281,480.15Meta Física

Translated from Chinese by: Andrzej Kalisz

Article from a Shijiazhuang (Hebei province) paper

Famous wushu master, representative of 3rd generation of yiquan ⁽¹⁾ - Yao

Chengguang was a very able child. He started learning yiquan from his father when he was 8 years old, and gradually he learned its essence. For 40 years yiquan has been his life,

something he's been nurturing and developing. He brough this art to many places in the north and in the south of China and abroad. When fighting, his opponents were impressed by his skill and at the same time by his ethics. Yao is very open-minded. He maintains that "the science of fist should be for everybody, if it belonged only to one person, only one person could benefit from it". So with intention that this art should serve people and country, in may 1994 he opened Zongxun Wuguan ⁽²⁾ school affiliated with Beijing Wushu Association. Thus he entered a way of promoting and developing yiquan - the gem of Chinese culture. It

demanded a lot of effort and commitment. He is admired for this by friends home and abroad and people from wushu circles.

The training place of Zongxun Wuguan is inside Nanguan park. This is place where local people come to have some rest and pleasant time. But because Yao Chengguang is teaching here, wushu practitioners from all over world keep coming. There is grass and flowers, there are beautiful pavilions. Students everyday practice zhan zhuang among trees:

"standing on earth and supporting heaven, controlling yin and yang". They are carefully listening to Yao's explanations and remarks. This is a great place to nurture health and learn martial art.

The dormitory of Zongxun Wuguan is in Dafangjia hotong, quite close to Nanguan park. It is a typical Beijing siheyuan ⁽³⁾. Inside there is an old tree. There is office room here, student's rooms, a kitchen and library. Everyday letters from all over world are read here and phone calls are received. There is a worker responsible for cleaning. The students get 3 meals every day, both meat and vegetables, very nourishing. After supper they take bath, relaxing after whole day practice. They watch TV, read books and magazines, talk about life and about their dreams.

Yao Chengguang - the director and main istructor of Zongxun Wuguan in teaching is using the principle of "scientific, systematic, rigorous, standard". He maintains the science is the core of the martial art. All principles opposing science will lead astray. Having scientific basis we should seek systematization. In this way students can go a straight way, learning systematically and methodically. Then the theory must be closely connected with practice.

This way students will develop proper technique and reaction. Yao Chengguang, inspired by

his father is maintaining attitude of seeking truth. Having strong basis coming form practice, he is using knowledge of psychology, physics, philosophy, anatomy, biology and other fields, linking theory and practice. This way he developed his specific system of teaching yiquan. He maintains that "one must be responsible for the student, and responsible for yiquan". He uses

"Confucian way of teaching", he enables his students to learn gradually, step by step. He stresses the importance of relation between teacher and students. He also adjusts teaching methods according to the students. He is teaching with passion, hoping that his students will achieve great results.

Yao Chengguang rejects the principle of "practicing zhan zhuang for 3 years, before you learn anything else". He maintains that jing (stillness) of zhan zhuang, huan (slowness) of shi li and ji (rapidness) of fa li are just different states and aspects of seeking hunyuan li (holistic force). The most important is using mind in seeking hunyuan li. The basic methods of zhan zhuang, shi li and fa li are practiced simultaneously. After students learn basic

methods, they should link them with fighting practice, so the two aspects supplement and help each other. This helps students all round development. Long time ago Yao Zongxun just after 3 years of learning yiquan achieved such high level that Wang Xiangzhai let him fight for himself in challenges and also let him teach in his name. What we just said is the secret of such fast progress. The practice proves that this teaching method is very effective. In Zongxun Wuguang students after just 2-3 months of intensive study achieve agility of body and steps, the skill of issuing force in the moment of contact - first results of training can be seen.

Thanks to this method Yao's students seldom loose fights. Among them there are winners of first yiquan san shou competition and first yiquan tui shou competition ⁽⁴⁾.

Yao always maintained that in martial art practical power is important. It comes from the principle of "scientific, systematic, rigorous, standard". Yiquan is not mysterious. Those artificial concepts making yiquan something mysterious and mystic are wrong. Learning yiquan you should choose wise teacher. Only wise teacher is able to "transmit the meaning, transmit the teaching, remove doubts". Also the student should have ability of understanding, and also should be hard working. But this hard work should be based on scientific principles and methods, otherwise student will not achieve results.

After establishing Zongxun Wuguan in 1994 thousands of students were participating in classes or used correspondence course materials. Xu Lu from Beijing is one of successors of full teachings of Yao. Liu Zhongchun from Shandong opend a school there. Bu Yi from Dongbei learned with Yao intensively for 7 years. Kubo Isato is one of the main yiquan teachers in Japan. Andrzej Kalisz from Poland opened Academy of Yiquan. There are also other students, Maurizio Trotti and Vittorio Botazzi in Italy, Karel Koskuba in UK, Chen Jumin in Austria ...

Stefano Agostini from Italy studied yiquan before. In 2001 he came to Beijing, and after one week of study with Yao Chengguang he said: "Comparing what I learned before

with what Yao Chengguang teaches, it is difference between small teaching and great teaching". Walter Marek from Austria came for 20 days, but then he decided to prolong the time of study for one more month. Zhong from Hong Kong studied yiquan for 10 years. When he compared his skill with a student of Yao, who learned only for 1 year, he pointed his thumb upward and said: "Wise teacher has good students". Cheng - a martial arts instructor form US, after he saw demonstration of skill of one of Yao's students, said: "I traveled all over China, meeting so called yiquan masters, but only today for first time I had chance to see real yiquan".

Yao Chengguang went through a long and difficult way. He is using a scientific, systematic and rigorous method of teaching. All martial arts people are welcome to come to compare skill and exchange experiences!

From translator:

1- Yiquan founder - Wang Xiangzhai is first generation. His students are second generation. Their students are third generation. Yao Chengguang learned from his father -Yao Zongxun, who was successor of Wang Xiangzhai's teachings.

2 - Zongxun is for Yao Zongxun, Wuguan - martial arts schooli; Zongxun Wuguan is one of so called minjian wuguan - people's martial arts schools.

3 - kind of building typical for old Beijing.

4 - Also in second yiquan tui shou competitions on 31st March 2002, majority of winners were from Yao Chengguang's school.

XIE YONGGUANG