Three Treasures of Southern Yiquan

Three Treasures of Southern Yiquan February 28, 2012 in Uncategorized

The following article was writen by CS Tang a former student of Liang Zi Peng. It was translated it into English by his student Bernard K. on whose blog “Be Not Defeated by the Rain” it first appeared. The article is an exerpt from CS Tang’s forthcoming book on Yiquan. http://benotdefeatedbytherain.blogspot.com/ http://cstang.www3.50megs.com/index_en.html

Sun Zhi is the Mandarin spelling for the person we know as Sun Di (孫秩) (1917-1999). Dun Yao and Tuo Yao are Mandarin for Donyu and Toryu.

Three Treasures of Southern Yiquan – 南派意拳 In Hong Kong, the first person to come to teach Yiquan publically was Liang Zi Peng, and his system is more concise and easier than many systems nowadays. It is generally referred to as “Southern Yiquan”. The system as taught by Liang, both in form and gong fa, is different from that taught by Han Xing Men and the Yao Cheng Guang and Yao Cheng Rong: and the difference between Master Han and the Yao Brothers’ Yiquan is also very vast. Each of these masters who came to teach in Hong Kong has their own system. Thus it can be seen that the same school of boxing founded by Wang Xiang Zhai, has developed in Hong Kong into three distinct branches based on the same fundamentals. It is worthwhile for the practitioner to study, explore and seek each branch’s own distinct flavor. The Southern Yiquan taught by Liang Zi Peng has its own unique style and appearance, and has a deep and beautiful philosophy, with a core teaching that is easy to grasp, this is all due to the fact that Liang faithfully adhered to Master Wang’s teachings and developed and popularized them. Southern Yiquan is simple and complete, and is elegant and outstanding, because it retains the original face of Yiquan, its philosophy meshes with that of Master Wang, and complement each other exactly, even though its attack philosophy is very deep, and its gong fa is a cut above, when we see its unique Zhan Zhuang, Dun Yao and Tuo Yao, these are described as the “three treasures” of Southern Yiquan. The changing Jin of Zhan Zhuang is the basis of Southern Yiquan, the form is simple and complete and can be divided into three variations – the posture for cultivating health, attacking posture, and power posture. The practitioner begins to generate internal heat and experience spontaneous movement, strengthening the body and the spirit, increasing endurance and patience, alertness increases, and once’s vital energy is arises, the mind is quick and body movements refined, and the quality of the Qi begins to change, a contradictory strength arises in the body, and each part becomes unified into a whole, the four limbs and the skeleton become as one, naturally generated a startling hunyuan power,

attacking and defending in a single thought and able to react to any change. This is the first step in the basic kung fu of Southern Yiquan. Once the practitioner has achieved a basic power, the folding and extension and retraction, forward and backward, open and close and inhaling and exhaling, have a specialized training method. Using the methods of dun yao and tuo yao, one can bring out the practitioner’s full potential and power. Dun yao is also known as the Dragon Squat, it trains the arching and springing power of the sacral verterbrae and hips and aims at training each joint to be relaxed and extended at the same time, and therein lies the contradiction. First one sinks from the top of the head to the coccyx, then one extends from the coccyx to the top of the head, in the middle one folds into the hips and springs out from the spine. One relaxes and sinks from the head to the soles of the feet, and pushes out from the soles of the feet to the top of the head. With each rise and fall, contraction and release, it becomes easy to cultivate a startling, explosive energy. Tuo Yao trains the opening and closing of the body and the inhaling and exhaling and develops the shaking energy. Using the spine as the axis, turn the shoulders as the shaft. When training this is separated into the single tuo, double tuo, fixed step tuo, moving step tuo, advancing and retreating and left and right. Using this one can generate the contraction and extension, opening and closing, spiraling and shaking, and the change from being empty to firm, as well as learning the special way of using your body and the stepping. One can hope to attain the beautiful power of Jian Wu / health dance, floating like a spirit, with an eerie elegance that the gods and spirits cannot fathom. All this can be attained by Dun Yao and Tuo Yao. Hence the importance that Southern Yiquan places on the three treasures. When speaking about fajin and “sinking the roots into the earth” these are practices that Southern Yiquan places great emphasis on. Even though they are two practices, they are intimately inter-related. In order to realize how jin is expressed, one has to understand that it relies on the how firm the lower basin is, whether it is water jin or fire energy, long jin or one-inch jin, bounce jin or explosive energy, they all have the same repulsive energy. Whether it is one hundred pounds or five hundred pounds, if the lower basin is not firm the power will not be strong, straight and clean. Without a straight jin, penetrating power, with a shaking and misaligned body, how are we to issue clean force to shatter stones and scare the heavens? When sinking the roots into the earth, the Qi should be like the nine pearls threaded together, the body should be cotton with a core of steel, every joint is “song” or relaxed and each joint is extended, and each joint linked together. The Qi should flow through each joint, lifting the head, bringing the shoulders forward, rounding the back, loosening the kua, and lifting the kneecaps, supported in the thighs and sinking into the soles of the feet, the enemy’s jin should be listened to through the hands and felt and reacted to by the body and controlled by the spirit. Thus the body responds to force, and the body responds to the enemy. You have to realize that the dantian is the center, and the source of Qi and power, those who know how to use it well spiral and explode, and extend in all directions, like the extension of a heavenly spirit and the solidity of the muddy ox in the earth. This is sinking of the roots into the earth – standing on earth with a hundred catties. The most representative master of Southern Yiquan in Hong Kong at present is Master Sun Zhi. Master Sun is addicted to the martial arts, and has spent his life studying Yiquan. His abilities are extraordinary, with many accomplishments. He practices the hardest, and his power is simple and strong, his fire power has an explosiveness renowned through the martial world. He has fought many duels, he attacks and enters without covering himself, and is undefeated. In his late years, his power is deep, and his arts are his passion and hobby. [He has since passed away]

Little is know of Master Sun’s background other than he was student of Leung Tzu-pang (Laing Zhi Peng,梁子鵬) for quite some time. He was probably Master Moy’s closest friend and after Leung Tzu-pang passed away

in 1974 he became Master Moy’s teacher and adviser. He was a highly accomplished martial artist who excelled at LokHupBaFa, Yi Quan, Bagua, Xing Yi and Tai Chi. As the mainland fell to the communists martial artists of every creed and color fled to Hong Kong. In this seething cauldron Lei Tai and push hand competitions were as stiff as ever found. In this world Master Sun was know as “Sun the Unbeatable” and only the best of the best came to be humbled before him. There are videos of him on YouTube doing Lok Hup and Yi Quan and in one of the Lok Hup videos (posted by jgraham1953) Master Moy does a cameo for a few seconds. In his book “Liuhebafa: Six Harmonies and Eight Methods”, Liang Shihong refers to the donyu, toryu and zhan zhuang as Leung Tzu-pang’s three treasures. While the article is about Yi Quan, the forms are simply different methods of incorporating the internal principles. At the end of the equation LokHupBaFa, Yi Quan, Bagua, Xing Yi and Tai Chi will all take the student to the same place. Most students will never get a good grip of one form, for Master Sun to excel in five forms speaks of the depth of his practice. The article only speaks of one way to do the donyu, hints at the number of different toryus. The paragraphs on fajin and rooting give the student some idea of how far is yet to go. When they speak of nine pearls, think nine joints (Lok Hup Post). Single tuo, what we call the toryu. Double tuo, two person, like double snakes, using the hand movements from the form of toryu that the hand cross at heart level. Fixed step tuo, like fixed step push hands, moving back and forth 3,6 or 9 steps. Moving step tuo, advancing and retreating and left and right, think stepping in Brush Knees and Repulse Monkeys.