Yiquan Ideology

by Xie Yongguang

About the Author

     Mr. Xie Yongguang was born in Handan City, Hebei Province in 1978. He graduated from the Sport Training Department of the Sport University of Hebei with a degree in WuShu. He is a member of the Chinese Martial Arts Association and ranked as a second level athlete and martial arts referee. He works at the Sports Department of Handan Professional Technical College (formerly Handan University) as a professional martial arts teacher. He has studied martial arts theory and skill for many years, including the national martial arts curriculum consists of free fighting, Tae Kwon Do, boxing and other foreign martial arts. He started studying Yiquan with Master Yao Chengguang in Beijing in 1999. In 2003, Mr. Yao introduced him to Mr. Qiao Songmao to study Taiji. After studying both Yiquan skills and theory, he published almost fifty articles in various publications, such as the Hebei Sport College Newspaper and magazines, Zhong Hua WuShu、WuHun、WuLin, Technique of Practical Fighting, and WuDang. Some articles were also translated in to English and published on European professional Yiquan Websites. His interests also include Calligraphy and literature. His Calligraphy has won prizes of the city and province level. His literatures have also been published in various monthly magazines.

He now holds the following posts:

1.      Vice President and senior Yiquan instructor of the Beijing ZongXun WuGuan,   Beijing Martial Arts Institute.

2.      Member of the Junior Calligraphy and Painting Association of Hebei Province

3.      Director of Working Department Overseas Chinese Artists Sodality of Heibei Province

4.      Member of the Poetry Magazine of Hebei

5.      Editor of ShijiaZhuang Writing Magazine of the ShiJiaZhuang Writing Association

Introductory Note

     The essence of martial arts is profound and extensive; the consummate skill of martial arts is broad and scattered.

     I passed every day of the past decades in industrious study, yet have not got tired of it.

    Therefore I have made some contemplation and formed some thoughts of my own.

    Learning of Martial Art has nothing to do with one's age or figure. It is based on one's ability to absorb the technique, to thread together different points and to understand them deeply by heart.

    A good instructor can help to cultivate the courage and strength of the practitioner.

     Yongguang began to study Yiquan with me 7 years ago, in the spring of 1998. Because of his intelligence and diligent practice, as well as his thorough research of Yiquan theory, I am quite fond of him. Yongguang did not live in Beijing, and he had to travel quite far during his spring and summer school holidays to study from me. His virtue and martial arts skill are both improved dramatically, which pleased me greatly. During his studies, he intended to propagate and spread Yiquan. So he made notes of my teaching, conducted interviews, and studied my articles and course materials. Besides, he studied my view points of Yiquan and theories of Yiquan, and subsequently published almost one hundred articles of his Yiquan research articles. He has made a great contribution to the promotion and popularization of Yiquan. I wish to congratulate Mr. Xie for publishing this book which he has taken many years of hard work.

     I hope that all the students of Beijing ZongXun WuGuan study and practice Yiquan as diligently as Yongguang. We should all remember the words of my father: "Yiquan speaks with strength." and train accordingly. I will fully support anyone who wishes to study Yiquan possess of good virtue and hard-working spirit.

                                                                               Yao Chengguang

                                                                             July 21, 2005

Foreword

     In August, 2003, a WuShu teacher LiPing of the magazine "Zhong Hua WuShu" interviewed me about Taiji. Previously, Mr. Li mentioned to me many times that a person he knew wanted to study traditional Taiji. He said that this person had a WuShu degree in university and he has a very good WuShu background. This time he informed me again that this person wanted to meet me very much. So I agreed to meet with him. His name is Xie Yongguang and he is a graduate of the WuShu department of Hebei Sport University and now works at Handan University as a WuShu teacher. He is normal height, vigorous. When I first time met him, I immediately noticed that he was well trained and he is a very good Taiji material. But Yongguang is a student of the famous Yiquan master, Mr. Yao chengguang. According to Chinese WuShu tradition, I cannot accept him to be my student without his first Shifu, Mr. Yao's permission. So, I told him that if he wanted to be my student, he must get Mr. yao's permission.          Surprisingly, one week later, Yongguang came to my home and told me excitedly, "Mr. Qiao, I just came back from Beijing, and Master Yao has permitted! Here is his letter." I was very touched by Master Yao's generosity and Yongguang's sincerity.

     Mr. Yao is the third generation of Yiquan and he is one of the foremost leading figures of Yiquan in China. For the past few decades, he has researched and taught Yiquan in China as well as all over the world. Meanwhile, Mr. Yao took extensively research of the science of Yiquan and shared his opinions in many published magazines. In addition, Mr. Yao has published many books on Yiquan and created a set of Yiquan instructional DVD. Mr. Yao and his Yiquan colleagues have collaborated extensively on refining Yiquan teaching methods. Each year, dozen of training groups overseas come to Beijing ZongXun WuGuan for Yiquan training. By cooperating and sharing knowledge from Mr. Yao, we all benefit a lot.

     According to Mr. Yao Chengguang, "Yiquan is not only just a martial art, but also a part of Chinese culture." A Chinese painter, Fan Zheng once said, "Once a painting has lost its meaning. It has lost its life." It is the same to Yiquan. A great man once said: "How do you save a drop of water form drying up? Put it into the sea." Yiquan is like that drop of water. Mr. Yao thinks the scientificalness of Yiquan is the rationality of the internal theories. To research a kind of knowledge, the most important thing is mastery of its principles and theories and only through that way you are able to learn by analogy and judge the whole from the part. The so-called "forms" is daedal which can be handled only through its principles and theories. The systematism means the completeness of training procedure. I.e. from the elementary basic skills to the manipulation of each skill at last, that follows in proper sequence and makes steady progress and finally forms a complete training process. Completeness is the most well-defined and most basic character in systematism. Mr. Yao emphasized: "Yiquan is not Zhan Zhuang, not Shi Li, Fa Li etc. It's the integrated expression of the 7 training steps. Emphasizing particularly on any single one of the 7 steps cannot practice Yiquan well. Emphasizing on the training completeness is the only criteria to learn Yiquan perfectly."

     When teaching and researching Yiquan, Mr. Yao combined both theory and practice together and studied the complete art. Mr. Yao never thinks himself a genius on Yiquan study and research. He always warns his students: "scientific method, industrious and willingness to think are the musts for success." For decades, under the direct of Master Yao ZongXun's martial art ideology, Mr. Yao Chengguang combines Chinese traditional philosophy, modern psychology, physiology, anatomy, mechanics and traditional Chinese medical science etc. from theories to practice, gradually form his won style on Yiquan teaching and training system.

     As a WuShu teacher in university, Xie Yongguang studied WuShu of the national curriculum. He has been studying sport WuShu since childhood, however in order to understand the in-depth meaning of Chinese WuShu, he began to study traditional martial arts. He has been studying Yiquan with Mr. Yao since 1999, and he is the favorite student of Mr. Yao because of his industrious and smart. Of particular interest, he wrote many articles about his experiences and Mr. Yao's martial arts Philosophy. This book written by Mr. Xie is divided into three sections. Section one describes the events of Mr. Yao's life; section two explains Mr. Yao's martial arts philosophy. Such systemic articles are hard to write without author's deeply understanding of Yiquan theories and concepts; the last section includes notes from Mr. Yao's speeches and teachings.

    Lastly, I wish Mr. Yao, his Yiquan career becoming more prosperous every day and Mr. Xie, makes a persistent efforts to a greater achievement.

                                                 Qiao Songmao

                                                             March 2005 in Han Dan City