意拳要点: 王芗斋 何镜平录

意拳要点

王芗斋 何镜平录

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一、总则︰

1、以形为体，以意为用，以静为和。

2、以形取意，以意象形，形随意转，意自形生，式随意从，力由意发。

3、松即是紧，紧即是松，松紧紧松勿过正。

实即是虚，虚即是实，实虚虚实得中平。

动即是静，静即是动，动静静动互根用。

顾即是打，打即是顾，发手便是处。

4、静中求动，动中求静，动中不动动有静，静中不静静有动、动中之静是真静，静中之动是真动，动静互根，错综为用。

5、神不外溢，意不露形，形不破体，力不出尖。

6、内空虚，外脱化，随时注意，遍体轻灵。

意拳断手述要 王芗斋

意拳断手述要  王芗斋

前言

技击之法，分门别派，要皆以拳套招术为本，而拳套招术具是人之伪造，非发挥本能之学也。意拳之断手，拳套招术一概不用，是以各门各派之所长，归纳为一，所谓“无长不汇集”，“集古大成”者是也。意拳之断手，首要劲力均整，再要三角弦应，次要单重发力，更要无微不法，法在无念，最后要形力须归一，神意不着象。故意拳之断手，与别门别派之技击均不相同也，盖因其所重者在发挥人之本能活力而不在局部方法故也。

意拳断手模式，并不是多，而是极少，只有数式而已。然皆形简意繁，具应付范围皆是多方面的，其所运用之力，为一种立体之力，非仅点、面、线之力，如别门别派者然，此种之体力，非是一种片面方法，而实为一种发力方法，如能掌握此种发力方法，则技击之道思过半矣。此正是他人所无而我所独有者也。

习学意拳，不尽在年限之长短，与功夫之深浅和体质之强弱，更不在方法之多寡，动作之快慢，要在于有无真实笃诚之力，如有此种笃诚之力，又能运用立体发力之方法，则于拳道就不难升堂入室，然于学者，平日亦须用此发力方法将本能活力加以训练，否则，亦不成功夫。此即“后天返先天”之谓也。本文所欲阐述者，亦即如何训练人之本能活力，以期达到“不期然而然”，“莫知至而至”之境界也。举一反三，我希望学者不要囿于我所说者，要从我所说者之中推出我所未说者，如是才可贵也。

意拳拳谱

意拳拳谱

简介：王芗斋1959年著于天津，是其一生武学经验总结之著作，为后人提供了学习大成拳的纲要。

绪 言
禅家者流，乘有大小，宗有南北，道有正邪，学者须从最上乘，具正法眼，悟第一义。若小乘禅，非正法也，论拳如论禅，内家拳则第一义也，外家拳，则小乘禅，已落第二义矣。

大抵禅道，惟在妙悟，拳道亦在妙悟。然悟有深浅，有分限，有透彻之悟，有但得一知半解之悟。意拳，应不立招术，乃透彻之悟也。意拳，即大乘拳也。不立招术，乃透彻之悟也。

其它拳术，虽有所悟，但皆立招设术，俱非第一义也。若以为不然，则是见拳之不广，参拳之不熟耳。试取外家拳谱而熟参之，次取太极，八卦而熟参之，其真是非，自有不能隐者!

夫学拳者，应以意为主，入门须正，立志须高，不可以小成为是，必以大成为志焉。

技有未到，可以加功，路头一差，愈骛愈远，由入门之不正也，工夫须从上坐下，不可以从下坐上，上者何第一义也，此念酝酿胸中，久之自然悟入。虽云不至，亦不失正路，此谓之而上一路也。拳之极致有一曰：力感如透电，拳而力感如透电，至矣尽矣无以加矣 ! 唯意拳得知之，其它拳术力感，得之盖寡也。意拳之力感如此，其力如何 ! 此力乃人之本能活动力也 ! 人之本能活力，盖为种种社会应力所抑制，不能欲之即击也，意拳之妙用，即在恢复入之本能活力，其它拳术，皆不能也，此即吾创此拳之目的。

THE SPIRIT OF INVESTIGATION

THE SPIRIT OF INVESTIGATION

The article below is written by Gregory Fong, an experienced practitioner of Yiquan. You can find more information on him here. His detailed explanation on the amount of focus and mental work that goes into the practice of Yiquan is very illuminating. Hopefully, it will assist you in the furthering your practice of Zhan Zhuang and Yiquan.

***

I have written before about the importance of a student’s willingness to think carefully and critically about what he is taught. Blind obedience to the teacher’s authority tends to inhibit learning. One must always be prepared to ask why he is being told to do or not to do something in training. More specifically, one must understand whether, and if so, how something being taught will contribute to his health and to the development of his power.

That is to say, both the means and the ends of training must be understood clearly. Furthermore, answering such questions is an on-going process in the sense that one’s understanding of the training should deepen over time. A student’s understanding can deepen in this way only if he recognizes that no one can do the work of inquiry for him.

This is a lesson I have had to learn for myself both as a student and as a teacher. I had been training seriously for over 25 years when I first met my teacher, Dr. Yu (Yong Nian), in Beijing, China many years ago. With all the hard work I had put in over the years, I figured that while I might not be a great martial artist, at least I wasn’t terrible. I was in for a shock.

My first mistake was to tell to Dr. Yu that I could sit in a big, low stance for five hours. In response, he asked me to stand in a high combat stance with about 70% of my weight on my back foot. This seemed like no big deal compared with the deep stance I had bragged about. Then Dr. Yu asked me to do a few simple things while in the combat stance: stand up and sit down, move to the left and to the right, and move forward and backward. I was to do all these things simultaneously and without moving my skeleton.

DRAW A SNAKE AND ADD FEET TO IT（畫蛇添足）

DRAW A SNAKE AND ADD FEET TO IT（畫蛇添足）

The idiom “draw a snake and add feet to it” has now come to mean that doing extra work after one has already satisfactorily completed a task. This is unnecessary and can ruin the effect of the work. It suggests that added effort can be superfluous and detract from the goal. You can read the origin of the proverb here.

What has this to do with Yiquan, you might wonder? After obtaining some sagely advice, I realize that it has EVERYTHING to do with Yiquan. The example below should suffice to illustrate this point.

Holding the ball position in Zhan Zhuang position

This is the basic zhan zhuang position where we hold the arms outwards as if we are holding a ball and stand in the basic pole standing position. Even after extensive practice, I have come to an astounding realization. I’m still NOT doing it RIGHT! And why is that?

In this position, we try to exercise the ligaments, tendons and joins by loosening and opening the joints especially the shoulder joints and the kua as these are the most flexible joints in the body. However, after a feedback today, I realize there is a superfluous action in my Zhan Zhuang. It is subtle, but it is there. What’s the error?

The error is very SUBTLE. It has to more to do with the MIND, rather than the body. However, the BODY reacts to the MIND thus this small error is very DETRIMENTAL to my practice of Yiquan. What is the error? It is NOT TENSION. But it is even more SUBTLE. It is the inability to LET GO or RELAX. Once this basic position is mastered, we are supposed to LET GO of everything. Let the body’s skeletal structure be perfectly aligned with gravity and rest without any tension. Just like an inanimate object, there is no need to use any energy to remain standing still. With this, we then begin to slowly stretch our tendons, ligaments and joints ever so slowly without losing sight that we must still remain RELAXED. The key is to maintain our structural integrity without the need to use energy or muscle to re-align ourselves.

Even at this stage, I realize a GRAVE ERROR starts to creep in. In trying to stretch the ligaments and tendons, and open the joints ~ there is this SUBTLE but GRAVE ERROR in ADDING a SUPERFLOUS STRENGTH or TENSION to skeletal structure of the body. The fact is that the skeletal structure has integrity and can easily withstand any attempts to destablise it. However, whether out of FEAR or HABIT, there is a tendency to want to ‘STRENGTHEN’ this structure by adding unnecessary TENSION and STIFFNESS to this. Whilst these TENSION causes us to FEEL the SKELETAL STRUCTURE is STRONGER, paradoxically, the OPPOSITE is happening. Instead of maintaining our FLEXIBILITY and SENSITIVITY, we become STIFF and UNYIELDING.

The opening up of the joints and the stretching of the ligaments and joints must be done in a spontaneous and relaxed manner. However, by adding a SUPERFLOUS element of MISTAKEN STRENGTH to this, it causes this expanding and contracting force to become stiffed and forced. Whilst mechanically, the exercise may look structurally the same, there is a great deal of difference. We are unable to tap the kinetic energy stored in the fascia and joints when we add this element of TENSION in our Zhan Zhuang practice. To correct this mistake, a great deal of mindfulness and discernment is needed during Zhan Zhuang. The intention and the mind must be focused to reduce this subtle tension and gradually, it may go away.

So, in your Zhan Zhuang, PLEASE AVOID DRAWING A SNAKE AND ADDING FEET TO IT（畫蛇添足）!!!

YIQUAN THROUGH EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING

YIQUAN THROUGH EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING 

Yiquan can only be understood through experiential learning. Watch the video below, it's illuminating. 

DO NOTHING

DO NOTHING

These series of post are mainly my own LIMITED thoughts and experience from practicing Yiquan and should be taken with a HUGE DOSE OF SALT.

Oscar Wilde in his article “THE CRITIC AS ARTIST: WITH SOME REMARKS UPON THE IMPORTANCE OF DOING NOTHING” had this to say about CONTEMPLATION!

“[Contemplation]… in the opinion of the highest culture, it is the proper occupation of man. I said to you some time ago that it was far more difficult to talk about a thing than to do it. Let me say to you now that to do nothing at all is the most difficult thing in the world, the most difficult and the most intellectual. To Plato, with his passion for wisdom, this was the noblest form of energy. To Aristotle, with his passion for knowledge, this was the noblest form of energy also. It was to this that the passion for holiness led the saint and the mystic of mediaeval days.”

What has this to do with Yiquan, you may ask? Well, isn’t zhan zhuang the basic foundation of our practice? We practice standing meditation, deep in contemplation. We attempt to deepen the understanding of ourselves, both physically and mentally.

Rather than launching of then to a discussion of psychology and spiritual matters, let us discuss this concept in more concrete and simpler terms. In Zhan Zhuang, our practice is to achieve Integrity and use the entire body. This requires deep contemplation to reactive the muscles, tendons and ligaments that are underutilized, the so-called grey to black zones that I wrote here.

However, the obverse is equally difficult. The yellow to red zones are areas of the body we tend to activate first and over-utilise. In our practice, we need to exercise extreme mindfulness to relax these areas and minimize using them as much as possible. This in only possible via CONTEMPLATION or DO NOTHING. From personal experience, trying to lessen the usage of the yellow to red zones is TWICE as difficult as reactivating the grey and black zones in my body. Why is this so?

Let us focus on the area of our bodies we tend to use the most often, the knees and shoulders.

1.  The Knees

It is a common to find that the elderly people have problem walking mostly due to the pain in their knees. Why then, can we find some elderly people well into their 80s or 90s that have very little difficulty walking? Is this due to their superior genetics or nutrition? Or is it due to their exercise regime?

The main problem is that whilst instead of using the entire body to walk, especially the hips, kua and buttocks, most people use their knee joints to bear the entire load of walking. This is especially pronounced when you see people walking up the stairs. Instead of using the back leg to push off with the assistance of the kua, most people use the knees in the front leg to walk. You can refer to the link here for illustration.

2.    The shoulders

The same occurs for the shoulders. In using our arms or pushing hands, the shoulder joints in the front part of the body is used extensively. However, we underutilize the muscles and joints in the back of the body and under the armpits. Hence, the energy that we direct is not ‘grounded’ and tends to dissipate.

We need to contemplate as to what INTEGRITY actually means! In simple terms, a chain is only as strong as its’ weakest link. There are two components here:

(a)    Weakest link

Most people seize on this component and focus exclusively on their weak areas. The reactivation of the grey to black zones here is important. Indeed, this is crucial to improvement in Zhan Zhuang. However, we tend to forget the second component:

(b)   Strongest link

If certain areas of my body are already STRONG, why should I bother focusing on it? What’s the purpose? We need to remember, what is STRONG may also be BRITTLE. The so-called STRONG areas of the body are not actually INHERENTLY strong at all. After all, all parts of the body are made of the same material, so why should certain parts be stronger than others? These areas are only STRONG because they are areas of the body we tend to utilize the most. Hence, they may be more muscular due to repeated stress and usage.

In Yiquan, to achieve STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY and HARMONY, we must make the effort to activate the weak links in our body. At the same time, we MUST NOT forget the OBVERSE! We must minimize the excessive activation and strain in the so-called ‘STRONGEST LINK’ in our body.

That’s the main point of ‘DO NOTHING’ in this post. In your Yiquan practice, there will come a time where you’re asked to do certain exercises. Normally, you will use certain parts of the body to perform the exercise, usually the front part of the body. Even though externally, this exercise appears the same as what you’re mimicking, you’ll be told you’re doing it wrong. You’ll be asked to do it using the back part of the body. And you’ll find this incredible hard to do. Hopefully this post will make more sense once you reach this stage and you’ll begin to understand why it is so hard to ‘DO NOTHING!’

WHY ARE CHIMPS STRONGER THAN HUMANS?

WHY ARE CHIMPS STRONGER THAN HUMANS?

What has this do with Yiquan? A lot, really! As discussed in the video, the chimps have less gray matter. They have a smaller number of nerves controlling greater quantity of muscle fibers. Therefore, when they use their muscles, it’s ALL or NOTHING form of reaction. Their movement has integrity. When the muscles move, they move as ONE forming a dynamic chain which generates power belies their small size.

As humans, we have more grey matter which allows for fine motor skills and co-ordination. Why is this detrimental to generating power such as shown by the chimps? This is the case of “too many cooks spoil the broth”. Usually when we try to generate power, we are unable to synchronize or co-ordinate all these muscle fibres to act in symphony. Often, certain muscle fibres are inactive or acting in the opposite of the direction we wish to move.

Through Zhan Zhuang, we strive to intensely activate our neuromuscular control over all these muscle fibres, fascia and ligaments. The focus is simple, namely to move with INTEGRITY. We attempt to move our muscles to form a dynamic chain, akin to the ALL or NOTHING reaction of the chimps.