YI QUAN : A PRACTICE BASED ON THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE BODY AND THE HUMAN MIND
The Masters Wang
Xian Zhai and Yao
Zong
Xun raised the veil of mysticism and superstition which wraps
the practice of the martial arts. Their teaching is based on the
principles of anatomy, physiology and human psychology.
Thus the philosophical step of the former Masters must imperatively
be supplemented by experiments of neurobiology. The dominating
principle is the relation between the thought and the brain, the
most difficult aspect to analyze being the conscience in its various
forms, from the experiment of the pain to the feeling to exist.
The practice
of Yi Quan, and
probably on a general level the survival of our planet, depend
on a better comprehension of the human mind.
If we admit that the thought is a whole of " mental processes " rather
than a substance or a vague entity, it is easier for us to carry out
the necessary empirical approaches on the brain. The term " mental
process " is less enigmatic than the mind or thought terms.
The stress is laid on the drive of Yi which, in perfect coordination with the body, produces a great stability and especially makes it possible to emit an explosive force.
Yao Zong Xun said: " Yi equals force ".
In all the martial arts, the principles are the same ones : there are not thousand ways of giving a punch with the fist or a kick with the foot. What counts is the force that you put in it as well as the manner of moving your centre of gravity.
Yi Quan being a form of sport, it has its theory and its rules to which to refer. In all the sports, Yi plays a principal role. It makes it possible to the basketball player to reach the basket, in football to mark the goals and in wushu, it makes it possible to mobilize the totality of your body in order to manage to emit the explosive force at the desired time. The articulations play the role of lever, the muscular contraction serves the explosive force under control of the nervous system. The muscular contraction mobilizes all the body, from the head to the feet towards the direction chosen by the Yi.
The basic directions are six. To the top, the bottom, the front, to the back, on the right and on the left, which are added spiral forces. The repetition of this muscular contraction has as a result a conditioned reflex which does not relate to only the gesture, but implies the participation of all the body through this one. The gesture then becomes the natural expression of this whole mobilization.
Short said, the displacement of all the body becomes a conditioned reflex and the gesture of attack or defense only follows.