Training-wise don’t have much to report for March due to being sent to Henan for a work project for several weeks (nowhere near taiji’s fabled Chen Village or Shaolin temple unfortunately!).
However, I did manage to make a few visits to various lines of Dachengquan / Yiquan practitioners, including students and grandstudents of famous 2nd generation practitioners such as Li Jianyu, Wang Xuanjie, Wang Yufang (Wang Xiangzhai’s daughter) and Yang Demao.
From these branches 3 consistent messages came through loud and clear:
1) Yiquan is not the name that was mainly used for the art in Beijing
All the teachers I spoke to agreed that post-liberation (i.e. after 1949) all the way up to the late 1970s, the main name used by the art amongst practitioners and students was Dachengquan, not Yiquan. The Yiquan name was popularized almost single-handedly by Yao Zongxun when he returned to Beijing after being sent down to the countryside in the 1970s. There are several interpretations as to why Yao preferred the name Yiquan, possibly to distinguish what he taught from other branches already present in Beijing. This is also the reason why books by both Wang Xuanjie and Yu Yongnian were entitled Dachengquan, not Yiquan.
2) The Yao brothers are not the ‘anointed successors’ of Yiquan
There is no doubt that the Yao brothers are accomplished practitioners in their own right and have many students. However, any marketing which tries to depict them as the ‘anointed successors’ or ‘overall representatives’ of Wang Xiangzhai’s art is disingenuous, because there are / were several practitioners who would have a stronger claim to represent what Wang Xiangzhai taught. For example, we can look at the other 2nd generation disciples who received special names from Wang Xiangzhai: Zhao Daoxin (originally Zhao Enqing), Han Daokuan (Han Xingqiao), Bu Daokui (Bu Enfu), etc. All of these practitioners have at least as strong a claim to represent the full picture in terms of what Wang taught.
3) The heavily boxing-influenced techniques and approach shown by the Yao brothers are not representative of Dachengquan / Yiquan as a whole
Having observed the Shi Li and application of the other branches mentioned above, what struck me was how similar they were to each other, and also the substantial differences in technique and application from the heavily boxing-influenced approach of the Yao brothers. Another point they shared in common was a much greater emphasis on being able to sense the opponent’s power (ting jin, similar to taiji), rather than immediately aiming to overwhelming the opponent on contact.
Several teachers pointed out that if you always train to bulldoze your opponent with maximum power, you will never achieve the higher levels of the art.
The point of this post is not to stir up controversy, that is not my intention. I have in fact met the Yao brothers and have great respect for the power and skills they have developed through their method.
I merely wanted to correct a tendency I have observed, especially in publications in the West, to over-focus on the Yao branch, and to highlight that other branches of Dachengquan / Yiquan are equally valid, and sometimes have interesting insights that illustrate how Wang Xiangzhai himself taught and practiced.
2 Comments
Jordy · April 16, 2023 at 10:33 am
Thank you so much for sharing your experiences and insights. So far this is the best blog I have found dealing with Chinese martial arts in English, much appreciated. I am particularly interested in Yiquan content, since that is what I practice myself. My teacher is a student of Yao Chengrong and thus I have been mostly looking at video-content from Yao Chengrong, it is interesting to hear a different perspective. I would be very interested to hear more about the differences between the different schools and if you are lucky enough to experience the skill from different masters which one you recognize is the strongest. From the limited material I have read from Wang Xiangzhai, he said that one should always seek confirmation in practice and see what works for you, not be afraid to experiment, as such I think if you take that philosophy as one of the core tenants of Yiquan there can never be a fully representative style. However it does make me wonder if the boxing-style influenced style of Yao brothers would indeed be more practical in combat? That is, if ultimately your main goal is to be a competent fighter over other skills that could be cultivated. Another thing I’ve read which I am not sure is true or not is that Wang Xiangzhai agreed to revert the name back to Yiquan, because the art could never be perfected, which Dachengquan somewhat implies, which might mislead some people into stop searching for further improvements.
Aside from this, I would very much like to hear about specific practices to train yourself in the use of mental imagery, it is widely used in Yiquan, but I haven’t really come across techniques for training the power of your visualizations or to increase your focus. I was thinking some sort of self-hypnosis could actually be beneficial during training, would love to hear what skilled practitioners think of that. I was also wondering if there is any research being done to relate Myofascia to the feeling of ‘whole body movement’ and the different states of accomplishment, such as body cast as one whole, feeling of lead. It seems to me these feelings might actually be created by becoming conscious of the fascia throughout your whole body and being able to activate it at will (since apparently does Myofascia not only conduct electricity very well, it can also generate it on its own).
Thank you again for your blog and good luck on your project and hope you will meet many more interesting practitioners.
admin · May 13, 2023 at 9:54 am
Glad you find it useful / interesting. As for the name of the art, the blog post merely pointed out that Dacheng is equally valid as it was used by Wang in at least one of his books and was used by the majority of non-Yao practitioners in Beijing. My understanding of ‘Dacheng’ is that it commemorates the revolutionary approach of Wang’s of putting zhan zhuang first and de-emphasising forms. Not sure whether it would cause people to stop searching for further improvements, but YMMV.
With the adoption of boxing into Yiquan / Dachengquan, the question is which aspects are being adopted, is it shuffle step footwork, shovel hook, head movement, etc, and do those elements mesh harmoniously with the fighting strategy of Dachengquan?
Not sure what your question about mental imagery is asking – my current understanding is the mental imagery in zhan zhuang, if done correctly, directly activates the myofascia needed for the actual movement or technique, whatever that may be.
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