Liu Mian Li Tong Shi (六面力通试), the fifth Mo Jin training stage (in Lau 六面同时摸力): 六面争力 says what is tensed; 六面力通试, how far it has been trained.

Maodun Zhuang 矛盾桩Posture

The “contradiction posture”: opposed forces between front and back generate the contradictory force (矛盾力). In some schools another name for Hunyuan Zhuang; Wang Yufang lists it separately as the fourth of her 31 forms, documented photographically. It illustrates the basic principle of simultaneous contending forces out of which Hun Yuan Li arises.

Ming Men 命门Concept · Body

“Gate of life” — a point on the rear midline between the kidneys (lumbar vertebrae L2–L3). In Yiquan it has two functions that must be kept apart. Anatomically and structurally it is the alignment hinge of the lumbar spine — “opening the Ming Men” (tucking the pelvis, chin in, crown up) flattens the lordosis and turns the trunk into a path for transmitting force (Zhan Zhuang). Energetically it is the rear wall of the dantian understood as an area (navel ↔ Ming Men, in the Yao lineage; Yang Shen Zhuang 养神桩, the “spirit-nourishing posture”, is according to Tang the one in which qi sensation appears fastest). As with the dantian, the modern reading shifts the emphasis from a mystical energy point to a functional hinge (demystification).

Mo Jin 摸劲Method · Stage 2In detail

“Feeling for the force” — the micro-transition between Zhan Zhuang and Shili: minimal movement within the posture, feeling the resistance of the imagined tree in six directions. Three levels: finding the body → finding the surroundings → finding the Hunyuan.

Mocabu 摩擦步Method · Stage 4In detail

“Friction step” — the footwork of Yiquan: the feet move as though through mud, the soles almost brushing the ground. The rubbing happens only in the imagination — the sole glides one to two centimetres above the ground. The images of the “iron cylinder” and of running “on rails” describe a body that carries the ground reaction without loss. Footwork is justified by distance: retreat too little before an attack and you are hit; retreat too far and the counter-attack is lost (→ half step). Three stages: fixed step → Zoubu → large step; its standing counterpart is the one-leg stance Du Li Zhuang.

Monkey Form 猴形 / 猿猴攀藤Solo exercise · Animal form

The monkey form comes from the twelve animal forms of Xingyiquan and is the best-attested animal trace in Yiquan — on two levels. As a solo exercise: 猿猴攀藤 (“the monkey climbs the vine”) belongs to the repertoire of the solo exercises. Both hands circle in parallel from the thighs up to the face while the body squats down and rises again. What is trained is mobility in rising and sinking — and what holds for every solo exercise holds here: the shifting of the body must work harder than the hands. In application (“ghost drilling hand”, 鬼扯钻) one props the opponent’s extended hand aside and attacks in the same movement: his arm is the vine the monkey climbs. Purpose: to go from arm contact straight into a chain of strikes without pausing, whichever hand the opponent attacks with. The chain strike itself runs like this: do not withdraw the hand after contact, use the opponent’s elbow as a lever, pull and strike; if the fist misses, the elbow follows. That the exercise comes from the monkey form is not a retrospective construction — the instructional film that shows it derives it that way explicitly. In the founder: the image is older still. Already in his combat manuscript of 1959 Wang Xiangzhai lists the monkey among the four animal forms of the eight-method model fist (Ba Fa). What matters is how the same verse ends: 仿生无形学其力 — “imitate the living thing without its form: learn its force.” What remains of the animal is the quality of its force; the shape falls away (demystification).

MusculatureAnatomy · Background

Musculature (Latin musculus, “little mouse” — a tensed muscle moves under the skin like a mouse). Physiologically, Zhan Zhuang is an isometric contraction: “force increases while the length of the muscle stays the same” — the deadlocked tug of war with which this site illustrates Yu Yong Nian’s two kinetics thus lands on a technical term: full force, no travel. Shili, by contrast, is auxotonic: force and length change together, only very slowly. What Yiquan calls contending force is physiologically the interplay of antagonists — Zheng Li is the deliberate co-activation of an agonist–antagonist pair, out of which Hun Yuan Li arises. That a muscle can contract no further once its counterpart is maximally stretched (passive insufficiency) explains mechanically why one never works in end positions — the elbow stays at 90° or more. The muscle spindles, as stretch receptors, complement the fascia as the substrate of proprioception; the outer sheath of the muscle (the epimysium) is itself a fascia, and the two tissues are nested within one another. Two reservations remain: Yu Yong Nian’s division into “working” and “resting” muscles is his own teaching model — myology knows fibre types, motor units and functional roles, but no class of muscle that rests in everyday life. And isometrically no mechanical work is done; the rise in pulse and warmth during standing is metabolic, not mechanical.

Patting System 拍打艺术Cool-down

A tapping method used after Zhan Zhuang, transmitted by Wang Yufang (Wang’s daughter): the hands tap along the meridian lines (neck → shoulders → arms → chest → legs → stomach) with four fist shapes (dragon, tiger, phoenix and leopard fist). According to tradition it loosens the tissue and aids recovery after long standing — a claim of the source, not evidence. It was once regarded as “secret knowledge”.

Peng and Lü 掤捋Taiji term · comparison

Peng and Lü are terms from Taijiquan, not Yiquan terms: two of the eight basic forces of taiji. Peng (掤, “to prop, to expand”) is the elastically tensed structure connected to the ground that does not buckle under pressure (→ Peng Jin). Lü (捋, “to stroke back”, rollback) is yielding: taking up the incoming force and leading it past oneself, to the side or backward. In push hands the two alternate constantly; together they belong to Hun Yuan Li, and within Lü, Peng is kept: yielding without going slack. Counterparts in Yiquan (related in substance, with terms of their own): Peng corresponds to the outward-propping side of the contending force, the 撑 (“to prop”) of Chengbao Zhuang. Lü corresponds to the 顺 (“going with the force”) of Shun Li Ni Xing and Zhao Daoxin’s 化 (“dissolving”). Yiquan describes the alternation itself as 松紧转换, the change between loose and firm (the Song–Jin dialectic), carried by listening to force (Ting Jin) — Yao Chengguang: “If you are slack it doesn’t work; if you are too tense you cannot change.”

Peng Jin 掤劲Type of force

Peng Jin (掤劲, “ground-path force”, Mike Sigman) is the fundamental force of the internal martial arts: the solidity of the ground conducted through the connected body from the foot into the hand. The classical formula: force “begins in the feet, is directed by the waist and expressed in the hands”; the Yiquan mnemonic verses say the same — 力从足生 (“force springs from the foot”), 消息全凭后足蹬 (“everything depends on the push of the rear foot”). In Yiquan, Peng is the external, ground-reactive side of the contending force (与地心争力): what the body stores as elastic pre-tension is delivered as force along the Peng path (→ action and reaction, Fa Li). Unlike Taiji, Yiquan keeps no separate Peng “register of jin” (掤捋挤按), but the thing itself — rooting plus whole-body ground force — is identical, and part of Hun Yuan Li (on its alternation with yielding → Peng and Lü). ⚠️ Not to be confused with merely “bracing the rear leg”: the force of that goes almost entirely forward instead of being balanced on six sides — the opposite of the 六面争力 balance.

Pingbu 平步Stance

The parallel stance: feet parallel, shoulder-width apart. The starting position for the basic standing and for most Shili exercises; the weight distribution is typically 50/50 to 60/40.

ProprioceptionBiomechanics · Perception

Proprioception (“the body’s perception of itself”) is the sense of one’s own position, tension and movement in space — fed by receptors in muscles, tendons, joints and fascia, and evaluated by the nervous system. In Yiquan it is the perceptual foundation: the whole of the training aims not at outward form but at feeling inward. This is exactly what Mo Jin gropes for — “Mo” (groping in the dark for something unknown) means groping for proprioception inside the body, not for physical objects. The first of its three levels, “finding the body”, is pure proprioception: learning to feel the force of skin, flesh, tendons and bone (at first as pulling, warmth, numbness or swelling — the normal signs of adaptation; sharp joint pain, by contrast, is a warning sign). Only on this basis do level 2 (sensing the imagined surroundings) and level 3 (the six-sided contending force / Hun Yuan Li) become accessible. The co-contraction of the antagonists too — the “fully inflated balloon” pre-tension — is first experienced proprioceptively. The sense is trained primarily in silent Zhan Zhuang and in the Song/Jin alternation, and tested in movement in Shili. Proprioception is thus the demystified, physiologically graspable reverse side of notions traditionally described as “feeling the qi” (demystification).

Qi 气Philosophy · TCM

Qi (气, “life energy / breath”; literally, to begin with, vapour or breath) is the most many-sided term in Chinese philosophy and medicine. As the middle of the Three Treasures (三宝), qi stands between jing (精, essence) and shen (神, spirit): 精 → 气 → 神 — the material essence refines into circulating energy, whose finest manifestation is the spirit. Qi is the term Yiquan demystifies most strongly: depending on context, 气 means (1) breath and trunk work (内练一口气 → breathing, Shi Sheng), (2) the warmth and circulation that arise naturally during standing, (3) the “energy in things” (ground, gravity, air → Peng Jin). For the decisive distinction — fighting force = jin (劲 = 力), not qi — see Jin, Li and Qi; the main lineage rejects the far-acting 空劲 (“empty force”) as mystification.

Qi Miao Fa Men 七妙法门Early form

“Seven wondrous methods” — the early conceptual version of the later staged chain of training, attested in the Shanghai maturity or Dachengquan period.

Quan Fa 拳法Striking technique

The striking techniques of Sanshou — four types of fist (Bu-Zhi-De-Zhi / Zuan / Zai / Heng Quan), practised on the spot, with a step and at a run (Paobu Quan). A distinction is drawn between 打 (penetrating striking) and 发 (projecting). It goes back to Yao Zongxun’s integration of Western boxing into Yiquan.

Quan Shen Li Yi 全身力一Principle

“The whole body is (as) one force.” An expression of whole-body coordination: every partial force in the body is only a part of the total force that arises (全 whole · 身 body · 力 force · 一 one). Closely related to the 如 criterion 体整如铸 (“as if cast in one piece”) and to Hun Yuan Li.

Relaxation / Song 松Principle

Emphasised first in training: tradition says that only in a relaxed body do qi and blood flow freely — soberly put, only without counter-tension does the body work as a whole. Not going limp, but “relaxation without slackness” — the image is the tiger lying lazily in the sun, outwardly loose, inwardly full of force. Six methods: mental relaxation, a relaxed face (“almost smiling”), relaxing on the out-breath, gentle micro-movement, and active and passive adjustment of the posture.

RolfingBodywork · ComparisonIn detail

Structural Integration — manual bodywork by the biochemist Ida P. Rolf (1896–1979): in ten roughly hour-long sessions a practitioner works the connective tissue to realign the body in the gravitational field; her formula is “fascia is the organ of body-control”. Not a Yiquan term and mentioned in no primary text — the resemblances are convergence, not influence. The one documented point of contact is an essay by Leos Horky (Yiquan Essays 1996–2010, pp. 23–32), placing Yiquan beside Rolfing, Feldenkrais and the Alexander Technique. More important than the parallel is the pedigree: the model of continuous myofascial chains originates with Rolf and became, through her student Thomas Myers, the widespread line anatomy — right down to Mike Sigman’s image of the “suit” and thus to the fascial reading of the Six Harmonies; the line-by-line evidence is given under fascia. ⚠️ The contrast with Yiquan remains fundamental: another’s hand instead of one’s own Yi, ten hours instead of years, a state instead of the regulating capacity of the Song/Jin alternation; no Fa Li, no partner. Evidence: six randomised trials with some 216 participants at very low certainty (Natural Therapies Review 2024, not recommended for rebate). Rolfing thus stands on weaker ground than the findings it argues from — the same pattern as under demystification, only in a different vocabulary: collagen instead of Qi.

Rou Shou 柔手Term

“Soft hands” — Wang’s early term (1939) for partner sensing: “a method of getting to know your own and opponent’s center”. Later sources and Yao Zongxun use Tuishou; most likely a development of terminology with identical content.

San Ti Shi 三体式Xingyiquan · Basic stance

San Ti Shi (三体式, “three-body posture”) is the basic and mother stance of Xingyiquan — the martial art out of which Wang Xiangzhai developed Yiquan; there it counts as the starting and finishing position of every technique. “Three bodies” refers to the triad of heaven, earth and humanity (天地人) and, transferred to the body, to its three sections: head, trunk and legs. Sun Lutang coined the sentence 万法出于三体式 — “the ten thousand methods all spring from San Ti Shi” — and called it “the gate of the method”. Structure: a three-seven step in T-position, roughly 60–70 % of the weight on the rear leg (to absorb impact and retreat quickly); the front hand extended, the rear one lower towards the belly, the spine upright, shoulders and elbows sinking. It is practised above all standing, as a “model” of force and structure on which every technique is built. Relation to Yiquan: Guo Yunshen essentially taught the young Wang a single combat posture of this type. From standing practice in its principles of force Wang developed the formless Zhan Zhuang: he kept the standing and the logic of force but discarded the fixed position in favour of freely adjustable ones — and with it the five-phase cosmology as a system of combat (demystification). San Ti Shi is thus a direct ancestor of the Yiquan basic stance.

Sanshou 散手Method · Stage 7In detail

Free fighting (also Duan Shou, “breaking hands”) — the crystallisation of every training method and the direct test of one’s skill.

Shen 神PhilosophyIn detail

Spirit, consciousness, animating presence — in Chinese philosophy and medicine one of the “Three Treasures” (三宝): jing (精, essence) → qi (气, energy) → shen (神, spirit), a chain of refinement. The classical image: when jing is full and qi is strong, the shen shines brightly — visible above all in the lustre of the eyes (眼神). In the model of the “five shen” (五神, Huangdi Neijing), shen dwells in the heart and is the “emperor” over four subordinate aspects — one of which is Yi (意). In Yiquan it appears mostly in compounds: 神意足 (“spirit-intent full”), 精神 (mental force), 凝神 (gathering the spirit) — fitting the principle that “the spirit leads, the force follows”. Not to be confused with 身 (“body”, → Shenfa) or 声 shēng (“sound, voice”, → Shi Sheng): the same or a similar transcription, different characters.

Shenfa 身法Principle

“Body method” — the art of moving the body as a whole: force begins at the ground, runs through hip and trunk and discharges in the hands. “Body like a hammer, arms like nails.” The hands follow the movement of the body passively; trained through Yaofa and Xuanfa Shili in Dingbabu. In fighting: changing position within the attack, unexpected angles.

Shi Sheng 试声MethodIn detail

“Testing the voice” — issuing voice and force in the same instant, so as to reinforce Fa Li reflexively. The sound comes from within (from the belly and diaphragm), not as a shout at the opponent (Wang: “like a voice in a silent valley, like a bronze bell”). Two sounds are used — “Yi” and “You/Yao” — in three stages: (1) each separately, hoarse and muffled; (2) joined (Yi-You Tong Sheng, “as if a great stone fell into a well”); (3) with no audible sound — only intent and force.

Shi Zhi-you 史志有Context · Music

Not a Yiquan term. Shi Zhi-you (史志有, 1956–2020) was a Chinese composer; the album 雪梅 (“Snow Plum”), which some listen to as quiet accompaniment to practice, is his work. More, and all six pieces, on the Music page.

Shili 试力Method · Stage 3In detail

“Testing the force” — the key of the method: it carries the force built up statically over into slow, controlled movement. “The testing of force is the source of true force.”

Shun Li Ni Xing 顺力逆行Combat logic

“Flow with the force, travel against the current” — the paradoxical logic of fighting: receive the attacking force instead of blocking it (Shun Li) and in the same instant use its momentum to destabilise (Ni Xing). Six advantages, among them a greater potential of force and a shorter response because the counter-force is already pre-tensioned (Yao Zongxun’s image: the roughly 0.2 s of tensing first shrink, though they never vanish entirely). It also underlies Mo Jin. Mechanically: use the momentum of the attack rather than blocking it with counter-force.

Si Ru Jing Jie 四如境界Founder’s system

The “state of the four likenesses” — the highest of the three standing levels (Zhan Zhuang) and the precondition for practising the Four Forms. At the same time four criteria of perception that include one another and hold simultaneously; for advanced practitioners they are indispensable. Four sensations, in Wang’s order: 体整如铸 (the body as if cast in one piece — coordinated total force, cf. 全身力一) · 身如铅灌 (the body as though filled with lead — relaxation and rooting, force condensed inward yet light) · 肌肉如一 (the muscles as one) · 毛发如戟 (the hair standing up like halberds). Only in this state “can one speak of the fist”; without it, the dance of the four forms (Jian Wu) is “mere swinging of the limbs”. In this state Hun Yuan Li arises (浑元争力). Wang Xiangzhai maps the standing levels onto the three 境界 of the scholar Wang Guowei. Source: 《桩功与四形》.

Si Xing — The Four Forms 四形Founder’s forms

The four fighting forms from Wang’s work 《桩功与四形》: 挥浪 (stirring waves) · 游龙 (swimming dragon) · 白鹤 (white crane) · 惊蛇 (startled snake). They discharge the inner force outward (内劲→外力); 挥浪 corresponds to 神龟出水 (the turtle rising from the water), and three fists and one kick come from 白鹤. Taxonomy of force: 宇宙争力 / 浑元争力 / 呼吸弹力. As dance sequences the same four images make up Jian Wu.

Six Harmonies 六合PrincipleIn detail

An ordering principle inherited from Xingyiquan: three internal and three external “harmonies” (三合). The inner three (内三合) are the mental chain 心 (heart) → 意 (intent) → 气 (qi) → 力 (force). The outer three (外三合) coordinate the outer frame: 手与足 (hand and foot), 肘与膝 (elbow and knee), 肩与胯 (shoulder and hip) — when the hand moves, the foot follows, and the body moves as a unit (形曲力圆). Still named explicitly in Wang’s first book 《意拳正轨》 (1928) — together with the warning: “the six harmonies tempt one to emphasise the parts rather than the whole — that does harm.” The principle thus fits into the reform: the breakdown into pairs of joints and of mental faculties is mere teaching scaffolding; the aim remains the undivided Hun Yuan Li (→ demystification). Not to be confused with the internal connections (身内争力, pairs of contending force within the body), nor with the external connections (身外争力, connections projected into the distance) — 外三合 means the coordination of the limbs alone.

Snake-Coiling Hand 蛇缠手Solo exerciseIn detail

The snake-coiling hand (蛇缠手, She Chan Shou) is one of the solo hand exercises (Dan Cao Shou). In the teaching film by Bo Jiacong it counts as an exercise found only in Yiquan. One-handed: the hand turns from Hunyuan Zhuang inward and back into the back-hand stance (背手桩). Then it travels forward and up at a 45° slant. The arm always stays slightly bent and is never fully straightened. Next the hand hooks in and turns the wrist. In this way it neutralises the pressure (消) and cuts with the edge of the hand (砍). Two-handed: at first the hands point backward, in the image of “pushing open the window to gaze at the moon” (推窗望月). Then one hand goes out while the other comes back, and the movement shifts forward. Both arms are as mobile as two pythons. Stepping forward and back is added. As in every solo exercise, the body works more than the hands. The core requirement: force reaches the fingertips (力达指尖). If one imagines grasping a small tree in front, the arm has a second point of support. Then it cannot be pressed down (→ Jiajie). Bo Jiacong calls the exercise the basic skill of Tuishou: “Tuishou is exactly this state.” The aim is no fixed striking pattern. The arms should become mobile enough to meet any form of combat. It is not to be confused with the “startled snake” (惊蛇), one of the four forms.

T – Z

Taiji 太极Philosophy · Background

Taiji (太极, “supreme principle / primal ground”) is the cosmological starting point out of which the world unfolds into yin and yang: 无极 (emptiness) → 太极 → 阴阳 → 万物 (the ten thousand things). ⚠️ Three things not to confuse: Taiji (太极, the philosophy) · Taijitu (太极图, the symbol ☯) · Taijiquan (太极拳, the martial art). For Yiquan, Taiji is background, not doctrine — and explicitly no lineage connection: Yiquan comes from Xingyiquan, not from Taijiquan. What is shared is only the Daoist yin/yang dialectic behind the principle of contending force: Hun Yuan Li is structurally a “taiji of forces” — six opposed directions, simultaneously in harmonious balance (the “taut ball”). The demystifying line keeps the dialectic and discards the cosmological elevation.

Taijiquan 太极拳Internal martial art · Sister art

Taijiquan (太极拳, “fist art of the supreme principle”, also Tai Chi) is the best known of the three internal martial arts — alongside Xingyiquan and Baguazhang. For Yiquan it is the sister art: the same Neijia ground, the opposite method — a comparison, not a lineage (Yiquan comes from Xingyiquan, not from Taijiquan). Shared: Yang Chengfu’s basic principle 意 rather than 力 is word for word the Yiquan thesis (Yi); to which add softness (Song-Jin, Fang Song), Zhan Zhuang, Tuishou, the peng force (Peng Jin) and the silk exercise Chan Si Jin. Separate — and here is the real dividing line: Taijiquan centres on fixed forms (taolu), weapon routines and the symbolism of qi and yin-yang (太极图 ☯) — precisely what Wang discards (demystification). The line of names 心意拳 → 形意拳 → 意拳 strikes out, with “意拳”, exactly the form (形) that Taijiquan keeps at its centre. ⚠️ Not to be confused with the philosophy Taiji (太极).

Taikiken 太気拳Yiquan offshoot · Japan

Taikiken (太気拳, in full 太気至誠拳法, roughly “fighting method of great ki and utmost sincerity”) is the Japanese line of Yiquan, founded by Kenichi Sawai (1903–1988), who is regarded as Wang’s only foreign student. Sawai studied in China with Wang Xiangzhai (training largely under Yao Zongxun) and, after returning to Japan in 1947, founded Taikiken. As a foreigner he did not use the name Dachengquan; with Wang’s permission he changed the characters and inserted the character 気. He had no fixed dōjō and trained with a few students at the Meiji shrine (明治神宮). Like Yiquan it is formless and founded on Zhan Zhuang (Japanese 立禅, “standing zen”), together with free kumite (組手, sparring). Through Sawai’s circle, impulses flowed into Kyokushin karate (極真空手; Mas Oyama, 大山倍達); it was carried on by Kubo Isato (Japan) and Jan Kallenbach (Europe). A documented exchange with the Zongxun main lineage took place in 1997.

TendonsAnatomy · BackgroundIn detail

Tendons (Latin tendo) join muscle to bone — but they can also attach to fascia, and tendon, fascia and the organic substance of bone consist primarily of the same type I collagen. The continuum customary in Yiquan — “skin, flesh, tendons, bone”, along which the first level of Mo Jin gropes — therefore describes differently condensed forms of one building material, not four separate tissues. For training, two properties count. The tendon is a spring: the Achilles tendon returns almost all the stretch energy stored in it at push-off; over the whole stride this contribution amounts to up to 35 %. This gives the image of the body as “one elastic tendon” (Song/Jin) a physiological counterpart — and gives Fa Li a store. And it is trainable, but slow: twelve weeks of isometric training raise tendon stiffness by around 57 %, with the duration of the hold being decisive — only 20-second holds worked, one-second impulses did not. It becomes measurable only after about two months, because collagen turns over more slowly than muscle protein. Long sustained loading is therefore the effective stimulus — which is what Zhan Zhuang does. With the reservation that the studies work at 70–90 % of maximal force while standing is low-intensity — the form of contraction and the duration match, the intensity does not. As a sense organ the tendon carries the Golgi tendon organ, which measures tension, while the muscle spindle of the musculature measures length — and for Ting Jin, tension is the decisive quantity (→ proprioception). That tendons have few blood vessels and therefore regenerate poorly gives the maxim “slow and fine, never hurried” a solid justification.

The Four Diamond Warriors 四大金刚History · People

“Four great vajra” (sì dà jīngāng, after the Buddhist temple guardians) — the byname of Wang Xiangzhai’s four elite students from the Shanghai period (from about 1928): Zhao Daoxin, Han Xingqiao, Zhang Changxin and Gao Zhendong. They were the public proof in combat of the young Yiquan, and among other things systematised the Zhan Zhuang methods of various schools. Only two of them received a Dao honorific name in 1941: Zhao (道新) and Han (道宽). Yao Zongxun was not among them — he came to Wang only in 1937. Three independent sources name the same four consistently.

The Song–Jin Dialectic 松紧PrincipleIn detail

The balance of tension and relaxation: neither slack (Song Ruan → no qi, wear on the joints) nor rigid (Jiang Si → blockages, high blood pressure). The resolution: “relaxed but not slack; firm but not stiff” — the bones firm (bearing the load), the muscles relaxed (“hanging like flowing water”). The alternation 松紧转换 is the third training principle of Shili.

The Two KineticsModel · Yu Yong Nian

Yu Yong Nian’s physiological model, in the Chinese original 第一随意运动 and 第二随意运动 — the “first” and “second voluntary movement”. The first is the work of the working muscles: in sport as alternate bending and stretching, in Zhan Zhuang already in merely holding the posture. The second arises only when the mind also makes the muscles that are at rest tense and release (Song/Jin) — with the joint angles unchanged. Yu’s mnemonic formulas: (speed + force) × time against (angle + intention) × time. In his pulse trials, this mental work alone raised the pulse in standing from 86 to over 110 beats (single measurements, not a study). The frame explains why standing is intensive training despite its outward stillness: not less, but different.

Tiger’s Mouth 虎口Body · Hand

The tiger’s mouth (虎口, hǔkǒu) is the arc between thumb and index finger — the web of skin where the two fingers meet. Seen from the side, the spread hand resembles an open mouth. In the stances of Zhan Zhuang it should be open and round: the thumb neither lies against the hand nor is splayed away. The practice descriptions call for the open tiger’s mouth in almost every posture, from Hunyuan Zhuang to Fu Hu Zhuang. Wang Xiangzhai’s formula for the hand shape puts it briefly: 掌如覆碗，虎撑圆，拇指如钩，五指要夹 — the palm like an upturned bowl, the tiger’s mouth stretched round, the thumb like a hook, the fingers gripping. Two further uses: in the contradiction stance (Maodun Zhuang) the gaze passes forward through the tiger’s mouth; and in the Patting System the “tiger fist” strikes upward with the tiger’s mouth.

Ting Jin 听劲SkillIn detail

“Listening to force” — the highly sensitive tactile ability to “read” the direction and quality of an opponent’s force through contact. It is sharpened by years of Mo Jin (micro-movement, myofascial activation) and applied in Tuishou. What one listens for is how strong the other is, where there is a gap and whether he is losing his balance — a recorded class of the Zongxun line calls it, soberly, “a high-level control of mind and the nerve–muscle system” (→ demystification).

Tui Fa 腿法Kicking techniqueIn detail

Tui Fa (腿法, “leg methods”; also 脚法 Jiao Fa) covers kicks, stamps and knee strikes in Yiquan. They are a fixed part of Sanshou but remain secondary to the hands (Quan Fa): whoever lifts a leg gives up half their stability — 抬腿半边空, “lift a leg and one side is empty”. Hence the shared rules: kick low, strike briefly and withdraw the leg at once, “as if stepping on a red-hot iron plate”, ideally with hand contact to the opponent. As with the fist, the form stays curved while the force goes straight (形曲力直). There are no high, jumping or spinning kicks. The main kicks: the low toe kick 点脚 to the ankle, the stamping or thrusting kick 蹬踏 to knee and shin, the sideways thrusting kick 横跺脚 and the side kick 侧踢; plus knee strikes, mostly from a grip. The foundation is standing on one leg (Du Li Zhuang) and the rubbing step Mocabu; like every technique, kicks are trained through Shili and Fa Li. Open: how high may one kick? Bo Jiacong teaches “not above the knee” (腿不过膝); other sources set the limit at the hip or belt. A few teachers reject kicks altogether, citing Wang Xiangzhai; most sources treat them as a fixed part of combat training.

Tuishou 推手Method · Stage 6In detail

“Pushing hands” — the partner exercise: sensing the opponent’s force through contact and controlling him; “the jewel of Yiquan, the key to victory”. In two-handed Tuishou every hand threatens the other’s centre line; the turning in contact explores where he is solid and where empty. Its final aim is to serve Sanshou — pushing and striking belong together.

Western Boxing 西洋拳击Influence · History

Western boxing (西洋拳击) was for Yiquan a touchstone and a supplier of methods — not a lineage but selective appropriation in two waves. Wang’s generation (1920s–30s): Zhao Daoxin defeated the Norwegian boxer Anderson (proof in combat; around the Hangzhou tournament of November 1929); after a comparative bout against the boxer “Ying Ge” (英格; cf. Tuishou) Wang Xiangzhai — together with Yu Bolu — introduced a boxing-like fist and guard structure, and live boxing sparring confirmed his criticism of the “fetter of forms” (demystification). Yao Zongxun (from the 1930s–40s) as the main driver: “Chinese plus Western boxing” as one of the three connections — gloves, heavy bag, focus mitts and sparring; the four Sanshou fist types outwardly resemble boxing, and the fighting frame 基本肩架 resembles a boxer’s guard. The limit — what stayed Yiquan: force from Hun Yuan Li, not from isolated arm strength; “guard = attack” (打即顾，顾即打) instead of boxing’s separation of attack and defence — “like boxing, but not really boxing” (Yao).

Wo Zhuang 卧式桩Posture

Wo Zhuang (卧式桩, short 卧桩, “post standing lying down”) is the third of the three body positions of Zhuang Gong: standing is the main form, sitting and lying count as supplementary. Two basic postures belong to the health postures (Yang Sheng Zhuang). Wo Shi Fu'an Zhuang (卧式扶按桩, “lying pressing-down post”): lie on your back, with a pillow under the head if needed, legs straight and shoulder-width apart, toes slightly drawn back; the posture becomes more demanding if you set the feet up and pull the toes up. The hands rest beside the body, the bases of the palms touch the surface, the fingers are spread as if gently pressing something down. Wo Shi Chengbao Zhuang (卧式撑抱桩, “lying expanding-embracing post”): lie on your back, legs bent, heels on the surface. The elbows rest on it, the forearms are raised, the palms face down — as if holding a ball as in the standing Chengbao Zhuang. The imagery: the whole body rests on soft cotton wool, floats in water or lies on a cloud; or: there is no bed beneath the body at all. The measure is relaxation and comfort; you decide the duration yourself. Wang Yufang’s series of 31 forms (Gongfa 31) contains four lying forms (nos. 11–14), among them lying on the right side. What for: whoever cannot stand or sit practises lying down — the practice does not stop, it changes position. But it is not only for the sick and weak: the correspondence course of the Yao Zongxun line explicitly recommends the lying postures to combat practitioners too, to settle the mind and recover strength. Lying removes the upright stance against gravity; what remains is the work of intention (Yi) itself. On the characters: 卧 and 躺 both mean “to lie”. The health sources divide into 站坐卧, the series of combat postures (Ji Ji Zhuang) into 站坐躺 — the same division. Lying combat postures themselves, however, are not described in the sources at hand.

Wu Wei 无为Philosophy · Background

Wu Wei (无为, “non-doing”), in its longer form 无为而无不为 (“non-doing, and yet nothing is left undone”), is one of the six philosophical roots Wang Xiangzhai names himself — the first of two lines from Laozi. As with Yin and Yang, it is background, not doctrine — but in Wang’s hands the sentence does not stay theory: Zhan Zhuang is the non-doing, Shili and Fa Li are the doing — the two belong together, but the non-doing comes first and also takes the larger share (Wang’s ratio: ⅔ standing, ⅓ Shili). Non-doing does not mean immobility: Wang’s formula runs 大动不如小动，小动不如蠕动 (“large movement is worse than small, small worse than a creeping micro-tremor”, → Mo Jin), and he himself rejects the widespread reading “…worse than no movement” as a mishearing: “不动怎么能打人呢？” (“How is one supposed to hit anyone without moving?”). This is no contradiction of the active Yi Nian: what is ruled out is making (为, forcing with muscle), not intention — the test question: do I wait for the force, or do I manufacture it? Its bodily precondition is Fang Song. The technically more consequential second Laozi root is 反者道之动 (→ Zheng Li). Attested in two virtually identical primary passages — secure Wang material. Wang’s own coda: “Learning yiquan without it’s [sic] philosophy will not bring proper results.”

Wuxing 五行Philosophy · Background

Wuxing (五行, “five phases of change”: wood, fire, earth, metal, water) — a better rendering than “five elements”, since what is meant are processes and qualities, not substances. At its heart lie two chains of effect: 相生 (generation, “mother and son”) and 相克 (overcoming, “grandfather and grandson”), traditionally read in the martial arts as tactics (fist A “overcomes” B as metal overcomes wood). They are the cosmological frame of Xingyiquan, which assigns an elemental fist to each phase (五行拳: 劈崩钻炮横). Wang Xiangzhai keeps the five qualities of force but discards the 生克 cosmology as “absurd” — his formula: 只讲力，不讲五行 (“speak only of force, not of the five phases”); the nine fist types partly carry Xingyi names but are 名同实异 (“same name, different thing”). In Yiquan, Wuxing is therefore relevant above all as the thing it defines itself against (→ demystification).

Xiang Long Zhuang 降龙桩PostureIn detail

“Taming the dragon” — the combat posture that breaks the rule: alone among the Ji Ji Zhuang it carries the weight forward (70 %) instead of back. A very long stance (about 80–100 cm), the front knee strongly bent, the rear leg almost straight, the trunk inclined forward and twisted, the gaze back towards the rear hand. Sense and purpose on four levels: (1) to hold the whole-body force even in a position unfavourable for fighting — “in any fight, use the body as a whole, whatever the position” (Yao Chengguang); (2) as a touchstone: the reversed weight distribution takes from Hun Yuan Li its accustomed rear-leg support and tests whether the force depends on the principle or merely on ingrained mechanics; (3) in fighting, application above all to throws (摔法) — the rear hand at the “dragon’s tail”, the front hand at the “dragon’s neck” (Bo Jiacong). Purpose in application: the turn over the loaded front leg is itself the mechanics of the throw, and the grip at neck and tail holds an opponent who tries to wriggle free at two points; (4) performed higher and more gently, self-traction for the back (养生) — a case of Ji Yang Yi Ti within a single posture. Its counterpart is Fu Hu Zhuang (伏虎桩, “subduing the tiger”), which keeps the system standard of 70 % on the rear leg; the Buddhist formula 降龙伏虎 names the two together. According to C. S. Tang it comes from traditional Chinese wrestling (the only source); the Buddhist name is depicted in wall paintings at the Shaolin Monastery. Already in 1928 Wang Xiangzhai lists it among the stances that are subsumed into Hunyuan Zhuang. The common rendering “descending dragon” reads 降 as jiàng (“to descend”) — but the consistent romanisation “Xiang” attests xiáng, “to subdue”.

Xingyiquan 形意拳Internal martial art · RootIn detail

Xingyiquan (形意拳, “form-intention fist”) is the internal martial art out of which Yiquan came — the root, not merely a neighbour. It fights in straight lines and explosively, attacking directly rather than evading: the counter-design to the circling Baguazhang. Legend traces the style to General Yue Fei and his spear fighting; historically it becomes traceable some 500 years later with Ji Jike, from whose students the three schools of Shanxi, Hebei and Henan arose — the Yiquan line stands in the Hebei school. Its core includes the basic stance San Ti Shi, the Six Harmonies, the five elemental fists (splitting, crushing, drilling, cannon, crosswise) and the twelve animal forms — where explicitly what counts is not outward imitation but that “the inner character of the animal enters into the movement”. Relation to Yiquan: Wang Xiangzhai learnt Xingyiquan from Guo Yunshen. Out of standing practice in its principles of force he developed Yiquan: he kept the standing and the logic of force but discarded forms, fixed positions and the five-phase cosmology — 只讲力，不讲五行 (speak only of force, not of the five phases of change, demystification). The approach of the animal forms already points ahead: it is not the shape that carries the movement but the intent. ⚠️ Not to be confused with Xinyiquan (心意拳), its own predecessor art: one letter apart in the name, one character in Chinese — there it is 心 “heart”, here 形 “form”.

Xinyiquan 心意拳Internal martial art · Predecessor

Xinyiquan (心意拳, “heart-intention fist”), in full 心意六合拳, is the predecessor art of Xingyiquan — and thus the grandmother of Yiquan. The difference lies in the first character: 心 “heart” instead of 形 “form”. This was already the name of Ji Jike’s art; the Dai family passed their 戴氏心意拳 on traditionally within the family only — Li Luoneng was the sole exception, and out of what he learnt there he shaped Xingyiquan. Relation to Yiquan — the line of names: read the three names in sequence and a movement becomes visible. 心意拳 = heart + intent. 形意拳 = form + intent. 意拳 = intent alone. The one constant is 意 (intent). With his name, then, Wang Xiangzhai strikes out precisely what the art had gained in the meantime — the form — and leaves the core standing: not a break with tradition but its final act of subtraction. (One reading of the three attested names; that Wang himself argued this way is not recorded.) One concrete but only indirectly attested trace leads into Yiquan: from Huang Muqiao, whom the literature lists as a Xinyi master, Wang learnt the “health dance” that became Jian Wu.

Yang Sheng Zhuang 养生桩Category

The health standing postures (as against Ji Ji Zhuang) — health cultivation and self-cultivation; in standing, sitting and lying positions. Sitting and lying are more than a substitute here: they spare knees and legs and remain possible where standing no longer is — for pronounced debility or in late pregnancy the contraindications name them explicitly as the alternative, and lying reaches those whom sitting no longer reaches. “Yiquan is a kind of medical exercise”: according to tradition, practised correctly, these postures help with many complaints and strengthen the nervous system — no substitute for medical advice. Wang always taught them first.

Yi 意Core principleIn detail

“Intent” — the core principle that gives the art its name: true force comes from mental focus, not from muscular training. The conscious direction of the imagination governs tension, inner strength and the alignment of the body (traditionally: “the Yi leads the qi”); physical actions become the expression of mental will. It runs through every stage of training.

Yi Nian 意念Principle

“Mental intent” — the active, directed force of mind; more precise than the general Yi: “it is the Yi that creates the ‘form of the formless’.” According to Yao Zongxun it is the fastest force — pre-tension shortens the roughly 0.2 s it takes force to build, though it cannot abolish them; it needs Fang Song in order to flow freely. Wang’s metaphor: the body “sits on the chair of the Yi Nian”. The parable of water in a bowl: movement arises from the centre outwards.

Yin and Yang 阴阳Philosophy · Background

Yin (阴, “the shady side”) and Yang (阳, “the sunny side”) are the classical pair of complementary opposites: polar opposites, each conditioning the other and together forming a whole — the fine dialectical structure of Taiji, from which the two poles (两仪) emerge. For Yiquan, yin and yang are background, not doctrine, but the most direct model of its mechanics: the whole practice lives on simultaneously acting opposites (争力) and their alternation (松紧). Instead of metaphysics, concrete pairs in the body: 松/紧 (tension and relaxation), 动/静 (movement and stillness in Zhan Zhuang), 虚/实 (empty and full), 蓄/发 (gathering and discharging in Fa Li). The balance of these opposites is Hun Yuan Li. As early as 1939 Wang Xiangzhai uses qian and kun (yang and yin), but reads them as one contending force (→ demystification).

Yiquan 意拳System

“Intention boxing” — the martial art founded by Wang Xiangzhai in the mid-1920s: work with the intent instead of fixed forms, force from the coordination of mind and body. Two aims (health and combat), eight stages of training, carried by relaxation, the Yi, breathing and the stances. → Introduction.

Yiquan Gongfa — 31 Forms 意拳功法Practice seriesIn detail

Wang Yufang’s series of 31 practices covering standing, sitting and lying (站坐卧) — a synthesis of Yangsheng Zhuang, Ji Ji Zhuang and Shili. It contains 三夹两顶 as well as the inner and outer three harmonies, and confirms the 站坐躺 principle from a primary source within the family.

Zhan Zhuang 站桩Method · Stage 1In detail

“Standing like a tree / post standing” — the fundamental exercise and the basis of the whole method: remaining relatively still in a posture with the attention on body and mind; inner movement despite outward stillness. The rooting maximises the usable ground reaction force from which every later issuing of force draws. It is practised not only standing but also sitting and lying (→ Zhuang Gong) — not as a stopgap, for sitting and lying take away the support that works unnoticed while standing.

Zheng Jin / Zhuo Li 争劲 / 拙力Types of force

A contrasting pair: Zheng Jin — the elastic, “contradictory” force arising from the coordinated mutual tension of all bones and muscles, governed by the nervous system (the “Jin” in Mo Jin). Zhuo Li — the “clumsy”, raw force of muscular contraction, which Yiquan sets out precisely to avoid.

Zheng Li 争力Principle · fundamentalIn detail

Zheng Li (争力, “contending force”) is the basic mechanical principle out of which Hun Yuan Li arises: simultaneously acting, mutually opposed pairs of force between the parts of the body — and between body and surroundings. One pulls and presses mentally in two, later six directions at once (六面争力: up↔down · front↔back · left↔right). This pre-tension holds the body as an elastic unit — “a tyre full of high-pressure gas that answers every touch”. Wang Xiangzhai calls it the openly stated secret of the martial arts: “in movement, all the joints, large and small, always hold the two contending forces.” At the same time it is the body-mechanical version of the yin/yang dialectic — Yiquan keeps its dialectical structure but discards the mystical elevation (demystification). Two forms: the internal contending force (co-contraction of the antagonists, elastic pre-tension) and the external one against ground and surroundings (与地心争力 / 宇宙争力). Its practical training form, broken down into pairs of body parts, is the internal connections; it is built up in Zhan Zhuang and in the Song/Jin alternation, felt out in Mo Jin, and tested in movement in Shili. A related term: Zheng Jin (争劲), the elastic quality of force that results from it.

Zheng Ti He Jin 整体合劲Comparison (Taijiquan)

“Connected force of the whole body” — an expression from Chen Yu Taijiquan (not the Yiquan canon), used here for comparison: it likewise means a coordinated whole-body force (整 whole · 体 body · 合 to connect · 劲 the specific force jìn). A parallel to 全身力一 and 体整如铸.

Zheng Ti Li 整体力Force

“Whole-body unified force” (Yao lineage): force from the complete integration of the body — no part decoupled, blocked or “empty”. Related to Hun Yuan Li: Zheng Ti Li stresses the structural unity, Hun Yuan Li the availability in every direction. The metaphor: a bath with the tap running — every tension or blockage is a hole through which energy escapes. “The whole body must become a dantian.”

Zhuang Gong 桩功Training method

Zhuang Gong (桩功, “post work”) is the umbrella term that Zhan Zhuang covers only by half: zhàn means “to stand” — 桩功 means post practice in all three body positions, lying, sitting and standing. The term has a practical history: when Wang Xiangzhai taught in Beijing hospitals in the 1950s, many patients could not stand. They began lying down (on the back, on the side for a change), then sitting on the edge of the bed, then standing with support — and only at the end free-standing. The name “health postures” (Yang Sheng Zhuang) dates from the same period; before that they were simply called basic postures. Sitting and lying are no mere substitute: sitting removes the leg drive one leans on unnoticed while standing, lying removes the upright stance against gravity — the Hun Yuan Li must then come from trunk and arms alone. The same triad applies to the combat postures (Ji Ji Zhuang) and to Wang Yufang's series of 31 forms (Gongfa 31). Whoever says only “Zhan Zhuang” loses half the method.

Zong He 综合Exercise form

“Mixed, combined” — the free combination of all the variants learnt, in any order: Zonghe Mojin (changing direction spontaneously, after about ten months), Zong He Shili (all the exercises freely chained — the most direct solo preparation for fighting and a self-test of one’s Zhan Zhuang level).

Zuo Zhuang 坐式桩Posture

Zuo Zhuang (坐式桩, “post standing while sitting”) is the middle one of the three body positions of Zhuang Gong, between standing and lying (Wo Zhuang). One sits upright on a chair, bench or the edge of a bed, without slumping; only the hooking form (see below) is also practised leaning back, deep in an armchair. Among the health postures (Yang Sheng Zhuang) two are common. Zuo Shi Cai Mian Zhuang (“stepping on cotton”): thighs horizontal, shins vertical, the feet resting as if on a soft layer of cotton; the backs of the hands lie lightly on the thighs, palms facing up, the arms stay rounded. Zuo Shi Gou Tiao Chengbao Zhuang (“hooking the feet”): the thighs rest fully on the seat, the toes lift as if the instep were supporting a ball, the heels hover just above the floor — in a lighter form they stay on the floor; the arms hold the ball as in the standing Chengbao Zhuang. If the arms tire, one switches to the first posture; if the legs tire, one sets the heels down. Wang Yufang’s series (Gongfa 31) has four sitting forms, mostly on the edge of a chair with the knees at about a right angle. Among the combat postures (Ji Ji Zhuang) one sits on a hard seat and lifts the feet off the floor. What for: sitting removes the leg drive one leans on unnoticed while standing. Whole-body force (Hun Yuan Li) must then be carried by intention (Yi) alone — “whatever the posture, the principle of seeking and unfolding does not change” (Yao Chengguang). Sitting also spares knees and legs, and whoever cannot stand for long keeps practising seated instead of stopping.

Self-contained visual explainers for central Yiquan concepts — a vivid companion to the glossary. Each illustration opens as a page of its own.

The family tree of the early transmission — from the Xingyi and Bagua roots through Wang Xiangzhai (first generation) to the third generation (students' students). Interactive: drag to pan, scroll to zoom, drag individual nodes, hover over a person for details, click to open the entry.

The Zongxun lineage (Beijing) is the main source of the training guide documented here; the southern lineage (Shanghai → Hong Kong) around You Peng Xi and Liang Zi Peng supplies catalogues of postures of its own and the connection to Bruce Lee. The Wang Yufang lineage (the family) and several international branches (Japan / Taikiken, Poland, Paris, London, Switzerland) likewise go back directly to the founder and his students. Mythical roots (Damo → Yue Fei → Dai) stand before Li Luoneng.

Everyone recorded in the wiki — from the founder and his teachers through four generations of the Zongxun lineage to the southern and international branches. Brief entries (some of them stubs) point to sources still to be worked through.

Founder · principal students · family

Roots & contemporaries — Xingyi · Bagua · the southern exchange

The Zongxun lineage — 2nd to 5th generation & Tianjin

Southern & international lineages

The Wang Yufang lineage & the collection 意拳拳学 (2002)

The Dachengquan branch & further lineages