《拳道中樞》 《大成拳論》 王薌齋

This article is part 1 of the Good Work Library collection Yiquan and Dachengquan - Texts of Wang Xiangzhai and the Lineage.

The English translation was prepared directly from the captured Traditional Chinese source text. The Chinese source text follows the colophon.

Contents

• Self-Record
• Essentials for Practicing Boxing
• On Credos and Rules
• On Single and Double Weighting, and Not Clinging to Appearances
• Experiencing the Abstract, the Empty and Solid, Being and Nonbeing
• Stages of Practice
• Standing Practice
• Testing Force
• Testing the Voice
• Combat
• Combat Standing Methods
• On Boxing Sets and Methods
• On the Relation Between Boxing and Weapons
• On Striking Acupoints
• The Difference Between Inborn Gifts and Learning
• Removing Mystery
• An Explanation of Knowing and Doing
• Causes of the Loss of the Way of Boxing
• A Discussion on Abolishing the Master-Disciple System
• Conclusion

Self-Record

The greatness of the way of boxing truly lies in what the national spirit needs, in the foundation of learning for a country, in the basis of human philosophy, and in the lifeblood of social education. Its mission is to correct people's minds, give release to feeling, reform human principle, and bring forth innate capacity, so that those who study it may become clear in mind, strong in body, useful to the country, and helpful to the people. For this reason it does not put exclusive weight on combat. If it can fulfill this mission, then it may be called boxing. Otherwise it is a heterodox path. To practice a deviant boxing is like drinking poisoned wine. The harm cannot be fully told.

I have always held it as my heart to benefit myself and others. Seeing what was before my eyes, I was pained and could not bear to sit by. Taking more than forty years of experience in boxing, I sought out where its true meaning lies; I compared it with principles of learning and verified it through personal experience. I removed its defects and brought forth its hidden essence, discarded the short and kept the long, removed the false and preserved the true, joined things together and made them pass through one another, in order to develop and enlarge it. Thus a special boxing study came into being. Many friends found it sweet to test and pleasant to practice, and they all took the words Dacheng, Great Completion, as the name for my boxing. I wished to decline it but had no way to do so; I could only let it be.

What this boxing values is spirit, intentional feeling, and the training of natural force. Spoken of as a whole, it makes a person respond and join with the great atmosphere. Spoken of in parts, it takes the principles and laws of the universe as its root, nourishes a spirit that is round and a force that is square, a form that bends while the intention is straight, an empty and solid state that is not fixed, and it trains the instinctive living force of tactile awareness. If we speak of its body, there is no action it does not contain. If we speak of its use, it answers as soon as it is touched. Compared with ordinary boxing people who honor forms, put weight on methods, and talk of brute strength, it cannot be mentioned in the same breath.

Most ordinary boxing people, because they attend to forms and methods, have produced all kinds of complicated, strange, and grotesque boxing sets. Because they seek the increase of brute strength, they practice violent exercises of every kind. They pass on error and receive error, and still they think themselves successful. They do not know that this is all life-damaging exercise. The nerves, limbs, breathing passages, sinews, and muscles have already been injured and driven toward decline. How could such people hope to complete the mission of the way of boxing?

I do not dare say that this boxing is the highest possible study. But if we speak of the present and the past, I believe that what others do not have, I alone have. Learning should be higher in one generation than in the last. If not, there would be no need for it to continue. I deeply believe that boxing study suits the training of nerves and limbs, and because of this it increases wisdom. It especially suits the warming and nourishing of muscles and the enrichment of the blood. It also makes breathing smooth and lung capacity deeper; then instinctive force grows with it, until the function of issuing at the first touch is realized.

As for the essentials of effort and the method of practice, they are all set out within this text, so I will not repeat them here. This piece was originally written so that comrades practicing boxing might find it easier. It is not like writing offered to the literary world. Because I am already old and everyone pressed me, I could only leave a wild goose's claw-trace in the snow and mud, setting down in a scattered way what I have learned in ordinary days and leaving it for reference. In the future, when each person has one copy in hand, understanding will be easier.

I have always taken seeking knowledge as my vocation. If worthy people within the seas instruct me on this boxing, or go further and teach me, I will be especially grateful. With my foolish one-sided gain, I may borrow the stone of another mountain and thereby make further progress. I hope that in days to come the students who follow this learning will humbly seek widely, while also doing all they can to develop the one direction before them. If they have some attainment, I hope they will at any time study it together, in order to gain the refined and subtle, to benefit the people, and to raise the standard of the nation's physical education. This is what I deeply hope for. Otherwise it has no value.

If we wish to raise this level and fail to do it, then either our spirit is not sufficient, or our intelligence does not match the task. Learning belongs in common to humankind. Who am I, that I would dare keep it secret? Therefore, not measuring my own simplicity, I made the effort to complete this text. I am not a literary man. I cannot express the fine points of this boxing completely. What I hope is only to set them down in writing. It is truly difficult to describe its depths and give full form to the things in my breast. To take one corner and infer the other three depends on the student. Because I was sincere in transmitting the way and heated in feeling, my words could not avoid intensity and may fall into wildness. Let those who know me and those who blame me, those who laugh and those who curse, do as they will.

Written by Xiangzhai Wang Nibao of Boling, Hebei, at the Wanzi Gallery of Taiye.

Essentials for Practicing Boxing

Among those who practice boxing in recent times, many display exposed and hardened muscles before others and take this as the appearance of an athlete. They do not know that this kind of deformed development obstructs health, has no other use, and is most forbidden by physiologists. It has no value as exercise. In recent years I have pointed out this error repeatedly in newspapers. Although some people who understand principle have all expressed sympathy, most remain vulgar and foolish, cruel in heart and harmful to reason, and especially quick to slander others with loose speech. This is truly beneath contempt. Therefore I have inevitably had many resentments directed at me. From ancient times, those who alone hold a peerless learning and seek benefit for humankind, along with loyal people and those of highest intelligence, have rarely been understood by society. From this one may imagine how low the level is. For the long-term sake of the way of boxing, I truly dare not look after my private interest. I hope worthy people within the seas will understand this.

As for the origin of the way of boxing, it originally took the strengths of birds and beasts in fighting, imitated their forms, joined with their meaning, and gradually evolved. Only after it combined spirit, imagined borrowing, and all principles did this art come together. Yet modern boxing people do not even resemble the forms; how then can there be benefit in spirit and intentional feeling?

Some say, "If you use strength, you become stagnant and the hundred bones are not nimble; moreover it is not healthy." This is indeed so. But speaking from the side of combat, to use strength is to exhaust force; to use method is to exhaust technique. Whatever has a method is local, and is human manufacture after birth, not the study of instinct. Spirit then cannot be unified, and force is not thick and full. Still less can one borrow the response of the force of the universe. The spirit is already limited by its own frame, and the movement is like bound feet unable to advance.

Using strength is a changed appearance of resistance, and resistance arises from fearing the opponent's strike. If this is so, is it not accepting the opponent's blow? How then can one fail to be struck? The harm of using strength is truly great. You must know that using strength and using intention come from the same single source of qi; they root in one another. To use intention is to use strength. Intention is force. Yet unless the muscles are released and harmonious, one can never attain the living force that stretches and contracts freely, strong and released, able to be used. If there is no natural living force, I do not know where health-preservation and high-level use could be obtained.

You must know that intention arises from form, and force turns according to intention. Intention is the commander of force; force is the army of intention. What is called intention tight and force loose, muscles empty and numinous, hair rising and swelling, force growing edges and corners: without this one cannot obtain the natural delight of force within intention.

Twenty years ago this boxing once had the name Yiquan, Intention Boxing. The word yi, intention, was used to sum up spirit. This is exactly the meaning that this boxing puts weight on intentional feeling and spirit. I originally hoped to awaken comrades, so that looking at the name they would think of the meaning, become aware of their errors, and move toward the proper mark. But ordinary boxing people each held private views. Heavy accumulation was hard to turn back. Most would not calmly and peacefully set aside the short, take up the long, and investigate where right and wrong lay. They willingly clung to fragments and guarded deficiencies. What could be done? What could be done? Thus my wish had no way to be fulfilled. Alas, it is lamentable.

As far as my intelligence and strength reach, I absolutely cannot be willing to follow the waves and the current and let the true meaning of our way of boxing sink forever. I especially cannot keep from crying out loudly from time to time, hoping to shake its numbness and make it suddenly wake. This small resolve is something I cannot stop.

On Credos and Rules

The path of boxing study does not only train the limbs. It also has important deep meaning. In terms of tradition, it first values virtue. The credos that should be observed, such as honoring teachers and elders, valuing one's kin and being filial to elders, trustworthiness, righteousness, humaneness, and love, are all this. Beyond this there must be the warmth of a chivalrous backbone and a Buddhist heart, and the stored resolve to abandon oneself and follow others. If these are not present, one cannot be called a superior choice among boxing people.

As for a deep, thick, and settled bearing, a firm and decisive spirit, the ability to give release to human feeling, and a quick, brave nature, these are even more the basic requirements that a student must have. Otherwise it will be hard to receive the transmission; even if it is transmitted, it will be hard to obtain its spirit and marrow. Therefore, when predecessors transmitted to a person, they always had to examine carefully again and again. Because human material is hard to obtain, they would not lightly admit someone to the gate.

As for the procedure of transmission, it mostly begins with the four appearances and five requirements as the root: the head upright, the eyes correct, the spirit solemn, and the voice quiet. Then the five-character formula of reverence, caution, intention, urgency, and harmony is shown. I set the song of the five characters below, to show its meaning.

When you practice boxing and enter the gate, first you must honor teacher and kin. In friendship, you must value righteousness; martial virtue must be carefully observed.

In movement, be like dragon and tiger. In stillness, be like an ancient Buddha's mind. When the mind is raised, it should be reverent and cautious, as though meeting a great guest.

With reverence, the spirit does not scatter. With caution, be as though facing a deep abyss. Borrow infinite intention; essence fills the whole-round body.

Seek the solid within empty nonbeing; do not lose central harmony and evenness. The feeling of force is like penetrating electricity; what you learn grows deeper day by day.

Move the voice by turning it inside; its tone is like a dragon's chant. Reverence, caution, intention, urgency, and harmony: these five secret formulas are divided here.

After seeing nature and understanding principle, turn back and seek outside the body. Do not be bound by method and principle, and still less spend your whole life studying other people.

On Single and Double Weighting, and Not Clinging to Appearances

According to the principles of the way of boxing, whether in ordinary practice or in combat, one must keep the whole body even and integrated, without the least leaning. If there is even a little imbalance, form has clung to appearance and force has broken the body. Spirit, form, force, and intention are all forbidden to cling to appearance. Once they cling to appearance, they become one-sided. This is neither healthy nor safe from being taken advantage of. Students should remember this carefully.

Balance is not stiffness. If there is a little stiffness, one easily commits the fault of double weighting. Yet one is also not allowed to be too lively. If one is too lively, one easily moves toward prettiness without substance. The body must be comfortable, released, bent, folded, and contained. When issuing force, there must also be no break or continuation, what is called force not dying.

Double weighting does not refer only to the positions of the two feet. Head, hands, shoulders, elbows, knees, hips, and all large and small joints, even the tiniest point of force, all have distinctions of single and double, looseness and tightness, emptiness and solidity, lightness and heaviness. Most boxing people today move from one-sided single weighting toward absolute double weighting, and from absolute double weighting toward the road of rigidity and death. How deeply the study of single and double weighting has been submerged as time has passed.

If we look at the boxing manuals of the present schools, they are also mostly based on a root that has been mishandled. How much more so when their authors all expose form, violate rules, and greatly break the body. The postures are truly absurd under heaven and numb the flesh of worldly people. The more one practices them, the farther one goes from the gate and path of the way of boxing.

Not clinging to appearance may become dead stiffness; clinging to appearance may become disorder without pattern. Even if the body happens to meet the marvel of single weighting, if one has no ability to understand it, this too is no different from double weighting. Unless people make themselves unnatural, uncomfortable, and crooked in the hundred bones, they do not stop. Therefore they have no choice but to enter the path of carved and fixed methods. They never have a day of moving according to the moment, changing without fixed direction, and bringing forth innate capacity. Alas, this is truly pitiful.

As for spirit and intention not clinging to appearance, only the living force that applies tactile innate capacity is sufficient to prove it. For example, when two sides fight, with benefit and harm directly before them and no room even for a hair, before contact has fully arrived one still does not know what is being applied; after the matter is resolved one again does not know what was used just then. This is what is called not expecting it and yet it is so, not knowing its arrival and yet it arrives. It is also called the automatic good opportunity of instinctive force that reaches harmony in the extreme center.

Experiencing the Abstract, the Empty and Solid, Being and Nonbeing

There is not only one way to begin practicing boxing. Yet the marvel of its crystallization, the whole matter from the wind blowing to the grass moving, lies in the use of spirit, form, intention, and force, each joined with the others as one. This use is invisible when looked at, soundless when listened for, without body and without image.

If we speak from the side of visible form, its posture is like a flag in the air, floating and swaying without fixed place, answering only to the force of the wind. This is what is meant by responding and joining with the great atmosphere. It is also like a fish in waves, rising and sinking without fixed direction, going vertically and horizontally, coming and going, listening to touch. There is only one piece of contained spirit: moving according to the opportunity, issuing according to feeling, empty, numinous, guarded, and silent.

The essential point is to measure the existent by empty nonbeing, and also to infer the nonexistent from the place of existence. This truly resembles much of the learning of Laozi, Zhuangzi, Buddhism, and Daoism: acting through non-action, and all dharmas being empty yet precisely becoming real appearance. It is also like making a painting, where each uses a graceful and free brush to move alone between heaven and earth. These can be discussed together.

Its mechanism and delight are completed between formlessness and spiritual resemblance. One may seek it by measuring its intention. Therefore there is a warning against practicing in front of a mirror. If one seeks resemblance of form, then the inside becomes empty and the spirit is defeated.

When practicing, one must imagine that from three feet away to seven feet away, all around, there are great enemies with broad axes and huge blades, fierce beasts, and poisonous snakes winding toward one. The scene of life and death together must be answered with a spirit of great fearlessness, in order to seek solidity within emptiness. If one day great enemies stand like a forest, and I move among them as though entering a place with no people, then this is seeking emptiness within solidity.

The essential matter is ordinary keeping, experiencing, containing, and cultivating. In short, all of it is obtained from abstraction. This is what is meant by spirit and intention being full, without seeking resemblance of bodily form, and by not allowing an object to remain while one releases everything.

Remember this: in practice, movement should be slow but the spirit should be fast. The hand must not go out empty, and the intention must not return empty. Even the smallest point-force movement must be concrete and must answer in every subtle place. Inside and outside are connected; emptiness and solidity require one another and become one continuous line. At no time and in no place should there be a lack of the feeling of answering combat, that is, instinct.

If one seeks speed, every path passed through slips by smoothly, and where then can the function of experiencing it be obtained? Therefore, when first learning, one must take standing practice as the foundation, gradually experience it, and only then move. In short, spirit, form, intention, and force must become one continuous line. The four centers must also join together: crown center, original center, palm centers, and foot centers. The nerves unify; when one thing moves, nothing fails to move. Even more, the subtle places must join. The four limbs and hundred bones are all within it. Do not cling, do not stop. Add to this the response with the great atmosphere and the mutual use of looseness and tightness at each point of force, and one is near it.

Apart from one's own body there is nothing to seek. If one clings to one's own body, there will never be a right place. These words are profound. If they are carefully experienced, it is not hard to glimpse the inner hall of the way of boxing.

Stages of Practice

The foundation practice of this boxing is standing practice. Its effect is to train spirit, regulate breathing, open the flow of blood, and make sinews and muscles comfortable and harmonious. It is truly a study of preserving health, strengthening the body, and increasing wisdom. It is also excellent life-nourishing exercise. Next comes testing force, testing the voice, and the methods of imagined experience. After that come self-defense, responding with the great atmosphere, the looseness and tightness of waves, the awareness of innate capacity, and the essentials by which emptiness and solidity root in one another. I will describe each stage below.

Standing Practice

Standing practice means standing stable, standing evenly. In the beginning, one practices the basic standing post. During practice, first arrange the whole body's frame properly. Inside, be clear and empty; outside, be transformed and released. Be relaxed, harmonious, and natural. The head is upright, the eyes are correct, the body is straight and lifted at the crown, the spirit is strong, force is even, qi is quiet, and the breath is calm. The intention looks far away. The back is lifted and the waist is released. The joints of the body seem slightly bent. Sweep away the ten thousand thoughts and silently face the long sky. Inner thoughts do not wander outward; outer conditions do not invade inward.

Use the light of spirit to shine brightly over the crown. Let empty numinosity alone remain. The hairs of the whole body have a tendency to lengthen and stand upright. Inside and outside the whole body are stirred and turning. One feels as if on a jeweled tree in the clouds, tied down by a rope and supported by a root. This leisurely and mutually dependent state of spirit is very close to what may be called swimming in air.

After this, experience the stirring condition of the muscle cells. Training then obtains itself, and one knows for oneself that it is normal exercise. What is meant by normal is the essential way of reforming physiology. It can make anemia improve and high blood pressure descend to normal. This is because, no matter how one moves, the beating of the heart is never made to lose its normal state, and development is balanced.

On the side of spirit, one must regard this body as a great furnace and smelting vessel, in which nothing is not being melted and experienced. But one must perceive that all the cells are naturally working at the same time. There must not be the slightest forcing, and still less any fantasy. If one trains according to the above, then the concrete muscles are trained without being trained, the spirit is nourished without being nourished, the whole body is comfortable, qi gradually changes along with it, and natural instinctive force develops from inside to outside without difficulty.

Remember carefully: the body and mind must not use force. Otherwise, as soon as there is the slightest blood-stuffing, release and harmony are lost. If there is no release, qi stagnates, force becomes stiff, intention stops, spirit breaks, and the whole body is wrong. In short, whether in standing practice, testing force, or combat, as soon as the breath loses its normal state, or the diaphragm becomes tight, it is an error. I hope students will act cautiously and never neglect this.

Testing Force

After the basic practice above has a certain foundation, the development of all innate capacities should grow stronger day by day. One should then continue with the work of testing force, experiencing the spirit and condition of each kind of force, in order to reach true effect. This practice is one of the most important and most difficult parts of boxing. Testing force is the source of obtaining force. Force is obtained through testing, and only through knowing can one obtain how to use it.

In practice, the body must be even and integrated, the sinews empty and numinous inside. Imagine that in every hair-pore there is the feeling of a through-hall wind going and coming. Yet the bones and hairs must support and extend with strength, contending and gathering in mutual use. At the beginning, the more subtle the movement, the more complete the spirit. Slow is better than fast; gentle is better than urgent. There is the intention of wishing to move and yet stopping, wishing to stop and yet moving; moreover, moving when one cannot but stop, and stopping when one cannot but move.

Use this to experience whether the intention-force of the whole body is complete, whether this intention-force can at any time and in any place issue according to feeling, whether the whole body can respond and join with the force of the universe, and whether borrowed force can truly become fact. If one wishes to respond and join with universal force, one must first develop feeling with the great atmosphere. After there is feeling, gradually there is response. Then test the looseness and tightness of qi waves and the action of contending force with the center of the earth. Thus the force one uses naturally has neither excess nor insufficiency. At first, test and obtain it with the hands. Gradually obtain it with the whole body.

If one can know this kind of force, innate capacity gradually issues. If one practices constantly, there will naturally be inconceivable marvels, and the various forces will not be hard to obtain. As for not allowing intention to break, not allowing numinosity to scatter, the whole body being one, the slightest movement touching and drawing, the whole body above and below, left and right, front and back, never forgotten and never lost: unless one reaches the state of comfort, obtained force, and strange delight growing everywhere, it is not enough to say that one has obtained the marvel of boxing.

The names of the forces tested are very many: stored force, spring force, startling force, opening-and-closing force, heavy and fast force, fixed-center lingering force, bracing-and-embracing inertia, triangular spiral force, lever force, axle-and-wheel force, pulley force, inclined-plane force, and many others. They are all naturally obtained and known through testing force.

Every joint of the whole body contains a bent tendency in every subtle place, and at the same time every joint contains release, extension, and opening. This is what is meant by strong release in mutual use. There is no joint that does not make an obtuse triangle. There is also no flat surface, and still less a fixed triangle, though the name is the same as in tools while the method is different. The force in boxing is obtained and known through spiritual experience. The form is subtle. From the surface it may seem unmoving, yet the triangular spiral is actually turning on its own without fixed wheel, crossing and weaving without end. You must know that when there is form, force scatters; when there is no form, spirit gathers. Unless one has understood this personally, one cannot know it.

As for spiral force, according to my experience, it cannot be produced except from triangular force. All forces are made by the mutual action of the stirring of sinews and muscles with imagined spirit. They all have a close connected relationship. If they are spoken of separately, one again enters the gate of method and becomes one-sided. Therefore, unless there is oral transmission and heart-teaching, it is not easy to obtain. It is still less something that can be fully described by the tip of a brush. For this reason I do not need to describe it in detail.

In short, every force is a tight gathering of spirit, used when inside and outside are contained and united. If it is discussed separately, it becomes a visible, body-breaking, mechanical way of boxing, not boxing in the spiritual sense. According to more than forty years of my experienced keeping, I increasingly feel that every force arises from whole-round expansion, empty vastness, and no-self. Yet whole-round emptiness itself is gradually experienced from small edges and corners before it can be obtained.

Thus I also feel that every learning under heaven and earth has contradiction, and at the same time there is none that is not round and fused. Only by unifying contradiction can one pass through it and make use of its divided work and cooperation. Otherwise principle is not easy to understand. As for the method of using force and the essential point of whole muddled unity, they absolutely do not lie in whether the form is good or bad, and still less in whether the posture is complicated or simple. They lie in the great intention by which spirit directs, in the leadership of intention, and in how the whole inside and outside works.

In movement, from the side of form, whether one goes out singly and returns doubly, goes out together and enters alone, moves across, strikes vertically, slants and contends with one another, or uses the whole body's joints, points, surfaces, lines, and all principles, every subtle place has distinctions of before and after, light and heavy, loose and tight. But form must not be exposed; force must not come out to a point. There must be neither breaking nor continuing. One is also not allowed to have a felt direction of lightness, heaviness, or orientation. Whether testing force or issuing force, one must keep the body released and harmonious, issue force with containment, and have listening force, waiting for the touch.

The spirit should gather inward; the bones should hide their edges. Within three feet outside the person, there should seem to be a layer of netting that protects. Inside what it encloses, everything is like blades, forks, hooks, and crossings stored together, with the tendency of ten thousand bows waiting to be released. Yet all of this is within the stretching, contracting, plucking, and turning of hair, sinews, and muscles. Inside and outside the whole body, in every subtle place, there is the feeling of rolling beads raising edges. As for empty nonbeing, imagined borrowing, and infinite other forces, they would be too many to speak of, so I do not discuss them fully. Students should make them clear through spirit.

After all the above forces have truly been obtained in the body, do not think that the way of practicing boxing is complete. You have only obtained a little capital, and only then do you have the possibility of learning boxing. To move and then be able to loosen-tighten and tighten-loosen without passing the proper mark; to make solid-empty and empty-solid obtain central evenness; to obtain the essential formula of the pivot within the center: this is not easily obtained unless one has long passed through great opponents and actually become a person who understands thoroughly.

For this one must have highest natural talent, a bearing surpassing others, and especially pure skill. Then one may gradually, without adding thought, without troubling to form intention, not expecting it and yet it is so, not knowing its arrival and yet it arrives. This is the living force of instinctive tactile awareness. As for concrete and subtle point-force, one must also carefully avoid movements that are like shooting arrows without a target. Yet one must also reach the point where the whole body can shoot without a target; otherwise the marvel is hard to obtain.

Testing the Voice

Testing the voice assists testing force where the subtle places do not reach. Its effect lies in using sound waves to stir the work of the cells of the whole body. Its original intention is not to intimidate, though one who hears it may suddenly feel startled and afraid. This is because sound and force issue together. It is different from merely making a shout with the intention to intimidate.

In testing the voice, the qi in the mouth must not be expelled outward. It uses the work of making sound turn inside. At first, test by seeking sound. Gradually, from sound, change into no sound. Human voices differ from one another, but the voice of testing voice is the same for everyone in the world. Its sound is like a bell struck in a deep valley. It is like what elders called the root of the great bell tone. This cannot be described by brush and ink. One must have students observe its spirit, measure its principle, hear its sound, and infer its intention. Only then, by testing the condition of its sound, can they obtain it.

Combat

Self-defense is what is meant by combat. You must know that large movement is not as good as small movement; small movement is not as good as no movement. You must know that nonmovement is precisely the living and unceasing movement. For example, the wheel of a machine, or a child's spinning top, when fast to the extreme, seems not to move. If one looks at it as movement, then it is about to become unmoving; this is the appearance of no force.

What is called the movement of nonmovement being faster than movement, and movement at the utmost speed still being like nonmovement: movement and stillness root in and use one another. The marvel of its use mostly lies in the direction of the nerves, the leadership of intention, the spring force of breathing, the steadiness of the pivot, the shifting of routes, and the changes of the center of gravity. If the above methods can be used at the proper opportunity and in the proper way, then the foundation of combat is complete.

In ordinary days one must also cultivate the readiness that every raising of a hand and lifting of a foot, at any time and place, contains the ability to issue according to the occasion. The precious thing is infinite intentional feeling within empty, numinous containment.

Yet for students, the path of striking is hard not to investigate deeply. It also seems to be a necessary process. If the opponent is dull, stiff, and stagnant, and at every moment shows where his center of gravity, route, and position are, then there is no need to discuss him. But if his movement is swift, his body has no fixed place, and he is lively like an ape, then we need not even speak of his possessing various forces. Taking only his speed of movement, he is already not something ordinary people can answer. Therefore in ordinary days one should also study methods of striking.

In practice, first train the lower abdomen, fill the buttocks, and make the head steady. Then work with hands, shoulders, elbows, hips, knees, feet, and the various strikes: lifting strike, hooking strike, pressing strike, hanging strike, sawing strike, drilling strike, rubbing strike, brushing strike, folding strike, crossing strike, wrapping strike, stepping strike, cutting strike, blocking strike, crushing strike, plucking strike, rolling-force strike, bracing-force strike, sliding strike, sticking-force strike, circling-step strike, leading-step strike, advancing-step strike, retreating-step strike, following-step strike, crossing-step strike, whole-step strike, half-step strike, striking straight from a slanted surface, striking slanted from a straight surface, partial striking of the concrete, whole-body striking of the local, upward and downward rolling strikes, left and right leading strikes, inner and outer leading strikes, front and back turning strikes, force cut off while intention is not cut off, intention cut off while spirit connects again, the mechanisms of movement and stillness, issued and not yet issued, and every kind of hidden-signal strike.

Although these are local, unless one actually practices them it is not easy to obtain them. Yet in the end this is lower work. A person of intelligence and wisdom does not need to practice this.

Combat Standing Methods

The combat standing post and the basic standing post differ slightly in spirit and form, but they still take the principles as the root. The step is like the shape of the character eight, also called the ding-eight step, or the half-ding, half-eight bow-and-arrow step. The weight of the two feet is three tenths forward and seven tenths back. The bracing-and-embracing force of the two arms is seven tenths inward and three tenths outward. At the moment of issuing force, force first becomes even. After balance, there must still be the intention of the spring in a gun or cannon, extending and contracting without break.

The adaptive distance of the two hands and feet should be no longer than a foot and no shorter than an inch. Front and back, left and right, exchange without end. The more familiar one becomes, the more one feels its marvel. As for the use of looseness, tightness, sinking, and solidity; the reflection on softness, stillness, startling, and springing; the nearness and farness of routes; the preparation of frame; the empty and solid of issuing force; the waves of universal force; and the use of the opportunity of time: all these are then gradually studied.

The whole problem of boxing study is that in ordinary practice one must imagine a tiger or leopard directly before one, storing its power to fight and contend for survival. This is the first and only gate of beginning combat; it is also the first principle. I now explain further the use of spirit, intention, and force.

The use of spirit and intention: the standing practice of combat lies in being concretely empty, numinous, even, and integrated, with spirit full. The spirit is like a misted leopard; the intention is like a numinous rhinoceros. One has the tendency of a fierce horse rushing free, the spirit especially as if neighing and biting. The headtop lifts and the neck stands upright; the crown center presses and contracts; the whole body is stirred; the four sides are connected and drawn. The toes grasp the ground. The knees brace and pluck, force lifting upward. The heels rise slightly, as if a giant wind were rolling up a tree. Imagine the tendency of being uprooted and about to fly, of twisting together and shaking horizontally. Concretely there is force that braces, wraps, rises vertically, and swells; the hairs stand like spears.

The upper and lower pivots bend and fold, the hundred windings and heavy lines using their own drawing and plucking force. One must contend with heaven and earth. The shoulders brace and the elbows spread sideways; wrapping, rolling, turning back, plucking, and spiraling do not stop. Upward scooping and downward attaching, pushing and embracing in mutual use, never lose balanced and integrated force. The fingertips insert obliquely, hook and twist left and right, turn outward and wrap inward, with the feeling of pushing mountains and the earth itself. The muscles contain force, the bones grow edges, and the concrete body gathers inward.

You must know that thought of movement contains swallowing and spitting. There is force of horizontal rolling, pushing, crossing, scooping, and rolling. The hairs stand in a forest; the back is upright and the waist straight; the lower abdomen is always round; the chest is slightly gathered in. In movement, one is like an angry tiger searching the mountain, as though the mountain forest is about to collapse. The whole body is like the startled transformation of a numinous snake, or like the urgency of fire burning the body, and still more has the spirit and qi of a hibernating dragon shaking with lightning and flying straight out. One especially feels sinews and muscles stirring, force like gunpowder and the hand like a bullet. When the spirit mechanism moves slightly, even a sparrow could hardly fly away. It rather seems to have spirit-assisted courage.

Therefore, whenever it meets a thing, spirit and intention cross like heaven's net and earth's snare; no thing can escape. It is like the stirring of thunder, like scales and armor, snow and frost, making grass and trees solemn. Its speed of movement has nothing by which it can be compared. Therefore I name this kind of spirit-intention movement super-speed movement, speaking of its speed as surpassing all speed. Much of what is said above is abstract. On the spiritual side one must do it truly and practically, so that it does not flow into fantasy.

The use of force: outside spirit and intention, the use of force is even more essential. This is the force of innate capacity, not surface force. Most of it must still be sought through testing force. In practice, one must seek the evenness and integration of force without leaning in any joint, segment, or surface. Then, from the evenness of point-force, one reflects on the leaning of emptiness and solidity. Again, from the looseness and tightness of leaning, one tests the properness of issuing force. Again, from proper issuing force, one uses the circling of the separation and union of spirit-light and the edges of wave-spring force. Then, with the hairs of the whole body seeming to go out seeking and asking the road, one aims for the function of issuing as soon as there is touch.

The essential point of being ready for combat at all times must never be like shooting arrows without a target. If you see emptiness, do not strike there; strike the solid place. You must know that the solid place is precisely empty. At the pivot where emptiness and solidity move and change, unless one has passed through experience, one will never know that mixed striking and hidden striking are also useful. You must see who the opponent is. When the front turns slightly, it becomes the slanting surface; the slanting surface can be met and struck straight. Practice diligently without slackening, search for force, be still and cautious, let intention be urgent, and quietly reflect.

If combat is spoken of from the side of life-and-death struggle, then it is a duel. A duel has no moral courtesy. One must even more hold firmly to the six characters: daring, endurance, ferocity, caution, steadiness, and accuracy. One must pinch together with the opponent the resolve to die together. If a strike cannot hit, one naturally must not strike. Only when movement can cause death may one strike. With such resolve, there is naturally nothing that cannot be won. This refers to evenly matched power.

If one's skill is slightly inferior, there is no harm in yielding. If it is spoken of from the side of fellow practitioners visiting one another and comparing skill, then it is a comparison. Comparison has the nature of friendship and study. It is different from a duel. One must first value moral rightness, and one must especially observe what the opponent's ability is like. If the difference between you is great, then you must completely yield to him, so that he fears your power and cherishes your virtue. Before comparing, courtesy and yielding must come first. Words should be mild; actions should have propriety. One must never be arrogant, overbearing, wild, or irritable, injuring harmony and elegance. If martial virtue can gradually be restored from now on, and the ancient way can long remain, this will truly be the highest glory of our way of boxing. I hold a deep hope for it.

On Boxing Sets and Methods

The depth of boxing is originally inexhaustible. Even if a student is brilliantly perceptive beyond the world, he still must possess a spirit of deep trust and hard practice. Even after practicing for a lifetime, it is hard to reach its limit. Boxing sets and methods are what are called human-made boxing frames. Over the three hundred years of the Manchu Qing, they were used by ordinary outsiders for errands and performances; they became tools by which boxing drifters made a living. If one truly wishes to study boxing, how could one have leisure to practice these?

Not only are they useless, they also cause much obstruction to the nerves, limbs, and brain power, and damage every concrete innate capacity. Therefore those who practice them seldom have knowledge, and in application they are especially unsuitable. Their harms are so many that a brush could hardly record them all. They are so far from the mission of boxing and the principles of health that fundamentally they are not worth discussing. In skill comparison, if one does not use methods and sets but instead works roughly and strikes in a mixed way, one may not necessarily lose. If one uses them, then defeat is certain.

As for theories of the five phases generating and overcoming one another, I fear even a three-foot child could not fully believe them. Who believes them? Ask someone who has passed through decisive competition; he will know that my words are not wrong. In the Hongfan chapter of the Han Shu, the knowledge of the five phases refers to politics, the needs of the people, and the development and use of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth. Later, ignorant and unlearned people abused and adopted these terms, falsely creating what the world calls the relations of generation and overcoming among the five phases. This is only talk thrown out by people of the rivers and lakes. How could a learner study this?

Boxing sets are widely known to be human fabrications. Yet how are postures and methods not also human fabrications? None of them is the study of the principles of boxing bringing forth instinct. Even if one has pure and thick skill, a firm transmission, patience, constancy, and perseverance, in the end this is still abandoning the essence and taking the dregs.

You must know that boxing study fundamentally has no method; it may also be said that there is no subtle place that is not method. Once there is a method, spirit is no longer unified, force is not thick, movement is scattered and slow and not decisive, everything cannot be unified, and it goes against innate capacity. What is called method is the method of principle and law, not a carved and fixed method of branches, details, and one-sided parts. To practice methods of branches and details is like being a mediocre doctor. What such a doctor has learned is a prepared method and prescription, waiting for patients. But the patient must become ill according to the prescription; otherwise the doctor has no skill he can use.

To take boxing sets and methods as boxing is no different from using tales of snake spirits and ox demons to disorder the great way. Such people are all sinners against the way of boxing. I sigh that students today, even if they have the resolve to study deeply, suffer from having no reliable gate. Therefore I ignore everything and swear that I must break open and speak of their wrongness.

Since boxing sets and methods are useless and harmful, why do those who transmit them and those who practice them still not care about people? It is probably because most people in this field have weak knowledge, so they love strangeness and delight in oddity. Even if one tells them the truth, they find it hard to awaken; even if they awaken, they find it hard to act. Those who practice these things all use boxing sets and methods to dazzle people and boast before the world. Those who transmit them use boxing sets and methods to deceive people. Yet they can borrow these things to pass time and make a living. How much more so for those who fundamentally do not know what boxing is? Therefore they go on, using their own errors to leave errors to others, without end. This is truly pitiful, tearful, and infuriating.

Alas, is it only in boxing? I feel that all learning, for the most part, has also developed in a deformed way. I truly cannot bear to see those of my kind walk into the great disaster of a mistaken road and not save them. Therefore I do not hesitate to take the experience I have gained and known from many years of personal realization, explain it again and again, correct its falsity, and hope to awaken my compatriots so they will no longer cling to delusion and fail to understand. In general, all deep learning between heaven and earth has simple form and abundant meaning; things with complex outward form rarely have refined meaning. This is not true only of the way of boxing. Comrades, think on it three times.

On the Relation Between Boxing and Weapons

An old saying says, "When boxing is complete, weapons are complete; do not specialize in saber and spear." If one can obtain the true principle within boxing, and also inwardly understand the inner capacity of each kind of force, the bending and folding of joint-segments and surfaces, the empty and solid of long and short, slanting and straight, the function of the three sections and nine joints, the high and low directions of the route, and the timing of contact, then with a little pointing out one will be skilled in saber, spear, sword, staff, and all kinds of weapons. Even if one suddenly meets a weapon one has never seen or heard of, held in the hands of a specialist in that weapon, that person will still not be one's match. Why? It is like comparing an engineer to a small furnace-mender, or a medical doctor to a nurse; there is fundamentally no proportion by which to compare them.

On Striking Acupoints

The talk of striking acupoints is regarded by worldly people as wondrous. Some speak of acupoints; some speak of timing. Their many divided theories go on without end, and hearing them makes a person sick. What they discuss is all wrong. In a contest of skill between two sides evenly matched in power, it is not even necessary to say that fixed acupoints are not easy to strike. Even if one hits any place, it is hard enough. If one thinks only of a point that can be struck, and adds to this checking the time, then one has already been broken by the opponent.

In short, without the fundamental ability of boxing, even if one were allowed to cut and point at will, one would have no skill to use. Even if by luck one struck the point, there would be no effect. If one has already obtained the true principle and force within boxing, then whatever part of the ribs or front chest is struck can immediately cause death. One does not intentionally strike acupoints; wherever one arrives, there is no place that is not an acupoint. If one merely studies that a certain place is an acupoint and a certain time may be used to strike it, does the way not become more and more distant?

The Difference Between Inborn Gifts and Learning

People often say that so-and-so is eight feet tall, has strength beyond a thousand jin, and his bravery cannot be resisted. You must know that being eight feet tall and having strength beyond a thousand jin can only be called being richly endowed by heaven; it cannot represent boxing study. Others say that someone can break a giant millstone with one fist, split eight bricks with one palm, leap a zhang forward and eight feet backward. If he truly can do this, it is still only the local skill of a foolish person, and it will necessarily enter the road of becoming disabled. Let us not even discuss that. None of it can be regarded as the way of boxing.

The things spoken of above are all regarded by worldly people as belonging to strange and extraordinary men. But if such a person meets one who understands thoroughly, he will have nothing he can do. As for flying over eaves and walking on walls, and tales of swordsmen, these are all dreams fabricated by novelists and may simply be laughed away. Opening stones and passing over blades and spears belong to what people of the rivers and lakes call tricks for getting a meal. These are lower than low and not worth speaking of.

Removing Mystery

There are often people of low natural endowment and shallow learning. They may be loyal and sincere as people, and they have received a teacher's instruction and have gone deeply into it. They may have exclusive, great, pure, and thick skill. Although it is local, when one hears their mysterious explanations and observes the function of their effects, those with shallow discernment think no one else can do it and regard it as mystery.

They do not know that the talk of mystery is fundamentally absurd. It all arises from weak knowledge, shallow discernment, and experience that is not refined. Even if by chance one obtains the true meaning of the way of boxing, if one has no ability to understand it, one will pass it by indifferently. Therefore, when people meet something with deep principle and delight, they often give rise to a mystical way of thinking. But when one practices deeply, sees widely, hears much, and encounters something, one naturally becomes suddenly clear and has no further doubt. This is true in all matters. How could it be true only of boxing study?

An Explanation of Knowing and Doing

In learning, the essential matter is to know and be able to do, and to do and be able to know. Otherwise one cannot avoid deceiving oneself and others, with false words piling up and speech often without limit. The two words knowing and doing are simple in name, but in fact they are complicated and difficult. In the world some say knowing is hard and doing is easy. Others say that knowing may be hard, but doing is still less easy; or they speak of the unity of knowing and doing; or they say that in matters themselves there is no difficulty or ease. Each of these views has principle, but in the end they are general and mostly one-sided. They cannot make people thoroughly understand.

I think that for anyone who has some grounding in a field of learning, it may be said that knowing is hard and obtaining is easy. If one's discernment and experience are deep, then knowing may be easy while doing is also hard. If one has discernment but no skill, then it may be called knowing easy and doing hard. If one has no skill and also lacks knowledge, then neither knowing nor doing is possible.

Learning originally has no fixed state of mind. How much knowing is there, how much doing is there, to what point must doing reach, and to what degree must knowing arrive before they are true knowing and true doing? I truly do not dare decide this. Yet one should take this as the standard: one who can know can do, and one who can do can also know. Only then may it be called unity of knowing and doing. Without true knowing there will never be a day of true doing; without true doing there will not be a time of true knowing. Truly, they require and complete one another. This is the nondual true principle. All learning is like this, and martial virtue is especially so.

In this path, matters must be cashed out at every moment when two sides meet. There is no leisure to think, and no room for old scholar's talk. In learning, first one must understand principle, and also must practice truly. If one does not first understand principle and does not know where the essentials of practice lie, it is easy to enter a forked road. The deeper the skill becomes, the more violent the injury. Whether reading, writing, or any art, people are often thought promising when young; but who knows that when they grow older, their skill deepens, and their names fill the world, they may instead no longer be fit to be shaped. This is everywhere.

The reason is bad models from teachers, practice that is not careful, pursuit of surface appearance, learning because others learn, speaking because others speak: this is what is called blind following. If one practices without real result, then foolishness will never have any experience to speak of. One passes a whole life in confusion, with nothing real, and easily gives rise to mystical thought. In the end one cannot hope to see the gate or wall. Thus one exhausts all one has learned and still has no experience. How sad! You must know that cleverness does not pass through the gate of practice. The text says: "Though sons and grandsons may be foolish, reading cannot be avoided." One must also understand principle, and must practice. Surface and inside, inner and outer, mutually assist one another. Otherwise it is hard in the end to enter the track.

Causes of the Loss of the Way of Boxing

There are three principles in practicing boxing: first, strengthening the body; second, self-defense; third, benefiting the group. Benefiting the group is our natural duty and also a basic essential. Yet everything must be obtained from complete health of body and mind. Without health there can never be sufficient spirit; without sufficient spirit there can never be deeds worthy of song and tears. Let us not even speak of killing oneself to complete humaneness, or giving one's body for righteousness. I fear that if such a person saw someone drowning or hanging himself, he would still shrink back and not go forward. How much more when seeing injustice on the road and drawing a blade to help?

Not only this. Those whose bodies are weak often have small capacity and bad emotions. Therefore, to contain things and make feeling peaceful also requires bodily health. Strengthening the body is the root of human life. Practicing boxing is the foundation for strengthening the body. Every undertaking relies on it. Since the relationship is so great, how can one allow false things to disorder the true, deceive all under heaven for ten thousand generations, and not distinguish them?

The way of boxing was at first extremely simple. Only later did it move toward complexity and confusion. Boxing is a tool for improving physiology and an essential formula for bringing forth innate capacity. From simple to complex may be acceptable; from complex back to simple, while violating physiological principles and laws, is not acceptable.

In the beginning, Xingyi Boxing had three fists, and the three fists were one movement: stepping, drilling, and wrapping. Like a horse galloping in linked rings, one qi acted as the unity of three kinds of force. The five phases and twelve forms are also included within this. The five phases were originally substitute names, terms for five kinds of force. The twelve forms refer to twelve kinds of birds and beasts, each with its special strength, which one should broadly take. They do not mean separate twelve forms and all kinds of mixed boxing sets.

Bagua Boxing is also like this. At first it had only single and double palm changes. Later, because people of shallow knowledge did not understand the true meaning within it, they went so far as to forget and falsely create sixty-four palms and seventy-two legs and other fake forms. These not only lack benefit, they are harmful. The abuses of Taiji Boxing are especially deep. Its harm is not fierce on the physiological side, so it is not extremely contrary. But none of its postures is worth taking. If we look at its boxing manuals, the writing is comparatively elegant, but refined meaning is little and ordinary talk is much. Most of it also has the illness of generality.

In short, among all modern boxing arts, fundamentally none can speak adequately about whether health-preservation and combat are proper, and none has a single method that accords with physiological requirements. Over forty years, my footprints have gone over the great rivers north and south. I have met tens of thousands of boxing people and have never seen one posture that could obtain its balance, let alone refined depth.

Boxing originally has simple form and abundant meaning. There are even people who practice it all their lives and cannot understand its essential meaning. To reach the state of utmost goodness is rarer still, like phoenix feathers and unicorn horns. How much more for those whose root in this path is fundamentally insufficient. It is not that the principles of the way of boxing are hard to understand. It is that ordinary people lack plain thought and firm will.

Down to the present age, gates and households pile up, and movements and methods are many beyond naming. Ask them why, and they say it is to be beautiful and suitable for performance. If the purpose of practicing boxing is to please people, why not give up boxing and perform theater? Moreover, there is still much in theater that has a root; compared with ordinary boxing people, it is truly a level higher.

I often hear people who practice boxing today say to others that they know so many sets and so many hands, and they sing their own praise. They do not know that those who recognize the matter have already been laughing secretly beside them and sighing without cease. If so, has the loss of the way of boxing not been caused by boxing sets and methods? For three hundred years they have been practiced until they have become custom. Heavy accumulation is hard to turn back. Those below push the waves and follow the billows, until they develop talk of four images and five phases, theories of nine palaces and eight trigrams, and learning of rivers and seas. They use every absurd, mysterious, and strange phrase they can, attaching and explaining by force, so that students do not understand the true appearance and are moved by drum-beating talk, rushing toward it like ducks. How could the original principles of the way not be said to perish in this?

In addition there are those who learn several sets of saber, spear, sword, and staff, wishing to borrow them to make a living. If by luck the opportunity happens to fit, the plan sells. Then those whose livelihood does not succeed think there is an opportunity and compete to imitate them until they fill society. Such conduct not only abandons all the true meaning of the way of boxing, but the spirit of righteousness and chivalrous backbone also follows it into ruin.

Among them there are inevitably exceptional people who can glimpse the deep store within boxing. Yet they are also bound by accumulated habits and fixed views and will not show people directly the essence they have obtained. How could they not know that the water of rivers and oceans is not harmed by people scooping it? How can their vision be so narrow and small? Learning belongs in common to humankind. If one obtains something, by principle it should be made public to society. How can it be privately handed on in secret, causing people to drown and vanish without being known?

Recently I have heard still more of people depending on Buddhist gates, speaking of spirits and ghosts, absurdly saying how to cultivate the Dao and how they met immortals. This nonsense is especially like deviant monsters disordering the way, and is truly lamentable. Today is an age of bright science, yet they dare make these wild-fox false teachings, pass them through people's mouths, and spread them in the newspapers. Such mediocre, sick, confused people truly do not know that shame still exists among humankind. If the Buddha has spirit, I do not know what he would think of this kind of people who spread erroneous seed. There is more than one way in the world to seek a livelihood. Why must one use the weak points of society to deceive oneself and others? Speaking of this, I cannot help grieving for the way of boxing, and still more sighing for worldly ways and human hearts.

The decline of the way of boxing is certainly due partly to the Kangxi and Yongzheng emperors, because in their time it was promoted in a way that did not accord with the way. Yet blame also returns to comrades whose knowledge was insufficient and whose roots were not good, so that they were fooled by it. Up to the present, error is transmitted by error, and no one can distinguish this path. Even those who have previously awakened are, because of the fixed view of protecting gates and households, right with some people and wrong with others, and the more they move, the lower they go.

The path of boxing, if studied properly, benefits body and mind and can also supplement the insufficiencies of every undertaking. If studied improperly, it can make moral character, nerves, limbs, and temperament all become abnormal, and can affect life, thereby harming the whole lifetime. If you do not believe me, please look at the famous boxing masters of the past. Many suffered paralysis, wasting of the lower body, and similar illnesses because sinews and muscles lost harmony. They practiced boxing for health-preservation, but instead damaged life. The result is especially pitiful.

People in the world often call the way of boxing a national essence. If this is the national essence, is it not a tool for manufacturing disabled people? After the fifteenth year of the Republic, National Arts Institutes were set up in various places, as if to show that other arts were unworthy of the word national. If so, this shameful, spirit-losing, worthless national art can be seen only in our country. I do not know whether within it there are still such high and brilliant extraordinary men who bestowed this great name. I do not know what those bold people would think.

As for the great gentlemen who promote exercise, they wave their arms all day and cry out as advocates to the world. How could they know that athletic heroes are all leaders of early death? Alas, why do people follow blindly like this? I only hope that worldly people will think carefully in stillness and distinguish clearly. Nothing in human life is more precious than the body. How can it be left to be damaged by the blind control and willful beliefs of ordinary people? How important it is to be careful when choosing a teacher and learning an art.

In my study of boxing, I know only the distinction between right and wrong. I do not know sectarian division by gate and household. In order to make boxing art bright, I am willing to hand over what I have obtained and known throughout my life to those who come after. I am still more willing for society and the masses all to know it. Therefore, whoever comes, I teach; I have always regarded humankind as my own flesh and bone and have never liked the title of master and disciple. If the idea of sects can gradually be swept away, then perhaps the way of boxing can be enlarged and made bright. This is what I wish.

A Discussion on Abolishing the Master-Disciple System

The master-disciple system is praised as a beautiful virtue. Yet often the most beautiful things, when carried out in our country, produce many abuses and every kind of ugliness. This is especially so in the boxing world. Therefore society often looks on those who study boxing as beneath contempt, as if one cannot obtain secret teaching unless one bows to a master. Those who teach also think that not bowing to a master is not enough to show closeness, and they will not transmit the essential formulas. Each imitates the other until it becomes established custom. Alas, how crude this truly is.

Let us set aside shallow people, who fundamentally have no skill that could be kept secret. Even if someone does have it, his secret power will necessarily carry the true meaning of the way of boxing into a land of nothingness. Even inside the gate and wall, there are secrets they do not transmit to one another. I truly do not understand the reason. This is really the lowest of the low. There is a reason the way of boxing is not manifest.

Down to today, deviant boxing drum-talk fills the world and grows worse by changing its root. This is more than one can sigh over. The true meaning of the way of boxing may be said to share the ordinary constancy of the great way of human life, and it may also be said to be as deep and subtle as heaven and earth. If one does not understand its way and practices it, one may practice one's whole life and still not exhaust it. How then could one have leisure to keep it secret?

All who belong to humankind should take the people as brothers and regard hunger and drowning as before their own eyes. If this were so, all under heaven would be settled. Otherwise, even if all humanity in the world died out and only your single household remained, and your selfish wish reached its limit, what then would you do? I fear that human happiness would be cut off forever. The people are accumulated in weakness, and in every matter we are mostly inferior to others. The illness lies here as well.

I bless learning as something held in common by humans through all ages. Fundamentally there should be no division by boundary. There is no need even to say that within one country and among one people there should not be different treatment. Even as limited by national borders, all people live joyfully under broad heaven and bright sun. What secrecy could there be? Its function is low and crude, truly not worth one coin.

Therefore, in the matter of transmitting boxing study, I have never refused those who come. Whoever is a fellow lover of it, if he comes I teach him. In teaching I must exert myself fully. If there is a question, I answer. In answering I must fulfill righteousness. I am anxious only that people will not be able to obtain it, or that I will have no way to make them obtain it. For this reason, whenever I transmit, if someone hears but does not awaken, or awakens but does not put it into action, I immediately feel regret. But as soon as I see someone know and be able to act, and act and have attainment, I am suddenly pleased. This small heart takes comfort in comforting people. I have never placed myself as a master.

Human association values spirit and feeling; it does not lie in formal titles. If there is true learning to give to people, even if I do not dwell as a master, who among those who receive benefit will not cherish virtue, attach to righteousness, and serve me as teacher? The name of teacher disappears, but the reality remains. What harm is there? If one uses deviant boxing drum-talk to deceive the world, even if people bow at the gate and call themselves disciples, once clear-sighted people awaken to its nothingness, they will bitterly hate the practice without end. What teacher is there in that? The name of teacher remains, but the reality is gone.

Once the names and roles of master and disciple are fixed, the idea of superior and inferior arises. When the disciple speaks to the master, he immediately feels there is something improper and often fears offending the master's dignity, so he does not dare oppose him. Even if he does oppose him, the master, in order to protect his dignity, also refutes him bitterly and does not reflect on himself. What learning or moral rightness can still be spoken of here? That the master-disciple system does not help the way of boxing can be seen in general from this.

How much more when struggles between gates and sects often become fiercer because the master-disciple system circulates. Entering one master and enslaving all others, people dispute and disturb. From teacher transmission comes household; from household comes sect; from the branching of sects comes tangled theory. If this is so, the true meaning of the way of boxing will never have a day of brightness. Is this not an even worse harm?

Moreover, only after one has obtained learning is there a teacher. If one knocks the head three thousand times and calls someone master eight hundred times, yet remains fundamentally ignorant in learning, then in the end one does not know where the teacher is. You must know that learning itself is the sacred thing of the universe; it is what has teacherly honor. This is why I strongly advocate abolishing the master-disciple system.

Although this is only my personal opinion, the master-disciple system has long been an accumulated habit in the boxing world. If it cannot be removed suddenly for a time, then, for the sake of caution, it should at least wait until both sides have truly recognized each other's learning and virtue. This would avoid the abuses of blind following and obstruction, and seems more proper.

Conclusion

Practicing boxing does not lie entirely in the distance of years, the depth of skill, the height of the body, or age. It lies still less in the number of methods, the speed of movements, or the seniority of generations. It lies in whether the principles and laws of the learning are understood or not. One must especially look at whether the naturally endowed spirit has true force, and then measure what the person's talent and resolve are like. Only then can the depth of attainment be decided, and what state the future achievement may reach.

What is most precious in practicing boxing is understanding principle and having force in spirit. In other words, it is whether there is thick animal force. If one can have force that is thick in this way, and then adds cultivation to it, training it into great courage with clear and easy spirit, it is not hard to enter the sea of dharma, obtain the essentials of the way, reach the person who understands thoroughly, and enter the inner hall of spiritual transformation.

What is called a person who understands thoroughly is not merely one who is refined in one gate. In all kinds of learning, as soon as he hears someone's words he knows what level that person is at, whether the person is regular, whether there is reality, and whether there is practical substance. Observing the method, he sees at a glance its depths, or whether it is concrete but local, or concrete yet subtle. He knows what method could repair it and can break it open with one phrase. This is what is meant by obtaining the center of the ring in order to answer the inexhaustible.

One who teaches can tell people the compass and square; he cannot show people cleverness, and still less can he do the work for them. It lies in the student to imitate carefully, experience, and keep the work, and then observe how skill and spirit cooperate in subtlety. What has been discussed above is the way of boxing. It is boxing as something held earnestly in the heart, that is, the meaning of understanding in the heart, experiencing, and keeping. It is not the ordinary boxing seen in the world.

Colophon

Translated directly from the Traditional Chinese text of 《拳道中樞》 《大成拳論》 王薌齋, captured from the HK Yiquan Society public article archive and live-verified against the archive index on June 2, 2026.

Published in the Good Work Library under rights clearance received by the New Tianmu Anglican Church on June 2, 2026.

The English translation was independently prepared from the captured Chinese source for the Good Work Library. Source-text punctuation and evident web or OCR artifacts are retained in the Chinese appendix; the English follows the sentence sense of the captured text.

Compiled and formatted for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.

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Source Text: 《拳道中樞》 《大成拳論》 王薌齋

Source: HK Yiquan Society article 1

目錄

自誌

習拳述要

論信條與規守

論單雙重與不著象

抽象虛實有無體認

練習步驟

站樁

試力

試聲

技擊樁法

論拳套與方法

論拳與器械之關係

論點穴

天賦與學術之別

解除神秘

知行解釋

拳道喪失之原因

解除師徒制之商榷

結論

自誌

拳道之大，實為民族精神之需要，學術之國本，人生哲學之基礎，社會教育命派，其使命要在修正人心，抒發感情，改造人理，發揮良能，使學者精明體健利國利群，故不專重技擊一端也，若能完成其命，則可謂之拳，否則是異端耳。習異拳如飲鳩毒，其害不可勝言也，餘素以已利人為懷，觸目痛心，不忍坐視，本四十餘年習拳經驗，探其真義之所在，參以學理，證以體認，祛其敝發其安徽密，舍短取長，去偽存真，融會貫通，以發揚而光大之，令成一處特殊拳學，而友人多試之甜密，習之愉快，因僉以大成二字為吾拳，欲卻之而無從也，聽這而已，今夫本拳之所重者，在精神，在意感，在自然力之鍛煉，統而言之，使人自與大氣相應合，分而言之，以宇宙之原則原理以為本，養成神圓力方，形屈意直，虛實無定，鍛成觸覺活力之本能，以言其體，則無為不具，以言其用，則有感即應，以視彼一般拳學家尚形式，重方法，講蠻力者，故不可相提並論也。誠以一般拳家多因注重形式與方法，而演成各種繁畸形怪狀之拳套，更因講求蠻力之增進而操各項激烈運動，誤傳誤受，自尚以為得意者，殊不知儘是戕生運動，其神經肢體氣管筋肉已受其摧殘而至頹廢，安能望其完成拳道之使命乎？餘雖不敢謂本拳為無上之學，若從現代及過去而論，信他所無而我獨有也。學術本應一代高一代，否則當無存在之必要矣！餘深信拳學適於神經肢體之鍛煉，方因而益智，尤適於筋肉溫養血液之滋榮，更使呼吸舒暢肺量加深，而本能之力亦隨之漸長，而實現一觸即發的功能，至於致力之要，用功之法，統於篇內述之，茲不贅述。但此篇原為同志習拳較易而設，非向世之文者比也，蓋因餘年已老，大家迫求，只得以留鶩鴻爪影於泥雪之中尋之，僅將平日所學，拉雜記載，留作參考，將來人手一篇，領會較易，但余素以求知為職志，果有海內賢達，對本拳予以指教，或進而教之，則尤感焉，以一得之愚，得籍他山之攻，而益有進益。日後望從學諸生虛心博訪，一方向儘量向唯一方面盡力發揮，倘有心得，希隨時共同研究，以求博得精奧，而期福利人群，提高國民體育之水準，實為盼甚，否則毫無價值也。如此提高而不果，是吾輩精神之不逮焉，或智力未符故耳。夫學術本為人類所共有，余亦何人，而敢自秘？所以不揣簡陋，努力而成是篇。余不文，對本拳之精微，不能闡發淨盡，所望者，僅不過筆錄而已，實難形容其底蘊，以詳吾胸中之事矣，一偶三反，是在學者，余因授道之誠，情緒之熱，遂不免言論之激，失之狂放，知我罪我，笑駡由人。

河北博陵 薌齋王尼寶 志于太液萬字廊

習拳述要

近世操拳學者，多以筋肉之暴露堅硬誇示人前，以為運動家之表現，殊不知此畸形發達之現象既礙衛生，更無他用，最為生理家忌禁，毫無運動之價值也。近年以來余于報端曾一再指摘其非，雖有一般明理之士鹹表同情，而大都仍是庸俗愚昧忍心害理，尤其信口詆人，此真不齒，故終不免有諸多怨者，大凡從來獨抱絕學為人類謀福利者，與忠誠之士和聰明絕頂者，社會從來鮮有諒解，水準之低概可想見。余為拳道之永久計，實在不敢顧其私，希海內賢達其諒鑒之。
按拳道之由來，原系采禽獸搏鬥之長，象其形，會其意，逐漸演進，合精神假借一切法則，始彙成斯技。奈近代拳家，形都不似，更何有益於精神與意感乎？然亦有云“用力則滯而百骸不靈，且不衛生，此故然矣，然在技擊方面言之，用力則是力窮，用法則是術罄，凡有方法，便是局部，便是後天之人造，非本能之學也。而精神便不能統一，用力亦不篤。更不能假以宇宙之力之呼應，其精神已受其範圍之所限，動作似裹足不前矣，且用力乃是抵抗之變象，抵抗是由畏敵擊出而起。如此豈非接受對方之擊，則又安得不為人擊中乎？用力之害，誠大矣哉。要知用力用意乃同出一氣之源，互根為之，用意即是用力，意即力也。然非筋肉松和，永不能得伸縮自如遒放致用之活力也。既不能有自然之活力，其養生與高水準用，吾不知其由何可以得，要知意自形生，力隨意轉，意為力之帥，力為意之軍。所謂意緊力松，筋肉空靈，毛髮飛漲，力生鋒棱，非此不能得意中力之自然天趣。本拳在20年前，曾一度有“意拳”之名，舉意字以概精神，蓋即本拳重意感與精神之義也。原期喚醒同人，使之顧名思義，覺悟其非而正鵠是趨，孰知一般拳家各懷私見，積重難返，多不肯平心靜氣，舍短取長，研討是非所在，情甘抱殘守闕，奈何奈何。遂致餘願無由得償，籲可慨也。余之智力之所及，絕不甘隨波逐流，使我拳道真義，永墜沉淪，且尤不時大聲疾呼，冀以振其麻痹而發猛醒，此又區區之志，不能自已者也。

論信條與規守

拳學一道，不僅鍛煉肢體，尚有重要深意存焉。就傳統而言，首重德性，其應遵守之信條，如尊師敬長，重親孝長，信義仁愛等，皆是也。此外更需要俠骨佛心之熱誠，舍已從人之蓄志，苟不具備，則不得謂拳家之上選。至於渾厚深沉之氣概，堅忍果決之精神，抒發人類之情感，敏捷英勇之資質，尤為學者所必備之根本要件，否則恐難得傳，即使傳之，則亦難能得其神髓矣。故先輩每于傳人之際，必要再三審慎行之者，蓋因人材難得，不肯輕錄門牆，至其傳授之程式，率皆先以四容五要為本。如頭直、目正、神莊、聲靜，再以恭慎意切和五字訣示之，茲將五字訣歌列後，以示其意。
習拳即入門 首要遵師親 尚友需重義 武德更謹遵
動則如龍虎 靜尤古佛心 舉心宜恭慎 如同會大賓
恭則神不散 慎如深淵臨 假借無窮意 精滿渾元身
虛無求實切 不失中和均 力感如透電 所學與日深
運聲由內轉 音韻似龍吟 恭慎意切和 五字秘訣分
見性明理後 反向身外尋 莫被法理拘 更勿終學人

論單雙重與不著象

以拳道之原理論，勿論平時練習抑在技擊之中，須保持全身之均整，使之毫不偏倚，凡有些微不平衡，即為形著象力亦破體也，蓋神、形、力、意皆不許有著象，一著象便是片面，既不衛生且易為人所乘，學者宜謹記之。夫均衡非呆板也，稍板則易犯雙重之病，然亦不許過靈，過靈則易趨於華而不實也。須要體舒放屈折含蓄，如發力時，亦不許斷續，所謂力不亡者也。蓋雙重非指兩足部位而言，頭手肩肘膝胯以大小關節，即一點細微之力都有單雙鬆緊虛實輕重之分別，今之拳家大都由片面之單重走向絕對之雙重，更由絕對之雙重而趨於僵死之途。甚矣單雙重之學，愈久而愈淹也。就以今之各家拳譜論，亦都據本失當，況其作者儘是露形犯規而大破其體者，所有姿勢誠荒天下之唐，麻世人之肉矣，愈習之則愈去拳道之門徑而遠甚。不著象而成死板，一著象散亂無章，縱然身遇單重之妙，因無能領略，此亦無異於雙重也，非弄到不自然，不舒服、百骸失正而為止，是不得不走入刻板方法之途徑，永無隨機而動，變化無方，更無發揮良能之日矣。噫，亦誠可憐之甚也。至於神與意之不著象，乃非應用觸覺良能之活力，不足以證明之，比如雙方決鬥，利害當前，間不容髮，已接未觸之時，尚不知應用者為何，解決之後，複不知適間所用者為何，所謂不期然而然，莫知至而至，又謂極中致和本能力之自動良機者也。

抽象虛實有無體認

習拳入手之法非只一端，而其結晶之妙，風吹草動全在於神形意力之運用互為一致。此種運用都視之無形、聽之無聲、無體亦無形象。就以有形而論，其勢如空中之旗，飄擺無定，惟風力是應，即所謂與大氣應合；又如浪中之魚，起伏無定方，縱橫往還以聽其觸，只有一片相機而動應感而發和虛靈守默之含蓄精神，要在以虛無而度其有，亦以有處而揣其無，誠與老莊佛釋無為而有為，萬法皆空即為實象，一切學理多稱謹似。又如作畫，各以俏逸之筆，孤行天壤，堪並論也。其機其趣完成在於無形神似之間，度其意可以求之，所以習時有對鏡操作之戒者，恐一求形似，則內虛而神敗矣。習時須假定三尺之外七尺之內四周如有大刀闊斧之巨敵與猛獸毒蛇蜿蜒而來，其共存生之情景，須當以大無畏之精神而應付之，以求虛中之實也。如一旦大敵林立，在我如入無人之境以周旋之，則為實中求虛。要在平日操存體認涵蓄修養，總之都是從抽象中得來，所謂神意足不求形骸似，更不許存有物件而解脫一切者是也。切記習時要慢而神宜速，手不空出，意不空回，即些微細小之點力動作亦須具體無微而不應，內外相連，虛實相需而為一貫，須無時無處不含有應付技擊之感（本能），倘一求速，則一切經過之路徑滑然而過，再由何而得其體認之作用乎？是故初學時須以站樁為基礎，漸漸體會而後行，總之，須有神形意力成為一貫，亦須四心相合（頂心、本心、手心、腳心），神經統一，一動無不動，亦更微而不合，四肢百骸悉在其中，不執著不停斷，再與大氣之呼應，各點力之鬆緊互為用，庶乎可矣。離開已身無物可求，執著已身永無是處。旨哉斯言，細心體會，自不難窺拳道之堂奧矣。

練習步驟

本拳之基礎練習，即為站樁。其效用在能鍛煉精神、調劑呼吸，通暢血液舒和筋肉，誠養生強身益智之學也。亦為優生運動，其次為試力、試聲、假想體認各法則，再次為自衛與大氣之呼應和波浪之鬆緊、良能之察覺，虛實互根之切要，茲將各階段逐述於後。

站樁

站樁即立穩，平均之站立也。初習為基本樁，習時須首先將全體之間架配備安排妥當，內清虛而外脫換，松和自然，頭直目正，身端頂立，神壯力均，氣靜息平，意思遠望，發挺腰松，身體關節似有微曲之意，掃除萬慮，默對長空，內念不外遊，外緣不內侵，以神光朗照顛頂，虛靈獨存，渾身毛髮有長伸直豎之勢，周身內外激蕩迴旋，覺如雲端寶樹上有繩系下，有本支撐，其悠揚相依之神情，喻日空氣游泳殊近相似也。然後再體會肌肉細胞動盪之情態，鍛煉自得，自知為正常運動。夫所謂正常，即改造生理之要道，能使貧血者可以增高，血壓高者可以下降而達正常。蓋因其勿論如何運動，永使心臟之搏動不失常態，平衡發達，然在精神方面，須視此身為大冶洪爐，無物不在陶熔體認中。但須察覺各項細胞為自然之同時工作，不得有絲毫勉強，更不許有幻想，如依上述之鍛煉，則具體之肌肉不鍛而自鍛，精神不養而自養，周身舒暢，氣亦隨之而逐漸變化，其本能自然之力，由內而外，自不難漸漸發達。但切記身心不可用力，否則稍有注血，便失松和，不松則氣滯，而力板意停，而神斷，全體皆非矣。總之，無論站樁試力或技擊，只要呼吸一失常，或橫隔膜一發緊，便是錯誤，願學者慎行之，萬勿忽視。

試力

以上的基本練習，既有相當基礎之後，一切良能之發展，當日益增強，則應繼續學試力工作，體認各項力量之神情，以期真實效用。此項練習為拳中之最重要，最困難之一部分工作。蓋試力為得力之由，力由試而得之，更由知，始能得其所以用。習使須使身體均整，筋內空靈，思具體毛孔無根不有穿堂風往還之感，然骨骼毛髮都要支撐遒放，爭斂互為，初愈微而神愈全，慢優於快，緩勝於急，欲行而又止，欲止而又行，更有行乎不得不止，止乎不得不行之意，以體認全體之意力圓滿否，其意力能隨時隨地應感而出發否，全身能與宇宙之力起感應合否，假借之力果能成為事實否。欲與宇宙力起應合，須先與大氣發生感覺，感覺之後漸漸呼應，再試氣波之鬆緊與地心爭力作用，於是所用之力自然無過亦無不及，初試以手得之，逐漸以全體得之，能認識此種力良能漸發，操之有恆，自有不可思議之妙，而各項力量亦不難入手而得，至於意不使斷，靈有使散，渾噩一體，動微觸牽，全身上下左右前後不忘不失，非達到舒適得力，奇趣橫生之境地不足曰得拳之妙也。所試各力，名稱甚繁，如蓄力、彈力、驚力、開合力以及重速、定中纏綿、撐抱惰性、三角螺旋，杠杆軸輪、滑車斜面等種切力量，亦自然由試力而得之（知）。蓋全體關節無微不含屈勢，同時亦無節不含放縱與開展，所謂遒放互為，固無節不成鈍三角形，且無平面積，尤無固定之三角形（不過與器械之名同而法異），蓋拳中之力，都是精神方面體認而得之（知）。形則微矣。表面客之，形似不動，而三角之螺旋實自輪旋不定，錯綜不已，要知有形則力散，無形則神聚，非自身領略之後不能知也。蓋螺旋力，以餘之體認觀之，非由三角力不得產生者也。而所有一切力量，都是筋肉動盪與精神假想相互而為，皆有密切聯帶之關係，若分而言之，則又走入方法之門，成為片面耳。所以非口傳心授，未易有得，更非毫端所能形容，故不必詳述也。

總之一切力量者是精神之集結緊密，內外含蓄一致而為用，若單獨而論，則成為有形破體機械之拳道，非精神意義之拳也。余據四十餘年體會操存之經驗，倍感各項力量都由渾元擴大、空洞無我產生而來，然渾元空洞亦都由細微之棱角漸漸體會，方能有得。是以吾又感天地間一切學術，無不感矛盾同時亦感無一不是圓融，統一矛盾，始能貫通，方可利用其分工合作，否則不易明理。至於用力之法，渾噩之要，絕不在形式之好壞，尤不在姿勢之繁簡，要精神支配之大意和意念之領導與全體內外之工作如何。動作時，在形式方面不論單出、雙回、齊出、獨進、橫走、豎撞、互斜互爭、渾身之節、點、面、線、一切法則無微不有先後，輕重、鬆緊之別，但須形不外露，力不出尖，亦無斷續，更不許有輕重方向之感，不論試力或發力，須保持身體松和，發力含蓄而有聽力，以待其觸。神宜內斂，骨宜藏棱，要在人外三尺以內，似有一層羅網保護，而包包羅之內，盡如刀叉勾錯並蓄，有萬弓待發之勢，然都在毛髮筋肉伸縮撥轉，全身內外無微不有滾珠起棱之感，他如虛無假借種種無窮之力，言之太繁，故不具論，學者神而明之。以上各力果身得後，切莫以為習拳之道已畢於此，不過僅得些資本而已，而始有學拳之可能性，若動則即能松緊緊松勿過正，實虛虛實得中平，樞中訣要，則又非久經大敵，實作通家不易得也。然則須絕頂天資，過人氣度，尤須功力為純，方可逐漸不加思索，不煩擬意，不期然而然，莫知至而至，本能觸覺之活力也。具體及細微之點力，亦須切忌無的放矢之動作。然又非做到全體無的放矢而不可，否則難能得其妙。

試聲

試聲為輔助試力細微所不及，其效力在運用聲波鼓蕩全體之細胞工作，其原意不在威嚇，而聞之者則起猝然驚恐之感，實因其聲力併發，與徒作喊聲意在威嚇者不同，試聲口內之氣不得外吐，乃運用聲由內轉功夫，初試求有聲，漸從有聲而變無聲，蓋人之聲各異，惟試聲之聲，世人皆同。其聲如幽谷撞鐘之聲，似老輩云：試聲如黃鍾大呂之本，非筆墨毫端可以形容光煥發，須使學者觀其神，度其理，聞其聲，揣其意，然後以試其聲之情態，方能有得。

自衛

自衛即技擊之謂也。須知大動不如小動，小動不如不動，要知不動才是生生不已之動。比如機械之輪或兒童之撚轉兒，快到極外，似乎不動。如觀之以動，則是將不動，是無力之表現矣。所謂不動之動速於動，極速之動猶不動，一動一靜，互根為用。其運用之妙，多在於神經支配、意念領導與呼吸之彈力、樞紐之穩固、路線之轉移、重心之變化。以上諸法，若能用之得機適當，則技擊之基礎備矣。亦須在平日養成隨時隨地一舉手一抬足皆含有應機而發之準備，要在虛靈含蓄中意感無窮，方是貴也。然在學者于打法一道，難無足深究，亦似有需要必經之過程，如對方呆板緊滯，且時刻表現其重心路線部位之所在，則無足論。倘動作迅速身無定位而活若猿猴，更不必日各項力之具備者，就以其運動之速，則亦非一般所能應付，故平日對於打法亦應加以研究。習時首先鍛煉下腹，充實臀部有力穩頭、手、肩、肘、胯、膝、足，各打法。至於提打、鉤打、按打、掛打、鋸打、鑽打、搓打、拂打、疊打、錯打、裹打、踐打、截打、堵打、摧打、撥打、滾力打、支力打、滑打、粘力打、圈步打、引步打、進步打、退步打、順步打、橫步打、整步打、半步打、引步打、進步打、退步打、順步打、橫步打、整步打、半步打、斜面正打、正面斜打、具體之片面打、局部之整體打、上下卷打、左右領打、內外領打、前後旋打、力斷意不斷，意斷神又連，動靜已發未發之機和一切暗示打法，雖系局部，若非實地練習，亦不易得。然終是下乘功夫，如聰明智慧者則無須習此。

技擊樁法

技擊樁與基本樁，神形稍異，然仍依原則為本，步如八字形，亦名丁八步，又為半丁半八之弓箭步也。兩足重量前三後七，兩臂撐抱之力內七外三，何時發力，力始平均，平衡之後，仍須如槍炮之彈簧，伸縮不斷之意，兩手足應變之距離，長不過尺，短不逾寸，前後左右，互換無窮，操之愈熟，愈感其妙。至於鬆緊沉實之利用，柔靜驚彈之揣摩，路徑之遠近，間架之配備，發力之虛實，宇宙之力波以及利用時間之機會，然後逐漸研討，拳學之整個問題，在平時須假定虎豹當前，蓄勢對搏力爭生存之境況，此技擊入手之初不二法門，亦為最初之法則。茲再申述神、意、力三者之運用於後：

神意之運用：技擊之站樁，要在具體空靈均整、精神飽滿，神猶霧豹，意若靈犀，具有烈馬奔放，神尤嘶噬之勢。頭頂項豎，頂心按縮，周身鼓舞，四外牽連，足趾抓地，雙膝撐撥力向上提，足跟微起，有如巨風卷樹，思有拔地欲飛，擰攏橫搖之勢，而具體則有撐裹豎漲、毛髮如戟之力，上下樞紐曲折，百繞重線，自乘其抽撥之力，要與天地相爭，肩撐肘橫，裹卷回還，撥旋無已，上兜下附，推抱互為，永不失平衡均整之力。指端斜插，左右鉤擰，外翻內裹，有推動山嶽地球之感，筋肉含力，骨節生棱，具體收斂，要知思動含蓄吞吐，有橫滾推錯兜卷之力，毛髮森立，背豎腰直，小腹常圓，胸部微收，動則如怒虎搜山，山林欲崩之狀，全體若靈蛇驚變之態，亦猶似火燒身之急，更有蟄龍振電直飛之神氣，尤感筋肉激蕩，力如火藥手如彈，神機微動雀難飛，頗似有神助之勇焉。故凡遇之物，則神意一交，如網天羅，無物能逃，如雷霆之鼓舞，鱗甲雪霜之肅草木，且其發動之神速，更無物可以喻之是以餘此種神意運動，命名之曰“超速運動”。言其速成度之快，超出一切速度之上也，以上所言。多系抽象，而精神方面須切實為之，以免流入虛幻。

力之運用：神意之外，力之運用更為切要，且系良能之力，此非面力也。惟大部分須試力尚求之，習時須無由節段面積之偏倚而求力量之均整，繼由點力之均整，揣摩虛實之偏倚，複由偏倚之鬆緊以試發力之適當，更由適當之發力，利用神光離合之旋繞與波浪彈力之鋒棱，再以渾身毛髮有出尋問路之狀，而期一觸即發之功能。有時時準備技擊之要點，萬不可無的放矢，見虛不擊擊實處，要知實處正是虛，虛實轉移樞紐處，若非經歷，永不知混擊蟄打亦有益，須看對手他是誰，正面微轉即斜面，斜面迎擊正可推，勤習勿懈力搜求，靜謹意切靜揣思。

技擊在性命相搏一方面言之，則為決鬥，決鬥則無道義，更須抱定肯，忍、狠、謹、穩、准之六字決要，且與對方掐有同死決心，若擊之不中，自不能擊，動則便能致其死，方可擊之。其決心如此，自無不勝。此指勢均力敵而言，如技能稍遜，不妨讓出。若在同道相訪，較試身手方面言之，則為較量，較量為友誼研討性質，與決鬥不同，須首重道義，尤須觀察對方之能力何似，倘相去遠，則須完全讓之，使其畏威懷德為切要。較量之先，須以禮讓當先，言詞應和藹，舉動要有禮度，萬不可驕橫狂躁有傷和雅。夫今後武德可以漸複，古道可以長存，實我拳道無尚光榮，則余有厚望焉。

論拳套與方法

拳之深邃本無窮盡，縱學者穎悟絕世，更要具篤信力行之精神，終身習得，亦難究其極，而拳套與方法，所謂人造之拳架子是也。自滿清三百年來，為一般門外漢當差表演而用，即拳混子謀生之工具。果欲研拳者，則又何暇而習此？非但毫無用處，且於神經、肢體、腦力諸多妨礙，戕害具體一切良能，故習此者鮮有智識，而于應用尤不合適，且害處極多，筆難書罄，對於拳之使命，衛生原則相距太遠，則根本不談，對於較技，設不用方法拳套，而蠻幹混擊或不致敗，倘或用之，則必敗無疑。至謂五行生克之論，吾恐三尺孩童亦難盡信，夫誰信之？可詢之於決賽過者，自知吾言非謬也。見漢書洪範五行識，乃指政治、人民需要、開發金、木、水、火、土應用而言，後一般不學無識之輩，濫加採用，妄為偽造，致演為世之所謂五行生克之倫，此不過為江湖之流信口云云而已，豈學者可以讀此乎。蓋拳套一項，大都知系人偽造，然招勢方法又何嘗不是人所偽為？皆非拳之原則發揮本能之學也。縱有純篤功夫信傳之堅忍恒心毅力而為，然亦終歸是舍精華而就糟粕者也。要知拳學根本無法，亦可云無微不法，一有方法，精神便不一致，力亦不篤，動作散慢不果速，一切不能統一，更有背於良能。所謂法者，乃原理原則之法，非枝節片面之刻板方法，習枝節之法，猶之乎庸醫然也，所學者都是備妥方法藥方，以待患者，而患者須按方患病，否則無所施其技矣。凡以拳套方法而為拳，是不啻以蛇神牛鬼之說而亂大道，皆拳道之罪人也。歎今之學者，縱有精研之志，苦無可經之門，故餘不顧一切，誓必道破其非。夫拳套方法既屬毫無用途而且有害，何傳者習者尚不管人者，何也？概因此中人大都智識薄弱，故多好奇喜異，即告之以真，彼亦難悟，悟亦難行，蓋習之者鹹以拳套方法，籍以眩人而誇世，而傳之者更以拳套方法以欺人，但猶籍此以消磨時間而便於謀生，況根本不識拳為何物者？故相率以已誤遺誤，永無止境，誠可憐可哭亦可氣也。噫，豈僅拳之一道，吾感一切學術，大都亦是畸形發展，餘實不忍目睹同類走入迷途之浩劫而不救，故不惜本我多年的體認之經驗，所得所知，反復申論，以正其妄，而期喚醒同胞，勿複執迷不悟也。大凡天地間之高深學術，皆形簡而意繁，而形勢複雜者絕少精義，固不僅拳道然也。顧同志三思之。

論拳與器械之關係

古有云：“拳成兵器就，莫專習刀槍”。若能獲得拳中之真理，複對各項力之內能與節段面積之屈折，長短、斜正之虛實、三段九節之功用、路線高低之方向和接觸時間之火候，果能意領神會，則無論刀槍劍棍種種兵器稍加指點，俱無不精，即偶遇從無見聞之兵器，且執於使用該兵器專家之手，彼亦不敵，何則比如工程師比小爐匠、醫博士比護士、根本無比例之可似也。

論點穴

點穴之說世人者以為奇，有云點穴道者，有雲時間者，其種種分論不已，聞之令人生厭嘔吐，所論皆非也。蓋雙方較技，勢均力敵，不必曰固定之穴不易擊中，即不論何處擊中，很難如僅以其穴之可點，再加以時間之校對，則早已為對方擊破矣。總之若無拳術之根本能力，縱使其任意截點亦無所施其技，即幸而點中，亦無效果，若已得拳中之真實理力，則無論兩肋前胸之某一部位，一被擊中立能致死。非有意點穴，而所至之處則無不非穴，若僅學某處是穴、某時可點，其道不愈疏遠乎？

天賦與學術之別

世人常云，某甲身高八尺，力逾千斤，其勇不可擋。要知身長八飛，力逾千斤，只可謂得天獨厚，不得以代表拳學也。又云某一拳擊斷巨磨石，單掌劈碎八塊磚及前縱一丈，後躍八飛，果能如此，僅不過愚人局部功夫耳，則必將走入廢人途徑，此且不談，然都不得以拳道目之，以上所談，世為都以為特殊奇士，若與通家遇，則毫無能為，至論飛簷走壁，劍俠之說，此皆小說家夢想假造，只可付之一笑，如開石頭，過刀槍，乃江湖中所謂吃托之流，此下而又下不值一道。

解除神秘

每有天資歷低而學識淺者，其為人忠誠，然已承師教，且有深造，獨專絕大純篤之功夫，雖系局部，但多不及聽其言論之玄妙，觀其效用之功能，識別淺者，即以為人莫能此，便以為神秘視之，殊不知神秘之說，根本荒謬，概由智識薄弱鑒別力淺及體認未精而起，即或偶爾僥倖，得到拳道真義，奈無能領略而漠然放過，所以每以理趣深者，輒起一種神秘思想，若夫習之深，見廣聞多，有所遇，自然豁然洞悉，而不疑有他，凡事皆然，豈獨拳學哉？

知行解釋

學術一道，要在知而能行，行亦能知，否則終不免自欺欺人，妄語叢叢，言之多無邊際，知行二字，名雖簡易，實則繁難，世云有謂知難行易者，更有謂知雖難而行尤不易與知行合一及事之本無難易，以上所談，各具有理，然究屬籠統且多片面，不能使人徹底明瞭。餘以為凡對一門學問有然者，皆可云知難得易，如識鑒功深，知雖易而行亦難，若有識別而無功力，則可謂知易行難，倘無功力又乏智識，則知行二字兩不可能。學術本無心境，其有若干知或有若干行，行到如何地步，知到怎樣程度方為真知真行？則餘實不敢加論定，然應以能知者即能行，能行者亦能知，始可謂知行一致，非由真知永無真行之一日，亦非由真行弗兌有真知之時也。誠以相需而相成不二真理，學術皆然，武德尤甚。蓋因此道中須時刻兌現雙方相遇，無暇思考，更不容老生常談。夫學術一道，首要明理，更須切實用功，若不首先明理，不知用功切要之所在，易於走入岐途，功夫愈深殘害愈烈，不論讀書寫字任何藝術，往往在幼時多以為可造，豈知年長功深，名滿天下者，反而不堪造就矣，此比比皆是。蓋因師法不良，用功不細心，追求表面，人學亦學，人云亦云，所謂盲從者是也。若習而不果，愚昧亦永無體認之可言。茫然一生，毫無實際，且易起神秘思想，終不得望見門牆，由是而罄其所學，以致終無體認也，哀哉！須知巧者不過習者之門，文曰：子孫雖愚讀書不可免，亦要明理，更要實踐，表裏內外，互相佐之，否則終難入軌。

拳道喪失之原因

習拳之要有三原則：一健身，一自衛，一利群。利群為吾人之天職，亦其基本要項，然一切之一切，則須完全由於身心健康中得來，不健康絕無充足之精神，精神不足永無可歌可泣之事蹟，且不必曰殺身成仁、捨身取義，吾恐見人溺水或自縊亦得畏縮而不前也，況路見不平拔刀相助哉？不但此也，凡身上弱者，多氣量小且情緒惡，是容物怡情亦非身體健康不可也。健身為人生之本，習拳為健身之基，一切事業悉利賴之，其關係既如是之大，豈能任其以為亂真，欺天下萬世而不辯乎？按拳道之起初最簡，而後始趨繁雜，夫拳道為改善生理之工具，發揮良能之要訣，由簡入繁則似可也，由繁而簡，違背生理之原理原則，則不可。形意拳當初有三拳，且三拳為一動作，所謂踐、鑽、裹，若馬奔連環，一氣演為三種力之合一作用也，至五行十二形亦包括在內，蓋五行原為代名，五種力之名詞，如十二形乃謂十二種禽獸，各有特長，應博取之，非單獨有十二形及各種雜類之拳套也。八卦拳亦如是者，初只有單雙換掌，後因識淺者流未悉此中真義，竟忘為偽造至演有六十四掌及七十二腿等偽式，非徒無益而猶有害。太極拳流弊尤深，惟其害不烈于生理方面，尚不十分背謬，但一切姿勢亦毫不可取。如以該拳譜論，文字較雅，惜精義少而凡凡多，且大多有籠統之病，總之按近代所有拳術，根本談不上養生與技擊之當否，亦無一法能合乎生理要求者。余四十年足跡大江南北，所遇拳家有萬千，從無見有一式而能得其均衡者，況精奧乎？夫拳本形簡而意繁，且有終生習行而不能明其要義者，至達於至善之境地，則尤屬鳳毛麟角，又況于此道根本不足者。此非拳道之原理難明，實因一般人缺乏平易思想與堅強意志。降及今世，門戶疊出，招式方法多至不可名狀，詢其所以，曰博美觀以備表演耳。習拳若以悅人為目的，是何如舍習拳而演戲劇乎？且戲劇中尚有不少有本之處，較之一般拳家誠高一籌也。每聞今之習拳者，常與人曰能會若干套與幾多手而自鳴得意，殊不知識者早經竊笑於旁，更為之歎息不置也矣。然則拳道之喪失，豈非拳套方法為之，歷經三百年來相習既已成風，積重難返，下焉者推波逐瀾，致演為四象五行之說，九宮八卦之論，以及河海之學者，凡荒唐玄奇之詞，儘量採用而附會，使學者不明真象，感於鼓說而趨之若騖，原道之原理，焉得不曰就斯滅哉？此外尚有學得幾套刀槍劍棍，欲假此而謀生，幸而機遇巧合，其計獲售，而因謀生之不遂者，以為有機可乘，爭相效法，佈滿社會，此等行徑不惟拳道之真義背棄無餘，而尚義俠骨之風亦與相隨而俱廢然。其間不免有特達之士，能窺拳中奧蘊者，異又為積習成見所囿，不肯將所得精華徑以示人，豈知江洋之水何患人掏，是何因所見之不廣其小之若是耶？夫學術本為人類所共有，苟有所得，理應公諸社會，焉可以私付密，使人淹沒不彰乎？邇來更聞有依傍佛門，說神說鬼，妄言如何修道如何遇仙，其荒誕不經又如邪怪亂道之尤甚者，良可慨也。夫今為科學昌明之時代，竟敢做此野狐之謬說傳之人口，布諸報端，此種庸患昏憒之徒，真不知人間尚有羞恥之事。佛如有靈，不知對此流傳謬種之類作何感思歟？世間求各謀生之道，不只一端，何必利用社會弱點自欺欺人，興言及此不禁為拳道悲，更為世道人心歎也。

拳道之陵替，固因罪康、雍二帝，以其時倡之不以其道也。然亦歸咎乎同志智識不足，，根性不良以致為其所愚，迄今以誤傳誤，而於此道都莫能識辨，即或向有覺悟者，又因保守門戶之成見而是非人，逐愈趨而愈下也。拳之一道，學之得當有益身心，更可補助一切事業之不足；學之不當能使品德、神經、肢體、性情都致失常，且影響生命，因而誤及終身。謂餘不信，請看過去拳術名家，多因筋肉失和而罹癱瘓下萎者，比比皆是。習拳原為養生，反而戕生，結果殊可憐也。世人多呼拳道為國粹，如此國粹，豈非製造廢人之工具乎？民國十五年後，各地設有國術館，以示其他各術皆不配稱當一國字也。然則此丟人喪氣毫無價值之國術，亦僅我國可見，但未悉個中尚未有如此高明之奇士，能賜其偉大之命名。餘不知其大膽若輩又作何想也。至論提倡運動的大人先生們，終日振臂高呼為天下倡，豈知運動健將都是提前死亡之領導者。噫！何以盲從之若是耶？惟願世人靜裏慎思，須明辨之。人生最寶貴者莫過於身體，豈能任一般盲目之支配信意而摧殘乎？甚矣投師學技不可不慎也。餘之學拳只知有是非之分，不知有門戶之派別，為使拳術昌明，願將平生所得所知交代後任，更願社會群眾無不知之，故有來則教，向視人類為骨肉，從不喜有師徒之稱，以期逐漸掃除門派之觀念，則拳道或可光大乎？是所願也。

解除師徒制之商榷

師徒之制譽為美德，然往往極美滿之事，行之乎我國則流弊叢生，醜態百出，而拳界為尤甚焉。故社會多以為不齒學之者，意若不拜師不難得其密教之者，亦以不拜師不足以表現其親，更不肯授之以要訣，尤而效之，習為固然。噫！誠陋矣哉。姑不論膚淺者流，根本無技之可密，即或有之，則彼密勢必至過拳道真義密之于烏有之鄉矣。甚至門牆之內，亦自有其密而不傳者，餘實不解其故。此真下而極下者也。拳道之不彰，有故也夫。降至今日，異拳鼓說遍天下，變本加厲可勝歎哉！蓋拳道之真義，可云與人生大道同其凡常，亦可云，與天地精微同樣深奧，不明其道而習之，終身習道不能盡，又有何暇密之而乎？凡屬人類都應以民胞為懷，以饑溺目視，果如此而天下定，否則縱使世界人類死光，只餘你一家存在，可望自私之望以極，則又將如之何？吾恐人類之幸福永絕矣。國民積弱，事事多不如人，病亦在此也。而祝學術為千古人類所共有之物，根本不應有畛域之分，更不必曰一國之內，同族之中不當有異視，即於國界所限也，熙熙然皆生於光天化日之下，又何可密之有？其作用卑陋，真不值一文也。是以餘傳授拳學一事，從來來者不拒，凡屬同好，有來則教，教必盡力，有問則告，告必盡義。惶惶然惟恐人之不能得，或無以使人得也。故每於傳授之際，有聽而不悟，或悟而不見諸實行者，輒起憾然之恨。惟一見其知而能行，行而有提者，則又色然自喜，區區此心，一以慰人為慰，固未嘗以師自居也。蓋以人之相與，尚精神、重感情，不在形式之稱謂。果有真實學術授人，我雖不以師居，而獲其益者，誰不懷德附義而師事之，是師之名亡而實存也，又何損焉？若以異拳鼓說以欺世，縱令拜門稱弟，而明達者一但覺其亡，且將痛惡習之不置，此又何師之有？師名雖存而實亡矣。師徒之名份一定，而尊卑觀念以起徒對師說即覺有不當，常恐有犯師之尊嚴而不敢背，即背之，而師為自保尊嚴計，亦痛加駁斥而不自反，此尚有何學術道義之可言？師徒制之無補拳道，可概見矣。又何況門派之爭，常以師徒制之流行而益烈，入主出奴，紛紜擾攮，由師承而成門戶，由門戶而成派別，更由派別之分岐而至學理之龐雜，如此則拳道真義將永無昌明之一日矣，其患不亦更甚乎？且學之有得，始乃有師，若叩頭三千，呼師八百，而于學術根本懵然，是究不知其師之所在也。要知學術才是宇宙神聖，是有師尊，此吾所以力主師徒制之解除也。雖然此為餘個人之見，而師徒制在拳界積習已久，如一時不遽除，為慎重記，則亦須俟雙方學識品德互有真切認識而後行之，藉免盲從扡格之弊，似較為妥善也。

結論

習拳不盡在年限之遠近與功力之深淺和身體及年齡之高下，更不在方法之多寡，動作之快慢，輩份之高低。要在於學術原則原理通與不通。尤須在天賦之精神有無真實力量，再度其才志之何似。始定其造詣之深淺，將來成就至何境地也。習拳最貴明理和精神有力。換言之，即有無獸性之篤力也。果能如是之力篤，再加之以修養，鍛成神志清逸之大勇，自不難入法海，博得道要至通家而超神化之堂奧也矣。夫所謂通家者，不僅精於一門，而于諸般學術，聞其言便知其程度何似，是否正規，有無實際，觀其方法，一望而知其底蘊或具體局部，或具體而微，用何法補救，自能一語道破，所謂得其環中，以應無窮。夫為教授者，能語人以規矩，不能示人巧，更不得為人工，是在學者精心模仿，體會操存，然後觀察其功夫與精神合作之巧妙如何耳。以上所談為拳道，乃拳拳服膺謂所拳，亦即心領神會，體認操存之義，非世之所見一般為之拳也。

Source Colophon

Source text: article 1 of the HK Yiquan Society article archive, captured in articles_with_content.json on June 2, 2026, and live-verified against the public archive index the same day.

The source appendix includes only the article text. Photographs, book scans, manuscript images, and separate book-page editorial matter are not reproduced here.

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