Hard force and soft force in Xing Yi

By Hai Yang Xing Yi is one of the most practical martial arts in China. It has been in a dominating position in the Chinese martial arts community for more than a century. Especially since the beginning of last century, Xing Yi was well-developed and tested in real combat. As a style, Xing Yi was even taught to military soldiers when apan invaded China. !or a period of time, other styles were called "artial Arts, but Xing Yi was called the #$ational Art# since Xing Yi is very practical in combat. !or many years, traditional Xing Yi practice has not been well demonstrated in martial arts communities around the world, especially out of China. %ince Xing Yi is one of the internal martial arts, many people believe that Xing Yi practice should be very soft, and without force. &his is totally wrong. 'ow could Xing Yi be a famous fighting style if the movements are so soft( 'as anyone seen any soldier who can )ill his enemy with soft movements( !rom studying martial art history, since Xing Yi was a style used in army and body guards, it should not be very soft at all. Any martial art needs power to be effective whether it#s an internal style or e*ternal style. Any misunderstanding or wrong concept has a certain reason behind it. %o what is the reason for people thin)ing that Xing Yi# s practice should be soft( +efore answering this ,uestion, we should )now the relation between Xing Yi and -aoism. Xing Yi belongs to -aoist practice, so -aoist theory should be the guidance of this style. In -aoism, being soft is considered as higher level, it is the common belief to many people. 'owever, what )ind of softness is the right one( Actually, -aoism focuses more on balance between softness and hardness, rather than only softness. .lease loo) at the Yin-Yang logo, it#s all about balance. ust as softness and hardness should be )ept in balance, so should martial art practitioners maintain the balance between softness and hardness. Emphasi/ing only softness at the e*pense of hardness is not the way of -aoism. !urthermore, in -aoism, real softness derives from hardness, and real hardness from softness. &his implies that in order to have the soft force, hard force should be practiced first. &he soft force that comes from the hard force practice will be the real soft force. &he normal progression of Xing Yi practice is that students should practice with rela*ed body manner and structure. In this way, the hard force will be developed over time. At this stage, there is no soft or hard force involved at all - it is 0ust a beginning stage. &he beginning stage will only develop the basic s)ills of a certain style, especially by removing bad habits which are against the principles of the style. It usually ta)es at least a year to finish this step. After students get the basic s)ills of Xing Yi movements, at the same time, their body will adapt in accordance with Xing Yi principles. &hen, the ne*t stage will begin from here1 developing the hard force as much as possible. &his is the crucial stage of the whole Xing Yi practice. "any Xing Yi practitioners stop their progression at this point or 0ump to the ne*t stage too ,uic)ly. &his is why eventually most Xing Yi practitioners are unable to develop force, or only get fa)e soft force, which may give them some false sense of security but which is useless in combat. &raditionally, there have been so many masters that emphasi/ed this stage of practice that some masters such as %hang Yu*iang, even said that he would practice hard force 23 years more if he could live longer. $ormally, this stage of developing true hard force ta)es about 4 to 53 years.

&he ne*t stage is the proper time to develop the soft force. It will be real soft force. 'owever, please remember that the 6soft6 force is not soft at all - it is a )ind of force that loo)s soft but is very powerful in application. It will ta)e a much longer time to develop this stage. "any people confuse soft movements with soft force. &hey thin) that their movements are soft so their force must be soft force. It is simply wrong, because force is different from movement. "ovement is only the vehicle of force. After the stage of developing soft force comes the time to develop refined soft force. !rom the e*perience of many masters in history, we can say that the second stage, which is the stage to develop the hard force, is the most important stage. 7nfortunately, it is the stage most people ignore, failing to put enough time and effort into it. %o what is the e*ternal appearance of the hard force( it should be powerful, crisp and strong. In Xing Yi, some people use 6&hunder %ound6 to describe the power. 'ow to get this )ind of force, or how to ma)e our practice correct in the second stage( &he foundation of the first stage is important, since the body should be ready to develop the force for the ne*t step. %tudents should practice each single movement very carefully with concentration. %tudents should focus on not only the main movements, but also the coordination among other movements too. &his is the most difficult part of practice, so the instructor should pay more attention to correct each mista)e the students may ma)e. 8therwise, many bad habits will happen from here, and they will be hard to correct in the future. "any people have not spent enough effort in this stage, because the concept of soft force is very appealing to many practitioners. In order to get soft force, they stop practicing hard force too early. &his is why they can never get soft force at all in the rest of the practice. +ecause we have )nown already that the real softness is from the real hardness, before achieving the real hardness, people should not see) any softness. In order to practice Xing Yi well, you have to )now your stage of practice first, then thin) of where and how to ma)e progress from this point. &here is a very famous poem in -aoism1 the dragon is from the fire and the tiger is from the water. %o practice hard force as much as possible before you practice any soft force, then the real tiger will come out from the water.