Yiquan Gongfa — 31 Forms 意拳功法

A series from the family

意拳功法三十一式, “31 forms of the Yiquan practice method”, is a short text by Wang Yufang, the second daughter of Wang Xiangzhai. It appears in the collected volume 意拳拳学, which she published in 2002 (pp. 149–161). Each form has a number, a photograph and a few sentences of instruction. The text has no preface and no directions for use.

The series is a cross-section of Yiquan: health postures (Yang Sheng Zhuang), combat postures (Ji Ji Zhuang) and moving force exercises (Shili) stand side by side in one count. And it spans all three body positions, standing, sitting and lying (→ Zhuang Gong).

Important for reading it: the numbering is not a syllabus. Nowhere does Wang Yufang say in what order, for how long or for whom the forms should be practised. There are only two hints: the Hunyuan form (no. 3) suits strong people who want to build force, and in the one-legged stance (no. 19) the time should not exceed what one can bear.

The six groups

• Nos. 1–5, basic standing postures: 撑抱式 (expanding and embracing, → Chengbao Zhuang), 浮托式 (floating and supporting), 浑元式 (→ Hunyuan Zhuang), 矛盾式 (→ Maodun Zhuang), 扶按式 (supporting and pressing).
• No. 6, walking: 行走式, also “a boat on land” (陆上行舟).
• Nos. 7–10, four sitting forms (坐式 one to four).
• Nos. 11–14, four lying forms (卧式 one to four).
• Nos. 15–23, standing force and combat postures: 扶物式 (leaning on an object), two-sided and one-sided ball rubbing (双侧/单侧揉球), 丁八式, 金鸡独立 (the golden rooster on one leg), 加力降龙 and 降龙式 (subduing the dragon, large and small), 伏虎式 (holding down the tiger), 举手式 (raising the hands).
• Nos. 24–31, moving forms: 开合式 (opening and closing), 分争式 (striving apart), 前后分水式 (parting the water, front and back), 陆水行舟式 (a boat on land and water), 蜻蜓点水 (the dragonfly touches the water), 神龟出水 one to three (the divine turtle rises from the water).

The basic form: expanding and embracing

The first form has the longest text. Wang Yufang calls it the basic frame (基本间架) of standing. The feet stand shoulder-width apart and parallel. The soles stay hollow and do not press into the ground: “If the feet use force, one stands unsteadily.” The buttocks sink as if sitting on a high stool; the knees are slightly bent.

The hands come slowly in front of the chest, no higher than the eyebrows and no lower than the navel, about one chi (尺, a little over 30 cm) from the body. The palms face inwards as if around a ball, the fingers are spread and slightly curved, and two to three fists' width remains between the fingertips of the two hands. The shoulders are released, the elbows sink (松肩坠肘), the armpits are half hollow and the arms half round (腋半虚，臂半圆).

The face smiles without smiling. The teeth meet without biting, the mouth is open a crack, the breath stays natural. The measure is comfort. The gaze goes into the distance, as if through a light mist, or the eyes close.

Then comes an explicit prohibition: 切忌意守眉心. Attention should not be fixed on the point between the eyebrows. Instead one listens for very distant, very quiet sounds, from near to far, until one hears nothing more. Then a rustling arises at the ear like falling rain. This, Wang Yufang writes, is what her father meant by 敛神听微雨: “gather the spirit and listen to the fine rain”.

Sitting and lying: rest as practice

Forms 7–14 are the quietest in the series. One sits upright on the edge of a chair, knees at about a right angle. The arms hold a ball (no. 7), the hands rest beside the navel (no. 8), they lie as if on a water surface while the legs are stretched forward (no. 9), or the arms open to the sides (no. 10). Whoever grows tired lays the hands on the thighs.

One lies on the back with knees drawn up and arms raised (nos. 11, 12), on the back with legs straight and hands on the belly (no. 13), or on the right side (no. 14). More on this under Wo Zhuang.

The images are landscapes and sounds: a hundred birds, green mountains and water, sitting in a boat, a spring breeze (no. 7); a moon high in the sky and distant singing (no. 8); a warm pool, wind in the leaves, water dripping from the eaves (no. 14). For wandering thoughts no. 8 gives a rule that serves well beyond sitting:

听之任之，来者不拒，去者不留 — Let them be: do not turn away what comes, do not hold on to what goes.

Forms 13 and 14 end explicitly in falling asleep. This is where it shows most clearly that the series is also a health method.

Transition: leaning and releasing

Form 15 (扶物式) stands between rest and force. The hands lean on an object, one high, one low. The feet stand in Dingba Bu, the rear heel slightly raised; when tired one changes sides. The eyes are closed, the feet stand as if on bales of cotton.

Then comes the only worked-out instruction for releasing in the whole series. One loosens in order from top to bottom: neck, shoulders, upper arms, wrists, hands, chest and back, waist and belly, hips, legs, feet down to the toes. Then one begins again from the top, “slowly and attentively, only not impatiently” (万勿急躁). → Fang Song

Postures with a combat character

In forms 16–23 the language tightens. “Spirit gathered” (精神集中) takes the place of the landscapes.

• Ball rubbing (nos. 16, 17): the hands play with a floating balloon that wants to escape them; the whole body follows it, forwards and back. What is sought is a state that “wants to move and yet stops, wants to stop and yet moves” (欲动又欲止，欲止又欲动).
• 丁八式 (no. 18) gives the most precise leg instruction in the series, the three clamps and two points (三夹两顶). The roots of the thighs, the backs of the knees and the ankles clamp; the kneecaps and the toes press. The crotch is braced (撑裆), the knees strive apart. The front foot touches down with the heel slightly raised; the rear leg bears the weight, four to six or three to seven.
• 金鸡独立 (no. 19): one stands on one bent leg. The other is raised, the foot pushes outwards, the toes drawn back; buttocks and heel of the standing leg form a line. The arms lie flat in front of the chest: “three parts expanding, seven parts embracing” (三分撑七分抱).
• 加力降龙 and 降龙式 (nos. 20, 21): a large step, the body leaning forward, the front leg bent, the rear one taut. One hand pushes forward, the other presses down behind. The head turns back, the gaze goes to the “tiger's mouth” (虎口, the arc between thumb and index finger) of the rear hand. No. 21 is the same form with a smaller movement, “but with full spirit” (神意要足). → Xiang Long Zhuang
• 伏虎式 (no. 22): a large step, four to six, the hands above the knees, “as if seizing a tiger”: the left grips, the right presses down. The head leads the whole body. → Fu Hu Zhuang
• 举手式 (no. 23) describes the inner and outer three harmonies. Inside, heart, intent and force unite; outside, hand and foot, knee and hip. Added to this are three elastic connections “like a rubber band” (松紧带): little finger and toes, elbow tip and kneecap, shoulder and hip. The legs stand as if propped by wooden poles. Notably, Wang Yufang's inner harmony does without qi. → Six Harmonies

In motion

The last eight forms have the character of Shili: slow movement in which force is tested.

• 开合式 (no. 24): the elbow leads the hand in opening and closing, the fingers hook inwards as if pulling on a spring. A tension remains between the hands; the palms rest on a sphere and hold out against pushing and pressing. “In time one seeks the solid within the empty.”
• 分争式 (no. 25) puts the principle of counter-force most sharply. If the hand pulls back, the force goes far out; if it pulls forward, the force comes back. “Everywhere in the body there is counter-force” (逆力). While moving one imagines a resistance for oneself, until all the large and small joints strive against each other: 在多种力量的分争中，求统一, “seek unity in the contention of many forces”. → Zheng Li
• 前后分水式 (no. 26): with the palms facing forward one parts the water in front. With the palms facing back, thumbs down, the elbow turns the forearm back and parts the water behind. Calm and slow, “like swimming”.
• 陆水行舟式 (no. 27) is a step as in Mocabu. The rear foot comes free “as if out of mud”, the ankle as if held by water weeds. In front the sole glides flat over the ground as if rolling a small ball. The knee leads, the foot follows; “the waist like a wheel axle that carries the rear leg along”.
• 蜻蜓点水 (no. 28): the arms open obliquely from the springy force of the hands, the foot goes along in the measure of the arm movement. One foot is always full, the other empty (一实一虚).
• 神龟出水 (nos. 29–31) are three phases of one movement; one stands as if in water. First the body draws together, the arms rise round, the weight goes onto the rear leg. Then the body curls and rises spirally from the waist, “like a dragon rising from the water” (如龙出水) – all joints at once, the weight forward, the arms against the body. Finally, four to six, the hands press a ball on the water surface, the head leads the rising and sinking, the gaze goes out over the open sea. Despite the dragon image the exercise is called the turtle, as in the other lineages too.

What holds the series together

Across all six groups the same tools recur.

• Water and balloon. In more than a dozen forms one carries a balloon, presses a ball into the water, stands in water, swims or rows a boat. The water gives the body a resistance that does not really exist. That is the core of the work of intention (→ Yi).
• “So, but not quite”. 似笑非笑 (smiling and yet not), 似夹非夹 (clamping and yet not), 似曲非弯 (bent and yet not buckled). No state is held fast.
• 用意不用力, use intent, not force. Then “force is there wherever intent arrives” (意到力即到, no. 9).
• The head leads the whole body (nos. 22, 24, 27, 31).
• The rubber band (松紧带) between the hands (nos. 8, 11) and between the limbs (no. 23): a tension that yields, instead of a rigid posture. → The Song–Jin Dialectic

Placing it

That health and combat forms stand in a single count fits the principle of Ji Yang Yi Ti: training and nourishing belong together. The triad of standing, sitting and lying appears just as well in the teaching films of Yao Chengguang, that is, in another lineage; many names recur there too (撑抱, 扶按, 降龙, 伏虎, 神龟出水). So the series is no special doctrine but an ordering of its own of known material, from the founder's family.

It is not a complete textbook. The instructions are brief and presuppose a teacher, and the photos show the end posture, not the way there.