《習拳一得》王薌齋（李見宇、孫聞青錄）
This article is part 4 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.
It is commonly said that only with a healthy body can there be great undertakings. The meaning is that when a person's body is healthy, life can be lengthened, and only afterward can one engage in every undertaking. Therefore health is very important. Whether one is healthy or not depends on whether ordinary cultivation and exercise are proper. That is, exercise must accord with hygiene. This must be studied in detail and tested in actual practice.
What, in the end, counts as normal exercise? Before practicing any kind of exercise, one should use medical methods to examine the capacity of the heart, the level of blood pressure, the number of pulse beats and breaths, and the counts of red and white blood cells. After practicing for a period of time, one should examine them again. Then one naturally knows whether the exercise is normal or not. What is called normal exercise means exercise that suits the natural development of the human body. Only exercise that accords with this law can increase human health.
Proper exercise can make the cells of the whole body and all kinds of organs produce a high level of metabolic function. It promotes breathing and blood circulation and strengthens the burning function within the body. In other words, it makes the inside of the body enter an active state. Therefore suitable exercise can give the cells a definite stimulus. For those in the growing period, it can promote growth and strengthen physical power. For those already grown, it can maintain their function, thereby preserving physical power and health. If exercise is improper, it will necessarily bring the opposite result. Exercise that is too intense or unsuitable not only injures health but may even damage the body; it becomes a cause that gives rise to disease.
In ordinary exercise today, before the muscles become tired, the heart has already entered acute cardiac dilation because of difficult breathing. One then has no choice but to stop the exercise so that the heart can rest, the difficulty of breathing can be reduced, and normal condition can be restored.
Chinese boxing study trains the body by a method completely opposite to this. This exercise is movement of sinews, muscles, qi, and blood; it may further be called the movement of concrete cells. In the exercise, the principle is to make all kinds of cells and organs throughout the body develop evenly at the same time. Even if during exercise the sinews and muscles of the whole body have already reached an unbearable state of fatigue, the beating of the heart is not made difficult. On the contrary, after exercise one can still feel the breathing lighter, easier, and more comfortable than before exercise.
It seeks the even development of the individual within the range of ability that the person's muscles and heart can bear, so that development and growth proceed gradually. It is not limited by age or sex, and it reaches the purpose of preserving health and strengthening physical power. Because it has no movements or techniques, the brain and nerves are not stimulated or made tense during exercise, and they can recover. This is another place where it differs from ordinary exercise.
Although the method of standing practice is only standing still without moving, in reality the inner muscle cells have already begun to work. It lies completely in seeking the development of the body's inner cells and the proper circulation of the blood, which is what is called the inside of the body entering an active state. It is not a search for outward change and shifting. Its purpose is to make the organs of the body develop evenly and to reduce the bad phenomena that follow an enlarged heart. You must know that in the exercise of boxing study, large movement is not as good as small movement; small movement is not as good as nonmovement; and the movement of nonmovement is the living and unceasing movement.
This exercise may be called a special learning unique to the Chinese people. But ordinary people have never paid attention to it, and it is not something ordinary people can easily understand by subjective ideas alone. If one subjectively thinks that a person stands in a very simple posture and does not move at all, so how could strength grow and how could the body be trained well, this is fundamentally a failure to recognize it. In reality, this very standing still not only can very quickly increase strength, it can also cure many chronic illnesses that medicine cannot cure. In therapeutic medicine and preventive medicine it has considerable value. It is an exercise method most suited to physiology.
As for ordinary exercise, some is too intense and harms the body; some is too one-sided and promotes local development. Therefore a person who already has physiological deficiencies might naturally recover in daily life if he did not practice exercise. But once he exercises, he may instead be harmed, causing the illness to deepen or even life to be shortened. One often sees famous athletes and young people with excellent athletic results falling behind in their academic courses. These are all abnormal phenomena produced by improper exercise. As for famous old hands in boxing arts of the past, there were also those who violated physiology, stamped the feet and exerted themselves, and in old age suffered paralysis and wasting of the lower body. All these things run against exercise physiology.
You must know that in studying learning, one should not prize rigidly keeping old rules, and one should especially avoid clinging to fragments and guarding deficiencies. What matters is experience and creation. But creation must be sought continuously according to principles and facts, and it must be practical, and then practical again. Good exercise will surely bring forth concrete intelligence, just as reading books increases knowledge and enables its use. The principle is no different. Therefore exercise, no matter what kind, must not be too intense.
If we analyze present exercise in more detail, it is all designed with young people as its object, while neglecting robust adults after forty and older people. In reality, only people after forty, with sufficient learning and rich experience, can undertake important tasks in the country and society. To neglect the proper exercise of these people is to neglect their health, and this is an enormous loss to the country. In terms of the principles of exercise, stillness, respect, emptiness, and urgency are the essential formulas for practicing movement. At the same time, one also needs a vast, deep, and simple spirit to cultivate it. During exercise, the breath is not allowed to be held; the beating of the heart is not allowed to lose its normal state; the diaphragm is not allowed to become even slightly tight. Only people with rich common sense can easily experience this. As for people after sixty, if they seek deep attainment in combat, it may not be easy. But if they seek health of body and mind, it truly is not difficult.
The purposes of studying exercise are generally not outside three things: first, seeking hygiene and bodily health; second, discussing self-defense; third, seeking principle and delight.
Seeking hygiene and bodily health is the easiest. One need only be comfortable, natural, light, relaxed, and without force, the whole body like sleeping while lying in water or air, and one has mostly succeeded. If one is artificial and intentionally does something else, one merely disturbs the nerves and wastes the days. If one then begins to work violently, one will eventually suffer harm and affect health and life.
When the result of exercise can make the body healthy and strong, the next step is to discuss self-defense. What is called self-defense is nothing more than hoping that, if one meets the unexpected and suffers invasion by an outside enemy, extending one fist or half a foot can press down the crowd. If practice reaches the realm of purity, familiarity, spirit, and transformation, it has further marvels that are inconceivable and hard for language to describe.
But self-defense and hygiene have an inseparable connected relationship. First the body must be healthy. Then body and hands must be nimble, force must surpass others, and methods must be clever. Only then can one act as one wishes. Yet if one wants to increase strength, one must not use strength. As soon as one uses strength, there is instead no hope of increasing strength. If one seeks nimble body and hands and swift movement, in training, nonmovement is best. If one feels bored, tasteless, troubled, or too tired to endure, there is no harm in moving slightly. But one must know that when moving there must be the intention of moving so that one cannot but stop, and stopping so that one cannot but move. That is, one is allowed only the cause of movement, not the result of movement. The meaning is that spirit and intention must be deep and urgent; one does not need to make it outwardly in form. Once it is made outwardly in form, it is as the saying goes: when there is form, force scatters; when there is no form, spirit gathers. If the body is broken, force scatters.
Therefore the slower the better. Only in this way can one gradually experience how the four limbs, hundred bones, and all kinds of cells are working, and not let the experience slide past indifferently. This is the simplest condition for learning movement. If one seeks beautiful speed in order to show nimbleness, not only will one obtain nothing, one will instead fundamentally wipe out hope.
As for clever methods to control enemies, even more, no method of any kind is allowed. If human-made methods are mixed in, then the inexhaustibly changing marvelous use of instinct is lost completely.
This exercise is extremely simple and easy; one can understand it at a glance, and its harvest is also very fast. But one must not use brain-force, must not use strength, and must not separately grind away some fixed amount of time. One must cultivate good habits of life. Only then can it be effective and beneficial to body and mind. If one wants to play tricks and display power, one will certainly end with no achievement.
This exercise is difficult precisely because it is simple. The more a person of highest intelligence studies it, the more he feels its difficulty. There are even those who practice for a lifetime, train bitterly all their lives, and still cannot distinguish right from wrong. You must know that in the universe the ordinary is the extraordinary. If one abandons the ordinary to study the extraordinary, it is no different from entering a forked road.
As for the principle and delight of this exercise, they are inexhaustible, with a thousand heads and ten thousand threads; there is no way to tell them all at one time. I will briefly raise one or two principles and sincerely welcome fellow lovers to study and discuss them together.
Movement and stillness, emptiness and solidity, fast and slow, loose and tight, advance and retreat, turning and side, vertical and horizontal, high and low, contending and gathering, strong release, drumming and stirring, opening and closing, extending and contracting, pressing and raising, lifting and sudden settling, swallowing and spitting, yin and yang, slanted and straight, long and short, large and small, hard and soft: all these are contradictions among contradictions, mutually interwoven as described above. When one reaches the roundness of the whole, one must turn back and study the first step again. All of this cannot be separated. If separated, one can never know the true meaning of this exercise.
In this exercise, looseness is tightness, and tightness is looseness. Moreover, looseness and tightness, tightness and looseness, must not pass the proper mark. Solidity is emptiness, and emptiness is solidity; solidity and emptiness, emptiness and solidity, must obtain central evenness. Horizontal and vertical, bracing and embracing, mutually root one another. Striking, guarding, drilling, and dodging are used at the same time.
The above is said for beginners who seek force. If one does not follow this norm to learn, one can train for a whole life and not know it. If one truly keeps this norm to learn, a whole lifetime of study will not exhaust it. As for testing force, moving force, issuing force, storing force, and all kinds of imagined and borrowed forces, formed and formless, these would be too many to speak of, so for now I do not discuss them fully. Unless one gradually searches, drills into them, studies deeply, and pursues them with strength, they are not easy to obtain. In fact, once one enters, one immediately feels that it is flat, ordinary, without strangeness, and very easy. This is because it is an exercise that is plain and near to people, setting up not one method while lacking no method, keeping empty numinous silence and answering the ten thousand things. If one can reason from this, before long one can understand other things by contact with it.
The path of boxing study does not mean that one fist and one foot are called boxing. Nor does striking three and carrying two mean boxing. Still less does one set after another mean boxing. Boxing means holding it earnestly in the heart.
In practicing boxing, the main thing is to value hygiene first. Self-defense is second. Practicing boxing can make many chronic-disease patients for whom medicine has no effect quickly recover health; it can make laborers work and age late; it can make those who have lost the capacity to labor recover labor. Only this is the value of boxing. This exercise may be called the rest of movement, and the movement of rest.
Self-defense is the changed appearance of combat. Studying combat is not, as society imagines, this hand being used this way and that hand being used that way. What is called combat is not that complicated, but neither is it as simple as imagined. First, it values cultivation. Then, according to body-and-mind training, testing force, and issuing force, one learns step by step; only then can one gradually discuss combat. Otherwise one may fear that right and wrong will never be distinguished.
Cultivation begins first from credos and from the four appearances and eight requirements. The credos are honoring elders, protecting the young, trustworthiness and righteousness, humaneness and love, wisdom and courage, depth and thickness, decisiveness, and endurance. The four appearances are head upright, eyes correct, spirit solemn, and voice quiet. The eight requirements are stillness, respect, emptiness, urgency, reverence, caution, intention, and harmony.
Only with the above solid foundation can one speak of training body and mind. Training first values standing methods. At the same time one studies control of joints, sinews, and muscles, and the use of looseness and tightness in single and double weighting. Single and double weighting do not refer only to the weight of the two hands and two feet. Head, hands, body, feet, shoulders, elbows, knees, hips, as well as the large and small joints, the four limbs and hundred bones, even subtle point-force, all contain distinctions of single and double, looseness and tightness, emptiness and solidity, lightness and heaviness. As for bracing three and embracing seven, front four and back six, turning upside down and using one another, these cannot be described by simple brush and ink. In short, most of this must go from abstraction to actuality. This is only to set out the table of contents.
Testing force: the names of force are very many, and they are hard to make concrete. Force is known by testing, and only from knowing can one obtain how it is to be used. No matter what force one practices, form must not break the body, intention must not have appearance, and force must not come out to a point. As soon as force has a direction, it comes out to a point. It is then exhaustible, local, and one-sided. Movement becomes dull and stiff, and the effectiveness of force is reduced. It also breaks, continues, scatters, and becomes disordered with no direction. In comparing skill, it becomes like oxen butting, moving toward the road of dead rigidity.
Testing force must be done from imagination. Imagination is formless; it is spiritual; it endures without break; it is everywhere wave-like. This learning of boxing study must all be obtained from hollow emptiness. When there is form, force scatters. When there is no form, spirit gathers. Spirit and intention must be full; one does not seek resemblance of bodily form.
Issuing force: to bring forth the effectiveness of this kind of force, one must have basic accomplishment. After one has all kinds of knowledge of mechanics, then one responds and joins with the force of the great atmosphere. Only when one can respond with the great atmosphere can one use the looseness and tightness of waves. You must know that issuing force does not put weight on whether one has struck out or not, or whether one has hit or not. It looks at whether the force started by one's own body has balance and even integration front and back, left and right, above and below; whether it has concrete spiral and interwoven force; whether it has force that is nowhere not wave-like; whether it is light, relaxed, accurate, and inertial force that is fast within slowness; whether it is force started by instinct, not expected and yet so, not known to arrive and yet arriving. Only when the above conditions are present is there hope of learning boxing. As for whether one can learn it, that is another matter.
Appended Sayings and Songs of Master Xiang
Recorded by Li Jianyu and Sun Wenqing.
Standing practice is both pleasant and sweet. It saves force, increases force, obtains force, and is comfortable. Continuing, let us speak a few words about combat. The most convenient posture is the soldier's "at ease." It must make inner and outer even integration and force one. From empty space seek the reality of powerful force. In the way of boxing, more than half is seeking actuality from abstraction. Inside and outside, whole muddled unity must regulate the breath. The nerves direct every force. The hairs stand upright and intention is like a spear. Use force lightly and easily, with contained intention like iron and stone. If high, raise the body; the sinews and muscles should be strong and gathered. If low, contract the body. The concrete body contains stepping, seizing, twisting, and wrapping while waiting for the occasion. The frame is properly prepared. Joint segments, bends, and surfaces store emptiness and solidity. Point-force has looseness and tightness, balance and leaning, formless change, vertical and horizontal, high and low. Experience the whole body with no gap to exploit, and all kinds of imagined and borrowed force. To speak of it fully is extremely difficult. To give one or two simple images: a flag in the air and a fish in waves are both good teachers to borrow as mirrors. Other sayings, such as movement like a mountain flying, stillness like the sea overflowing, and spirit like a numinous rhinoceros, are abstract in words, but spirit and intention must be practical. Thinking of it, it is truly boundless; doing it, one instead feels that it is easy. One need only leave a little intention everywhere. There is no especially strange or difficult matter. It is only related to intelligence, learning, individual temperament, and whether it is needed or not.
During exercise, slowly reflect. Arrange inside and outside properly. Change and turn, lightly shifting, without hurry. Throughout the body, sinews brace, bones raise edges, and release. The manner is like a scholar or a young woman, yet great enough to compare with Xiang Yu of Chu. With one scolding shout, wind and cloud resound through the heavens. The spirit is heroic, free, powerful, and strong. On meeting an enemy and touching, be like tiger and wolf. Raising the step, lightness and heaviness are like walking on a ravine ten thousand feet deep. On one side, drum; on one side, swing. In the whole body, there is no point that is not a spring. Teeth clasp, feet grasp, hairs are like golden spears, each root shining. Spirit-light separates, joins, and spirals around the body, like water with waves, circling without cease, vertical and horizontal in the broad waters, inexhaustible as heaven and earth, full like a great storehouse, leisurely, floating, comfortable, and smooth. Once there is tactile awareness, it immediately tightens and opens, like gunpowder exploding. Explosive force issues, but intention does not die. Formless mechanism and change are again deeply hidden in the dark. Be careful in dodging, extending, advancing, and retreating. Striking and guarding, front and side, do not yield even the slightest emptiness. If forces are equal, one must see what the opponent is like. It is like an eagle-hawk descending into a chicken yard; overturning rivers and seas, there is no need to hurry. The crimson phoenix facing the sun has a strong posture. Plucking, drilling, twisting, filing, cutting flying locusts; hook, cross, blade, and fork go up together. Legs and feet lift and contract like a mantis. Infer the direction of the enemy's force; observe the opportunity of incoming momentum; measure the short and long of one's own body. The posture is like a dragon-horse twisting a silk rein. Valley responds and mountain shakes as one collision begins.
When applying work, do not become anxious. One should find a suitable place, use the carbon-absorbing and oxygen-releasing of great trees and the germ-killing force of ultraviolet light, then stand with spirit gathered and qi quiet. The body should be upright. The two feet are separated level with the shoulders. All the joints of the body contain the intention of seeming bent but not straight. Inside is hollow; outside is clear and empty. The two hands should slowly and lightly rise, relaxed: no higher than the brows, no lower than the navel. The arms are half round; the armpits are half empty. The left hand does not come to the right of the nose; the right hand does not go to the left of the nose. Drawing inward, they do not stick to the body; pushing outward, they do not pass one foot. The changes of the two hands stay within the range. Do not calculate whether the posture is good or bad; still less value the complexity, simplicity, or order of postures. One must experience whether the whole body, inside and outside, obtains force or not. Keep to plainness and do not love strangeness. The extraordinary is all extremely plain. In studying learning, do not divide ancient and modern, Chinese and Western. This exercise may truly be counted rare, because most people in the world do not know it. It does not use the brain; it does not expend strength; it does not grind away good time. Walking, standing, sitting, and lying can all be practice. Within it are stored much refined gold and beautiful jade, and infinite spiritual thought. When one drills into it, natural delight is born. Who can experience this self-enjoyment that can direct the force of empty space and the universe? The pleasure of training is hard to compare. Floating and drifting, let it go as it will. Essence and force are full; spirit is not tired. Pay attention to the crown as if tied by a thread. The whole body is released and quiet; force is like mud. With wisdom-eye, silently examine the cell-system. Like mad, like crazed, like drunk, like dazed, storing numinosity alone, leisurely and mutually dependent; sea wide and sky empty, washing the ten thousand thoughts. Why care whether sun, moon, stars, and planets all shift? If only you are willing to stand with constancy, you will naturally have comfort you had not imagined. This is the secret formula that predecessors did not transmit.
Boxing is originally held earnestly in the heart: numinous, empty, released, and soaring. It is plain and near to people; principle and delight grow thick. Not one method is set up, and no method is excluded. Boxing originally has no method.
When there is method, it too is empty. Preserve principle and transform substance. Temper nature and spirit. Trustworthiness, righteousness, humaneness, and courage are all within it. Force follows nature. Be vigorous, healthy, modest, and reverent.
Exhale and inhale from the numinous source. Experience function. Be neither attached nor separate. Be courteous, yielding, modest, and reverent. Let force join with the universe. Bring forth innate capacity. Hold the ring and obtain the pivot.
Mechanism and change have no form. Gather sight and hearing inward. Train the nerves. In movement, be like an angry tiger. In stillness, be like a hibernating dragon. Spirit is like a misted leopard. Force is like a rhinoceros.
Store numinosity and guard silence. Response to feeling is inexhaustible.
The way of boxing is extremely subtle; do not see it as a small way. Breadth first values the martial; learning begins from here. In the present age much has been lost in transmission, absurd without limit.
The foundation of the way of boxing is held earnestly in the heart. There is no strength it does not gather. With urgent resolve, promote boxing study, wishing to restore its old beginning. Engrave in the heart and investigate principle and nature. Combat is only secondary.
If you wish to know the true marrow of boxing, it first begins from standing practice. Intention is in the space of suspension. Experience and learn testing force. The hundred bones brace in balance. Bending and folding have surface.
As if rising into clouds, breathing is quiet, long, and fine. Comfort is still more leisurely. The form seems mad and foolish. Cut off conditions and cast out mixed thoughts. Gather spirit and listen to fine rain.
The whole body is empty and numinous in intention. Not even a hair may stick to it. With form it is like flowing water; without form it is like the great atmosphere. Spirit is continuous and feels drunk. Leisurely, one rests in water.
Silently face the sky. Empty numinosity must settle intention. Make the body a great furnace and smelting vessel, melting things without counting them. The numinous mechanism changes from within. Regulate the breath and listen to quiet exhalation.
Guard stillness like a maiden; move like a hibernating dragon in mystery. Force is released; intention must be tight. The hairs have the posture of spears. The sinews and muscles are strong and want to release. Support-point force rolls like silk.
Spiral force is formless. The whole body is like springs. The joints are like machine-wheels. Reflect on force within intention. The sinews and muscles are like a startled snake. Stepping is like wind rolling up a mat.
Vertical and horizontal raise great waves, like a whale swimming with turning force. The force above the crown is empty and numinous. The body is as if hung by a rope. The two eyes gather spirit; inward hearing closes the outer ears.
The lower abdomen should always be round. The chest is slightly contained. The fingertips have force like penetrating electricity. The bone joints raise sharp edges. Spirit is lively beyond an ape's quickness. The foot treads like a cat's distance.
At one touch, it immediately explodes. Explosive force has no break or continuation. Students, do not love strangeness. Plainness gives birth to natural delight. The body moves like a mountain flying. Force swells like the sea overflowing.
Return to infancy and seek the sounds of nature. The body is soft like a child. Do not forget; do not help it grow. Climb the hall and gradually enter the inner room. If one speaks of answering enemies, the way of boxing treats it as a minor skill.
First, force must be even and integrated. The pivot must not lean. Movement and stillness mutually root. Spirit has many hidden signals. Routes tread the center of gravity. Looseness and tightness must not slip or stagnate.
In turning, be cautious, steady, and accurate. Hooking and crossing should be used together. Whether sharp or dull, wise or foolish, carefully examine the opponent's intention. Follow the bend and suddenly extend. Empty numinosity turns by itself.
Store force like a drawn bow. Touching the enemy is urgent like electricity. Eagle courage and tiger gaze have awe. The ankles are like crouching in mud. Hawk falling is like dragon hiding. The whole body is entirely contending force.
Store intention with daring, endurance, and ferocity. Courage must be great and the heart careful. Chopping, coiling, drilling, wrapping, and crossing: in contact, infer the opportunity. If practiced for a long time, it arrives naturally without being expected.
Change has form and no form. The whole body's intention is intended and unintended. Shouting and scolding run through wind and cloud, enclosing a small heaven and earth. If one compares traces and appearances, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Buddhism, and Daoism are similar.
The ancient prose of Ban and Sima, the calligraphy of Wang Youjun, Zhong, and Zhang, the paintings of Li Sixun and Wang Wei: their mystery is rather alike. How can attainment be like this? By skillfully nourishing my vast qi.
In short, all of it is abstract. Spirit must be practical.
Colophon
Translated directly from the Traditional Chinese text of 《習拳一得》王薌齋（李見宇、孫聞青錄）, 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: 《習拳一得》王薌齋（李見宇、孫聞青錄）
Source: HK Yiquan Society article 4
普通常說，有了健康的身體才有偉大的事業。意思就是人的身體健康，生命得以延長，而後才能從事情一切事業；所以健康是非常重要的。而健康與否在於平時修養和運動的得當不得當；也就是運動合于衛生。須要詳加研究，並經實際的考驗。究竟怎樣才算是正常的運動呢？應於練習某種運動以前，根據醫學的方法，檢查心臟的能力，血壓的高低，脈搏與呼吸的次數，赤白血球的數目。至練習一個時期以後再行檢查，自然就知道這種運動正常不正常。所謂正常的運動，是指適應人體的自然發展的運動，惟有適合這種規律的運動，才能增加人體的健康。
正當的運動，能使全身的細胞，及各種器官發生高度的新陳代謝的作用。促進呼吸血液迴圈，增強體內燃燒作用；換言之，就是使身體內部呈活動狀態。因此適當的運動可以給與細胞以一定的刺激，對在成長期者可以促進其成長，增強體力，對已經成長者可以使之維持其效能，因而保持了體力與健康，若運動不當，則必然招致相反的結果。運動過激或運動不適當，不但損傷健康，甚而戕害身體，也就是發生疾病的誘因。
現在一般的運動，筋肉疲勞以前，心臟已因呼吸困難而呈急性心臟擴張。遂不得不停止其運動，以使心臟得以休息，減低呼吸的困難，恢復正常狀態。
中國的拳學，是以完全與此相反的方法來鍛煉身體，這種運動是筋肉氣血的運動，更可說是具體細胞的運動，在運動中，使全身各種細胞器官同時平均發展爲原則，即使運動時全身之筋肉雖已呈疲勞不能忍受的狀態，而心臟的膊動並不困難，相反的在運動後尚能感覺到較運動以前的呼吸輕鬆舒暢。是以其個人的筋肉心臟所能負擔範圍以內的能力，來求其個體平均，漸次發展生長，不限年齡，不限性別，而達保持健康增強體力的目的，更因沒有任何招式，所以在運動時腦神經不受刺激、不緊張，使能得到恢復，也是與一般運動不同的地方。
站樁方法雖然只是站立不動，實則其內部筋肉細胞已在開始工作，完全在於求得身體內部細胞的發展與血液迴圈之適當，亦即所謂身體內部呈活動狀態，而非探求其外表之變動與轉移，以使身體各器官平均發展，減少心臟擴大後的不良現象。要知拳學的運動，是大動不如小動，小動不如不動，不動之動才是生生不已之動。
這種運動可以說是我中華民族所獨有的特殊學術，但從未被一般人所注意，同時也不是一般人所能只憑主觀而能簡單瞭解的，若主觀的認爲以很簡單的姿態式站住，一動也不動如何能長力，如何能練好身體，那是根本沒有認識。實則就是這樁站著不動，不但能很快的增長力量，而且能夠治好許多在醫學上治療不好的多種慢性疾病，在治療醫學與預防橋學上是具有相當有價值的，是一種最合于生理的運動方法。
至於一般的運動，有的失於激烈損害身體，有的失於偏頗而促成局部的發達，因此在生理上本有欠缺的人，不習運動尚可在日常生活中自然得其復原，一經運動反受戕害致使疾病加深，甚或生命夭折，每見著名運動家和運動成績優良的青年，而研究學術課程反多落後，這都是運動不當所發生各種不正常的現象，至於過去拳術名家老手，也有因違背生理而頓足努力老年癱瘓下萎者，凡此種種皆與運動生理相背馳。要知道研究學術不貴墨守成規，更忌抱殘守缺，重在體認與創造，但鬚根據原則與事實繼續不斷的求創造，然須切實再切實，所以良好的運動必能發揮其具體聰明，與讀書足以增長知識而能致用之理並無二致，所以運動無論如何不能過激，若再詳細分析現在的運動都是以青年人爲物件而設的，而忽略了四十歲以後的壯年人和老年人，實際上惟有四十以後的人學識充足經驗豐富，才能在國家社會中擔當重要的任務。忽略了這些人的正當運動，就是忽略了這些人的健康，對國家是極大的損失。以運動的原理來講，靜、敬、虛、切，是習運動的要決，同時還需要渾大深戇的精神來培植他，如運動時不許閉氣，心臟搏動不許失常，橫隔不許稍緊，都要常識豐富的人方易體驗，至於六十歲以後的人若求技擊深造似不太易，欲求身心的健康則實非難事。大c
學習運動大致不外三個目的：一、求衛生身體健康；二、講自衛；三、尋理趣。
求衛生使身體健康是最容易的。只要舒適、自然、輕鬆、無力、渾身像躺在水中或空氣中睡覺就大半成功。若矯柔造作蓄意別爲，則徒然擾亂神經消磨時日，再要激烈的搞起來，則終將受害而影響健康與生命。
運動的結果能使身體健強，進一步就要講自衛，所謂自衛不外是希冀倘遇不測受外敵侵害的時候，伸出一拳半足即可壓倒群流，若習作到純熟神化的境地，更有不可思議和語言難以形容之妙。
但是自衛與衛生有不可分離的聯帶關係，首先要身體健康，繼而身手敏捷，力量邁人，方法巧妙，才能適意而行，可是要想增長力量，卻不可用力，一用力反沒有增長力量的希望，要求身手敏捷，動作迅速，鍛煉時以不動爲最好，若是覺得枯燥無昧，或是煩累難支，也不妨稍事動作，可是要知道動時要有動乎不得不止，止乎不得不動之意，亦即只許有動之因，不許有動之果，意思就是精神意義要深切，不須要形式上作出來，形式上作出，就如所謂有形則力散，無形則神聚，破體而力散，所以愈慢愈好，這樣方可能逐步的體會到四肢百骸各種細胞工作如何，不致使體認漠然滑過，這是學動的最簡單的條件，倘若求速度的美觀，表示靈敏，不惟毫無所得，反而根本消來了希望。
他如方法巧妙以制敵，那更要任何方法不許有，要是有了人造的方法參雜其間，可就把萬變無窮的本能妙用丟淨了。
這種運動極簡易，可以一目了然，收穫也極快，不過須要不用腦力，不用氣力，不單獨消磨若何時間，養成生活的好習慣，方可奏效而有益於身心，若想耍花樣，示強威，必將終無所成。
這種運動難簡易，而有絕頂聰明的人愈學愈感覺其難，竟有終身習行苦心鍛煉一生是非不能辨者。要知道宇宙間平常才是非常，若舍平常而學非常就無異走入歧途。
至於這種運動的理趣是無窮的，千頭萬緒一時無從說起，願略舉一二原理竟竭誠歡迎同好者參研究討。
如動靜、虛實、快慢、鬆緊、進退、反側、縱橫、高低、爭斂、遒放、鼓蕩、開合、伸縮、抑揚、提頓、吞吐、陰陽、斜正、長短、大小、剛柔、種種都有是矛盾的矛盾，參互錯綜上所述而爲的，作到元融的元，還要反回頭來學初步，這一切一切是不能分開的，要分開可就永遠不能認識這種運動的真諦。
在這種運動中松即是緊，緊即是松，並且要松緊緊松勿過正，實即是虛即是實，要實虛虛實得中平，橫豎撐抱互爲根，打顧鑽閃同時用。
以上是爲初學求力的人所說的，若不依照這種規範來學習，終身鍛煉不能識，果守這種規範來學習，一生學之不能盡。至於試力、運力、發力、蓄力、以及有形無形之種種假借的力量，言之太繁，姑不具論，若非逐漸的搜求、鑽研、深造、力追未易有得，其實一經入手便感平地凡無奇，非常容易，因爲這是一種平易近人，一法不立無法不備，虛靈守默而應萬物的運動，若能以此相推，不日就可以觸類旁通。
拳學一道不是一拳一腳謂之拳，也不是打三攜兩謂之拳，更不是一套一套謂之拳，乃是拳拳服膺謂之拳。
習拳主要的是首重衛生，其次是自衛，習拳能使醫藥無效的多種慢性疾病患者很快的都能恢復健康，使勞動者勞而晚衰，使失去勞動力者能夠恢復勞動，這樣才是拳的價值，這種運動可以說是運動的休息，休息的運動。
自衛是技擊的變象，學技擊並不是社會人士所想像的這手這麽用，那手怎麽使的，所謂技擊既不是那樣的複雜，但也不是所想像的如此簡單，而是首重修養，再按身心鍛煉，試力及發力，循步驟學習才可以逐漸的進行討論技擊，否則恐終是非莫辨，蓋修養是先由信條及四容八要方面作起。信條是尊長、護幼、信義、仁愛、智勇、深厚、果決、堅忍。四容是頭直、目正、神莊、聲靜。八要是靜、敬、虛、切、恭、慎、意、和，有了以上沈實的基礎，才能說到身心的鍛煉，鍛煉首重樁法，同時研討關節和筋肉的控制，及利用單雙重的鬆緊，單雙重不是專指兩手兩足的重量而言，頭、手、身、足、肩、肘、膝、胯、，以及大小關節，四體百骸，即些微的點力，都含有單雙、鬆緊、虛實、輕重之別，至於撐三抱七，前四後六，顛倒互相爲用，則不是簡單筆墨所能形容，總之，大都要由抽象作到實際，這不過是僅述其目錄而已。
試力。力之名稱甚繁，難能具體，蓋力由試而得知，更由知而始能得其所以用，無論作何力的練習，也得要形不破體，意不有象，力不出尖，只要力一有了方向，就是出尖，也是有窮的，局部、片面的，動作便呆板而減低力量的效能，並且斷續散亂茫無所從，較技如牛鬥，而趨於死僵之途，試力要從假想去作，假想是無形的，是精神的，是永存不斷的，也是無往而不浪的。拳學這種學術，都是要由空洞中得來，有形則力散，無形則神聚，精神意思要實足，而不求形體相似。
發力。要發動這種力量的功效，須有基本的造就，有了各種力學的知識，然後與大氣的力量起應合。能與大氣起呼應，才能利用波浪的鬆緊，要知發力不是注重擊出沒有擊出、擊中未擊中，是要看自已本身發動的力量，是不是有了前後、左右、上下的平衡均整，具體螺旋的綜錯力量，和無往不浪的力量，是不是輕鬆，準確，慢中快的惰性力量，是不是本能發動的，不期然而然，莫知至而至的力量。有了以上的條件，始有學拳的希望，至於能學與否，則又當別論。
附薌師語錄並歌要（李見宇、孫聞青錄）
一
站樁時既愉快，又甜蜜，省力增力得力而舒適，繼續再把技擊談幾句，最便利，就是軍士操的稍息，要在內外均整力合一，由虛空尋有力之真實，拳之道要，一大半在抽象求實際，內外渾噩要調息，神經支配一切力，毛髮直豎意如戟，用力輕鬆，含意如鐵石，高則揚其身，筋肉宜遒斂，低則縮其身，具體含著踐捉擰裹待遇時機，間架配備合適，節段曲折面積存虛實，點力鬆緊，均衡與偏倚，無形變化，縱橫高低，體察周身無乘隙，以及假借種切力，言之繁難已極。略舉一二單簡勢，空中旗，浪中魚，都是借鏡之良師。他如動似山飛，靜如海溢，神猶若靈犀。語雖抽象，神意要切實，想來真是無邊際，作起來反覺很容易，只要處處留點意，並沒甚麽奇難事，不過聰明學識有關係，和個性之距離，與所需不所需。
二
運動時，慢思量，內外安排妥當，變轉輕移不慌忙。遍體筋撐骨棱尖而放，態似書生若女郎，偉大猶比楚項王，一聲叱吒風雲響徹雲霄，神情豪放雄且壯，遇敵接觸似虎狼，舉步輕重，如履溝壑深千丈。一面鼓，一面蕩，周身無點不彈簧，齒扣足抓毛髮似金槍，根根無不放光芒，神光離合旋繞在身旁，譬水之有波浪，徊旋不已，縱橫在汪泮，無窮如天地，充實似太倉，悠悠揚揚舒且暢，一經觸覺，立時緊即張，如同火藥爆發狀，炸力發出意不亡，無形機變卻又深深暗中藏，閃展進退謹提防，打顧正側，絲毫不虛讓，勢均力敵須看對手方，猶如鷹鶻下雞場，翻江倒海不須忙，丹鳳朝陽勢占強，撥鑽擰挫斷飛蝗，勾錯刀叉同互上，腿足提縮似螳螂，揣敵力量有方向，察來勢之機會，度已身之短長，勢如龍駒扭絲繮，谷應山搖一起撞。
三
用工時，莫發急，應找個適宜的場地，利用大樹的吸炭呼氧，和紫外線的殺菌力，再凝神靜氣的站立，身軀宜直，兩足分開與肩齊，混身關節都含著似曲非直意，內空洞外清虛，兩手要慢慢的輕鬆提起，高不過眉，低不過臍，臂半圓腋半虛，左手不往鼻右來，右手不向鼻左去，往懷抱不粘身，向外推不逾尺，雙手變化在範圍裏，不計好壞之姿勢，更不重勢之繁簡與秩序，須體察全身內外得力不得力，守平庸，莫好奇，非常都是極平易，研學術從不分今古和中西，這種運動也算真稀奇，因爲世人多不知，不用腦，不費力，並不消磨好時日，行站坐臥都可練習，這裏邊蘊藏著許多精金美玉，和無限的神思鑽研起來生天趣，有誰能體會到這自娛能支配虛空宇宙力，鍛煉的愉快難比喻，飄飄蕩蕩隨他去，精力充滿神不疲，注意頂心如線系，遍體松靜力如泥，慧眼默察細胞系，如瘋如顛如醉如迷，蓄靈獨存悠揚相依，海闊天空滌萬慮，那管它日月星球都轉移，只要你肯恒心去站立，自有你想不到的舒適，這就是前輩不傳的決秘。
四
拳本服膺 靈空松騰 平易近人 理趣叢生 一法不立 無法不容 拳本無法
有法也空 存理變質 陶冶性靈 信義仁勇 悉在其中 力任自然 矯健謙恭
吐納靈源 體會功能 不即不離 禮讓謙恭 力合宇宙 發揮良能 持環得樞
機變無形 收視聽內 鍛煉神經 動如怒虎 靜似蟄龍 神猶霧豹 力若犀牛
蓄靈守默 應感無窮
五
拳道極微細 勿以小道視 開闊首重武 學術始於此 當代多失傳 荒唐無邊際
拳道基服膺 無長不彙集 切志倡拳學 欲複故元始 銘心究理性 技擊乃其次
要知拳真髓 首由站樁起 意在懸空間 體認學試力 百骸撐均衡 曲折有面積
彷拂起雲端 呼吸靜長細 舒適更悠揚 形象若瘋癡 絕緣摒雜念 斂神聽微雨
滿身空靈意 不容粘毫羽 有形似流水 無形如大氣 神綿覺如醉 悠然水中宿
默默向天空 虛靈須定意 洪爐大冶身 陶溶物不計 靈機自內變 調息聽靜噓
守靜如處女 動似蟄龍迷 力松意須緊 毛髮勢如戟 筋肉遒欲放 支點力滾絲
螺旋力無形 遍體彈簧似 關節若機輪 揣摩意中力 筋肉似驚蛇 履步風卷席
縱橫起巨波 若鯨遊旋勢 頂上力空靈 身如繩吊系 兩目神凝斂 聽內耳外閉
小腹應常圓 胸間微含蓄 指端力透電 骨節鋒棱起 神活逾猿捷 足踏貓距似
一觸即爆發 炸力無斷續 學者莫好奇 平易生天趣 身動似山飛 力漲如海溢
返嬰尋天籟 軀柔似童孺 勿忘勿助長 升堂漸入室 如或論應敵 拳道微末技
首先力均整 樞紐不偏倚 動靜互爲根 精神多暗示 路線踏重心 鬆緊不滑滯
旋轉謹穩准 鈎錯互用宜 利鈍智或愚 切審對方意 隨曲忽就伸 虛靈自轉移
蓄力如弓江 著敵似電急 鷹膽虎視威 足腕如蹙泥 鶻落似龍潛 渾身盡爭力
蓄意肯忍狠 膽大心要細 劈纏鑽裹橫 接觸揣時機 習之若恒久 不期自然至
變化形無形 周身意無意 叱吒走風雲 包羅小天地 若從迹象比 老莊與佛釋
班馬古文章 右軍鍾張字 大李王維畫 玄妙頗相似 造詣何能爾 善養吾浩氣
總之盡抽象 精神須切實
Source Colophon
Source text: article 4 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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