Las Practicas Internas de Sun Lu Tang

THE INTERNAL PRACTICES OF SUN LU-T’ANG
Taijiquan ~ Baguazhang ~ Xingyiquan ~ Neigong
BRADFORD TYREY
Neijia Books & Publications
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C ON TEN TS
Foreword
1. Dedications
2. Myself, Dave & Su-Ying Martin
3. Glimpses into the Life of Grandmaster Sun Lu-T’ang
4. Sun Lu-T’ang Internal Practices
5. Old Xingyiquan Teachings of Master Guo Yun-Shen
6. Baguazhang’s & Xingyinquan’s I-Chin Jing
7. Dragon & Tiger
8. Annotated: Developing Inner Force
9. Ten Character Hands
10. Five Organ Dim-Mak
11. Striking the Five Organ Cavities
12. Food & Drink that Harm Qi
13. One of Sun Lu-T’ang’s Eight Principal Hand Methods
14. Traditional Sun Family Sword Practices
15. Sun Family Bagua Sword Methods
16. Introduction to the Eight Immortals & Sword Methods
17. Ba Xian [Pa Hsien]
18. Qian Kua Jian Xue
19. Shi Zhen Jian Xing Fa
20. A lecture on Internal Sword Practices
21. Two Special Lectures
22. Taoist Song [Poem]

Bradford Tyrey
Copyright 2012 : Library of Congress
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Cover Explanation: Calligraphy of Sun Lu-T’ang reads as: Bagua Quan (Eight Trigram Boxing). This
was an alternative term used for Bagua Zhang (Eight Trigram Palm).
Created with Vellum

FOREWORD
My introduction to the practices of Master Sun Lu-T’ang occurred in 1984

when I was, by chance, visiting a historian who was teaching at Bei Da
(Beijing University). Through our talks he mentioned that he had been
studying taijiquan and other arts with Madam Sun Jian-Yun, daughter of Sun
Lu-T’ang. I immediately asked, rather begged, him for an introduction, and
within a week I was given permission to visit her class.
Madam Sun was one of those rare teachers who not only embraced a wide
body of knowledge, but also deeply cared about her students. She held
family, students and friends close to her, always with softly spoken words.
These qualities, she said, she learned from her father.
Beginning my studies with Madam Sun in 1984 placed me as one of the
first western students to study with her on a somewhat consistent basis. I
know of only one other private student who was western who trained with
Madam Sun during that time, Timothy Hood, from Ireland, who had been
studying with her for nearly eight months prior to my arrival.
I lived close enough to where Madam Sun taught that I could walk within
fifteen minutes. Most of her students lived in her proximity, so I would often
encounter them on the streets nearby.
Such familiarity helped me to make friends with many, and through such
friendship they shared so much with me that Madam Sun had taught years
prior to my arrival. A huge part of my knowledge came from tea house
discussions with her students where we sat, talked, and ate roasted pumpkin
seeds.
From 1984 to 1997 were the years that I received training from Madam
Sun and several individuals in the Sun clan. I am the first to say that I was not
able to train with her on a daily basis, in fact there were times when I was in
Shanghai, another region, Japan or Taiwan for months before returning to her
class.
Beyond lectures and classes that Madam Sun provided us with, she
introduced many of us to students, still alive, who trained with Sun Lu-T’ang.
They were in their nineties, and still practiced each day, whether standing or
sitting. They were devoted to the practice of his teachings. From these
gentlemen and their students, who lived in Beijing and Nanjing, we were able
to acquire further insight into the background, teaching methods, and
practices of Sun Lu-T’ang.
In the text you are now holding I have introduced many of Sun’s
practices, an overview toward understanding the depth and richness of his
arts. This overview is important as a foundation to comprehend Sun’s
teachings in forthcoming texts that I am completing on his old neijiaquan
(internal [inner] family boxing) encompassing xingyiquan, baguazhang, and
taijiquan.
Lastly, ‘Why am I writing these texts?’ I simply do not want the
teachings of Madam Sun to be lost over time. I am presenting what I was
given in her classes and what her students shared with me, all of which are
but part of the practices that her father and his masters taught to their
students. These writings do not belong to me, but to those of you who search
for original methods and practices from Master Sun Lu-T’ang, Madam Sun
Jian-Yun, and their devoted students.
Sharing knowledge; among the greatest of heartfelt skills.
~Bradford Tyrey~

1
DEDICATIONS
Beloved Dedication to:

My beloved parents: Alan & Marguerite.
Master Sun Lu-T’ang’s daughter: Madam Sun Jian-Yun. Master Sun Lu-
T’ang’s disciple: Master Wang Xi-Kui. Master Sun Lu-T’ang’s grandson:
Master Sun Bao-An.
Master Liu Bin’s and Master Sun Lu-T’ang’s student: Master Liu Xing-Han.

The family of Master Sun Lu-T’ang’s disciple: Master Jue Hau.
Monk T’ang-I: disciple of many of the great masters.
Madam Wang Ju-Rong [Master Wang Zi-Ping’s daughter] & Dr. Wu Cheng-
De.
Master Sha Guo-Zhen [Zheng].
Master Liang Ke-Quan. Master Fu Zhong-Wen.
All be blessed and rest in eternal peace.
Special Dedication to:

Dave Martin: a long-time student and revered disciple under Madam Sun
Jian-Yun.
Su-Ying Martin: a revered and dedicated student under Madam Sun Jian-
Yun.
Tony Kansarns: a long-time student under Dave Martin.
Sean Muttaqi: dedicated student under master’s Liu Xing-Han and Liang Ke-
Quan.

2
M Y S E L F, D AV E & S U - Y I N G M A R T I N
M adam Sun spoke of Dave Martin as an example of a truly dedicated

student who earnestly, and most sincerely, practiced what she had
taught him, which she remarked, was not the case among many of her
students through the years. She had hoped that many of her students would
have the same caliber of love for and perpetual interest in the neijiaquan
practices that her father, Sun Lu- T’ang, so dearly treasured. Madam Sun said
that Dave was one of those rare students who she carefully taught and took
interest in because of his devotion to traditional Sun family practices.
Before studying with Madam Sun, Dave began studying Yang style in
1978 and later changed to Sun style in 1990. He was introduced to Madam
Sun in 1991 by famed yiquan master, Cui Rui- Bin, and accepted as a
student. Dave studied with Madam Sun from 1991 until her passing in 2003,
performing the baishi ceremony with her in 1997, thereby becoming Madam
Sun’s formal disciple. The ceremony was performed at Grandmaster Sun Lu-
T’ang’s tomb in a village near Baoding, China. Dave is one of the very few
Second Generation disciples under Madam Sun in Europe. With over 55
years of diverse martial arts training, Dave Martin not only teaches form, but
also applications taught to him by Madam Sun, and further supported by his
decades of martial practice.
Most important to mention is that Madam Sun gave Dave her permission
to establish a United Kingdom association to propagate the Sun style arts.
This association, now formed and under the name ‘Sun Style Tai-Chi
Association of the United Kingdom,’ provides a platform for teaching the
traditional Sun family practices as taught by Madam Sun Jian-Yun (daughter
of Sun Lu-T’ang) and Master Sun Cun-Zhou (son of Sun Lu-T’ang),
honoring them for the legacy they have passed on to us.
Also important is that in China, Sun style masters: Sun Bao-An, Liu Shu-
Chun, Bai Pu-Shan, Zhang Zhen-Hua, Zhang Da-Hui and others, established
the ‘Sun Lu-T’ang Martial Arts
Development Association’ to further promote Sun style family arts. Dave
Martin was bestowed the honor to be appointed as the director of the
European branch.
Madam Sun Jian-Yun and Dave Martin at her apartment, Beijing,

China, June 1993.

This is a good place to show this photo. Here, Madam Sun Jian-Yun, a
student who later became Madam Sun’s personal assistant, and myself
(Bradford Tyrey), pose for a photo immediately following class at the
little park near her apartment in spring, 1992. Madam Sun said this was
an important photo because it marked my eighth year of having known
her. However, she pointed out that I had not acquired eight years of
skill, suggesting, in a lighthearted manner, that I begin my studies all
over again and endeavor more vigorously this time, reminding me that
my apartment in Beijing was only a ten minute walk from her place,
therefore I had no excuse for being late for class. Each photo
opportunity with Madam Sun meant that a lesson was about to be
learned; this time reminding me of my innate laziness and my habitual
tardiness for which I was always apologizing. She said that my spoken
Chinese was perfect when I said “Dui bu qi”….basically “Forgive
Me”...because I had so much practice saying this when I arrived to
class late. She was right, the rest of my Chinese was worse than terrible.
This was her way of encouraging me to study Chinese with great
effort…but it still didn’t work…my laziness and wanderlust, were my
downfall. However, for this photo, Madam Sun told me to place my
hand on her shoulder, uncommon in tradition, to show our closeness as
teacher and student.
Madam Sun Jian-Yun demonstrating Sun style taijiquan’s Single Whip,

January 1995.

Madam Sun Jian-Yun, Dave Martin and Su-Ying Martin sharing a
heartfelt moment of closeness at the Sun Lu-T’ang Style Conference at
Baoding, China, 2001.
S U -Y ING M ARTIN HAS HAD AN INTEREST IN MARTIAL ARTS FROM A VERY

early age. She recalls that at age six going to a park after school, to practice
Shaolin nanquan with a female instructor. Even at that tender age she was
required to hold postures for several minutes. In later years she traveled
around China observing various tournaments, thereby gaining more
knowledge and experience of martial practices. Su-Ying was also introduced
to famed yiquan master, Cui Ruibin, who is also a distant relative. She
studied yiquan for a while with Master Cui, paying tuition directly to him.
In 1999, Su-Ying was introduced to Madam Sun Jian-Yun and started
training with her as her student. She continued as her student, still paying
tuition, until Madam Sun's passing in 2003.
Before her passing, Madam Sun had asked Su-Ying to assist her husband,
Dave Martin, in propagating Sun family arts throughout Europe, which Su-
Ying continues to do to this day. Since 2001, she has continued her training
under the direction of her husband, who is a lineage holder in Sun family arts.
In early 2014, Dave stood down as the chief instructor of the Sun Style Taiji
Association of the UK and appointed Su-Ying as his successor. She is
supported in her new role by long-term student, Tony Kansarns, who carries
out administrative work on her behalf.
Dave Martin (far left), disciple under Madam Sun Jian-Yun; Master
Zhang Zhen-Hua (a senior disciple under Madam Sun); and Carl
Bateman (long-time student under both Dave Martin and Master
Zhang).

Dave Martin (left) and Carl Bateman (right) practicing two-person
Tai-Chi (taiji) sword.

3
G LI M P S E S I N TO TH E LI F E OF G R A NDM A S TE R S U N LU -T’A NG
A N INSURMOUNTABLE AMOUNT OF WRITINGS ON THE LIFE OF S UN L U -T’ ANG ,

have been archived by scholars of the martial arts presenting a general
composite of this extremely unique man. Madam Sun often said that her
father was not super human, rather he should be remembered as a person who
possessed skills and knowledge acquired while enduring the most difficult of
life experiences. As such, I want to present here special accounts on Sun Lu-
T’ang’s adult life that are relatively unknown, except to those historians who
sat with Madam Sun on those occasions when she felt it was time to delve
into those treasured memories, always bringing that tearful glistening of the
past to her eyes.

Beijing’s Nan Men (South Gate [Door]), which Sun Lu-T’ang traveled
through daily, near where he taught at one of the three training halls
that he operated. Photo archive: 1901.
As a young adult Sun Lu-T’ang (1862-1933), according to Madam Sun

Jian-Yun [his daughter], was consumed by a thirst for knowledge. The
painful life of poverty that his parents suffered drove him to excel in every
venture touched upon. Having worked as an attendant to a family that
routinely beat him, as a delivery-runner, an assistant shop keeper, and a
historical document researcher, all of which developed within him the desire
to become educated, and become a scholar of written Chinese classics.
S UN CARRIED WITH HIM SMALL TEXTS SUCH AS THE Y I -J ING [I-C HING ]
(Classic of Change) which were annotated by renowned scholars. He not only
memorized lengthy passages, but was also able to recite the annotated
discussions of each scholar. His ability to memorize was so impressive that
local scholars tried to claim Sun as their personal disciple to serve their

personal recognition in the community, offering him financial rewards and
status, though Sun refused all offers.
T HOSE WHO S UN L U -T’ ANG MOST ENJOYED STUDYING WITH , APART FROM HIS
martial arts teachers, were monks from mountain grotto-temples, regions
where monks were free from the spoils of society; their knowledge and very
being touching upon the Tao on which Sun so wished to embark. Sun learned
from several monks, though he said that those who taught him in the
mountains of E’mei were of foremost influence in his practices of longevity
and enhancement of qi. After many months of study on E’mei Shan (E’mei
Mountain), Sun returned to Beijing, then to Nanjing to share what he had
learned with those wanting to study the Great Tao.
Outdoor market and view of a southeastern section of Beijing [Peking],

where Sun Lu-T’ang lived. This section of the city was known to house
the majority of boxing clans and bodyguard companies, in addition to
being a black-market hub for goods coming from the Middle East. Photo
archive: 1890’s.
Sun lived in the southeastern section of Beijing [Peking], known for large
markets, centers of trade for goods from distant lands, a huge labor force,
gangs, secret societies, bodyguard services, jails, execution platforms, and
many of north China’s most elite martial arts clans. The southern and eastern
districts were extremely active, vibrant trade routes that offered Sun and his
family many opportunities related to cultural affairs, teaching martial arts,
and operating security and protection services. Sun additionally opened a
martial arts school and bodyguard service in Tianjin, which became quite

popular among high ranking officials who wanted to be escorted between
Tianjin and Beijing.
Public market in southern Beijing, where many of Sun Lu-T’ang’s

students served as security personnel to guard against thieves and
gangs. Photo archive from 1900.
View of Shichang Dong Jie (Eastern Market Alley), Beijing, where Sun
Lu-T’ang taught classes and operated a bodyguard service. Photo
archive 1890’s.
I N EARLY SPRING OF 1919, S UN L U -T’ ANG , AT THE REQUEST OF HIS FRIEND

and former employer, Xu Shi-Zhang, a northern territorial high officer
possessing both ranks of regional governor and magistrate over three
provinces, accepted an appointment as a field major in the army and, was
stationed at the Presidential Palace. There, arranged by Xu, Sun taught
xingyiquan and baguazhang to presidential bodyguards, military troops, and
envoy security personnel.
Xu, knowing first hand of Sun’s remarkable martial art skills, arranged
for Sun to also instruct high military and government officers at the
Presidential Palace. Those classes embraced the original teachings of Guo
Yun-Shen, Cheng T’ing-Hua, and Taoist practices from monks that Sun had
studied with over the years. His teachings and skills were heralded at the
Palace, making the name Sun Lu-T’ang [also known as Sun Fu-Quan]
acclaimed throughout Beijing.
In addition to teaching at the Presidential Palace, Sun was briefly sent to
nearby regions to command infantry, teach cavalry how to apply martial
skills on horseback, and instruct canoneers on military tactics based on
ancient warfare classics. Such diversity of appointments to such cities as
Nanjing, Woosung [Wusung], and Tianjin further spread Sun’s fame as a
military and martial arts specialist.

Example of early Chinese infantry regulars that Sun Lu-T’ang
commanded near Nanjing. Note their brandishing of long-knife halberds
and three-pronged tiger forks. Photo archive from early 1900s.
Example of Chinese artillery detachment at Woosung, that Sun Lu-

T’ang commanded as part of his military career.
D URING HIS YEARS OF MILITARY SERVICE (1919-1924) S UN HAD A STEADY

income from the government, and was therefore able to fulfill one of his
heartfelt dreams, to send money to his hometown, to help the people there
who were suffering from famine and had no opportunity to become involved
in commerce. Sun traveled there several times with two of his students to
teach martial arts, to help organize farmers to sell crops to neighboring
towns, and to help in any manner to improve the life of his relatives and
villagers.
While in his village, Sun accepted many formal students and provided
them and their families with money to grow crops and operate security
services for transportation of goods. In time, the village prospered as a result
of his unselfish devotion. Sun never asked for any money to be returned to
him, merely asking that each person help others in the community so that all
might flourish.
In 1928, Sun was asked to teach at the newly formed Central National
Martial Arts Academy in Nanjing, where he was given the title ‘Professional
Instructor’ in xingyiquan and related weaponry. Although he was well
qualified to teach baguazhang from his teacher, Cheng T’ing-Hua, Sun, nor
any of the exceptional bagua lineage holders were asked to teach. Madam
Sun said that such teaching posts were awarded to individuals who had
generally only practiced waijiaquan (external boxing) methods derived from
the Shaolin Temple sect. This was because though they lacked great skill,
they had great political standing that could in turn offer government support
toward maintaining the success of the Academy over the years to come. She
said her father well understood such positioning and never complained, and
remained happy to contribute to both the Academy and the benefit of the
Chinese people.
Sun also taught several martial arts there to high ranking military officers,
though he received no official recognition for such additional teachings.
Many of the sets he taught were extracted from his longer forms to instruct
officers on how to develop special skills that could be applied to any martial
practice. Because many of the officers in attendance could only train for five
to ten days with Sun he taught simplified applications that could easily be
taught by these officers to their troops. Officers felt that Sun, was not only a
master of astonishing skill, but he understood how to teach soldiers in a
manner that enabled them to quickly progress with boxing prowess. Because
of this Sun was asked to teach at dozens of military camps in northern China
where he taught a number of short specialized training sets in xingyi and
bagua, and began instructing a select group in his unique form of taijiquan
that he had integrated with secrets from E’mei Shan.

Ta Men Kou (Big Gate [Door] Entrance), Nanjing [Nanking], shows
the entrance through which Sun passed to arrive at the Central National
Martial Arts Academy. Photo archive: 1890s.
In a forthcoming text on Sun Lu-T’ang, I will continue with Sun’s

background, and detail the taijiquan, xingyiquan, and special practices that he
taught in Nanjing at the Central National Martial Arts Academy, and in
private classes that Sun bi-yearly conducted in Nanjing from late 1929 to
1932.
Many years ago I had mentioned to Madam Sun that someday I would
like to write about her father’s training methods and the life that he led. She
asked that when I write this book that I not make it purely about boxing
practices, but include accounts of his life that help others understand and
appreciate the hardships of those times, and what her father had to endure
each day. Life was very difficult for most, her father was no exception. He
ate simply, led his life simply, and was looked upon as a teacher and fatherly
scholar to many.
Madam Sun, as an accomplished painter, had that artistic sense that
transcended even into photography. Though I rarely saw her snap a photo,
she loved, as I did old photos from Europe and China that illustrated life as it
truly was, without any embellishment. Following are photos that I had come
across in China and had the opportunity to show them to Madam Sun. I laid
out hundreds of these old glimpses into the past in front of her and asked if
she would select those which she felt reflected life as it was then, life that her
father and family were part of in those days. I could tell that looking at each
photo was emotional for her, they stirred memories that soon turned into
stories, and the little group of students who were present that evening all
found a deepened understanding of the life she, and her father had lived.
These are, in part, photos that Madam Sun selected along with any
comments that she provided in order to help all of us better understand life
during those trying days.
Madam Sun: “My father came from a very poor farming village where,
if fortunate, each person had their own rice bowl. This bowl was used
for everything: eating from, drinking from, soaking grains in to hasten
sprouting before planting, and as a vessel to hold offerings for the gods.
My father must have looked, in his youth, similar to this young man,
hungry. My father’s parents had little food at times, and often they all
lived days with nothing to eat, and only dirty water to drink.” Photo:
Compiler’s private collection.

Madam Sun: “In larger cities like Beijing, you could often see
foreigners ride in covered sedan chairs. These were too expensive to
hire for the common person. So, each time these sedans came down the
road many poor children and beggars would run alongside, asking for a
penny or anything to eat. Most of the time the attendant, who was often
from India, would tell everyone to leave, or they would be thrashed.”
Photo: Compiler’s private collection.
Madam Sun liked this old photo from the 1920s. She said that this young
boy represented the way of the Chinese people during that period.
Though shoeless, carrying his baby brother on his back [indicated by
the type of hat], and obviously poor, he glows with youthful happiness
and hope. She also loved the puppy. Photo: Compiler’s private
collection.
T HE FOLLOWING PHOTOS ARE FROM THE ARCHIVE OF W ANG X I -K UI (1894-

1986), a notable disciple under Master Sun Lu-T’ang. During the two years
that I knew Master Wang, he found that my personal love for old
photographs was equaled by very few individuals. His family said they had
too many old things, and wanted to get rid of his little horde of photos and
old martial arts books. He passed many of his old photos and drawings to me,
though asking that I someday print them for others, along with the
explanations of each photo that he could remember. I hope that the selection
below will bring him the honor that he well deserves. These are but a
sampling.
These are some of Wang Xi-Kui’s relatives departing a train station in

Beijing, 1913. Several of his aunts, seen centrally in the photo, have
bound feet. They are escorted by attendants who assisted them in
walking upon the painful, and delicate act of balancing while stepping.
Wang’s family, in those years, were wealthy and connected to the
Palace; their wealth and land taken during times of war in later years.
Compiler’s collection.

Marble Gateway, Chu Yung Kwan, Nankow Pass, 1903. This was a
passage through the Great Wall which Master Sun often took to visit his
students in an area not far from Beijing. Wang said that he happily
walked alongside Master Sun, who usually rode horseback. Compiler’s
collection.
Wang Xi-Kui said that when he was a boy, he often went with his uncle
to catch fish using fishing-birds. This photo from 1914, was in Wang’s
Collection; he could not recall the name of this fisherman. Compiler’s
Collection

Along the coastline of Tianjin, early 1900s, Wang knew these fishermen,
friends of his uncle. He said that each day you could see hundreds of
fishing nets being cast into the sea. Compiler’s collection
Summer Palace, early 1900s, Wang said that one of his relatives worked
there, and was given several photos of the Palace in remembrance of
where he served as a laborer in the Rock Garden. Compiler’s collection.

Soochow in 1921. Wang went there several times with his relatives. He
said that the gardens and ancient arched bridges were the most
beautiful in China. The boat in the photo is the one that he often rode.

Here are more of Wang Xi-Kui’s relatives, but not affluent. He said that they portray
the manner in which most people, as well as his family, lived throughout most of their
lives. In the early 1900s wind and dust storms ravaged so much of the land that when
people walked outside each day they would find less crops and more dirt that blew in
with the winds from afar. Wang said that even with life being so dire for so many,
traditional values were still steadfastly embraced, as seen by the bound feet of all of
the females in this portion of his family. Though not sure of the date, Wang believes
that this photo was taken in 1912 in a small farming community just northeast of
Beijing. Compiler’s collection.

Here I am in 1994, standing alongside a stretch of the outer wall surrounding the
Forbidden City, Beijing. This photo was taken by one of my teacher’s, Liang Ke-Quan,
who studied baguazhang from Cheng You-Xin, son of Master Cheng T’ing-Hua. A
good part of Liang’s xingyiquan knowledge was also taught to him by Cheng You-Xin,
who was the private student of Master Sun Lu-T’ang. Liang said that this was the
stretch of wall where Master Sun often walked with some of his students to reach a
market nearby. On occasion, Sun would have an impromptu class here, from whence it
was known by his students as Neijiaquan Qiang (Internal [Inner] Family Boxing Wall).
A MONG W ANG ’ S POSSESSIONS WAS THIS OLD CARD - PHOTOGRAPH FROM 1898.
Wang said that Chee-Mah, in the photo, was born in China, and was well
known as the smallest dwarf known in the nation. He had made many
appearances at festivals and the openings of large businesses, all of which
paid him just to be seen. In the mid-1890s, Chee-Mah was hired by P.T.
Barnum to appear in Barnum & Bailey’s Greatest Show on Earth. Early in
1898, Chee Mah returned for a brief tour in China, where he appeared in
Hong Kong, Canton, Shanghai and Peking. Wang said that Master Sun Lu-
T’ang attended a spring festival in Peking in which Chee Mah appeared, and
Master Sun was given this card-photo that was presented to special guests.
The card-photo was produced by Wendt, Boonton, New Jersey. In later years,
Wang was given this photo by Master Sun.

Backside of the card-photograph reads:
‘Chee-Mah! The only Chinese dwarf, was born in Ningpo, on the island
of Choo-Sang, April 15, 1838, and now age 60 years. Height 28 inches,
weight 40 pounds. Have traveled most all around the world, and have
appeared before all the crowned heads of Europe. The opinion of the press
and public is that I am the smallest man in the world, and the most polite and
intelligent dwarf on exhibition. Four seasons with Barnum & Bailey’s
Greatest Show on Earth. Have opened all the principal Dime Shows in the
United States with great success, and have proved a drawing card, at both
Circuses and Museums. Now with Buffalo Bill’s Show.’ Dated: 1889.

4
S U N LU -T’A NG I N TE R NA L P R AC TIC E S

T HE E SSENCE & S MOOTHNESS OF Q I W ITHIN THE 三體式 S AN - T ’ I P OSTURE .
Presented here is a lecture that I recorded in Beijing in 1986, as given by

Madam Sun Jian-Yun, daughter of Master Sun Lu-T’ang. This lecture deals
with one of the rare, and lesser known training methods passed on to Sun Lu-
T’ang by his teacher, Guo Yun-Shen. Madam Sun’s translated words have
been kept in their original context as much as possible to present the reader
with her exact details and meanings on the teachings of her father.

Compiler’s Notation: The Chinese character 體 (t’i), according to
period dictionaries during the lives of masters Guo and Sun, means: the
whole body; a frame consisting of many parts; substance; essentials; to
embody; a solid; a partition; completeness. The character ( 體 ) is
composed of two radicals: bone [the human skeleton] and sacrificial
vessel. These meanings will help you to understand Madam Sun’s
response. As she had been an art teacher of fine painting methods, she
explained this written character according to its two radical parts, and
to the teachings of her father and Master Guo. Therefore, 三體式 (san-
t’i shi) can, in part, be translated as: Three Embodiments Posture;
Three Substances Posture; or Three Essentials Posture. It is safe to say
that collectively, these three translations of 三體式 will bring you closer
to understanding its inclusive meaning. I have chosen to use
‘embodiment’ as the fore fronting translation based upon clarifications
presented by both Madam Sun and Wang Xi-Kui (Sun Lu-T’ang’s
disciple).
It is the very essence of each neijia (inner family [internal boxing])

posture to elicit forth qi. Proper posture is the cornerstone from which qi
traverses one’s body without hindrance. Should one’s posture not be correct,

even slightly, qi shall not move unimpeded, causing qi to swell unnaturally
within the place(s) of fault, resulting in qi stagnating and not returning to the
place of its origin. Incorrect posture results in qi returning to the abyss;
harmony and unity within one’s body shall thus not find mutual accord. This
is why so many people who practice neijiaquan never touch upon the
profound realm of qi. It is incorrect posture practice that impedes enrichment.
This is why my father, Sun Lu-T’ang, practiced san-t’i for so many years
under his master; it was this single posture that forms the root from which the
stems and branches flourish in neijiaquan.
San-t’i, its true meaning transcends that of mere posture. San-t’i (三體式
[three embodiments]) contains the tip of the nose, tip of the lead big toe and
the tip of the lead hand’s index finger, all pointing to a single medial line
before the body. This is most common to xingyiquan practice. San-t’i,
however, mutually exists in a most profound manner in all postures of
baguazhang, xingyiquan and taijiquan.
Without raising a hand, merely standing with ease, san-t’i prevails as one
secret to attain proper posture so that the yang of the sun and yin of the moon
can course through one’s body without a single divergence. My father always
kept this practice as part of his daily regimen.

Photo of Master Sun Lu-T’ang, May 1926, Tianjin, China.
When I first learned to stand in san-t’i, elder family members each

corrected me. I found that one day I was told to expand and reach outward
with my body and mind, while the next day I was told to contract my body
and withdraw my thoughts. Another day I was told that my upper body
should sense openness and expansion, while the lower region of my body
must sense contraction and uniting inward. Still yet, one uncle told me that
one hand must sense expansion and heaviness, while the other hand senses
contraction and lightness, then they reverse. The feet and legs also follow
such.
This was, to me, complex at first, then simple in its naturalness. San-t’i,
therefore, follows the cardinal way of the Yi-Jing [I-Ching] (Classic of
Change) that as heavenly influences change throughout the cycle of one day
(24 hours), so too shall such cyclic change be reflected in posture. San-t’i,
therefore, is the Great Mediator between changing from one posture to
another, and is the Great Well from which all postures spring forth. The
meanings of kai-he’r (open-unite) are so very profound that san-ti is but a
single physical manifestation of the Tao.
Proper posture in neijiaquan transcends the physical. Smooth movement
of qi transcends the confines of the body and mind. Posture is influenced by
qi and qi by posture. Improper posture of a wrist causes qi to affect the ankle,
thus the entire body suffers. Improper absorption of qi causes the body to
become ill, manifesting turbid qi.
Movement of qi within the tranquility of the san-t’i posture is nurtured
not by mere physical standing, but through developing and accumulating qi
during time periods that nurture the proper ascension of qi. That is, if one
begins to practice san-t’i when convenient, that is not in accord with the
natural cycle of qi toward nourishing the vital force of life within.

Sun Lu-T’ang demonstrating the 三體式 san-t’i posture, for which
he was well known to have all students study and practice its
profound secrets.
My father’s xingyiquan teacher, Master Guo Yun-Shen, taught him a very

special method of practice regarding san-t’i. The method was taught to
Master Guo by his master, Li Luo-Neng [often known as Divine Fist Li], who
was said to have acquired his vast skills through the endless exploration of
san-t’i. This knowledge is quite ancient and is a treasure not often spoken
about. It was father’s wish that it not be lost to future generations. Here is this
knowledge.
Qi within the body never ceases to move, it is calm at times like a pond
and stirs at times like an ocean. Its constant movement seeks to ascend and to
descend, mutually exchanging the qi of the lower and upper regions of the
body. Such separation follows the natural cycle of qi in nature to which san-
t’i practice must adhere.
While standing in san-t'i one must begin practice when the sun rides the
southern heavens [during the afternoon hours when the sun apexes in the
southern sky]. This period develops qi within the body, ascending it into the
heart region in which the primordial fire essence of yang qi in nature is
embraced. It is a time in which the great qi of Nan T’ian (South Heaven [the
southern most compass point]) is dominant and is known as laoyang (old
yang [the Origin from which all yang qi comes]).
The absorption and ascension of laoyang qi into the body and heart
region manifest the development and rectitude of yang essence. This essence
conforms to the shape of one’s body, expanding the body’s interior realm to
conform to the correct shape of the san-t’i posture. That is, one’s physical
posture, any posture, is dependant upon one’s internal rectitude. Internal
vacuity and weakness draw the physical body to fold like a sapling withering
and falling in upon itself.
Internal essence, the laoyang qi that is gathered and contained within,
develops the body from within. To develop from within means that laoyang
qi of the south accumulates in the body, expands and pushes one’s physical
body into its most correct shape. It is by this means that san-t’i is attained.
Laoyang qi develops the interior and external functions of the body. It is
regarded as the yang essence within the yin-yang duality.
To begin this process, stand in san-t’i, while inhaling the common breath
[air] you must ingest [inhale] laoyang qi which is drawn in from all parts of
the body. It is a vast mist that surrounds the body and is ingested into the
region just below the heart [referring to the solar plexus]. All parts draw qi
inward to unite below the heart; upon exhaling relax and settle the qi in this
same place. To settle refers to xu qi shi (reserving and to hold in qi power
development). Qi is thus reserved and contained in this region, becoming a
storehouse of laoyang qi. Ideally, the number of inhalations should equal 72.
Following this, quiet the heart of all anxieties, draw the accumulated qi
downward into the lower tan-t’ien, and await night practice.

Rendering from an old xingyiquan text portraying Master Sun in the 三
體式San-t’i posture.
Laoyang qi, now stored, seeks to produce xuanzhuan jin (rotational force)
by expanding outward. Expansion soon gives way to moving beyond itself
and into another region of the body, further seeking to unite with another jin
(force) toward achieving transmutation. This is the way of all stored forces, to
seek, whether expanding or contracting in order to unite.
As nightfall arrives qi of the north is summoned into the body. San-t’i is
held facing northward. It is a time in which the great qi of Bei T’ian (North
Heaven [the northern most compass point]), is dominant and is known as
laoyin (old yin). To summon it inward manifests the contraction and
unification of yin qi essence. It is a time when true vacuity of qi is sought.
Within true vacuity is the essence of expansion. Laoyang above, laoyin
below; expansion above, vacuity below; fire above, water below; these
reflections [opposites] seek to unite.

Accumulation of the northern qi mist forms around one’s body for 36
inhale and exhale cycles. Once laoyin qi is felt lightly pressing upon the outer
regions of the body, laoyin must then be drawn inward and contained. Upon
inhalation, draw the mist inward into the large caldron of qi known as Qi Hai
(Ocean of Qi) below the belly. Yin qi essence is thereby amassed for 36
inhalations. Zhirou (arriving at softness [attaining softness]) is thereby
touched upon. Zhigan (attaining firmness) above, zhirou (attaining softness)
below, laoyang above, laoyin below; yin qi and yang qi essences mutually
seek to transform within one another. Settle and contain laoyin below for a
period of time [Madam Sun remarked that this should be nearly half an hour]
following the 36 ingestions of laoyin.
Commencement of combining laoyang and laoyin is now sought. Inhale;
draw laoyin qi upward and into the storehouse of laoyang where the mind
shapes the two into one. Exhale; draw the laoyang qi downward into the
storehouse of laoyin where the mind shapes the two into one. The two
essences he’r yi jin (unite into one force). This process continues for 72
breaths. Following this, draw the hand and feet together to assume a natural
posture in which to stand. This natural posture allows one to direct the natural
qi [laoyang and laoyin combine] to nurture within Qi Hai.
Months ago I spoke about the general bodily concepts of san-t’i. I will
briefly review these. In standing, the body is separated into three sections,
Heaven, Man and Earth. Heaven refers to the head, both hands, and both feet.
Specifically, the wuxing (five elements [transformations]) within the body
took form as the Wu Hui (Five Meetings [Convergences]) which refers to the
region of Ni Wan Gong (Mud Ball Palace [GV-20]) at the crown of one’s
head where the qi of the five elements converge, Lao Gong (Labor Palace [
refers to the centers of qi within each palm, known as acu-point PC-8]), and
Yong Quan (Gushing Spring [acu-point KI-1]) in the soles of each foot.
These are the five gates for qi to pass through. The Wu Hui are forever
linked; to affect one, affects all. Movement of one shall create movement in
all. Move one to affect san-t’i; move all five into their proper placements and
san-t’i is formed according to the T’ai Xu (Great Void [the Cosmos]).
Man refers to those areas which sense contraction inward, toward finding
the beginning of one’s rooted [sinking] force. These inward sinkings include
both zhou (elbows), both xi (knees) and the xin (heart [referring to directing
one’s mind downward into the lower tan-t’ien]).
Earth refers to those areas which seek further inward contraction and
unity toward establishing a foundation, a root upon which Heaven and Man
move. The earthly foundation is formed by the unity of both kuan (hips), both
jianbang (shoulders) and Qi Hai (Ocean of Qi).
The front of the body is yin; the back of the body yang. In san-ti practice
this is as important to understand as practicing on the left and right sides of
the body. In the afternoon period when laoyang qi is dominant you must face
south with the left hand outstretched while in the san-ti posture. The left hand
is yang, the period of practice is yang, the rear of the body yang, and the
southern direction is yang; these four are linked as one, and unite with the
One.
Old diagram used by Madam Sun to show the yang region of the body
and pathway of acupuncture points.
At night when laoyin qi is dominant you must face north with the right
hand outstretched while in the san-t’i posture. The right hand is yin, the
period of practice is yin, the front of the body is yin, the direction is yin; these
four are linked as one. Four to the south, four to the north, one’s self in the
center; this is but another of numerous *Jiu Gong (Nine Palace) formations.
*Note: An explanation on Jiu Gong (Nine Palaces) is found in our book
‘Lion Style Bagua’ by Master Sha Guo-Zheng.
Diagram of the yin region of the body and acupuncture points.
All these teachings from my father and Master Guo comprise the
greatness, complexity, and the simplicity of san-t’i practice.
Note: A further explanation of 三體式 is presented in our book
‘Traditional Sun Lu-T’ang Style: Questions & Answers (Volume I).’

5
OLD XINGY IQUAN TEACHINGS OF MASTER GUO Y UN-SHEN
T his is an account of Master Guo Yun-Shen, Sun Lu-T’ang’s foremost

xingyiquan teacher, as passed down to Madam Sun Jian-Yun from her
father. Sun studied with Guo from 1882 until 1890. In 1889, Sun was
introduced to Cheng T’ing-Hua in Beijing, Guo’s friend, and began studies in
baguazhang. This account, in partial here, was told to our class while
enjoying afternoon tea and roasted pumpkin seeds with Madam Sun during
the summer of 1987.

The character Yi, above, translates, in general, as ‘Intent [stemming
from one’s heart and mind].’
M ARTIAL PRACTICES BURNED DEEPLY WITHIN THE SPIRIT OF M ASTER G UO

Yun-Shen. In his childhood, he was rather aggressive in nature and thereby
was inclined to love fistic practices. Quite often he would accompany his
friends on ventures to beat up one of the kids in an adjoining neighborhood,
bringing down all kinds of retribution upon Guo’s parents. In his youth he
was known to be highly intelligent, courageous in fights, and, though
mischievous, would not stray from telling the truth.
Photograph of Guo Yun-Shen.
Master Guo had said that his first encounter with the martial arts came
from observing martial street performers who made their living
demonstrating in towns and villages. Though skilled in fighting practices,
these performers demonstrated unique juggling, balancing routines,
acrobatics, magic tricks, sword swallowing, and martial arts feats.
Chinese acrobatic and martial arts family performing for a crowd

in Peking, 1880’s.
Master Guo spoke of several of these events that his uncle had taken him
to in their village. One master who deeply impressed him was a Taoist monk
who swallowed very sharp swords. Before swallowing, the monk would
allow everyone to inspect the sword, making sure that all onlookers knew its
heavy weight and sharpness. He would lean back and slowly lower a sword
down his throat and into his stomach. Then, he would remove his hands
completely from the handle, letting the sword find its place of rest within the
stomach. The monk then stood for a few minutes then began walking a circle
for a few more minutes. When he stopped walking the monk’s attendant
invited any onlooker to approach the monk and strike him as hard as they
could in the throat, chest or abdomen. More than a dozen strong men
repeatedly struck the monk as requested. Following this the monk walked
another circle for several minutes while the sword’s handle still remained
protruding from his body.
Finally the monk stood and slowly withdrew the sword while making a
chanting sound. As the sword wove in the air the crowd cheered with
amazement. His attendant told everyone to remain quiet and still, allowing
the monk to concentrate. The monk held out the sword for all to see and
pointed to large curves and bends in the sword that were not there before
swallowing it. The monk told the crowd that each time a person had struck
him he directed that force into the sword, not into his own body, and that he
had studied the ways of kongxu (emptiness), enabling him to remain empty
[void] of pain and injury. He explained that if one seeks formlessness
[emptiness] within, then pain and illness can find no branch upon which to
grasp, thereby such force shall dissipate into the T’ai Xu (Great Void).
Many wanted to become his students, while others wanted to pay for such
secrets. The monk said that he was on a pilgrimage and could not teach others
until later years. However, many individuals kept placing large amounts of
money in the monk’s hands trying to entice him, but he always returned all
that was given to him. He asked only that someone give him, and his
attendant, just enough food and water to help them on their pilgrimage to a
sacred cave located on E’mei Mountain. The cave was known as a place of
shadows where monks communed with spiritual beings. Guo said that his
uncle had great respect for this monk, a monk who quietly entered the village,
impacted all, and left with quiet eloquence.
When Guo Yun-Shen was a teenager he witnessed a litai match (litai is a
raised platform upon which martial arts matches were held). He attended a
large regional match at which hundreds of fighters gathered, all beckoning
for the prizes of money and fame. He had arrived there with his friends in the
early morning, seeing many of the fighters practice and prepare for
demonstrations and matches.

Raised platform used for theatrical performances and martial arts
demonstrations (circa 1910).
Guo observed a litai match in which a lone man walked to the center of
the platform, stood for a short while and then said he would now demonstrate
the art of xingyiquan. Afterwards, he asked if there were any spectators who
would come onto the platform and cross hands [to fight] with him, the prize
being a specially forged halberd. The audience pushed several large men
forward, all three jumped onto the platform, a gong sounded, and the match
began. Within moments all three men were struck by, what appeared to be,
soft touches, mere brushings of the palm, sending all of them falling from the
platform. This gentleman then announced that his name is Li Neng-Ran [also
known as Li Luo-Neng], a teacher of the divine hand methods of the
Immortals [referring to xingyiquan]. The audience cheered. They knew the
name ‘Divine Hand Li,’ and in a gesture of respect and admiration, threw
hundreds of coins onto the platform for him.
Guo’s uncle knew one of Li’s relatives by way of business. Eventually
Guo was introduced to Master Li, and accepted as a student. There he became
one of Li’s five famous disciples. During his years of devotion to his teacher
and the practices that he taught, two fundamental methods were repeatedly
taught over the years, stressed by Li Neng-Ran as two of the twenty-four
secrets of divine xingyiquan practice passed on to him by his master, Dai
Long-Bang. These two methods, deep as the ocean in their simplicity to
achieve true skill, are:
1) San-ti must be practiced within all postures as a concept toward

achieving whole body unified force and spirit. Whether moving or
in stillness, all postures must first know the spiritual practices of
san-ti, thereby one may evoke the great force of the heavens
through a single touch.
2) Within the straightness of xingyiquan movement, circularity is
the root by which straightness is manifested. Qi within the body
moves within a curve; qi within nature moves as swirling clouds; qi
within the Cosmos moves as dragons coiling and thrashing among
duality [yin and yang] of the Tao. All straight movement, action,
and postures are expressed through the resonance of internal
spiraling and circling movement, the origin and true root of
straight-line force.

Outside the wall of the Forbidden City, Peking, China (circa 1918). This section of the
wall is where Cheng T’ing-Hua, Guo Yun-Shen and Sun Lu-T’ang often practiced and
conducted classes. Many caravan bodyguards, who Sun taught, were hired at this
location.

6
BAGUAZHANG’S & XINGY INQUAN’S I-CHIN JING
C L ASSIC OF TENDON C HANGE [ TRANSF ORMATION ]

Note: The character Ren, above, translates, in general, as ‘to Endure.’
M ASTER C HENG T’ ING -H UA TAUGHT THAT MANY OF THE POSTURES IN

baguazhang came from ancient practices held within cloistered temples. He
spoke of some to my father, one being the Shaolin Temple in Henan. My
father [Sun Lu-T’ang] said that on one occasion Master Cheng referred to the
I-Chin Jing (literally: Changing Tendon Classic [commonly translated as the
Muscle Change Classic]) of the Shaolin as the root of study for numerous
circle walking and qi enhancement practices, though most methods came
from Taoist origins.
The chin fa (tendon methods) mingle and transform tendons, sinews and
qi into a profound level of physical development that enables the body to
generate true human force; this enormous skill is termed Shi

Chu Zhua Liang Chi Shi (Extend Claws, Display Wings Power-
Enhancement [Posture]), the twelfth method of practice from the I-Chin
Jing.
One tendon method my father stressed is known by the name Bai Hu Chu
Zhua (White Tiger Extends Claws). The posture is that of a tiger extending
his claws, which forms the qi of the body into that of a white tiger within,
within one’s central [spiritual] core], further establishing the inner cultivation
of spiritual courage which is expressed outward and into the bones and lungs,
promoting their health and longevity. This method was taught to my father by
Master Cheng, a method held within baguazhang. According to Master
Cheng the posture was held while walking one’s circle. The eyes are to
remain like a tiger chasing its prey, yet the eyes are not to give notice
[meaning that the glare from the eyes was not overly apparent]; the palms and
fingers extend and push to direct the qi, yet the arms are like the spreading
wings of a bai he’r (white crane); and the feet and legs move like a bear
walking and sliding through heavy mountain mud. One’s belly must either

face directly forwards in alignment with the hands to affect the Jen Mai
(Conception Vessel) in the front or the belly and waist, and along with the
hands, must turn to align with the circle’s center to affect the Du Mai
(Governing Vessel) in the back as well as kidney qi. Both methods should be
practiced during the same session, but twisting to the center is most vital for
one’s overall health.
Sun Lu-T’ang demonstrating one of xingyiquan’s Tiger shape postures.

Bai Hu Chu Zhua (White Tiger Extends Claws) is among the earliest
known names of this posture.
In Shaolin training this same posture is known as Chu Zhua Liang Chi Shi
(Extend Claws, Display Wings Power Development [Enhancement]). My
father learned such methods during his visits to the Shaolin Temple during, I
believe, the early 1920’s. His experiences there, regarding the I-Chin Jing,
mirrored the teachings of Master Cheng, who received the tendon changing
secrets from his master, Tung Hai-Chuan. Grandmaster Tung would only say
that a monk possessing the most mysterious of skills taught him the tendon
changes which were to be performed while standing stationary and while
walking a circle.
Cheng T’ing-Hua said that Grandmaster Tung rarely spoke of this monk,
but on another occasion was told the monk came from a temple hundreds of li
(a Chinese mile) outside of the capitol [Beijing]. It would have been most
impolite for any student to inquire further as to the name of the temple and
the monk, so both names were lost. However, my father was certain that the
Shaolin Temple was where Master Tung had learned these secrets.
During one of my father’s visits there, accompanied by his student and
friend, Chen Wei-Ming, they learned from an elder Shaolin monk named Li
Bao (Peach Envelopment [the peach representing longevity, therefore a
person who ‘envelopes longevity’]) that he recalled his grand teacher having
taught the tendon secrets to a man possessing Tung’s great martial skill. He
could not remember the man’s name, only that it was not the name Tung Hai-
Chuan. However, after my father described Master Tung, the monk thought
he may be the same person. Monk Li said that this traveler stayed at the
temple for less than a year, recalling that it was very early during the Qing
rule under Tongzhi [1862-1874 CE].
My father taught that his xingyiquan master, Guo Yun-Shen, had taught
him tendon changes that had existed within their branch for many centuries.
These methods deeply reflected the methods taught at the Shaolin Temple,
which my father felt was the pool from which many quan fa (boxing
[pugilistic] methods) drank.
As a scholar my father delved into learning of the origins of many of the
practices he was taught. His knowledge of practicing Ba Duan Jin (Eight
Sections of Brocade) led him to further visits to the Shaolin Temple where he
learned one of the most ancient ways of this health enhancement method. The
methods he learned there mirrored those in the Song Dynasty [960-1279 CE]
text
She Sheng Yao Yi (Preservation of Life Essentials). However, my father
said that most people today learn an extended version, one consisting of
twelve exercises, which was developed by a medical scholar named Pan Wei
during the Qing rule. This second version is not as complicated to practice, as
it explains each of the twelve methods according to traditional Chinese
medical knowledge. The first version, consisting of the original eight
methods, is a version my father practiced, and is what he had taught to some
of his students as a separate art, one that is blended within his taijiquan and
neijia sets. An old account, from the Shaolin, attaches one god to each of the
eight methods. Each god mandates the spiritual precepts to be followed while
performing the physical postures. He further learned Ba Duan Jin from a
Taoist master, a method that my father held closest to his heart, one that is
blended within his taijiquan and neijia sets. It is the Taoist version that my
father came to understand more completely through his contemplations of the
Yi-Jing [I-Ching] (Classic of Change).

Azure Dragon Stretches [Extends] Claws, one of the twenty-four
Deva postures from Shaolin Temple’s I-Chin Jing.

Baguazhang’s White Snake Coils Body, demonstrated by Sun Lu-
T’ang.

7
DRAGON & TIGER
GUO Y UN-SHEN’S ANIMAL PAIRINGS IN XINGY IQUAN:
M Y FATHER [S UN L U -T’ ANG ] HAD EXPLAINED TO ME THAT THE TWELVE

animal spirits practiced in xingyiquan each possess spiritual essences and qi
that move in unison with one another, blending and overlapping as waves in
an ocean. Of the twelve animals, none is more dominant than another; none is
weaker than another. Each of the twelve possesses its own yin nature, and its
own yang nature. This means that although one animal’s essence may be
thought of as yang, according to its movement and ferocious nature, it also
embraces yin spirit that establishes harmony within such duality.
Beyond this is also the study of pairings, in which each of the twelve
animals is paired with another, making six pairs. In this manner one animal is
thought of as primarily yang in its essence, while its paired animal is thought
of as primarily yin in its essence. The example for this lecture is the pairing of
dragon and tiger in xingyiquan.
Master Guo Yun-Shen taught my father that the dragon is a heavenly
creature, born within the movement of the Cosmos. Movement of the heavens
is the stirring of yang qi; stirring of yang qi is the dragon in movement. The
dragon is the formed essence and vapor of yang qi. That is, yang qi sought
such expansion and movement at the moment of its inception that it drew
inward upon itself, unifying and transforming so that it could give birth to its
formed outward moving essence, the dragon. This is the entire concept of the
actions of kai (expand [open]) and h’er (unite [close]), upon which my father
and his teachers based their practices, following the creation of all life, and
why my father originally named his taiji practices Kai-H’er Taijiquan before
renaming it several times.
The dragon, born from yang essence; lives within the yang of Heaven.
Therefore, this creature has always been thought of as yang in its very being.
However, Master Guo taught that in the ancient practices of xingyiquan the
dragon is yin in essence, opposing the view traditionally held within our
culture. Master Guo said that his master passed on this secret to him through
the following explanation:
Xingyiquan’s dragon is yin and is buxiu (without end [immortal]). Within
the human body the dragon’s essence is guided by one’s mind-will to move
the yin within. The dragon’s domain begins from beneath the tongue
[associated with the heavens] and extends downward to one’s perineum. The
dragon lives among the clouds [Heaven], though finds harmony in uniting
with the Earth. Thus the dragon moves from above to below, drawing its
essence downward to establish root within the yin of the Earth.
Field Marshall [General] Yue Fei [believed to have created many of the
original practice sets of xingyiquan during the 12 th century A.D.] taught his
top military officers to practice the dragon xingyi set, both with a long spear
and empty handed, thereby directing the yin qi within one’s body to course
downward, enabling the tiger [yang qi and essence] to move upward along
the spine.

Old drawing of General Yue Fei (circa 1700’s).
Drawing of a temple near Hangzhou, China, that guards General

Yue Fei’s burial mound (circa 1800’s).

The author standing in front of General Yue Fei’s burial mound,
China, 1992. Within this temple’s courtyard is where I studied old
weaponry sets attributed to General Yue Fei and his son
Sun Lu-T’ang demonstrating xingyiquan’s Xia Long Shi (Lower

Dragon Posture).
To practice tiger one must prepare the body according to the nature of this
creature, using its innate skills to develop our own quan fa (a generic term
meaning any pugilistic [martial] method involving the hands). Foremost
among the preparation methods for tiger are the san kou (three clampings),
which mimic the extremities and jaws of this beast.
Begin with the shoulders embracing [clamping]. This is achieved by first
spreading the shoulders outward using the method fen-kai (separate-open)
then, rounding them and clamping lightly forward as if to embrace a large
sphere, causing one’s back to slightly arch [concave] like that of a tiger,
thereby causing one’s chest to become like a cave [drawn inward, concaved]
in which the tiger’s essence resides.
The action of shoulder clamping enables qi to descend to the tan-t’ien.
Should the shoulders lose their clamping force then, the chest shall expand
and qi shall rise, causing blood to wrongfully surge in one’s heart and head
[causing high blood pressure].
My father [Sun Lu-T’ang] said that there are san shen kou (three body
clampings) and er kou fa (two clamping methods). The two clamping
methods are: qu kou (rounded clamping) and ting kou (straightened
clamping). This is like the yin and yang, both co-exist in support of one
another. According to any position the body assumes there are both curved
and straight areas, both internally and externally. As the arms and hands
extend outward into the san-ti posture the forward arm appears somewhat
straight, while the rear arm appears to be somewhat rounded, though kou li
(clamping power) is mutually shared.

Ma Yu-T’ang, disciple under xingyiquan master Li Cun-I, and close
friend to Sun Lu-Tang, demonstrating San-ti.
Master Guo Yun-Shen taught that kou li can never be manifested when
both arms are straight, both legs are straight, or both the back and chest are
straight; all cause qu kou (rounded clamping) not to exist. One arm appears
straighter, though retains curvature within; one arm appears to possess greater
curvature within, though retains hidden straightness within; such is to be
followed in all parts of the body.
Furthermore, the shoulders are the root of the arms; the shoulders must
concurrently attain clamping forward and inward, using qu li (rounded
power). Should this not be followed the chest shall not draw inward and sink,
causing qi to rise in a most unruly way. As the shoulders attain kou li, the
elbows in turn shall attain sinking [rootedness]; the sensation being as if
warm sand were filling the elbow’s basin [the entire joint region of the
elbow]. Once the shoulders and elbows attain kou li, then too shall the hands

follow and establish true kou li gong (clamping power development)
throughout all regions of the hands, extending into each fingertip, and
beyond. ‘Beyond’ refers to one’s spirit extending the essence of kou li
beyond one’s body, merging with t’an (to search for [explore]) to create kou-
t’an li (clamping-searching power). This unique force seeks to touch upon an
adversary, adhering to his intent of movement, clamping upon his very
essence.
Throughout all neijiaquan (inner family boxing [referring to the arts of
taijiquan, baguazhang and xingyiquan]) practices development of kou li is
important, though it is the skill most dominate within tiger methods. Master
Guo taught that in xingyi and bagua tiger movements clamp down upon an
adversary like the jaws of a great wildcat. The paws [one’s hands and feet]
clamp, the legs clamp, and the teeth [one’s jaws] clamp; all unify to create
shen kou li (body clamping power). Such a force embraces one’s qi, contains
it within the cauldron [the lower tan-t’ien] from where its generative force
moves throughout the bones. This is the manner by which tiger xingyi
develops both qi and essence within the gushui (bone water [marrow]),
transforming mere bone marrow into that which purifies the seed of
immortality.
Ancient Chinese cauldron, representing the tan-t’ien, the seat of

purification for qi.
Clamping of the legs and feet follows the methods of the arms and hands.
The caudal region [sacrum and tailbone area] rounds forward while the inner
region of the pelvis uses the feeling of fen-kai (separate-open) to attain
clamping of the pelvis and loins. The loin region [the muscles and tendons of
the inner thigh] must always remain slightly curved, possessing rou nei song
(softness within relaxation). In this manner the thighs, loins, pelvis, and
caudal region all mutually fold inward to embrace the tan-t’ien. All unite
within the enfolding to produce shang t’ui kou li (upper leg clamping power).
Xia t’ui kou li (lower leg clamping power) refers to the region from the
knees to the feet. Both knees must feel as if pressing upon and pushing back
upon a dense heavenly cloud, this is nurturing the skill of nei ji-an (press-
pushing the interior). Again, it is one’s own interpretation of rou li (soft
power) that shall lead to true skill in this practice. Stepping methods are
patterned after that of the Qi Xing (Seven Stars [the Big Dipper]), each
method embracing the essence of Heaven, Man and the Earth. The practice of
a particular step must always be in accord with the shape of a Big Dipper
pattern, whether elongated or compressed, in this manner the spirit and qi
find true repose, from which the embodiment of circularity in bagua
movement culminates.

Figure 3A: The four stars of the Big Dipper form the bowl [ladle],
overpowering the three in the handle, representing the yin and yang and the
formation of Heaven.
Figure 3B: Symmetrical formation of the stars of the Big Dipper in which
the stars are somewhat straightened in the four-sided bowl, representing
Man.
Figure 3C: Symmetry is sought in staggering the seven stars [Big
Dipper], representing the pattern of the Earth and its mountainous peaks.
As rou li (soft power) becomes dominant in this lower region, kou li shall
manifest. Kou li shall thereby embrace itself, continuing to expand, finally
being drawn downward into the ankles where kou li shall become heavy, root
with the Earth, drawing and slightly turning the feet inward. The two ankles
feel drawn together as if by a cord, though physically they must remain apart.
The ankles, in turn, draw the feet slightly inward with the tips of the toes
turning inward, so slightly that it escapes notice.
The toes, like the fingers, must slightly curve. Within this curve,
clamping exists. It is improper to think, as many have done, as a type of
gripping force. Rather, it is kou li, a power [force] that transcends the
physical. Within the toes kou (clamping) is attained through sensing
curvature and extension beyond the tips, adhering into the Earth.
As the fingers seek outward using t’an li (testing, searching, exploring
force), so too do the toes, both upper [hands] and lower [feet] are linked.
Therefore, should kou li in the hands and arms be insufficient, merely search
the legs and feet for incorrectness; one rules over the other. This is the way of
correctness, that the upper half of the body governs over the correct manner
in which the lower half moves and attains central rooted stability and the
lower half of the body governs over the correct manner in which the upper
half moves and attains continued power development. In like manner the
hands govern the feet, the elbows govern the knees, and the shoulders govern
the hips; the reverse is likewise true, this is the way of pairings.
Kou li (clamping power) within the hands manifests within the feet, and
in practicing kou li within the feet, the hands acquire kou li gong (clamping
power development). This is yin and yang at play; constant exchange and
duality. Each pairing between the upper and lower halves governs and
enhances kou li gong. The three pairs once unified establish the foundation
for kou shen (clamping body), in that clamping has transcended the limbs and
now nurtures within the entirety of one’s body and essence.
Whether stepping outward or inward, forward or backward; whether
striking with the hands or with a weapon in each of the eight directions kou fa
(clamping methods) are resolute, always maintaining the body’s correctness
as a pillar upon which one’s spirit coils [attaches] before returning to the Tai
Xu (Great Void [the Cosmos]).

Bai She Fu Cao (White Snake Hides in Grass), bagua sword,
demonstrated by Sun Lu-T’ang.
Most difficult to comprehend among the san kou is that of the teeth, the
exterior manifestation of all bones and tendons in the body. The inner bones
[approximately 206 in adults] and the outer bones [the teeth] are like the yin
and yang, reflections of their paired existence; to affect a single bone is to
affect all. Tendons are regarded as the soft extensions of bone, each tendon
being a stem by which qi moves, courses through, and pairs with bone in the
transformation of the body.
This is why General Yue Fei taught his commanding officers to softly
clamp their teeth. To clamp the teeth [softly clenching] uses two guiding
principles: kai qi (open the qi) and he’r qi (unite the qi). Throughout the
process of all training and movement General Yue Fei followed the teachings
of Taoist masters who he had encountered during military campaigns in
various mountainous regions. One such teaching was nei xi gu jin (internal
washing [cleansing] of bone and tendon), the skill of moving qi within the
living marrow of all bones and throughout all tendons. To do such shall
purify turbid qi, thereby beginning the wheel of longevity to correctly
revolve. The method to practice is like that of a drop of water, simplicity in
and of itself.
General Yue Fei’s method, as taught by Master Guo Yun-Shen, is to
softly clamp [clench] the teeth. As one inhales [inner expansion] the breath
and teeth are in accord with the kai fa (open method) of one’s body; upon
exhalation the breath and teeth sense heaviness while softly clamping
[clenching]. A single physical movement, or that of several, may constitute a
single inhalation or exhalation of qi, the physical breath, and clamping; this
depends upon the needs and cycles of one’s interior.
The clamping of the teeth must be without any physical sign. The jaw
must not appear tense nor protruding; the skill being hidden within and
directed to the bones and tendons. This is a bone healing method General
Yue Fei used on the field of battle to revitalize and heal the broken bones of
those officers under his command. While reclining, an officer, upon clamping
down each time [clamping his teeth], would direct qi from the teeth to the
interior of the injured bone. This is bone mandating [governing] bone. As one
inhales, clamping softens, thereby qi courses inward to fill all recesses.
Paired, kai kou li (opening clamping force) with he’r kou li (uniting clamping
force), the movement of health is again restored.
The practice of san kou (three clampings) is paired with that of the
Heaven, Man, and Earth. The heavens are formed above, as are the teeth
located above in one’s body; the arms embrace that which they touch, being
the nature of man, and the legs embrace the earth through manifesting rooted
qi downward, as does a tree.
My father [Sun Lu-T’ang] said that Master Guo taught each of the three
clampings, though he required that a student practice each method for one
year, before progressing to the next. During the first year a student would
learn many fist patterns [sets] and stepping routines, but t’ui kou gong (leg
clamping development) was foremost. The second year, bi [shoubi] kou (arm
clamping) was to be developed, merging this skill with t’ui kou. The first two
years [developing the arms and legs] are considered to be yang in essence,
related to kai (to open); the third year [developing the teeth and bones] to be
yin in essence, related to he’r (unite); kai-he’r practice is again rediscovered
in yet another form.
Merging the three aspects into One is known as T’ai Kou Gong (Great
Clamping Development), an achievement few shall manifest throughout
one’s entirety of movement and thought.
Chen Wei-Ming, Master Sun Lu-T’ang’s first documented disciple.

8
ANNOTATED: DEVELOPING INNER FORCE
T hedisciple
following information is attributed to Sun Lu-T’ang through his
Jue Hau, who taught Sun’s methods until his passing in the
1960s. Although this article is contained in another of my books in this
version I have added commentary from Madam Sun that I feel is especially of
interest to those studying traditional Sun family practices.
______________________________________
Standing practice requires that one’s natural desire to move be restrained
as if holding back on the reigns of a horse that is about to gallop. Movement
is generated by the activity of qi. To gather qi from heavenly sources [those
forces which are active] beget the natural transmutation of movement. Master
Sun Lu-T’ang taught that standing practices are the original methods that the
Immortals employed to feed their ethereal bodies. Not being of mortal flesh
their need to feed upon the qi of Heaven and Earth is resolute. Standing
among the mountains and clouds the Immortals inhale harmonious vapors
[qi] and exhale turbid remains [impure qi].
Note: Madam Sun said that when she was a little girl she would find her
father just standing in various postures. Her mother told her not to bother
her father because he was doing something important. She did not
understand this then because he was just standing, though she would just
stand sometimes near him so she could be important too.

Jue Hau demonstrating開合手Kai-He’r Shou (Open-Unite Hands)
for gathering [absorbing] qi and the uniting of one’s qi with Spirit
and Intent.
T HE WAY OF THE I MMORTALS IS A PURE PATH TO FOLLOW . T HEY BECKON ALL

to adhere to their practices. Master Sun said that such methods were taught to
him by his master, Guo Yun-Shen. Master Guo was said to have learned the
ways of the Immortals by monks who live in the region of Huang Shan
(Yellow Mountain), where the Immortals often come to play and feed. They
are often observed standing in various poses during the early morning when
dew begins to form. Their standing is without a single stirring motion, yet
onlookers speak of the Immortals having a frost [a glistening-cloudy glow]
gathering about them. I [Jue Hau] asked Master Sun what is this frost? He
answered that it is the light from the ‘other side.’ I did not understand his
meaning at that time and he would speak no more about this until years later.
Note: One early morning in autumn about eight students and I gathered
at a tiny park near to Madam Sun’s apartment. We met her there for practice.
It was a Sunday morning in which all was quiet, the light frost on the grass
and trees was glistening and was accentuated by a clear blue sky. It was a
remarkably beautiful moment. Madam Sun told us that this is how we should
feel within ourselves each time we practice.
It is the feeling, the very sensation of that moment with all of its beauty
that should radiate throughout our being. When she paints, she said that she
touches upon such moments in her heart and expresses this through her
brush. Whether it is through the hand or sword, the method is the same.
Whether stirring or in stillness, the method is the same. The method is simple
and follows the explanation that her father gave his students. Master Sun
taught that the poetry that he wrote often had but a few Chinese characters;
simple and direct with great underlying treasures of meaning.
Taijiquan, all boxing arts, and qigong must be pursued in this same
manner, that the practice of a few movements can be the pathway to
abundant skill and awareness. Madam Sun added that her father taught that
the proper way to grind ink for calligraphy is to use a small bowl and only a
small amount of water. The ink can then, because of a small amount to attend
to, be ground with care, and without imperfection. This ink, made through
unwavering attentiveness, can then be used to create beautiful calligraphy or
artwork. This is what Master Sun meant by ‘smallness gives birth to
vastness.’ Attend to the practice of but a single boxing posture at one time,
but a single qigong method, but one method of practice each time toward
attaining wholeness. It was for such reasons that Madam Sun, when privately
teaching us, would often focus upon a single movement or method, teaching
the deeper, hidden aspects of each as her father had learned from his
masters.
I always asked my master many questions, though he gave few responses
at first. I learned from his example that questions and responses are not
without merit, though it is attaining an answer without having asked a
question that must be sought. The answer often shows itself before the
question is asked. This is the way of true learning. In standing practices I
followed the methods taught by many; stand and absorb the qi, quiet the
spirit, and seek to transform. To seek was my undoing, as it has been for
many.
Note: Master Sun Lu-T’ang had learned that specific postures are
considered to be the mothers of all other postures, hence he was instructed by
his teachers to adhere to these Mother Postures. For example, Madam Sun
said that her father had learned the Eight Mother Standing Postures in
baguazhang from Master Cheng T’ing-Hua. It is from these eight principle
postures that all others spring forth and flourish. From these eight he
extracted skills that are placed and nurtured within the Sun taiji form.
This is why his close disciples were required to practice baguazhang
toward the purpose of understanding these eight principle essences that are
threaded throughout the bagua and taiji that he taught. Madam Sun also
added that the Eight Mother Postures each had variations that Master Cheng
taught, but the essences remained the same. This is why, she remarked, her
brother and some of her father’s disciples performed these postures slightly
differently, yet the essence of each posture adheres to the same principles.
Though the name of a Mother Posture can be different among each disciple
and the posture itself slightly varied in appearance, the essence within
remains steadfast in its method of nurturing and transforming one’s qi and
spirit.
Master Sun said that Master Guo taught that the action of seeking is as
motion, both are the Great Inhibitors. His meaning is that in standing
practices one must stand within a pool of stillness that has no ripples of
thought, for thought brings forth seeking answers and accomplishments
which inhibit the purity of one’s intent. Therefore, to accumulate qi and
internal force one must not seek accumulation. To find stillness within one
must not search for stillness. To search is the action by which transformation
is abated. Empty the kettle, then it can be filled. To understand that which
Master Sun spoke on is to have taken the initial step into the practices of
standing.
Note: In 1984, I entered Madam Sun’s class and was initially taught
methods of standing practice. She had said that before I learn or attempt
moving in neijiaquan that I had to establish a root [foundation] from which
to execute movement. I clearly recall that day because after a morning of
standing practice for about four hours I could almost not walk. My legs were
shaking so terribly that many in class were quietly chuckling at how weak my
legs had become. I also sweated like they had never seen before, something
like a standing sprinkler system. Madam Sun had said that standing practice
would harmonize my qi and the dampness [causing excessive sweating]
within me would cease. However, she would suggest that I see her friend who
is an old doctor of Chinese medicine. That is another story in itself.
My classmates, following class, had invited me to accompany them to
lunch; two of them had to assist me in walking part of the way to a tiny
outdoor restaurant in a nearby alley. As we began to eat one classmate spoke
in English to me, ‘You eat very aggressively, you stab your food; it’s not
polite.’ She clearly had issues with me being in class. She was one of the
students who felt Chinese arts should only remain in Chinese hands. The
others at the table apparently reprimanded her and said that Madam Sun had
taken me as a student, so she had to respect this decision. The girl then
explained to me that I must use kuaizi (chop sticks) in a delicate manner, not
like using an attacking fork. She gave me my earliest lesson on how to
carefully approach food. In general, she said to me, ‘Touch only with the tips,
lightly, gently, and when at your mouth eat with care and do not lick the
sticks or you will make the food that we share dirty each time with your
koushui (saliva).’ I expressed my great gratitude for teaching me such a
valuable lesson. She then said ‘Since this was a lesson, you pay for lunch.’ I
happily, almost happily, paid for the seven of us, they escorted me back to
class and along the way she remarked that we should have another eating
lesson tomorrow.
One of my other classmates later that day told me that my female
classmate had taught me a very valuable lesson that was beyond that of
eating. The lesson had been about tranquility and movement, not eating.
From stillness comes movement, it is tranquility that齊 qi (uniformly binds
together) action and non-action into harmony. Without me be aware of it this
female classmate had been teaching me the lessons in standing practice that
were embraced within the proper practice of eating as well as most things in
life. She turned out to be quite the philosopher in class. The next day at lunch
I carefully used my kuaitze, used all proper eating etiquette, and paid for the
group. Immediately after lunch she said, ‘You are a good student, but only at
lunch.’
Jue Hau demonstrating 更雞獨立Ching [Geng] Chi Du Li (Night-
Watch Rooster Stands Alone). In this posture one’s head senses pressing
upward at Ni Wan (Mud Ball) while the lower foot sinks downward into
and through Yongquan (Gushing Spring), thereby uniting within one’s
body the qi from both heavenly and earthly realms. One hand gestures
to Heaven; one hand points to Earth, with Man being centrally located.
This is the trinity which exists within all postures.
Standing requires that one become like a li-tzu shu (plum tree) that is
weighted with its fruit. Heavy, steadfast, and blossoming with essential vigor,
this tree represents yang ching (generative force) within one’s body. To stand
with wu wei (nothingness [the abyss of inactivity]) is to stand with the Tao.
Note: One of my earliest recollections of Madam Sun teaching me about
standing principles was the time that she called me over to stand in a specific
place, not where I had been standing. She had me stand so that I was facing
an old tree, with the shade (yin) of that tree engulfing the front half of my
body; the rear half of my body was exposed to morning sunlight (yang). She
told me to just stand and breathe in the Tao.

9
TEN CHARACTER HANDS
SHI TZE SHOU
Ten Character Hands Shi Tze Shou

W ithin the old forms of taijiquan there exists the classical posture Shi Tze
Shou (Ten Character Hands). Below is an extract from an old Yang
family style text Taijiquan Shi (Taiji Boxing Power Enhancement [referring
also to Structural Integration], written in the 1920s. In translating and
annotating the text, available through our press, you will find that many of
the taiji masters of the early 1900s and prior to that practiced Ten Character
Hands.
Sun Lu-T’ang, as a ‘professional instructor’ at Nanjing’s Central
National Arts Academy during the late 1920s, taught primarily classical
xingyiquan, though he did teach a long form of internal boxing to high
ranking military officers. This form, created by Sun, was an old version of the
taijiquan that he taught in Beijing. The old form in Nanjing emphasized the
k’ai (open) - h’er (unite [contract]) posture with Ten Character Hands
placed between these two actions.
______________________________________
Explanation of Shi Tze Shou from Yang family Taijiquan:
The two wrists, when crossed, look like the character “ten.” When two
postures follow one another ~ though to connect them makes one’s posture
twisted and uncomfortable ~ then Shi Tze Shou can be used to connect them.
Practice the posture high, middle or low. It is the same in its content and
spirit. Do not overlook this heavenly practice.

Ten Character Hands Posture from the old Yang family clan, circa
1920s.

Wu Tu-Nan demonstrating the old Wu style taiji posture Shi Tze Shou,
circa 1930s.

A NNOTATIONS OF S HI T ZE S HOU FROM Y ANG FAMILY T AIJIQUAN :
This posture should be practiced [in a connected manner] to the next
posture without any interruption. Ten Character Hands is therefore thought of
as the liaison between all postures. It is this posture that is used for smooth
transition from one posture to another. It is thought of, like Yu Nu (Jade
Maiden), as one of the Great Communicators between deities and postures.
The body must not sway, nor lean in any direction lest one’s body shall
move as if being controlled by a wooden collar [that which the persecuted
must endure for weeks before the executioner’s blade strikes]. The weight in
the legs must be carefully observed. This posture does not have equal weight
in each leg as most people perceive. The left leg contains more weight as the
right leg is prepared to turn and step, like that of a pouncing tiger stalking
prey. The concept of tiger now relates to, and is connected to the forthcoming
posture.
Annotations from Sun Lu-T’ang on Lu Jiao Shou:
The following annotations were provided by Madam Sun Jian-Yun during
a lecture she gave in 1987. These annotated teachings, she said, came directly
from her father, Sun Lu-T’ang.
Lu Jiao Shou (Deer Antler [Horn] Hands) is the name by which Master
Zhang San-Feng, the founder of taijiquan, called Shi Tze Shou (Ten
Character Hands). Master Zhang observed the movement and spirit of deer,
finding their methods of fleeting and longevity to be unsurpassed among
earthbound creatures.
The deer’s antlers reach outward and thrive toward Heaven, uniting their
essence with the yang qi of the Great Tao. Master Zhang mimicked the ways
of deer, forming his body like that of an aged stag that knew the secret of
longevity. To form the hands like antler’s pointing toward Heaven gathers
one’s qi into the fingertips, where yang qi of Heaven unifies with the yang qi
of the hand’s five sacred peaks [referring to the five fingers of each hand,
which represent the five sacred mountains of China]. This is yang enhancing
yang, producing T’ai Yang (the Great Yang), that which breathes life into the
‘Formless Form.’
The hands cross at the wrists, the inside of one touching upon the outside
of the other, that being the juncture of the yin and yang, inner and outer
mixing to become one, pressing downward, like a large rock settling into
sand.
P’an (crossing) [of the two wrists] occurs several inches away from the
heart with roundness and clamping energies forming throughout the arms and
chest. Such actions establish bao (embracing), and the stillness of one’s
spirit. Within stillness one shall find emptiness, within which the Tao abides.
P’an establishes the visible outer shape; bao holds the hidden inner shape.
In transitioning into lu jiao shou (deer antler hands) xiangjian (visualize)
one’s mass of qi spreading throughout the body, this being reciprocal to gufa
(bone structure [a term to indicate structural unity and completeness]). This is
he’r (unifying while contracting) the interior by which qi is expressed
throughout the exterior form. As qi attains complete expression to the
exterior’s outmost regions [the toe and finger tips], qi returns to its source
within [the tan-t’ien].

Sun in step up to form Seven Stars

Deer, symbolizing the essence of longevity.

Sun in uniting the Yin and Yang

Li Xuan-Jie’s disciple (Li was Sun’s disciple in Nanjing), demonstrating
Shi Tze Shou.
H OLD THE POSTURE , NOT MOVING FOR SOME TIME . T HE SPIRIT SENSES CHOU
jing (shrinking energy) drawing downwards to unite with yin while ding zhu
jing (rising firm energy [the interior essence responsible for maintaining
erectness]) presses upward within the head, uniting with yang. Master Zhang
said that such practice follows the path of the deer, quietly hiding the ways of
longevity contained within the simplicity of the crossed hands secret.

10
FIVE ORGAN DIM-MAK
WU ZANG DIM-MAK
Jue Hau, disciple of Sun Lu-T’ang.

T hedisciple
following information is attributed to Sun Lu-T’ang through his
Jue Hau, who taught Sun’s methods until his passing in the
1960s.
______________________________________
The true foundation of Dim-Mak can be understood by reading a passage
in the Annotated and Classified Inner Canon of the Yellow Emperor, by
Zhang Jingyue, which states, ‘Zang is situated in the interior, yet it manifests
itself on the exterior.’ Zang is an organ grouping that includes the heart,
lungs, spleen, liver, and kidneys. These wu zang (five organs) of the interior
are the core roots, their stems and branches being the jing-luo (pathways and
collaterals) that seep through to the exterior of one’s body where Dim-Mak
striking can be used in a specific manner to impede the course of qi.
Note: Madam Sun had told us that her father had learned Dim-Mak
methods from several of his teachers, but regarded such methods as
poisonous to the essential spirit of the practitioner. He studied these methods
and taught them to some of his disciples only as a means to heal those who
had become victim to such strikes. At one time during the 1930s there was
even a book on Dim-Mak strikes and applications with the author as Great
Master Sun Fu-Quan (Sun Lu-T’ang), but she said that he had not written
such a book. Small printing houses would publish erroneous books just to
make a profit.
One section of that book described numerous witnessed accounts of
Master Sun walking past several assailants, within moments all fell to the
ground dead. The book stated that the highest level of Dim-Mak required no
physical touch or strike. Madam Sun went on to explain that this little book
had caused her father problems. Because he was publically teaching at that
time at a large martial arts training hall in Beijing for Master Xu Yu-Sheng
(further elaborated on in my book Taijiquan Shu: Taiji Power Enhancement
& Postures [published in 1921]), the school became aware of the book as
many people came to register for Dim-Mak instruction under Master Sun.
Though Xu and staff had explained the falsehood of the book to visitors
the reaction was that the book must be true because only a true master of
Dim-Mak would turn away money and fame. Additionally, several high
government envoys came to speak with Maser Sun in order to ask that he
teach this art to interested high officials. He had to respectfully and most

carefully explain the entire situation to them. Madam Sun said that it took
many weeks before things were settled, but at times such books resurfaced
only to cause problems for her father and students.
She further commented that although her father possessed Dim-Mak
knowledge and skills such was never publically authored by him, only his
personal journal entries contained such notes. These journal notes, her
father’s spear book that he had been writing for many years, along with other
writings on his extensive travels in China, were taken by someone during a
gathering at their home. Very sadly, these were never recovered. I did ask
her one day, when the moment seemed right, if she ever found out who had
taken her father’s writings? She said that her family did find out who it was,
but they were only able to contact that person’s family following the end of
Japanese occupation in parts of China toward the end of WWII. Madam Sun
had spoken directly to that family and they had said that their house was lost
to bombings and fire during the war and that all of the contents were
destroyed.

Master Xu Yu-Sheng (1879-1945).
T H E WU ZANG ARE THE TARGET OF ALL TRUE D IM -M AK SYSTEMS IN THAT

these five organs, grouped as a single entity, are biao li guan xi (bound in an
exterior-interior relationship). To injure one organ injures all organs in that
they form an organic whole. Master Cheng T’ing-Hua said ‘It is as tossing a
stone into a pond, the ripples travel all directions to the farthest shoreline. At
the farthest point the ripple cannot be seen, yet its effect can be observed.’
Cheng spoke on point striking, but used it as a momentary method by which
to weaken the adversary, making him vulnerable to attack. He often referred
to such hitting as Du Shou (Poison Hand), of which a hundred [uncountable]
methods had arisen throughout China.

Master Cheng T’ing-Hua (1843-1900).
N OTE : T HERE WAS A STORY ABOUT S UN L U -T’ ANG AND D IM -M AK TOLD TO ME

during the late 1980s by a martial arts teacher at a Chinese college. This
story is one that is not only in books in China but has also been taught as
fact. I am writing about it here to set the record straight as Madam Sun said
that this story is completely untrue and had no basis of fact.
T HE STORY IS AS FOLLOWS :
In the 1930s Master Sun began to teach selective classes in Shanghai and
nearby towns [this being absolutely true according to Madam Sun]. During
one of his visits to Shanghai he was invited to attend a meeting and luncheon
in his honor that was being held at one of the newest buildings in the German
section of the city which was known as the Bund. When he arrived at the
building he was escorted into a crowded elevator headed upward. During the
ascent, a young woman who had placed herself just next to Master Sun
suddenly struck him using a secret Dim-Mak method.
Master Sun immediately doubled over and as the door opened the female
attacker fled. Master Sun was taken to nearby family in Shanghai where they
were said to care for him. Over the days he was said to feel progressively
worse. The story continues to claim that Sun then decided to make a very
long journey to E’Mei Mountain where he sought the skills of Taoist monks
who could reverse the poisonous touch.
Unfortunately, the monks were reportedly unsuccessful, so Master Sun
returned to his home to die with his family around him. The female assailant,
upon hearing of Sun’s death, contacted his family and said that she had
trained for ten years in secret poison hand death touches so that she could
revenge her father’s death. Her father, according to the story, died during a
platform death match with Master Sun. The female assailant was never heard
of again.
Madam Sun said this story is not true and was one of many that were
published in small booklets in China to just sell copies. She added that she
was his teaching assistant and accompanied her father to Shanghai during
each trip but for the first one. They never had meetings in the Bund as it was
somewhat unfriendly to Chinese in those days unless you were a wealthy
Chinese which they were not. She added that elevators that she had seen in
those days generally only held three to four people, and most Chinese, like
her father did not trust such a box on a wire. She was sure that her father had
never taken an elevator during his life.
Also, when in Shanghai, her father preferred to eat only at two places,
one was a small family run restaurant that cooked vegetarian food and the
other was the Huxinting Chashi (basically ‘Pavilion in the Lake’s Center Tea
House’), a large tea house where wealthy businessmen held meetings and
many of the masters of philosophy, poetry, painting, martial practices, and so
forth would go to discuss and display their talents. She said that her father
always took great care of daily affairs and would rarely place himself in a
situation of danger.
A very general history of Huxinting Tea House is given here for
reference:
Over 400 years ago, the area of land upon which the tea house now stands
was called Yu Gardens. The owner, Pan Yunduan, had a beautiful square
shaped pavilion built in the center of a lotus pool. Unfortunately, Yu’s
personal wealth declined and he had to sell off his land holdings. A very
wealthy cloth and silk manufacturer named Zhu Yunhui, along with several
other investors, bought the property and rebuilt the tea house into a much
larger pavilion with a hexagonal shape.
The new structure was completed during the 49 th year of Emperor
Qianlong (1784). It was at that time the structure was given the name
Huxinting (Pavilion in the Lake’s Center) and was regarded as a place to hold
business meetings and sales transactions for the cloth and silk trade. In 1855,
during the 5 th year of Emperor Xianfeng, the structure was converted into an
exquisite tea house for those in the public sector who were wealthy and
government officials. Not everyone was welcome as guards were posted to
ensure that you met the requirements to enter.
Over the years this tea house, the oldest in Shanghai, took different
names: Yeshi Tea House, and Wanzai Tea House; finally its name has once
again been restored to Huxinting (Pavilion in the Lake’s Center). One of
many interesting points to notice in the photograph below is that the front
entrance to the tea house could only be reached by walking the zig-zagging
Bridge of Nine Turnings which was specifically planned to discourage and

completely confuse walking vampires and evil spirits, which were known to
generally move in straight lines.
Early 1900s photo postcard showing Huxinting and the Bridge of Nine Turnings. The
water surrounding the tea house during that period was said to be green, heavy with
layers of pond scum upon which hundreds of turtles would rest. Westerners have often
referred to this structure as the Willow Pattern Teahouse, as it resembles scenes
depicted upon classic blue and white Willow chinaware.

A stereoview photo-card from 1906 of the interior of Huxinting Tea House. The
caption beneath this photo reads ‘Where Shanghai’s wealthy natives pass the time.’
The photo was taken by Underwood & Underwood Photographers, who had offices in
Shanghai, New York, London, Toronto, and Ottawa, Kansas (where the firm was
founded).
J UE H UA ’ S WRITINGS CONTINUED :
The ancient Chinese text Basic Questions states, “The heart, lungs, liver,
spleen, and kidneys store vitality, courage, soul, intention, and determination,
respectively.” That is, to injure an adversary’s lungs will cause him to lose
courage; to injure his kidneys shall cause him to loose his determination to

fight. This concept, of injuring a specific organ to defeat an adversary’s spirit
to fight, was a secret among many of China’s foremost boxers. The great
xingyiquan master, Guo Yun-Shen, Master Sun Lu-T’ang’s grand teacher,
taught such theory entwined within his boxing system as a method to
maintain a harmonious balance of nei wai ren xing (internal-external human
shape). One’s health and physiological integrity could thus be maintained.
In combat the following must be remembered:
Heart, if injured, conquers vitality.
Lungs, if injured, conquers the courage to fight.
Liver, if injured, conquers the soul.
Spleen, if injured, conquers the intent to fight.
Kidneys, if injured, conquers the determination to fight.
Such injuries apply to both the adversary and oneself. Caution must be
clearly observed.

11
S T R I K I N G T H E F I V E O R G A N C AV I T I E S
DA WU ZANG XUE D

M aster Jue Hau often sited famous Chinese texts as reference to support
the theory of striking specific organ cavities [points] found along the
jing (pathways) used in acupuncture. However, he wrote that many of the
teachers who taught him poison hand cavities explained that these cavities
were often not located on the jing used in classical acupuncture. These mi-mi
xue dau (secret cavities) were regarded as the most advanced and
devastating poison touch methods that painfully halted the circulation of
one’s xue (blood) and qi.
Jue Hau said that such pain could only be likened to what is called
“death by a thousand needles” in which a thousand needles are inserted all
around the body, slowing blood and qi until corporeal function becomes
severely labored, with pain increasing to an intolerable threshold. He had
written that during the Boxer Rebellion of 1900 that such needle tortures
were used in prisons because no signs of a torturous death could be observed
if inspected by the public.
The following information was written by Jue Hau in the early 1940's
while the Japanese occupied China. Many of the original cavity-point
drawings were lost or in such terrible shape that I chose to use similar
drawings of these point locations from another Chinese source. Jue Hau was
also concerned that the Japanese would obtain a copy of his text and use the
striking methods and cavity locations against the Chinese people.
To partially prevent such information from being misused, he only wrote
about three of the five major organs and published a very limited number of
text copies that were distributed only among his students and large national
boxing associations. The remaining two organs, advanced cavity striking
methods and specialized training were published as a second text, distributed
only among his students. He was very concerned that much of the teachings
of his master, Sun Lu-T’ang, would be lost, therefore, he became devoted to
writing down his collective boxing knowledge, including a text on Sun style
taijiquan, so that it could be later passed on to the Chinese people, should his
life be taken during war.
_______________________________________
Beginning of text:
In studying the five organs and the most vital points to strike and affect a
specific organ we must study the physiological function and its control on

parts of the body. Following, is knowledge transmitted among quanfa
(boxing methods) and neiquan (internal [inner] boxing) sects.
Xin Zang (Heart)
The ancient text Basic Questions states, “The xin (heart) governs
[controls] the blood and vessels.” The moving force that gives rise and
excitation to the rhythmic beat of the heart is
termed xin qi (heart qi). It is the xin qi that is the very core of the
beginning of movement within the heart, like the wagon’s axle that turns the
wheel, and transports the unobstructed movement of blood through the ten-
thousand vessels of the body.
To strike a specific poison hand cavity along the xin luo (heart collateral)
shall impede the excitation of xin qi, thereby causing the rhythmic beat to
waver ever so steadily until the internal heart tremor becomes largely
manifested in the pulse. Weakened xin qi can be visibly measured by a
lackluster pale facial complexion. Hence, the pulse shall in turn be contrite
and labored due to growing weakness of xin qi li (heart qi strength).
As the Dim-Mak effect takes further hold the movement of blood
becomes impeded, complexion grays, lips and tongue lack blood and change
to a purple-black hue, and growing pressure and pain in the xin bao
(pericardium) persists. The xin bao is the palace that houses the xin (heart),
which is the emperor of the body. The text Basic Questions states, “The luster
of the heart is manifested in the face.” This provides further support that an
injurious blow to the xin jing (heart pathway) shall eventually be observed in
the face. Master Sun taught that in xingyiquan and baguazhang certain
striking methods to the head would weaken the heart, and that striking the
heart with the Three Finger Point Hitting Method would rob the face. This
hitting method is hidden within Master Sun’s taijiquan and baguazhang
practices, taught to him by his baguazhang teacher, Master Cheng T’ing-Hua.

Jue Hau demonstrating手揮琵琶 Shou Wei Pipa (Hands Strum [Play]
Lute), Sun style taijiquan.
The ancient text Miraculous Pivot states, ‘Qi and blood of the 12
pathways and 365 collaterals all infuse into the head and face to nourish the
sense organs.’ Therefore, to strike a single point on the head with a poison
hand touch makes ill all 12 pathways of qi and all 365 collaterals of qi. What
is this cavity that Master Sun passed on to us? It is this: Yin T’ang (Seal
Hall), a most sacred place for one’s qi and spirit to reside in harmony.

I recall a lesson that Master Sun taught our class related to the text
Miraculous Pivot which states, ‘Since the tongue is supplied by harmonious
xin (heart) qi, the tongue is able to distinguish the five tastes.’ In that the
outer appendage of the heart is the tongue, the tongue is regarded as the
largest doorway to enter the heart’s secrets. Master Sun said that this
knowledge was adopted by the military through past centuries and they were
known to cut off the tongues of prisoners. This military practice was not only
to prevent prisoners from speaking, but to weaken and conquer their vitality,
rob from them the five tastes of food, and dominate their xin qi. Such
prisoners rarely found the strength to fight, yet they would work to serve as a
slave. He remarked that these poor men were fed the foulest gruel by slave
owners because prisoners had no tongue by which to experience taste.

I thought for a long while before showing this photo to Madam Sun because it shows a
side of China’s history many want to forget. In her wisdom she said that all people
must acknowledge such times and learn from them. This photo was taken immediately
after the suppression of the Boxer Rebellion in 1900. Here a boxer was caught, judged,
and is about to be executed on the streets of Beijing. She said that her father and his
students did not join the boxer uprising, but instead offered their services to protect
many neighborhoods from boxer lootings and gangs which formed to rob wealthy
households and kill those who resisted. Following that period of turmoil bodyguard
training schools and bodyguard escort services flourished, both of which were
business ventures in which her father participated. (B.Tyrey).
Fei Zang (Lungs)

The ancient Chinese text Basic Questions states, ‘The qi of Heaven is in
communication with the lungs” and “all qi belongs to the lungs.’ These
writings form the foundation by which to understand that the entire motion of
qi within the body is governed by the inhalation and exhalation of the lungs
and process of respiration. When the chest is hit it damages zong qi (pectoral
qi), thereby the upward and downward movement of qi in the body becomes
restricted, and the consumption of air is impeded. The courage to fight is thus
drained away, and shall not be easily restored.
Blood vessels all converge in the lungs. Hence, according to poison hand
methods, striking the fei jing (lung pathway) causes the movement of blood
to become slowed then, halted. T’ang Rong-Chuan (1851-1918), in his
Essentials of Medical Classics states, “Skin and hair also possess the function
to disperse qi.” Many boxers took this statement too literally and thereby
shaved their heads like a monk and rubbed incantation [protection] body oils
over their entire body. Some thought this would prevent their hair from being
pulled and ripped from the head and skin during combat, which they thought
would ultimately injure their lungs and in turn halt the flow of blood in the
body. In combat many will use cunning throws to defeat an adversary. This is
why many who wear long hair find that it becomes like a rope by which you
are pulled and thrown without mercy. To shave the head is truly a safeguard.
Master Sun taught us that the pores of the skin are one of the
passageways by which qi enters and exits. He remarked that Basic Questions
called the pores ‘qi men’ (qi gateways), and that his taijiquan (commonly
known as Kai-H’er Huo Bu Taiji [Open-Unite Active Step Taiji]),
emphasizes the inhalation of qi, unification of qi, breath and spirit, and
exhalation of qi. The profound concept of kai-h’er is not only taught as an
element of health, but as an underlying shen fa (body method) principle in the
boxing practices of xingyiquan, baguazhang, and taiqiquan.
Compiler’s Note:
Jue Hau, according to members of his family in north China during an
interview in 1988, taught many cavity-hitting methods that came from Master
Cheng T’ing-Hua of the Tung Hai-Chuan clan. These methods were taught to
him by both Master Sun Lu-T’ang and monks of the Shaolin Temple in
Honan. His family said that Jue Hau had been taught by others who came
from the baguazhang lineage of Tung, but he always gave foremost credit to
his master, Sun Lu-T’ang. This was, in all ways, showing great loyalty and
respect to one’s teacher.

Jue Hau demonstrating one version of Sun style taijiquan’s 單鞭下勢 Dan Bien Xia
Shi (Single Whip Lower Posture), patterned after Cheng style baguazhang.
Striking, according to poison hand methods, is to be applied to an

adversary as he inhales. During a fight, movement is vicious and swift;
observing the inhalation of the adversary is impossible. Therefore, you must
make the adversary inhale. This can only be accomplished by striking the
adversary in the lung or stomach regions, causing him to exhale, this being
very observable then, the poison hand is inserted upon the initial sign of his
inhalation. The poison touch is most effective upon the sensing the very
beginning of the adversary’s inhale, which draws the poison touch deeply
into the jing-luo (pathways-collaterals). For this reason the study of the lungs,
their point pathways and times of strength and deficiency, is most necessary.
Compiler’s Note:
It is important to further note that Jue Hau researched many of the old
masters who associated with Sun Lu-T’ang, leading him ever closer to the
true transmission of poison hand methods. Through these collected
researches he found that many boxers boasted of their skill at Dim-Mak, but
usually had no ability. Most boxers created illogical methods, telling their
students that the secrets being taught were learned from a hermit monk from
a remote mountainous region. Jue Hau explained to his own students that the
learning of true poison hand touch methods was only passed to a few
disciples under a teacher, and those disciples had to follow a spiritual path.
He, like Sun, was deeply religious and spiritual, admitting no student into his
inner circle of teachings unless possessing the highest of morals.
P’i Zang (Spleen)
Hou t’ien zhi ben (post-Heaven [post-natal] foundation of life) is
attributed to p’i zang (the spleen). Ancient medical practitioners viewed the
spleen as “the source for the production of qi and formulation of blood.”
With this knowledge, boxers developed the idea that to injure an adversary’s
spleen would thereby bring injury to their qi and blood.
According to poison hand methods, once the spleen is injured blood
begins to seep from veins throughout the body, slowly at first, but steadily
increasing. As the spleen’s qi weakens, the process of internal hemorrhaging
will occur from the mouth, stool, and urine. Master Cheng T’ing-Hua used
many hitting palm methods that were aimed at the left side of the adversary’s
body just below the ribs (the location of the spleen). Master Cheng’s teacher,
baguazhang’s founder, Grandmaster Tung Hai-Chuan, was well known for
attacking the left side. And though all combatants tried to thwart his attack,
Tung could always hit the spot below the ribs on the left side. These victims
later became very ill and reportedly lost control of muscular movement as the
days passed.
Shaolin monks, throughout many centuries, practiced Zhu Ye Zhang
(Bamboo Leaf Palm), a method within poison hand striking. Those monks
selected by their master to study zhu ye had to train for four hours in the
morning and two hours at night. Morning methods required striking hanging
sacks filled with sand, followed by placing only the right hand in an earthen
urn that contained simmering tieh-da jiu (fall-hit wine). The urn was placed
over a slow burning fire that did not boil the medicinal wine. This secret
formula enabled the herbs and fire to draw deeply into the flesh and bones of
the hand, and upward into the arm. By this method hua qi gong (fire qi
development) was fused into the hand and arm, and once released from the
palm, an object would shatter with a mere slap, or an adversary would
collapse from a brushing touch.
Two hours of training at night nurtures embryonic respiration and
circulation of qi. Following eight years of practice, the monk-practitioner
could merely brush a stone with his palm and the stone would split. Many
have claimed that Zhu Ye Zhang was a specialized area within Iron Ore Palm.
During the 1920's, Master Gu Ru-Zhung [Ku Yu-Cheong] of Kwangsu
Province in southern China became well known for his ability to break a
stack of stones or roof tiles with a mere slap. Through directing his will,
Master Gu could break just the middle stone in a stack, leaving all others
untouched. He was also an acclaimed practitioner of Dim-Mak, though
Master Ku rarely demonstrated or taught this art to others. Gu, therefore,
became most famous for Iron Ore Palm.

Master Gu Ru-Zhung demonstrating Iron Ore Palm. Master Gu was famous for
breaking a stack of stone blocks with a single slap.
Iron Ore Palm and Bamboo Leaf Palm are both poison hand methods, as
both are used to kill an adversary immediately or slowly. These palm styles,
when slapping the spleen or special cavity-point(s) on the p’i jing (spleen
pathway), cause the muscles to become flaccid, vision to blur, organs to
hemorrhage, and the four limbs to become limp. Master Sun taught that once
the spleen was injured one only had to look to the lips. Only those who
studied Chinese medical practices would understand that the lips are made of
muscles, and therefore controlled by the spleen. Rose colored or varying hues
of red lips indicate good health. Lips that are pale show spleen weakness is
mounting; purple indicates that the blood moving through the spleen is
becoming stagnant and soon hemorrhaging shall take root.
The importance of protecting the spleen during a fight must be fully be
understood. Many individuals teach cavity-points that are false. Only one true
spleen cavity-point was struck by the old boxing masters based upon superior
effectiveness, all other cavities are mere shadows. This cavity, which appears
on no charts, should be cautiously studied, and is known by the name Tou Hu
(Stealthy Tiger). This cavity is found only one inch above the apex of the
spleen and is the reservoir of qi from which the spleen draws its energy for
movement. If struck with substantial force during the night the spleen shall
fall into discord, as written about previously.

12
FOOD & DRINK THAT HARM QI
M adam Sun gave this talk to us because she found that many of her
students had slowly, but steadily been shifting their diets away from
traditional Chinese food, moving toward ready-to-eat processed foods. She
ate simply and naturally, as did her father, and hoped that her students would
ingest food and drink that were in harmony with neijiaquan practice.
______________________________________
My father said that as a boy he was often very hungry. His family had
little food, as did most in his village. His family ate anything to avert
starvation, not thinking about the balance of one’s yin and yang. As the years
became better for his family my father followed the health practices taught to
him by several itinerant monks. These monks practiced longevity exercises
from Taoist sects, and followed strict practices of food intake to nurture and
obey the knell of qi and organs. Their methods were simply this: the qi must
be harmoniously tranquil, undisturbed by turbid food or drink, then one may
practice the mysteries of making the body flourish with health and skill.
Their teachings, as elaborated by my father are many. The first of these
profound methods is that food or drink that is excessively yin will cause the
body’s qi and blood to slumber and possess desolation. The pulses of the
organs shall thus struggle as yin invades deeper to cause the body to feel a
sense of hibernation, as if snow [the Great Yin] was engulfing [imprisoning]
Nature, while yang becomes but a shadow taking refuge.
Should a drink be cold to the touch, then it is not suitable for the interior
[should not be ingested]. Such coldness is like snow, and will impair the
combined movement of the stomach and the intestines. Tightness, stagnation
and pain in that region shall be the results. To harm the stomach with yin is to
harm the spleen. To harm the small intestine is to harm the heart. To harm the
large intestine is to harm the lungs. To harm the san nei bao (three interior
[internal] treasures: heart, lungs and spleen) is to retain [store] evil yin qi.
This brings demise to the body’s health through excessive intake of yin.
My father followed and obeyed the lunar rhythm [lunar cycle], thus
becoming a receptacle for all that he ingested from the heavens, whether
spiritual or corporeal. His intent toward detail in following simplicity of a
food regimen gained him many followers.
Food related to lung health is most important. The lungs irrevocably
awake the cycle of qi within. Ingesting acrid food and drink [acrid: acri ~
Latin: sharp, pungent, spicy, also, bitter in smell or taste] summons the lungs
to cast radiance of qi upon all shadows [darkness, ill areas] within.
Overabundance of ingesting acrid food or drink shall disperse lung qi so
vastly that its strength will be disconnected from the Wheel [the perpetual
movement of qi within the body].
When my father treated patients with herbs he told those who were weak
or weary not to excessively ingest acrid substances, else their qi would
possess no active strength from which to harmonize within and heal.
Cured foods with great salt content plunge the interior into disharmony.
Salt is bitter [acrid], but is of another type. Many years ago, when Europeans
brought salted foods to China, people here became sick from its consumption.
Salted foods enter the blood to produce a peal [a loud ringing, loud noise] of
disturbance within the heart and bones. It absorbs essence from the shen zang
(kidneys) and awakes great fire within the xin zang (heart). My father treated
many who suffered from the ill effects of broken bones. He told them that the
kidneys rule the bones, therefore salty [bitter] food and drink must be
watchfully restrained from overabundance.
Sourness, another danger, shall invade the liver, robbing one’s tendons of
vitality. Sour food and drink draws inward [tightens/constricts] all that it
touches. During the summer’s heat many drink suan mei tang (sour plum
decoction) which reduces one’s interior heat, yet in excess it withers the liver
and contracts one’s tendons. In turn, the brilliance of the eyes shall cloud and
the body shall fall into dismay. My father cautioned all of his students to
guard against the influence of sour addiction.
Today, sweet food and drink, so common to all, enter the stomach and
create what is known as ‘incongruity’ with the spleen. Such incongruity
[strangeness] is like a warlord [referring to sweetness] leading his forces to
march against its captive [the spleen]. The ingested, excessive, amounts of
sweet food and drink shall cause the stomach and spleen to become sluggish,
then painful. Such formidable pain shall pass through hidden areas in the
body, to arise in the muscles, causing vexation and soreness to unfurl. One
must merely walk with caution and simplicity to embrace the nourishment of
life.
‘Camel Square,’ Peking, 1900, where camels were sold for breeding,
caravan travel and eating. Young boys worked as camel attendants in
which their duties included carting manure away, fetching water and
straw, and clearing the camel’s eyes of debris.

13
ONE OF S U N LU -T’A NG ’S E IG H T P R I NC I PA L H A ND M E THOD S
C HUAN ZHANG ~ PIERC ING PALM
M any years ago I wrote many pieces on baguazhang hand methods

according to the teachings of famous teachers in China. Below is one of
those pieces, but with added explanations that Madam Sun provided over the
years. As she was Sun Lu-T’ang’s daughter teachers had an open door
invitation for her to both visit and guest instruct. Often several of us, when
permitted, would accompany Madam Sun to help her with travelling, food,
lodging, and whatever was needed along the way. Our benefit was to attend
the classes of other renowned masters while witnessing the martial methods
and commonalities shared by the old clans.
The following information came from masters Liu Xing-Han, Madam
Sun Jian-Yun, and several of the students under Master Liu Feng-Tsai in
Tianjin, China, during the late 1980s. Liu Feng-Tsai was Gao Yi-Sheng’s last
student alive in China who taught the traditional training sets. Some of Liu’s
students often came to Beijing to study with Master Liu Xing-Han of the
Cheng style ~ Liu Bin branch in which Sun Lu-T’ang was also a student
(under both masters Cheng T’ing-Hua and Liu Bin).
Liu Feng-Tsai and Liu Xing-Han were friends who often served together
as celebrated dignitaries at national martial arts events in Beijing. In Liu
Xing-Han’s class it was not uncommon for us to see and learn the practices
of Sun Lu-Tang, Gao Yi-Sheng and Liu Bin that were being demonstrated
and shared, all finding their common roots from Master Cheng Ting-Hua.
Some of the notes and explanations shared in the classes of Liu Xing-Han,
Madam Sun, and Liu Feng-Tsai that I attended and recorded are presented
below as a reference.
Example of 穿掌 Chuan Zhang (Piercing Palm), contained within the

taiji set 進步搬攔捶Jin Bu Ban Lan Ch’ui (Advancing Step, Parry,
Deflect, Pound [Beat]) from Madam Sun’s 1957 self-published
instructional book.
M ASTER L IU X ING -H AN EXPLAINED THE FOLLOWING REGARDING M ASTER

Cheng’s direct teaching of 穿chuan to Liu Bin and Sun Lu-T’ang:
“The concept of ‘to pierce into or through’ portrays but one fragment of
the understanding of 穿chuan. Its meaning is like that of a snake slinking into
a cavernous hole. One’s arm is the snake; the hole being the adversary’s
defensive posture that must be sharply pierced through and skillfully entered
into. One moment it is as if chiseling into the wall of a cave, the next moment
like putting one’s hand through the arm sleeve of a silken garment. Chuan is
to be exact and fearless, the blending of harshness and suppleness, and the
mingling of both kai (to open) and he’r (unite).”
To more fully understand 穿chuan it is important to learn the diverse
meanings of this written character during the 1800s, the days in which Tung
Hai-Ch’uan and Cheng T’ing-Hua were practicing and teaching baguazhang.
Below is a brief explanation:
穿Chuan is composed of the radicals: cavern (hole) and tusk. These two
radicals form together to infer that a creature (generally acknowledged to be
that of a rat), with tusks (teeth) gnaws through walls to create caverns in
which to take shelter and lurk about. This is the action of ‘to dig and bore into
through constant effort.’ When the hand is put into use martially chuan
further means ‘to insert with a stretching forward action,’ as if to perforate an
object and then widen the hole through simultaneous boring and twisting.
Further, 穿chuan can mean either ‘to run upon an object, as if running across
a suspended bridge’ or ‘to run through an object, as if running through a
narrow tunnel,’ both requiring great care and effort. Should the hands be used
to strike in a piercing fashion toward the adversary’s body then, 穿chuan
refers to caverns (acu-points) that are to be struck in a lethal manner.
Gao Yi-Sheng, according to Liu Xing-Han and Liu Feng-Tsai, was
famous for demonstrating the skill of 穿崩掌 chuan beng zhang (piercing-
collapsing palm) at public gatherings and boxing matches. There Master Gao
would have his most muscular students attack him at which time he would
apply 穿崩掌 chuan beng zhang with such skill, using both linear and
circular baguazhang methods, that even his students were astonished at their
teacher’s ability to issue great force from even slight, concealed movement.
Master Gao had explained that after many years of practice and receiving
secrets passed to him by a traveling monk, he had attained the ability to unite
methods within baguazhang with those contained within xingyiquan, hence
his amassed skill of 穿崩掌 chuan beng zhang (piercing-collapsing palm)
and 穿崩拳 chuan beng quan (piercing-collapsing fist).
In many of Madam Sun Jian-Yun’s neijiaquan classes, 穿chuan was
taught in many ways, according to her father’s [Sun Lu-T’ang] teachings. She
initially taught us chuan as a secular method, specialized in its application
according to whether we were practicing taijiquan, baguazhang or xingyiuan.
Each art emphasized the method of practice and application in a somewhat
different manner while still adhering to the correct essence of 穿chuan.
For example, Madam Sun explained that her father would teach only a
single method of chuan during an entire week, however he would expound on
that specific method as applied to the three arts [taijiquan, baguazhang and
xingyiuan]. Following this, he would teach as his teacher, Cheng T’ing-Hua
had, that having been to teach how 穿chuan was taught once attached to 劈
p’i (splitting), thereby creating the specialized methods of 穿劈掌 chuan p’i
zhang (piercing-splitting palm) and 劈穿掌 p’i chuan zhang (splitting-
piercing palm). Though each method is similar, it is the first character in each
set that is regarded as the mother; the second character is the child which
hides its essence within the mother’s womb, yet provides a hidden strength
and skill drawn upon by the mother.

14
TRADITIONAL SUN FAMILY SWORD PRACTICES
THE STUDY OF TRADITIONAL SWORD
L ectures and notes presented by Madam Sun Jian-Yun concerning her

father’s teachings and personal practices.
To study our family’s [Sun family] true teachings of bagua, xingyi and
taiji requires devotion to practices and the study of principles. Over the
decades I have seen many books published on Sun style boxing arts showing
movements, but not detailing the breadth of principles that lie within each
movement. Movement contains spirit, qi, and the essence of the heavens
bound together and harmonized by the governing principles that my father
[Sun Lu-T’ang] set for his disciples
Master Sun Lu-T’ang (1861-1933).
One’s sword is but an extension of one’s hand. Because it [the sword]

protrudes further than the empty hand it is considered to possess kai jin (open
[expanded] force), while the empty hand possesses he’r jin (uniting
[contracting] force). This is the dominate principle throughout sword. It is the
same for all boxing arts that my father practiced.
Sword practice presents difficulty for most practitioners because once a
sword enters your hand it feels separate from one’s body, therefore kai-he’r
(open-unite) quickly eludes comprehension. To grasp a sword and rush into
immediately practicing taiji, bagua or xingyi shall have the smallest of
benefit. Time must be given to drawing the essence of the sword within one’s
self. That is, the sword you hold embraces its own essence as a sword and
does not actively seek merging with you. However, because we are alive and

seek to attract to, and unite with things, our spirit is able, through practice, to
embrace the essence of the sword’s existence within ourselves. This is he’r
embracing kai, forming the Great Foundation upon which rest sword skill and
power development.
A famous photo of Madam Sun Jian-Yun that she loved giving to her
students.
Sword methods all possess ‘three powers.’ This is what my father said
was the ability to produce natural force issued from the body, into the sword,
and toward the adversary. These three powers come from the whip-like action
of the wrist [the hand holding the sword], the flinging of that same arm, and a
body wave that arises from the feet and is carried through the twisting of the
waist and spine into the tip of the sword. Together, these three actions unify
the transmission of three powers into a single force that can pass through all
defenses. Proper execution of this force requires diligent practice over several
years along with correct shen-fa (body methods) which place the body in
optimal alignment, allowing force to be carried through [emit] through the
sword. This method was not a secret, but one that my father openly taught to
his indoor disciples.
Another aspect of sword training is that of heaviness and lightness. Qi can
either make a sword unite with the heavy yin qi of the Earth, or unite with the
lofty yang qi of Heaven. How is this skill achieved? My father said that his
master, Guo Yun-Shen, passed this method on to him through the art of
xingyiquan. This training requires practice during the yang hours of early
morning and the yin hours of late night.
Sword training must begin just prior to dawn while yang qi gradually
grows with excitation. Absorb yang qi while inhaling; exhaling, move the
yang qi through the sword, arriving at its tip. Upon each exhalation one must
sense the sword becoming lighter and lighter, drawing upward toward
Heaven. This is lightness attracting lightness. That is, the lightness [loftiness]
of qi produced by one’s self while upon the earth, and the attraction of
heavenly qi to that of the sword’s qi creates what is called “lightness of Earth
[yin] unifying with the lightness of Heaven [yang]. This is the merging of
yin-yang and ching gong (lightness [levitation] development). Morning
practice requires years of devotion.

Madam Sun demonstrating bagua sword.
As one begins sword practice and the absorption of yang qi, one must
also begin absorption of yin qi. The time best suited to inhale yin qi is the
period of tze (11:00pm-1:00am), for it is not just a segment among the 24-
hour cycle, it is also a spiritual time. During these two hours yin qi, and the
spreading of its vapors, shall collect around one’s body, becoming more
heavily laden upon the surface regions of the body. It is at night that yin qi
and its very essence seek outward expansion and therefore the yin qi of one’s
body, which hides deeply within, ventures toward the surface to meet the yin
of the night. This is yin seeking yin. Once they converge one’s spirit must
guide the yin, as a master instructs his student.
The gathering of yin is further enhanced by the moon’s Great Essence.
My father taught that the kai-he’r exercise can gather the moon’s yin qi
merely by facing this heavenly sphere and absorbing its qi through every pore
during inhalation. Upon exhalation, one’s mind directs the moon’s qi into the
lower tan-t’ien where it shines with mirrored qi to its mother [the moon] in
the heavens. This is termed “the Mother nurturing its offspring.”
It is best to begin the process of gathering yin qi not during a full moon,
but when only a sliver of the moon peers forth from the heavens. This is a
time when yin qi is at its smallest, but not at its weakest. Most students will
assume that a full moon produces the strongest, most vibrant yin qi. Let me
explain what my father taught, and therein you can find the answer. Yin qi is
quiet and withdrawing upon and into itself. Its essence enfolds upon its own
essence uncountable times, and if we were to touch upon its innermost
essence with our own spirit its enfolding would draw us so deeply within its
ebb that we might not return. This is why during the darkest of nights, when
only a sliver of the moon is present, that we feel saddened and melancholy,
and drawing inwards toward darkness is sensed.
Sun Lu-T’ang demonstrating bagua sword.
Each phase of the moon has profound effects upon our mind, body, spirit,
and qi. To truly grasp yin qi deeply within we must absorb its essence during
its most retracted and hidden state, this being the ‘sliver period.’ As the moon
grows larger in the heavens, ebbs of yin qi permeate all life upon earth. These
ebbs are reflected in one’s body, sensed as excitation. This is the same force
[the moon’s essence] that stirs ocean waves [tides] when the moon is full.
To gather the moon’s qi and essence from its smallest sliver to its

complete waxing is a form of practicing “nurturing the small, until
voluminous.” In this manner the human body and spirit bow like a willow to
the sky, complying with and accommodating the moon’s inexhaustible qi. As
it [the moon] grows in size and strength, so to does its qi within us grow. We
are thus in accord with the waxing and waning of the moon. Should we begin
training during a full moon we will be unable to accommodate its
overwhelming force of qi. This would be as if learning to swim in a swarm of
waves.
I must also mention that absorption of yang qi can also be attained
through kai-he’r standing practice. However, the morning time from 3:00am-
7:00am is foremost in importance, and should be practiced while facing away
from the sun. The backside of one’s body is a great storehouse for yang qi, its
absorption should be according to this direction. Evening sunlight upon the
back is also favorable, though its essence contains yang declining into yin,
and therefore lightness and heaviness shall manifest more slowly within
one’s body.
Shu-Yao [Bradford] asked me if morning and night practice are to be
equal in duration? This question is most important as an element of
successful cultivation. Yang qi is lofty, agile, and moves like the lightness of
wind touching upon leaves. To acquire lightness skill two hours of the sun’s
yang qi and essence must be absorbed and mixed with one hour of the
moon’s radiant yin. To acquire heaviness [rootedness] skill two hours of the
moon’s yin qi and essence must be absorbed and mixed with one hour of the
sun’s radiant yang. The amounts of time requirements are not exact, they are
to be sensed. Such a simple method, but few shall endeavor to follow this
path.
My father often held his sword in one hand and performed kai-he’r
training while standing. In this manner the sword itself absorbs both yin and
yang qi during their respective times. Following several kai-he’r sword
training methods he then practiced sword sets from bagua, xingyi and taiji.
To practice sword sets following absorption of qi fuses the vapors into the
innermost recesses of each posture, in turn transforming each posture of each
set into its zenith in shape, function [skill] and power attainment.
An example that is important concerns the set Za Shir Chui (Mixed
Beating Hammers) from xingyiquan. My father would practice this set during
a yang period to absorb the qi, then later that night practiced this same set
during a specific yin hour, calculated by star placement [referring to the
Seven Stars] in the heavens. Other times he would absorb yin qi at night, then
in the mornings practice Za Shir Chui in the sunlight. This was the training
method known as “Yang Entering Yin” and ‘Yin Entering Yang.’ Such
methods were passed on to my father by his masters, all of whom embraced
such secret practices within their boxing arts. This is one reason why their
skills in boxing were so extraordinary, as they were able to embrace yin and
yang qi during the most profound hours.
Madam Sun Jian-Yun demonstrating Sun taijiquan’s 倒攆猴Dao Nian

Hou (Collapse, Repulse Monkey), 1957.
Sword and hand sets in neijiaquan follow this guarded method. None can
refute this manner to unite Heaven (yang) with the Earth (yin). My father had
also said that elder monks in the Shaolin Temple knew this same method,
though rarely speaking of it, they adhered to these teachings toward attaining
unsurpassed mastery in their arts.

15
SUN FAMILY BAGUA SWORD METHODS
SUN JIA B AGUA JIAN FA
M ovement of a sword has no beginning; no end, it is a mirror of the

Eternal. As the sword stirs in movement one’s spirit must draw towards
the cultivation of stillness within; within stillness one’s spirit reflects that of
the Great Void.
Taoist philosopher Chuang Tze wrote of such purity of stillness and
emptiness to which the Cosmos opens: “Maintain the unity of your will. Do
not listen with the ears, but with the mind. Do not listen with the mind, but
with the spirit [which entwines with one’s qi]. The function of the ear ends
with hearing, that of the mind with symbols and ideas, but the spirit is an
emptiness ready to receive all things.” (Chuang Tze, Ch. IV, tr. In Fung, A
History of Chinese Philosophy, I, p.241).
My father [Sun Lu-T’ang] memorized the writings of masters Lao Tze
and Chuang Tze, applying their teachings of the Tao throughout his martial
arts and internal practices. He taught students to become attentive to the deep
philosophical and internal alchemy meanings that he [Sun] entwined with
bagua, xingyi and taiji movement.
In the teaching of sword, my father gave particular reference to the words
of Chuang Tze: “Adopt no absolute position. Let eternals take care of
themselves. In motion, be like water. At rest, like a mirror [the mirrored
reflection upon a still pool]. Respond, like the echo. Be subtle, as though non-
existent. Be still, as though pure.” (Giles, Herbert A., A Chinese Biographical
Dictionary, London & Shanghai, 1898). From such words my father further
understood the teachings of his masters, that movement within the practices
of neijiaquan must be like that of water, continuous, formless in its fluidity,
unifying with itself to conform to that which is touched upon; deriving force
from within its motion to overcome all that impedes its path.
The practice of bagua sword was taught to my father by Grandmaster
Tung Hai-Chuan’s disciple, Cheng Ting-Hua, who loved to study ancient
Taoist writings and the paintings of those who portrayed the hidden meanings
of the Tao. One such artist who Master Cheng greatly admired was Chen
Rong (act. first half of the 13 th century).
Master Cheng and his disciple, Liu Bin, both studied the nine
transformations of shape that Chen Rong brought to life in his painting Jiu
Long (Nine Dragons). Both Master Cheng and Liu taught my father the
Taoist representations of each of the nine dragons, greatly influencing my
father’s lief in the interaction of Heaven with the divine nature of dragons
which mirror the power of the Tao.
My father assiduously studied the writings of Taoist masters, and through
his interpretation of them, combined with his inspiration and understanding
of Chen Rong’s Jiu Long (Nine Dragon’s) created eight sections of bagua
sword taken from sword sets taught to him by his master, Cheng T’ing-Hua.
Each sword section, though simple in content, teach skill sets to develop and
teachings through integration of the Yi-Jing (Classic of Change).

The first of Chen Rong’s Nine Dragons.
There are eight kua in the Yi-Jing, and my father’s bagua sword sets are
eight in number. Yet, Master Cheng taught him to follow the teachings of the
‘Nine’ [referring to the Nine Divisions of Heaven and also to the Nine
Dragon’s] in which Master Chen Rong demonstrates the ever changing Tao.
Each of the nine dragons represents a transformative state in form,
movement, qi, spiritual wisdom, and immortality.
Liu Bin, a disciple under Master Cheng, developed his palm and weapon
sets based upon these same concepts, though the teachings and movements
are somewhat different than that of my father’s. We should not forget that
Master Cheng helped both my father and Liu Bin develop sets based upon
their respective skills and backgrounds, and therefore many similarities exist
in the traditional methods of these two clans.
Eight kua mirror eight dragons; but what of the ninth dragon? Can any of
you understood the meaning of the ninth, and where is it to be found among
the eight palm sets or eight sword sets taught by my father and Liu Bin?
Note: No one in class came close to the correct answer. This will be
explained in our forthcoming text on Sun Lu-T’ang’s old practices of bagua
sword and weaponry, with many photos of Master Sun and one of his old
disciples in Nanjing, China, taken in the later half of the 1920’s.
It is important to remember that Liu Bin, under the guidance of Master
Cheng and one of Liu’s friends who was a scholar of the Yi-Jing, created Jiu
Gong (Nine Palaces) Bagua, based upon the nine divisions of Heaven, each
representing, as previously stated, the nine transformations of a dragon,
captured in paint by Master Chen Rong.
Notation: Liu Bin’s baguazhang practices and further explanations of the
Nine Palaces within his art is found within another of our bagua
publications, as elaborated on by Liu Bin’s old disciple, Liu Xing-Han.

16
IN TRODUCTION TO THE EIGHT IMMORTALS & SWORD

METHODS
F ollowing, are explanations of bagua sword as taught by Sun Lu-T’ang.

The explanations are the cumulative notes that I and several students had
taken in Madam Sun’s classes over the years. Mr. Zhang Yu-Zhong, a civil
engineer by trade who primarily worked on the design of bridges, was one of
Madam Sun’s students in the early 1940’s and a student of Sun Lu-T’ang’s
disciple Jue Hau, provided invaluable details during the late 1980’s on the
practice of sword and the cultivation of qi. Zhang, a traditionalist among Sun
family practitioners, lived out his years in Nanjing where Sun had a strong
following of students, predominately military officers.
________________________________________
Bagua’s first sword set merges with the teachings of the乾卦 Ch’ien
[Qian] kua from the Yi-Jing. Each sword posture within a set is paired with
sections from the Ch’ien [Qian] kua. Old disciples of Sun Lu-T’ang, such as
Jue Hau, learned a single posture followed by Yi-Jing’s spiritual meanings. It
was through kaitao jian (sword enlightenment [a term used in old Taoist sects
referring to a sword’s spiritual essence aiding one’s spirit and heart to find
the Path of Enlightenment]) that the immortal Lu Tung-Bin was said to have
attained profound spiritual insight into the Nine Divisions of Heaven.
Sword practices, as demonstrated by Sun Lu-T’ang in the pages following
the section on ‘The Eight Immortals,’ do not, in this publication, explain the
physical movement and transition from one posture into the next. This will be
elaborated on in a forthcoming text. Here it is important to understand the
first sword set by means of its relationship to the Ch’ien [Qian] kua in the Yi-
Jing and those concepts elaborated on by Cheng T’ing-Hua, taken from both
ancient Chinese Taoist writings and Chen Rong’s insights into the Nine
Dragons.
To understand each kua I [the publisher] have used an old translation of
the Yi-Jing titled ‘The Text of Yi-King [Yi-Jing] & Its Appendices (Chinese
Original, With English Translation)’ by Prof. Z.D. Sung, published in
October of 1935, Shanghai, China. This translation comes closest to those
kua interpretations that Sun Lu-T’ang taught his students. Madam Sun had an
old copy of the I-Jing that she used for reference, and though it was
eminently richer in contents than any text in my possession I feel Sung’s
scholarly work provides great clarity and intuitive insight into what he
perceived as the wu-wei (actionless-action of the primordial state) of each
kua.

17
BA XIAN [PA HSIEN ]
THE EIGHT IMMORTALS

A MONG THE MOST PHILOSOPHICAL AND SPIRITUAL PRACTICES TAUGHT BY S UN L U -
T’ang were those that encompassed the teachings of the Eight Immortals.
Madam Sun taught us that her father instructed his disciples in the eight
bagua palm sets, and eight bagua sword sets, and additional weapons and
hand sets, each governed by one of the eight kua (trigrams), and each by one
of the Immortals.
The following early 1900s account on the Eight Immortals from The
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland (1916), by
W. Perceval Yetts, very similar to that which Madam Sun taught, is provided
here as reference to understand the practices and skills of each Immortal,
providing insight into Sun Lu-T’ang’s teachings.
________________________________________
E ITHER SINGLY OR IN GROUPS THE E IGHT I MMORTALS (B A X IAN [P A H SIEN]),
of the Taoist religion are one of the most popular subjects of representation in
China; their portraits are seen everywhere: on porcelain vases, teapots,
teacups, fans, scrolls, embroidery, etc. Images of them are made in porcelain,
earthenware, roots, wood, and metals. The term ‘Eight Immortals’ is
figuratively used for happiness. The number eight has become lucky in
association with this tradition, and persons or things eight in number are
graced accordingly. Thus we read reverence shown to the Eight Genii Table
(Pa Hsien Cho), the Eight Genii Bridge (Pa Hsien Ch’iao), Eight Genii
Vermicelli (Pa Hsien Mien), the Eight Genii of the Wine-cup (Yin Chung Pa
Hsien)…wine-bibbers of the T’ang dynasty celebrated by Tu Fu, the poet.
They are favorite subjects of romance and special objects of adoration. In
them we see ‘the embodiment of the ideas of perfect but imaginary happiness
which possess the minds of the Chinese people.’ Three of them (Chung-Li
Ch’uan, Chang Kuo, and Lu Yen) were historical personages; the others are
mentioned only in fables or romances. They represent all kinds of people…
old, young, male, female, civil, military, rich, poor, afflicted, cultured, and
noble. They are also representative of early, middle, and later historical
periods.
The legend of the Eight Immortals is certainly not older than the time of
the Sung dynasty (A.D. 960-1280), and is probably to be assigned to that of
the Yuan dynasty (A.D. 1280-1368). But some, not all, have been previously
celebrated as Immortals in the Taoist legends. Their biographies are usually
arranged in the order of their official eminence or seniority in age. Here, I
follow that adopted in Hsiu Hsiang Pa Hsien Tung Yu Chi (An Illustrated
Account of the Eight Immortals), in which they are described in the order in
which they became Immortals.
L I T’ IEH -K UAI
Li T’ieh-Kuai, depicted always with his crutch and gourd full of magic
medicines, was of the family name Li, his own name being Li Yuan [Hs’uan,
now read Yuan]. He is also known as K’ung-Mu. Hsi Wang Mu cured him of
an ulcer on the leg and taught him the art of becoming immortal. He was
canonized as Rector of the East. He is said to have been of commanding
stature and dignified mien, devoting himself solely to the study of Taoist lore.
Hsi Wang Mu made him a present of an iron crutch, and sent him to the
capital to teach the doctrine of immortality to Han Chung-Li.
Li T’ieh-Kuai
He is also identified with Li Ning-Yang, to whom Lao Tzu [Lao Tse]

descended from Heaven in order to instruct him in the wisdom of the gods.
Soon after he had completed his course of instruction his soul left his body to
go on a visit to Hua Shan [Hua Mountain]. Some say he was summoned by
Lao Tzu, others that Lao Tzu engaged him as escort to the countries of Hsi
and Yu. He left his disciple Lang Ling in charge of his body, saying that if he
did not return within seven days he was to have the body cremated.
Unfortunately, when only six days had elapsed the disciple was called
away to the death-bed of his mother. In order to be able to leave at once he
cremated the body forthwith, and when the soul returned it found only a heap
of ashes. Some say the body was not cremated, but only became devitalized
through neglect or through being uninhabited for so long a time. The object
of the setting of the watch was not only to prevent injury to or theft of the
body, but also to prevent any other soul from taking up its abode in it.

In a forest nearby a beggar had just died of hunger. Finding this corpse
untenanted, the wandering spirit entered it through the temples, and made off.
When he found that his head was long and pointed, his face black, his beard
and hair woolly and disheveled, his eyes of gigantic size, and one of his legs
lame, he wished to get out of his vile body; but Lao Tzu advised him not to
make the attempt and gave him a gold band to keep his hair in order, and an
iron crutch to help his lame leg. On lifting his hand to his eyes, he found they
were as large as buckles.
That is why he was called Li K’ung-Mu, ‘Li Hollow Eyes.’ Popularly he
is known as Li T’ieh-Kuai, ‘Li with the Iron Crutch.’ No precise period
seems to be assigned to his career on earth, though one tradition places him in
the Yuan dynasty. Another account says that he was changed into a dragon,
and in that form ascended to Heaven.
Elsewhere it is related that T’ieh-Kuai, after entering the body of the lame
beggar, benevolently proceeded to revive the mother of Yang, his negligent
disciple. Leaning on his iron staff and carrying a gourd of medicines on his
back he went to Yang’s house, where preparations were being made for the
funeral. The contents of the gourd, poured into the mouth, revived the dead
woman. He then made himself known, and giving Yang another pill,
vanished in a gust of wind. Two hundred years later he effected the
immortalization of his disciple.
During his peregrinations on earth he would hang a bottle on the wall at
night and jump into it, emerging on the following morning. He frequently
returned to Earth, and at times tried to bring about the transmigration of
others.
An example is the case of Ch’ao Tu, the watchman. T’ieh-Kuai walked
into a fiery furnace and bade Ch’ao follow. The latter, being afraid of
imitating an act evidently associated with the supernatural world of evil
spirits, refused to do so. T’ieh-Kuai then told Ch’ao to step on to a leaf
floating on the surface of the river, saying that it was a boat that would bear
him across safely. Again the watchman refused, whereupon T’ieh-Kuai,
remarking that the cares of this world were evidently too weighty for him to
be able to ascend to immortality, stepped on to the leaf himself and vanished.
C HUNG -L I C H ’ UAN (H AN C HUNG -L I )

Regarding the origin and life of this Immortal, several different accounts
are given. One states that his family name was Chung-Li, and that he lived in
the Han dynasty, being therefore called Han Chung-Li. His cognomen was
Ch’uan, his literary appellation Chi Tao, and his pseudonyms Ho-Ho Tzu and
Wang-Yang Tsu; his style Yun-Fang.
He was born in the district of Hsien-Yang Hsien (a sub-prefecture of the
ancient capital Hsi-An Fu) in Shansi. He became Marshall of the Empire in
the cyclic year 2496. In his old age he became a hermit on Yang-Chio Shan,
thirty li north-east of I-Ch’eng Hsien in the prefecture of P’ing-Yang Fu in
Shansi. He is referred to by the title of King-Emperor of the True Active
Principle.
Another account describes Chung-Li Ch’uan as merely a vice-marshal in
the service of Duke Chou Hsiao. He was defeated in battle, and escaped to
Chung-Nan Shan, where he met the Five Heroes, the Flowers of the East,
who instructed him in the Doctrine of Immortality. At the end of the T’ang
dynasty Han Chung-Li taught this same science of immortality to Lu Tung-
Pin, and took the pompous title of the Only Independent One Under Heaven.

Chung-Li Ch’uan (Han Chung-Li)
Other versions state that Han Chung-Li is not the name of a person, but of
a country; that he was a Taoist priest Chung Li-Tzu; and that he was a
beggar, Chung-Li by name, who gave to one Lao Chih a pill of immortality.
No sooner had the latter swallowed it than he went mad, left his wife, and
ascended to Heaven.
During a great famine he transmuted copper and pewter into silver by
amalgamating them with some mysterious drug. This treasure he distributed
among the poor, and thousands of lives were thus saved.
One day, while he was meditating, the stone wall of his dwelling in the
mountains was rent asunder, and a jade casket exposed to view. This was
found to contain secret information as to how to become an Immortal. When
he had followed these instructions for some time, his room was filled with
many-colored clouds, music was heard, and a celestial stork came and bore
him away on its back to the regions of immortality.
He is sometimes represented holding his feather-fan, Yu-Mao Shan; at
other times the Peach of Immortality. Since his admission to the ranks of the
gods, he has appeared on earth at various times as the messenger of Heaven.
On one of these occasions he met Lu Yen, the Immortal known as Lu Tung-
Pin.
L AN T S ’ AI -H O
Lan Ts’ai-Ho is variously stated to have been a woman and a
hermaphrodite. She is the strolling singer or mountebank of the Immortals.
Usually she plays a flute or a pair of cymbals. Her origin is unknown, but her
personal name is said to have been Yang Su, and her career is assigned to the
period of the T’ang dynasty. She wandered abroad clad in a tattered blue
gown held by a black wooden belt three inches wide, with one foot shoeless
and the other shod, wearing in summer an undergarment of wadded material,
and in winter sleeping on the snow, her breath rising in a brilliant cloud like
the steam from a boiling cauldron. In this guise she earned her livelihood by
singing in the streets, keeping time with a wand three feet long. Though taken
for a lunatic, the doggerel verse she sang disproved the popular slanders. It
denounced this fleeting life and its delusive pleasures. When given money,
she either strung it on a cord and waved it to the time of her song or scattered
it on the ground for the poor to pick up.

Lan Ts’ai Ho
One day she was found to have become intoxicated in an inn at Feng-
Yang Fu in Anhui, and while in that state disappeared on a cloud, having
thrown down to Earth her shoe, robe, belt, and castanets.
According to popular belief, however, only one of the Eight Immortals,
namely, Ho Hsien-Ku, was a woman, Lan Ts’ai-Ho being represented as a
young person of about sixteen, bearing a basket of fruit. According to the
Hsiu Hsiang Pa Hsien Tung Yu Chi, he was ‘the Red-footed Great Genius,’
Ch’ih-Chiao Ta-Hsien incarnate. Though he was a man, adds the writer, he
could not understand how he came to be a man (which is perhaps the reason
why he has been supposed to be a woman).

C HANG K UO (C HANG K UO -L AO )
The period assigned to Chang Kuo is the middle or close of the seventh to
the middle of the eighth century A.D. He lived as a hermit on Chung-T’iao
Shan, in the prefecture of P’ing-Yang Fu in Shansi. The Emperors T’ai Tsung
and Kao Tsung of the T’ang dynasty frequently invited him to Court, but he
persistently refused to go. At last, pressed once more by the Empress Wu
(A.D. 684-705), he consented to leave his retreat, but was struck down by
death at the gate of the Temple of the Jealous Woman.
His body began to decay and to be eaten by worms, when lo! he was seen
again, alive and well, on the mountains of Heng Chou in P’ing-Yang Fu. He
rode on a white mule, which carried him thousands of miles in a day, and
which, when the journey was finished, he folded up like a sheet of paper and
put away in his wallet. When he again required its services, he had only to
spurt water upon the packet from his mouth and the animal at once assumed
its proper shape. At all times he performed wonderful feats of necromancy,
and declared that he had been Grand Minister to the Emperor Yao (2357-
2255 B.C.) during a previous existence.
In the twenty-third year (A.D. 735) of the reign-period K’ai Yuan of the
Emperor Hsuan Tsung of the T’ang dynasty, he was called to Lo-Yang in
Honan, and elected Chief of the Imperial Academy, with the honorable title
of Very Perspicacious Teacher.
It was just at this time that the famous Taoist Yeh Fa-Shan, thanks to his
skill in necromancy, was in great favor at Court. The Emperor asked him who
this Chang Kuo-Lao (he usually has the epithet Lao, ‘old,’ added to his name)
was. “I know,” replied the magician; “but if I were to tell your Majesty I
should fall dead at your feet, so I dare not speak unless your Majesty will
promise that you will go with bare feet and bare head to ask Chang Kuo to
forgive you, in which case I should immediately revive.” Hsuan Tsung
having promised, Fa-Shan then said: “Chang Kuo is a white spiritual bat
which came out of primeval chaos.” No sooner had he spoken than he
dropped dead at the Emperor’s feet.
Hsuan Tsung, with bare head and feet, went to Chang Kuo as he had
promised, and begged forgiveness for his indiscretion. The latter then
sprinkled water on Fa-Shan’s face and he revived. Soon after Chang fell sick
and returned to die in the Heng Chou Mountains during the period A.D. 742-
746. When his disciples opened his tomb, they found it empty.
He is usually seen mounted on his white mule, sometimes facing its head,
sometimes its tail. He carries a phoenix-feather or the Peach of Immortality.
Chang Kuo (Chang Kuo-Lao)
At his interviews with the Emperor Ming Huang in A.D. 723 (when he
was alive still) Chang Kuo “entertained the Emperor with a variety of
magical tricks, such as rendering himself invisible, drinking off a cup of
aconite, and felling birds or flowers by pointing at them. He refused the hand
of an imperial princess, and also declined to have his portrait placed in the
Hall of Worthies.”
A picture of Chang Kuo sitting on a donkey and offering a descendant to
the newly married couple is often found in the nuptial chamber. It seems
somewhat incongruous that an old ascetic should be associated with
matrimonial happiness and the granting of offspring, but the explanation may
possibly be connected with his performance of wonderful feats of
necromancy, though he is said not to have given encouragement to others in
these things during his lifetime.
H O H SIEN -K U
A maiden holding in her hand a magic lotus-blossom, the flower of open-
heartedness, or the Peach of Immortality given her by Lu Tung-Pin in the
mountain-gorge as a symbol of identity, playing at times the sheng, or reed-
organ, or drinking wine ~ this is the picture the Chinese paint of the immortal
Ho Hsien-Ku.
She was the daughter of Ho T’ai, a native of Tseng-Ch’eng Hsien in
Kuangtung. Others say her father was a shopkeeper at Ling-Ling in Hunan.
She lived in the time of the usurping empress Wu (A.D. 684-705) of the
T’ang dynasty. At her birth six hairs were found growing on the crown of her
head, and the account says she never had any more, though the pictures
represent her with a full head of hair. She elected to live on Yun-Mu Ling,
twenty li west of Tseng-Ch’eng Hsien. On that mountain was a stone called
yun-mu shih, ‘mother-of-pearl.’
In a dream she saw a spirit who ordered her to powder and eat one of
these stones, by doing so she could acquire both agility and immortality. She
complied with this injunction, and also vowed herself to a life of virginity.
Her days were thenceforth passed in floating from one peak to another,
bringing home at night to her mother the fruits she collected on the mountain.
She gradually found that she had no need to eat in order to live.
Her fame having reached the ears of the Empress, she was invited to
Court, but while journeying thither suddenly disappeared from mortal view
and became an Immortal. She is said to have been seen again in A.D. 750
floating upon a cloud of many colors at the Temple of Ma Ku, the famous
female Taoist magician, and again, some years later, in the city of Canton.

Ho Hsien-Ku
She is represented as an extremely beautiful maiden, and is remarkable as

occupying a prominent position in a cult in which no system of female
asceticism is developed.
L U T UNG -P IN
Lu Tung-Pin’s family name was Lu; his personal name Tung-Pin; also
Yen; and his pseudonym Shun Yang-Tzu. He was born in A.D. 798 at Yung-
Lo Hsien, in the prefecture of Ho-Chung Fu in Shansi, a hundred and twenty
li south-east of the present sub-prefecture of Yung-Chi Hsien (P’u Chou). He
came of an official family, his grandfather having been President of the
Ministry of Ceremonies, and his father Prefect of Hai Chou. He was 5 feet 2
inches in height, and at twenty was still unmarried. At this time he made a
journey to Lu Shan in Kiangsi, where he met the Fire-Dragon, who presented
him with a magic sword, which enabled him at will to hide himself in the
heavens.
Lu Tung-Pin
During his visit to the capital, Ch’ang-An in Shensi, he met the immortal
Han Chung-Li, who instructed him in the mysteries of alchemy and the Elixir
of Life. When he revealed himself as Yun-Fang Hsien Sheng (Mr.Yun-Fang),
Lu Yen expressed an ardent desire to aid in converting mankind to the True
Doctrine, but was first exposed to a series of ten temptations. These being
successfully overcome, he was invested with supernatural power and magic

weapons, with which he traversed the Empire, slaying dragons and ridding
the Earth of dire kinds of evil, during a period of upward of four hundred
years.
Another version says that Han Chung-Li was in an inn, heating a jug of
rice-wine. Here Lu met him, and going to sleep dreamed that he was
promoted to a very high office and was exceptionally favored by fortune in
every way. This had gone on for fifty years when unexpectedly a serious fault
caused him to be condemned to exile, and his family was exterminated.
Alone in the world, he was sighing bitterly, when he awoke with a start. All
had taken place in so short a space of time that Han Chung-Li’s wine was not
yet hot.
This is the incident referred to in Chinese literature in the phrase ‘rice-
wine dream.’ Convinced of the hollowness of worldly dignities, he followed
Han Chung-Li to the Ho Ling Mountains at Chung-Nan in Shansi, where he
was initiated into the divine mysteries, and became an Immortal. In A.D.
1115 the Emperor Hui Tsung conferred on him the title of Hero of Marvelous
Wisdom; and later he was proclaimed King-Emperor and Strong Protector.
There are various versions of the legend of Lu Tung-Pin. One of these
adds that in order to fulfill his promise made to Chung-Li to do what he could
to aid in the work of converting his fellow-creatures to the True Doctrine, he
went to Yueh Yang in the guise of an oil-seller, intending to immortalize all
those who did not ask for additional weight to the quantity of oil purchased.
During a whole year he met only selfish and extortionate customers, with the
exception of one old lady who alone did not ask for more than was her due.
So he went to her house, and seeing a well in the courtyard threw a few
grains of rice into it. The water miraculously turned into wine, from the sale
of which the dame amassed great wealth.
He was very skillful in fencing, and is always represented with his magic
Excalibur named Chan-Yao Kuai, ‘Devil-Slaying Saber,’ and in one hand
holds a fly-whisk, Yun-Chou, or ‘Cloud-Sweeper,’ a symbol common in
Taoism of being able to fly at will through the air and to walk on the clouds
of Heaven.
Like Kuan Kung, he is shown bearing in his arms a male child—
indicating a promise of numerous progeny, including literati and famous
officials. Consequently he is one of the spiritual beings honored by the
literati.
H AN H SIANG -T ZU
Han Hsiang-Tzu, who is depicted with a bouquet of flowers or a basket of
peaches of immortality, is stated to have been grand-nephew of Han Yu
(A.D. 768-824), the great statesman, philosopher, and poet of the T’ang
dynasty, and an ardent votary of transcendental study. His own name was
Ch’ing Fu. The child was entrusted to his uncle to be educated and prepared
for the public examinations. He excelled his teacher in intelligence and the
performance of wonderful feats, such as the production from a little earth in a
flower-pot of some marvelous flowering plants, on the leaves of which were
written in letters of gold some verses to this effect:
The clouds hide Mount Ch’in Ling.

Where is your abode?
The snow is deep on Lan Kuan;
Your horse refuses to advance.
“W HAT IS THE MEANING OF THESE VERSES ?” ASKED H AN Y U . “Y OU WILL

see,” replied Han Hsiang-Tzu.
Some time afterward Han Yu was sent in disgrace to the prefecture of
Ch’ao-Chou Fu in Kuangtung. When he reached the foot of Lan Kuan the
snow was so deep that he could not go on.
Han Hsiang-Tzu appeared, and, sweeping away the snow, made a path for
him. Han Yu then understood the prophecy in his pupil’s verses.
When Han Hsiang-Tzu was leaving his uncle, he gave him the following
in verse:
Many indeed are the eminent men who have served their country,
but which of them surpasses you in his knowledge of literature?
When you have reached a high position, you will be
buried in a damp and foggy land.
Han Yu also gave his pupil a farewell verse:

How many here below allow themselves to be inebriated by
the love of honors and pelf! Alone and watchful you persevere
in the right path. But a time will come when, taking your flight
to the sky, you will open in the ethereal blue a luminous roadway.
Han Hsiang-Tzu
H AN Y U WAS DEPRESSED AT THE THOUGHT OF THE DAMP CLIMATE OF HIS

place of exile. “I fear there is no doubt,” he said, “that I shall die without
seeing my family again.”
Han Hsiang-Tzu consoled him, gave him a prescription, and said: “Not
only will you return in perfect health to the bosom of your family, but you
will be reinstated in your former offices.” All this took place exactly as he
had predicted.
Another account states that he became the disciple of Lu Tung-Pin, and,
having been carried up to the supernatural peach-tree of the genii, fell from
its branches, but during his descent attained to the state of immortality. Still
another version says that he was killed by the fall, was transformed, and then
underwent the various experiences with Han Yu already related.
T S ’ AO K UO -C HIU
Ts’ao Kuo-Chiu was connected with the imperial family of the Sungs,
and is shown with the Tablet of Admission to Court in his hand. He became
one of the Eight Immortals because the other seven, who occupied seven of
the eight grottos of the Upper Spheres, wished to see the eighth inhabited,
and nominated him because “his disposition resembled that of a genie.”
The legend relates that the Empress Ts’ao, wife of the Emperor Jen Tsung
(A.D. 1023-64), had two younger brothers. The elder of the two, Ching-Hsiu,
did not concern himself with the affairs of State; the younger, Ching-Chih,
was notorious for his misbehavior. In spite of all warnings he refused to
reform, and being at last guilty of homicide was condemned to death. His
brother, ashamed at what had occurred, went and hid in the mountains, where
he clothed his head and body with wild plants, resolved to lead the life of a
hermit.
One day Han Chung-Li and Lu Tung-Pin found him in his retreat, and
asked him what he was doing. “I am engaged in studying the Way,” he
replied. “What way and where is it?” they said. He pointed to the sky.
“Where is the sky?” “Where is the sky?” they went on. He pointed to his
heart. The two visitors smiled and said: “The heart is the sky, and the sky is
the Way; you understand the origin of things.” They then gave him a recipe
for perfection, to enable him to take his place among the Perfect Ones. In a
few days he had reached this much-sought-after condition.
In another version we find fuller details concerning this Immortal. A
graduate named Yuan Wen-Cheng of Ch’ao-Yang Hsien, in the sub-
prefecture of Ch’ao-Chou Fu in Kuangtung, was traveling with his wife to
take his examinations at the capitol. Ts’ao Ching-Chih, the younger brother
of the Empress, saw the lady, and was struck with her beauty. In order to
gratify his passion he invited the graduate and his young wife to the palace,
where he strangled the husband and tried to force the wife to cohabit with
him. She refused obstinately, and as a last resort he had her imprisoned in a
noisome dungeon.
The soul of the graduate appeared to Imperial Censor Pao Lao-Yeh, and
begged him to exact vengeance for the execrable crime. The elder brother,
Ching-Hsiu, seeing the case put in the hands of the upright Pao Lao-Yeh, and
knowing his brother to be guilty of homicide, advised him to put the woman
to death, in order to cut off all sources of information and so to prevent
further proceedings. The young voluptuary thereupon caused the woman to
be thrown down a deep well, but the star T’ai-Po Chin-Hsing, in the form of
an old man, drew her out again.
While making her escape, she met on the road an official procession
which she mistook for that of Pao Lao-Yeh, and, going up to the sedan chair,
made her accusation. This official was no other than the elder brother of the
murderer. Ching-Hsiu, terrified, dared not refuse to accept the charge, but on
the pretext that the woman had not placed herself respectfully by the side of
the official chair, and thus had not left a way clear for the passage of his
retinue, he had her beaten with iron-spiked whips, and she was cast away for
dead in a neighboring lane.
This time also she revived, and ran to inform Pao Lao-Yeh. The latter
immediately had Ts’ao Ching-Hsiu arrested, cangued, and fettered. Without
loss of time he wrote an invitation to the second brother, Ts’ao Ching-Chih,
and on his arrival confronted him with the graduate’s wife, who accused him
to his face. Pao Lao-Yeh had him put in a pit, and remained deaf to all
entreaties of the Emperor and Empress on his behalf. A few days later the
murderer was taken to the place of execution, and his head rolled in the dust.

Ts’ao Kuo-Chiu
The problem now was how to get Ts’ao Ching-Hsiu out of the hands of
the terrible Censor. The Emperor Jen Tsung, to please the Empress, had a
universal amnesty proclaimed throughout the Empire, under which all
prisoners were set free. On receipt of this edict, Pao Lao-Yeh liberated Ts’ao
Ching-Hsiu from the cangue, and allowed him to go free. As one risen from
the dead, he gave himself up to the Practice of Perfection, became a hermit,
and, through the instruction of the Perfect Ones, became one of the Eight
Immortals

18
QIAN KUA JIAN XUE
THE STUDY OF QIAN TRIGRAM SWORD IN SUN FAMILY B AGUA

SWORD
T he First Set of Bagua Sword Movements

L ECTURES AND NOTES PRESENTED BY M ADAM S UN J IAN -Y UN CONCERNING
her father’s teachings and personal practices.

The Limitless Void Sword Posture
無極劍式 Wuji Jian Shi
A CCORDING TO M ADAM S UN J IAN -Y UN :

Jian li (sword strength) is like a blossom sprouting forth from a tree
branch, its formation stems from the cultivation of the tree’s root. Jian li is
thus determined by the core root within, that being an xin (a peaceful heart),
the cultivation of stilling one’s heart and awaiting the untangling of one’s
being [calming and rectifying one’s spirit].
As the heart stills it touches upon the oneness of the Cosmos. Within this
expansion of being vacuity manifests, and it is within such void that qi rushes
forth to fill this natural emptiness thus endowing sheng tung (life-movement
[creating the movement of life through empowered strength]). Sheng tung is
the birth of movement aroused by the stillness of the heart; together they
enfold as the Wuji, oneness of body and spirit. Merging with emptiness is the
dissolving of one’s inner essence [mind and spirit] from which being drawn
into the Great Void is absolute.

Sun in T’ai Wuji Jian Shi
Note: Lectures given by Madam Sun often included clarifications of her

father’s writings. Therefore, I have added her comments in brackets { } and
my clarifications in [ ]. Master Sun Lu-T’ang’s written instructions were
translated by Mr. Wang Ping for me in 1989. He was one of my classmates in
Madam Sun’s taijiquan class in Beijing.
I NSTRUCTION A CCORDING TO S UN L U -T’ ANG :

The study of Wuji within sword {within the practice of sword} is
represented by a person {that being oneself} embracing the sword. The body
{enters into} stillness, {both in the interior and exterior}. Emptiness,
hollowness, and turmoil {must be sensed} within one’s center {not only
one’s tan-t’ien, but from the deepest regions of one’s spirit}; now the One qi
churns {this being the qi of the Cosmos stirring, and uniting within}.
This principle is symbolized by a circle (O) that is void {this representing
the Great Void}. That of pre-birth {spiritual life before one’s corporeal birth}
in Taoism is thereby represented. What is (O)? It is {represents} the form of
Wuji {from which we can study and gain understanding}. It symbolizes pre-
birth creation {our spiritual existence before one’s corporeal birth}. As
people are born into the world, prior to learning skills {the ability to move the
body according to methods commonly taught among mankind}, their
movement is natural, according to Taoist movement. This is {a further
meaning of} this symbol.
The sword is embraced and is true with one’s body, remaining still {the
sword’s tip and the sword’s base are paired with the top of one’s head and
bottom of one’s feet; the sword and one’s body remain parallel to each other,
straight and true, all embracing stillness}. The symbol of such creation is O
{this being T’ai Xu (the Great Void)}. This is like sitting skill development
{to root like an old tree stump, sensing inner and outer stillness}, though not
seated. The breath is pre-birth. As if to sit {the transformation from ling
(nimbleness) above into rootedness below}, sinking {rootedness enters} into
the legs.
The eyes gaze p’ing (with levelness) forward {never looking upward
which would elicit hua (fire) qi of the liver to rise}. Though not blindfolded,
you remain peering into the Void. The hands turn inward. One’s mind
empties, no thought exists, no mind exists. Qi {unifies}, becoming One {with
the Tao}, they are like that of a circle (O) {no beginning, no end}. The heart-
spirit {one’s mind} remains still. Both hands turn inward {slightly more}
again, hanging like {silk} drapes. Seeing {with one’s eyes} ceases; {it is as if
the expansion of the Great Void suddenly contracts, thereby a center of such
contracted force is formed}.
To separate the study of sword from Taoist studies is improper. Both are
one {and are more fully explained like that of a circle (O)}. The art of sword
contains the doctrines of Wuji {practices}. Such {doctrines} are the creation
of Heaven {this being the birth of yang essence} and Earth {this being the
birth of yin essence}. The ancient text Tan Shu states: ‘The Tao is born from
nothingness {this being the Great Void}. Returning to the Void and Tao, one
is thereby practicing their unity. Such is the concept that students must
intimately follow.’
Wuji Posture
Begin by facing plumb [referring to being in ‘plumb line,’ establishing a
true vertical line from that of a carpenter’s hanging lead plumb]. Thereby,
one’s body stands straight. The body leans neither forward nor backward.
The hands hang straight downward. The feet form a 90 degree angle. The
sword is embraced by the right hand. The formation of the hand is that of
Middle Yin-
Middle Yang. The sword’s tip and handle’s tip [the handle’s base] remain
horizontally level with one another. The left hand’s fingers stretch outward
into straightness. The palm {of the left hand} remains abutting the leg.
A CCORDING TO I-C HING ’ S 乾卦C H ’ IEN K UA [Y IJING Q IAN G UA]:

Note: To understand this kua I [the publisher] have used an old
translation of the Yijing titled ‘The Text of Yi-King & Its Appendices
(Chinese Original, With English Translation)’ by Prof. Z.D. Sung, published
in October of 1935, Shanghai, China.
W HEN THERE WAS H EAVEN AND E ARTH , THEN AFTERWARDS ALL THINGS WERE
produced. What fills up (space [the Great Void]) between Heaven and Earth
are all things. Heaven and Earth existing (now), all things obtained their
existence. All things having existence, afterwards there came male and
female.
The Great Extreme [Polarity] Sword Posture

太極劍式 Taiji Jian Shi

Sun in Taiji Jian Shi
I NSTRUCTIONS A CCORDING TO M ASTER S UN L U -T’ ANG :

太極劍式 Taiji Jian Shi The Great Extreme [Polarity] Sword Posture
First, the waist {waist, pelvis and buttocks in unison} presses downward
while the head props upward. The shoulders hang downward. The tongue
presses upward upon the upper palate. The mouth is as if open, yet it is not
open {the mouth is relaxed, without clenching, without tension}. Naturalness
of breath is through the nose. It {one’s natural breathing} is unaffected by
one’s will {whether the mind sees a thought or vision or not, the breath
remains natural and undisturbed}.
The feet press {sink and relax} upon {and into} the Earth. Qi is in all
places {within one’s body}. All of these {the methods to prepare the body for
practice} are natural in their purposes. Maladroit [awkward] strength must
not be ensued.
Next, the thumb, index finger and middle finger of the left hand extend
straight outward. The third and fourth fingers use {slight} strength to curl
back the middle and end joints. The root joint {of the third finger [ring
finger]} remains extended [straight], abutting the middle finger. The five
fingers, curled and straight, employ equal strength throughout {that is, equal
force is given to extend fingers as is given to curl others; qi is thereby
mutually shared within all parts of the hand}.
The left hand’s shape resembles that of the shape of the sword {this being
why the left hand’s shape is referred to as jian shou (sword hand)}. No undue
strength is to be made use by the left hand. This form [the Taiji Posture]
supports the power [strength] of the sword in the right hand {and is further
accentuated through the actions of} bending, stretching forth, drawing inward
and extending outward, and {innumerable} changes.
Traditionally, it [the form] is never set, [and remains] unchanging [in this
respect]. At times the five fingers {of the left hand} can be extended
[stretched outward]. In that the shape of the sword is fixed {the sword itself
does not curl or bend like the fingers}, students cannot incorrectly embrace it
{the sword’s shape cannot change, but the student’s hand can change to adapt
to individual sword methods and applications}.
Next, the right foot turns inward to arrive at a 45 degree angle with the
left foot {the tip of the sword turns with the movement of one’s waist and
right foot, arriving at one’s left frontal position}. As the right foot turns
inward, the hands, coming from the Middle Yin ~ Middle Yang {position}, in
unison turn outward. The hands become Great Yin {in their position} from
such turning. The arms, as previously, adhere adjacent to one’s body
[referring to one’s trunk].
Next, the legs steadily bend downward {the pelvis region thereby relaxes;
the loins seek curvature, and the head props upward}. The inside curvature of
the legs [the loins] must not be stiff [unyielding] {softness must be embraced
to aid sinking into one’s root}. It is like in the photograph. As the legs bend
downward, the right hand embraces the sword while one’s arm remains
adjacent to the ribs. The tip of the sword extends outward and level
{searching with intent}, in the alike direction as one’s left foot. The sword
maintains a straight line above the left foot. One’s hand is Great Yin
{according to its position and shape}, as before.
Level with the region of one’s heart, are the tip of the sword and the
sword’s handle. As the sword moves, the left hand, which is also Great Yin,
in unison adheres adjacent to one’s left ribs, piercing beneath the right elbow
{hidden like a blossom beneath a large leaf}. The left arm adheres adjacent to
one’s heart. The eyes, gaze upon the tip of the sword. Vitality [one’s
energetic vigor] is held fast, without alteration. One’s head props upward
{yang qi thereby surges upward to establish ling (agility)}. The shoulders
hang {with softness and forward roundness}, [you must] possess [embrace]
the thought of reverting and contracting {thereby qi is drawn downward,
returning to the body’s Origin [the tan-t’ien].
All {of these methods and occurrences} are natural. One must not draw
upon maladroit [awkward and lumbering] strength {unified natural
movement with effortless force purges one’s body of such awkwardness}.
These methods [all of the previously detailed points] enable qi to draw
within, harmonizing {with itself and the hidden forces [the wu xing (five
shapes/elements)], and pervading [filling] the tan-t’ien.
A NNOTATIONS BY M ADAM S UN J IAN -Y UN ON THE I NTERNAL P RACTICES :

Oneness of Wuwei (the state of void, before existence) becomes Liang-yi
(Two-ones [separation into two halves of the Oneness]), that which is known
is known as Taiji. The two halves of Taiji (the Great Extreme) are known as
the yin and yang.
From stillness comes motion; from oneness comes separation. 太極劍式
Taiji Jian Shi (The Great Extreme [Polarity] Sword Posture) nurtures
purification of qi above and dispersal of turbidity below. That is, the body is
divided into two regions, Heaven and Earth. The region of Heaven within the
body is that which resides above the tan-t’ien (Pill [Elixir] Field) and the
ming-men (Gate of Life); the region of Earth being that which is below these
two.
(E XPLANATION OF THE 乾C H ’ IEN [T HE T REATISE ON T HWAN ]:

Vast is the ‘great and originating (power)’ indicated by 乾Ch’ien! All
things owe to it their beginning: ~ it contains all the meaning to Heaven.
(The sages) grandly understand (the connection between) the end and the
beginning, and how (the indications of) the six lines (in the hexagram) are
accomplished, (each) in its season.
(Accordingly) they mount (the carriage) drawn by those six dragons at the
proper times, and drive through the sky.
The method of 乾Ch’ien is to change and transform, so that everything
obtains its correct nature as appointed (by the mind of Heaven); and
(thereafter the conditions of) great harmony are preserved in union. The result
is ‘what is advantageous, and correct and firm.’
Reference Source: The Text of Yi-King & Its Appendices (Chinese
Original, With English Translation) by Prof. Z.D. Sung, published in October
of 1935, Shanghai, China.
F URTHER A NNOTATIONS FROM M ADAM S UN J IAN -Y UN :

乾Ch’ien [Qian] is the root by which all stirs. The practice of postures
which embrace 乾Ch’ien move qi, and spirit from that of an inward position
to that of one extending outward. Stretch, coil, and root the body below are
the methods held to encourage one’s spirit to elongate the tendons, changing
them into pathways that carry qi from the deepest sinews. 乾Ch’ien’s many
secrets are found throughout internal practices, but are most apparent in those
methods that begin from stillness and are gently led into motion. The practice
of sword entwined with 乾Ch’ien harnesses a change within the tendons that
is most profound.
Hibernating Dragon Overturns [its] Body

蟄龍翻身Chih Long Fan Shen

Sun in Chih Long Fan Shen
I NSTRUCTIONS A CCORDING TO S UN L U -T’ ANG :
T HE S TUDY OF 乾 Q IAN S WORD
乾卦劍Q IAN G UA S WORD FOLLOWS THAT OF T A I J I S WORD . T HIS FORM IS

symbolized as [O], in that it [the set] possesses [embraces] circularity. It [the
set] turns leftward {that is, one must extend rightward, then gather into the
central position, then walk leftward. This is ‘defending on all fronts’}. Such
produces [creates] 乾卦劍Qian Gua Sword.
1. 乾卦劍 Q IAN G UA S WORD ~ H IBERNATING D RAGON O VERTURNS [ ITS ]

Body
Begin with opening the arms, one moving upward, and one moving
downward {this is fen-kai (separate-open), a concept woven throughout
sword methods, and all weapons and boxing practices}. The right hand
embraces the sword {by its handle}, {turning [revolving]} outwardly {until
one’s arm reaches the position of displaying the inner forearm outward}, thus
becoming Old Yin.
As the [right] hand turns [twists] raise it upward, until the backside of the
hand is near the forehead {placement of the right hand is within the width of
one’s fist, between the area of the forehead and temple}. As before, the tip of
the sword is level with one’s heart.
The principles of the 乾卦劍 Qian Gua Sword form is {to establish and
develop} the practice of one’s root being able to move {without hindrance},
while the extremities [arms and legs] do not move. As the right hands turns
{in an upward fashion} the left hand simultaneously turns outward, becoming
Old Yin {as has the right hand. One upward, one downward, it is the
separation of Heaven and Earth, with man as the unifier in the central
position}.
As the left arm turns, it stretches downward, adhering adjacent to one’s
body. This stretch reaches and halts at the lower abdomen. One’s second and
third [index and middle] fingers point to the Earth [the ground]. Again, the
waist sinks downward. Again, the legs [the knees] bend {relaxing and
softening} downward {to achieve greater root}. One’s head {senses}
emptiness {this being the sensation of lightness} with nimbleness {the
sensation of agility and liveliness arriving} at the upper region {of one’s
head, this being Ni Wan (Mud Ball), the gathering place of yang qi at the
crown region of the head}.
The shoulders drape downward {their process is as in the Taiji Posture}.
The heel of the left foot raises {as sinking into the right foot occurs, the left
heel floats upward; it is like the concept of a teeter-totter, creating that of
wangfu (to and fro [towards and away from]) action within the body}. The
ball of the left foot touches the Earth [ground] {its weight being slight,
prepared to nimbly move}. Weight sinks into the left foot. As before, gaze
upon the tip of the sword {one’s gaze should be softly displayed upon the
area of the sword’s tip, not looking harshly at the tip with a fixed stare}.
Refer to the photograph.
According to the description above the hands separate, the left heel raises,
and the body’s weight sinks into the right foot, all move in unison. These
{three actions, as well as all movements of the body} must move as a unified
whole {this being the profound concept that the body moves as one unified
force, so that each posture, each movement is born of the whole body
drawing together to produce a single action}. Each movement is done so with
intent. Movements are to be natural, without awkwardness {or
embellishment}.
Students must consider and elicit awareness {toward deepening one’s
understanding each action and searching out skill development}. As the
body’s {inner} strength stirs, these methods [concerning] the internal [inner
cultivation] are achievable.
A NNOTATIONS FROM M ADAM S UN ON THE I NTERNAL P RACTICES :

Sink below to establish force above. This is like a hibernating dragon
stirring in the depths of Heaven playing with the Jin Wuya (Golden Crow)
above and the Jin Jingzi (Golden Mirror) below. The crow [representing the
sun] and the mirror [representing the moon] unite the yang and yin as an
endless liantiao (chain), linking the dragon’s every movement.
Q UFEN ( DIFFERENTIATE BETWEEN ) THE YA N G ABOVE , AND THE Y I N BELOW .

Below, one’s legs become that of a shuzhuang (tree stump) so that the ziran
(naturalness) of the sword’s movement is without hindrance. Shuzhuang
refers to the ability to establish the legs as the stump and the feet as the root
beneath. Beneath the root one’s spirit is directed into and united with the qi of
the Earth.
Above, the arm and its tip [the fingernails] strengthen the sinews to
harmonize with the Jin Wuya (Golden Crow [yang essence]). The extreme tip
of the arms, beyond the nails, is the extension of one’s body, this being the
sword’s tip from which the蟄龍chih long (hibernating dragon) 翻身fan shen
(overturns [its] body).
The skill of fanligong (overturning power development) is the
culmination of the three practices: gua (to hang), zhuan (to coil), and kuoda
(to extend), which entangle to produce the overturning trunk of the dragon.
Such movement is known as ‘dragon slumbers deeply, then springs forth.’
This is yin deeply uniting within itself, from which yang [the sword] derives
its impetus.
In ancient times sword methods were learned by observing zhuzi
(bamboo) leaves. Such leaves mirror the shape and movement of swords in
battle. A sword’s movement begins in the handle, ending at the sword’s tip.
One’s yao (waist) is like a handle from which all movement stems forth
through the limb(s). Waist and handle, limb and sword’s body, each are
paired, reflecting the other’s slumbering intent, each a dragon mirroring the
yin and yang.
A CCORDING TO I-C HING ’ S 乾卦C H ’ IEN KUA:

Reference Source: ‘The Text of Yi-King & Its Appendices (Chinese
October of 1935, Shanghai, China.
乾C H ’ IEN [ BEING IN THE FIRST POSITION IS ] TO RULE THEM [ ALL OTHER

卦kua].
Struggles in 乾Ch’ien; 卦kua (trigram) of the northwest. The idea is that
there the inactive and active (yin-yang) conditions beating [in opposition]
against each other.

乾卦Ch’ien kua within this sword posture establishes the duality of
movement within a single body in which such opposition [duality] must find
harmony toward obtaining unified strength; else 乾Ch’ien shall be drawn into
the abyss. Move upward [move physically upward slightly] to root
[established through intent of spirit] to the Earth; root most deeply to soar
one’s spirit into the yang of Heaven; twist one’s body as the means to adjoin
to and unite the upper and lower to that of the middle region [referring to
one’s zhongdin (central equilibrium)].

Sweep Moon from the Threshold of Heaven
天邊掃月Tian Bian Sao Yue

Sun in Tian Bian Sao Yue
Instructions According to Sun Lu-T’ang:
2. 乾卦劍Q IAN G UA S WORD ~ S WEEP THE M OON FROM H EAVEN

The hands open to the left and right. Remaining Old Yin, the right hand
rises upward away from the head. As the [right] arm rises it straightens
{stretches with contained roundness} outward. The right arm also sweeps to
one’s right side using an above the head arcing movement. Upon arriving at
the right side, the right arm straightens {again with contained roundness
through the body} outward {this curved movement is the action of the three
arm joints: the shoulder, elbow, and wrist, which unify to thrust [propel] the
sword along with one’s internal cultivation of qi}.
As the hand sweeps rightward, the hand becomes Great Yin as a result of
the sweep [the sweeping action]. As one’s hand becomes level with the right
shoulder, it [the hand] halts. The tip of the sword is a bit higher than the hilt.
One’s left hand {as is the right, both reflections of one another’s essence} is
Old Yin.
As the right hand, which embraces the sword, moves upward and sweeps
to one’s right side, the left arm adheres close to the body, brushing one’s left
side {moving downward and then slightly outward, with the left hand moving
in a small arc [curve]}. This brushing [action] results in the left hand
becoming Great Yin {according to its outward turned posture} which is
adjacent to one’s left knee. The distance separating the [left] hand and [left]
knee is roughly four or five inches [Chinese inches according to one’s own
body].
As the left hand brushes leftward, in unison the left hand moves with it as
much as one can. As the left foot drops {skimming downward in a most
controlled manner, like a dragonfly dotting the water} upon the Earth
[ground], one’s toes hook inward {hooking in slightly, retaining agility in
stepping while guarding with the shinbone}.
One’s head {senses} emptiness {void of thought and the feeling of
floating with nimbleness} arriving at the upper region {the crown area of
one’s head where yang qi must gather in order to properly descend}. The
shoulders loosen and open {softening until they feel open, in turn filling with
qi. The shoulders are not to be drawn tightly inward in any manner; they act
like wood that sinks into water, yet is buoyant in its movement}.
The waist presses {settles [sinking] like a wildcat nestling into its lair}.
The hip joints withdraw inward {one’s body unifies to a central position to
establish the root from which to move outward}. Propping {the head}
upward, loosening {the shoulders}, pressing {the waist} downward {which is
also the practice of settling the body downward as in bear methods taught in
baguazhang}, and drawing inward [contraction] {of one’s hip joints and
pelvic region} are to be done with intent, not strength {not brutish muscular
force}. One’s abdomen’s lower right side yields to the right upper thigh {that
is, that portion of the abdomen rests slightly above the thigh}.
Gaze upon the sword’s middle section {drawing one’s intent and qi into
the sword’s center and in unison into the body’s center [the tan-t’ien]. The
form’s movements are like those in the photographs. Students must become
mindful of {all methods described} and comprehend them, then assume
[move into] the postures.

A NNOTATIONS BY M ADAM S UN J IAN -Y UN ON THE I NTERNAL P RACTICES :
掃月Sao Yue (Sweep the Moon) refers to the combined methods of la
(dragging) and shujun (dredging). 天邊Tian Bian (Threshold of Heaven)
refers to, regarding sword methods, to extending outward with the sword to
the edge of one’s intent, unified force and stability; beyond that point one
shall fall into the abyss of insubstantiality [fragility/weakness].
Dragging the sword is the action of sensing the sword which is heavily
laden with qi, as if it were a net full with fish. Heaviness of qi, the very
sensation, gradually refines and is transformed into the skill dredging. To
practice dredging one must sense the sword touching upon either the ocean’s
bottom or Heaven’s canopy, through which one tan (searches for [explores])
both action and inaction within the Tao.
To move one’s sword from side to side as if in water is called xi shen jian
(washing body sword), representing the spiritual form of cleansing the xin
(heart [mind]) in the River of the Cosmos. ‘Sweep the Moon from the
Threshold [Edge] of Heaven’ evokes the san ts’ai (three powers [of Heaven,
Earth, and Man]) from which subtle movement of spirit and sword unite. San
ts’ai threads together shi (structural integrity) of the body to achieve its
suppleness in li gong (power development). Shi depends upon returning to
the state of stillness within movement, enabling the body to embrace the
naturalness of curvature by which all postures assume their completeness. A
sword’s vibrancy in movement arises from the multitude of transformations
of one’s thought and spirit. Thought and spirit lead the sword; one’s body
must follow the sword’s movement like a leaf floating within a stream’s
current.
Nourishment of the body with qi and tranquility of one’s spirit comes
from the perception of movement. Within perception lies the cavern of non-
perception; the moon embraced by Heaven, the hidden harmony of attaining
stillness through the elusiveness on movement.
A CCORDING TO I-C HING ’ S 乾卦C H ’ IEN KUA :


乾卦C H ’ IEN KUA SUGGESTS THE IDEA OF A HORSE [ THAT WHICH : CHARGES
forth, searches with the heart-consciousness, and develops righteousness and
courage]; the idea of the head [that which moves first to advance].
乾Ch’ien is the symbol of Heaven [that which stirs and moves as the
clouds of Heaven ~ the sword being the agent of Heaven’s yang].
A NNOTATIONS ON S WORD :
Among Sun Lu-T’ang’s students was the famed Chen Wei-Ming, who
later joined the Yang Cheng-Fu taijiquan clan. While with Sun, Chen studied
the arts of baguazhang, xingyiquan, and taijiquan. He became well known
for his skill using a jian (sword), which he tirelessly studied under both Sun
and Yang. With permission from Yang Cheng-Fu, Chen posed for Yang
family taiji sword postures, and helped in the writing of various articles and
texts.
Below [Posture 5] is an extract from Chen’s old text ‘Taiji Sword’ which
teaches Yang family sword, though in many ways it parallels the teachings of
Sun Lu-T’ang. Chen, in his text, according to Fu Zhong-Wen, grandnephew
and disciple to Yang Cheng-Fu, taught many of Sun’s methods while
conducting classes in Shanghai for Yang, though did not site Sun as the
source of such knowledge. These teachings were recorded by Fu and many
other students during those years, serving as a treasured collection of
annotations for the practice of sword.
P OSTURE 5
Right Block Sweeping
You Lan Sao
T RANSLATION :
The right hand grasps the sword as if it were a duster [feather duster].
Rotate the sword upwardly and northward at the diagonal, then turning
downward, turning until the blade rotates and arrives into a defensive
horizontal position. Once the sword becomes even with the shoulder it then
moves southwesterly employing a sturdy [strong] horizontal chop. The blade
must maintain a horizontal cut-blocking position with the sword’s tip

pointing northeastward while the left hand forms the Magic Sword Hand
gesture which can vanquish all evil. Moving with the turning of the right
hand, at a distance of two or three fen (Chinese measurement for an inch)
from the right wrist, the right foot steps out, and substantially sits
southeasterly. My eyes gaze without being affixed upon any single action
while my waist follows the rotation of the sword. This posture is like
taijiquan’s ‘Jade Maiden Threads the Shuttle [Loom],’ as in Photo (7).
Chen Wei-Ming demonstrating Jade Maiden Threads Shuttle.

Chen Wei-Ming demonstrating the sword posture Right Block-
Sweeping.
A NNOTATIONS FROM F U Z HONG -W EN :

Lunge to the right and point to the adversary’s xin (heart), then lunge to
the left and point to the heart. Lunge with the shenti (body), block the
adversary’s ji (strike), and sao (sweep) away; these are the actions of You
Lan Sao and Zuo Lan Sao. This movement’s [lan sao ~ block-sweeping]
essence is found within the Bagua (Eight Trigrams) where ten-thousand
combinations are created.
Lan sao (block-sweeping) is like taijiquan’s ‘Jade Maiden Threads the
Shuttle [Loom]’ posture. Change from you (right) to zuo (left), then from left
to right. Practice sword with a myriad of changes. One small mistake in
stepping, the result is lost. Small mistakes give rise to large mistakes. This
must be constantly in one’s mind.
You-Zuo Lan Suo (Right-Left Block Sweeping) is likened to a butterfly
that flies beneath falling meihua (plum flowers), swaying while opening-
closing its wings to block and sweep away falling meihua. Wangfu (to-and-
fro) movement, this is the secret training concept of movement in You-Zuo
Lan Suo Jian (Right-Left Block-Sweeping Sword).

Old painting of the Jade Maiden Archive of Author

Sweep the Ground [Earth], Search for Root
掃地搜根 Sao Di Sou Gen
Sun in Sao Di Sou Gen
Instructions According to Sun Lu-T’ang:
3. 乾卦劍Q IAN G UA J IAN (S WORD ) ~ S WEEP THE G ROUND [E ARTH ], S EARCH

for Root
Next, one’s right hand, which embraces the sword in the Great Yin
[posture] turns [changing into that of] Youthful Yin. The arm drops {falls
[collapses] with great intent}, then straightens {stretches outward with
roundness} and sweeps leftward. The distance of the sword {its tip} from the
Earth [ground] is not specific {as the distance must be determined according
to each situation [referring to change required in combat]}.
One’s right hand is Great Yin {according to its position}, now turns,
changing into Great Yang. The [right] elbow is held close to {nearly brushing
upon} the right ribs [ribcage], on the frontal side. The right hand {positioned
at the level of one’s tan-t’ien}, is held lower than the [right] elbow. The
sword is held so that it makes a diagonal straight line with that of the right
foot’s right side [the outer edge of the right foot]. The sword and the elbow of
one’s right arm create one side of a triangular shape.
As the sword sweeps, the right foot steps in unison, being placed adjacent
to the toes of the left foot. One’s left foot and right foot [when adjacent]
create the shape of the inverted [written Chinese] character for eight (). The
toes [of both feet] are separated by a measurement [space] of one to two
inches {beyond four inches the body will not maintain proper centrally rooted
stability}. As the right hand and the sword move, in unison one’s left hand
extends {straightens outward with slight apparent curvature}, rising
{directly} upward.
[Moving] from Great Yin it [the sword and right arm] turns, changing into
Old Yin. Old Yin likewise turns, changing into Great Yin; it [the left hand] is
level with one’s head. The [left hand’s] thumb is two to three inches from
your forehead’s [left] side. The arm makes the shape of a half moon [crescent
shape].
Gaze upon the tip of the sword. The waist presses {relaxes and sinks with
intent} downward {as if into a single pivotal point from which one is able to
quickly turn as in zhuanfeng fa (turning wind methods ~ revolving body palm
methods practiced in baguazhang)}. The hip joints contract inward {this is
the method of drawing the legs closer together while softening the hips and
loins so as to unify the position of the body’s internal stability and central
equilibrium}. One’s head props upward, as previously the shoulders drape
{downward and forward as if to roll}. It is when one’s right hand, which is
Great Yin, sweeps leftward, that the shoulders must become loose and open
{thus enabling the sweeping momentum to become fully resolute}.
Within the region of one’s abdomen {the area that houses the tan-t’ien}
softness and vacuity [emptiness] must be sensed. To draw within one’s
embryonic center and settle qi into the Great Void [to unite with the Cosmos]
is attained through the actions of kai (to open) and he’r (to unite).
Upon completing the movement it [your posture] should appear to be like
that in the photograph. Students must profoundly comprehend this form
{through practice and studying the insights provided}.
A NNOTATIONS FROM M ADAM S UN J IAN -Y UN ON THE I NTERNAL P RACTICES :

掃地Sao Di (Sweep the Ground) in ancient days referred to leaving no
footprints [to conceal one’s intent]. To yincang (conceal) is known as gai (to
cover), as if placing a heavy lid upon a kettle. Gai represents the hidden
embryonic respiration manifested through baguazhang’s external movement.
Hence, the inhalation of qi, though concealed, is dependant upon external
[observable] movement of the sword’s path followed by one’s whole body in
movement. No part [of the body] must remain separate from the whole of any
single movement.
At the feet of the Ba Xian (Eight Immortals) is the gen (root) of sustained
life, that being the Ling Chih (Herb of Immortality). To practice bufa
(stepping [stance] methods) is to practice the root by which longevity is
attained. This practice is referred to as Ling Chih Bu (Immortality Herb
Stepping [Stances]). This herb is eaten by the Immortal Deer; it’s antlers
turning rearward after fifteen hundred years of life, a sign of longevity.
‘Searching for Root’ is the search for Longevity.
Immortality is pursued through the mixing of qi and blood within one’s
根gen (root) of the body. The root of a dilong (ground dragon [snake]) is its
belly, that which touches upon the Earth to find union with yin qi. The belly
[the bottom-most part] of a creature that moves upon the Earth is like that of
the belly [feet] of man.
搜根Sou gen (searching [for one’s] root) is also that which returns to the
origin within the body where yin qi and yang qi surge forth to create one’s
corporeal form. 搜Sou (to search) is the practice of concentrating liang qi (the
two qi [the yin and yang]) within the embryonic breath of the tan-t’ien.
This is ‘searching for and returning to the root [source]’ from which one’s
life is nourished, further cultivated through the practice of stillness in
movement.

乾卦C H ’ IEN KUA IS THE SYMBOL OF STRENGTH [ WITHIN SUCH STRENGTH LIES
vigor and the intensity of movement that is controlled and harnessed by the
mind’s intent].
乾Ch’ien represents what is great and originating, penetrating,
advantageous, correct and firm [intentions of the mind that provide the source
from which movement finds its initiated state of being].

Sweep [brush] the yin of the Earth, while pressing upward upon the yang
of Heaven. To sweep while pushing downward causes yang in opposition to
rise; to push upward upon Heaven causes in opposition yin to descend. In this
sword method one’s intent must be held within the Lower Heaven; it is there
that yin and yang converge toward transmutation into what Master Guo Yun-
Shen termed ‘Jade Immortality’ [the preservation and flourishing of one’s life
essence].

White Ape Upholds [Supports] Peach
白猿托桃 Bai Yuan Tuo Tao
Sun in Bai Yuan Tuo Tao

I NSTRUCTIONS A CCORDING TO S UN L U -T’ ANG :
4. 乾卦劍Q IAN G UA S WORD ~ W HITE A PE U PHOLDS [S UPPORTS ] P EACH

Next, one’s right hand [which is] Great Yang, moves frontally and turns
rightward. It [the right hand and sword] continuously extend {stretch forth to
sense and explore}, pull {as if to drag inward an opponent’s weapon that
finds attachment to my sword}, and turns {the sword turning into a high
position then, turning involves the entire body, sword, and spirit churning
within the circle, the path one must follow [the Tao]}. Extending {stretching
forth} is like that of the shape of a crescent moon. One’s hand, [moving]
from Great Yang, wraps inward.
One’s sword, from such wrapping, changes into Old Yang, the edges [of
the sword’s blade] facing upward {toward Heaven} and downward {toward
Earth}. The [right] hand is [held] level with one’s mouth. The tip of the
sword and the elbow of one’s right arm create one side of a triangular shape.
One’s [right] arm is like that of the shape of a half moon. As the sword turns,
{in unison} the waist follows and one’s hips twist and turn rightward. The
hip joint of one’s right leg draws inward to full capacity. One’s inner focus
[intent] is attaining roundness within the joints of the hips so that no
angularity exists. This concept resembles a crescent moon shape.
Gaze upon the tip of the sword. As the sword moves, one’s left hand,
which is Great Yin, in unison stretches forth [outward], overturning from
one’s head. The [left] hand moreover reaches upward {while the arm retains
its curvature. From the tip of one hand, through the body, to the tip of the
other hand, the arms curve to resemble a crescent moon, thereby embracing
roundness is achieved}. Reaching [with the left hand] goes forth as far as
possible {while curvature of the arm is retained}. The [left] hand overturns,
changing to Old Yin. The tiger’s mouth [of the left hand] and the tip of the
sword point in the same direction.
One’s left forearm is within one or two inches from your left ear. As the
sword moves and turns, in unison, one’s right foot obliquely steps forwards.
As the [right] foot {searches and softly} descends upon the Earth [ground]
the shape it creates [resembles when placed near the left foot] is a
quadrilateral [a four-sided figure, with the opposite sides being parallel and
the opposite corners being equal in degree]. The height of one’s body adjusts
to the [needs] of the practitioner {adjusting to upper, middle or lower basin
practice, and to the needs in combative application}. Generally, as one steps
[with the forwards foot] the back [rear] foot does not move, one’s internal
[shifting of] weight enables the space between the feet to be suitably placed.
According to this section [of the book], the shape [posture] should appear
to be like that in the photograph. As the form [shape like in the photo] is set,
walk the circle in a clockwise direction. The number of times when turning
[changing directions] in the circle can be numerous or a slight number
{depending upon one’s intent toward health, bolstering of one’s qi or martial
development, or following the path toward primordial ascension of the spirit,
all were practiced by my father within the pre-Heaven circle}.
The contents of 乾卦劍Qian Gua Sword are separated into four sections.
The postures [shown in the photographs] are fixed [not moving], yet the
concept is for them not to remain fixed [in position]. {Movements must
remain flowing, without a dead spot [a halted movement]}. In practice, all
[movements] must be linked {all must be adjoined in a continuously moving
wave in which the end of one posture and the beginning of its linked posture
cannot be seen; such subtleness is one of many skills to place one’s attention
upon}. 乾卦Qian Gua is not unique in this way, all 卦gua [the remaining
seven] follow such changes {linking and continuously moving to and fro,
embracing and unifying one’s jing (essence), qi (energy of the Great Void),
shen (spirit)}.
A NNOTATIONS FROM M ADAM S UN ON THE I NTERNAL P RACTICES :

白猿Bai Yuan (White Ape), in reverence to Heaven’s deities, offers the
Peach of Immortality. The practice of this posture harmonizes qi and blood,
transforming the sinews and tendons to move outward as one. To move and
stretch outward is the essence of kai jin (opening force [energy]). As kai jin
expresses outward, he’r jin (unifying force [energy]) draws inward.
白猿式Bai Yuan Shi (White Ape Posture) teaches one to walk the bagua
circle with true rounded shape, this being ‘roundness within roundness.’
Rounded shape is the method of rounding the back and shoulders, enabling
nei qi (internal energy) to settle within all caverns of one’s body. Kai jin is
expressed through the palms and finger tips while he’r jin transforms into
bao jin (embracing force [energy]), held within the elbows. As the elbows
embrace inward, the hands [palms and fingertips] express outward. Together,
these actions produce yang qi to rejuvenate both the pre and post essences
through which one’s sword becomes the ‘Peach of Immortality.’
Master Cheng T’ing-Hua taught that 托tuo (to support) the sword [to
uphold the handle] is like upholding the Peach of Immortality while ning yao
li (twisting waist strength) is practiced during walking the bagua circle,
mimicking the circularity of the Cosmos, ingesting Heaven’s life-breath into
one’s body.
Peach within the Cosmos; yin within yang; embryonic respiration within
the Great Void; all are but the same within the Tao.

Reference Source: ‘The Text of Yi-King [I-Jing] & Its Appendices
(Chinese Original, With English Translation)” by Prof. Z.D. Sung, published
in October of 1935, Shanghai, China.
乾卦C H ’ IEN KUA SUGGESTS THE IDEA OF H EAVEN ; OF A CIRCLE ; OF A RULER ;

of a father; of jade; of metal [gold]; of ice [contraction]; of deep red; of a
good horse; of an old horse; of a thin horse; and of the fruit of trees.
The method of 乾Ch’ien is to change and transform, so that all things
obtain their correct nature as appointed (by the mind of Heaven); and
(thereafter the conditions of) great harmony are preserved in union. The result
is ‘what is advantageous, and correct and firm.’

Each posture, each set of movements is composed of the dragon’s head,
body, and tail. This sword method comes last within the first set, and is
therefore regarded as the dragon’s tail. The tail of a dragon corrects its
balance, returning the body’s motion and force to the Central Pivot from
which it sprang forth.
The first sword movement is regarded as the head of the dragon, peering
into and searching forth, sensing all that is to be encountered. The dragon’s
body is composed of all postures and movement that follow the head. The
body contains power and qi, the axis from which the shape of movement

forms, in turn unifying to beckon to the demands of one’s mind-intent. The
tail, being the final posture [movement], protects the head and body; it is that
which returns to and unites with the original movement [referring to the first
movement of the set]. All unify with the ‘Nine Pivotal Pearls’ [the nine major
joints of the body] to elicit unified movement and qi like that of pearls strung
together, elegantly cascading without separation.
In long postural forms, like my father’s taijiquan, the head of the dragon
is composed of many postures, the majority of postures being its body, while
the tail follows with an auspicious number of postures. Within each section
are skill-sets to which one must attend. All movements, all sections are as if
rolling a ball [the Cosmos] that expands and contracts from one action into
another. This is the formless circularity of Heaven being drawn back into the
movement of man. This knowledge comes from masters Cheng T’ing-Hua
and Guo Yun-Shen, who both taught and passed on the secrets of their arts to
their students.

19
SHI ZHEN JIAN XING FA
TEN TRUE [C ORREC T ] SWORD SHAPE METHO
Lecture by Madam Sun Jian-Yun

Grandmaster Sun Lu-T’ang

General Li Jin-Ling
M Y FATHER [S UN F U -Q UAN (S UN L U -T’ ANG )] LEARNED PROFOUND BAGUA

sword skills from both Master Cheng T’ing-Hua and from Liu Bin, Master
Cheng’s devoted student. Bagua sword movements are without end
[innumerable] yet, as Master Cheng taught, there are the Shi Zhen Jian Xing
Fa (Ten True Sword Shape Methods) that govern all bagua sword
movements taught by Grandmaster Tung Hai-Chuan.
Many students asked my father why are there ten sword methods of
practice? He said that Master Cheng explained that Grandmaster Tung
followed the Tao and was an enlightened scholar of the Yi-Jing (Classic of
Changes), and many classic cannons of Taoist origin. Grandmaster Tung’s
Taoist masters taught that the yin and yang, combined with the bagua (eight
gua [tri-grams]) unite to total ten, the shi zhen (ten true) methods of immortal
sword practice.
The ten sword methods produce ten unique skills. Each method must be
paired with a separate hand method to attain zhen jian (true sword) skills.
Such is like that of the yin essence being paired with, and supported by, the
yang essence. One finds its creation and purpose [function] within the other.
One’s arm, according to Liu Bin, has two sections: that which is below
the elbow, and that which is above the elbow. These two sections are like the
yin and yang. My father taught that such pairings are like the yin-yang, and
apply to sword methods. From the sword’s hand guard to the sword’s tip
[point] is like that of the elbow to the tip of the middle finger; from the
sword’s hand guard to the tip of the handle’s end is like that of the elbow to
the furthermost tip of one’s shoulder. This represents duality and the
harmonious mutual support that yin must provide yang, and yang must
provide yin.
The great sword master General Li Jin-Ling, taught these same sword
methods, with few differences, to my father and many other martial experts,
explaining that such had come from the practices of the Ba Xian (Eight
Immortals) who had passed their ways on to those who sought their secrets
upon the mountainous region of Wu-T’ang.
Huang Yuan-Xiu (right), student of General Li Jin-Ling (Fangchen), demonstrating

Wu-T’ang Sword (circa 1930). Chu Gui-Ting (left) was Huang’s senior student.

The Shi San Wu-T’ang Jian Fa (Thirteen Wu-T’ang Sword Methods)
practiced and taught by Li Jin-Ling are:
Chou ~ to draw. This is to draw something out or to draw from. It is

like drawing a snake from its lair, then dragging it out completely.
Chou is applied from above or below.
Dai ~ to lead. This is as if leading troops. This means that the sword
controls the adversary’s sword or weapon, leading it where I
command.
T’i ~ to carry or lift. This is as if one’s sword is a pole upon which a
string of fish is hanging. The pole must be propped [carried] upon
one’s shoulder while lifting and bearing the load. This method is
applied from the front or rear positions.
Ge ~ to block or obstruct. This method is the easiest for most to
comprehend; it is stopping an attack, obstructing its advancement.
Applying this method is best coming from below while moving
upwards, and when applying fan (overturning).
Ji ~ to strike or hit. This is the action of shoving the sword so that
the tip can penetrate through the adversary’s defense. Ji is generally
applied forwards, and when countering with fan (overturning).
Ci ~ to stab or pierce. This is piercing through an attack or defense,
thwarting it in a manner that enables the sword to stab forth.
Stabbing [piercing] is primarily done so by using vertical stabbing
and level [horizontal] stabbing.
Dian ~ dotting. This is the method by which one’s sword lightly
dots along a path, like a dragonfly skimming the water. Dian is the
unification of jie (interception) and peng (warding-off), producing a
force that neutralizes in any direction.
Beng ~ to collapse, to burst. Beng is a method by which to ‘flick’
straight upwards with bursting force or ‘flick’ downwards with
collapsing force. Downwards is heavy like a mountain collapsing;
upwards is like a huashan (fire mountain [volcano]) exploding.
P’i ~ splitting, chopping. This method contains five directions, and
is most well understood by those who have studied xingyiquan.
Jie ~ to intercept. There are four traditional methods of applying jie:
level [horizontal] interception, leftward interception, rightward
interception, and fan (overturning) interception.
Jiao (Chiao) ~ to stir. This is the method in which one’s sword
moves in a circular path as if stirring clouds. Though jiao can be
applied in any direction, it is commonly used horizontally and
obliquely.
Ya ~ to press [to press downwardly]. Ya is the skill of touching
upon the adversary’s weapon and pressing down upon it, holding it
in a position of control like earth piled upon a log.
Xi ~ to clear [clear away]. Xi is the sword’s action of moving like
water, clearing away that which obstructs my path.
C OMMON SWORD METHODS TAUGHT WITHIN MANY CLANS FOLLOW BUT A

single skill to be used within a sword maneuver. This is like the method bian
(to slice) being applied without support from a hand method. This is like yin
essence having no support from yang essence. Such cannot be a zhen fa (true
method). A true sword pairing is like t’iao (a raising-flick) with the sword’s
tip while supported with one of the ba gong fa (eight development methods),
such as using t’ui (to push) with the palm that embraces and upholds the
sword’s handle. These are the true skill methods that have been taught since
Grandmaster Tung’s time.
The Shi Zhen Jian Xing (Ten True Sword Shapes), are methods to
develop precise movements, passed down to Master Cheng from
Grandmaster Tung. These are:
T’iao jian fa ~ Raising [into a flick] sword method.

Tuo jian fa ~ Upholding sword method.
Mo jian fa ~ Rubbing [Wiping] sword method.
Gua jian fa ~ Hanging sword method.
Bian jian fa ~ Slicing sword method.
Sou jian fa ~ Searching sword method.
Bi jian fa ~ Closing sword method.
Sao jian fa ~ Sweeping sword method.
Shun jian fa ~ Flowing [to follow and comply with] sword method.

Jie jian fa ~ Intercepting sword method.
M ASTER C HENG T’ ING -H UA TAUGHT L IU B IN THAT EACH OF THE SHI ZHEN

jian xing is to be paired with one of the ba xing gong fa (eight shapes
development methods), creating numerous possible pairings, generally
applied to fighting skills. These eight are:
*N OTE : T HE WORD XING MEANS THE SHAPE OR FORM OF AN OBJECT OR THING .

Bagua master, Liu Xing-Han taught that as a person seeks to acquire skill in
applying lan (to deflect [block]) you must form [shape] the body into a
posture [an action] that enables this skill to develop. The feeling of, and
primal sensation to, apply a xing to an opponent’s action is part of zhen xing
fa (true [correct] shape methods) that transcend the physical.
Lan xing gong fa – Deflecting [blocking] shape development

method. Lan (to deflect) means that this action is composed of
blocking while holding back an attack, so that a counter can be
quickly ensued.
Ban xing gong fa – Parrying [removing] shape development
method. Ban means that something must be obstructed or blocked
from advancing then, moved away to another place. Such ‘removal’
of the adversary’s attack enables me to penetrate his defense.
Jie xing gong fa – Intercepting shape development method. Jie (to
intercept), is beyond a physical action, it is sensing with one’s spirit
the intended action of the adversary. It is the interception of both
the adversary’s intent and physical action during an attack or
retreat.
Kou xing gong fa – Arresting shape development method. Kou
refers to ‘buttoning-up’ the action of the adversary. That is, the
adversary’s advancement must be halted [arrested] in such a
manner that allows for his capture through a forthcoming method.
T’ui xing gong fa – Pushing shape development method. T’ui (to
push), is a method produced through a body-wave, like that of the
flowing movement of a whip. Zhi t’ui (a straight push) does not
exist. That is, t’ui is the end result of yuanxing (circular), fan
(overturning), and ruan (coiling) movement of one’s body.
T’uo xing gong fa – Upholding [holding up] shape development
method. T’uo [to uphold], is a method by which an object is
supported. A heavy bronze vase placed upon one’s palm then,
pushed toward Heaven is the action of supporting the vase, holding
it up, and not allowing it to become imbalanced nor fall any of the
eight directions, is the meaning of t’uo.
Xie xing gong fa – Carrying shape development method. Xie (to
carry [carry along]), an old meaning, is not commonly understood
outside of traditional boxing clans. To carry along embraces the
action na (grasping [holding onto]). One must hold onto the
adversary then, carry him along as if he were a beggar’s rucksack
about to be thrown.
T’ai xing gong fa – Lifting shape development method. T’ai (to
lift), embraces both t’uo (to uphold) and xie (to carry [carry along]).
T’ai seeks to imbalance the adversary into an inclined position by
which the ease of lifting can be employed. Rooting produces lifting,
lifting transforms into lightness, and lightness transforms into
nimbleness [agility].
T ’ A I ( LIFTING ), LIKE EACH OF THE OTHER SEVEN SHAPE - SKILLS POSSESS

elements of one another. In pairing them one is dominate as the commander,
while the other acts as its lieutenant to provide support. No matter the number
of shape-skills that unite to produce zhen (true) skill, they each unite as if
troops that follow the orders of their general. This method of skill
development must never be overlooked.
These skills were also passed on to Cheng You-Long and Cheng You-
Xin, Master Cheng T’ing-Hua’s eldest son and second son, respectively, by
their father and other relatives in the Cheng clan. My father [Sun Lu-T’ang]
had known both sons for many years, and following Master Cheng T’ing-
Hua’s death in 1900, my father continued to learn further practices into
bagua sword and long knife methods from Cheng You-Long and his uncle,
Cheng Dian-Hua. As Cheng You-Xin became more proficient over the years
under the instruction of his elder brother and Cheng Dian-Hua, my father, to

show deep respect for their father [Cheng T’ing-Hua], taught his deepest
knowledge of xingyiquan to Cheng You-Xin, who also learned xingyiquan
from Li Cun-I.
Through time You-Xin became close to my father. Together they often
traveled to the Cheng Village where both taught their skills to the younger
generation. It was there that my father saw Cheng Dian-Hua demonstrate
exceptional skill using deer-horn knives, their secrets being passed on to
Cheng You-Xin who became equally exceptional. He shared these methods
with my father.
In turn, my father treated many of the elderly in the village with his
knowledge of traditional medical practices and qigong healing methods. Few
people realize, as my father said, that the Cheng clan possesses great
knowledge into Taoist meditation and qigong practices that were directly
handed down from Grandmaster Tung to Master Cheng T’ing-Hua. Such
practices in their village were shared only with Cheng family members, their
disciples, my father and Liu Bin.

Cheng You-Xin (1891- early 1960s) posing with his Bagua Da Dao
(Bagua Big Knife). A standard size sword is shown as a comparison for
the large blade size of Cheng’s bagua knife.

20
A LECTURE ON INTERNAL SWORD PRACTICES
A L ECTURE ON I NTERNAL S WORD P RACTICES

Presented by Madam Sun Jian-Yun in 1987 to our class in Beijing, based
upon the teachings of her father [Master Sun Lu-T’ang.
Chen Wei-Ming, among Sun Lu-T’ang’s most famous students,

demonstrates Yang family taiji sword. Chen, after becoming Master
Yang Cheng-Fu’s disciple, taught in Shanghai in the 1930s for Master
Yang, while also teaching Master Sun’s sword practices to a small
group of indoor disciples.
Most of those who practice sword arts learn only rudimentary martial
skills. Master Guo Yun-Shen, who taught my father [Sun Lu-T’ang] the
earliest ways of xingyi sword, explained that should one have merely martial
competency in the sword arts this is yi zhi ban jie (to possess superficial
knowledge). Xue wu zhi jing (learning has no end), therefore martial skill is
but one step upon the path to be walked toward sword competency.
Qi nurtures within one’s abode [the corporeal body]. Each breath, each
intent, unify within the cauldron [the lower tan-t’ien]. One’s sword stirs
Heaven [the sword moves among yang qi]; one’s intent is embraced below
[within the lower tan-t’ien]; one’s feet adjoin with the Earth’s essence [the
yin qi]. Master Guo said that such teachings are easily comprehended. Yin qi
surges upward through the gates of the feet, rising to merge with the yang qi
of the sword that stirs above.
Beyond martial sword skill, lies that of the mysterious realm of
transformative essence. This is the essence from the Mother [the Cosmos]
that moves the sword, drawing one’s spirit closer toward the abode of the
Tao. Movement of the sword is the Great Determiner in moving among the
realm of the Ba Xian (Eight Immortals). To soften [relax] the ankles enables
yin essence to rise to the wrists; the entryway to the sword. The xia qixing
(lower seven stars [both ankles, both knees, both hip joints, and the waist])
must achieve softness [relaxation], thereby one’s sword becomes the stele of
inexhaustible vitality. Such vitality mirrors within to produce the bolstering
of qi which rushes forth through the entirety of the body to render zheng xing
(correct shape), serving as the foundation for internal cultivation.
The essence of softness must permeate the shoulder to create the
sensation of a deep cavern waiting to be filled. Softness flows next into the
elbow, bringing about a great heaviness of being in that region. Engulfing the
wrist follows, rounding its shape to welcome the essence of softness and qi to
move beyond and into the fingertips and sword. Such essence moves with
one’s t’igao jingjue (heightened vigilance) to evoke a living spirit into the
sword. Rou (softness) and song (relaxation) are the absolute simplicities that,
if attended to, shall enable the sword to move as if by itself.
When this comes to pass, my father said that the practitioner must then
follow the sword, as it shall no longer follow you. This means that the
practitioner must transcend rudimentary sword skill, that being purely
physical, skill that merely involves the wrist and fingers to proficiently
manipulate the sword’s martial actions. To develop the neiqi (internal qi)
shall enliven the sword, touching upon the level of *wuzhen pian (awakening
to reality).
*Note: Here Madam Sun is referring to Wuzhen Pian (Awakening to
Reality [1075 C.E.]), a Taoist text written by Zhang Boduan (983-1082 C.E.).
As a text on internal alchemy cultivation it focuses upon personal fate, one’s
true inner nature, and physical longevity cultivated through inner spiritual
practices. Master Sun Lu-T’ang often taught elements of this text to his
students.
To practice sword while inhaling the vapors [essence] of the sun and
moon [referring to yang and yin qi] perfects the path toward becoming a
shenxian (spirit immortal). This is the path my father and his masters walked.
The Numinous Root of Sword Cultivation

This is Part (2) of the same lecture, presented one week later.
Primordial respiration must be drawn into the gateway of the yin and
yang essences; that being the cauldron [the tan-t’ien] held beneath the navel.
It is there that the numinous source of life transforms the body toward that of
eternal ways of the Immortals. No matter which sword method is practiced its
movement begins in the cauldron of the yin and yang essences and, moving
in a circular fashion, returns to its source. It is by this method that primordial
respiration he’r (unites) with the sword to t’u (expel) turbid qi while drawing
in the refinement of Nature [the purity of qi].
The practice of zheng jian fa (correct [true] sword methods) restores the
rhythm and cultivation of one’s luminous yang and the orbs [concentrated
areas of qi] deep within. Master Cheng T’ing-Hua taught my father that
through holding the sword in one’s hand is to embrace the sensation and
manifestation of hardness. This is not easily understood. This concept
transcends the physical. Inner cultivation of qi, spirit, and the unseen
mysterious forces are manifestations of softness. One’s sword is made of
firmness [metal]. By one’s hand it moves and stirs among the soft vapors [qi]
of the Cosmos. This is why the practice of sword is that of nurturing the hard
and soft, the yang and yin, he’r (uniting) and hua (transforming), bestowing
the practitioner, through time, with the ability to possess the intermingling of
gan-rou jian fa (hard-soft sword methods) in which softness becomes
firmness, and softness becomes firmness while wandering among the essence
of the Tai Xu (the Great Void [the Cosmos]).
These teachings though simple, embrace great complexities, which revert,
once comprehended, to their original simplicity. This is the way of all
neijiaquan, and is the way in which to approach and attain true skills that the
grandmasters have passed on to we who follow in their steps. Do not deviate
from these methods. Collectively they establish *zhongyung (the middle
course), the path of true balance that all seek.
*Note: Zhongyung (the middle course) is a term that Madam Sun said her
father used to explain the concept ~ in seeking true understanding
[comprehension] one must search out the highest of skills and unsurpassed
knowledge. However, in doing so one must make effort to restudy [relearn]
the foundation, the most basic essential practices and principles which form
the roots and very core of zhongyung. In neijiaquan, Madam Sun taught that
zhongyung is of the greatest importance to follow. This term, she said was
borrowed from Confucian teachings by her father, slightly reshaping its
meaning to more aptly suit his teachings of neijiaquan for those who truly
sought the ways of the Immortals.

21
TWO SPECIAL LECTURES
T wo Special Lectures
On the following pages are two lectures that Madam Sun felt would
help students understand the breadth of Sun family boxing practices. As she
frequently said “these [topics] serve to remind students to search beyond the
shadow of physical movement in neijiaquan, and look to those things which
cannot be so easily observed [hidden skills].”
A N E XPLANATION OF L AO Y IN Y UN S HOU (O LD Y IN C LOUD H ANDS )
My father, Sun Lu-T’ang, followed the edicts and ways of the I-Jing
(Classic of Changes). Many said he was a great scholar of this book, yet he
said of himself that he was a mere student of its wondrous ways, only
perceiving its rudiments, thus its simplicity was unearthed.
All postures in quanfa (fistic [boxing] methods) contain the essence of
natural phenomena and spirit of creatures. For example, the movement yun
shou (cloud hands) in our family’s taijiquan embraces two distinct concepts:
first, shui (water); second, xie (crab). When my father told students that shui
and xie conjoin within to become the essence of yun shou, no one could
comprehend his exact meaning. Visible outwardly, yet obscure, are the
methods: p’i zhang (splitting palm) above and beng zhang (crushing palm)
below. These four are to unify as one.

Sun Lu-T’ang demonstrating雲手 Yun Shou (Cloud Hands).
Over the decades very few written references exist concerning the true
practice of yun shou, and even fewer masters pass such teachings on to others
because of secrecy and greed. I want to clearly explain that what my father
taught to me, concerning yun shou, was a means to further understand the
breadth of knowledge held within each movement of taijiquan. This is a
treasure not to be lost, and is but one movement, one treasure, among so
many in neijiaquan (inner family boxing [internal martial arts]).
雲手Yun Shou (Cloud Hands) has also been called Xiang Yun Shou
(Auspicious Cloud Hands) by many old masters. Auspicious clouds represent
the movement of the heavens within which shuixing (the water element)
traverses the skies in the form of clouds and their circular formations. My
father explained that the yue (moon) in known as the Great Envoy from
Heaven, and that the moon is the Great Yin which governs the movement of
the yin waves of Nature upon the Earth. These waves, in earthly form, are the
cold condensation of moisture [dew], which contains the true essence of
shuixing (the water element). Such earthly wave manifestation, embrace the
spiritual essence of water’s celestial transformation among the wuxing (five
elements [phases]).
Water, according to ancient writings on the wuxing, is referred to as Lao
Yin (Old Yin). It is the element, a force within Nature that directs qi to move
deeply within [associated with the concept of relaxed sinking and rooting],
sinking deeper than what is sensed as relaxing into a posture, entering into
the sensation of melting. ‘Melting’ into a posture is a very special practice,
the practice of which I will teach another time.
Shuixing (the water element) draws downward like a waterfall, yet its
current flows onward from the fall’s edge to a river and onward to a great
ocean. Therefore, shuixing, as one of the five forces in combat, is applied to
fighting principles, teaching the spirit and methods of drawing downward to
control the adversary, flowing from one movement into another while
generating increased power. This is likened to a raging river colliding with
rocks along the path of rapids. This is one manner in which Master Cheng
T’ing-Hua taught baguazhang to my father.
The term Lao Yin Zhang (Old Yin Palm) was common in those days, but
very few practitioners truly understood that lao yin [referring to water] was
actually the embodiment of profound knowledge of the body’s immortality. I
will explain this. The kidney’s qi and essence manifest outward into the
bones over which it rules, though more precisely into the living water within
the marrow, over which the kidneys and spleen rule. This is very important to
understand, in that such knowledge was directly part of the foundation of
how to practice the I-Chin Jing (Tendon Changing Classic) that Master
Cheng taught his students. Though this set of harmonizing exercises is
attributed to the Shaolin monks, the I-Chin Jing taught by Master Cheng was
taught to him by Grandmaster Tung Hai-Chuan, who entwined Taoist
immortal skills with the physical and spiritual practices of baguazhang.
I remember that my father said that Master Cheng had seen Grandmaster
Tung slowly practicing a long set of movements, like water cascading down
an embankment. This set was taught to only some of Tung’s students, among
which were Cheng T’ing-Hua, Yin Fu, Wang Li-De, and several others. It
was Master Cheng who taught many sections of the set to my father. My
father placed many of these movements and concepts, which greatly
emphasize the skills of Covering and Piercing, within the numerous boxing
sets taught within our family’s system. These skills are well hidden in skill-
sets and are taught as advanced studies.
Now that I have introduced the study of shui (water) as applied to yun
shou (cloud hands), I shall now speak of xie (crab). Xie (crab) and xie
(harmony) have the same pronunciation. Therefore, as one steps sideward
like a crab while practicing yunshou, xie (harmony) of movement and spirit
must be sought.
My father would often recite to his students the words T’ian Xia T’ai
P’ing (Heaven Below, Great Peace) as they would practice yun shou.
Physical practice of this exercise, as in all postures and movements, is not of
foremost importance, it is spiritual essence. Such attainment transcends
earthly and heavenly teachings; such embarks into bagua’s depths of
touching upon the origin of P’an-Ku [the original being born of the Cosmos,
according to Chinese cosmological history].
Master Tung spoke of P’an-Ku, saying that his body formed into the
mountains of the world, his hair formed into all plant life, his blood flowed
forth to become the rivers and oceans, and his qi [life breath] became the life
giving winds of the world. To practice baguazhang is therefore touching
upon the cosmic embryonic egg from which P’an-Ku was formed and born.
This is according to Master Tung, and how baguazhang’s most spiritual
teachings had been passed down to his closest students.
Lao Yin Yun Shou (Old Yin Cloud Hands) is a practice not secular to
taijiquan, as many might think, it is likewise contained within baguazhang
and xingyiquan, though more elusive to the sight of novices.

P’an Ku with his chisel and mallet, forming the Cosmos.
Note: One of Fu Zhong-Wen’s students provided this copy of an old

rendering of P’an-Ku hammering with his chisel to form the heavens. Master
Yang Cheng-Fu explained to Fu that taijiquan’s posture “Elbow’s Bottom
Watches Hammer” was patterned after P’an-Ku’s position, as a tribute. The
Dipper (the Seven Stars), dragon, phoenix, tortoise, and T’ai-Yang (the Sun)
are present to show heavenly presence and eternity to that which P’an Ku
Creates.

M OVING Q I A MONG T HREE P OINTS & T HE S KILL OF N URTURING THE S MALL
I N 1988, M ADAM S UN GAVE A LECTURE TO US FOLLOWING AN EVENING CLASS

on xingyiquan. This lecture was based upon teachings that she received from
her father [Sun Lu-T’ang]. I had asked her who taught Master Sun the qigong
method of Moving Qi Among Three Points? She replied that her father had
learned this from Master Guo Yun-Shen, who learned it from a monk on
Ermei Mountain. Master Sun taught this method first to most of his devoted
students, among them being Jue Hau. The method was one of many that
Master Sun felt was essential for powerful qi development to be implemented
throughout his meditation and internal boxing routines. Therefore, I would
like to present, in full, the lecture that Madam Sun graciously passed on to
the next generation.
________________________________________

Madam Sun Jian-Yun (1913-2003).
My father was devoted to the study and practice of xingyiquan,

baguazhang, and taijiquan. Within these arts he explored qigong that
enhanced, replenished, and purified the qi of both his body and that which
surrounded him. Most people only imagine my father as a master with fast
movement, powerful strikes, and boxing skills rare to attain. What is not
often known is that he applied himself daily to seated practices as much as he
did those in an upright posture. Movement and non-movement seek mutual
balance.
However, he said that this is not always to be attained on the same day.
Some days he taught students to move more and sit less, other days seated
practices were emphasized, and that same night, baguazhang or taijiquan
would be practiced only a short while. The daily routine must never be
constant; it is changing in accord with nature. On days when the sun is hot,
my practice must be quiet and calm. When strong winds arrive, I must protect
my body by sitting and protecting my qi. When the qi is very active in
Nature, I move vigorously in accord with its spirit. The spirit of each day and
each night must be sensed, embraced, and gently tempered within. This is
how my father taught his students. Seated practices were very dear to him.
Madam Sun teaching a Xingyiquan class.
The method that I feel important to teach all of you this evening is
‘Moving Qi Among Three Points.’ My father said that this is a very old
practice that had spread through some parts of China, and regarded most
favorably by xingyiquan and baguazhang practitioners. It has also become a
necessary practice for those who practice the deeper sections of our family’s
taijiquan. The qigong hand position that we shall use is found in xingyiquan’s
posture Hu Xing (Tiger Shape) and in taijiquan’s Kai-H’er (Open-Unite)
posture.
Sun Lu-T’ang demonstrating Tiger shape posture in Xingyiquan
I must first speak on some things that my father felt important. True skill
emanates from one’s spirit. To cultivate the spirit means that one cannot
merely decide to cultivate all aspects of one’s spirit. According to my father
this is as if a student practices an entire taijiquan and baguazhang form
before understanding the rudiments of even a single posture. This is being xia
er (far and near) at the same moment.
It is therefore essential that ‘nurturing the small’ be followed. This
concept is manifested and endeavored upon by rencai (a person of talent).
That is, our most revered qianren (predecessors [forefathers]) had found that
manners are the foundation for the spirit to begin ascension. Many shall
dismiss this before contemplating this single piece of rice [a simple thought].
Manners become a method of nurturing the small to gaze upon Heaven.
My father was taught by his teacher, Guo Yun-Shen, how to properly sit,

properly eat, properly walk, and how to properly use kuaitze (chopsticks).
Master Guo taught that to practice, and display, smooth flowing movement
and true manners nurture the core of one’s spirit. Holding eating implements
[chopsticks] skillfully and demonstrating polite poise, manifests throughout
the spirit, springing forth in all martial practices and all duan (sections) of
one’s life. To pursue the highest realm of existence begins with stillness of
spirit within or the mere simplicity of holding and eating with sticks
[chopsticks]. This is why my father initially taught the latter to his students,
being easier to comprehend and practice than stillness. Both, however,
embrace ‘nurturing the small.’
‘Nurturing the small’ within any boxing posture is a t’ai mi (great secret)
that Master Cheng T’ing-Hua often emphasized to his disciples. Each palm
method is governed by a principle that teaches a hidden skill that, once
assiduously practiced, shall emerge and flourish. However, pursue and follow
a hidden skill to the source [the Tao] from which it sprang and you shall find
one’s spirit. This is ‘returning to the source within.’ Within the source one
must now seek stillness. This is ‘nurturing the small.’ My father said that
Master Cheng taught palm methods in a most unique way according to this
approach.
Because Master Cheng knew of my father’s skillfulness in xingyiquan he
said that his xingyi methods and knowledge must be drawn into the richness
of baguazhang. Bagua, unlike xingyi, uses many shuai-chiao (a northern
throwing art) methods in which my father was not well versed. Master
Cheng, according to my father, could use any palm method to lead an
opponent into a throw. The throw was initiated and completed while he
walked a circle. This was a unique method taught to Master Cheng by his
teacher, Grandmaster Tung Hai-Chuan. My father also acquired such
knowledge from Master Cheng, teaching these same throwing methods
within each of the eight animals in our [Sun family] baguazhang.
Master Cheng spoke to my father before beginning studies [taking Sun as
a student] and said that the special xingyiquan skills and body movement
methods that my father learned from Master Guo should be embraced within
baguazhang movement. This is why, when boxing experts carefully observed
my father perform baguazhang, they would exclaim how wonderful to see
the straightness and angular actions of xingyiquan within the circularity and
rounded movement of baguazhang.
To practice xingyiquan’s many essences hidden deeply within
baguazhang framework was, as my father said, another method of ‘nurturing
the small.’ By nurturing the essences of xingyiquan within a palm method
that Master Cheng taught transformed these boxing methods into an art which
truly amazed my father. He found his skills ascended and changed. These
changes were constant and progressive. So, my father often referred to his
personal boxing art as Bienquan (Changing Fist [Boxing]).
Master Cheng taught that because my father was use to holding
xingyiquan postures to nurture qi, he wanted my father to do the same with
bagauzhang postures. These two boxing styles would thereby unite; my
father’s transition without obstruction. Though flowing circular methods
were also practiced by my father in xingyiquan, he passionately followed
Master Cheng’s methods of circularity, further entwining these two arts
within my father’s spirit.
Sun Lu-T’ang demonstrating the三體式San-t’i posture.

During the three years that my father studied with Master Cheng his
quanfa (fistic [boxing] methods) became unique. Master Cheng said that his
classmate, Yin Fu, combined his knowledge of Shaolin boxing with
baguazhang, and that my father had artfully combined xingyiquan with
baguazhang. Master Cheng mentioned to many people that his student, Sun,
now practiced xingyibaguazhang, perhaps a new boxing art. But out of
mutual devotion and respect to Master Cheng and Master Guo my father kept
these two arts somewhat separate when teaching his own students. In
teaching his disciples my father taught that which he most dearly loved, the
skills transmitted to him by Master Cheng. I will lecture on Master Cheng’s
methods next month.
Another skill my father furthered under Master Cheng was dianxue
(point-blood [dim-mak]) striking secrets. Many books were written about my
father, describing him as possessing super human abilities such as flying,
running through solid stone walls, collapsing a cannon with a single strike,
killing twenty bandits with a single finger, and many more feats. My father,
although possessing very high skills, was not an immortal being with abilities
beyond human comprehension or attainment. His skills were developed by
daily practice, and through the guidance of his teachers. Each of us, if
practicing correct, pure methods, can attain skills which are limitless in
breadth. This is important for all of us to know that ‘developed skill’ is a
human path. It is a proper and necessary path that begins with ‘nurturing the
small.” His dianxue was among his accomplished studies. My father chose to
teach his knowledge of this art to a small number of disciples and to family
members.
Wang Bi-An and Jue Hau were two of my father’s disciples who learned
dianxue from him. Wang Bi-An had several names, as did my father, so I am
not sure what name he was usually known by in class, and thereafter. Jue Hau
kept his name. I knew him and we often had talks about my father’s teachings
and travels. He regrettably passed in the early 1960’s. His family told me that
he had been teaching in Hong Kong, then Taiwan. Jue Hau was sometimes
known as “Hidden Hands Jue” and “Shadowless Jue.” Both students learned
the same methods of dianxue from my father, methods that came from Master
Guo Yun-Shen and Master Cheng T’ing-Hua.
The method that I will now teach brings forth qi to gather in an area
beyond one’s body by concentrating [summoning] one’s mind-will. Where
pure mind-will is directed, qi shall arrive. Sitting or standing, the method
remains exact and unchanged.
Madam Sun Jian-Yun demonstrating the qigong method‘Moving Qi

Among Three Points,’ also known as the 開合手式 Kai-He’r Shou Shi
(Open-Unite Hands Posture) from Sun taijiquan.
Both hands assume the posture and hand formation similar to that of the
Kai-He’r posture in our family’s taijiquan. The hands round slightly; the
mind-will leads qi from the tan-t’ien to the center of both palms. Inhale and
draw the qi back to the tan-t’ien; exhale and the qi moves and resides in the
palms. This process must be practiced several minutes as a preparatory
method to pulsate qi to and fro. By practicing this traditional qigong method
qi is now substantially gathered and excited, ready to move beyond one’s
body. This method can also be performed while seated.
Next, concentrate upon a single point directly in front of the two palm
centers, thereby creating a triangular shape that is equilateral. These three
points form the inner realm of a circle which is to be filled with qi. The mind-
will stirs the elixir [qi] in the tan-t’ien through several concentrated breaths.
Upon an exhale the mind-will directs the qi into the palms; continuing the
exhale, move the qi beyond the palms and into the center of the circle. Once
the qi reaches the center it quickly expands and presses upon the ‘three
points’ which holdback [contain] the qi [the qi must not move beyond the
circle].
With each subsequent breath the qi gathers within the circle and density is
sensed. Such density gives birth to heaviness of qi or lightness of qi. In this
method we must achieve the sensation of heaviness which aims to compact
the directed qi. Inhalation and exhalation continues, the three points seek
expansion, but are restrained [contained]. This respiration process continues
for a period of 5-20 minutes.
Following the final inhale, exhale while lowering your hands and draw
the qi within, embracing and uniting it within the tan-t’ien. The body, mind-
will, and qi are now prepared to practice taijiquan, xingyiquan, baguazhang
or any quanfa (boxing method) chosen. This is also the preparation to
practice striking specific points on the body during specific times.
We must further understand that extending heaviness harmonizes with
embracing lightness. My father explained this as a necessary concept for skill
advancement in both qigong and quanfa. When issuing heaviness of qi
beyond the hands, lightness is thereby created from the wrists, through the
arms and into the chest. We can thus understand that heaviness can only
attain its true essence from the root of lightness. Beyond the hands, a heavy
circle [a ball] of qi forms while the sensation of a circle of lofty [light] qi is
embraced between the arms and chest.
This concept can easily be seen in xingyiquan. To begin, stand and
practice the ‘Three Points Circle.’ After several minutes the three points are
now extended by assuming the san-ti posture in xingyiquan. Though the
shape of the three points circle is somewhat altered, the method of practice
remains unchanged for directing qi from the tan-t’ien into the circular shape
beyond the hands. The spirit of the circle is always present, even though the
shape of the hands or body changes. This is why the spirit of the circle
remains constant in all postures, a hidden skill that my father taught to his
students.
Smooth and constant movement of qi is like that of Zhujiang (Pearl
River). Though the feet and legs are the root, it is the shangshen (upper body)
that is of most importance in this method. The two circles that are
concurrently formed, one heavy, one light, are like two laohu (old tigers)
playing. Their mutual interaction stirs qi within both movement and non-
movement. My father often spoke about moving the two tigers, especially in
taijiquan because he said it is easier to observe the two tigers at play when
moving slowly. To cultivate the tigers one must merely entice these two
creatures to awaken and emerge from the Mysterious Cave [the central pivot
and the ‘Origin’ of all yin-yang interaction].
‘Two Tigers at Play,’ referring to the yin and yang interacting. The
‘Mysterious Cave’ [the Great Origin] is represented as the circle in the
center.

22
TAOIST SONG [POEM]
Taoist Song [Poem]

by
Chi K’ang (A.D. 223-262)

*I WILL CAST OUT W ISDOM AND REJECT LEARNING .
My thoughts shall wander in the Great Void.
Always repenting of wrongs done
Will never, bring my heart to rest.
I cast my hook in a single stream;
But my joy is as though I possess a Kingdom.
I loose my hair and go singing;
To the four frontiers men join in my refrain.
This is the purport of my song:
“My thoughts shall wander in the Great Void.”
*S OURCE : A H UNDRED & S EVENTY C HINESE P OEMS .

Published: May, 1919. Translator: Arthur Waley

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THE INTERNAL PRACTICES OF SUN LU-T’ANG

Taijiquan ~ Baguazhang ~ Xingyiquan ~ Neigong

Neijia Books & Publications

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Neijia Books & Publications, LLC.

Find more of our publications at:

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Created with Vellum

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My introduction to the practices of Master Sun Lu-T’ang occurred in 1984

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Beloved Dedication to:

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Special Dedication to:

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M adam Sun spoke of Dave Martin as an example of a truly dedicated

Madam Sun Jian-Yun and Dave Martin at her apartment, Beijing,

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Madam Sun Jian-Yun demonstrating Sun style taijiquan’s Single Whip,

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S U -Y ING M ARTIN HAS HAD AN INTEREST IN MARTIAL ARTS FROM A VERY

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A N INSURMOUNTABLE AMOUNT OF WRITINGS ON THE LIFE OF S UN L U -T’ ANG ,

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As a young adult Sun Lu-T’ang (1862-1933), according to Madam Sun

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Outdoor market and view of a southeastern section of Beijing [Peking],

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Public market in southern Beijing, where many of Sun Lu-T’ang’s

I N EARLY SPRING OF 1919, S UN L U -T’ ANG , AT THE REQUEST OF HIS FRIEND

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Example of Chinese artillery detachment at Woosung, that Sun Lu-

D URING HIS YEARS OF MILITARY SERVICE (1919-1924) S UN HAD A STEADY

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In a forthcoming text on Sun Lu-T’ang, I will continue with Sun’s

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T HE FOLLOWING PHOTOS ARE FROM THE ARCHIVE OF W ANG X I -K UI (1894-

These are some of Wang Xi-Kui’s relatives departing a train station in

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Presented here is a lecture that I recorded in Beijing in 1986, as given by

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It is the very essence of each neijia (inner family [internal boxing])

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When I first learned to stand in san-t’i, elder family members each

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My father’s xingyiquan teacher, Master Guo Yun-Shen, taught him a very

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Diagram of the yin region of the body and acupuncture points.

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OLD XINGY IQUAN TEACHINGS OF MASTER GUO Y UN-SHEN

T his is an account of Master Guo Yun-Shen, Sun Lu-T’ang’s foremost

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