| Yiquan | |||||||||
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| Chinese | 意拳 | ||||||||
| Literal meaning | "Mind Boxing" | ||||||||
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| dacheng quan | |||||||||
| Chinese | 大成拳 | ||||||||
| Literal meaning | "Great Achievement Boxing" | ||||||||
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Yi quan, also known as dacheng quan, is a martial art system which was founded by the Chinese xingyiquan master, Wang Xiangzhai (王薌齋).
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Having studied xingyiquan with Guo Yunshen in his childhood,[1] Wang Xiangzhai travelled China, meeting, comparing skills with masters of various styles of kung fu.[1] In the mid-1920s, he came to the conclusion that xingyiquan was often taught wrong, with too much emphasis on 'outer form', neglecting the essence of true martial power. He started to teach what he felt was the true essence of the art using a different name, without the 'xing' (meaning form). Wang Xiangzhai, who had a great knowledge about the theory and history of his art, used the name "Yiquan" (意拳) as it had already been used in historical texts, such as "liuhequan xu" (foreword to the six harmonies boxing, said to be written by Dai Longbang himself : "When Yue Fei was a child, he received special instructions from Zhou Tong. He became skilled in the spear method. He then used his spear art to create a fist method and called it Yi Quan. Mysterious and fabulous, nobody had never had such skills before...")
In the 1940s one of Wang Xiangzhai's students wrote an article about his "school" and named it "Dachengquan" (大成拳) which was supposed to mean "great compilation boxing". This name was no longer used by Wang Xiangzhai at the end of his life and, thus, his students came back to the first name of their master's teaching (Yiquan) after his death.
In the 1930s in Shanghai, Wang studied medicine and culture with Qian Yan Tang, a famous scholar and doctor. It was here that Qian introduced the idea that further exploration of Zhan Zhuang (standing practice) might be fundamental to the development of Yiquan. Wang researched this idea in the doctor's library, which was full of classic texts. Wang was always changing the practice and method of Yiquan, always innovating based on natural principles.
Yiquan is essentially formless, containing no fixed sets of fighting movements or techniques. Instead, focus is put on developing one's natural movement and fighting abilities through a system of training methods and concepts, working to improve the perception of one's body, its movement, and of force. Yiquan is also set apart from other eastern martial arts in that traditional concepts like qi, meridians, dantian etc., are omitted, the reason being that understanding one's true nature happens in the present, and that preconceptions block this process.
Yiquan seems to have been influenced by various other arts that Wang was exposed to, including Fujian hèquán, T'ai chi ch'uan, bāguàzhǎng, and Liuhebafa . Other arts as well, such as the swimming dragon posture, present in shiao jiao, is transformed through feeling, understanding, and the condition of the practitioner. In fact, typical movements and postures from other systems abound in yiquan. It was the internal core of these other arts that made them effective. This core is what Master Wang decoded. In essence, there is only one principle of merit in all martial arts, one core, one moment of truth, one Natural Fist.
The actual training in yiquan can generally be divided into:
Principle of Nature: All truth and action occur in Shunjian, the split second of now. Everything before and after this moment is 'Wu', the Void, and thus, uncontrollable or unknowable. All objective and preconception is fixed and not in accordance with this undetermined state of Nature. "The Dao that is called the Dao is not the eternal Dao".
Famous schools include the Han Xing Yuan (韓星垣) School, the Han Xing Qiao (韓星橋) School, the Han Shi Yiquan school (founded by Han Jing Chen), son of Han Xing Qiao), the Li Jian Yu (李見宇) School, the Da Cheng Dao (大成道) School，US. Teachers of modern yiquan include Yao Chengguang (姚承光) and Yao Chengrong (姚承榮), twin sons of Yao Zongxun (姚宗勛) and Cui Ruibin of Beijing. Teachers in the USA include Fong Ha of Berkeley, CA (student of Han Xing Yuan), Andrew Plack (Han Shi Yi Quan), Glenn Pasion (Han Shi Yi Quan) of Hawaii, Sifu Gregory Fong of Portland, Oregon, Sifu John Koo of Portland, Oregon, and Master Wang Ren Gang(王仁刚, Queens, NY.