ShiLi Introduction Inside the body, through the meridians it flows a very powerf powerful ul energy energy called called Qi. This This energy energy can change change with the exercises of ZhanZhuang and strengthen with the the pas passin sing of the the tim time thro throug ugh h seve severa rall ShiLi iLi YangShengGong therapeutic exercises (regeneration of bod body y and and spir spirit it)) which which aim to send send it circ circul ulat atin ing g through all the body. At the beginning, during the Shili YangSheng exercises this keen energy called Qi moves in an unconscious way inside the body improving the energy, physical and psychic qualities. After a period of 90 days' constant practice of Shili it will be possible to see great physical improvement. At the beginning of the practice it will be possible to move the Qi inside the body with the help of different visualizations in order to search for sensations which the body will make habitual in the every day life. The The Qi, Qi, flow flowin ing g thro throug ugh h all all the the body body will will diss dissol olve ve and and eliminate also the deepest tensions of the being and re-establish health and happiness making a real action of purification to heart and spirit. At the beginning during the practice of basic YangSehngGong, the trainee doesn’t think about the martial art and self-defence, but he trains only how to cure and improve his own physical qualities. qualities. Only when the body is finally strong and full of energy, energy, the trainee trainee will start to practice the self-defence and the other exercises of QiGong focused only on the offensive strengthening, the emission of Qi, and all the other exercises of the martial art. The kind of QiGong to use during the self-defence is that QiGOng which work on the nervous system, on the concentration of the Qi inside the DanTian and on the opening of the macrocosmic orbit, that is the opening of those energy meridians which take the Qi from the foot to the head, until the fingers of the hands making then the Qi circulates through all the body. The mind becomes stronger and stronger and the Qi becomes a substance which flows warm and almost solid inside the body to nourish it and strengthen it in every moment. inner intentions At the beginning of the practice of Shili, as in the ZhanZhuan, we will start influencing the nervous system and the blood circulation by means of some imaginations external to the body created by the mind. Hereunder we will see how one single external movement can have several internal works. A) In the first level of Shili we imagine to be dip in the water until the solar plexus, the arms are resting on two tree trunks which are floating on the water. The respiration
is natural and not constrained, the body is relaxed, without tensions, the head is as pulled up by a string and the body weight goes down in the ground.
After that the water starts to move, firstly backward, then frontward trying to move the body which, to not loose its balance will put up internal resistance against the stream, and some resistances of the internal force (and not muscular) which will contrast the strength of the water with the will. The will not be moved and to contrast the water firstly frontward then backward.
B) In level two of Shili you’ll think to pull and to be pulled by some elastics. This kind of ShiLi has different levels of internal tensions and resistances focused on strengthen All the parts of the body leaving none.
C) After the previous exercises will become natural and the body will have achieved the proper physical sensations it will be possible to start to try to move the mind and then the Qi in the whole body thanks to the canal of the fire and the canal of the water through the microcosmic orbit first, and macrocosmic then, in order to have a perfect energy balance and to start also the exercises of internal energy development.
D) Once the trainee will be able to move the Qi freely in the canal of the fire and in the canal of the water it will be possible to absorb also the external energies approximately at three meters of distance (tree, small fire close to the student etc) and to send them back outside immediately after having transformed them inside the body and having nourished it with them.
E) Once the DanTian is full of energy it will be possible to take, by means of small explosions and internal movements, all this energy in all the rest of the body.
At the beginning this exercise is purely therapeutic, but later it could be used also as a power enhancement technique during a martial fight.
F) After having trained these exercises the trainee will be aware of his own body and of his own energy state, therefore he will be able to start advanced exercises of physical strengthening. Always with the same ShiLi movement, from the feet we’ll be able to absorb the energies of the underground (rock, earth, lava etc) going down and surpassing crust, mantle, external core, arriving to the internal core of the planet. From the hands it will be possible to absorb the energies above the earth and in the atmosphere(fire, sea, mountain, clouds, wind etc ) of the troposphere (10-16 km, -56°C), stratosphere (40-50 km, -2°C), mesosphere (85 km, -90°C) even until the thermosphere (300-500 km, 1000°C) and to the exosphere. And from the head we will take the energies from our galaxy.
buFa
Y iQ u a n
Introduzione I passi dill' YiQuan Figuer One The student trains ZhanZhuang (JiJiZhuang) creating thanks to the imagination of the water, a relaxation of the whole body. Figuer Tow The water starts to push the body forward, the body resists with the internal intention which tries to resist to the stream that pushes it. At the beginning the exercise is similar to ShiLi, but the stream of water which pushes is stronger now and the body, even putting up internal resistance in the opposite direction, is moved forward by the water, looking for a new position to take root in the earth.
Martial Aspect The steps are fundamental for the outcome of an excellent martial technique. If the steps are executed in a proper way it will be possible to dodge multiple attacks and to strike consequently martial hits with devastating power. Quick legs allow to strike better also with the superior part of the body because the most powerful hits are nearly always charged with the whole body and also with the legs (“from the toes it comes up a spiral force which pass through the lower limbs to all the rest of the body until manifest itself through the fingers”) allowing also an easy execution of projections and overbalancing because of the improvement of the mobile rooting. footwork 1 (BuFa MoCaBu 1) In the basic walk A the body weight will be: at the beginning in ZhanZhuang, for the 70 per cent on the posterior leg, immediately after, on the anterior leg. Afterwards the thrust forward, made by the imagination of the stream of water will make the weight shift for 100 per cent on the anterior leg until making the leg move forward and lift ( the same that at the beginning of the ZhanZhuang’s exercise had the 70 per cent of the weight on it) and going back in a position with the 70 per cent of the weight on the posterior leg ( the same that took 100 per cent of the weight and at the beginning of ZhanZhuang the 30 per cent) and 30 per cent of the weight on the anterior leg (look at the image below).
In the walk the feet on the ground have the same span as the distance between the shoulders, while when you make the step; the leg which goes forward touches slightly the leg which holds the whole weight.
footwork 2 (BuFa MoCaBu 2) These steps are more complicated than the first and allow you to be faster and resolutive in fighting against more than one person. They make the body nimble and light as a butterfly. Following a beeline the feet cross each other taking turns in steps forward and backward.
In this walk, the weight is 100 per cent on the frontal leg and it shifts to 100 per cent on the opposite leg as soon as the anterior one moves forward surpassing with the posterior one.
At a lower level of YangShenGong BuFa imagine always to be moved forward by the usual stream of water and as usual putting up internal resistance backward to contrast this force which pushes forward. The physical movement of this walk, different from the first one, entails several internal movements and gives to the trainee also different health and martial benefits.
footwork 3 (BuFa MoCaBu 3) The third steps of YiQuan are very similar to BaGua Quan and Zhan (other Chinese internal martial art of Taoist origins) ones. The steps follow the shape of the BaGua symbol (the endless changes or endless combinations), the eight BaGua’s trigrams symbolize also the great forces of nature, for example fire, mountain, wind and water and their multiple changes. This walk helps the trainee to totally use his internal energies, making them flow through the whole body dissolving al the tensions. The body becomes nimble, fluent in the movements and at the same time strong and hard inside. martial aspect These steps serve to gain more power in the hits, to execute projections, to dodge the attacks of the enemy, to strike him with legs, feet and knees and in the end also to strengthen the backbone working on the classic spiral force of QiGong BaGua.
The trainee, using the spiral force of the backbone, will move as an hurricane or a tornado which comes unpredictable with devastating power.
ZhanZhuang
YiQuan
mental attitude During the practice of ZhanZhuang the mind has to be relaxed, focused and lively. The mind, with the help of imagination (water, floating ball, stream of water, elastics etc) has to look for different feelings inside the body to improve and change in better the flow of “Qi” inside the energy meridians. During the training of ZhanZhuang as soon as the tension comes it is possible to rest or change position.
Changing position changes also the therapeutic functions, different meridians are activated and different ways are opened for the “Qi” and, by doing so, different physical and spiritual benefits will be gained. It’s very important do don’t have any kind of tension during the training of ZhanZhuang. If a part of the body hurts, the attention shouldn’t be focused on that part, but we should instead work on the entire body, focusing the mind on all of it in order to be able to heal also that small part of the body which is “sick”. While training ZhanZhuang we should feel comfortable , with no rush, and without demands (otherwise we get anxious, we start to set some targets and we loose relaxation). At the beginning we could think about a pleasant sensation felt in the past, a pleasant sensation which our body already know and which because of that it’s easy to reproduce during the training of ZhanZhuang and Shili in order to find the right muscular and psychophysical relaxation which will allow the meridians to open thanks to these exercises made with quick and mobile will to allow the “Qi” to move freely and to unblock step by step all the energy closures, also in an unconscious way, by visualizations external to the body which begin with the embracing of the ball, the feeling of the stream of water and continue with the elastics and the several resistances, to finish with real internal movements of energy. zhanZhuang Exercise One Exercise with parallel legs We will take some of the ZhanZhuang’s positions and explain the fundamentals.
EMBRACE THE BALL first phase Legs opened with a span the same of the distance between the shoulders, feet slightly pointing outside, knees slightly bend, elbows lower then the wrists, fingers slightly opened and relaxed, gaze turned toward the horizon, mouth closed with a beginning of a smile on the sides of the lips, teeth are not touching each others and tongue quite relaxed and lightly leaning against the palate, hands are at least at two fists of distance between each other. Imagine that between your arms there is a ball, if you close them too much, you will break it, if you let it go, opening them too much, it will fall, therefore hold it gently and carefully. The weight of the body will be moved down to the earth, more or less 50% on the heel, 50% on the tips of the feet. The head kept high as pulled by an imaginary wire hanging from a star (at the beginning this kind of visualization is not fundamental, the important is to keep the head high). The respiration is natural, not constrained. The elbows are leaning on two trunks of tree floating (imaginary) on the water (therefore there is no muscular effort to keep the arms up).
Remain relaxed and enjoy the position. Let the water relax the all body. As soon as you get tired, it is possible to rest, change ZhanZhuang position besides you can shift to an exercise of Shili or Bufa.
EMBRACE THE BALL second phase Now the stream of water will come toward the trainee to push him backward. The ball, which floats, will also come toward the student because also pushed by the water. The student will resist the water with his own mental strength, his will of not letting the water push him backward will flow quick trough his all body. The exercise requires that in this very moment the strength of the water is stronger than the mental resistance strength of the student whom will have to help the body to don’t fall backward (because of thrust of the water) shifting his weight for the 70% on the heel and bending a bit the legs to be more rooted in the ground.
Now the stream of water will push the body and the ball forward toward the horizon (the opposite side of before) but the student will use again his mental resistance, this time backward to don’t fall forward. The student’s mental strength to resist to the water will be inferior than the strength of the stream that push him forward therefore the weight of the body will be shifted till the 70% on the tips of the feet and the knees will be slightly stretched. The body then, even if moved forward because weaker than the strength of pushing of the water will always put up mental resistance backward to not cross his point of maximum balance. ZhanZhuang exercise 2 PUSHING THE BALL In this exercise the palms of the hands are facing the horizon and the ball, instead of being between the arms, will float in front of the hands of the trainee. When the ball pushes the student backward because pushed its self by the stream of water, he will have to putting up resistance trying to push the ball, in order to don’t fall backward, rooting himself in the ground with his heels to gain more thrust force. When the stream of the water will push the ball in the opposite direction (toward the horizon), the trainee will have to take hold of it with his fingers to don’t let it slip away (mental strength of the will, not muscular). The stream of water coming from behind the shoulders of the
student will move him forward pushing also the ball toward the horizon in front of him. The student will put up internal resistance backward trying also to hold the ball to don’t let it slip out of the hands. The mental force which pushes the trainee in the opposite direction of the stream of water in order to don’t be moved will be, in this exercise, weaker than the force of the stream of water and therefore the weight of the body will be shifted for the 70% on the tips of the feet.
Chinese Quotations ZhaoHong: It’s hard to explain the kind of sensations that are supposed to be felt during the practice of Shili (we should remember that in the Shili there is ZhanZhuang and in the ZhanZhuang there is Shili). If you’ve never eaten the Beijing Duck (which is spicy) and if you’ve never eaten spicy it’s hard to understand its taste, even if a friend explains it to us, so also in the Shili it is necessary to practice in order to understand the real meaning and to gain the real benefit from these exercises trough the imagination which changes the physical sensations and the emotions. HuaMing: To achieve the best results in the practice of the basic Shili, the best method that the man was able to contrive until now “is to imagine that our body is dip into the water and that this water moves our body gently, slowly and harmoniously forward, backward, rightward, leftward, upward and downward. It’s necessary to feel to be cuddled by the water to put ourselves in the water’s care, but putting up some resistance of internal will in order to don’t let the water overbalance us too much. The intensity, the speed and the direction of the water are controlled by our mind and for this reason the YiQuan is the martial art of the mind (or box of the mind) and it is also called DaChengQuan which means “which include everything” and “great knowledge” since after having learned the fundamentals of this art, it is possible to apply them to every hit or movement (according to every individual’s experiences and preferences), by doing so it is possible to reach “the majestic martial dance”, WuDao, where the YiQuan trainee is really free to move however he likes (at any height or speed). This explains why every master of YiQuan fights in a completely different way. Every trainee of this kind of GongFu develops also FungFu skills and different martial techniques since the YiQuan helps to develop the physical performances, the metabolism and the mental power, and the student of the higher levels is not anymore bounded to static forms, but he is free of move as he like following the energy principles of Qi’s universal law. In the ShiLi’s exercises where the work is based on the imaginations which influence
the sensations, we move because of water tides external to ourselves; if the arm moves forward it does so because pushed by the water and not because it is moving by his will. The right “imagination” is the key of the YiQuan, if you mistake “imagination”, you could spend years and years of training without achieving any tangible result. The more the training carries on, the stronger it is possible to become. The more the mind learns to find his hidden martial strength the more the body “becomes steel”. As the TaiJiQuan the YiQuan as well tends to make the body very relaxed “outside” and as “steel” inside.
Master Zui Ruihua: The use of imagination and the pursuit of certain sensations coming from it are very important. Many masters don’t teach their beginner students the proper use of the initial imagination in order to control and verify if they are constant, sincere and serious in learning, but once the student gains the sympathy of his master he’ll be allowed to learn the real way of the YiQuan. The right use of the imagination influences the body. The mind creates the imagination. The imagination conditions the mind, the body and the spirit, The body influences the mind The spirit influences the body The body is moved by the imagination created by the mind. Body, mind and spirit are perfectly balanced for a cosmic dance, A martial dance that evoke the most hidden and remote powers The mind permeates the body The man floats in the universe We are free to dance happy in the universe We are the universe The universe is inside us This is the YiQuan The Yin and the Yang The TaiJi The primordial force The Whole The perfect union between Man and universe The training of ZhanZhuang mustn’t be constrained. At the beginning of the training in order to avoid muscular tensions the static positions and the one in movement can be exercised even for only 3 minutes a day. You mustn’t be constrained; if you feel tired you can shift to another exercise or make some quicker movements, training the steps, rest or training to strike. The YiQuan includes quickness, slowness, being static, fluid movements, explosive movements, punches, holds, levers, kicks and many others martial and not moves. Is a modern KungFu style suitable for the day by day life of the 21st century listening to all the different physical and psychic needs of thetrainee.
tuiShou Introduction
YiQuan
The first level TuiShou is the same as ShiLi trained in pair, a continuous exchanging of energy where the two bodies becomes a whole single energy in a “one single body”. You need to feel the movements and the ideas of the opponent, understanding his mind and his strength. It’s the same as when the traditional Chinese doctor places his fingers on the wrist of his patience to understand his illness, so when the YiQuan trainee approaches the body or the writs of the opponent with his hands, he can understand the next movement that his opponent would make, or the amount of Qi would be used to load for a hypothetic hit. Training TuiShou is possible to learn the elastic power, the opponent’s energy absorption, and the resistance to external forces, the rooting and the overbalancing in addition to the emission of Qi.
When an opponent launches a hit with emission of Qi, we should know how to transform this destructive Qi into innocuous energy to our body. We have to transfer his energy on the floor in order to find then other energy generated by the charging of the movement backward that we want to send him back. The partner will have to do the same continuing then a kind of Shili in pair where the two trainees exchange and aliment this kind of keen energy which if made go out in an explosive way (as in FaLi), becomes a very dangerous weapon of defense. The TuiShou trainee, in order to be able to enter the opponent’s guard and control him, dominate him and render him harmless, has many martial techniques combinations which are studied in the higher levels of advanced Shili and TuiShou, aimed exclusively to the self-defence. On the side great Master Wang YongXiang who trains TuiShou with his student.
