Connection between the preceding and the following, Master Yao Zongxun

By Zhang Hongcheng

  The history of Chinese martial arts is just like a long river full of surging tides, with waves behind driving on those ahead.

  In 1920s, after having mastered the cream of Xingyiquan, Wang Zhenghe (whose courtesy name was Yuseng, another one was Nibao, and whose title was Xiangzhai), the favored student of Master Guo Yunsen, the great master of Xingyiquan, traveled through many provinces both in the south and the north of Yangtze River. Making friends with martial arts, he had met various martial artists and exchanged views and skills with them. Then, by blending the strong points of various martial schools harmoniously, through way of discarding the false while maintaining the truth and getting rid of the dross while keeping the essence, with the spirit of carrying forward the cause and forging ahead into the future, he established Yiquan. Yi means will. To put Yi in the title demonstrated the importance of mind during the training of boxing. Since Yiquan featured its effectiveness in real combats with its stress on fight, with an utterly fresh face, it impresses people deeply and gained fame overnight. Yet, any school of martial arts needs talented people to carry it forward and make it full of vigor and vitality so that it can maintain its prosperity forever. It is the famous Master Yao Zongxun, the student of Master Wang Xiangzhai, who carried on Yiquan into a new age.

  Master Yao Zongxun, born on March 5^th, 1917 in Hangxian County of Zhejiang Province, passed away from this world on January 11^th, 1985 in Beijing.

  Having lost his parents when very young, Master Yao passed his childhood in his auntie's family in Beijing. Smart and studious, he was an extraordinarily bright boy. After class, he liked sports and was very active in the play ground. Particularly, he had a special attachment to the national fist arts—boxing. At the age of 16 in 1933, when he was student in Affiliated School to Furen, he became a disciple of Master Hong Xuru, the famous expert on Tantui (kicking). Once being the martial instructor of Beiyang New Army, Master Hong, whose courtesy name was Lianshun, was the student of Master Li Cunyi, a well-known name in the field of Xingyiquan. Under Hong's instruction, Master Yao learned Tantui, Changquan (long punch) as well as Xingyiquan. Thus, he had built a solid foundation for further development. Apart from learning martial arts, he also covered numerous books in this field to search for the truth of boxing. Meanwhile, in order to broaden his mind and improve his knowledge, he also made friends with others and had exchanges of views and skills with them, and was appreciated by his fellows.

  In 1937, the founding master of Yiquan, Master Wang Xiangzhai, came to Beijing. The next year, he began to teach Yiquan in the physical education class of Sicun Learning Community. At the same time, in No. 1 Dayangyibin Hutong in Dongcheng District, he publicly welcomed martial artists to come and exchange views and skills with them. His purpose was to make friends through the bridge of martial arts, to spread Yiquan and to explain the true significance of boxing.

  During that time, many visitors went there, with no one leaving without being filled admiration for Master Wang's outstanding skills and profound theories. At that time, since newspapers like Shibao and Xinmin Post in Beijing had reported this event several times. It had produced deep influence among the martial art circle. In the autumn of the same year, Master Hong Xuru who was stalwart in body building and strong in strength and even elder than Master Wang, came to visit the latter as well. After some discussions, they had a small fight in order to know other's level of skills. Master Hong first made a chopping move, then issued an opening force which was followed by a flinging force in the image of tiger, but all of these failed. He was quite puzzled. Being simple and honest, for the purpose of learning, Master Hong immediately asked Master Wang for the reason. Thus, Master Wang sat close to him and had a long sincere talk with him, explaining the boxing principles and his own learning thoughts. It was at that moment Master Hong, who had practice martial arts for so many years, just came to really understand the truth of boxing.

  After that, he asked all his students to Master Wang's place, and both the teacher and students became disciples of Master Wang. This became a story on everybody's lips. At that time, young and hot-blooded, plus his initial achievements in martial arts, Master Yao Zongxun was not completely convinced by Master Wang's skills, which was somewhat perceived later. One day when they were practicing, Master Wang said to Yao, “Are you interested in Duanshou (Sanda)? Come on! Let's have a few rounds.” This was just what Yao wanted, and they had a fighting right away. At that time, Yao was good at “Guicheduan” (to break with the force of a monster) in Tantui. (“Guicheduan” was also named “Guichexuan”, which referred to the rolling movements of the two wheels of a fast running carriage on a level road. The momentum was irresistible. A saying on boxing went like this: once you have mastered Guicheduan, half of the martial artists throughout the world will be under your mercy. In modern boxing, we call it Continuous Modular Punches, which is hard to deal with.)

  In the first round, once the two had physical contact, Yao was thrown away to the ground. Seeing that he was still not convinced, Master Wang said, “Ok, that does not count, since you thought it rude to use all your force. Let's have another round. This time, carry out all your abilities.” Ashamed, Yao applied all that he had learned to launch a fierce attack. Yet, this time he fell down with a heavier blow. When Master Wang asked him whether they should have another round, shamefully and bluntly, Yao answered no. Asked why, he said, “I lost even without knowing what was going on. What's the use for another try?” Hearing this, Master Wang laughed loudly. In fact, this contest established the foundation for Master Yao's lifetime boxing artistry. From the bottom of his heart, Master Wang liked this brave and smart young man. From then on, under the instruction of Master Wang, Yao practiced diligently. With his quickness in understanding as well as the favor he got from his teacher, he made great progress in boxing day by day. Several years after, he was already a Yiquan master. According to the regular rule, Master Wang only gave names to those students who had made achievements in combats. All of them were named after the character "Dao", for example, Yao Jiao was named "Daokuan", Pu Enfu was named "Daokui", Zhao Fengyao was named "Daohong", Zhang Entong was named "Daode" and so on. When coming to Yao Zongxun, Master Wang gave him a name “Jixiang” (successor of Xiang) to indicate Yao would his heir. Throughout his life, Master Wang had been very serious towards martial arts and he only pointed one as his successor.

  In the autumn of 1947, Master Wang founded Yiquan Research Association in the Imperial Ancestral Temple (now the Laboring People's Palace of Culture) to widely spread the purpose and training methods of Yiquan, with Yao as his assistant teacher. After the liberation of Beijing, Master Wang stopped association right away and moved to Zhongshan Park to teach people Jianshen (health cultivation) and named it Yiquan Zhan Zhuang Gong (Practice of Standing Post of Yiquan). Since then, he had not been engaged in bringing up students who mainly focused on combats.

  In the summer of 1940, since Master Wang's spreading and teaching Yiquan in Beijng was a great progress in opening a new land for boxing as a whole, his friends in the martial art circle held Yiquan highly and gave it another name Dachengquan which meant a boxing school that had achieved all. Feeling it hard to refuse their kindness, Master Wang changed the name into Dachengquan, which was used until 1947. Master Yao's house in Kuache Hutong of Taiping Qiao in Xicheng District in Beijng was one of the training spots of Dachengquan. The training was mainly about Jiji with Yangsheng as a supplement. Once for a while, Master Wang would go there to give instructions. Usually it was Master Yao who presided over the training. At one time, most famous fist artists were at his side, including Zhang Zhong, Zhang Fu, Han Xingyuan, Dou Shiming, Dou Shicheng, Yang Demao, Li Yongzong, Zhao Huafang, Li Wentao, Wang Binkui and so on. Master Yao at that time was called “Brother Yao” with respect by everyone.

  In 1940s, Master Yao had achieved the acme of perfection in Yiquan. Together with some other students of Master Wang in earlier periods, such as Zhou Songshan (whose courtesy name was Ziyan, a student when Master Wang was instructor in Ground Force Martial Arts Training Institute in 1915), You Pengxi and Han Jiao and Zhang Changxin from Shanghai, Zhao Daoxin and Pu Enfu and Zhang Entong and Qiu Zhihe from Tianjin, Yao was regarded as one of the newly-emerged talents in this filed.

  In the early 1940s, Master Yao was already reaching the perfection of boxing. The social conditions at that time made it possible to hold many martial contests, which enriched Master Yao's experience in real combats. His successive victory over many martial art experts both from home and abroad such as Watanabe won Master Yao a renowned fame in Beijing in the early 1940s. Though he was still studying in university, he had already been titled as a young martial art master. He had a strong sense of right and wrong in dealing with both people and matters. While exchanging skills and views with martial artists, he was courteous and elegant in manners, just like an erudite Confucian scholar. His polite and modest attitude, calm and unhurried demeanor, proper control over the combat force and outstanding skills often resulted in praises showered from his opponents. Among them, many famous masters became his close friends after the contest. This is not to be matched by some mere ruthlessly daring and combative martial practitioners. During his association with other martial artists, Master Yao tried his best to make the other understand the purpose for Master Wang founding Yiquan and the true essence of Yiquan. By way of this, he opened up a new path for the development of Yiquan.

  In the early 1940s, a man from Shanxi named Wu, counting on the influence of the puppet regime, tried to provoke conflicts between different martial art schools. He boasted in the newspaper that his division was the orthodox school of Chinese martial arts. In order to break his lies and illustrate the true essence of boxing, Master Yao decided to have a public contest with Wu and give a lesson to him on the spot. Though in the contest, some followers of Wu broke the rules to sneak attacks, since they were not the major figures and it was not Master Yao's habit to contract enmity, he just let them go. From then on, Wu disappeared from the scene.

  Upright and honest, Master Yao detested all sorts of evil doings. In the mid 1940s, in order to uphold justice and protect the good and kind, he was often engaged in conflicts with some local hooligan gangs. The stories about the movements, in which he was the leader, of severely punishing Gao Yanwang and the gang named Thirty-six Friends were often told in Beijing at that time. On hearing the name of Yao Zongxun, hooligans in Beijing were so afraid that they would flee away immediately.

  In those years, he also met a boxing coach named Wu Zenglao, one of the “Three Outstanding Figures in the West Part of Beijing”. When he found that Wu was standard in punching skills and deep and solid in performance, which could be the result of nothing other than a regular and hard training, Master Yao felt it was a great pity that Wu still hadn't understood the right way of real combats. Therefore, in the contest, he was half fighting and half teaching, with a proper control on strength. As a result, though the elder boxing coach was thrown away to the ground twice, he was utterly convinced and admired Master Yao from the bottom of his heart.

  Master Yao devoted his whole life into the research of boxing. With great earnestness, he persisted on the study and had never surrendered to hardships. After People's Republic of China was founded in 1949, though Master Yao's life was filled with difficulties and hardships and he was not able to teach Yiquan publicly, he still insisted on self-practice. In the Cultural Revolution, in the April of 1969, the whole family of Master Yao was moved to the Zhenshun production brigade of Cuicun Village in Changping County in the suburb of Beijing. There, though they had to breed livestock in desolate hills and could only have potatoes and persimmons for food, he still stuck to his daily practice. Everyday he woke his sons at the first cockcrow to ask them to practice with him, missing no day even in unbearably hot days in summer and the bitterly cold ones in winter. This is not something that normal people are able to achieve. It was until the downfall of the “Gang of Four” when all neglected tasks were being undertaken that Yiquan got the opportunity to develop into what it is today.

  At the very beginning when he first touched upon boxing, Master Yao had not been a stickler for the bad conventions in his teacher's boxing school. Daring in innovation and determined to launch reforms, he constantly absorbed the advantages of modern boxing into Yiquan. Particularly, he also carried out researches on modern physical science in order to enrich his knowledge in this field. Such behavior was rare in martial art masters. The combination of the excellent national cultural tradition and the modern physical science displayed a more broaden prospect for the development of Yiquan, and this is the great contribution made by Master Yao to the cause of Yiquan. For many times, Master Yao had given lessons about the unique training methods of Yiquan to the National Swimming Team of Athletes in Training, Beijing Football Team, Beijing Track and Field Team, Beijing Weight Lifting Team, Beijing Shooting Team and so on, so as to let them to apply these methods into their respective training. Besides, he also conducted educational experiments in Beijng Municipal Research Institute of Physical Science. With his huge contribution to the research work in the field of physical science of our country, he won acclaims from many quarters.

  Throughout his life, Master Yao had been rigorous in his scholarly pursuits. He based his teaching on time and people and made changes in different periods and when to different students. In the early 1960s, Master Wang Xiangzhai was invited to teach in Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital in Heibei Province. Thus, he asked Master Yao to continue his public teaching in Zhongshan Park in place of him. According to the situation of that time, Jiji was not advocated by the government. As a result, Master Yao could only teach Jianshen - Yiquan Zhan Zhuang Gong in the public. Yet, for fear that the boxing skills of Yiquan which features its effectiveness in real combats would not be handed down, he chose some strong young men with good conduct who were determined to learn martial arts and possessed a good physique for practicing boxing and taught them in his place. Meanwhile, he also taught these students as future instructors of Yiquan, with emphasis on a comprehensive training including the research on the truth of boxing and the guidance in boxing skills. Thus, he wished that Yiquan would have qualified successors who would carry it forward in the future. Among the chosen young men, Zhang Hongcheng (the only one who went through the ritual to hand over a card to ask for being the disciple of Master Yao), Bai Jinjia, Zhao Xuquan, Wang Jinming and Bo Jiacong were the outstanding ones at that time. Yet, according to temperament, attainment, knowledge, physique and expertise, these people also got different focuses in the training, so that it avoided the situation that everyone was alike on the one hand, while on the other hand, everyone was able to cope with one particular situation.

  In the Cultural Revolution, martial arts were oppressed and their youth was wasted for nothing. When it came to the 1970s, these people had all passed their 30 or 40. Worried about that once there was a Jiji contest organized, there would no one capable to take part in it. Therefore, he asked those mentioned above to directly or indirectly recommend some young men to be trained. Among these young people, Master Yao's twin son Yao Chengguang and Yao Chengrong, and his students Cui Ruibin and Lin Zhaolun were the best. After the Third Plenum of 11^th Central Committee of Chinese Communist Party, everything began to take on a new look. In the autumn of 1979 when Master Yao came back to Beijing, some state organs showed concerns and solicitude to him. Thus, Master Yao was able to carry out his specialty and Yiquan was brought a new life.

  In 1980s, Jiji activities were brought on the stage in our country, and the long-cherished wish of Master Yao was finally realized. Apart from the research work he was carrying out with some physical education department, with his enterprising spirit and determination, he dedicated all his energy into cultivating numerous young sportsmen, among whom some were really excellent. On the whole, students of the three generations had their respective styles and specialties, forming a flourishing spring scene with both green trees and colorful flowers.

  Master Yao was very strict with his students. He advocated that “learn to be a man before you learn boxing” and “it is necessary to cultivate one's moral quality and to learn science and culture”. As an elder martial master, he never stuck to the traditional training methods in his teaching. Determined to reform and innovate, with a open mind, he actively absorbed those successful factors of modern physical training. He taught students in accordance with their aptitude and proceeded in an orderly and gradual way. It was an elicitation method that he adopted in his teaching. Any one who had associations with Master Yao would feel more admiration towards him for his candidness in treating people, his tireless zeal in teaching, his in-depth illustration and excellent demonstration. In all his life, Master Yao has been upright and had never stooped to flattery. He was resolute in opposing any feudalistic and superstitious activities, including those “scientific superstition”. He never made his theories abstruse and profound so they became hard to understand, nor he ever tried to please the public with claptrap. He insisted that his students should devote themselves in earnest and down-to-earth trainings as well as in persistent researches and explorations, so as to pursue the truth of boxing and to carry forward this precious treasure of our nation.

  In the past few decades since the founding of People's Republic of China, Master Yao had been devoted himself in the development of Yiquan, especially in the integration of Yiquan and modern physical science, so as to open a new path for Yiquan and to make it an intact system. Gratifyingly, his efforts were not wasted. He launched a series of activities to spread and popularize Yiquan. Now Yiquan has been spread all over the country and even has aroused the attention of some foreign experts. With its numerous practitioners and fans, Yiquan is anticipating a broad and boundless prospect in the future. At the same time, our Party and government also didn't disappoint those who had scored achievements in their own field. In 1984, under the support and solicitude of Beijing Municipal Commission for Physical Culture and Sports and Beijing Martial Arts Association, a research association was planed to be founded. Taking into consideration that the name of Dachengquan might rouse misunderstandings, Master Yao decided to use the name of Yiquan which was restored by Master Wang Xiangzhai in 1947.

  On October 21^st, 1981, Beijing Martial Arts Association Yiquan Research Institute was formally established, with Master Yao as president. He was also invited to be an advisor of Beijing Martial Arts Association. Right in the vigorous development of Yiquan, unfortunately, due to the harsh life in the Cultural Revolution and prolonged overwork, Master Yao passed away from this world. Since in the present world, there is no one who can match him, his passing away has been a great loss to Yiquan. Nevertheless, because of his lifetime achievements, Master Yao will be remembered as a pioneer with foresights and a man of action in the history of our national martial arts. Respect and admiration will he win from numerous martial arts fans.