10/29/2015
Written by Han Xingqiao (Han Qiao)
Sunday, 10 October 2004
Translated by Timo Heikkilä
Formerly the students of martial arts only had the aspiration to wholeheartedly study and train assiduously out of the fear that their skills might be inferior to others'. Every morning, right from opening their eyes, all they would think about, all they would talk about, and all they would train, would be connected to “martial art science”. Extremely few people would painstakingly go on to record the history of martial art science and preserve its material. This situation has a lot to do with the traditional means of teaching. Traditional teaching used mainly the means of passing from the mouth to the heart, with spoken instruction and training as its basis. The teacher speaks, the students listen and watch. After listening and watching there's just training, paying attention to the word “realization”. Like in the old saying, “first the master guides one through the gate, then each person cultivates oneself according to the way on one's own”. Extremely few people carry a book, and bring a pen and paper when going to study martial art.
I am already old (95 years) now, and feel that there is great necessity to speak out, from the beginning to the end, everything I have seen and heard while following Mr. Wang for fifteen years (1931-1946). I hope this is helpful to those who are interested in the history of Yiquan.
Mr. Wang Xiangzhai studied and trained Xingyiquan from childhood. He was talented and intelligent, and brave in application. He left his home three times, during the first two times he came back with failure, and only on the third time he stood his ground. Already in his youth his combat skills had become famous around the area of Beijing and Tianjin. Thereafter he traveled around the martial arts circles as a man of the Xingyiquan school, making great progress in his fighting art.
In the late 1920's, Mr. Wang went to Shanghai to have an audience with Mr. Qian Yantang, his elder martial art brother. Mr. Qian was Mr. Guo Yunshen's personal student. Mr. Guo had been exiled for penal servitude because of a homicide case, but he encountered Mr. Qian's father (the magistrate of the prefecture) who accepted and heard his case, and out of admiration, allowed him to stay in the prefecture. Mr. Guo did not have to suffer imprisonment so he taught Mr. Qian. The rumor created by later generations of old Guo realizing a new method in prison is purely fabricated. Mr. Qian wrote a poem appraising Mr. Wang's fighting skills: “The walls of the palace are twenty-five thousand meters high, only one man passes through the hall into the inner chamber”. During this period Mr. Wang carried out a complete and careful discussion and summarization of the practice of the martial skills he had trained, getting rid of untrue theories and improving on the training methods, gradually establishing the outline of an independent system of science and training. In this process, Mr. Wang, Mr. Qian Yantang, and Mr. Wu Yihui (the founding master of Xinyiliuhebafa) discussed deeply about the questions of martial art science and martial skills. As a result, the contribution of Mr. Qian and Mr. Wu to the establishment of the science of Yiquan cannot be neglected. Also, Mr. Qian first supported the founding of a new martial art, powerfully fostering Mr. Wang's determination to create Yiquan.
Yiquan was founded in Shanghai. On Wuzhuang Road, a backstreet of Nanjing Road's “Sincere” Company, a sign titled “Yiquan Society” was officially hanged, and students were openly accepted.
I (Han Qiao) have the knowledge of this founding period of Yiquan because Mr. Qian was my teacher of Chinese medicine and Tuina massage, and I have personally experienced the scenes of the three old men discussing together. (Having spoken to this point, father in sincere words and earnest wishes said to me [the writer], no matter when, no matter whether it is medical skills or martial skills, never forget the contribution of these three old men; they are the great benefactors of our Han family).
The theory and the training methods of Yiquan were in a continuous process of development. For example the Zhanzhuang method was originally influenced by the traditional training method of “one finger Zen” (Yijinjing, “the classic of changing the muscles”), and formed the “twenty-four posture Zhanzhuang method” (which is introduced in my book “Yiquan Science”). Later, having gone through Mr. Wang's process of “abandoning complex and seeking simple”, the“three postures of Hunyuanzhuang” became the main form of Zhanzhuang. Mr. Wang's keen spirit of reform was something ordinary people could not even imagine. What was changed first was one's own life, following that, new training methods would be created from the new perspective. Often the students were incapable to adopt to this kind of speed of progress. Mr. Qian once laughingly said: “You (refering to Mr. Wang) can only teach the genius, but how many genius are there for you to teach?” Mr. Wang answered: “Quality goes before quantity.” For example, originally there was no guard position, but this improvement was made to adapt to the rules of boxing. The goal of this improvement was to attend boxing competitions. Originally in 1932, Mr. Wang and a Shanghai banker, Mr. Yu Lubai made a deal. Mr. Yu would invest the money and Mr. Wang would take care of the coaching, with the aspiration of cultivating martial art talents to fight their road from China to the United States, firstly to demonstrate the level of Chinese martial skills, and secondly to win honor for the Chinese people. I (Han Qiao) was fortunate to be Mr. Wang's first choice as a student to be trained. During the same period Zhang Entong, my younger martial art brother, and Zhang Changxin, my elder martial art brother, were also chosen (Zhang Changxin could not persist for more than a month for other reasons and dropped out from his own initiative). This training went on from 1932 until 1936 ending only when Shanghai was occupied by the Japanese.
Between the years 1935 and 1937, Mr. Wang took me (Han Qiao) and Zhang Entong back to his hometown, Shenxian in Hebei Province to continue the advanced study. During this time Bu Enfu, my younger martial art brother, joined in. Some people have said that the training in Shenxian included wearing slippers and training friction steps while holding a big rooster. That is a pure lie. Mr. Wang was a strict teacher, and he was also a man who greatly emphasized appearance. Such depraved looks would have got one kicked out from his group of students very fast.
When Mr. Wang was spreading Yiquan in Beijing, it took place under the name of the Sicun Academy. In the beginning the chairman of Sicun Academy was Mr. Qi Zhenlin, but later he was replaced by Mr. Zhang Yuheng. At first Mr. Wang spread Yiquan on Yangyibin alley, later moving to a garden on Jinyu alley, and then again moving to Gongxian alley.
I (Han Qiao) left Mr. Wang in 1946 to practice medicine in Shanghai. The last time I saw Mr. Wang was at the First National Games of the People's Republic of China [1959], which I attended being both the captain and the medical supervisor of the Shanghai wrestling team [translators note: Han Qiao won the championship].
Mr. Wang had two great disappointments during his life. The first one was not being able to complete the Shanghai training deal. The second was that the majority of people could not identify with the martial art science he had established. Mr. Wang wrote a poem to express his feelings:
Martial skills break a new ground,
the muscles contain strength and the bones store the spirit,
stillness is like a tame panther jumping high in the air,
movement is like a dragon diving into the waves,
commanding the wind and thunder to move,
only a few people have broken through this barrier.
A bit of pride, a bit of sorrow, and a bit of hope. What was narrated above is every bit of my (Han Qiao) understanding and personal experience during the fifteen years I followed Mr. Wang. I hope it is of help to those who are interested in the history of Yiquan.
