Liquid Lightning：The Meaning of

Internal in Xingyiquan
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by Scott Meredith

Introduction
The internal martial arts of China are designed to cultivate the qi energy, so that the
inner power becomes invincible. The internal branch of Chinese martial arts has
many subdivisions, but there are three famous styles: Taijiquan, Baguazhang, and
Xingyiquan. The Taijiquan and Baguazhang families are easily understood, at a
single glance, as internal practices. Their circular, fluid, and gently paced
techniques obviously do not rely on superficial athletic attributes like strong muscles
and speedy reflexes. But Xingyiquan appears to be a misfit in the group. It contains
only a very few techniques, which appear simple, straight, fast, and strong. The
aggressive appearance of Xingyiquan has led to severe misunderstanding of the
true purpose and result of Xingyiquan.

Xingyiquan Tactics and Origins

Xingyiquan is usually demonstrated statically, against a passive opponent standing
at a close distance. Under those conditions, a Xingyiquan strike from a strong man
to the groin, gut, solar plexus, or face of an unresisting person will be physically
devastating. That’s why Xingyiquan appears to be a frightening combative art. But
under those unrealistic conditions, any hard strike from a strong man, such as a
Western boxer, or even from an entirely untrained man, would be equally
destructive to an unresisting, passive victim. In this kind of demonstration, the
special internal power of Xingyiquan is irrelevant.

Under more realistic conditions of street self-defense, and also sport fighting, where
a strong, experienced adversary is free to move aggressively, the limitations of
Xingyiquan technique, when viewed from a purely mechanical viewpoint, become
obvious.

Xingyiquan is useful for developing the true internal power. The way to get started
on that is described in this article. In fact Xingyiquan can be an effective martial art,
but only when the true fundamentals of the internal power attribute are understood
and consciously cultivated.

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My Background in Xingyiquan
In my mid-teens more than 40 years ago I spent a long stretch of time in Taiwan.
Xingyi training was not the intended purpose but via a long and circuitous route I got
hooked up with a very obscure master of this art, at that time already in his late 70’s.

Unusually for a mainlander, he lived in an extremely remote mountain area of north-

central Taiwan, accessible (at that time) only via multiple legs of tortuous bus rides
almost 3 hours one way from Taibei. He was small man who only taught Tai Chi to
other students, as far as I could tell. But for some reason he took a shine to the
teenage me and taught me the full art of Hebei standard 5 Element / 12 Animal
Xingyi. This small man by merely placing his soft fist anywhere on my body would
immediately trigger a feeling, not impact but of shocking sickness – combination of
intense vertigo and extreme nausea.
This was not a strike. Not a 1-inch punch, not even a 0-inch punch because it was
not a punch at all. It was only the form of a fist placed anywhere on me. The Master
would laugh and try to explain to me that this form-only thing was the key to real
Xingyi. Over the months I trained with him, he taught me standard Five Element and
Twelve Animal styles, plus a few linking forms, a 2-man set, and auxiliary
meditations and a few other types of drills. But his main focus was a certain subset
of the Five Fists and a certain subset of the Twelve Animals.

When I left Taiwan, in my last lesson with him about forty years ago now, he
presented me with a training manual that covered the internal, energetic aspects of
his exotic approach to the art, including his interpretation of ming jing and an jing.
He hand-wrote the manual in high literary archaic Chinese, which I couldn’t read at
the time. For over forty years I’ve carried along this one-of-a-kind Xingyi training
manual.

Figure1 One-of-a-kind energy-centric hand-written

Xingqyi training manual, 40+years old.
It was only later I began to appreciate what he taught me much more deeply due to
several factors.
1. When I saw other people doing Xingyi, I realized they were falling into a “trap” he had constantly emphasized to me.
That of using physical power in the moves, especially tensed shoulder power. I began to understand his point, though
comparison.
2. My Chinese reading got better and better so I could tease out more of the fine points of this manuscript. This manual
isn’t your normal Xingyi writing about “your left foot goes here, your right hand goes there” or “wood overcomes
metal”. This is energy-centric all the way.

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 3. More and more I felt the ENERGY STATES and EFFECTS that he told me I would in my own body.

From about this point forward in this article, all the training points are taken from this
handwritten manual.

Ming jing (明勁)

Xingyiquan should not be viewed as an inventory of effective fighting techniques.
Although the physical moves of Xingyiquan could cause damage to a static,
undefended target, they have no special physical or mechanical advantage over
other striking systems such as Western boxing or Japanese Karate. Rather,
Xingyiquan should be understood as a system for cultivation of a special kind of
attribute. Attributes in athletics are qualities that have wide application. For example,
fast reflexes are useful to boxers, hockey players, skiers, and many other athletes
playing very different games. Skills, on the other hand, are like a baseball pitcher’s
throw or a golfer’s swing – they are specific to a particular game.

The skills of Xingyiquan include the 5 basic striking techniques (pi, beng, zuan, pao,
heng), the distinctive footwork, and a few supplemental techniques based on
animal movements. The attributes of Xingyiquan however, are special kinds of
internal martial arts powers. These energies can be refined and applied to any kind
of striking system, even systems that have no relation to Xingyiquan’s physical
movements. Xingyiquan is best understood, not as a collection of specific fighting
techniques, but rather as an attribute development system, because the energy
developed from Xingyiquan training can be used independently of Xingyiquan’s
combat techniques.

The great Xingyiquan master Guo Yunshen (1829 – 1898) classified the energy
developed by Xingyiquan training in three levels:ming jing (obvious energy), an
jing (covert energy), and hua jing (transformative energy). In this section I will
discuss onlyming jing. Some people assume that because this energy is called
‘obvious’ it must be ordinary physical (kinetic) energy. That is not correct. If ming
jing were the ordinary energy of physical motion, there would be no need to call it
out as a specially named category in the hierarchy of Taoist attainments upon which
Guo’s framework is based. That would simply be the well understood basis of
ordinary Shaolin, Karate, Judo, boxing, etc.

In any case, ming jing is a type of internal energy. If you train Xingyiquan correctly,
you will begin to reinforce your strikes with this special internal power. Ming

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jing greatly adds to the destructive effect on the opponent. It becomes an extra
“sauce” on your physical strikes that amplifies their power. The cultivation of ming
jing is the first attribute developed by Xingyiquan .

How does the ming jing function combatively? We can compare it to two kinds of
purely physical striking: first, punching with bare knuckles and second, punching
with brass knuckles. Of course hitting with bare knuckles can be powerful and
destructive, if you are strong and are able to target a weak area of your opponent.
But hitting with brass knuckles greatly amplifies the power and effect of your strikes.
Note crucially that the additional power derived from brass knuckles applies to any
kind of punch, regardless of technique (e.g. jab, straight, hook, upper, etc.).

Figure2 Brass knuckles greatly amplify your striking

power
Using these, your physical technique won’t matter so much, as long as the punch
lands. The problem is that all forms of brass knuckles are illegal in most countries,
including the United States. But if you train Xingyiquan correctly, the internal ming
jingfrom Xingyiquan will greatly amplify the power of your bare-knuckle strikes in an
analogous way. And just as with brass knuckles, the augmentative power of
the ming jing will apply to all your strikes – not only the limited technique inventory
of Xingyiquan per se.
General Principles

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1. INTERVAL TRAINING: This means that you need to inter-weave brief but intense periods of technique training, such
as a line or two up and down the room doing BENG GUAN all the way, with interval of Quiet Standing. The ratio of
“lines” or “circuits” of technique repetition vs. Quiet Standing should be 1:1. This is really essential. Without the
frequent standing intervals you’ll never feel anything. Your hands may be held in Tai Chi style, or can be turned
inward a little, as show in the figure. The famous Xingyi master Sun Lutang first began to feel the deeper energies
when he alternated in his training between performing a few repetitions of one technique with immediate periods of
quiet standing [insert SLT original Chinese quote here].

Figure 3 Tai Chi style of Quiet Standing is shown on the left side, and Xingyi style of Quiet Standing is shown on
the right side.
2. LIGHT ARMS: That means absolute shoulder relaxation: that’s really the main teaching of the manuscript and this
whole presentation: there must be no shoulder tension at all. This is just energy practice. I was doing it very tensely
when I first learned it and the master knocked it out of me. There is no need for ANY shoulder tension at all in this
practice!
3. RELAXED, WELL_SHAPED FIST: Many martial artists believe that you either need to have your fist tensed
throughout the move, or else they hold the more sophisticated view of “only apply power at the very end, on impact”.
That’s perfect for Western boxing and karate but completely wrong for solo Xingyi practice. If you train that way why
bother with Xingyi at all? Xingyi is supposed to be something different, special. If you train that hard style way, why
bother with Xingyiquan in the first place? Everybody already hits with maximum physical tension and power, its just
human nature. Even in real fight situations, where you do need to firm up your fist to avoid hand injury on impact, the
years or decades of “empty” training you’ve done will mean that your hands and arms are still far more imbued with
this weird protective internal force than they would have been had you only practiced with tension. Anyway, for the
purpose of training the material in this film, for internal energy, any tension whatsoever in the movement is going to
completely shut down the internal.
4. PELVIC FLOOR POINT: For Xingyi, basically you only need to be aware of one point: the HUIYIN (perineum point
or root chakra). This perineal area is called the pelvic floor or muladhara in yoga. With awareness or a feeling of this
point very slightly lifting, you generate a feeling of energetic compression in your torso. But it’s essential to keep
Xingyi as an energetic practice. From an athletic standpoint we often are told to strengthen the “core muscles” of the
torso. Or, from a yogic standpoint, we are taught to think about slightly tensing the pelvic floor area in mulabanda. But
neither of those concepts is relevant to Xingyi training. We are working strictly on an internal energy model now,
nothing to do with tensing any muscles or contacting or compressing any physical thing whatsoever. It is an awareness
or light concentration. Proper performance of the energy-centric work here will blast open the huiyin point and result is
a truly cosmic feeling energy rush through your whole body.

Structural Basics of BENG QUAN

Xingyiquan has five main striking techniques, and another 12 striking methods
based on animal movements. It is good to learn the entire art, but one technique
stands alone above all others as the essential gateway to the ming jing experience
of Xingyiquan.

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The most energetically effective Xingyiquan strike is called BENG QUAN (崩拳).
You punch straight and level with one arm, while drawing back the opposite arm.
You step forward along a straight line while punching. The striking hand is a vertical
fist, and the punching arm is aligned with the centerline of the body, forward-facing
in a line with the navel and nose. The feet are about shoulder-width throughout the
movement. You step forward as you punch by pushing off the rear foot. As the front
foot lands, the rear foot catches up and narrows the stance again with a half length
follow step (半步).

Most people assume that the beng quan power must derive from some kind of
physical positioning or structuring. This is mistaken. All Xingyiquan power,
including the power used in beng quan, is derived from the qi jing (氣勁), the internal
power. This is not physical in the normal sense of muscles, bones, tendons, fascia,
and reflex reactions. It also is not the warm slight tingle that you can easily feel in
your hands from ordinary Qi Gong exercises.
Xingyiquan ’s first level of internal power, the ming jing, is felt as an instantaneous
electric lightning bolt. Once you have developed it in your body, you can
concentrate it into your fist with a quick punch. Even your light strikes will become
extra unpleasant to your training partners, and make them say: Hey, that punch
really hurt!
The energy harvested from beng quan will also make your hands much more
powerful for grappling and submission practice and for knife retention skills. After
training correctly in energy-centric beng quan for some time, it will become much
more difficult for any ordinary fighter to trap your arms, wrists, elbows, or shoulders
in joint locks.

Energetic Effects
The most important element of training is not the physical performance; it is learning
to generate the ming jing energy. This is not abstract or philosophical. It is
something that you will feel directly in your arms and hands as you punch. The
energy originates in the dantian (丹田) and streams quickly through the entire body.
FIST: You should use a vertical, standing fist for beng quan, not the rotated fist of
Karate. You will not be able to feel the energy as easily with a horizontally rotated
fist. Xingyiquan masters often demonstrate with the fist angled slightly upward. But
that is not optimal for beginners. To feel the first jolt of ming jing, it is best to keep
the striking arm and fist level, or even angled very slightly downward, as though you
are hitting with the first two (big) knuckles. The striking arm should be aligned
inward to the center of the body, in line with the nose and navel. The other non-
punching arm is retracted to the hip along the same centerline as the striking arm
goes forward.
The most important point is that the fist must be completely relaxed. You must
maintain a realistic shape of the fist (形) but without any tension at all. Because of
the strong and fast appearance of Xingyiquan, students always assume that they
must tense the fist, either throughout the entire movement or at least at the every
end, bracing for impact. For energy cultivation this is completely wrong. If you

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practice with a tense fist, you will never feel the ming jing. The fist is kept perfectly
shaped for actual striking, and yet completely empty of any tension at all times.
However, you also must not let your fist get droopy, collapsed or sloppy, with
knuckles mis-aligned. It must appear from the outside to be a strong, solid fist. Yet
inside it is empty of physical tension. It is merely the perfect SHAPE of a fist, filled
up with your mind only, without any physical bracing.
To understand this, try lightly grasping a marker pen in your upright (vertical) fist.
Don’t use any strength to grip it tightly, but softly try to form your hand into a proper
fist structure around the pen – as though you could properly strike something but
without the tension. Now, remove the marker pen and try to keep that same shape.
Viewing your fist from above (the ‘tiger eye’ 虎眼) you will notice a slight gap at the
center of the fist, because the space where the marker pen was is now empty.
When you first begin practice, try to keep this middle core of your relaxed fist
hollowed out, as a reminder not to ever clench it tight. Later, when you have
understood the energy, you can close the fist completely and yet still keep it entirely
soft.

Of course, these instructions are for beng quan energy development. When you
later actually strike a physical object or person, you need some firmness in your fist,
to avoid injuring your hand. But after practicing beng quan in a relaxed way for a
long period, your strike will be reinforced with the ming jing – even when physically
firmed up.
STEPPING: You launch from the rear foot. Master Guo Yunshen described the
initial setup feeling:
後足用力蹬勁，如同邁大步過水沟之意

Your rear foot holds strength as though preparing to leap across a stream.

Xingyiquan uses two stepping modes. Shun bu (順步) is when the same-side hand
and foot both go forward, e.g. right hand with right foot. Ao bu (凹步) is when the
striking arm is crossed with the stepping leg, e.g. for example, a right hand punch
with the left foot stepping forward, as shown in Fig. 3. You begin the punch with the
forward step. You push off the rear foot, and let the entire sole of the forward foot
land at once, not heel first. Throughout the step and punch, you maintain a 70/30
proportion of rear/front weight.
The stepping front foot can cover a long distance, and the rear foot quickly “catches
up” just behind the front foot at the end. This is called gen bu (跟步) and it leaves
you with most of your weight on the rear foot. A hard stomp with the rear foot is
unnecessary and bad for your feet. A crisp, quiet catch-up step is best. At the end,
the front foot may be straight or very slightly toed inward, while the back foot is toed
outward at about 45 degrees or less.
For beng quan and all of Xingyiquan, it is essential to let the legs do the work. Don’t
force the punch with your arms and shoulders. The ancient Xingyiquan masters
have taught us: 足打七分手打三 meaning the legs are the main physical power
source, while the arms are strictly subordinate to them.

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WAIST and DANTIAN (丹田): In Taijiquan and other internal arts, the ming jing can
be felt circulating from the dantian down to the feet and then upward through the
spine, eventually reaching the hands. Xingyiquan is different. Due to the quickness
of Xingyiquan techniques, the ming jing is shot directly from the dantian to the
forearm and fist. The highly concentrated short energy produced in this process is
felt as a kind of electric jolt through the arm and fist, ending at the knuckles. At first,
you must twist the waist, not harshly but decisively. That’s why the aobu stepping
method is best at first. The shunbu step, which lacks the deep counter-torque of the
waist, will not at first provide a noticeable electric surge. When you understand the
practice better, both aobu and shunbu will produce identical energetic effects.

Figure4: 凹步 beng quan (walking from left to right) in ao bu (counter-turned step)

From left to right, Fig. 4 shows the progression of beng quan. The move begins at
the end of a previous right hand punch. The illustration shows beng quan in
the aobu stepping pattern, so the front foot moves forward, but the weight is kept to
the rear as much as possible. It is possible to step so that your heel lands first, but if
possible try to step with a level foot (as shown). As you prepare to punch, the
punching hand glides over the retracting opposite fist, along the centerline of the
body. Finally, the strike is launched and completed with a substantial counter-turn of
the waist. Fully extend the punching arm but without locking the elbow.
When you practice as described above, you will eventually feel the ming jing
running as a quick jolt through the bones and flesh of your striking arm and
fist on every punch.
It is not ordinary electricity, but it feels exactly like a stream of electricity, jolting
through your arm from elbow to knuckles. At first you will only feel this when
practicing beng quan in the aobu mode. Later, you will begin to feel it in shunbu
mode. Over time, you will be able to feel it in all five of the Xingyiquan striking
techniques, and finally you can apply to any kind of striking and even kicking, far
beyond the original Xingyiquan technique inventory.

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After a longer period of practice, you will feel the energy originating at the dantian
and instantly jumping to your fist. This is not something you imagine or visualize;
this is something you will actually feel directly. At first, you may only feel the surge
on one side’s punch, and not on the other side. In this case, the problem is due to
excess unconscious tension in the shoulder (on the side opposite to the arm that
lacks the energy charge). To fix this, relax both shoulders and fists even more.

The most common problem that prevents people from feeling the ming jing energy
bolt is overly tensed shoulders. Tension blocks the energy. Especially people who
have trained in Karate or other external styles of Kung Fu (外家拳) find it difficult to
drop the tension in their shoulders (and fists, including the retracting fist) when they
strike. You must relax your shoulderscompletely when you punch.

Figure 5: You will feel the ming jing shoot through the
punching arm. It feels like liquid lightning.
In your practice, try to perform at least 5 and up to 10 punches in a row as you walk
along a continuous straight line. When you reach the end of your line, turn and
continue back in the opposite direction. There is a particular protocol for correct
physical movements of the turn in Xingyiquan. That protocol is beyond the scope of
this article, and for energy development it isn’t essential. For now, just turn yourself
around and continue with another line of punches.

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When you have completed a full circuit (two lines – go out punching, turn, then
return to start) you should always strand quietly upright with your arms relaxed by
your sides for a few minutes. Keep a bit of mind consciousness in your hands. If you
have practiced correctly, your breath should be completely normal.
Remember beng quan uses no strength so there should be no panting, sweat, or
fatigue whatsoever. If your breath is disturbed or you feel any fatigue, it means you
are practicing with too much upper body tension.
If you have practiced correctly, when you stand quietly you will feel your legs are
throbbing and vibrating with tremendous surges of ming jing power, as though they
are filled with giant vibrating steel springs. This is not imagination or visualization. It
is what you will directly feel in yourself.

Figure 6: Stand quietly after every two or three lines of practice.

Your legs will feel highly charged with ming jing vibratory energy.

AN JING (暗勁)
When you have absorbed everything in the prior sections, and when you clearly feel
a strong jolt/bolt of ming jing energy through your forearm from elbow to fist (or
better, from shoulder to fist) with every single punch-step execution in BENG
QUAN, then you’re ready for this an jing training.
We begin with BENG QUAN again. BENG QUAN is the key to first experiencing
both the ming jing and the an jing in Xingyi. Once you have thoroughly mastered

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the ming jing energy experience in BENG QUAN it’s not difficult to then integrate the
same result into your other techniques.
You practice your BENG QUAN exactly as already described – the ao bu step, long,
low, loose, light punch with level and centered punching arm, flat-knuckled, standing
fist – all that is the same. But when you are working only the ming jing, your steps
are quick and continuous. Not tense at all, but quick and crisp, punches follow one
after another, as you work down your line.
To add the an jing, layer, you pause for just a quarter beat, a very brief pause just
after you’ve fully extended the punch (and thereby felt your jolt/bolt of ming jing).
After that jolt/bolt thing, not simultaneous with it but immediately following it, just turn
up your fist slightly. Make no other change to your position. It is not a tensing of the
fist.
It is only a slight upturn of the fist, as though you are slightly trying to strike
something 1 inch above your hand with the top two (index and middle finger)
knuckles. The moment you do this little upturn thing, you will feel a huge surge of
the soft, uniform, perfusing POWER swamping from your feet through your entire
body, not only to fist but everywhere in your body.

The an jing lags the ming jing by just a half tic in timing. In this an jing stage
you will experience the phenomenon described by Guo Yunshen as follows:
暗勁手足停而未停即大周天四正之沐浴也

With an jing, even when your hands and feet stop, the energy hasn’t yet
stopped. It surges through your body and limbs like a power wash of water.
There is a web photo of a master practicing Xingyi in old China. In this photo, he is
shown pausing with his BENG QUAN fist shown upturned in basically the way I’m
talking about here:

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Figure 7 The correct fist position for an jing work in
BENG QUAN

What you’ll feel at that moment is the Xingyi version of what I’ve describe as the
‘soft wave’ in the Tai Chi books. It’s an amazing, incredible thing to feel. But just do
it for the quarter-beat upturn, keep your position good in every way, and
immediately move on to the next regular BENG QUAN step/punch, just keep going.
Your next punch should be level as always, as already described for ming
jing practice, and again you’ll feel your normal jolt/bolt (but probably even stronger
than usual now ? these energies keep cycling around and layering over and over on
themselves, like multi layered of molten steel in Japanese sword forging.

When you are done with your one line or one circuit, continue with your regular
“interval” of Quiet Standing, as previously described. This is where the real harvest
happens and the new energy is absorbed into your system. Do your regular quiet
standing for your normal 2 or 3 minute “rest” interval and you’ll feel overwhelming
energy bursting from your legs through your hui yin point, across your system, up to
head, through arms and hands and everywhere. Then resume practice with the next
circuit.

Conclusion
The ancient Xingyiquan masters have written:

崩拳之形似箭 the form of beng quan is like an arrow

打出銳似箭 it is shot out as sharply as an arrow
性屬木 its elemental nature is wood
Therefore imagine your strike issuing lightly, cleanly, quickly, and sharply, just like
an arrow. An arrow is very lightweight. This corresponds to the complete lack of
tension in your body. You become pure shape, only 形, no ‘filler’ of muscular tension
should exist in your body. Do not tense your shoulders, arms, or fists even slightly at
any time during the practice. If you do, you’ll never feel the blast of energy I am
describing.

In ancient times, arrows were made of wood tipped with iron, both light and strong.
When you practice beng quan, imagine that you appear in the shape of a human
being, but that your body is actually made of a very light wood, such as balsa wood.
Balsa wood looks like ordinary wood, but when you pick it up you’ll always be
surprised that it has almost no weight or density. It only has the appearance or form
of ordinary, heavy wood. Bamboo has a similar strong-yet-light quality too. Master

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Guo Yunshen (郭雲深) has said: 起如箭落如風, meaning: Your strike shoots out like
an arrow and finishes (weightless) like the wind.
If you keep these ideas in mind, not as abstract philosophy but as specific practice
requirements, you will begin to feel the surge of ming jing power in your arms as you
strike. It will start as a very small squirt and you’ll think it’s nothing, but the oak
grows from the acorn. The great past masters repeatedly emphasized the phrase:
拳经云一通无不通也 which means: The ancient classics teach that when you
understand just one [technique of Xingyiquan], you know the entire art.

October 27, 2016

Three Keys to Advanced Xingyi Energetics

Scott Meredith 10/27/2016

Introduction

People love to attack martial arts books in Amazon reviews with something like this
kind of acid-splash:

The book is nothing but a pamphlet. It’s useful content could have been summed up
in a four-page Black Belt Magazine article.

Now, finally, they have their wish – this one really is just a pamphlet. Though in fact,
you could reduce almost anything to a mere soundbite. Tolstoy’s doorstop novel
War and Peace could be summed up in one sentence:

Napoleon's tumultuous relations with Russia including his disastrous 1812 invasion
serve as the backdrop for the tangled personal lives of two aristocratic families.

Anyway, despite these robust intellectual headwinds, I’ve produced some tutorial
materials about the traditional Chinese martial art of Xingyiquan (形意拳), including
a book and two instructional films:

Radical Xingyi Energetics (book)

Xingyi (DVD)

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Xingyi Transformational Animals (Vimeo tutorial film)
In order to get anything from this short article, you really need to have grokked the
content of those materials. This article on advanced Xingyi energetics costs less
than a Caffe Latte Grande. But inevitably, the mere suggestion that you must be
familiar with the foundation concepts will open me to the usual accusations of
shilling and SEO marketing and God only knows what all else. Still, I’ve got to say it
again: You must be familiar with the Xingyi basic concepts and techniques as
presented in my earlier materials.

It’s not enough to know and practice Xingyi from some other source, because Xingyi
as I have presented it is based on mind, movement and shape - without tension. But
most Xingyi is practiced with extreme tension, either applied consciously as a
misguided attempt to flaunt one’s mastery of ‘Obvious Power’ (明勁 - which is
usually taken to mean plain old physical athletics) - or, even worse, tension is
applied unconsciously as blind imitation of bad-ass looking karate or Shaolin, just
because doing so makes us feel strong and safe.

Actually though, it’s totally fine to do Xingyi with tension, maybe throw in a strict
breathing regimen, some athletic stretching, or isometric calisthenics … do it as bad
or good karate, or do it any other way you want. No skin off me, and maybe you can
work up a sweat, probably even kick a lot of ass. It’s all good. But if you’re doing it
that normal way, you won’t get anything whatsoever from this document. Therefore,
if you aren’t familiar with Xingyi as presented in my earlier materials you’re wasting
your time reading this.

Although these practices were taught to me a long time ago, and are documented in
my teacher’s handwritten manual, it took me decades to really unpack them and
finally experience their truth and power for myself. When you finally ‘get it’, these
phenomena seem a lot simpler to work with than they did when on the outside
looking in. It is written: ‘The Dao is not far from you. If you try you can approach it.” I
hope I’ve now represented these incredibly interesting training processes in a more
accessible way that may shorten your uptake time to months or weeks rather than
decades or years.

FIG_2_TRAINING_MANUAL

There are dozens of mainstream styles of internal energy arts in China, and literally
thousands of minor sub-styles particular to families, clans, and regions. There are
also thousands of published books and articles on Xingyiquan throughout China and

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Southeast Asia. It is possible that some aspect of these practices has appeared in
some form in a prior treatment. I can’t cover everything so I cannot guarantee that
every detail covered in this document is 100% new, fresh, never-before-seen and
sui generis. All I can say is that there is no presentation known to me, in either
Chinese or English, of these points brought together and presented in an integrated
framework with fully workable and straightforward practice details. If you find
otherwise then I’m happy you have access to something so rare and I’m sorry you
wasted a couple of bucks on this version, but I hope there may be at least one
unique detail that enhances your practice and justifies your buy.

These advanced methods are so plain, unassuming, low-key, invisible and simple to
perform that 99.9% of readers here will instantly dismiss them with a sneer. That’s
ok though. After all it is written:

下士闻道大笑之不笑不足以为道

“If a fool, hearing of the Dao, does not dismiss it with a sneer then it hardly qualifies
as the real Dao”.

I present this material strictly for the benefit and interest of the remaining 0.1% who
are curious enough to give something radical a chance.

Advanced Energy Key #1: Plain Standing

The foundational standing pose is shown and basically explained in my book

Radical Xingyi Energetics. It's just relaxed upright standing, with feet separated to
shoulder-width, and your hands very softly and gently elevated with a subtle
shaping of the wrist and fingers. That's as far as the book went with it. Going to the
advanced mode requires just one additional nuanced turn of the screw.

To access the advanced energetics of this pose, you need to connect your hands
and your feet together. Normally that would be thought of in terms of the so-called
'macro-cosmic' orbit, where not only feet and hands, but all parts of the body
(including the internal organs) are all linked via a complex spaghetti map of energy
meridians. That is one way to work and it's good.

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For Xingyi advanced energy work, the linkage has an entirely different coloration.
Here you are going to link your hands and feet on the outside. It's almost the energy
equivalent of some yoga poses that have you grabbing each foot with a hand – but
instead of doing it physically, you're going to use your mind alone.

You take up the given same standing position as indicated for the basic practice.
Your hands are as shown in the figure below:

Xingyi standing bw

The energy key:

Mentally image your feet as wider than they physically are. It’s as though you are
wearing an ‘energy shoe’ that surrounds your feet on all sides.
Very gently, keeping your hands in the same physical shape and position, ‘squeeze’
the energy shoe so imagined.
Shoe bw

At first this is just mental work, pure imaginative play. To cross it over into reality
you need to have your internal energy fairly amped up to begin with. That’s why this
is advanced work. If you haven’t gone through the basic energy training, you’ll jump
right to this, try it once for 10 seconds, and toss it aside with a sneer, feeling
nothing. That’s fine, it’s just where you are right now. Go back to the starting line
please. You shouldn’t be reading this document.

But those who’ve put some time into the basics will immediately understand the
depth of this practice. You do not apply physical pressure in this energy squeeze!
Don’t tense up, it’s not a tendon engagement thing or any of that nonsense. It’s just
about 1 oz. or less of extremely gentle pressure, or even just mental intent to apply
pressure, imagine the feeling that you would have if you were to actually squeeze
your feet from above, left hand over/around left foot, right hand over/around right
foot, as though squeezing two thick epoxy tube or plastic bottles or something like
that. You will suddenly feel that you actually ARE squeezing the energy contours of
your feet. (For those who know yoga, it’s a bit like an energy or virtual version of the
physical foot-grabbing in Upavishtha Konasana B pose).

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You will be amazed to discover that this simple imagery and ‘pretend’ action has
created a tangible energy linkage between your hands and feet that is outside the
normal internal meridian channels – it’s a direct merging of the charges that are
normally separately inherent in feet and hands. Interlocking the two in this way
charges your entire body for as long as your can softly maintain the hookup. More
practice yields longer time of full-body flow and stronger charging. I could say more
on this but it’s really a matter of taking this hint, trying it for yourself, and playing
around just a little with it (within the stated parameters) to find the optimal flow and
duration of charge that you can manage at this time.

This is the first of our advanced Xingyi energetic practices. Begin every Xingyi
session with a moderate period of standing with this engagement. Please do not re-
cast this as some kind of fascia, tendon, ligament, muscle or even nerve thing.
You’ll widely miss the mark and the experience. It is an energy interlock and you’ll
feel it unmistakably and very powerfully as such - if you can somehow manage to
transcend those common prejudices.

Advanced Energy Key #2: Stance Standing

The ‘stance’ I’m talking about here is the well-known Santishi (三體式) of Xingyi.
Again, you have to get all the structural pointers from the earlier book or DVD or
films. As I keep saying, you cannot just jump into this document raw and expect to
get anything at all from it. I can’t repeat all that teaching here. In the book and films,
I present a pretty minimal version of the stance, stripped to its bare essentials. You
can easily find far more elaborate requirement lists for this on the web, the 36
essentials or the 72 checkpoints or whatever. But if you have the basics in the
general range of the simpler version in my book or films you have the essential pre-
requisites to try the advanced energy method discussed in this section.

So let’s assume you have the structural mechanics down ok. I say just ‘ok’ because
you really don’t need to obsess over every little alignment and angle with an MRI
scan or an anatomist with a clipboard on every side. Just feel it.

FIG_8_SANTISHI_RIGHT

Now, here’s the advanced version:

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Keep your lower hand unmoving. Relaxed, well-shaped but unmoving as you…
Mentally ‘turn’ your hips and waist ‘against’ the lower hand. For example that would
be ‘turning’ your hips/waist leftward ‘against’ the left (lower) hand in the illustration.
When the right hand is the lower hand, on the other side stance, you would be
turning your hips/waist rightward ‘against’ the right (lower) hand. The key thing is,
don’t feel that you’re pushing your hand across your waist, or forward. The hand is
immovable. Feel that you are turning your waist/hips into your hand. The more you
practice this, the quicker and easier you’ll snap from physical standing to energetic
standing at the start of a session.
Again, this is 99% mental work that becomes tangibly energetic. It most
emphatically is not any kind of ‘core activation’ of muscles, tendons, fascia,
ligaments, nerves or anything else. There is only the very barest hint, just 1 oz. of
physical feeling involved. Do not turn this into a physicalized or tendon-ized or
abdominal-core thing of “wringing the wet towel”, a hard physical squeeze and
stretch-out, as you sometimes hear about for more conventional “internal” training.
That is physical tension, no matter how you try to rationalize it. But this advanced
work is totally different. It begins as a feeling that then becomes a kind of power.

It’s as though you are wearing a broad, thick belt, maybe like a sumo wrestler’s obi.
Then, you have hooked your (lower) hand into the belt and gripped it (in your mind
alone). Then, you have begun to turn your waist hand hips ‘against’ your hand but
the hand holds steady and does not allow the (virtual) turning to actually happen.
This starts as imagination but soon becomes an energetic reality. Once you have
the energetic engagement of the abdomen and lower hand interlock, the energy will
then infuse your entire body, including your feet, both legs, all of your trunk, your
neck head, and both arms and hands for as long as you maintain the
abdomen/lower-hand interlock. After standing both sides in this way for a relatively
brief period (say 5 minutes at most on a single side – you don’t need to stand for
hours), if you do the Basic Standing (with or without the advanced foot squeeze
thing already covered) you’ll be absolutely blown away by the resulting power surge.

Advanced Energy Key #3: Five Fists

Here’s where it all comes together. You can express your internal energy in the
actual practice of techniques. If you’ve read the Xingyi book, you know about the
several levels of energy experience, including the ‘obvious energy’ (an electric bolt)
and the ‘hidden’ energy (an wash or wave through your body). What I’m explaining
now is the way to hugely amplify both of those experiences, and also retain more of
the charge as a kind of ongoing annealing process that builds up across many
practice sessions.

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This is done through a simple technique I might call ‘scooping’. Notice that in all the
basic Five Element Fists of Xinqyi (五形拳), the hand that is about to perform the
main strike on the next repetition (in solo practice of a line of one technique) is
always positioned near, and moving from, the lower abdomen or dantian (丹田)
area. If we don’t think of the dantian as a single point, but rather take the whole
lower abdomen as an energy region (traditionally, ‘sea of qi’ or 氣海 ), it can be
regarded, and experienced as, a kind of bucket of energy. This is far more than a
quaint or goofy metaphor. It’s an energetic reality that the Five Fists were created to
express and exploit. This is another example of the kind of ‘outer’ connection, from
the exterior, that we’ve already seen in the foot-squeezing technique above.

The process is incredibly simple and straight-forward, but if nobody tells you about
it, it’s unlikely you’d stumble over it on your own no matter how much you practice
your Fists. Just imagine (it starts as imagination) that, as your striking hand is about
to extend into any of the five strikes, it first is ‘scooping up’ a handful of … what? To
begin with you can imagine it scooping from a pot of finger paint, or a bucket of
mud, water, sand, almost any slightly sticky, fluid, but substantial material will do for
the imagery. You’re briskly and lightly scooping up a handful of that and just flinging
it lightly outward and forward. This basic idea applies to all the Five Fists.

This is what was sometimes glancingly referred to in some Xingyi writings as

'painting energy' (畫勁).

Of course, most of the strikes are done with a closed fist (a soft closed fist by the
way, again you must refer to the Xingyi book as the foundation for this article). That
doesn’t seem ideal for ‘scooping’. But in practice that doesn’t matter much because
it’s an idea of energy sourcing and connection. You could actually imagine coating
your fist with ‘energy goop’ before launching it out, that’s really all it is. But as you
become proficient with this idea, it changes into a tangible reality. This is a direct
exteriorized energetic interlock unlike the full track of meridians and channels
normally described. But the beauty of the practice is that this direct link from qihai to
hand or fist also serves to energize the entire body and prime the flow of the internal
power everywhere in you. Again, it’s like a sort of annealing process that
accumulates over time.

For example, with the Pi Fist (劈拳), as both hands pass your abdomen and form
into fists, grab two handfuls of the abdominal store and then fling it outward in the
strike. You can begin by imagining that you are either ‘scraping’ the substance from
the surface of your lower abdomen, or alternately that your ‘energy hands’ are

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actually reaching into your lower abdomen and scraping out the energy from within
(like that bogus psychic surgery thing done with sheep’s guts as a scam, but it’s a
similar kind of feeling to what you see in those videos). That’s just to get started with
it. Later you’ll actually be able to feel the exact location and amount of power you
are scooping up and carrying out each time. This process does not deplete you, it in
fact exercises and revitalizes the system.

For Zuan Fist (鑽拳), if you use the open-hand style for the block, then you can
‘grab’ the energy substance from right where your block ends and the new strike
begins, as you form the fist for the next strike.

With other three Fists (崩拳，炮拳， 衡權) , your striking hand does not pass
through an open phase, but both hands remain closed as fists throughout the drill.
But even with these there is a moment as you begin each new repetition where your
next striking fist begins from your abdominal area. Mentally gather some energy
from there to fling out on the strike. It’s really just that simple.

After practicing a line of any given technique in the above fashion, always revert to
standing (basic or stance) for just a minute or two, quietly harvest the power
augmentation that your just-completed sequence has yielded.

Note: A process similar in concept is happening with the 12 Animal Styles as well,
but they are more advanced in that the energy can be localized to cohere from any
starting position. That is beyond the scope of this brief treatment.

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