Reference
Glossary — Term Pages
These terms have a page of their own: a fuller account of what the glossary entry states in two sentences. The short form stays in the glossary; the term page is the deeper version, not a second source.
The complete list of all terms is in the Glossary A–Z on the home page, with Chinese characters and spoken pronunciation.
- Bodywork · ComparisonAlexander TechniqueThe oldest of the three Western methods Leos Horky sets beside Yiquan — and the only one whose core is not doing rather than doing.
- PrincipleBu Dong Zhi Dong 不动之动Why standing still is training in Yiquan — and why Wang Xiangzhai called the familiar formula “no movement” a mishearing.
- Stance · CombatDu Li Zhuang 独立桩One leg carries, the other floats — and the same whole-body force is sought as in a firm stance. Why the most unstable position teaches so much.
- LeitmotifDemystificationIn 1988 Yao Zongxun rejects occult myths five times over: empty force, killing by pressure point, running up walls. The sharpest contrast in the art.
- Method · Stage 5Fa Li 发力The synthesis of Zhan Zhuang, Shili and Mocabu in one impulse: four factors, two phases — and straight back into relaxation.
- Principle · fundamentalFang Song 放松Not letting everything go, but leaving out the tension you do not need: why Fang Song comes first in Yiquan, and how you can tell it is working.
- Anatomy · BackgroundFasciaNo primary Yiquan text speaks of fascia. Three of their properties touch the training directly all the same — as background, not as doctrine.
- Bodywork · ComparisonFeldenkrais MethodSomatic learning work that came out of martial art — Feldenkrais was a judoka. Of the three foils, the one that comes closest to Yiquan.
- PostureFu Hu Zhuang 伏虎桩The lowest and most demanding combat posture in Yiquan: a large stance, palms at the knees — and a reserve of strength found nowhere else.
- Target forceHun Yuan Li 混元力Yiquan's target force: elastic, available in every direction, and by its oldest mnemonic recognisable because it does not feel like effort.
- Principle · PracticeInternal Connections 身内争力The contending force broken into named connections: fingers, wrists, elbows, knees — and in the stance the two diagonal main connections.
- CategoryJi Ji Zhuang 技击桩All combat stances follow one principle and differ only in position and angle — so that Hunyuan Li stays available in any situation.
- Method · Stage 8Jian Wu 健舞The free, dance-like synthesis of every method — between intent and no intent, in four classical sequences from bailing waves to the startled snake.
- Body · StructureKua 胯The joint region between trunk and leg: why no English word fits it, why Yao Chengguang calls it the big spring — and how to check it in the stance.
- Principle · CombatCentre Line 中线A line down from the philtrum, yet Yiquan's most important reference: it orders the stance, steers the hand in Tuishou and decides the fight.
- Method · Stage 2Mo Jin 摸劲Barely visibly, the body moves in the stance and feels the resistance of an imagined tree — in five stages, up to every direction at once.
- Method · Stage 4Mocabu 摩擦步The footwork of Yiquan: feet as though through mud, soles almost brushing the ground. Three stages from fixed step to large step.
- Bodywork · ComparisonRolfingIda Rolf's manual bodywork: in ten sessions someone else realigns the body. The resemblances are convergence, not influence.
- Method · Stage 7Sanshou 散手Free fighting — the crystallisation of every training method and the direct test of what the exercises have built.
- Solo exerciseSnake-Coiling Hand 蛇缠手Two arms as mobile as two pythons: the teaching film presents the snake-coiling hand as the basic skill from which Yiquan pushing hands grows.
- PrincipleSix Harmonies 六合Three inner and three outer harmonies from Xingyiquan — and why Wang Xiangzhai warned against taking them too literally.
- Anatomy · BackgroundTendonsTendon, fascia and bone consist of the same collagen. From that follows why Yiquan trains slowly — it is not a matter of style.
- MethodShi Sheng 试声Two sounds, three stages and in the end no sound at all: how Yiquan uses the voice to gather the release of force and to test it.
- Method · Stage 3Shili 试力The key of the method: it carries the force built up in standing over into slow, controlled movement — the test of force is its source.
- PrincipleThe Song–Jin Dialectic 松紧Not relaxation or tension, but the change between them: why Yiquan sees in it the basic contradiction of all movement.
- SkillTing Jin 听劲Not the ear but the skin listens: in contact, Ting Jin reads the other's direction, strength and centre — and works only in a relaxed body.
- Method · Stage 6Tuishou 推手The partner exercise: sensing the other's force through contact and controlling him — the jewel of Yiquan, the key to victory.
- Physiology · BackgroundAutonomic Nervous SystemWhy relaxation in the stance is not switching something on but taking something away — and the three routes by which an “autonomous” system remains reachable.
- PostureXiang Long Zhuang 降龙桩The only combat stance that carries the weight forward: a very long step, the trunk twisted, the gaze back — the rule and its exception.
- Internal martial art · RootXingyiquan 形意拳Wang Xiangzhai learnt Xingyiquan from Guo Yunshen and kept its standing and its logic of force — what he dropped, and why, is the story of Yiquan.
- Core principleYi 意The principle that names the art: true force comes from mental focus, not from muscular training — and runs through every stage.
- Practice seriesYiquan Gongfa — 31 Forms 意拳功法Standing, sitting, lying, walking: Wang Xiangzhai's daughter gathered Yiquan's exercises into 31 forms, each with a photo, brief instructions and water images.
- Method · Stage 1Zhan Zhuang 站桩Standing post or pile standing — the fundamental exercise everything rests on: outward stillness with inner movement, and the rooting every force draws on.
- Principle · fundamentalZheng Li 争力Simultaneously acting pairs of opposed force in six directions: the pre-tension that holds the body as one elastic unit.