Subtlety is the key

In autumn 2001, just before master Yao Chengguang's trip to Italy, I visited him in Beijing. When we met at the western side of Nanguan park, master Yao started from checking my exercises. I did mo jin (seeking force) in hunyuan zhuang posture and zonghe shi li (improvised form, mixing basic shi li movements randomly).

Master Yao said:

"Young Xie, you've been learning with me for two years. You are in the amateur group, but because you are studying wushu at the Academy of Physical Culture, you have good basics, and you are making fast progress. But while learning yiquan, you must remember, that if you want to achieve something too fast, you will not be able to achieve it at all. You shouldn't think only about learning as much as possible and as fast as possible. And during the exercises, there shouldn't be any haste. You must concentrate on feeling and experiencing everything very carefully. In yiquan we stress mind, spirit, feelings, development and use of the the natural force. Consciousness is most important. And how do you make your mind and all parts of body coordinated? When you do seeking force in zhan zhuang, you must do it very carefully, very slowly, with great subtlety. In everything there is unity of contradictions. The slowness and subtlety during exercise actually are for seeking fast movement in slow movement. You start from slow movement, focusing on feeling the subtle changes in your whole body, getting the feeling as if your body was linked with the air around you. You achieve high level of concentration, seeking force in relax, finding force in comfort. You maintain unity and coordination, completeness of intention and force. In such situation you can achieve high coordination, force, speed, fast reaction, ability to do various subtle changes in movement at any moment. When the feelings in all parts of body become fuller, more unified, more round, your natural abilities can be fuller displayed.

Young Xie, your postures and movements are proper, you are using your intention in right ways. But your mistake is that you are doing the seeking force too fast. It makes it too rough, not subtle enough, so it affects development and use of hunyuan li. When you learn yiquan, you should firstly search for quality, and how much and how fast is of lesser significance. Only this way you can achieve maximum result with minimum effort. While learning you must be very careful. You must avoid haste. In science and in life you should use this principle. You must go forward step by step".

This lesson gave me some new understanding of yiquan and of life. Master Yao's attitude moved me deeply.

Author: Xie Yongguang

Translated from Chinese by Andrzej Kalisz