These notes were any kind pieces of papers master Yao Zongxun wrote at home, collected by master Bo Jiachong after his passing away. This post is a translation roughly to give some ideas for YiQuan learners.
- Essentially, any movement, even the finest, should make sense, deserved, nothing should be aimless, just as the Teacher (great master Wang) said, ‘it all about the leadership of mind, command of sprit’.
- Move naturally, fitting the purpose.
- The term ‘Heart Mind Ba’ (Shao Lin Temple’s essential martial art, quite close to Xing Yi and YiQuan), in my opinion it means handling the heart and mind.
- Human’s body from internal mental, spirit, to outside physical body, should be consistent, mind should be consist with movement.
- While moving, whatever how beautiful or how ugly your action is, simple or complicated, not that important; the only thing to measure should be: the large number of joints in your body able to linked between upside and downside, between front and back, and your mind and spirit handling well, blood running smoothly, breathe well balanced, or measured by your spring strength when practicing Fa Li (thrust strength). Basically, the most important thing is comfortable, and gain strengths.
- Spirit should be handled, strength should be flexible. Spirit and strength both not only ‘not too far, not too high’, but also ‘go far and jump high’. Spirit should handle entirely, while strength focus on creating balance and destroying balance.
- ‘Triangle Strength’ means before Fa Li, a number of joints in the body should be obtuse angle (mainly twists, elbows, keens), when strength thrusts, the upper arms fasten like screws, called ‘Screw Strength’.