Second Course of Yiquan « Yiquanlife’s Weblog

Yiquan is a science and an art of combat and health. It is not a collection of methods, but a study and application of
means to an end. The end being fully grasping (in one’s body) and understanding (in one’s mind) the whole realm of
martial art (Quan), namely the human body’s natural and objectively existing ability and law of responsive movement
to the changes of the internal and external environment. It is a means of bringing into play one’s full latent potential,
namely in the aspects of martial strength, reaction speed, and fighting skill. It is also a study of the optimal means of
reaching this ultimate goal, not a set of fixed methods to reach there. If any method to take one there can be improved
upon, or replaced by something better, that should be done without hesitation, otherwise it can not be called martial art
science. While the methods can vary, the subject of study must be understood clearly, and be so clear and pure that
there is absolutely no room for debate, and that it could not be any other way (even though it can be manifested in
innumerable ways). This is the kind of ideal that led Wang Xiangzhai to the creation of Yiquan from the ancient
martial arts of China, and this is how what was of true value in Chinese martial arts and Western combat sports got
absorbed into Yiquan, and how what was not essential was abandoned. This is also how the Second Course of Yiquan
was created, replacing some and improving upon the rest of the old methods of training, and filling the contradictions
and gaps in the theory and philosophy. Because the learning of Yiquan has a beginning and an end — that of complete
understanding where a teacher is no longer needed, thus the name Course, or a process of teaching, learning, and
training. Second simply refers to the chronological order of establishment. What will be introduced below, is the
learning and training process of the Second Course of Yiquan, and should not be confused with what the majority of
conventional Yiquan methods have turned into nowadays:

The process of learning Yiquan is a process of forming dynamic patterns in one’s subconscious mind. A dynamic
pattern, known as dynamic stereotype or stereotypy in the scientific literature, refers to an automation of behavioral
patterns (either physical and mental), being the basis of all our subconscious behavior. Everything we do again and
again, in daily life and in training, is conditioning of dynamic patterns. This quote from a Russian neuro-psychologist,
Alexander Luria should help you understand the concept better: “Individual motor impulses are synthesized and
combined into ‘kinetic melodies’ when a single impulse is sufficient to activate a complete dynamic stereotype of
automatically changing elements” (Luria, 1973). If we simplify the above quote a little into a specific context to use as
an example, we could say that “when the dynamic stereotype of whole body strength is formed, the single impulse of
reacting on a stimulus can be sufficient to automatically activate motor impulses (“the notes”) to synthesize all the
muscles throughout the body to simultaneously act in combination (“the melody”), producing maximal force in a split
second without the slightest delay”.

Forming a new dynamic pattern is not difficult, but changing old ones requires lots of time and effort. For this reason
young people learn faster, and when a dynamic pattern has been ingrained very deep into one’s subconsciousness, it is
very hard, sometimes even virtually impossible to change. Also for this reason improper training must be avoided like
the plague, as it will form an improper dynamic pattern that will be harder and harder to replace the longer it has been
ingrained into one’s subconsciousness. This is why entering the later stages of learning before mastering the earlier
ones, where dynamic patterns that the later ones will be based on are formed, will lead to failure, and will make
eventual mastery very difficult, even impossible to achieve. Small problems at the beginning will cumulate into big
problems and get ingrained into one’s skills in the later stages. Also, one must understand that the means used to form
the initial dynamic patterns, such as zhanzhuang, shili, doushou, liaoshou, tuishou, etc, while necessary, have a big
difference with the objective reality of combat, and clinging to them infinitely will also lead to eventual failure of
reaching the highest level. This is the basis for the five stage learning and training process of the Second Course of
Yiquan and something very rarely understood in the conventional Yiquan circles.

As was discussed in the Introduction to Yiquan article, on a practical level there are three main aspects to combat:
martial strength, reaction speed, and fighting skill. This strength comes from the interchange of the states of whole-
bodily relaxation and tension, where coordinated maximal tension is expressed within the shortest possible amount of
time to release the maximal force of the muscles of the whole body. This is combined with the grasp of optimal
mechanics, i.e. the mass and momentum of every part of the body (thus called whole-bodily) working simultaneously
for the common goal. Developing martial strength is namely a process of changing the dynamic patterns of using
one’s strength and all movement. Wang Xiangzhai, the founder of Yiquan often raised the question “Why this one
move?” to point people towards the essence of martial art. The meaning of that question is: What is the essence of any
single move, what makes it possible, and consequently how can it be perfected? When that is understood, and grasped
in the body, then from the grasp of the essence of movement, myriads of perfect moves can arise.

Development of reaction speed can only be talked about on the basis of understanding and grasping this movement and
martial strength, as one’s reactions must be conditioned to embody this mastery of movement, not to further imprint
the old ordinary ways into one’s reactions. Also, working on reaction speed is quite useless if the delayed reaction is
still present. Delayed reaction is a neurological phenomenon involving totally unnecessary activity of the central
nervous system before one’s actions or reactions. All conscious activity further magnifies it, thus thinking and having
intentions must be a taboo in training for combat. The most common form of delayed reaction is seen in the so called
telegraphing in martial arts and combat sports, but there is much more to it.

From this basic understanding, we can discuss the five concrete stages of training:

1. Relaxation (+whole body mechanics and elimination of the delayed reaction)

To practice relaxation effectively is impossible if one does not clearly understand what relaxation is. Knowing the
physiological and neurological basis behind it is not of any help either. Martial art science is not measuring what
happens in the body while practicing martial art, that belongs to the boundary of other sciences. It is the science of
understanding the true objective nature of martial art, and the process of training martial art into the students body, as
well as the process of the student reaching a complete understanding of martial art without a single gap in it.

Relaxation refers to minimal amount of tension to achieve the given task or maintain the given position. Pure
relaxation refers to completely giving up of control, so that one’s body becomes like a bunch of thick loose ropes,
feeling extremely heavy when lifted. This is a state that can be objectively verified through various training and testing
methods. This is also a state one must first master and verify to gain full awareness of the state of one’s body, and to
form the basis for mastering relaxation in everything one does, as well as the basis for mastering tension later. When
mastered and practiced for an extended period of time, one’s muscles become so soft and elastic in rest, that even if an
average man grabs one’s shoulder or neck muscles and squeezes with all his force, there will be no pain and harm, but
one will only feel strong comfortable massage. Under the state of tension, those same muscles will be hard as iron, but
that will be discussed below.

Pure relaxation is essential to understand relaxation through intuitive perception (feeling the actual state in one’s
body, after its properness has been objectively verified), but when the exercises of pure relaxation have served their
purpose and one has grasped the state, they need not be practiced anymore. From there the state of relaxation must be
extended towards practical activities, where typically certain muscles apply the minimal amount of force needed to
achieve their task and to overcome gravity, while their antagonists fully relax. For one to know whether that is the case
or not, a mastery and full awareness of pure relaxation was necessary, otherwise there is no means to know for sure,
and one will enter the boundary of imagined training and imagined results. Tension creates friction in movement, thus
slowing it down and reducing its strength, as well as slowing down one’s reactions, because the beginning of a sudden
movement requires a lightning fast transition from relaxation to tension – not from being tense to getting more tense to
overcome the resistance of the antagonist tension.

After pure relaxation has been grasped, the training in the first stage heads into three directions all complementing
each other:

Practice of relaxation at single points of movement: By stopping movement at a single point, one is able to study the
state of the body and mind at that moment, which would already be gone when one became aware of it in actual
movement. This allows one to imprint the stage of relaxation into every possible moment (position) of movement. This
practice, known as Yangshengzhuang, also becomes work and rest at the same time, and while initially work may
overcome the effects of rest, in the end it serves the purpose of reducing the excitation level of the central nervous
system (which is a result of hard training, as well as of mental stress) helping the CNS recover and relieving stress,
promoting recovery of the muscles by increasing nutrient flow, and tranquilizing the mind. Such effects can be
achieved through this practice, at least to a certain degree, even without complete muscular relaxation, thus it has been
adapted as an official means of treatment in numerous hospitals all around China.

Practice of optimal whole-body mechanics: Optimal mechanics refers to all parts of the body simultaneously moving
together to achieve maximal acceleration, speed, and mass towards the same direction. While in theory such
mechanical force acts in two opposite directions, the force exerted to the ground in an incline angle produces a counter
force to the opposite direction, thus it can be said that all the force is directed to the same direction, with the ground as
it’s support point (in most cases, though not always). The methods of practicing the mechanics are called Liaoshou.
They offer an objective means of verifying the state of the whole body moving together in a mechanically optimal
way, and developing such dynamic pattern, so that this way will be ingrained to all one’s movements in the later
stages of the training. At the same time, Liaoshou is practice of relaxation in one’s full dynamic range of motion and
footwork. It also starts to form the basis for the reactive nature of all the training that will follow in the later stages.
Elimination of delayed reaction, and initiation of sudden reaction from the whole body at the same moment: These
exercises are collectively known as Doushou. While they, step by step, extend relaxation into explosive movements
and offer a means of objectively verifying its properness there, at the same time they form the basis for eliminating the
delayed reaction from one’s body and mind, and teach explosive movements (and in fact any movement) to
automatically start from the whole body at the exact same moment.

What is gained in one of those methods, must be extended to all the others, as well as to daily life. By first consciously
examining it throughout the day, it will after some time become one’s natural state of being, so that one remains
relaxed in everything one does, and one’s reactions and actions begin without the slightest delay, and when one uses
force, it is always mechanically sound. When that is achieved, one does not need to continue with these methods.
Yangshengzhuang, should still be used to balance the strenuous training and promote recovery though.

Only by extending these abilities to all moments of one’s life, can dominant dynamic patterns be formed. If one
conditions one way throughout the day, and other during the training, the one conditioned in daily life will still be
much stronger, being the one to set in unconsciously at the moment one’s martial ability is needed.

2. Tension (+beginning the development of combat skills)

Tension refers to the ability of the muscles of the whole body to express their maximal force in coordination within a
blink of an eye. But it is not tension for the sake of tension, but rather uniting the full potential force of the muscles of
the whole body into one common goal, combined with the external body mechanics. While in reality the maximal
tension is expressed over the shortest possible period of time, the ability cannot be gained in such short time, because
as soon as one starts to observe and practice it, it is already gone. Thus starting with a set of exercises to feel and test
the state of unified whole-body tension and its subtleties, one proceeds to practice this state at single points of
movement (this practice is called Zhanzhuang). These points must equally represent all kinds of possibilities, or
positions. Clinging to one or few over the others (out of infinite) will condition fixed dynamic patterns a limit one’s
strength. Within these possibilities (points of movement), the moving potential in any kind of movement, or the
potential of producing force in any direction (out of infinite) is perfected. Reaching a level where the whole potential
force (maximal tension, or muscular contraction) of the whole body is expressed at the same moment, the muscles
working in perfect coordination at the same moment. In this practice the muscles should be hard like iron in work, but
return to softness in rest. The body becomes extremely strong, rigid, and connected at all points, yet never losing its
coordination and grace.

Even more important than the combined maximal strength of the muscles, is the time it takes them to express it. The
same force expressed over a shorter period of time always has greater effect. This is what makes the force so shocking,
it happens so fast that the body cannot give up much in such short period of time, and all the force goes inside, instead
of into moving the target. Naturally force can also be expressed over a longer period of time in an accelerative manner
to move the object, in other words, to push some away, or pull them off-balance, etc, or even relatively statically, for
example to pin someone down.

While this practice is reactive by nature, the target of the reaction is in reality beyond one’s reach, and the true
resistance comes from within one’s body – from one’s own antagonist muscles. This is called false method (Jiafa, or
Jiajie) in Yiquan, in other words, using something unreal, or false, to produce real results, without the limitations
reality sets in. But at the same time, one must constantly go back and forth between reality and the false method, to test
the realness of what is gained within the unreal. For example, in reality if one applies full force to move a heavy object
in one direction, then to another, and another, and so on, the time it takes for the muscles to contract and relax will
limit one’s speed. In the false method one will be able only to begin the tension, but end it before it reaches even 1%
of it, thus cutting out 99% percent of the time, thus taking the speed of change to higher levels, changing numerous
times within every second. In the real world this means that the simultaneousness that one’s tension of one’s muscles
begins with, throughout the body, was taken to higher levels than could have been achieved in reality by moving an
actual heavy object. This is just one example of the benefits of the false method.

Having grasped the movement potential of all kinds of points within one’s range of motion and developed the strength
in them, as well as having grasped the body mechanics through the earlier stage of training, one must extend the ability
to all the points in between, and into all kind of movement (Shili). These are mostly performed very slowly to grasp
every point covered, though all speeds need to be tried and experienced. Here the practice becomes truly reactive, so
one can move around freely, reacting to all kinds of targets around oneself, and not lose the state of tension nor the
mechanics at any moment. Fluidity and grace in one’s movement must remain at every moment even when the
muscles are maximally contracted as a result of their acting on the targets. Movement that looks clumsy looks that way
because the muscles are fighting against each other in an uncoordinated manner and the mechanics are poor. One must
become totally free of fixed movement patterns, never allowing the practice to become repetitive, every moment must
have the potential of changing and at no point shall what will happen even a split second later be known before hand.
At this point, on the basis of the earlier training, all change of targets and directions, etc, must arise from the
subconsciousness, so that one won’t realize it happened before, but only after, it actually happened.

Several methods are utilized to grasp the mechanics of force meeting another force, in other words, arms meeting
opponents arms (Tuishou) or the body coming in contact with the opponents body in a clinch or on the ground. These
could be called Shili between two people. Through the contact with heavy tension and pressure (though later in the
process the nature of this practice has to change, that will be explained below), and by slowing down the speed, freely
attacking and defending under these conditions, one will grasp the angles of intercepting, redirecting, unbalancing, etc.
At the same time one’s body structure is strengthened.

After eliminating the delayed reaction and having understood the whole-body mechanics, and as one starts to grasp the
internal mechanics, namely tension, exercises to develop the skills and attributes for combat can be introduced. Earlier
they would have only served the unfavorable purpose of imprinting the delayed reaction and stiffness into such skills,
that would later have taken lots of work to eliminate, even if one had seemingly progressed to a rather high level (those
qualities would still be there limiting one’s highest potential).

In the end, at one point one must realize, however, that the practice of Zhanzhuang, while it has its purpose in the
learning process, inevitably conditions a dynamic pattern of static resistance. The continuous tension (whether it is
maximal or slight – both are needed in training) in Shili inevitably conditions a subconscious reaction of non-
expolosive and continuous force, and the pressure of Tuishou conditions one to first apply force against the incoming
force before reacting to it (because the direction of the incoming force can only be felt through the sense of pressure).
All of these reactions are inferior to a sudden burst of strength and reaction that begins already when one reads the
opponent’s intention from his body, or before the actual contact happens. Such burst of strength, even when issued to
the opponents arms, shakes the whole body in a way that the sensory input of the sudden shake throughout the body
will overload the central nervous system for a moment, making the opponent completely unable to react, and while
loose and disconnected arms won’t transmit the force to the rest of the body, they will be thrown far out of the way at
high speed, before the opponent can react in any way. Frequent training of Tuishou is an eventual obstacle to further
progress in combat skill.

While these methods have their purpose and necessity in the learning process, continuing to do them regularly after
their quality has been perfected will be an obstacle to eventually reaching a high level of combat skill. However,
completely giving up the development of contraction speed of the muscles and the speed of change in Zhanzhuang,
development of the integrated maximal tensive strength in Shili, etc. after the quality has been trained into a dynamic
pattern, will make one lose those abilities over time, so this training has to be done as infrequently as possible but as
intensely as possible, to still achieve the maximal desired effects while minimizing the conditioning of bad habits.

3. Interchange of Relaxation and Tension (+starting to engage in actual combat)

When relaxation and tension have been grasped, they need to be put in practice, alone they are of no martial use
(relaxation has its health benefits though, and tension makes one physically stronger and fitter). Here all the earlier
training comes together, and one learns to express the force (tension) in an explosive movement for a split second at
the moment of contact. This expression of explosive force is called Fali. The speed and agility of all kinds of relaxed
movement possibilities has been maximized through the earlier training, and is now combined with the tension that
was trained in Zhanzhuang and Shili. All the Shili and Zhanzhuang training was for this short moment, and because
the ability must be universal, instead of position specific, it is essential that the earlier training has been formless (not
fixated to any specific postures or movement patterns) and undiscriminating towards any possibility within one’s
range of motion. Only this way can the universal ability to express one’s full potential force at any time, and any
movement, or position, be achieved.

With the use of voice initiated from the mid-section, access to the muscles surrounding the intra-abdominal cavity is
gained, and explosive control of them is achieved. This way, a sudden peak of intra-abdominal pressure is achieved to
even more firmly connect the upper and lower body, to stabilize the spine, and to gain a reflexive momentary
disinhibition of the central nervous system, allowing the muscles of the body to produce even greater force at that split
second. Once mastered, this is implemented into the expression of explosive force, and the use of voice is abandoned.
The same principle is used in weightlifting to improve strength at the moment of the lift, but the methods are very
different. For martial purposes they are too slow and would miss the moment of impact, and risk making one dizzy.
This method used in Yiquan (Shisheng) allows for an explosive peak in the intra-abdominal pressure, that is released
immediately after the sudden whole-bodily muscular contraction.

As this kind of a dynamic pattern of using one’s strength starts to get developed, it is time to engage more and more in
actual fighting and put it in practice there, to not only improve one’s ability there, but most importantly bring one’s
subjective understanding of it closer and closer towards the objective reality of combat. This will be essential for the
later false methods.

As one can start to practice fighting more and more, the question of how to express one’s strength and how to deal
with the opponent’s incoming strength most efficiently comes up. This is where all kinds of martial arts styles have
their own answers, all different. Namely, their own selections of techniques. While techniques are not bad in
themselves, constant repetition of the same fixed movement conditions such fixed dynamic pattern, that can then come
out reflexively in a similar situation even when it is not appropriate, and thus lead to one’s defeat. While their source
lies in the study of mechanics of force meeting with force, and understanding the strengths and vulnerabilities of the
human body, they are nothing but single specific expressions of those laws. And when such technique is passed on,
instead of the understanding of its underlying objective basis, it becomes dogma, and information gets lost in the
transmission. In fact the same applies to any other aspect of martial art training. Here lies the reason for the decline of
the traditional Chinese martial arts over the centuries, why they lost their essence and started to become more and more
complicated collections of scum. This is also the problem the Second Course solves, namely by eliminating this
transmission of information through concepts (which always depend on interpretation and cannot pass the information
in full) and introducing methods to directly perceive the objective information from its source, from the objective
reality, or Nature, and to objectively verify this in one’s own body.

With the mastery of sudden explosive strength, the partner practices of mechanics (Tuishou, etc.) must gradually shift
from tense to as relaxed as possible and explosive (naturally the moment of explosive force is very tense, but just for a
split second). In reality an impact always involves lots of force because of the speed involved, so soft and slow
practices are as far from reality as day is from night, and while heavy tension and pressure provides the force and
fluidity under effort, such habit is far from desirable in the end. In fact, even when relaxed and explosive, this practice
still has the same flaws of developing unconscious bad habits (reacting to pressure/touch, instead of reacting to the
contact already before the impact, along with having the major difference with real fighting) that will get one into
trouble in real combat against a skilled opponent, so it may not be practiced frequently.

The importance of using the various methods, and then giving them up (or at least minimizing their use) was
emphasized here so much, because one must understand that Yiquan, or martial art itself, is methodless, but the
process of training it into one’s body is that of various methods. Martial art is the outcome of the dynamic patterns
imprinted into one’s subconsciousness, that come out as unconscious immediate responses. The training process of
martial art is a process of using different methods to form those dynamic patterns.

4. Mind Tense, Body Relaxed (development of reaction speed and perfection of the state of actual combat)

Having reached this point, mastery of relaxation, tension, and their interchange (explosive power) must have been
reached, the delayed reaction must have been eliminated and mechanics fully grasped, in other words, one has fully
grasped every moment of movement, i.e. movement itself.

This state puts emphasis on developing the mental state of combat, that of extreme alertness and standing on the verge
of explosion of strength. Most importantly, reaction speed, or the processing speed of the mind, is developed here.
Continuous tension must be left behind, and strength is expressed only for a split second like in reality. Here the
limitations of reality, namely the speed of one’s body and muscular contraction would get in the way of the speed of
the mind, thus again, the false method must be applied. Every action of explosive strength must be like touching a hot
plate, as soon as one feels the heat, the hand is pulled back – as soon as one’s action begins it stops, and as soon as it
stopped a new reaction begins. This way, one will be able to build up one’s reactions to numerous times per second,
and extremely high frequency of processing sensory input. When taken back to reality, one begins from relaxation,
there is no ongoing action holding one back, thus this frequency of the mind is readily usable. However, one’s
reactions must always be real and the body must always react, even if the reaction stops before it really started. Doing
everything in one’s mind is just fantasizing, and one will be in for a big unpleasant surprise when facing a real
opponent. If there is any conscious activity going on at this point, one’s reactions will always remain slow, because
the conscious mind with its thoughts and intentions slows one down. At this point, all practice must be subconscious.
So that the highest state of “one’s actions happening totally unexpectedly without a single thought”, “before knowing
what caused it, the results of the action can already be seen in front of one’s eyes” are present both in training and in
combat.
Through this practice, the sensory input will be processed faster and faster, and one will be able to react sooner and
sooner. It is also important to learn to spot the delayed reaction in others, as well as inflict it on others when necessary.
By understanding of the mechanics of delayed reaction, and by then studying of it in sparring and observing other
fighters, etc, one can learn to spot the opponent’s intention to act before their action, by conditioning oneself to
unconsciously react to it. This way, the realm of “the opponent attacks first, but my attack reaches first” can be
reached.

After one has abundant experience of combat and the practical combat skills have reached an unconscious level, it is
time to also adapt the false method for fighting, naturally alongside with actual fighting against a real opponents.
However, such can not be achieved by thinking of an opponent, thinking ruins one’s unconscious reactions and
conditions countless bad habits. Only when through the other false methods (where thinking must be a taboo too), one
has reached a level where the false method feels like reality, can this method be implemented. It must be like one was
dreaming, yet awake and the body unconsciously reacts to the dream. Like Wang Xiangzhai once wrote, quoting a
story of famous Taoist philosopher Zhuangzi, who once had a vivid dream of being a butterfly flying around, and then
after waking up thought, “am I a butterfly dreaming of being Zhuangzi, or Zhuangzi who just dreamed of being a
butterfly?” That is how real the false method should feel. It allows one to face a speed of action that no human would
be capable of to take place in order to develop one’s unconscious reactions, and at the same time prevents the injuries
that frequently occur in full-contact combat. However, practice of full-contact fighting is still needed in order not to
lose the connection with reality.

Nothing may be practiced purely in the false method, otherwise one can enter the path of fantasizing. The practice
must continuously move back and forth between reality and the false method, for the false method to be validated
objectively, so that the subjective state of the false methods and the objective state of real fighting can be
synchronized.

5. Verification in Reality (competition, fighting, entering from the boundary of science to the realm of art)

At this point, one must put one’s ability to test. Competition offers a good means for that, as well as fighting with like
minded martial artists (with adequate protection to prevent serious injuries). And the results are to be analyzed. One’s
ability has to be on unconscious level, so typically one only has a few flashbacks of a fight, remembering very little of
it, as everything happened instinctively. Analyzing can be greatly enhanced by the observation of friends or the use of
a video camera. This will point out flaws and insufficiencies in one’s ability. If one’s well landed strikes to the head
or torso could not knock out the opponent, one’s strength is still lacking and one must concentrate on that, analyzing
the underlying cause and fixing the problem in training. If one could not react in time, one needs to intensify the
training of reaction speed, etc. If one was too tired to move fast enough by the third match, one needs to put more
emphasis on developing one’s endurance. If one, despite reacting fast enough with adequate force, still gets hit, taken
down, pinned, submitted, or whatever, in a certain situation, one must analyze the basis for the skills in such situation,
drill them over and over, and fix the problem. And so on.

In fact the above process could take place in the form of various physical disciplines, and still lead to the outcome of a
full grasp of movement at every moment of one’s life, and a full understanding of the development process of human
cognition and understanding. When one fully understands and grasps martial art, then the teachers job is completed.
Yiquan is a path to independence, naturalness and freedom, not to dependence on teachers and limiting oneself within
the boundary of man-made teachings. It’s cultural value goes far beyond that of combat. And one will realize that the
laws and principles that underlie the martial way, expand to all realms of life, thus it is called the study of one’s life
and nature. Through the study of fighting and cultivation of health, something much more far reaching is achieved at
the same time. Something that transcends martial art, music, arts, philosophy, etc. This is where one steps out from the
objective boundary of science, into the subjective realm of art, the expression of the human spirit. While subjective,
there still lies certain objective basis. While nations and ethnic groups all have their own aesthetic values, greatest art,
beyond styles and schools, is appreciated as great everywhere, transcending time and location. So somewhere deep in
the human spirit, there lies an objective basis for it.

In Yiquan, this expression of art is called martial art dance, or health dance (Quanwu or Jianwu). The two names
describe the same thing. In health dance there no longer are objects to react to (though it is not limited to not having
objects either), there is no objective standard to follow, it is an expression from the heart, not from the conscious mind.
If there are thoughts and intentions, one’s actions become fabricated at once. It embodies one’s martial skills, such as
the grace of whole-body force and movement, at every moment. At one moment one can be like a bird flying in the sky
towards the horizon, feeling the total freedom in one’s spirit; the next moment like a startled cat, exploding into
motion unexpectedly. But one may not think of that, or it is lost immediately. Every time it will be different, never an
imitation, never fabricated by the mind.