Yi-Chuan / I-Hsing

In the opening sentence of Master Wangs essay, he states: One

begins with standing and ends with standing. Zhanzhuang
(standing) helps to awaken, connect, and strengthen the mind and
body. Students can greatly enhance both health and martial arts
abilities using this system.
Health stance is the basic training in I-Chuan, and it is critical for
learning the fighting stance. Without the energy and good health
developed by serious work in the basic health stance, it is senseless to
consider fighting. Gregory Fong

History
Master Wang Xiangzhai (1887-1963), the founder of I-Chuan, was
born in 1885 in Hebei province of China, near Beijing. A sickly child,
Wang studied with famous hsing yi Master Guo Yun Shen and soon
recovered his health. After many years of study with masters
throughout China, Wang distilled their most practical elements into
an art that had no forms or standard techniques. He worked
relentlessly to develop practices that build strength, awaken the
nervous system, and deliver full power. As such, his pursuit of
knowledge led him to change the content of his art from a traditional
Chinese approach based on meridians and chi to a more modern
approach based on nerve, muscle and mind.
Master Yu Yong Nian, one of Wangs senior students, was born near
Beijing in February, 1920. Sent to Japan to train as a dentist, he
returned to China at 21. Exhausted through working long hours at a
local hospital, Yu regained his health through years of training with
Wang. Yu was so impressed with his own results that he introduced
standing training to his patients in the hospital, developed a teaching
program for other hospitals, and later authored medical books
promoting the use of zhanzhuang (standing) as an effective system to
treat internal disease. His books have become popular throughout
China and the West.

Features
As its name implies, the focus is on the I (mind) and its connection
with the body, or fist (chuan). Training teaches how to stimulate the

mind-body connection to develop and issue power efficiently. IChuan comprises the practices of standing, test of power, walking,
test of sound, health dance and push hands. Standing with a goal to
build strength and correct structure is the first step. Along with
standing, other practices are introduced when called for to teach use
of power, improve coordination and balance movement. To make
these exercises more powerful, mental images are used as resistance
rather than heavy weights. This prevents injury, builds strength, and
fosters sustained mental focus. The I-Chuan practitioner works on
developing speed, responsiveness and quick power instead of
memorizing techniques. Thus, I-Chuan is a system of great freedom
and challenge.

Benefits
This martial arts training will develop listening ability, power,
awareness and strength. Key to developing and maintaining such
abilities is staying healthy. I-Chuan is a wonderful system for
building and maintaining energy, strength and health. Students
should notice many health benefits even a few weeks into training:
increased energy, better mental focus, more balanced posture and
improved structural alignment.