FURTHER DISCUSSIONS ON COMPREHENDING THE

METHOD OF UNDERSTANDING YIQUAN

Author: Han Jingyu

Translator: Li Jiong

(Assisted by: Timo Heikkilä, Miles Henderson,

Bertram Chock, Yang Xiang)

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Mr. Wang Xiangzhai founded Yiquan over half a century ago. During these very long

years, because of its abundant meaning and tremendous cultural value, Yiquan has been

attracting increasing numbers of people who throw themselves into it. But, I also find that

in the course of studying and practising Yiquan, there are many wrong roads, and people

are unable to decide which is right. To this day some seek blindly and others go astray.

What a pity! From childhood, I have learned Yiquan from my father, Han Qiao, and up to

now; it has been more than forty years. By my personal experience of learning, practising,

teaching and researching Yiquan, I feel deeply that if one doesn’t have a clear

comprehension of the method of understanding Yiquan, then it is impossible to walk up

the right path of Yiquan. In 1997, during the first national Yiquan science convention, I

published "Theory of Combat Science — The Second Course of Yiquan" together with Mr.

Han Jingsheng after having done some research on the matter. Mr. Wang Xiangzhai once

told us: "The way of science is to understand fundamental principles." Because of this, all

martial arts students can share the benefits of Mr. Wang Xiangzhai’s combat science as

quickly as possible; carry forward the combat science career founded by him; and allow it

to benefit all humanity. I clearly realize that my knowledge is not as abundant as it could

be, but for the above reason, I do my utmost to further clear up the method of

understanding Yiquan. I hope to bring together all kinds of specific training methods on

the theory. Thus, it can be of better service as a physical exercise. I also hope to offer

here, a few commonplace remarks by way of introduction, so that others may come up

with their valuable opinions and together with all experts within and outside the country,

clarify the right path of Yiquan.

I. WHAT IS YIQUAN?

Literally speaking, Yiquan is a word group consisting of a modifier and the word it

modifies, "quan" (pugilism) is the main word and "yi" (mind) is the adjective that describes

quan. Then what is "quan" essentially? In fact, Mr. Wang Xiangzhai already talked about it

very clearly a long time ago: "In the way of combat science, this punch or that kick do not

carry the meaning of pugilism, giving three punches and taking two is not called pugilism

either, even less does a series of skills and tricks stand for pugilism. It is every action

engraved on one’s mind that is called pugilism." What is meant by every action engraved

on one’s mind? It is the response of the human body to the objective world. Under this

definition, it includes the conscious response action and unconscious response action of

the human body, the doer of action, the object of action, the conditions of action, the

manner of action, the range of action, and their mutual relationships.

Then what is called "yi" (mind)? This is a scientific determination on the nature of boxing

by Mr. Wang Xiangzhai after long practise, research and pondering the science of Chinese

martial arts. It is based on every person’s perception of this objective world and every

person’s spontaneity. These are approached by way of consciousness as a prerequisite

starting point. Based on this profound philosophic thought, we then put martial arts on

the plate of consciousness for investigation and examination in order to grasp it

accordingly. So we say: "Yiquan is a combat science. It is a science that takes the law of

movement of the human body as the subject to be researched." Talking in this fashion,

Yiquan can encompass all kinds of martial arts. Consequently, any motion of the human

body can be put on this plate to understand. So the aim of Yiquan is to seek a complete

understanding of the laws of motion of the human body, and its practitioners’ complete

grasp of their vital activities only. After having reached the above two goals, only then can

one rightly claim to have satisfactorily succeeded in the study of martial arts.

II. THE GENERAL FORMAT OF A HUMAN BEING’S METHOD OF UNDERSTANDING

Everybody has an independent consciousness as soon as they are born. For human beings

to be "human beings," it rests on them having an independent consciousness. So all human

beings’ cognition, knowledge, and activity, down to all cultural values, are all covered by a

human’s independent consciousness. Without consciousness, we cannot talk about any of

them since none of them can exist without it.

When one has consciousness, how does one realize and grasp this objective world and yet

also include himself? For this problem, our predecessors have already done much

exploration, and by their own words, they all expressed a common recognition. In Hetu-

vidya (a system of Hindu logic), it is called xianliang (direct) and biliang (indirect). In

Mingbian (a system of Chinese logic), it is called Name and Truth. Neoteric Mr. Feng Qi

called it, "The Field of Logion and The Field of Exceeding Logion." Mr. Mou Zongsan called

it "phenomenon and the thing itself." Mr. Kashel called it "The Intellectual Symbolic World

and The Direct Experience World." Mr. Wang Xiangzhai also said: "One must know that

Name and Truth can’t be mentioned in the same breath at all." In summary, we are told

that human beings realize the objective world mainly in two ways: one is through the

intellect and the other is comprehension via intuition.

The cognitive process of reasoning is through a person’s senses, first sensing the

information of the objective world, and then by way of the nerves, which pass it on to

brain. Next, an image comes into being and then a memory in the brain. This is marked by

notions and symbols, and then followed by fixed vocalisms, and finally language that we

use to communicate with each other. Based on this, at thesame time, the method of logic

deduces the correlation between objective things in the brain and results in a subjective

judgment. Accordingly, this results in our understanding and grasp of the objective world.

Therefore, an important point must be pointed out: as soon as a person is aware of

theinformation of the objective things via one’s senses, this information already has some

differences with the noumenon of the objective things. This is just like people taking a

photo: the photo is an image of a person and others can find the person by the photo, but

the photo isn’t the person himself. Furthermore, just as people introduce a boy or girl

friend via a photo, one may know the circumstances of the other side. The actual person in

the photo may be tall or short, beautiful or ugly, but absolutely no one would marry the

photo. So we say that when humans accept the information of the objective world, there

comes into being a subjective concept. This concept is the reflection of objective things

within subjective thought. Phenomenon and the thing itself are two entirely different

things. They are associated as well as differentiated. Within this cognitive process, a

human acts as the main body of cognition and the objective thing as the object of

perception. The cognitive action takes place between the main body and the object. This is

called the Main and Object interacting with each other. A human has the ability of

cognition; he is said to be able to know. An object is the target of cognition, it is said to be

able to be known. Thus we say that this way of cognition has the distinction of "being able

to know" and "being known."

After the brain suggests its conceptions, it again links these in a logical manner and an

estimate comes into being. This estimation is a reflection of the objective thing within

subjective cognizance. These two things are also unequal. So it is said that the way of

intellectual cognition is indirect and is the cause of this remoteness. Therefore, the result

of cognition must first convey a proper validation in the objective world, and then it can

become a truth. This is just like launching an artificial satellite. Only when people

subjectively think that all things are in gear will they press the ignition button. But

whether it is all in gear or not on earth, only when it rises into the sky can it be known if it

is or is not. If the satellite runs in gear, it shows that the subjective cognizance was right, if

it runs abnormally, this means that the cognition was wrong. So if talking about intellectual

cognition, all must still accept the inspection of the objective actual world after all. So we

say that practice is the only standard to prove the truth.

The cognitive process of intuition rests with the human body itself. Just as it is a part of

the objective world, a human’s vital activities are, of itself, just another part of the

movement of the objective world and this is an ultimate fact. After a human comes into

conscious being, it can, by manner of introspection, become aware of self-being and the

movement of one’s life. This sense is a sort of apperception with its object of realization

being one’s entire life. Since it takes place during vital activities, it is said that "sense" is

self-awareness. The subject of consciousness is "I," the object of consciousness is also

"me." This also takes place during the vital activities, so it is said that "sense" is not

divisible into "being able to" and "being," it is direct awareness of oneself. The subjective

and objective are one: the course of movement, that is the course of the senses, is also

namely the course of validation. Once an action has occurred, it creates reality. This reality

is the only one of its kind in the world and beyond being right or not.

Because of the above two ways of perceiving the world, this results in two response modes

of the human body to the world. One is by animal instinct, a direct active response to the

objective environment. Another is the need by way of thinking. The brain does a logical

evaluation of the objective environment, and then decides how to act. Because these two

methods of response are different, how they respond to a change in ones objective

environment is also different. Mr. Kashel said in "Talking About Humanity": "Under the first

condition (the animal instinct), the answer to environmental stimuli is direct and rapid;

however, under the second condition (human controls action by thinking), such answer is

deferred — it is broken and delayed by the slow and complicated course of thinking." Mr.

Wang Xiangzhai also always said, "One can’t take the time to consider when in combat,

consideration is useless." This also means to have a clear recognition of this result in

combat, because if thinking controls the response, this will cause the response action to

be delayed. So we repeatedly stress that Yiquan is the science of exerting instinct. The

appeal for developing a natural instinctive ability has been made. In actuality, we also find

that it is impossible to clearly separate these two reactive modes. Active response and

passive response usually exist at the same time, and they complement each other. This is

namely called being "between the intentional and the unconscious" in Yiquan.

The above points out the differences between the cognitive mode and the reactive mode.

Together, they are directed by consciousness and encompass the understanding of the

objective social world of human beings, as well as decide response reactions to the

objective world.

III. THE SECOND COURSE OF YIQUAN IS A METHOD OF COGNITION AND METHOD OF

TEACHING WHICH DIRECTLY POINT TO THE ESSENCE OF THE MARTIAL ARTS

It has already been pointed out above, that martial arts are the response of the human

body to the objective world. This kind of reactive ability is the life instinct of the human

body. For instance, the human body can respond to inner and outer circumstances

(including societal) unconsciously, an example being one’s heartbeat or breath. When a

person moves violently, the body’s oxygen consumption increases. After the ratio of

carbon dioxide to oxygen increases, it will make the breath and heartbeat quicken

automatically. This will improve the exchange of gases to accommodate the internal

change, and attempt to allow breath and heartbeat to return to normalcy. For example

when a small insect flies into the eyelid, the human body will automatically blink so as to

avoid harm from this outside situation. Again, as community affairs change, humans will

incur a natural emotional response in order to fulfill the needs of the spirit and body.

These instinctive reactions have all become manifested thru the interaction of main body

and object, and since they are achieved spontaneously, we call it instinct.

After mankind evolved to a certain degree of consciousness, there emerged the need for

knowing the world and grasping the world at the same time. Under this intellectual

demand, human beings are not only cognizant that one can control facts via consciousness

itself, but also they discover their own natural instinct. Furthermore, this instinct has an

abundant and latent potential. For example: humans are able to both walk and run, but in

practical life, we find that one who runs often will be able to run faster. By way of

increasing the number of times one runs, the ability for running will increase, and one will

be able to run faster than others. That is to say, by observing life, humans have gained

knowledge of the potentiality of the human body’s instinct, and know that one can explore

one’s own potentiality better by training. The catchphrase of modern Olympic games,

"higher, faster and stronger," also has this meaning. Namely, seeking to grasp this potential.

Yiquan also follows along this line, so martial arts are practiced to develop better vital

instincts and respond to the objective world better. In Yiquan training, "hunyuan li"

(primordial strength) is sought, in other words: seeking a plenary grasp of the physical

potentialities of the human body.

Herein before, it has already been explained what is the essence of martial arts. A martial

art is the art of one’s own body. It is the motor movement ability of the body. Only by

practising oneself, will one realize the essence of martial arts; only practice will allow one’s

own body to gain more mobility. Therefore, the Second Course proposes that one must

devote oneself in order to understand, one must realize and grasp the martial arts through

practice. When Mr. Wang Xiangzhai said, "the art and skill of realization," he had this

meaning in mind.

DISTINGUISHING BETWEEN THE FIRST COURSE AND THE SECOND COURSE

The First Course The Second Course

Definition The didactics of form The didactics of action

Cognition mode Intellectual cognition Intuitive cognition

Theoretical basis Atomic theory; consists of parts; has a unity problem

Monistic theory; unitary whole; no unity problem

Transmission mode Concept transmission Feeling transmission

Cognitive process Need transformation and transition; indirect Direct accomplishment

Process of learning Conducted consciously From consciousness to unconsciousness

Physique training Concepts normalize student’s physique; (ie. certain concepts

or rules that you try to realize while training)

Actions mold student’s physique(ie. certain actions are used so

thatyou will naturally learn to do thingsin a correct manner and

they will unconsciously transfer into other training/actions)

Content taught Teach student to practise martial arts

Teach student the method of realizing martial arts

Concretely carry out Tell students what martial arts are and what it is like

Lead students to realize what is martial arts themselves

Teaching form Is, isn’t; yes, no Do (brings success or not)

Student’s position Passively receives teaching Actively grasp intuitively

From the above analyses, everyone can clearly see the differences between the First

Course and the Second Course, but please, on no account make the mistake that the

Second Course negates or surpasses the First Course. That would neglect the value of the

First Course. As I have already said above, these two courses are two cognitive processes

commandeered by consciousness. The two courses were brought forward to help

distinguish the two cognitive modes that exist within the Yiquan science itself. By means

of this distinction, let everybody have a clearer understanding of the method to

comprehend Yiquan. Consequently, the teaching method of Yiquan will become much

more full and complete. Just like the two wheels of a vehicle or the two wings of a bird,

one cannot have one without the other. Everyone should think about this, which course do

you see now? Wise readers will come out and understandably smile.

IV. FOUR SENTENCES OF THE GENERAL PROGRAMME OF THE SECOND COURSE

"Producing a feeling with a fixed method"

"Giving up the method after getting the feeling"

"Letting the feeling follow into everything"

"Personal feeling leads to complete awareness"

"Producing a feeling with a fixed method" means that in order to help a student realize a

sort of motive state from his body, the teacher sets up a fixed action. This action exists in

the human body itself, and is a primal and natural action. By doing this action, the student

lets his body come into this motive state, and at the same time, come into being cognizant

of his own noumenon motive state. By this method, one can achieve passing from teacher

to student, the understanding of martial arts. In the process of passing from teacher to

student, the body is primarily the motivating state for the martial arts. Becoming

conscious of the feeling, it is therefore called a "feeling transmission." To have "a fixed

method" means this action of passing from teacher to student is fixed. It belongs to the

stage of having a patterned form, having predetermined thoughts and having a

standardized method.

"Giving up the method after getting the feeling" means after gaining the feeling that was

transmitted, the student mustn’t rely on this fixed method taught by his teacher for

producing the feeling. He must extend the noumenon of boxing which was passed down to

him with the method of "producing a feeling" to any time and any place. This sentence is

moving and clears up the teaching process, so as to let the student wake up and clearly

understand that martial arts is comprised of one’s true vital activities.

"Letting the feeling follow into everything" is based on realizing that everything from the

movement process on up to the process of life, is taking place in the interplay between the

subjective and objective. The objective world is moving matter. The word "moving" means

ceaseless, that is to say, the state of matter in space and time is always in a process of

motion. If humans use a fixed reference point to view the moving world, or a fixed action

to deal with the moving world, then this would bring about unconformity between the

subjective and the objective. In order to settle this problem of unconformity between the

subjective and objective, the subjective viewpoint and the subjective actionmust follow

the motion of the objective world. Therefore, you must keep yourself in a state of motion

at any given time. "Letting the feeling follow into everything" means in the process of

action (including the activity of thinking), the subjective can’t have its own action

beforehand. The subjective action must change with the changes in the objective world.

Subjective and objective interact and fit each other in the motion process, and advancing

they together. This is what is stated in Yiquan as:"Boxing without fixed form, mind without

fixed thoughts, no fixed form and no fixed thoughts, that is awakening to the truth."

"Personal feeling leads to complete awareness" means that the highest state of

understanding martial arts is achieved after one devotes oneself to it and understands the

above training process. Namely, you not only realize how the objective world, which

includes yourself, is, but also realize that you are able to understand the possibilities of

the objective world. You have the ability by your own actions to actively grasp these

possibilities, and then turn them into reality in your actual life.

By the above paraphrases of the four sentences of the general programme of the Second

Course, you can understand that the Second Course of Yiquan is the scientific teaching

method which aims at fostering a human’s meta-cognition, and the accomplishment of the

meta-cognition symbolizes the highest development of one’s cognitive ability and also is

the self-realization of one’s intellectuality.

V. UNDERSTANDING THE YIQUAN JIAJIE METHOD

In the teaching process of Yiquan, we often come up against the cognition and training

method of jiajie (using something unreal to produce real results). Hereafter, I will offer an

explanation from several viewpoints.

First, we say that symbols are artificial and that only the thing being symbolized is true.

We have already talked above of how the symbolic concept comes into being and the

elements of its application. Now, the variety of the symbolic world will be further

explained. For example, a character in the written Chinese language (or letter in the

western languages) is a sort of conceptual symbol. It has manifold ways of expression, for

example: one might say, "the hand is at position XXX, the foot is at position YYY." This is

expressing the position of the human body in space during a specific unit time of training.

When one says, "like XXX," this is a metaphor of the whole state of motion during this

period of time and it is also a metaphor of the thing being said. When one says, "the body

feels like XXX," this is describing one’s feeling during the training process. Furthermore,

there is also mathematical analysis, mechanical analysis, chemical analysis, biological

analysis, psychological analysis, as well as philosophical analysis. Although these ways of

expression are diverse, they are all the indirect reflection of the martial art noumenon

using a conceptual symbol and from a specific point of view. They are not at all the

noumenon of martial arts, so all are artificial methods. Nothing but the moving body is the

martial art itself and that is the noumenon of martial arts. Since man can express,

understand and grasp actual objective things indirectly by means of conceptual symbols,

this method of cognition is called, "the real controlled by the artificial."

Mathematics is a sort of way of expressing symbolic concepts, but it has an abstract and

pure expressionistic ability. Therefore, in addition, we have another further explanation.

Mathematics is the most scientific and high-level method of expression used by man to

describe the movement relationships between objective things; hence it is the language of

science. It is said that, when a thing can’t be expressed through mathematical language, it

can’t be regarded as entering the fortress of science. And the mathematical way of

expression is also a model for "the real controlled by the artificial." For example, a number

is originally a flow of quantitative change at the same time and space in the field of

movement of matter, time and space. It has kinetic properties. Time has continuity, space

has extensiveness; they are indivisible from moving matter. Therefore, time and space are

also a flow of quantitative change. As a flow of movement, it can’t be expressed by in a

fixed way, because if you say it is here, it is already there. So motion itself can’t be

expressed by language. However human intellectuality wants to understand the objective

world and there is also the need for people to communicate with each other. Therefore,

they adopt the method of the real controlled by the artificial. The flow of numbers is

factitiously chopped into sections, resulting in a natural number. The zhanzhuang

("standing like a wooden post" postures) in Yiquan, are parts of motion, which show the

specific state of the process of the motion. In the process of cognition of a number, people

are not satisfied with the ossified separation of a natural number, therefore there are

fractions, decimal fractions, logarithms and so on. These lead to calculus and thru

calculus, the laws of motion during a period of time can be displayed. Let motion lead to

stillness to ascertain the transitions. This is just like the relationship between zhanzhuang

and walking zhuang (i.e. postures), there is stillness within movement and movement

within stillness. In spite of this, human beings are still dissatisfied with calculus, which

can’t express all motions in all time and space yet. This now leads us to the famous

number theory proposition (Goldbach’s conjecture) that every even number N greater

than 2 is the sum of two prime numbers. In the same way, Yiquan requires responding to

every feeling in order to react to infinitude. We know that Goldbach’s conjecture hasn’t

been completely proven yet, but in 1966, mathematician Chen Jingrun proved the

conjecture for certain large numbers, and eventually one day, someone will prove it for

even higher numbers. However, regarding it as a sort of cognition method, mathematics is

still an indirect method of expression. This abstract expression can only be held within the

subjective world. There is a radical difference when comparing it to the objective world, so

it is also a method of the real controlled by the artificial.

Within the Yiquan training process, everybody will come into contact with the method of

making use of thought, such as imagining there is a big tree, or great mountain, or viper

and beast of prey, etc. right in front of themselves. Thought is used to pull or push them,

or manipulate them in some other fashion. One must realize that the object of this action

is the memory, which is retained in the brain from the experience. This memory is

radically different for a real tree or great mountain. We know in real life that if we move a

heavy object or see the object with our eyes, our brains issue the order of movement. This

impresses the information on the nerves and so the muscles contract to produce strength

in order to affect the heavy object. At the same time, one feels the weight against oneself,

and as a result, it brings the change of spatial position for the heavy object. One’s action of

moving thing is achieved and the objective world has changed. This is objective reality.

However, we can see that it is the thought making use of the brain to remember this real

action and visualization. The action is then reproduced in the brain and accordingly, issues

an order directing the muscles to work. This action of moving a thing is factiously

completed. By going through this sort of practice over and over again, the memory of the

action of moving thing in the brain has been strengthened. It forms and enhances the

cumulative finalized impetus, and in the meanwhile, muscles have been built up and the

strength of human body has been increased. But we should also realize that the reality of

thinking isn’t the same as that of actuality. It is only a sort of training method or means of

training. It is seeking to sufficiently grasp the possibility of the limitlessness of imagination.

But while using this method, we must not lose touch with reality and should ceaselessly

get verification from the real, and not get carried away.

In the Yiquan teaching process, it is necessary to pass through each training course

taught, such as relaxation, tension, moving from relaxation to tension, and so on. These

series of courses are all set up for students to gain the ability over reactions and control of

his body. They are all artificial methods as well and when you use this sort of ability of

exerting the response activity over the actual world then it is true.

In the end, I tell you, all cognition methods are artificial methods. However, your

spontaneous vital activities and actions are just as true.

To sum things up, Yiquan is namely understood and taught through the method of

controlling the real by means of the artificial. Each step points to this real from artificial

method, and in the end, directly points to the vital activities. However, talking about this

meaning, you now study Yiquan, practise Yiquan, and understand Yiquan. All down

throughout the process of learning Yiquan and achieving the completion of self-awareness,

these series of actions are just your actual vital activities. That is to say, the many kinds of

artificial methods are also true methods. This is the true meaning of "seek the true from

the unreal" which was said by Mr. Wang Xiangzhai. Human beings exert this method of the

real controlled by the artificial to realize and grasp this world. It is also through this

process of seeking that man achieves realization of his true self.

VI. TO GAIN STRENGTH AND TO BE HAPPY (FEEL WELL BEING AND CONTENTMENT)

IS THE NORM OF ACTION

Mr. Xiangzhai always said, "to gain strength and to be happy is an enduring principle." It is

this fundamental fact for a human that is a noumenon of nature when the norm of action is

posed, since the human body itself is a part of nature and the essential principle of nature

is unified and harmonious. This is to say that all laws of motion, which are manifested in

the human body, are the same thing as the laws of motion in nature. Whether one’s motion

of action accords with the laws of nature or not, one can still be conscious of it themselves

through introspection. When in accord, one will feel oneself gaining in strength and

happiness, and when in discord, one will feel very unwell and very unnatural. Accordingly,

adjust yourself to this motion of action. As for animals, this relationship between the

individual and nature is accomplished naturally. An animal responds to the change of

nature by instinct. Nature lets the superior ones win and eliminates the inferior ones in

judgment over the animals. This way it keeps progressing and developing. However, human

beings, because they have a subjective consciousness, also have an independent spirit.

That is to say that a human being has an independent and free consciousness, and by this

consciousness is able to control his own actions. By his actions, one goes on to choose

from a good many possibilities, which are offered up by nature and makes it become

reality. Among the many possibilities, some will develop in a good direction, and others

will develop in a bad direction. The same can be said for sports. If the method of exercise

is right, through practice you will make the body healthy, the ability to react will be

strengthened and victory will be achieved in the sport. If the method of exercise is

incorrect, you will cruelly harm your own life. Not every sport method, physical training

and sports program will benefit all people. Mr. Wang Xiangzhai pointed out such

phenomena in the world of sports before. In fact, everyone who has the ability to observe

and capability to analyze will discover this and realize this from life and sports practice. If

the action is right, one will gain the rewards of nature, if the action is incorrect, then one

will draw nature’s retaliation. The most valuable thing is for a human being to be

convinced of this, and go on to adjust their actions with their own initiative in order to be

close to nature. Therefore, we say that a human being’s motile creativity becomes true in

the range of possibility of nature, and that human beings achieve free will within this

range. Furthermore, if strength and happiness are gained, it is a recognizable signal given

to the human consciousness by nature, which uses this to normalize human action.

VII. ACTION TEACHING CLEARS UP THE CONTRADICTIONS OF UNDERSTANDING

At any given time during the process of learning martial arts, we will meet many

contradictory problems. Like whether a posture is good if it is big or small, high or low,

insubstantial or substantial, relaxed or tensed, and so on. This was so much the case that

Mr. Wang Xiangzhai called himself "The Old Man of Contradiction" during his later years.

Every theory there is has or is a contradiction. This is also reflected in the area of

cognition, contradiction exists everywhere. What is the reason for this? It is because

scientific knowledge is established on the basis of taxology. That is to say, in order to

understand a piece of something, then one must differentiate it with other things, so we

say, once we start talking about understanding, this just produce its opposite. If we want to

understand something, we must use a definite standard to differentiate between two

things. However, all things in true-life are contiguous and ever changing, therefore we

cannot use a fixed standard to differentiate them, thus the production of a fundamental

contradiction. In Hetu-vidya science, it is called biliang (indirect), which means existing

depends on each other. If we say we have one, then at the same time, there is also

something other than one, if we say good, then there is also bad, if we say void, there is

also solid. So we say that as a concept is arising in germination, at the same time, a

contradiction is arising along with knowledge. Then how to settle such a contradiction?

This creates a weighty philosophical problem.

Our predecessors also explored this theory. Mr. Immanuel Kant put forward the idea of

antinomy (the law of contraries), telling everybody it is impossible to search after the

solution of a problem by the method of reasoning, because any proposition has a negative

proposition at the same time. This is also reflected in the basic contradiction of

understanding. More philosophers have pursued the contradiction problem to the end, but

can only give a dialectic and paradoxical result. Which is to say, we end up talking about

the unity of opposites: namely this namely that, not this not that, is this way and is also

that way, neither this way nor that way, etc. This gets to the endpoint and we can’t seek

any more. Having said is equivalent to having not said.

We know all learning needs to be able to be put into action eventually in order to solve the

concrete problems of reality, however, no theoretical knowledge can work out a positive

solution for you in the end. Videlicet, nobody can teach you how to do something; you

must confront the reality yourself and bring into play your decision, and with your actions

change the possibilities of the objective world into reality. When the possibility comes

true, in this reality, all principles come into existence of course. All contradictions are all

solved in this reality. This is namely the effect of a human’s motile action clearing up

contradictions in understanding. Through innumerable confrontations with this

contradictory world, in the end a human being wakes up to the following: use nothing

other than one’s own life to confront this world and the use of action to resolve, to create

and to change this world is the one and only outlet. Accordingly, let people wake up to the

brilliance of their own transcendental wisdom.

As soon as a man had consciousness, he began to have cognitive action, hence

intellectuality. Intellectuality requires that humans should completely know and actively

grasp this world, including themselves. This is a human’s transcendental wisdom. Since

that time, human beings began the journey of illuminating the whole world by the light of

their own transcendental wisdom. When a human being expressly awakens to this

transcendental wisdom, then intellectuality also reaches its brilliant acme.

VIII. MARTIAL ART SCIENCE IS A HISTORICAL END-RESULT

As soon as a human being has consciousness, intellectuality moves forward in an

inevitable way toward understanding. This way falls into three stages: know the objective,

know yourself, and know the method of understanding. Entrance to and advancement

within every stage are all through this process: needs -> understanding-> conclusions->

advanced cognition. The whole process assumes the cognition of self-awareness as the

final endpoint. Every branch of learning is this way and the process of developing

understanding in Yiquan also is no exception.

In the process of struggle for survival in nature, what human beings meet first is the need

to defend its own existence. Now it needs to research health preservation and jiji (skills of

combat) or in other words, how to keep the body healthy and how to protect oneself

against outside aggression. Between these two things, the need for combat skills is the

most pressing. First of all we must research the problem of attack and defense.

Consequently, zhaoshi (fixed techniques of attack or defense) were created. Zhaoshi is for

solving the problem of how to respond to the opponent. If you want to resolve the

response problem, you must know the opponent in order to determine your own action. So

zhaoshi is the prerequisite for knowing the opponent. It is the beginning toward knowing

the objective world. Afterward, along with the development of understanding, these

zhaoshi become more and more numerous. How is one to remember these zhaoshi and

pass these zhaoshi on to others? Under this requirement, taolu (a series of skills and

tricks, also know as forms or kata in Japanese) are contrived. Taolu is the aggregate of

zhaoshi. Once a greater and greater amount of zhaoshi and taolu have been created, a

demand arises to fully bring into play the effect of the zhaoshi. This then brings about the

understanding of the functional state of one’s body, and then there arises neijiaquan

(internal martial arts). Neijiaquan strives for vigour, intrinsic energy, spirit and strength.

This namely means to understand one’s own body. After the above two kinds of

understanding developed, there naturally came the desire of how to optimize a method of

understanding. Then came a demand for a martial art science and so Yiquan came into

being. Yiquan states that researching and understanding martial arts must start from

consciousness, by way of the zhanzhuang method to understand the laws of motion and

realize the state of motion by sensing with one’s body. This is a kind of improvement as a

method of comprehension. So we say Yiquan is a martial art science (or combat science)

and it is the knowledge of the method of understanding martial arts. These three cognitive

stages organically constitute the content of martial art science, so we say that Yiquan, too,

can’t think lightly of the response problem between ourselves and the enemy, and we also

can’t think lightly of the physical performance problem. When you have this

understanding, you have reached the level of the understanding of combat science.

Nothing but combat science is the historical end-result of Chinese martial arts, and is also

a part of the Chinese national culture. It is a crystallization of the Chinese nation’s learning

about life science.

After learning, practicing and researching martial arts for a long time, what the author

found amazing is that an individual’s cognitive process of martial arts is just like a

miniature of the cognitive process of martial arts for the entire human race. All go through

zhaoshi, physical performance and understanding. This is a common cognitive process.

Furthermore, this process of developing understanding accords well with Mr. Pi Yajie’s

theory of stages of cognitive development. In the end, the development of meta-cognition

(or transcendent understanding) exemplifies the maturity of development of an

individual’s cognition. These again are all in accord with the inevitability of "thing"

development which is expressed by what Mr. Engels said: "The parallel relationship

between a human being’s individuality and history = the relationship between embryology

and paleontology." Here and now, I have written of my own learning experience for

everybody to compare and verify during the process of studying and learning martial art

science in the future.

IX. YIQUAN IS THE SCIENCE OF ONE’S NATURE AND LIFE

Summing up the above, we can see that Yiquan is the study of essential human nature and

vital activities. Mr. Wang Xiangzhai named it the science of one’s nature and life. Why, in its

occurrence and developmental process, does the evolution of Yiquan always follow the

development of combat skills? So invariably, some people misunderstand and think that

Yiquan only emphasizes fighting others. This is because no matter whether we take

cognition, or culture, or progress, all are developing according to the demands of human

life. A human beings’ demand for survival is the most fundamental one. The rivalry

between people is the most pressing menace to human life. Once one has lost his life,

there is nothing left to talk of. So Sunzi in his "Art of War" says: "War is an event of utmost

importance to a nation, a place of life and death, and a way of life and death — it cannot

be ignored." Therefore, what a human being must solve first is the question of combat

skills, next, is to let life exist normally, which is namely a question of health. After resolving

these two problems, then can we refer to other problems. This is the same principle as the

development of human science and technology following the development of war and

weapons. But human intellectuality isn’t limited in this, especially because the era of cold

weapons has already progressed into today’s hot weapons. The social meaning of combat

skills using the human body has already changed. However, human health problems and

the desire of humans to understand their own bodies and their pursuit to achieve self-

fulfillment by understanding themselves are just the directions that people are making

unremitting efforts toward. The value of Yiquan simply rests with offering a most direct

way for people’s self-understanding and self-fulfillment.

Han Jingyu

In beautiful Zhuhai,

February 15, 2001

'THEORY OF COMBAT SCIENCE — THE SECOND COURSE OF YIQUAN'

Authors: Han Jingyu, Han Jingsheng

Translator: Timo Heikkilä

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'This writing is sincerely dedicated to our mother,

Lady Wang Qun, who has tacitly devoted herself to yiquan.'

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Producing a feeling with a fixed method

Giving up the method after getting the feeling

Letting the feeling follow into everything

Personal feeling leads to complete awareness

I. WHAT IS YIQUAN?

Yiquan, since it originated, has aimed at training and cultivating the practitioner by

developing the natural instinctive abilities of the human body and mind as its goal. This is

the highest reflection of man's primordial spirit, and these natural instinctive abilities bring

one's physical and mental functions into full play. Summed up, it could be called man's

pursuit of a healthy mind and body. Concretely it can be divided into three aspects. The

first one is health, which includes both physiology and psychology. Only when you are in

good health, can you live a normal life and do all the things you want to. The second is

combat. Only when you are in good health, can you deal with another person in combat

and only then can you compete victoriously. The third is the pursuit of an interesting and

meaningful life. That means, by the processes of studying and applying yiquan, getting zest

into one's life gaining knowledge of the law of the movement of life (1) of the human body,

and then, from an even higher state, realizing the primordial spirit in one's life. That could

be called 'understanding tacitly by intuitive perception'.

To achieve this goal, yiquan makes clear that its subject of research is the whole

movement process of life of the human body. This issue must be met with the principles of

science and the law of the movement of life must be the subject of research. Thereby it is

established that yiquan is a branch of science - 'combat science'. The difference between

yiquan and other martial arts can be seen from that statement. Yiquan is not a collection

of boxing routines or fixed techniques and postures, neither is it a school of thought or a

style, nor can it assume as a criterion that the correctness of boxing could be judged

merely by victory or defeat. Yiquan is study of life. Only after having understood this, can

the true meaning of yiquan be considered to have been grasped. Only then can yiquan

indeed be considered to have been understood.

II. THE PRESENT TRAINING METHOD STILL HAS ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT

The predecessors who developed yiquan, noticed that in order to grasp the law of one's

movement of life, the attention must be put towards the human body both in theory and in

practice, and in this way bring one's natural instinctive abilities into full play and thus

reach the goal of yiquan. Merely seeking this law from an external form is not enough. This

is the opposite of the traditional martial arts training method of movement patterns and

fixed techniques. Yiquan has personal intuitive perception as its means and pile standing

(zhanzhuang), trial of force (shili) and issuing of force (fali) are used to make up most of

the content of its training system. At present this kind of training system is widely used in

the yiquan circles. At the same time yiquan starts to spread its influence towards other

sports. We can assume that in the near future it will certainly change into a treasure of the

common culture of all the people in the whole world. But we have gradually, in the process

of practising and researching yiquan for years, found out that insufficiencies can still be

found in this kind of teaching method, mainly in the following few aspects:

A. The abstract description of yiquan's final state is within sight, but beyond reach.

For example, our predecessors spoke about things such as 'a flag in the wind, a fish in the

waves' etc. How could a student enter such a state?

B. Also, concrete statements are one-sided. When talking about zhanzhuang, there

are requirements on how to position the head, the neck, the waist, the legs, etc. Actually

that is just the opposite of yiquan, 'once something concrete is being told, it becomes one-

sided at once', which finally causes what we call the unity problem. For instance, while

doing zhanzhuang one feels very good and strong, but the whole vanishes once one

moves. Commonly that is called 'loss of unity'. When one does a singlemovement it is very

solid, but the whole shatters immediately when one starts moving freely.

C. As a result of the two above mentioned points, there is no concrete integrated

training process for the student to step by step enter the highest state of 'not a single

method exists, yet no method non-exists'.

D. At the same time the defects of the time of the learning process being too long

also exist. According to Mr. Wang Xiangzhai, it takes ten years before one is able to 'issue

maximum power, thus being fully ready for combat'. What we have experienced ourselves,

is that maybe after ten years one still has not reached that state, I think everybody else

might have realized the same too. In today's society the rhythm of life is gradually getting

faster and faster, so I am afraid that the possibility of someone using dozens of years for

pursuing yiquan, like we did, gets smaller and smaller and the difficulty of teaching yiquan

gets bigger and bigger.

What was mentioned above is the reality that we cannot evade, therefore we feel it as our

duty to, on the basis of the yiquan that our predecessors started, take the way of learning one

step forward, making it even more perfect and completing what our predecessors started.

III. THE PROBLEMS THAT NEED TO BE SOLVED IN THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF

YIQUAN

1. The fundamental concept of yiquan not being understood clearly

A. Not being clear about the fact that the subject of research of yiquan is the whole

process of the movement of life. It is a mistake to study how to beat the opponent, in fact

already a long time ago Mr. Wang Xiangzhai said that, 'Correctness of boxing cannot be

judged merely by victory or defeat....' Advancing in any subject must be judged by the progress in

understanding the law of objective reality. Only in sports is the difference of victory and defeat

between individuals used as a standard. This resembles Mike Tyson having knocked many opponents

down yesterday, which explains that within a certain period of time his skills were better than those of

the other boxers. Today Evander Holyfield beat him up, this explains that within another period of

time Tyson's skills were not the best ones. So neither their victory nor defeat can explain whether

their understanding of the boxing sport is correct or incorrect. The progress in a branch of science

must be examined within a wide process of practice to see whether it is positive or not.

B. The scientific attributes of yiquan not being understood clearly. What is

researched scientifically is the law of movement of nature, but that is not a school of

thought. There is only one law of nature. Therefore Mr. Wang Xiangzhai once said, 'Only

the objective truth is universally sacred, a publicly-owned master.' He also said, 'It is the

origin of right and wrong.' Finally he said, ' I only know the difference of right and wrong in

my study of boxing and ignore the sectarianism (2).' That expression of learning spirit

could not be any clearer.

C. Not understanding the difference between Nature and knowledge learned from

others, causes following blindly. Mr. Wang Xiangzhai in his book, 'The Essential Way of

Boxing', wrote about the reasons why many boxing practitioners mistakenly enter the

wrong path: 'Mostly their teacher teaches badly. In practice they do not scrupulously seek

the truth, but follow what others do and echo what others say. That is called following like

sheep.' In this statement he brought up that one should not follow the predecessors

blindly. Following the predecessors refers to predecessor's experiences, which can be the

direct teachings of one's master or the knowledge gained from the books of the

predecessors. All this is the predecessor's understanding of objective reality. We should

know that they were working hard expressing their personal understanding of the

objective, but this kind of understanding might be incorrect, it might be correct, or maybe

partly correct and partly incorrect. But the everlasting and unchanging truth only lies in

objective reality. We are talking about Nature, it is the sole noumenon (3) of knowledge.

So we say that, although one has to learn from one's teacher, it is even more important to

respect and learn from the Nature. This requires us to have skills to observe, think and

perceive independently, not to follow blindly, and not to echo what others say, including

what our direct teachers have said and what the predecessors have written. We have to

verify their experiences in real practice, keeping in close touch with Nature. This is the

only way leading to success.

2. Not being able to completely solve the already known contradictions

From the theoretical point of view, Mr. Wang Xiangzhai once said, 'Boxing has no fixed

method at all.' So do the numerous treatises the predecessors wrote have a fixed method

or not? Mr. Wang once said, 'Boxing without fixed form, mind without fixed thoughts, no

fixed form and no fixed thoughts, that is awakening to the truth.' So does yiquan have fixed

thoughts after all? Mr. Wang told to hit like this and that, but in the end he said again that a

clever person does not need to study that, so do we need to study it or not after all? Mr.

Wang said that once something concrete is said it becomes one-sided at once. But in

another article he told how to position the head, the waist, the feet, etc. So is it one-sided

or not after all? Finally Mr. Wang summed it up by saying, 'Everything said is a

contradiction of a contradiction', he also called himself 'Old Man Contradiction'. He already

saw clearly that the entire processes of exercise and teaching included contradictions, and

brought up this problem saying: 'To study boxing, but not its philosophical theory is the

same as embracing a stone egg in a hope that it will hatch a chick, eventually nothing

succeeds. The student must understand this truth.' This points out the importance of

solving the contradictions of theory and practice from a philosophical level. But how to

solve them remained an issue for us in the later generations.

3. The unity problem

As a result of not having solved the main problem - the contradictions - in theory and

practice from a philosophical level, the unity problem appears in the process of practice.

The original training system is divided into three phases: zhanzhuang, shili, and fali;

zhanzhuang being its core. Because Mr. Wang has said that everything comes from

zhanzhuang, great many people have misunderstood, thinking that yiquan is zhanzhuang,

that in the process of zhanzhuang a student is required to position his head, waist, legs, etc.

in a certain way. That means complete dismemberment of yiquan. So Mr. Wang said, 'Once

something concrete is being told, it becomes one-sided at once.' This is what it means. So

some people jokingly say: the dead-like people do pile standing, they stand like dead piles,

pile standing dies away (4). Yiquan's true meaning has been absolutely destroyed. But how

could we bring the achievements of all the different parts of the training - i.e. zhanzhuang,

shili, fali, etc. - back to life? This is what is currently called 'the unity problem'.

Above we have already spoken about the contradictions in the theory and training, so here

you will surely ask me: Does what you are talking here have a fixed method or not? Does

the training system you recommend have a fixed form or not? How do you express

methodlessness? How do you exercise formlessness? This is exactly the contradiction of a

contradiction Mr. Wang spoke about; it is also exactly the main problem this writing wants

to solve. This will be discussed in the later chapters.

IV. THE LIMITS OF FORMAL LOGIC IN UNDERSTANDING, THINKING, AND EXPRESSING

YIQUAN'S CONTENT

The question of having a fixed form or not discussed above, actually is a way of discussing

how a person can attain the highest state of yiquan, and the question of methodness (5)

and methodlessness (6) is about discussing how a person who has already reached this

state could express his perception to lead others to step into the same excellent state.

We know that all kinds of knowledge possessed by people is made of subjective personally

sensed feelings of objective things, which then form the images of the objective things in

the brain. We call them concepts. Then by means of a concept, a conclusion is made and

then expressed by means of spoken and written languages. Thus the concept gained in the

brain is passed on to another person in the form of the conclusion. Here only obtaining it

matters, not how you obtain it. It does not matter how it is obtained and expressed, the

concept is used as the basic component in every case. Here we have already, without

being aware of it, entered the category of formal logic, which is the commonly used

method of knowing and expressing. Because formal logic would not exist without its

strictness and thoroughness, so the inertia created by people by regularly doing certain

things, makes them mistakenly think that the concept is the complete reflection of the

objective thing, and they go on to make a conclusion about it by means of the concept,

which they think is the inevitable outcome of objective reality. Finally what was expressed

by the concept cannot be anything but the objective truth to them. Because of not seeing

the limits of the formal logic in understanding and expressing the content of yiquan, the

difference between objective reality and one's knowledge gets bigger and bigger and finally

there is no way to grasp the true meaning of yiquan. Below we will explain this problem

from several aspects.

1. The difference between a concept and reality

First of all we have to check whether a concept can perfectly reflect objective reality. For

example, you have just eaten a grape and another person asks you what it tastes like. You

answer that it is sour, so the other person asks you again what kind of sourness it is, is it

sour like an apricot or sour like a plum, or as sour as vinegar. Naturally it is not like any of

those. This concept of 'sour' cannot express the sourness of this grape, it can only tell that

it belongs to the category of sourness. Everybody knows that actually every kind of

sourness is different, the sourness of this grape can only be its own taste. That means,

reflecting the objective reality of the grape by the means of the concept of sour is very

difficult, because there is a difference between the concept and reality. The same applies

to yiquan, understanding and expressing its feeling with a concept is also very difficult.

2. A concept can only describe a single aspect of something, but it cannot reflect the

whole condition

We know that the objective things consist of many kinds of information; let us take one

specific pear as an example, the information it is made of includes size, colour, weight,

temperature, flavour, shape, smell, etc. Maybe there is also much other information that

we are incapable to sense. The summation of this information expresses this pear's

existence. When we want to tell other people what this pear is like, we can only go through

the concept describing it one by one. What is called one by one means that within one unit

of time you can represent this pear only from one aspect and one point of view, you cannot

at once pass on the whole general information of the pear to another person. After the

other person has one by one got the information, he has to gather the information

together in his brain, only after that can he get the general impression of this pear. Why do

we call it general impression? That is because there is still much information that has not

been received, because the whole is bigger than the sum of its parts; the whole includes

the content of every part and it also expresses the synthesis of the content. This

resembles our eyes, they both are capable of perceiving form and colour; when the two

eyes work together, that gives birth to the perception of distance. This sense of distance is

a result of the whole being in possession and integrated; it cannot be expressed by the

parts. Because yiquan is a kind of understanding of the human body's whole process of

life, it cannot be expressed and understood part by part, therefore it is said that 'once

something concrete is being told, it becomes one-sided at once' and afterwards this

creates what is called the unity problem.

3. An experience must precede a concept

In the process of teaching yiquan, is it possible to pass our experience to another person

using a concept? The following story can answer this question. There was a blind man who

had always heard other people saying: how white is this and that, but he himself did not

know what was white, so he went to ask a clear-sighted man. The clear-sighted man

answered him right away: 'white is one kind of a colour', the blind person still did not

understand, therefore he asked again: 'what kind of colour is it?' The clear-sighted man

told him again: 'it is white like a white swan.' The blind man still did not understand, so he

went on asking what kind of white is the whiteness of a white swan, and was told by the

clear-sighted person that it is white like the white clouds. The blind person did not

understand and asked him what kind of white is the whiteness of the white clouds, the

clear sighted man answered... Ultimately the blind person did not understand. This story

tells us that the things expressed by a concept must be passed on using facts both parties

have experienced. When I say 'white' you know what it means right away. That is because

before I said it, you have already seen white things with your own eyes, and have had the

same feeling as I did. Only because of that, can you understand the meaning that the

concept of 'white' expresses. Mr. Wang also said, 'One cannot talk about something one has

not experienced', that is what it means. But we want to explain boxing, we want to talk

about boxing, we want to tell the people who do not understand boxing what it is, because

there is no need to explain boxing to those who have already understood it. But the

students have not experienced the understanding of boxing, therefore it is impossible to

explain them what boxing is using a concept.

4. The difficulty in explaining a concept

When we do not understand one concept, it needs to be explained to us by another

person, but how to explain a concept? One must put it among many other concepts. What

does that mean? That means if someone does not understand the concept of 'vegetable',

you explain: it is an edible plant. Here appear the five concepts of 'it', 'is', 'an', 'edible', and

'plant', so one can go on asking; what is 'it', what is 'is', what is.... So after you have

explained again, he can keep on asking no matter how carefully you explain. This example

tells us: already known concepts must be used to explain unknown concepts, so

everybody, think a little, where does the first concept already known come from? It is

definitely not created by an explanation; it is obtained by the means of direct feeling from

nature. Then one kind of commonly agreed symbol is used to express this kind of common

feeling. Here we have understood that the most basic concept of any science is certainly

created by the means of a direct feeling of this process of movement.

5. The flaws of contemplating and demonstrating something using a concept

We know that when we ponder something and when we want to pass on the knowledge of

something to another person, we have to strictly obey the laws of logic. Deducing from the

preceding thing leads to a conclusion, deducing from one thing leads to another thing. If

you do not obey the logical laws you cannot advance. And if the logic is not strict, you

cannot but make a mistaken conclusion, so you cannot pass on the idea you want to

express. This fact already makes us deeply trust and not suspect. But there is a German

philosopher who came up with a philosophical proposition - the Law of Contradiction. He

found out that the same concept, by the means of strict formal logical reasoning can lead

to two opposite conclusions without violating the laws of logic at all, then he adduced four

ways to prove it: 1. Time and space have limits; time and space have no limits. 2.

Everything in the world is composed of single divisible parts; everything in the world is

complex and indivisible. 3. The existence of the world has a reason; the existence of the

world has no reason. 4. .... He revealed that there is a contradiction in judging and knowing

objective things using formal logic. Later many others took the theory a step further

proving that not only the four things Mr. Immanuel Kant pointed out, but also all other

things belong to the Law of Contradiction, and even more importantly they understood the

universal existence of a contradiction. This also tells us that judging something by the

means of a concept just using the simple method of formal logic to prove one truth is

impossible. So we should not think that just going through one argument confirms

everything, neither should we think that everything can by negated just by the means of

the opposite statement, even less should we stick to theoretically discussing the concept.

6. Reasoning cannot lead to new knowledge

In real life we often use the method of logical reasoning to obtain a conclusion and

knowledge of a concrete thing. In the process of often using this kind of method it is very

easy to make a mistake, i.e. to believe that the judgement gained by the means of

reasoning is new knowledge. Actually it is not. Let us first take a look at what is the normal

form of reasoning: major premise -> minor premise -> conclusion. For example, a fruit is

edible -> an apple is a fruit -> an apple is edible. In this process the conclusion is not new

knowledge; it is already included in the major premise. That means the small concept of an

apple is included in the overall concept of a fruit. Originally it can be eaten, so by the

means of reasoning no new knowledge is obtained.

We also know that reasoning must start with correct premise, this premise is called

universally accepted truth and the theorem is deduced from it. But where does the

universally accepted truth come from? Universally accepted truth cannot be gained by the

means of reasoning, it has emerged in the practical activities that people do again and

again. It is what everybody universally accepts as one kind of perception of objective

reality. So the origin of genuine knowledge is in peoples daily practical activities and in the

direct perception of the objective reality. So yiquan emphasizes that 'one should not leave

one's body', it means that one's body is the subject of research, its movement process is

one kind of objective reality. That means you must by yourself go forward to directly feel

this objective reality, and thereby gain genuine knowledge. This genuine knowledge is one

kind of real existence in itself, it is also subjective knowledge of objective, and thereby

reality and concept are united. It also tells us: to push is exactly to push, to pull is exactly

to pull, unite the concept and the action in your own body.

7. The necessity and indirectness of expressing something with illustrative substance

There is an old story, it says that one year there was a solar eclipse, and after the solar

eclipse the emperor ordered a historiographer to record this incident. After the

historiographer had finished, he gave his notes to the emperor. The emperor, after reading

the notes, was not satisfied with the description of the degree of the solar eclipse. He told

the historiographer to express it more accurately. After a while the historiographer still

had not found out a suitable way to express it. After all, how high is the degree of a solar

eclipse? You cannot go to measure its degree. Therefore the historiographer, in low spirits,

thought it over and over again. His son noticed that he was worried so he asked why. After

hearing the reason he suddenly got an idea and told his father that the degree of

yesterday's solar eclipse was like the crescent of the eighth day of every lunar month. The

historiographer understood immediately and used this way to express the solar eclipse's

degree when reporting to the emperor, who was more than satisfied with the new report.

How come it was like that? Because the sun and the moon are of resembling natures that

can be compared. 1. They are both round, and 2. solar eclipse and a moon on the wane

both lack one piece. Solar eclipse's degree cannot be directly measured, but the moon is

full and on the wane every month and thus can often be seen, everybody already has the

general idea of it. So using something often seen here which everybody already has an idea

of to express something seldom seen allows one to get an indirect feeling right away. This

is the value of using illustrating substance. Similarly we run into this difficult problem

when expressing the feeling, state, or manner of yiquan, and we also introduce many

parables like dragon, tiger, monkey, the sea, and the mountains etc. to solve it. Here

everybody must understand that the illustrating substance and reality have differences.

The moon and the sun in the end certainly are not the same thing, the way of using

parables is just using a concrete thing to express something behind it. It can be regarded

as 'the finger pointing to the moon'. That means, for the sake of telling somebody where

the moon is, use the finger to point to the right direction in the sky. Of course one will first

see the finger and then in the same direction as the finger, one sees the moon. Here the

finger is just one kind of a method, just a tool, nothing more. After you have found the

moon there is no use for the finger anymore. This is what the Chinese idiom 'having found

the moon, forget the finger' means. Having understood the meaning, forget the words.

Therefore we have to be convinced that while the parable method is also good, using

another method is also fine. They are all used so that one could feel and realize one's

movement of life and personally completely understand its law. Still in the end, that can

only be achieved by means of 'understanding tacitly by intuitive perception'.

8. Knowing the limits of a concept

The focal point of the last few chapters were the limits of the actual application of the

concept method. It does not say that the value of the concept could be negated even

though it has this kind of contradiction. In daily life we unceasingly use concepts as tools

to express thoughts, including me in writing this article. That resembles when you say 'red

light = stop, green light = go'. Everybody knows that it is a traffic rule and if it would not be

obeyed, the roads might turn into chaos. So here the location of the contradiction must be

emphasized, so that everybody would pay attention to the limits inherent in the method of

formal logic when it is used to solve the actual problems in yiquan. Some things can be

expressed by a concept and some can not. To express yiquan both kinds of these things

are required. Thus here we took a step forward and understood the method of

understanding yiquan.

9. The consequences of breaking away from reality

A few years ago I saw a TV program called 'Going Out of Shape'. The content of it was: ten

students stand on the stage side by side, backs towards the audience, then the teacher

tells the first student to turn around and does the action of frying food. This student looks

carefully, and then he tells the second student to turn around and passes this action on to

the second student (he is not allowed to talk). Like this it is passed on from student to

student. As a result we see that this action of frying food in the process of being passed

from student to student will gradually go out of shape, and having got to the last student

the appearance is already totally wrong. Although this is just a game, it still shows

information gradually getting lost in the process of passing it on. This kind of getting lost

starts to pile up and as a result it is impossible to express the original thing. I think if they

had had a frying pan while appearing on the stage, they surely could not have gone out of

shape, constantly having a real thing toconfirm from. So think about our yiquan, should we

not constantly confirm from reality, never let it go out of shape. The ancients also have a

description for this phenomenon, that is, should we study from the predecessors or study

from Nature? What the predecessors refer to is the master or a writing left by him, Nature

refers to the objective reality of nature itself. Mr. Wang Xiangzhai also stressed: 'Do not

stick to studying from your teacher only.' The study of yiquan is researching and studying

the life of the human body. We all have one body; we can by means of the experience

gained from our own body, grasp the law of movement of objective reality. Thereby our

knowledge and understanding of yiquan will never go out of shape. This is also the reason

why Mr. Wang said: 'One should not leave one's body.'

10. Theory can be explained, yiquan must be perceived by intuition

Today when science flourishes, all of its branches have developed to different extent, so

there are even more tools for us to know the world. As to the specific research target of

the movement of life of the human body, it can be explained using any science, it can be

explained by physics, chemistry, biology, as well as mathematics. All that knowledge and

all these explanations are correct, but one must understand that they only explain the

theory, nothing more. A plain explanation of yiquan is not enough; a picture of a cake

cannot allay one's hunger. Studying boxing requires people to be able to understand this

law of movement from the movement of one's own body. At the same time this law gains

evidence for itself in one's body, one obtains realization from one's inmost. In the end one

achieves the state of syncretism of the subjective and the objective. That is like if I would

want to tell you a specific pear's flavour, I can tell you how many per cents of it consist of

water, sugar, salt, vitamin, protein, etc. Maybe there are still many unsaid ingredients, they

all are objective and correct, but by means of this knowledge you will never know what

that pear tastes like. You must taste it by yourself to know what it tastes like. So when

training yiquan you must earnestly practise it by yourself, go to test it by yourself, only

then can you really understand it.

V. A KEY TO OPEN THE GATE OF 'AWAKENING' TO YIQUAN

We know that the whole theory is for solving problems in practice. The purpose of

studying yiquan is to let every student to grasp the law of one's movement of life and thus

gain healthy body and mind, to realize the natural primordial spirit and to enjoy a happy

life. So it does not require a more advanced explanation, it just requires a solution to the

problem of how to practise so that the boxing skills may enter everyone's body.

1. Entering methodlessness from methodness

Here everybody certainly might have a few questions in his or her mind. Mr. Wang

Xiangzhai said about yiquan that, 'Boxing has no fixed method at all.' You have also used

much space to explain the limits of using a method to learn yiquan, so do you now want to

tell us again that there is a method that is not a method? Is this not very contradictory to

you? Therefore here it is necessary to elaborate a little the relationship of methodness and

methodlessness, as well as the work that we have to do. Please allow us to use formal

language to explain: the process of studying yiquan could be compared to a road, this road

is divided into two parts, the first part is called knowledge and the latter part is called

transcendental wisdom. The road of knowledge has a beginning and an end, while the road

of transcendental wisdom only has a beginning, but no end. There is a gate between them;

a gate called the 'awakening'. The starting point inside the gate of 'awakening' is awareness;

from awareness starts the way towards the syncretism of the subjective and the objective.

The road of knowledge is a territory of methodness; the road of transcendental wisdom is

the territory of methodlessness. The territory of methodness is called 'the territory of the

intellect' in philosophy. It is a state in which the method of concepts can be used to

express something. The territory of methodlessness is called 'the territory of something

that goes beyond the intellect' in philosophy. It is a state that cannot be expressed by the

method of concepts. People start from ignorance and due to the ignorance the teacher

tells them the knowledge of all kinds of methods. In the process of advancing the

knowledge gradually piles up and increases. On this road everything can be explained,

because the road has a method. Finally when one arrives at the gate of 'awakening', there

is no way to advance because one has not experienced what is behind the gate, so it is

impossible to use a concept to pass information about it. One has come from the road of

methodness so all the knowledge one has remains within the state of methodness, but the

methods within the area of methodness cannot open the gate of 'awakening', so one cannot

peek out to see what the area of methodlessness is like. One cannot know the Way,

because the knowledge of the territory of methodness where one finds oneself differs from

objective reality, so one cannot talk about syncretism of the subjective and the objective; it

can only be approached gradually by the road of transcendental wisdom. At this point

some people stay at the gate without being able to continue going forward. Some people

suddenly start to hesitate and go back to the starting point of ignorance. Some people

search for a method in the state of methodness over and over again, their knowledge

getting greater and greater all the time and their method getting more and more complex.

As a result of this, entering the area of methodlessness gets even more difficult. Those

people who have already entered this area cannot come back to help the others to

advance one step forward, because once something is said, that is having a method, it is

not the state they have achieved. So the process of studying boxing, and in fact any

studies, means entering awareness from ignorance and then going on towards the

syncretism of the objective and the subjective. While advancing on this road it is possible

to run into this juncture (i.e. the gate of 'awakening') in every process. This is a common

juncture and what we have to do now is to help you to go through the last part of the road

of methodness by giving the key to open the gate of 'awakening' into your own hand so

that you can open it by yourself and enter the state of methodlessness, receive the taste of

awareness, gain more transcendental wisdom, and push forward towards the direction of

the syncretism of the subjective and the objective.

2. 'Feeling' is the key to open the gate of 'awakening'

Feeling is sensing and thus becoming aware. Sensing points to the impulses of information

received by human body's sensory organs. Becoming aware points to personal intuitive

perception, that is the subjective knowledge of the objective. All concepts and knowledge

possessed by the humankind come from this origin, nothing is contrary to what has been

gained this way, so this 'feeling' can be called the source of all knowledge. Yiquan wants to

perceive skill by intuition. In order to perceive the skill of boxing by intuition one must

obtain this 'feeling'. Therefore 'feeling' is where the core of studying yiquan is. So what do

we want to feel after all? We say that the first step is feeling objective reality with one's

spirit and senses. This objective reality is the subject of research; it is your own body's

process of movement. One must feel the state of movement of one's body and spirit. The

second step is feeling the meaning of certain concepts, because you are still in the

territory of methodness, so you must understand the meanings of the concepts told by the

teacher. The third step is feeling the comparative relation between the concept and the

reality, to feel the difference between them, to build a connection between them, not to

disconnect them. Finally by the means of the perceptions of the previous three stages,

from an even higher level, feel the primordial spirit in one's own life.

3. The use of the 'feeling'

We already know that the core of yiquan is 'feeling' and the perception of one's movement

of life is achieved from this 'feeling'. Here the four concrete ways to use the 'feeling' in the

teaching process are explained:

Producing a feeling with a fixed method

Giving up the method after getting the feeling

Letting the feeling follow into everything

Personal feeling leads to complete awareness

A. Producing a feeling with a fixed method. The goal of yiquan is to let the student

to grasp his state of movement of life; while the student enters a certain state of this

movement by using a fixed method, he will feel something, and therefore gain one kind of

'feeling'. This kind of feeling is one kind of self-awareness, a state that cannot be sought

from external form and it cannot be passed on by means of a concept either. To let the

student feel this state right away, you should first find the original and simplest shape of

movement of this kind of state then teach him a movement that has this shape. Let the

student enter this kind of state by doing the movement and then affirm this kind of feeling.

B. Giving up the method after getting the feeling. First of all you need to know that

what Mr. Wang Xiangzhai did was passing on one kind of 'feeling', the fixed method he used

for it is just like the finger pointing to the moon mentioned in the previous chapters. After

you have gained the 'feeling' stop using the fixed method at once, just reserve this 'feeling'.

C. Letting the feeling follow into everything. With the above mentioned methods you

have already gained a perception of one state of the movement of life, you need to actively

go to grasp it, use it everywhere, all the time. In the yiquan circles that is called 'a state of

never practising and never not practising, it remains in walking, standing, sitting, and

reclining'.

D. Personal feeling leads to complete awareness. This refers to personally, in the

process of unceasingly applying the feeling to everything, feeling that one has a free will

and the ability to react instinctively to the world outside one's body. Thus one gradually

becomes conscious of oneself, the past unclear points immediately vanish and become

obvious in one's heart, every boxing method and theory, all come to harmony, all actions

return to the original purity and simplicity, all reactions become natural, not a single

method exists, yet no method non-exists. Enter the state of 'boxing without fixed form,

mind without fixed thought, no fixed form and no fixed though, that is awakening to the

truth' and personally clearly realize and grasp the primordial spirit in your life.

By going through the above mentioned four processes of using 'feeling', we can realize how

all methods are gradually being brushed off from the body, how all kinds of knowledge is

gradually dropped while, unconsciously, we have already passed through the gate of

'awakening' and entered the territory of methodlessness: the light of transcendental

wisdom gradually appears. Personally one has already realized the primordial spirit in

one's life. From now on one can ceaselessly go ahead towards the syncretism of the

subjective and the objective.

VI. THE REFORM OF YIQUAN'S TRAINING SYSTEM

As a result of the new knowledge of the theory and practice of yiquan, a change in the

training system of yiquan is given birth to.

Until now, the method has been to break the entire process of movement down into

several representative points and then let the student to know his state of movement by

intuitively perceiving these points one by one. These points are split seconds of the

movement process, that we call piles (zhuang). Looking their appearance they seem

immobile, actually their target is to let student, in a nonmoving shape, intuitively perceive

its moving potential, approach what is called 'endless movement'. Therefore within one

pile, using many directions, such as push, pull, lift up, press down, etc., let the student feel

the moving potential of this power towards any direction from static points. This is the

true meaning of 'zhanzhuang causes stillness to become movement'. After having

accomplished the intuitive perception of the points and having this kind of movement

ability and having reached what is called having gained power, this power must be

transmitted into the whole movement process and tried in every way. Trying the power

(shili) is a movement process of the points in a line. Finally comes the issuing of the power,

that is practising the use of the power and finding out how it affects an object. Thus

emerged the training system of zhanzhuang, shili and fali.

Now due to knowing that the subject of research in yiquan is the state of movement of the

whole body, so from the beginning the aim is to learn the basic state of movement of the body

and mind directly from the whole body. We know that man's state of movement can be

divided into three basic states: A 'relaxed', B 'tense', C 'relaxed -> tense, tense -> relaxed (the

interaction of relaxation and tension)'. So the first stage is to coach the student to feel

relaxation, feel tension and feel the change between relaxation and tension. The content of

training is exploring both directions, from movement to stillness and from stillness to

movement. That can concretely be divided into three processes, first of all, explain one

principle, that is, explain the goal, method and steps of a certain exercise. After the student

has understood one concept, then let the student to get this feeling by this exercise. Having

had this intuitive perception and having grasped this state of body, then practise it over and

over, make it emerge into a natural way of doing things. The second stage is to ask the student

to attempt to freely extend the already gained feeling in the three dimensional space to any

angle and direction. Realize the freedom of body's and mind's ability to react to the changes of

the objective environment and in the process of reacting to the outside, naturally shape the

finest body and movements. In the third phase, after the simulated training processes of the

previous states, comes actual combat. By the means of the above three phases, the student

naturally enters and completely realizes the primordial spirit in one's life.

Using mathematical language to express the above, it may be said that the old training

system is an integral process, while the new current training system is based on this

integral process together with a differential process. These two mutually contrary

processes are grasped as a whole at the same time. Thus emerged a dialectical unity of

two contraries, which settles the contradictions in theory and practice.

In this training process theory and practice melt into one, so the theory guides the

practise and the practise proves the theory. That means that both the theory and the

practice effectively guard against going from theory to the mistaken theories. At the same

time, the subject and the object of learning become one. Here the one who understands

yiquan is the student himself and the subject of research is one's own body. In this way the

entire sensing and consciousness stay within one's body and it is easier to reduce the

difference between knowledge and objective reality, going towards the syncretism of the

subjective and the objective with maximum speed.

VII. SOME EXAMPLES

Now, knowing that the theory and the practice have melted into one, what the preamble

has spoken about is still a 'method'. Naturally we are not able to make the audience

understand the intent at once, so here we have to use certain exercises to create a 'feeling'

for every one, pass this 'feeling' on to your body, give you a personal intuitive perception. Now

everybody should give a try to my method, you can also use this kind of method to teach some

students, using reality to verify the feasibility of the theory. After trying, it may become clear to

your mind what it is after all, only then can you know the real meaning of what I am saying.

Mr. Wang has said: 'This kind of relaxed movements can be used as the basic thought activities

of pile standing work (zhanzhuanggong). Regardless of what kind of posture is adapted, the

beginners need to relax, only after that can they do other thought activities.' These words tell

us that relaxation is the foundation of studying boxing, no matter what kind of postures are

taught at the same time. That explains that, what is emphasized, is the body's condition of

'relaxation', but that is not a shape. On the basis of what I said before, the first step is

'producing a feeling with a fixed method', that means you have to use one kind of a concrete

exercise to let the student to enter the state of 'relaxed', obtain the feeling of 'relaxed', and

understand the concept of 'relaxed'. Please follow me and try: stand naturally, then bend the

waist 45 degrees forward, both hands naturally hanging down, then sway the body left and

right, let both arms sway too, like pendulums. Here you can feel it at once, the shoulder joints

are as if dislocated, the arms have no power at all, and they are like two thick loose ropes. Pay

attention to the fact that I am explaining it here by writing, by words, this is not the reality, you

must feel the real feeling by yourself in the process of this movement, experience it in your

own body, that is, perceive the feeling of 'relaxed' by intuition. Now you can ask another person

to try to lift your forearm, he can feel if your forearm is hanging loosely and if after letting it

free, it falls down at once, dropping freely and naturally.

This is how being relaxed looks like to the outside. With this method, the feeling of 'relaxed' is

passed on to your body. We call this 'passing on by body feeling'.

After you have gained the feeling of 'relaxation' you have to practise the skill of entering the

'relaxed' state by yourself, then this 'relaxation' must be present in your whole body,

everywhere and all the time. But you must not keep doing the movement I taught you

indefinitely, i.e. you have to 'give up the method after getting the feeling'. Practising this

movement is to give you a feeling, after having completed this task, it has no use so you must

stop doing it. The third step is to 'let the feeling follow into everything', that means having

gained the feeling of 'relaxation', apply it to everything. Here, try standing naturally both hands

hanging down on the sides of the body, then turn the body left and right around its central

axis. Now the already relaxed arms can resemble the two pendulums of a rattle-drum, flapping

the body in the back and front. Now it can be said that you have already grasped the bodily

condition of 'relaxed', then the feeling of 'relaxation' must be passed on to the whole body.

Practising over and over, imprint it into the whole body, achieve the state of never not being

relaxed. Finally examine yourself, i.e. the relaxed condition should remain in walking, standing,

sitting, and reclining. When you can achieve that, you have already understood what being

'relaxed' means, this is the principle of theory and practice having melted into one. This is

exactly what Mr. Wang Xiangzhai once said: 'No matter what you do, it is all natural, if looking

back at all the methods done for ten years, you can see they are all worthless, drop them

without hesitation, put the pure and real into practice.' So the meaning of what I am telling now

is to let everybody drop the methods of ten years and enter the naturalness at once, becoming

pure and real. The examples above are just to express the intent of this method, other contents

of training can also be reasoned by analogy; they are not listed here one by one.

VIII. THE PURPOSE OF THE SECOND COURSE OF YIQUAN

Before yiquan originated, all kind of boxing styles consisted of fixed forms, for example the

predecessor of yiquan, xingyiquan, was made of five ways to punch (wuxingquan), twelve

forms (shi'erxing), and the old three punches (laosanquan). Although already very simple

and practical, it still falls into the category of a fixed method. Generally speaking, all boxing

forms have the opponent as the target of research, in other words they study how to beat

the opponent and how not to get beaten by one. That means they all study objective things.

After Mr. Wang Xiangzhai founded yiquan, on the basis of already understanding the

objective, he took the study of boxing a step forward, and changed it into researching

oneself, advancing to understanding tacitly by intuitive perception, which of course means

intuitively perceiving one's own state. The changes of the objective are responded to with

one's whole spirit (7). This means already knowing that only by completely grasping the

state of one's body, can one better deal with the ever-changing objective reality. Although

he made sure of the goal, there were still some insufficiencies in the training method, which

made the learning to take a long period of ten years. Secondly, he had superhuman

perspicacity, he found the contradictions existing in theory and practice, but had not yet

found a way to solve them, he had not illustrated the inevitability of these contradictions

either, thus requiring us to understand again the method of understanding yiquan, hoping

that both theory and practice can give a concrete and logical solution. This writing is

exactly the result of working hard on this aspect; thereby it is called the second course of

yiquan. This process of developing the understanding of yiquan is in complete accord with

the general understanding law of the humankind, firstly understand the objective, secondly

understand yourself, thirdly understand the way of understanding. From a philosophical

point of view, it does not matter whether these three processes are processes of body's

movement or processes of thinking. All of them are kinds of movement processes for

developing total knowledge and understanding of the movement. That is, as time goes on,

the process is unceasingly confirmed and at the same time negated, thereby unceasing

movement forward emerges and contradiction is just an internal power within the

movement. We feel the process of development of the knowledge and undertanding of

yiquan in a lively way reflects philosophy's dialectical rays of wisdom. From inmost we feel

one kind of a joy of life.

IX. EPILOGUE

The above was just our point of view, we hope the reader can 'read it with devotion' with

the attitude of 'moral neutrality'. That means, do not just take it as accurate right away and

do not declare it to be wrong right away either, but take it in the light of neutral

information. Then, with your own body, actually try it, gain the understanding of this

information by feeling it with your own body. To sum up, we, in the process of studying

yiquan, have had this kind of perception. We have this kind of perspective and say it out to

let everybody know. If it will, in the long-term process of practice in the future, be of any

help to the people undertaking yiquan, we can feel extremely gratified.

Zhuhai City, 1997, November 27th

Han Jingyu, Han Jingsheng

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(1) Movement of life: The non-stopping movement of one's body and mind, starting from the

birth and lasting until the death.

(2) Sectarianism: Division into different styles (of martial arts).

(3) Noumenon: The thing in itself.

(4) This refers to people who stand in fixed and ridig postures just doing what their teacher

tells them to do without understanding why.

(5) Methodness. Having a fixed method.

(6) Methodlessness. Having no fixed and rigid method, but a 'lively' one.

(7) This refers to using one's all capabilities, not excluding the spirit, body, and mind.