How Wang Xiangzhai Created a NEW Kung Fu Style

For seven years, he traveled around China, comparing martial arts skills with some of the country's top kung fu masters. Out of around a thousand sparring partners, amazingly, he only found three people who could match him, and only two of those could fully beat him. After this extensive period of research into the martial arts, he established his own style in 1926, a stripped-down version of Xing Yi Quan with additional elements of several other arts, but without complex routines and an emphasis on raw internal power developed through standing in stillness. And the art has even drawn the respect of Xu Xiaodong, a Chinese MMA practitioner famous for exposing China's fake traditional martial arts masters, like this Tai Chi master that he beat up in less than 10 seconds. We are of course talking about Yi Quan, developed by the martial artist Wang Xiangzhai in Shanghai in the 1920s. In part one of this video, we looked at Wang's upbringing, the master he learned from, and his early development. In this video, which is part two, I want to delve into what he created, Yiquan itself, and the legacy he left behind. To do that, I enlisted the help of Gao Song, an Yiquan practitioner and teacher with 10 years of experience in the art, who is also the creator of an in-depth YouTube video series on Wang Xiangzhai's life. He takes us through the history, the theories, and training methods of Wang Xiangzhai's art. This is Yi Quan, a new yet traditional Chinese martial art. So after Wang Xiangzhai's tour of China, he moves to Shanghai in the mid-1920s. Most accounts say that he established Yi Quan, which means intent boxing, in 1926, with the establishment of the Yi Quan She or Yi Quan Society in Shanghai in 1928. In the 1940s, the art was often promoted using another name, Da Cheng Quan, or Great Achievement Boxing, although this was done by Wang Xiangzhai's students, not the man himself. Gao Song is a fifth-generation disciple of the art. two sons of Master Yao Zongxun. Yao Zongxun was the successor of Grandmaster Wang Xiangzhai. Now, many people who have looked into Wang Xiangzhai know that one of the most important parts of martial arts training that he taught is Zhan Zhuang, or post-standing exercises. And in fact, he was the first person to really bring this out of secretive circles and teach it to the general public. And this is something I was keen to find out more about. So Wang Xiangzhai placed great emphasis on Zhan Zhuang and regard it as the foundation of martial arts. Its essence lies in movement within stillness through well-structured postures and the guidance of Yi, Yi as in Yi Quan, right, which is intentions. So practitioners seek to awaken the body's innate abilities. Zhan Zhuang starts from improving a practitioner's health. So when holding the body is upright, the spine is extended, and breathing remains natural. So circulation through the body can improve without relying on a rise in blood pressure. And in a relaxed, quiet state, the internal organs can also better maintain themselves. And moves on to developing use of power for martial arts. This is Chen Bo, right? This is well-known to a lot of martial art practitioners. So this is Chen Bo. Now, my arms are Chen and Bo, so expanding and embracing at the same time. And I put 70% of my Yi on embracing, 30% on expanding. Now, this expanding and embracing is one pair of opposing forces, Shen Li, okay? And also, you know, my arms, you know, they don't physically move, right? They're not expanding or embraced, right, physically. But they're doing the two movements at the same time. So this is so-called movement within stillness. So, and with all those, you know, opposing forces through the body, in Zhan Zhuang, the whole body works as one. The practitioner maintains a sense of engagement as if facing an opponent. So although standing still, the body develops a spring-like readiness to respond. And Zhan Zhuang is the first of something called Qi Miao Fa Men, or the Seven Marvelous Methods in Yi Quan. Let's now look at the other six. So the next of the seven methods is called Shi Li, or testing force. You could also say force testing. Here's how Gao Song explains it. The second method is Shi Li, force testing. This takes the force developed through the standing practice and explores it in slow continuous movements. Practitioners sense the body's integrated elasticity and learn to let movement of the body guide the limbs. On the third method, the practitioner finally starts moving around. The third method is Mo Cha Bu, friction stepping. This method trains practitioners to maintain integrated power while moving. They learn to shift their weight freely and keep the body coordinated while advancing, retreating, and changing directions. It addresses a common problem in martial arts, having power while standing still but losing it in motion. But when do you actually learn how to use your power to strike? Well, that comes next. The fourth method is Fa Li, force-releasing. Building on Zhanzhuang and force-testing, practitioners train to release a sudden, spring-like force at the moment of contact. This doesn't involve deliberately shaking the muscles. The force comes from the elasticity of the whole body, responding to what's felt and releasing at once. The next training method that complements Fali is Shisheng or testing sound. The voice or sound is used to engage the whole body and create internal vibration, coordinating the muscles, bones, nervous system, and internal energy. This reinforces integrated power. The purpose is not to shout at or intimidate opponent, but to experience the vibration within the whole body. That's all very well, but when do I actually get to fight another person? Well, two-person exercises start now. The sixth method is Tuishou, pushing hands. This is a controlled partner exercise involving contact and can be understood as force testing with another person. Through contact, practitioners sense the direction and quality of the other person's force. They practice sticking, adhering, connecting, and following, maintaining their center, yielding to force, and finding the right moment to issue force. But that's just pushing hands, which is something that people do in Tai Chi, just basically learning to control the body's forces. What about actual sparring? The seventh method is Sanshou, free sparring. In free-form engagement without fixed techniques, practitioners bring the previous six methods together. They let Yi lead, respond to whatever they sense, adapt spontaneously to the body's innate abilities. So that is the complete curriculum of what had been passed down from Wang Xiangzhai in the lineage that Gaosong is part of. But why did Wang create the art this way? And is it effective in a fight? Well, Wang didn't just make up Yi Quan. the process of creating it was more like putting together a martial arts curriculum from traditional techniques available at the time. movements, forms, right, techniques, so, while losing sight of the fundamentals. In a way, Wang shares some similarities with Bruce Lee, believing that generating power and actual combat were more important than memorizing long sequences of moves. But where Wang Xiangzhai was different was in his advocation for Zhan Zhuang exercises. His was a form of power generation that came from standing in stillness, not cardiovascular workouts. but these methods do lead to martial effectiveness. And even Xu Xiaodong, a man famous for seeking out and challenging traditional martial artists, who he believes are actually not as good as they say they are, sees Yi Quan as one of the traditional martial arts he still has respect for. Gao Song says that this is because Yi Quan is still being taught as an actual martial art and not just sets of forms for competition or health. So Yiquan families, there's like a few schools in China, they make fighters, you know, all, you know, young kids, you know, teenagers, practice Zhan Zhuang and, you know, Yiquan principles. And we see this in the example of one of Wang Xiangzhai's most famous students, Wang Shujin, who learned Zhan Zhuang from Wang Xiangzhai and then incorporated it into his Ba Gua Zhang and other internal martial arts, and became known for incredible internal strength. To see our video about Wang Shu Jin, click on this video on screen now. I'll also put Gaosong's video series on Wang Xiangzhai on screen too. It's very informative. And for our members, if you want to see my full interview with Gaosong, including a few secret stories, that's this video here. If you haven't joined the channel as a member yet, it's $4.99 per month and you can cancel anytime. time. We'll aim to have more members only videos up on the channel in the near future. If you don't want to join as a member, we hope you'll still subscribe so you can see all our public videos. Membership and subscribe buttons down below. We'll see you next time. Bye bye.