《闌珊集》 韓嗣煌
This article is part 13 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.
Han Sihuang
Outline Of Standing Methods
Training that seeks boxing strength within a relatively still state is called standing practice. It is no longer easy to investigate in what era this name was first proposed. According to professional martial artists, the meaning of "standing" or "post" refers to the two legs from the knees downward seeming like wooden posts buried in the earth. This sensory image is quite worth savoring.
The appearance of standing practice as a method of boxing training is one important sign of our country's boxing level passing from a lower stage to a higher stage. In the past, boxing training always could not leave techniques. Even now some people misunderstand boxing arts as only techniques and routines. In reality, after standing-method training appeared, the path by which practitioners sought boxing strength became more direct, and the boxing world gained a deeper understanding of the goal of boxing arts and their training methods. Thus practitioners could, in a comparatively short time, obtain force effects that other training methods cannot replace, and coordinate them with other training to form a comprehensive training system.
"Relative stillness" means that during standing practice no part of the body makes large-range movement. Its opposite is testing force. During testing force, each part of the body and the foot positions constantly change position. From this one can see that standing practice chiefly seeks coordination of force in a certain posture, while testing force seeks the unity of force coordination and movement coordination. Therefore, if standing practice is taken as the foundation, testing force is its development. The two have a definite difference in essence.
I will now briefly explain several questions in standing practice.
First, the fundamental meaning of standing practice lies in establishing the nervous system's command over all the body's muscles. Because I have not specially studied physiological materials, my wording may be inappropriate. It is therefore both nerve training and muscle training. Thus it can serve boxing combat and also has obvious effects in strengthening the body and treating illness. There are many examples that can be consulted. But because there is still no large-scale coordinated medical research, we can only see the effects and lack deep study of the mechanism. Present explanations of standing practice's health effects are basically hypotheses inferred from practical results. As basic training for combat, standing practice most easily obtains boxing strength. The meaning of boxing strength has been discussed in a special essay and will not be expanded here.
Second, through long practice, our country's earlier boxing artists recognized that to reach the aim of nerves commanding muscles and to obtain the special force of the boxing field - boxing strength - one must borrow intentional activity. The proposal of intentional activity caused a large leap in Chinese boxing training method and formed a clear dividing line between boxing arts and gymnastics.
At different training stages, in order to obtain different training effects, intentional activity also differs. Generally speaking, in the beginning stage of boxing training the main goal is to obtain extension and opening of all body parts. Therefore intentional activity is established around this purpose.
In this stage, imagining the body floating in water can be considered the first intentional activity. Through this analogy, the bones extend while the muscles do not contract tightly. There are also various other sayings, such as imagining the comfortable state of showering. They all aim at extension. Usually within this range, health effects can be obtained and no further demand is needed. At the same time as the body extends, breathing must be smooth and natural, and the mind calm.
Some people say that in standing practice one should not think of anything. This is fundamentally incorrect. It not only denies intentional activity but is physiologically impossible.
A further intentional activity is imagining the limbs drifting apart and the hair extending. Under the guidance of this intentional activity, not only are the ligaments of every joint strengthened through training, but the training range expands to the skin. It should be pointed out that skin training is a distinctive link in our country's boxing training. Historically, the boxing world has passed down the phrase "inside train one mouthful of qi; outside train sinews, bones, and skin." Therefore many people misunderstand standing practice as qigong. In truth, when boxing arts speak of qi, they begin from even, smooth breathing and then train the coordination of breathing with looseness and tightness. This is also reflected in other sports. Especially in movements requiring explosive force, at the instant of issuing force, close coordination with breathing is impossible to avoid.
Does this mean boxing training has nothing to do with muscles? Actually not. When we do any kind of training, whether moving or not moving, muscles receive natural training. The phrase "outside train sinews, bones, and skin" is meant to warn trainees not to use force blindly and thereby make the muscles rigid.
Advanced intentional activity is always inseparable from contradiction training. Contradiction training generally goes from one's own body to outside the body, from local parts to the whole. Thus as the contradiction-training process changes, intentional activity naturally differs. For example, the preliminary training "embracing a ball" makes hands, arms, shoulders, and back form a unified relation; it can be regarded as training of one's own body and local parts. The further borrowing image, "embracing a tree," can be seen as expansion from one's own body to outside the body and from local parts to the whole. Further on, one must imagine the opposed aspects of looseness and tightness forming a contradiction outside the body. It must be emphasized that when one enters the stage of training contradictions outside the body, whole-body contradiction is necessarily required; otherwise deviations will appear.
Because contradiction training cannot be divided absolutely between one's own body and outside the body, sometimes a certain degree of outside-body intention is introduced early. This is also permissible and effective. For example, while the body has a feeling of floating, imagine swaying with waves outside the body. This intentional activity is in fact part of training outside-body contradiction and whole-body contradiction.
From the links of standing practice, the cultivation of elastic force is usually imagined as "stepping on a rope." This inherited phrase actually has a certain deviation, because in reality what can be stepped on is not a rope but a spring of very great stiffness. The felt strength of the spring cannot be increased at will merely by the practitioner's imagination. To a certain degree it reflects the strength or weakness of the practitioner's skill. More specifically, it depends on the weight of the ball embraced in the practitioner's first stage. Mr. Wang Xiangzhai once said: "First embrace a paper ball, then a wooden ball, later an iron ball." This precisely explains that the feeling of contradiction increases in the practitioner. Under a correct training path, feeling and changes of feeling are the thermometer of training degree and are objectively present. Unfortunately, many practitioners, anxious to increase skill, put falseness into this feeling and fantasize about replacing increase in contradiction strength with using force. Without doubt this is an error of direction, what Mr. Wang repeatedly criticized as "pulling seedlings to help them grow." The consequence is not only that boxing strength does not improve; one may even enter a deviant path. This consequence appears in different people at different stages.
Liveliness and power are two major contents sought by boxing training. Liveliness means the ability to keenly perceive changes in the opponent's force and constantly adjust oneself to fit the needs of battle. Therefore the liveliness spoken of in boxing arts has a basis; it is not change for the sake of change. To reach this purpose, boxing arts have trainings such as "embracing a feather ball" and "bird hard to fly." The former emphasizes keen bodily observation, requiring connection through feather tips and the ball itself. The latter emphasizes rapid adjustment of one's whole-body force state through intentional guidance.
Third, standing-method training necessarily has stages and therefore necessarily has regularity. Yet standing methods themselves are inexhaustible and are one of the basic skills that a person engaged in boxing training must persist in for life. Stages means that each period differs in training purpose and felt experience. Generally, early training mainly seeks extension and opening, followed by establishing preliminary and even local connection through one's own contradiction training. Own-body contradiction training and outside-body contradiction training usually overlap and cannot have an extremely clear boundary. Later training takes outside-body contradiction as primary and gradually fuses training in elastic response. It should be clearly pointed out that boxing arts are a strongly practical sports science. Different periods should have different practice. In advanced stages of boxing training, one usually must raise questions from one's own direct practice and then use basic-skill training to solve them. Secondarily, one observes others' practice, analyzes existing problems, finds points worth learning, or raises problems for oneself from others' failures.
Generally speaking, the stages of standing practice are actually divided according to the training emphases of connection, contradiction, and elasticity. Of course there is no absolute boundary among the three, but in a certain stage the main training goal is clear, and this forms the difference between stages. In a given stage, posture, intentional-activity content, and the practitioner's feelings all differ. Apart from this, for a particular practitioner, special training methods may be added in a given stage to break through some force obstacle; that is a separate matter. For simplicity, I propose the following rough distinctions for enthusiasts' reference.
When connection is the main training goal, obtaining extension of all body parts is primary. This stage should take health-preservation standing as primary, with intentional activity mainly of the body floating. At the same time, coordinate simple testing force such as the two hands swinging in water, friction steps, and all movements that experience water resistance. I will add that experiencing water resistance is extremely important training. This feeling should gradually expand from a local part, usually the hands, to the whole body. Other kinds of feeling will differ with the degree of standing practice and are not expanded here. Movements at this stage must emphasize lightness, slowness, and evenness. At the same time breathing must be smooth and even, preventing heart and lungs from bearing too heavy a burden.
The following training should take own-body and local contradictions as primary and extend toward whole-body contradiction. Concretely, this means "embracing a ball" and "embracing a tree." In this stage the intentional requirement should take the object being embraced as the main basis for adjusting every limb part. When embracing the ball, the embrace must be clear and the feeling distinct. The ball embraced has differences of quality at different training periods: paper ball has paper-ball feeling, wooden ball has wooden-ball feeling, and so on. This difference of quality is borrowing in training. Of course it is different from embracing a real wooden ball. The function of borrowing is simply to establish contradiction through it. I think one should at least form the preliminary feeling of a wooden ball before advancing to embracing a tree. Many years of examples prove that most people who are anxious for success and skip grades leave aftereffects of different degrees; making up the lesson later is very difficult.
One point in particular: in both of the above stages, under suitable conditions, one should seek spirit opening and reaching far. This not only lays the foundation for further outside-body contradiction; without broadness of spirit, it is also impossible to obtain an active extension effect. Testing force in this stage mainly uses "shaking the oar wheel" or "dragonfly touches water." When conditions mature, one may lightly push and pull the ball or tree one embraces, striving for preliminary unity of force and movement.
After the solid feeling of embracing a tree appears, standing-method training must transition toward combat standing. Combat standing differs from health-preservation standing not only in bends and folds but also in staged training content. First, this stage should take whole-body contradiction as primary. Second, it should take outside-body contradiction as primary, meaning the imagined contradictory object exists outside the body. Third, it must reflect changes in the primary aspect of the contradiction. Fourth, as the secret essential of Chinese martial arts training, this stage must establish a feeling of attraction in the palm centers, sole centers, and even the crown center. What coordinates with this stage are typical testing-force movements.
In the later part of this stage, I think practitioners should invest a certain amount of training in Subduing-Dragon Standing, Large-Step Standing, and Ziwu Standing. It appears defective to lack this training. From the special needs of intensity, waist, and legs, these standing methods are very necessary. At this stage testing force should take Divine Turtle Comes Out of the Water as primary, coordinated with walking various paths.
Training in elasticity and billowing is the advanced stage of boxing training. Although this stage mostly takes combat standing as primary, in practice its postures are varied and mainly shift according to the trainee's concrete needs. Those who can usually enter this stage mostly already have a considerable understanding of the boxing whole. They absolutely cannot be like primary-school students writing by copying a model character stroke by stroke. Most practitioners who have reached a certain stage need to solve comprehensive problems. Systemically, one should reach upper and lower connection, left and right, vertical and horizontal, fusing basic training with issuing force and practicing boxing into one body. This stage is the maturity stage of a boxing artist. He must deeply investigate the strategy and tactics of boxing arts, earnestly summarize previous boxing practice, combine it with his own actual condition, work hard to study boxing theory, independently discover defects, raise questions, and formulate training methods.
Whether one can at this stage grasp boxing laws in large principles, not merely discuss things case by case, but combine theory and practice and propose one's own views, determines the lifelong level of a boxing trainee. Learning is endless, recognition is endless, and the questions raised in practice are even more endless. According to my guess, the style, level, and cultivation of earlier boxing artists were mostly concentrated and expressed in this stage.
Boxing training is a deep science. Although this is only a rough discussion of standing practice, it cannot avoid connection with the whole of boxing arts. It is also very difficult to explain an important problem in a few words. The defects here are truly many. I can only contribute these foolish views in a small way to the modernization and scientification of boxing training.
On Boxing Strength
Every sport has common requirements for athletes, such as speed, powerful movement, endurance, coordinated movement, and lively response. Each sport also has its special requirements; this goes without saying.
At first glance, it seems that every sport has different skills that are hard to master without special training. In reality, a deeper problem is hidden here. Because different sports have different purposes, they have both their own special qualities and commonalities in force. This essay discusses only the force side of boxing arts.
From physiological common knowledge, human force comes from muscle contraction. Roughly compared, the person is like a crane: bones are the steel frame, muscles and tendons like ropes. When we relax one system of ropes and tighten another, limb movement is formed. The looseness and tightness of the muscle and tendon systems are wholly governed by human nerves, and nervous control over the muscular system is related to people's life and productive labor. When we constantly repeat a certain movement in daily life, nerve direction becomes relatively sensitive and accurate; otherwise it is relatively slow and disordered. Therefore when people do unfamiliar movements, they feel it takes much effort while the effect is small. Some well-muscled youths working in the countryside have less endurance than old farmers with less developed muscles. This is partly a matter of labor skill and training, but it reflects the contradiction of uncoordinated looseness and tightness.
Boxing arts were in ancient times a means of battle. Their ordinary movements do not often appear in daily life and labor, or do not appear at all. Therefore people without training often feel they cannot use their strength, or feel they use great strength with little effect. The reason lies here. Of course we cannot deny physical strength. Under the same degree of training, the physically stronger person is obviously in an advantageous position. Yet fighting movements change in an instant and require highly sensitive changes of force, that is, changes of looseness and tightness. Thus the physiological advantage of physical strength is relatively weakened.
Under certain conditions, a person with stronger physical strength but no training often appears weaker in fighting power than someone with poorer physical strength but some training. Anyone who has had a little boxing training can experience this, and it is common in the boxing world. Therefore boxing arts, from historical practice, proposed the special force they need, technically called boxing strength.
The unique substance of boxing training is training boxing strength. Otherwise its postures and movements would be exactly the same as gymnastics and dance. As for skill, it certainly has a considerable place, but after all it can only fully express its proper function on the foundation of boxing strength. This is common knowledge in the boxing world and will not be expanded here.
Based on the above, we must raise the following questions. Why can people without training not fully bring their strength into play? What is the force required by boxing arts - boxing strength - and where do its characteristics lie?
First let us analyze the first question. Modern science tells us that to study anything one must grasp the contradictions inherent in that thing. From the earlier analogy, when we move a limb, we must relax one muscle system and tense another. This is even more so in using force. If the muscle system is completely relaxed, of course there is no force. But if contradictory systems tense at the same time, although one's own muscles are contracted, the two systems interfere with and cancel each other, so outwardly they show no effect or only weak effect. Some people feel they use great force but have little result; this is the principle.
For familiar daily movements, because nerve direction is skilled and accurate, contradictory systems basically do not interfere or interfere little, so physical strength can be expressed. Once one is in unfamiliar posture or movement, whenever force is used, nerve direction is inaccurate or confused, and contradictory systems always tense at the same time. Most physical strength is then canceled by internal opposing contradictions and cannot be expressed. Especially in instant use of force, objectively there is not enough time to gradually adjust all parts of the body, so the inaccuracy of nerve direction is even more prominent.
In summary, whenever force is used, muscles, tendons, and other parts of the body need reasonable coordination of looseness and tightness. Failure to reach this causes interference and can even completely cancel one's own force. Therefore earlier Chinese boxing artists summarized boxing strength as "loose and tight, tight and loose, do not pass beyond correctness," and even considered the problem of boxing arts to be the problem of looseness and tightness. The root reason lies here.
From this, looseness and tightness are a common problem of the state of using force, and so must be a common problem of all sports. What, then, are the special characteristics of boxing strength?
To analyze them, first understand the source of striking force. The Chinese boxing world has a famous saying: "All news depends on the rear foot kicking." This is an extremely important aspect of striking force. It means using the reaction force of ground friction. For example, when we push a heavy object with the hands, we must rely on the legs kicking backward. In tug-of-war one needs the legs' forward kicking force. These are obvious examples. Boxing movements also often use inertial force produced by body weight when the body swings, and the source of swinging is mostly using the ground reaction force to make one's body move. Therefore although inertial force differs from pushing and pulling force, they all come from the same place.
The boxing world also has the saying "force issues from the spine." Its meaning is more hidden. In practice it requires using the elastic force of trunk and limbs, though this is not its entire meaning. Some volleyball players jump into the air and only then send out the ball-striking movement; what they chiefly use is the elastic force of trunk and limbs.
When we use ground reaction force, force must go from the foot through ankle, knee, hip, waist, shoulder, elbow, and wrist to reach the hand and be transmitted out through the hand. In this process, if one joint cannot perform its proper function, transmitted force is weakened or destroyed. Sometimes the foot's kicking movement cannot even be formed. An athlete's start in a race seems to be a simple kick, yet someone without training fundamentally cannot make a reasonable instant kick. Is this not an obvious example in ordinary sport? How much more with a striking action, which requires kicking force to pass through many links and transmit out from the hand. The requirement for nerve direction is necessarily broader and more complex. People without boxing training usually have reasonable nervous direction only in movements they can do in daily labor, and physical strength is basically expressed only there. In a person trained in boxing, nervous direction is reasonable, and all the links from foot to hand can basically perform their proper function. This state is called connection. Connection is one basic characteristic of boxing strength.
Besides connection, elastic force is another characteristic of boxing strength. Chinese boxing artists say: "No point is not a spring." This tells us that besides the strong support force when limbs expand - the reasonable coordination of one's own shoulder frame - the whole body's elastic response is very important. It must be sought in standing practice through the transformations tight-loose and loose-tight, and when the amount of force reaches a degree it can form elastic response. Add to this the shift of center of gravity, inertial force produced, and borrowed force. From the boxing angle, this elastic force usually needs connection as its foundation. Without connection, that is, without reasonable coordination of important links, one cannot actually use the elastic force of muscles and tendons, and the use of force is seriously affected.
The most important characteristic lies in this: in an untrained person, the body's contradictions are confused and subconscious, and he fundamentally cannot clearly know his own interference. Boxing training requires the trainee to clearly distinguish the various opposing systems, bring all opposing systems under conscious nerve control, transform the interfering aspects into beneficial factors, and make them serve a given state of using force. A person who reaches this degree does not use force by simple pulling, pressing, pushing, or topping. With the assistance of one muscle system, he makes every limb part coordinate according to boxing's requirements. This coordination is what boxing terminology calls whole. From this angle, whole is the state of force use and the expression of boxing's force coordination. Thus it has shallow and deep degrees. The state of connection can be regarded as the beginning of whole, and the comprehensive use of contradiction is the advanced stage of whole. In years of training, one important subject for a boxing artist is to seek whole under every condition of movement and continually raise it. As the state of whole improves, the trainee himself has clear feelings, and outward form also has certain characteristics. A person of higher degree can observe a trainee's progress and defects through outward form.
Historically, many people in our country loved boxing activity. Over thousands of years, countless people engaged in boxing training explored extremely precious methods of training boxing strength from practice. This is truly a part of our cultural inheritance worth valuing. This essay merely raises a theoretical outline from the ancestors' work.
The conclusions are these: boxing strength means connection, elasticity, and the control and use of one's own contradiction systems. For convenience, I will later call the state in which the trainee recognizes and uses contradiction systems "establishing contradiction." The key to training boxing strength is establishing contradiction, whose necessary foundation is connection. The most effective method for establishing contradiction is intentional activity. The state of contradiction not only has clear feeling in the trainee himself; it also has definite outward characteristics. Therefore it can be known and mastered.
General Discussion Of Empty And Solid
The two words empty and solid are repeatedly quoted by boxing artists of high attainment in Chinese boxing training. They are considered to occupy an important position in both training and real combat, to the point that in the academic field of boxing arts they become one of the guiding principles.
Like other important concepts, because Chinese boxing over several thousand years of practice did not, or basically did not, rise to a systematic theoretical height, the meaning of empty and solid has remained rather mixed and vague. This has clearly become a major obstacle to studying and developing boxing arts and urgently awaits solution by boxing researchers.
Some people think empty refers to feinting movement in boxing practice or posture without real strength, while solid is the strong point of force. This explains it from the surface phenomena of tactics. In reality, the boxing world uses empty-lively and sinking-solid to explain two aspects of force state. Seen from the angle of force state, empty and solid have a much deeper meaning and influence. This essay discusses them from that angle.
Boxing practice has long recognized that possessing boxing strength and constantly making it grow and strengthen is the core of boxing training. Under this intuitive recognition, practitioners usually take increasing training intensity and lengthening training time as the path to solving the problem. More exactly, the purpose is to make one's force state thick, honest, and solid. This is the meaning of sinking-solid.
From the training angle, to seek reasonable extension, obtain reasonable nervous control over muscular looseness and tightness, and escape unreasonable muscular rigidity - so-called stiff or awkward force - is absolutely necessary. Therefore even in early training it is repeatedly emphasized that, although certain postures or movements are required, students can only, under certain intentional guidance, use their own feeling to recognize the boxing strength they seek.
Bodily recognition is the practitioner's recognition of internal activity. Its outward expression is spirit-appearance and posture or movement. We call the totality of spirit and posture shi, posture-force.
Escaping the shi of stiff force during training can be called one content of empty-liveliness. Going further: is empty-liveliness required only at the beginning to escape stiff force and then finished? No. Along the thread of boxing's contradictory force state, whether from nothing to something, from local to whole, from one's own body to outside the body, or in changes of the primary aspect of contradiction, all should begin from empty-liveliness. Only afterward can one speak of strengthening and enlarging contradiction or improving individual weak points. This is the only path in the training process, an unpassable principle. In this sense, empty-liveliness runs through every stage and link of exploring boxing strength and is therefore leading. Conversely, sinking-solid is the growth of boxing strength and the necessary development after exploration. It should not and cannot arise from another path apart from empty-liveliness; it is therefore a result dependent on empty-liveliness. Mr. Wang Xiangzhai and Mr. Yao Zongxun both made outstanding contributions in this area in the creation and development of Yiquan.
This does not mean absolutely rejecting local strengthening training. At a certain period in boxing training, Subduing-Tiger Standing is an example. But the position of this kind of local strengthening training absolutely cannot be treated as equal with empty-liveliness. Clearly, even this obvious training that strengthens the lower body must possess the posture of a wild wind rolling a tree, pulling out of the ground and wishing to fly, ready to move at any moment. It is not rigidly pressing the lower-limb muscles. If lower-body training is split from whole training and improperly placed at a commanding height, one will never reach the level required by modern comprehensive boxing training. The historical process of boxing development has long surpassed that stage.
Even in real combat, empty-liveliness has its special function. We must ask: does issuing force require conditions? Before issuing force, is there a so-called preparatory movement?
We can assert that to express all one's strength fully under any condition without any adjustment is only a theoretically absolute ideal goal. The boxing artist trains for life toward this goal, doing his utmost to generalize the needed conditions, shrink special requirements, create one's own possibility under conditions that others consider impossible, and shorten one's adjustment process within the longer adjustment time of others, in order to seize opportunities to the greatest extent and not let go of even small favorable conditions. Yet actual conditions always change in an instant and require constant change and adjustment according to reality in order to create favorable time and space. No matter how ordinary the needed conditions, how short the needed time, or how tiny the needed change, they must always be obtained through movement. This is another layer of meaning of empty-liveliness: being ready at any time to rapidly change and adjust one's own movement and force state.
To make this easy to understand, boxing artists created the image "as if walking on thin ice." When people walk on thin ice, they do not step down solidly and heavily. They keep the whole body in a testing posture so that, if they feel a problem under the feet, they can quickly pull the foot up. Boxing artists grasp exactly this force state in order to bring into play the greatest active capacity for rapid change, including shifts of step.
This force state is always leading before the conditions for a full-power strike are formed. Not only that, it provides a reasonable basis for strengthening the effect of force and making force crisp and fast, because it is most favorable to mobilizing and concentrating force. This does not exclude using one's superior force as an assisting method in certain processes to create favorable conditions. Strategically, however, that occupies a temporary position with additional conditions.
Because trainees differ in training degree and bodily qualities, their strength naturally differs. This raises the requirement to strengthen contradiction and make force thick. The growth of force is therefore a side that must not be neglected. Yet it is closely connected with empty-liveliness and cannot be viewed in isolation. Many boxing enthusiasts always like to attribute everything to the size of power, and therefore mostly fall into the bias of seeking only sinking-solid and not empty-liveliness. They do not know whether existing power can be reasonably used, whether it can produce its proper effect, or how it can be made to grow. These are not only changes of quantity; one must strive for changes of quality. All of these are closely related to recognizing empty-liveliness and to what position one gives it. This is only one foolish view for boxing researchers' reference.
On The Position Of Contradiction In Boxing Training, One
Every sport values coordination, but coordination is a complex problem that obeys the purpose and requirements of different sports. In boxing arts, I think it should be understood from two sides: movement coordination and force coordination. The two are different categories but mutually related parts.
First one must answer: what is boxing coordination? I think that in boxing arts, coordination means consistency. The purpose of boxing training, roughly speaking, is to cultivate the ability to issue force. In a broad sense, issuing force includes two aspects. One is force acting on the opponent's whole body, called releasing. The other is force acting on the opponent's local part, called striking. From this, we can see that every expression of force must pass through a certain movement or action. Whether conscious or unconscious, large or small, long or short, force absolutely separated from movement is fictional force and fundamentally cannot have effect. Therefore uncoordinated movement affects the full expression of force. In this sense, movement coordination is a necessary condition for force coordination.
In "On Boxing Strength" I discussed the basic characteristics of boxing strength and proposed connection, elastic force, and contradiction as special qualities of boxing strength compared with other sports' force. Therefore in any state, boxing's demand on movement should not create obstacles to boxing strength. This in practice defines the meaning of movement-process coordination in boxing arts. Whether a given boxing movement has consistency depends on whether it can smoothly express boxing strength rather than weaken it.
Thus the coordination of ordinary artistic movement and the movement coordination of boxing arts differ fundamentally. The former does not have striking force or striking consciousness. The latter is judged completely by the boxing strength it expresses. They cannot be discussed as the same.
Second, the consistency of force requires mobilizing the active factors of the whole body to serve concentrated continuous striking. This striking can be called the use of boxing strength. Therefore, in principle, boxing-strength training is training in consistency of force. Put another way, boxing strength is the force-coordination state required by boxing arts.
The three characteristics raised in "On Boxing Strength" roughly summarize the training requirements of boxing force. But we need clearer recognition of the relation among them. The three do not appear separately in the boxing trainee; only the emphasis changes at different times. Conceptually they do belong to different categories, so theoretical analysis must distinguish them.
Usually, beginning students should start from connection in order more quickly to make the body's main joints obey nervous mobilization and lay the foundation for higher activity. But very soon the trainee should introduce contradiction-state training. It is wrong to pursue connection alone and one-sidedly. Without introducing contradiction training, it is also impossible to greatly raise the degree of connection.
What does "very soon" mean? It should not be defined by length of time, but by training effect. The beginning state of connection should have an objective standard. When this standard is reached, contradiction training should be introduced in time. What is this standard? The beginning standard of connection is mainly a feeling of increased limb weight. Practice proves that through certain intentional activity, the student himself produces a feeling of increased weight in the limbs. This feeling is essentially a reflection of reasonable tendon tension. Besides increased weight there are other feelings, such as swelling or ants crawling; they are not expanded here.
Two further points: first, relaxation in boxing training is only a necessary method of the training process. Its purpose is still reasonable tension. Reasonable tension chiefly refers to tension of tendons, especially tendons around the joints. This reasonable tension is a summary of many years of boxing practice. Because it mainly appears at the joints, it necessarily connects the trainee's own feeling with bones and frame. This raises the second question, form and spirit-intention.
Second, one's own feeling and outward form are two different matters, but they have an inside-outside relation. Reasonable tension necessarily has reasonable outward form. The boxing world has long raised the concept spirit-intention, but up to now there is no clear explanation. I think spirit-intention is the state of bodily recognition of one's own feeling under a certain mental state and intentional guidance. It cannot be separated from form. Without reasonable feeling under reasonable intentional guidance, reasonable outward form is impossible. Conversely, if outward form is unreasonable, spirit-intention necessarily has defects. Otherwise, how could a teacher judge whether the student's internal activity is correct? As for the old saying, "seek only sufficient spirit-intention; do not seek resemblance of form and bones," its meaning is only to warn students not to merely imitate the teacher's external movements. This should be especially pointed out. For beginners, posture often must be corrected. Is this not obvious?
Now return to the subject of contradiction in boxing training. Contradiction means the trainee's own state of force opposition. This state is recognized by some people as important training in boxing strength within so-called internal boxing. These schools often speak of "touching things" or "seeking things." What they seek morning and evening mostly refers to establishing this contradictory state of force. Thus practice has already proven the importance of establishing contradiction. Differences among schools in principle lie in their methods and emphases, and the depth of each school's recognition of contradiction increasingly shows widening gaps.
In principle, establishing contradiction deeply influences the following areas. First, through the existence of an opposite aspect, one can inspect weak links in a certain state of using force. This is because the opposite aspect and the active aspect usually must appear at the same time, though the degree of strength and the order may sometimes differ. Therefore without the opposite aspect there is no active aspect; in boxing terms, without a thing there is no strength. The concretization of the opposite aspect is the concentration, or coordination, of the active aspect. The gradual sinking thickness and change speed of the opposite aspect are the gradual strengthening of active force and the improvement of response ability. The two are always opposite and complete each other.
Second, from nervous direction, one recognizes the existence of the opposite aspect of a certain state of using force and controls it, so as to weaken its destructive action as much as possible in the real process of using force.
Third, establishing the opposite aspect is the necessary and sufficient method for constructing boxing borrowing. It gives the practitioner's use of natural physical strength a leap and a qualitative change. Earlier boxing artists left the famous saying "borrow infinite force." From this one can imagine how highly boxing artists valued borrowing. Of course we should not understand infinite rigidly from the words; it only shows that borrowing has a fully active effect.
Fourth, establishing the opposite aspect is the foundation of elasticity and billowing. From boxing practice, elasticity and billowing are both training states of force and can directly serve as states of force use. Therefore from the angle of boxing strength, they are the upper structure. Without the opposed unity of contradiction as foundation, it is extremely difficult to construct this upper structure. One may even need to spend great physical training and time to reach the same purpose, and there is danger of directional deviation.
In summary, establishing contradiction and seeking the unity of contradiction is a very important link in boxing training. It will govern the student's final boxing achievement. Therefore we should analyze it further from boxing principle in order to help students walk fewer crooked roads and obtain greater training effect.
On The Position Of Contradiction In Boxing Training, Two: Outline Of Contradiction Training
From the previous essay one can know that contradiction training occupies an important position in boxing arts and connects with every important link in boxing training. Therefore it must be analyzed more deeply.
From the physiological side of establishing contradiction, it is a force-opposition state formed in the trainee himself under certain intentional guidance. In its process of establishment, this opposing state goes from local to whole and from simple to complex.
When boxing artists comment on a practitioner's movement, they often cite the concepts local and whole. Usually they consider local to have defects and, in principle, to be problematic. Here local and whole refer to the range of the contradiction state established by the trainee. Needless to say, what we require is whole, not local. When local phenomena occur, aside from the student's degree - beginners necessarily begin from local - it is mostly caused by the practitioner's lack of clarity about the principled direction of boxing training.
Looking at the practitioner's intentional activity, contradictions can be divided into one's own body and outside the body according to the location of the imagined opposite aspect. Mr. Wang Xiangzhai had two famous lines: "One's own body has everything prepared; turn back and seek outside the body," and "If one does not seek in oneself, there is nothing to seek; clinging to oneself, there is no right place." I think these two lines profoundly reveal the development process a contradiction state should have. The first problem is to recognize what is prepared and what is sought. Otherwise much training activity becomes blind action, failing to grasp the theme and essentials, with results that seem right but are wrong, and even with bad consequences.
"Prepared" can be said to mean that the contradiction state of one's own limbs and among the limbs has already been established. To do this, even initially, is already not easy. Yet limiting the contradiction state to one's own limb range alone is wholly insufficient. It must further develop and extend, entrusting the opposite aspect to an object outside the body.
From another angle, to seek consistency of force, there must be an imagined opposite aspect outside the body serving as the object for experiencing force consistency. The opposite aspect of contradiction is in reality the object and enemy in the process of using force. Without this opposite aspect, one cannot inspect the degree of one's own force consistency from bodily feeling.
The distinction between own-body and outside-body contradiction chiefly obeys the trainee's intentional guidance. But own-body contradiction is the foundation of outside-body contradiction, and outside-body contradiction is its development. Without training the former, directly seeking the latter is very difficult and slow. After the former is initially prepared, if one does not develop toward the latter, one will forever remain at a lower level. The boxing world often sees certain practitioners who, after many years of training, cannot express their own strength as they should. This may be one important factor.
Even when some practitioners enter the stage of outside-body contradiction training, a bias almost always appears in great amount: while establishing outside-body contradiction, they neglect the own-body contradiction state. Boxing practice proves that if one does not seek outside-body contradiction on the basis of own-body contradiction, one cannot develop along the normal track. It is very easy to misunderstand one's own rigidity and use of force as reasonable tension. Therefore after entering outside-body contradiction training, progress is slow and defects multiply. Some people can never raise their boxing level for life and only receive local strengthening effects. Clarifying the mutual relation between one's own body and outside the body is therefore very important. This is the first direction-setting problem concerning contradiction training.
Second, in methods of recognizing contradiction there are two aspects, stillness and dynamic state. We raise this because some practitioners tend to belittle movement. Since Mr. Wang Xiangzhai advocated Yiquan, he made many great contributions to the boxing world. Many practitioners began from standing practice and their force improved clearly and rapidly. But recently some people seem to think standing practice alone can solve every problem. This view is completely wrong. Standing practice is certainly important, but without movement training - including testing force, issuing force, and practicing boxing - one fundamentally cannot speak of using force.
Theoretically, any movement contains movement factors and therefore has requirements of movement coordination. It is much more complex than pure standing practice. Therefore from relative stillness to action is not simply a change of shape; there is also an essential difference. Directly speaking, standing practice itself chiefly trains force coordination, while testing force, including issuing force and practicing boxing, is the combined expression of force coordination and movement coordination. Of course, a person with considerable standing-practice cultivation can easily grasp movement essentials under correct training guidance. That is true. But standing practice still cannot replace testing force, much less issuing force and practicing boxing. Without movement training, one will never experience the mutual relation between movement and force. We have seen many examples of people who touched some contradictions in a relatively still state, while their movement level lagged far behind so they could not express the force they should have. This is another important reason some people remain stagnant for a long time and cannot improve.
From the above discussion, a sharp question naturally arises: what is testing force? More clearly, in testing force, what does the so-called force refer to? Clarifying this important concept will make the great majority of practitioners improve rapidly and allow testing force to be reasonably arranged in the training sequence, neither too early nor too late.
Testing force means establishing, during movement, the contradiction state required by boxing arts. Here I will also explain something. Boxing schools with considerable history usually require movement to be light and slow, such as Taijiquan and Xingyiquan. Especially for beginners, they require movement without force. At first glance, does this not lose the meaning of testing force? In truth it does not. Because the force referred to by boxing testing-force training is the expression of contradiction and differs internally from ordinary people's general muscular tension, at the start of training one especially requires avoiding ordinary force habits and establishing contradiction state through intentional guidance. If the trainee at the beginning shows chaotic muscular tension, the contradiction required by boxing arts cannot be established at all, and the possibility of seeking a high level of boxing is lost. Otherwise, would it not be more direct to train with a sandbag as imagined enemy, as in boxing training? In practice, however, Chinese boxing training methods and levels long ago surpassed that elementary and relatively primitive stage. Beginning with light and slow under intentional guidance in order to establish the contradiction required by boxing arts precisely reflects where Chinese boxing arts led the world.
Someone may ask: as combat, can light and slow overcome the enemy and win? Of course not. Please note that this is only the method of entry. Once the contradiction state is established, one can and must have strengthening training and rapid training. That aspect will be described in another essay.
The important proposition discussed below is the active aspect of boxing contradiction. For clarity, let us explain through the opposed pair bracing and embracing. In the boxing world an old saying is traditionally transmitted: "brace three, embrace seven." Many people misunderstand its meaning, thinking three and seven refer to a comparison of greater and lesser force. We can raise two questions. First, why not brace four and embrace six, or brace two and embrace eight? Second, how will practitioners and instructors judge and master the force ratio between bracing and embracing?
I think three and seven do not fundamentally refer to the size ratio of bracing force and embracing force, but to taking embracing as the active aspect of the contradiction. First, what is the active aspect? Suppose we push a wall with the hand. The person's pushing force and the reaction force the wall gives the person form a contradiction. These two forces represent the two sides of the contradiction and are always equal in size. But if the person does not push the wall, the wall will never push the person. The size of the reaction force the wall gives the person is determined by the size of the pushing force the person applies. Therefore we say the person's pushing force is the active aspect.
From the boxing angle, embracing is the gathering of force, while bracing is the dispersal of force. In most circumstances, the part that plays the striking role is force dispersal. "Brace three, embrace seven" means that in training one should take embracing, or gathering, as the active aspect and establish the contradiction state. The purpose of training like this has deep meaning.
Everyone knows that military strategists good at using troops conceal and gather their forces before a decisive battle, so that when timing arrives, they can launch a fierce attack. Boxing force training is the same: one should often contain one's attacking force, which benefits every aspect of battle. But in ordinary training, do military strategists only train contracted forces and do no attacking exercises? Of course not. Likewise, from the basic stage of boxing training, one must from time to time cultivate the state of force dispersal, in order to lay a foundation for force use - issuing force and attack. In practice, establishing a contradiction state in which dispersal is the active aspect is much harder than one in which gathering is the active aspect. Therefore one must begin with gathering as primary.
At this point we can more concretely explain the distinction between local and whole. Local means that the range of establishing contradiction is limited to individual limbs, such as embracing and bracing in the arms, bracing and clamping in the legs, and so on. Whole means that the main limbs mutually and simultaneously present contradiction states: not only do arms and legs each have their own contradictions, but contradictions also appear between arms and legs, hands and feet and body, and so on. This state is especially important when contradiction extends toward outside the body. Clarifying this concept helps practitioners rapidly develop from a local contradiction state toward the whole.
The key question is by what path local contradiction can most conveniently and effectively develop toward whole contradiction. In principle, boxing requires every two points of the body to have contradiction between them; this is the most ideal. But the human body has infinitely many points. If one sought them point by point, there would be more to seek than one could finish. Therefore we must train by grasping the outline and lifting the collar, so we can control the whole. Begin from the large situation, then gradually become fine and deep. For this, first establish contradiction at the tip sections, then sequentially establish contradiction in each joint, usually beginning from hands and feet.
Whether contradiction state can run through the tips is a major question related to future expression of force. Because in human historical development the hands labored frequently and nerve command is sensitive, the contradiction state of the hands is comparatively easy to form. The feet are comparatively harder. Incidentally, beginning walking-step training is in practice testing force of the lower limbs. Further training connecting all the joints of the whole body is even harder and relies entirely on intentional guidance. For example, the state of embracing and bracing is in essence establishing contradiction between the two arms. When we extend this state to each joint, we gradually guide contradiction from local to whole. The boxing world commonly says, "no joint does not top; no joint does not clamp," or "wherever there is a joint there must be protrusion; wherever there is bend there must be clamping." We can solve it in order from wrist to elbow, to shoulder, to hip. But this is reflected in the head by "leading." Through the intentional activity of leading, gradually increase the weight of the imagined object embraced by the arms, making this weight sense transmit from waist to feet and be borne by the whole body. This training method lets us grasp the large situation and not fall only into the local.
I think that practitioners should transfer to testing force only after initially establishing whole-body contradiction. But to reduce the difficulty of the turn from relative stillness to movement, before whole-body contradiction is established one may use some simple movements for training. This training may take movement coordination as primary, and then, as the practitioner's degree rises, appropriately and stage by stage raise requirements of force coordination. Existing examples prove that this training method has more active effect than pure standing practice or pure movement alone.
In summary, this essay raises important concepts in contradiction training:
- Local contradiction and whole-body contradiction.
- Own-body contradiction and outside-body contradiction.
- The contradiction of relative stillness and the contradiction of movement.
Colophon
Translated directly from the Traditional Chinese text of 《闌珊集》 韓嗣煌, 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: 《闌珊集》 韓嗣煌
Source: HK Yiquan Society article 13
樁法概要
在相對靜止狀態中求得拳勁的訓練，稱爲“站樁”。這個名字從哪個時代提出的，已經不好考查了。據專業武術家們所談，“樁”的意義是指兩腿自膝以下，猶如埋在土中的木樁，這種感覺上的比喻，倒是頗值得耐人尋味的。
“站樁”作爲一種拳術訓練方法而出現，是我國拳術水平從低級階段過渡到高級階段的重要標誌之一。在以前，拳術訓練總是離不開“招法”，直到現在也還有人誤解拳術僅僅是招法和套路。實際上，在出現了樁法訓練以後，練拳者求得拳勁的途徑是更爲直接了，拳術界對於拳術追求的目標和訓練方法，也有了更爲深刻的認識，因而使練拳者在較短的時間內取得其他訓練方法所不能代替的力量效果訓練與之配合，組成一個綜合訓練體系。
所謂“相對靜止”，乃是指在站樁過程中身體各部沒有大幅度運動，與之相對的就是“試力”。試力時身體各部以及步位均在不斷地變換位置，由此可見，“站樁”主要是求得在一定姿態下力量的諧調，而“試力”則要求得力量諧調與運動諧調的統一，因而可以說，如果把站樁看作基礎，則試力爲其發展，二者在本質上有一定的區別。
下面就站樁時的幾個問題作一簡要說明。
（一）站樁的根本意義，在於建立神經系統對於全身肌肉的指揮（由於沒有專門研究生理方面的材料，可能用辭不當），因而它既是神經方面的訓練，又是肌肉方面的訓練。所以它不僅能爲拳術技擊服務，而且具有明顯的強壯身體、治療疾病的作用，在這方面有不少的例證可供詢查。但由於目前尚無大規模的醫療方面的配合研究，使我們只能是看到其效果，缺乏對其機理的深入研究，現在對站樁的健身效果的解釋，基本上是根據實踐結果進行種種推測的假說。
作爲技擊的基本訓練，站樁最容易求得拳勁，拳勁的含義已有專文論及，此處不再敷述。
（二）我國前代拳術家經過長期實踐，認識到爲了達到神經指揮肌肉的目的，以期求得拳術領域內的特殊力量—–拳勁，必須借助意念活動，意念活動的提出使我國拳術在訓練方法上産生了大幅度的飛躍，在拳術與體操之間形成了清晰的分水嶺。
在不同的訓練階段，爲了取得不同的訓練效果，意念活動也隨之不同。
一般說來，作爲拳術訓練的開始階段以求得身體各部的舒展爲主。因而意念活動總是圍繞這一目的而設立的。
（1）在這一階段中，模似身體在水中的漂浮，可以認爲是“第一意念活動”。通過這一類比達到骨胳的伸張而肌肉不縮緊。另外還有種種說法，例如假想淋浴時舒適狀態等等，都不外是達到舒展之目的，通常在這一範圍內，就可以起到健身的效果，不必再做進一步的要求。
在身體舒展的同時，必然要求呼吸通暢而自然，心情要平靜。
有人提出站樁不要想任何事物，這種說法是根本不正確的，它不僅否認了意念活動而且從生理上說也不可能。
（2）進一步的意念活動，乃是假想肢體的飄散與毛髮的伸張，在這種意念活動的誘導下，不僅各個關節的韌帶受到加強的訓練，而且訓練的範圍擴大展到皮膚。應當指出對於皮膚的訓練，是我國拳術訓練中具有特色的一個環節。我國拳術界從歷史上有一句流傳下來的話，叫作“內練一口氣，外練筋骨皮”。因此有很多人把站樁誤解爲“氣功”，其實從拳術的角度來談到“氣”，是指從呼吸的勻暢入手，進而訓練呼吸與鬆緊的配合，這一點在其他運動中也有反映。特別是要求爆發力的各種動作，當其發力的刹那，不與呼吸緊密的配合是不可能的。
那麽是否拳術訓練與肌肉無關呢？其實不然，因爲當我們作各種訓練（動作或是不動作）的時候，肌肉會得到自然的鍛煉，所謂“外練筋骨皮”，是要告誡訓練者不要盲目的用力而造成肌肉的僵化而已。
（3）高級的意念活動總是與矛盾訓練分不開的。
矛盾的訓練，一般是從自身到身外，從局部到整體，因而隨著矛盾訓練的過程，意念活動自然有所不同，例如作初步訓練的“抱球”，乃是使人手、臂、肩、背，發生統一聯繫的一種訓練，可以認爲是一種自身與局部的訓練，而進一步的假借—-“抱樹”，則可看成是自身向身外的擴展，局部向整體的擴展，再進一步就要鬆緊的矛盾對立面，設想在身外構成身外矛盾，應當著重指出，在進入身外矛盾訓練的階段時，必然要求整體矛盾，否則要出現偏差。
由於矛盾訓練從自身到身外不可能截然分開，有時在早期就引進一定程度的身外意念，這也是許可的和有效的。
例如在身體具有漂浮感的同時，設想隨著身外水波的蕩漾的擺動，這種意念活動，實際上是身外矛盾與整體矛盾訓練的一個部分。
（4）從站樁的環節來看，通常把彈力的培養設想爲“踏繩”。這一沿用的語彙襯實際上有一定的偏差。因爲實際上可“踏”的東西不是“繩”，而是剛度極大的彈簧。
在感覺上的彈簧強度並不是隨著練拳者的想象能夠隨意增大的，它在一定的程度上，反映著練拳者功力的強弱。更具體的說，它依賴於練拳者的初級階段所抱的球的分量，王薌齋先生曾說過“先抱紙球、再抱木球、後抱鐵球”。正是說明了矛盾的感覺在練拳者身上有所增加，在正確的訓練途徑下感覺及感覺的變化是訓練程度的“溫度計”。是客觀存在的，不幸的是不少練拳者爲了急於求得功力的增長，在這種感覺中摻了假，妄想以用力來代替矛盾強度的增加。毫無疑問，這是一種方向性的錯誤，是王先生屢次批判的所謂“揠苗助長”，其後果不但不能使拳勁得到提高，甚至於要走上邪路，這種後果在不同的人身上會在不同階段表現出來。
靈活與有力是拳術訓練所追求的兩個重大內容，靈活的意義，在於能夠敏銳的覺察對方力量的變化，並能不時調整自已以適應戰鬥的需要，因而拳術的講的靈活是有根據的，不是爲了變化而變化。
爲了達到這個目的，拳術有所謂“抱羽毛球”及“鳥難飛”等訓練，前者側重於“敏銳的體察”，要求通過羽毛末梢與球體本身發生聯繫，後者則側重于通過意念誘導迅速地調整自已的整體力量狀態。
（三）樁法訓練必然有其一定的階段性，因而也就必然有其規律性，但樁法本身又是無窮無盡的，是從事拳術訓練的人終生必須堅持的基本功之一。所謂有階段是指每個時期訓練目的及體驗的感覺均有差異。一般說來，前期的訓練主要是求得伸展和舒張，隨之以自身矛盾的訓練爲主建立初步的甚至是局部的連通。自身矛盾的訓練通常與身外矛盾的訓練有所交叉，不可能有極爲明顯的分界線，後期的訓練則是以身外矛盾爲主，並逐漸融合彈性呼應的訓練。應當明確指出，拳術是一門實踐性極爲強烈的體育科學，在不同時期應當有不同的實踐，在拳術訓練的高級階段，通常必須從自已的直接實踐中提出問題，反過來用基本功的訓練加以解決。其次則以觀摩他人的實踐，分析存在的問題，找出其中可以學習之點，或是從他人失敗的教訓中給自已提出課題。
一般說來，站樁的階段性實際上是以連通“矛盾”與“彈性”訓練的重點爲劃分依據的。當然三者之間並不存在截然的界限，但在某一階段內主要訓練目標是明確的，因而形成了各階段的差別。
在一定階段內，站樁的姿態，意念活動的內容，練拳者的感覺等方面，均有所不同，除此以外，針對某一練拳的具體的人來說，可能在某一階段內爲了突破某一力量上的障礙而附加了特定的訓練方法，這是自當別論的。
爲簡單起見，我提出以下概略區分，以供愛好者們參考。
（1）以“連通”爲主要訓練目標時，求得身體各部的舒展是主要的，這一階段要以養生樁爲主，其意念活動以身體漂浮爲主，與此同時配合簡單的試力，例如兩手在水中的擺動、摩擦步以及一切體驗水的阻力的動作等等，順便要說明，體驗水的阻力乃是極爲重要的訓練，這種感覺應從局部（一般從手部開始）逐漸擴展到全身。另外，還有其他各種類型的感覺，將隨站樁程度而異，不再敷述。
這一階層的動作必須強調輕、緩、勻。同時要求呼吸通暢而均勻，防止心臟和肺部承擔過重的負擔，至於姿態的要求，我擬在將來收集一些優秀武術訓練者的照片以供借鑒，要比空洞的紙上談兵實際的多。
（2）隨之而來的訓練，應以自身及局部矛盾爲主，並向整體矛盾延伸，具體的說，就是“抱球”和“抱樹”。這一階段的意念要求應以抱持的物體爲調整自身各個肢體部分的主要依據。在抱球時要求抱的明確，感覺清楚。所抱的球在不同訓練時期有“質”的差別。例如紙球有紙球的感覺，木球有木球的感覺等等。這種質的差別乃是訓練中的假借，當然是和抱真正的木球是不一樣的。假借的作用不過是要通過它來建軍立矛盾而已。我以爲至少要在木球的初步感覺形成以後才可以進而“抱樹”。若干年的實例證明，凡是急於求成而跳班的人，大都留下不同程度的後遺症，將來補課十分困難。
特別要說明一點的是，在上述兩個階段中都應在適當的條件下求得精神放開與放遠。這不僅是爲進一步的身外矛盾打下基礎，而且沒有精神的開闊，要想取得積極的舒展效果也是不可能的。
這一階段的試力，主要以“搖櫓轆”或“蜻蜒點水”爲主。條件成熟時可以輕輕推拉所抱的球或樹，爭取初步的力量與運動的統一。
（3）抱樹的實體感出現以後，樁法訓練須向技擊樁過渡。
技擊樁不但在曲折上與養生樁不同，其訓練內容也有階段性的差異。其一，這一階段應以整體矛盾爲主；其二，這一階段應以身外矛盾爲主（即假想的矛盾物件存在於身外）；其三，要反映出矛盾主要方面的變化來；其四，作爲我國武術訓練的秘要所在這一階段中必須建立起手心，足心，以至於頂心的吸力感，這一階段所配合的就是典型的試力動作。
（4）我以爲在這一階段後期，要使練拳者投入一定分量的降龍樁、大步樁和子午樁訓練。看來缺少這種訓練是有缺陷的，從強度及腰腿的特殊需要來看，這些樁法的訓練者是十分必要的，這一階段試力應以“神龜出水”爲主，配合各種路線的走步。
（5）彈性與鼓蕩的訓練是拳術訓練的高級階段，這一階段雖大部以技擊樁爲主，但實際上它的姿態是多樣化的，主要以訓練者的具體要求爲轉移。通常能進入這一階段的人大都對拳術整體有了相當的認識；絕不能像小學生寫字一樣對著字帖一步一趨，絕大多數的練拳者（指達到一定階段的人），在這一階段所要解決的問題是綜合性的。
從系統上來看，應當達到上下連貫，左右縱橫，溶基本訓練與發力作拳等動作於一體。這一階段乃是拳術家成熟的階段，他必須深入探討拳術的戰略和戰術，必須認真的總結前此以往的拳術實踐，結合自已的實際努力鑽研拳術的理論問題，必須獨立地發現缺點，提出問題，擬定訓練方法。
在這一階段中能否在大的原則方面摸清拳術的規律，不是就事論事的，而是理論與實踐相結合地提出自已對問題的看法，決定著一個拳術訓練者終生的水平。
學者是無盡的，認識也是無盡的，實踐中提出的問題更是無盡的。據我揣測，前代拳術家的風格水平和修養大都在這一階段集中的體現出來。
拳術訓練是一門深邃的科學，雖然是概略的討論站樁，但不可能不和拳術的整體發生聯繫，而且想要片言隻字地說明一個重要問題是非常困難的，弊病之處實在是太多了，只能爲拳術訓練的現代化、科學化貢獻毫末的愚見而已。
論拳勁
各種體育運動，對運動員都有共同的要求，例如速度快、動作有力、能夠耐久、動作諧調、反應靈活等等。此外，各個運動專案也都有其特殊要求，這是自不待言的。
初看起來，似乎各種運動有各種不同的技巧，不經過專門訓練難以掌握，實際上這裏還隱藏著更爲深刻的問題。這就是，各種運動因其目的不同，既有其特殊性，也有其力量方面的共性。本文將僅從拳術的力量方面進行探討。
從生理常識可知，人的力量來源於肌肉的收縮。粗淺地比喻，人好比一台起重機，骨骼就是鋼架，肌肉和肌腱好比繩索，當我們放鬆某一系統的繩索而拉緊另一系統的繩索，就形成了肢體的運動。肌肉和肌腱系統的鬆緊，完全受人的神經支配，而神經對肌肉系統的支配，與人們的生活及生産勞動的關。當我們日常不斷重復某一動作時，神經的支配就相對地靈敏和準確。不然的話，就相對地遲鈍和紊亂。所以當人們從事自已不熟練的動作時，自已感到很費力而效果卻很小。有些肌肉很發達的青年到農村去勞動的時候，其耐力反而比不上肌肉不那麽發達的老農民。這一方面是由於勞動的技巧及鍛練的問題，但卻反映著鬆緊不諧調的矛盾。
拳術在古代是戰鬥的手段，它的一般動作在日常生活和勞動中不常出現，或是根本不出現。所以不經過鍛煉的人，往往感到用不上力量，或是感到自已用力很大而效果很小，其原因就在於此。當然，我們不能否定體力。在鍛煉程度相同的條件下，體力強者顯然處於有利的地位。然而戰鬥的動作瞬息萬變，要求力量的變化即鬆緊的變化高度靈敏，所以生理的體力優勢就相對地被減弱了。
有時在一定的條件下，體力較強而沒有經過鍛煉的人往往顯得比體力較差而經過一定鍛煉的人戰鬥力量爲弱。這是稍經拳術訓練的人就可以體驗出來的，是拳術界司空見慣的事情。因而拳術從歷史實踐中提出自已所需要的特殊力量，術語稱爲“拳勁”
拳術訓練的特有實質就是鍛煉拳勁。不然的話，姿態和動作都會與體操及舞蹈完全相同了。至於技巧，當然佔有相當的地位，但它畢竟要在拳勁的基礎上才能充分發揮其應有的作用，這是拳術界的常識，茲不敷述。
根據上述討論，我們必須提出下列問題：
（1）爲什麽沒有經過訓練的人，不能充分發揮他的力量？
（2）拳術所需要的力量—拳勁—及其特點何在？
首先讓我們分析第一個問題。
現代科學告訴我們，研究任何事物都必須抓住這個事物本身的矛盾。從前述比喻可知，當從們移動某一肢體時必須放鬆某一系統的肌肉，張緊另一系統的肌肉。用力更是如此。如果肌肉系統完全放鬆，當然是無力的。但如果矛盾的系統同時張緊，雖然本身肌肉處於收縮狀態，而由於兩個系統互相干擾、互抵消，所以對外來說就顯示不出作用，或是作用很弱。有些人雖然自已感到用力很大，但效果很小，就是這個道理。
人們對日常生活中熟悉的動作，神經支配由於熟練而準確，矛盾系統基本上不起干擾或是干擾很小，則其體力能夠發揮出來。一旦處於不習慣或不熟悉的姿態運動中，每當用力的時候，神經支配不準確或是發生混亂，則矛盾的系統總是同時張緊，因而其體力大部分被內部的矛盾對立面所抵消，體力就發揮不出來。特別是當瞬間用力的時候，客觀上沒有足夠的時間去逐漸調整身體的各個部位，則神經支配的不準確就更赤得突出。
總括來說，每當用力的時候需要身體各部分的肌肉、肌腱等，要有合理的鬆緊配合。不能達到這一點就會引起干擾，甚至於全部抵消自已的力量，所以我國前代拳術家把拳勁概括爲“鬆緊、緊松勿過正”，甚至於認爲拳術的問題就是鬆緊的問題，根本原因即在於此。
由此看來，鬆緊的問題是一個用力狀態的共同問題，那就必然是各種運動的共同性問題。那末，拳勁的特點何在呢？讓我們在分析第二個問題的過程中，繼續深入討論。
要分析拳勁的特點，首先要瞭解打擊力量的來源。我國拳術界曾有一句名言，叫作“消息全憑後足蹬”，這是打擊力量一個極爲重要的方面。它的意思是要利用地面磨擦的反作用力。例如我們用手去推一個重物的時候，則必須依靠腿向後的蹬力；拔河運動時，需要利用腿部向前的蹬力，這就是最明顯的例子。有時拳術動作經常要利用身體動蕩時由體重所産生的慣性力，而動蕩的來由大都是利用地面的反作用力，使自身産生運動的結果。所以雖然慣性力與推、拉的力量不同，卻都來源於同一個地方。
拳術界也有一句名言：“力由脊發”。它的意思比較隱蔽，實際上是要求利用軀幹以至肢體的彈力（當然這不是全部的含意）。有些排球運動員，兩騰空而起後才發出擊球的動作，所利用的主要是軀幹以及肢體的彈力。
爲了清楚說明起見，我們還將進行下面的闡述：
當我們利用地面反作用力時，力量要由足部經過腳腕、膝、胯、腰、肩、肘，手腕而達到手，並由手傳遞出去。在這個過程中，如果某一關節不能起到應有的作用，則傳遞的力量就被削弱或破壞。有時甚至無法形成足部“蹬”運動。運動員的起跑動作，看起來是簡單的一蹬，然而不經過訓練的人，根本做不到合理的刹那間的一蹬，這不是普通運動中極爲明顯的例子嗎？更何況打擊動作要求蹬力通過許許多多的環節從手上傳遞出去。對神經支配的要求，必然是更爲廣泛，更爲複雜了。未經拳術訓練的人，通常對日常勞動所能做到的動作，神經才能合理的支配，體力才能基本上得到發揮。經過拳術訓練的人，神經支配是合理的，由足部到手部的各個環節，基本上能起到應有的作用，這個狀態稱爲“連通”。“連通”是拳勁的基本特點之一。
除了連通之外，彈力是拳勁的又一特徵。我國拳術家有云：“無點不彈簧”。這是告訴我們，拳術的力量除了肢體擴張時緊強的支撐力（本身肩架的合理配備）之外，全身的彈性呼應（需從站樁中求得緊松、鬆緊的轉化，力是量方能形成彈性呼應，更加上重心的轉移，産生之慣性力及假借力。是非常重要的。從拳術的角度來看，這種彈力，通常需要以連通爲基礎而發揮，沒有連通，即沒有各個重要環節的合理配合，則實際上無法利用肌肉和肌腱的彈力，因而力量的運用要受到嚴重的影響。
最重要的特點，在於拳術訓練的人，其自身矛盾是混亂的、下意識的，根本無法明確自身的干擾。而拳術訓練卻要求訓練者自已清楚地明確各種對立的體系，把各個對立的體系完全歸納於有意識的神經控制之下，使干擾的方面轉化爲有利的因素，使其爲一定的用力狀態服務。達到這種程度的人，他的用力方法不是單純的拉、壓、推、頂，而是在某一肌肉系統的幫助下，使自已各個肢體部分具有拳術要求的配合。這種配合就是拳術術語中所謂的“整”。由這個角度說，“整”是力量運用的狀態，是拳術力量諧調的體現，所以它本身就有程度的深淺。“連通”狀態，無妨可以看作是“整”的初步，而矛盾的綜合利用，則是：“整”的高級階段。拳術家在若干年的鍛煉過程中，重要課題之一就是要求得在各種運動條件的“整”，並使之不斷提高。順便指出，隨著“整”的狀態的提高，訓練者自身會有明確的感覺，而其外形上也有一定的特徵。程度較高的人可以通過外形來觀察訓練者的進展及其存在的缺陷。
在歷史上我國人民喜愛拳術活動的人很多。數千年來從事拳術訓練的千百萬人，從實踐中探索出極爲寶貴的拳勁訓練方法，實際上是我國文化遺産中值得珍視的一部分。本文只不老祖宗從理論方面提出一個梗概而已。
綜上所述，我們可以得到以下的結論：
（1）拳勁是指連通、彈性及自身矛盾系統的控制和利用（今後爲簡便起見，將把訓練者體認和利用矛盾系統的狀態稱爲“建立矛盾”）。
（2）拳勁的訓練關鍵乃是矛盾的建立，其必要的基礎是“連通”。
（3）建立矛盾最有效的方法是意念活動。
（4）矛盾的狀態不僅在訓練者本人具有明確的感覺，而且具有一定的外形特徵。所以它是可以認識的，是可以掌握的。
泛論虛實
虛實這兩個字，在我國拳術訓練中屢次爲造詣較高的拳術家所引用，並認爲無論在鍛煉過程中或在實戰過程中，都佔有重要的地位，以至於在拳術這門學術領域中，成爲指導原則之一。
正如其他重要概念一樣，由於我國拳術在幾千年的實踐過程中，沒有或者基本沒有上升到系統的理論高度，因而虛實的含義一直是較爲含混、較爲模糊的。這種現象顯然已經成爲學習拳術與發展拳術的重大障礙，急待拳術研究者們努力予以解決。
有人認爲“虛”是指拳術實踐過程中的佯攻動作，或是不具備真實力量的姿態；“實”則是力量強點。這種說法，乃是以戰術表面現象來解釋的。而實際上，拳術界以“虛靈”和“沈實”來說明力量狀態的兩個方面。從力量狀態的角度來看，“虛實”含意及其影響則要深遠得多。本文正是從力量狀態的含意來加以討論的。
拳術的實踐早已認識到，具備拳勁並不斷使之壯大、使之強化乃是拳術鍛煉的核心所在。在這種直觀認識的指導下，拳術鍛煉者通常總以加大訓練強度、延長訓練時間，作爲解決問題的途徑，更爲確切的說，其目的是使自己力量狀態渾厚、篤實。這就是“沈實”的含義。
從拳術訓練角度來說，爲了求得合理的舒展，求得神經系統對肌肉合理鬆緊的控制，擺脫不合理的肌肉僵滯（所謂僵力或拙力），乃是絕對必要的。所以在初步訓練時就一再強調，儘管要求一定的姿態或一定的動作，學拳者只能在某些意念誘導下，通過自身的感覺去體認自己所探索的拳勁。
體認是拳術鍛煉者對內在活動的認識，其外部表露則是精神面貌和姿態（或動作）。我們把神和態的總體稱之爲“勢”。
可以說，在訓練過程中擺脫僵力之“勢”，是“虛靈”的內容之一。進一步說，是否只在訓練之始才要求擺脫僵力就算終了呢？不是的！如果我們沿著拳術矛盾力量狀態的脈絡來看，不論是從無到有，還是從局部到整體，從自身到身外，以及矛盾主要方面的變化等等，均應從“虛靈”入手。而後才可以談到矛盾的壯大、強化，以至於個別弱點的改善。這是訓練過程中一條“唯一”的途徑，是不可逾越的原則。從這個意義上講，“虛靈”在探索拳勁過程中，貫穿於每一階段每環節之中，因而是主導的。反過來說，沈實是拳勁的壯大，是繼探索之後的必要發展。它不應當也不可能離開“虛靈”而從另外的途徑産生，因之是依附於“虛靈”的結果，王薌齋和姚宗勳兩位先生，在意拳的創造和發展中，都在這一方面作出了卓越的貢獻。
但這並不是說，絕對排斥了局部強化的訓練，在拳術鍛煉過程中的某一時期，伏虎樁的訓練就是實例，不過這種局部強化訓練的地位已經全然不能和“虛靈”等量詢觀了。明確地說，儘管這種明顯的強化下盤的訓練，也必須具備狂風卷樹，拔地欲飛，隨時出動的躍然之勢，而不是僵死地壓迫下肢肌肉。把下盤的訓練和總體訓練割裂開來，不恰當地擺在統轄的高度，將永遠達不到現代拳術全面訓練所要求的水平。拳術發展的歷史進程早已超越這一分階段。
即使在拳術的實戰過程中，“虛靈”也有其特有的作用。爲此，我們需要探討下述問題：
（1）發力是否要求條件？
（2）發力之前有無所謂“準備動作”？
我們可以斷言，無須任何調整，並在任何條件下都能充分發揮自已全部力量，這僅僅是理論上絕對理想化的目標。拳術家終生的訓練都在向這一目標奮鬥。盡力使自己需要的條件一般化，盡力縮小特定的要求，以期在別人認爲沒有可能的條件下創造出自己的可能性，在別人較長的（相對而言）調整時間中，縮短自己的調整過程，力爭最大限度抓住戰機，不放過任何微小的有利條件。然而實際情況卻總是瞬息萬變，需要根據實際情況不斷地變化、不斷地調整以創造有利的時間及空間條件。不論自己所需要的條件是多麽普通，所需要的時間是多麽短促，須要的變化多麽微小，總要通過運動來取得。這就是“虛靈”另一層的意思：即隨時準備迅速改變和調整自已運動的力量狀態。
拳術家爲了使鍛煉者容易理解，提出了形象化的比喻，叫作“如履薄冰”。可以想像，當人們在薄冰上行走時，絕不會實拍拍地一步踏下去，而是要使全身保持著“試探”之勢，以便一旦感覺到腳下的冰層有問題的時候，迅速拔腳而起。拳術家正是抓住這種力量狀態，以便使自已能迅速變化（包括步法的轉移）的最大能動性得以發揮。
這種力量狀態，在奮力一擊的條件構成以前，總是居於主導地位的，不僅如此，它還爲力量效果的強化、力量的脆快等提供合理的基礎。因爲它最利於力量的調動及集中。
但是，這並不排除在某些過程中以自己的優勢兵力作爲創造有利條件的輔助手段。而從戰略上說，是居於暫時的、有若干附加條件的地位。
當然，由於拳術鍛煉者的訓練程度、身體素質的不同，其力量的強弱亦顯然不同。這就提出了矛盾強化、力量渾厚的訓練要求。所以力量的壯大也是決不可偏廢的一個方面。然而它和“虛靈”有密切的聯繫，在訓練過程中不能孤立地看待。
不少拳術愛好者們總喜歡把一切歸究於功力的大小，因此大都出現只追求沈實而不求虛靈的偏向。殊不知現有的功力是否能合理地使用？是否能發揮應有的效能？以至於怎樣才能使現有功力壯大起來？這不僅是量的變化，還要努力爭取質的變化。如此等等都和對“虛靈”的認識密切相關；也和把“虛靈”擺在甚麽地位有關。一見之愚，僅供拳術研究者們參考。
論矛盾在拳術訓練中的地位及其他（一）
一切體育運動都講究“諧調”，而諧調卻是一個複雜的問題，它要服從不同運動專案的目的和要求。就拳術而言，我以爲應從兩個方面來認識：即運動的諧調和力量的諧調。二者是兩個不同的範疇，但卻是相互關聯的部分。
首先必須回答的問題是“什麽是拳術的諧調？”我以爲，在拳術領域裏，所謂諧調就是“一致性”。現在讓我們進一步探討這個問題：
拳術訓練的目的，粗糙地說就是培養發力的本領，廣義的發力應當包括兩個方面。其一是力量作用于對方的整體，稱爲放；另一種是力量作用對方的局部，稱爲擊。從這一點出發可以看到如下的結果，即一切力量的體現必須通過一定的運動或動作。不論這個動作是有意識的或是無意識的，也不論這個動作的幅度大或小，動作的時間長或短，總之與動作絕對分割的力量是虛構的力量，是根本不能發生效果的。所以我們可以說，沒有諧調的動作就影響力量的充分發揮。從這個意義上講，動作諧調是力量諧調的必要條件。
我在《論拳勁》一文中，曾對拳勁的基本特徵做了探討，提出了“連通”、“彈性力”和“矛盾”作爲拳勁與其他運動力量相比較的特殊性。由此，拳術在任何狀態下對於動作的要求是不應當造成拳勁的障礙的。這一點，實際上規定了拳術中動作過程諧調的含義。所以，拳術中某種動作是否有“一致性”，取快於這種動作能否暢通地體現拳勁而不是削弱拳勁。
因而一般藝術性動作的諧調與拳術的動作諧調有其根本的區別，前者沒有打擊力量和打擊意識，而後者卻完全由其體現的拳勁去判斷。兩者不可相提並論。
其次，所謂力量的“一致性”要求調動全身的積極因素集中地爲連續打擊服務。這種打擊無妨稱之爲拳勁的運用，因而拳勁的訓練從原則上講就是力量一致性的訓練。換句話說，拳勁就是拳術所要求的力量諧調的狀態。
在《論拳勁》一文中所提出的三個特點，大體上概括了拳術力量的訓練要求。但是，我們對三者的關係需要更明確的認識，三個特點在拳術訓練者身上不是單獨地出現，只不過在不同時期側重點有所變化，另外在概念上三者的確從屬於不同的範疇。因此，在理論分析上有必要加以區分。
通常，初期鍛煉的學拳者應當從“連通”入手，以便較快地使身體主要關節服從神經調動，爲進一步高級活動奠定基礎。但是，鍛煉者很快就應引進矛盾狀態的訓練，單純地、一味地追求“連通”是不對的，不引進矛盾的訓練，要想大幅度提高“連通”的程度也是不可能的。
我們要問“所謂很快”是什麽意思？從時間上怎樣就算“很快”？回答是不應當以時間長短來定義“很快”，而要看練拳者的訓練效果。這就是說，初步的“連通”狀態應當有其客觀標準，達到這種標準就應當及時地引進矛盾訓練，那麽隨之而來的問題是這種標準是什麽？回答是“連通”的初步標準主要是肢體的加重感。實踐證明，通過一定的意念活動，學拳者本人會産生肢體的加重感。這種感覺實質上是肌腱合理張緊的反映。除了加重感外，還有其他感覺，如脹的感覺，蟻爬的感覺等，此處不多敷述。
這裏再說明兩個問題：
（1）拳術訓練者的放鬆只是訓練過程的必要手段而已。其目的仍然是合理的張緊。所謂合理的張緊，主要是指肌腱，特別是關節處肌腱的張緊，這種合理的張緊是若干年來拳術實踐的總結。由於這種張緊主要體現在關節上，所以它必然會把訓練者自身的感覺與其骨骼、肩架連系起來，由此引出第二個問題，即“形”與“神意”的問題。
（2）自身感覺與外形，二者是兩種不同的事情，但卻是表裏之間的關係，換句話說，合理的張緊必然會有合理的外形。拳術界提出“神意”的概念已有多所，迄今未有明確解釋，我認爲所謂“神意”，是在一定精神狀態及意念活動誘導下對自身感覺的體認狀態。它與“形”是不可分割的。
沒有合理的意念誘導下的合理感覺，要想有合理的外形是不可能的。反過來說，外形不合理則其“神意”也必然有缺陷焉。否則的話，教拳的老師何以判斷學生的內在活動正確與否呢？至於過去拳術界的老話“只求神意足，不求形骸似”，其意義只不過是告誡學拳者不要單純模仿老師的動作外形，這是應當特別指出的。尤其對於初學者來說，經常需要校正姿勢。這一點不是很明顯的嗎？
現在讓我們回到拳術訓練中的矛盾這個本題上來：
所謂矛盾，是指學拳者本身的力量對立狀態。這種狀態，是有些人所謂內家拳術遙遙系公認的重要的拳勁訓練。這些拳派常有所謂“摸東西”或“找東西”的說法，其朝夕以求的，大都指的是建立這種力量的矛盾狀態。由此可見，實踐已經證明建立矛盾的重要性。各派系的差別，原則上在於其方法和側重點的不同，而且各派系對這種矛盾的認識深度也越來越顯出差距增大的趨勢。
從原則上講，矛盾的建立深刻地影響到以下諸方面：
（1）通過對立面的存在來檢查某種用力狀態的薄弱環節。這是因爲，對立面和主動面通常總是需要同時出現（儘管先後的強弱程度有時可以不同）。因而可以說，沒有對立面就是沒有主動面（換成拳術術語叫做“沒有東西就是沒勁”）對立面的具體化就是主動面的集中（或諧調），對立面的逐漸沈厚和變換速度就是主動面力量的逐漸增強與反應能力的提高。所以，二者總是相反相成的。
（2）從神經支配上體認到某種用力狀態的對立面的存在，並且加以控制，以便在真實的用力過程中盡可能削弱其破壞作用。
（3）對立面的建立是構成拳術假借的必要和充分手段，它使拳術鍛煉者對於自然體力的運用有了飛躍，起了質的變化。前輩拳術家曾經留過一句名言，叫做“假借無窮力”，使我們可以想像在拳術家心目中對於“假借”給予多麽高的評價！當然，我們不應當呆板地從字面去理解“無窮”，而它只是說明假借有充分積極的效果。
（4）對立面的建立是彈性與鼓蕩的基礎。從拳術實踐來看，彈性與鼓蕩既是力量的訓練狀態，又可直接作爲力量運用的狀態。所以從拳勁的角度上說，它是上層建築。沒有矛盾的對立統一做爲基礎，要想構成這種上層建築是極爲困難的，甚至於爲了達到同樣的目的需要付出極大的體力訓練和時間，而且存在著發生方向性偏差的危險。
綜上所述，建立矛盾並求得矛盾的統一，乃是拳術訓練中非常重要的環節。它將左右著學拳者最終的拳術成就。因而我們應當從拳理的方面進一步加以剖析，以便幫助學拳者少走彎路，取得更大的訓練的效果。
論拳術訓練中矛盾的地位及其他—-拳術矛盾訓練概要（二）
由前文可知，矛盾訓練在拳術領域內佔有重要地位，聯繫著拳術訓練中各個重要環節。爲此，必須進行較深入的分析。
從矛盾建立的生理方面來看，它是在一定的意念誘導下，練拳者自身形成的力量對立狀態。這種對立狀態，從其建立過程來看，乃是由局部到整體，由簡單到複雜的過程。
拳術家在評論練拳者的動作時，經常引用“局部”或“整體”這兩個概念，而且通常認爲“局部”是有缺陷的，在原則上是有問題的。這時所謂“局部”和“整體”，是指練拳者所建立的矛盾狀態的範圍。不言而喻，我們所要求的當然是“整體”而不是“局部”。所以發生“局部”的現象，除了練拳者的程度—初學者必然先從“局部”入手—-之外，大都是由於練拳者對於拳術訓練的原則方向不明確所致。
而從練拳者的意念活動看，可以根據假想中的對立面所處的位置，把矛盾劃分爲自身與身外兩個方面。
王薌齋先生曾有幾句名言，叫做“自身皆俱備，反向身外求”，“不求已身，無物可求，執著已身，一無是處”。我以爲這兩句話深刻地揭示了矛盾狀態所應有的發展過程。這時，首要問題在於認清“具備”甚麽？“求”甚麽？否則大量的訓練活動將成爲盲目的行動，抓不住主題和要害，訓練結果似是而非，甚至於産生不良後果。
所謂具備，可以說是指自身的肢體及肢體之間的矛盾狀態已經得到建立。能做到這一點，即使是初步做到這一點，已經很不容易。然而僅僅是把矛盾狀態局限於自身肢體範圍之內，卻是完全不夠的，必須使矛盾狀態進一步發展和延伸，把對立面假託在身外的目的物上。
從另一個角度來看，爲了求得力量的一致性，必須存在著假想的身外的對立面，做爲體驗力量一致性的物件。而矛盾的對立面，實際上是力量運用過程中的物件與敵人，沒有這種對立面，則無法從自身感覺上檢查自已力量一致的程度。
矛盾狀態的自身和身外之分，主要服從於訓練者的意念誘導活動。但自身矛盾狀態是身外矛盾狀態的基礎，後者是前者的發展。沒有前者的訓練而直接求取後者時困難很大，收效緩慢。當初步俱備前者以後，如果不向後者發展，則將永遠限於較低的水平上。拳術界經常發現某些練拳者經過多年訓練以後，自身力量得不到應有的發揮，這可能是重要影響因素之一。
另外，即使是部分練拳者進入身外矛盾訓練階段時，幾乎經常地、大量地出現一種偏向，這種偏向是：在建立身外矛盾的過程中，忽略了自身矛盾狀態。拳術的實踐證明，不在自身矛盾的基礎上去尋求身外矛盾，就不可能沿著正常的軌道發展。非常容易把自身“僵滯”、“用力”等誤解爲合理的張緊。因而在進入身外的矛盾訓練階段後，進步很慢，弊端叢生。有的人甚至於終生不能求得拳術水平的提高，只能收到局部強化的效果。因而搞清自身與身外的相互關係是十分重要的，這是有關矛盾訓練的方向性的首要問題。
其次，從體認矛盾的方法上來看有所謂“靜止”與“動態”的兩個方面，我們所以提出這個問題乃是鑒於部分練拳者存在著輕視動作的傾向。自從王薌齋先生倡導“意拳”以來，對於拳術界做出了不少巨大貢獻。很多練拳者從站樁入手，力量都有顯著的、迅速的提高，但近來部分人似乎認爲只要站樁就可以解決一切問題。這種看法是完全錯誤的。站樁固然很重要，但如果缺乏動作（包括試力、發力及作拳）的訓練，則根本談不到力量的運用。從理論上看，任何動作都有運動因素在內，因而有動作諧調的要求，它將比單純的站樁要複雜得多。所以從“相對靜止”到“動作”，並不簡單的是形態變化的問題。在本質上也有區別。直接的說，站樁本身主要是力量諧調的訓練，而試力（連同發力及作拳，下同）則是力量諧調與運動諧調的綜合體現。當然對於站樁具有相當修養的人，如果在正確的訓練方法指導下，很容易掌握動作要領，這是事實。但站樁終究不能代替試力，更不要說代替發力與作拳了。不經過動作訓練，將永遠不能體會“動作”與“力量”之間的相互關係，我們見到過不少的例子，一些人在相對靜止的狀態下摸到一此矛盾，而其動作水平卻落後很多。以致于不能發揮應有的力量。這是使部分人長期停滯無法提高的又一重要原因。
根據上述討論，很自然的提出一個很尖銳的問題即“什麽是試力？”或者更明確地說，“試力”過程中所謂的“力”是指什麽？搞清這一重要概念，將會使絕大多數練拳者得到迅速提高，並使“試力”這一環節在整個拳術訓練過程中能夠在訓練程式上得到合理安排，即不過早又不過遲。
試力就是在動作過程中建立起拳術所要求的矛盾狀態。這裏順便說明一個問題，通常具有相當歷史的拳派，要求動作“輕”和“緩”，例如太極拳、形意拳等等。特別是對初學者，要求動作不用力，乍看起來，豈不是失去試力的意義了嗎？其實不然，正因爲拳術試力訓練所指的“力”乃是矛盾的體現，與一般人泛指的肌肉緊張有內在的區別，所以在訓練一開始的時候，特別要求注意避免一般人的用力習慣，而要通過意念誘導建立起矛盾狀態來。如果訓練者在初期呈現肌肉混亂緊張的狀態，則拳術要求的矛盾根本無法建立起來，失去了求得高程度的拳術水平的可能性。否則的話，我們像拳擊訓練一樣，用沙袋做假想敵來練習不更直接一些嗎？但實際上，我國拳術訓練方法及拳術的水平早已超過了這種初級的、較爲原始的階段。意念誘導下以“輕”和“緩”入手來建立拳術所要求的矛盾，恰恰反映了我國拳術領先于世界水平的所在。
有人也許會問，拳術作爲技擊來說“輕”和“緩”能克敵制勝嗎？當然不能。請注意這僅僅是入門的手段，一旦建立起矛盾狀態了，可以而且必須有“強化”的訓練和“迅速”的訓練。關於這一方面將另有專文敍述。
本文下面所討論的重要命題是拳術矛盾的主動方面，爲了清楚起見，我們以“撐”和“抱”這一對矛盾爲例加以說明。
拳術界傳統上流傳著一名老話，叫做“撐三抱七”很多人對其含意産生了誤解，以爲三和七是指力量大和小的對比。我們可以提出兩個問題，其一是“撐四抱六”或“撐二抱八”有何不可？其二是練拳者及指導者又將怎樣去判斷撐和抱的力量對比，從而加以掌握呢？
我以爲“三”和“七”所指的意義根本不是撐和抱的力量大小的對比，而是指要以“抱”爲矛盾的主動方面。
首先讓我們解釋什麽是主動方面：
假定我們用手推牆，則人的推力與牆給人的反作用力構成一對矛盾。這兩個力量代表著矛盾的雙方，而且永遠是大小相等的。但人不去推牆，則牆絕不會來推人。牆所給與人的反作用力的大小，決定於人推牆時所加推力的大小，這樣我們就說人的推力是主動方面。
從拳術的角度來看，抱是力量的收斂，撐是力量的發散。在大多數的情況下，起到打擊作用的是力量的發散。所謂“撐三抱七”是指在訓練中要以抱（收斂）爲主動方面，而建立起矛盾狀態來。這樣訓練的目的，有其深入的含義。
大家知道，善於用兵的軍事家在不到決定性的一戰時，總是將自己的兵力隱藏起來，收斂起來，以便時機一到，發起猛烈的攻擊。拳術力量的訓練也是同樣的，經常要把自己的攻擊力量含蓄起來，有利於作戰的各個方面。然而軍事家在日常訓練過程中，是否只是一味的訓練收縮兵力，不做攻擊的演習呢？當然不是。同樣的，拳術訓練從基本訓練的階段就要不時地培養力量的發散狀態，以便爲力量的運用—-發力和攻擊—-奠定基礎。實際上建立以發散爲主動面的矛盾狀態要比以收斂爲主動的狀態困難得多，故此必須先收斂爲主做起。
到此，我們可以有條件更爲具體地說明“局部”與“整體”的區別。所謂“局部”乃是建立矛盾的範圍只局限於個別肢體之間，例如臂部的抱和撐、腿部的撐和夾等等。所謂“整體”則是各主要肢體互相間同時呈現矛盾狀態，即不但在臂部和腿部有各自的矛盾，手臂與腿之間、手足與身之間等等，均呈現矛盾狀態，這種狀態在矛盾向身外方面延伸時尤爲重要。明確這一概念，將有助於練拳者在建立矛盾的局部狀態後，迅速向整體發展。
關鍵問題在於，通過什麽途徑使局部矛盾向整體發展是最爲方便和最容易收到效果的。本來從拳術的原則要求，身體任意兩點之間都要有矛盾，這樣才是最合理想的。但人體上有無限多點，如果逐點追求，必將“求不勝求”，因而我們必須提綱摯領地去訓練，方能統轄全局。先從大局入手，再逐漸細緻、深入。爲此我們必須首先從建立梢節的矛盾狀態入手，繼之順序地建立各個關節的矛盾，通常總是從手和足部做起。
矛盾狀態是否能貫徹於梢節是一個重大問題，關係到今後力量的發揮。而由於人在歷史發展的過程中，手的勞動頻繁，神經指揮靈敏，所以手部的矛盾狀態比較容易形成。相對來說，足部則比較困難些（順便說一下初步的走步訓練，實際上就是下肢的試力），進一步的全身各關節連系的訓練則更加困難，這方面的訓練完全是依靠意念誘導來實現的。例如抱和撐的狀態，本質上是建立兩臂之間的矛盾，當我們把這種狀態向各個關節擴展時，就會逐步把矛盾從局部引向整體。拳術界俗稱“無關節不頂，無關節不夾”（逢節必突，逢曲必夾），我們可以按照順序從腕到肘、到肩、到胯地一個個去解決。但這中反映在頭部之“領”，並通過“領”的意念活動逐步加重臂部所抱的假想物的重量。使這種重量感由腰部傳遞到足部而由全身來承受。這樣訓練方法會使我們在大的方面抓住全局而不致僅陷於局部。
我以爲，練拳者在初步建立整體矛盾後再轉入“試力”才是最有效果的。但爲了減少練拳者從“相對靜止”到“動作”這一轉折的困難起見，在整體矛盾建立起來之前，可用一些簡單動作加以訓練。這種訓練，不妨以要求動作諧調爲主，然後隨著練拳者程度的提高，再適當的、按階段地提出力量諧調的要求。從已有的實例證明，這種訓練方法比單純站樁或單純動作都有更積極的效果。
總括上述，本文提出矛盾訓練時四個重要概念，即：
（1）局部矛盾與整體矛盾。
（2）自身矛盾與身外矛盾。
（3）相對靜止的矛盾與動作的矛盾。
Source Colophon
Source text: article 13 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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