The Origins of Yi Quan
Wang Xiang Zhai (1885–1963) founded Yi Quan (意拳) after years of research. As a child, he first trained in Xing Yi Quan under Guo Yun Shen. As an adult, he travelled across China for several years, meeting and testing his practice against masters from many internal schools, before returning with a conviction : the essence lay neither in forms nor in styles, but in something deeper.
Yi Quan thus moves away from fixed sequences (tao lu), passed down and repeated without question, to focus on what matters most : correct posture, intention (yi), a force born from the whole body rather than the limb. Its central exercise, Zhan Zhuang — literally "standing like a post", most often translated as "tree posture" — was already known long before him : a practice related to traditional Qi Gong, present in Xing Yi Quan under the name San Ti Shi. What Wang Xiang Zhai did was make it the heart of his method rather than a mere warm-up. Xing Yi Quan, Bagua Zhang and Tai Chi Chuan form, together with Yi Quan, the family of Chinese internal martial arts.
Depending on the school, it is also called Da Cheng Quan — a name given in 1940 by Wang Xiang Zhai's peers in Beijing, before he himself later returned to the name Yi Quan, out of modesty. In Japan, Kenichi Sawai, who trained mainly under Yao Zong Xun, drew from it to found Taikiken. Each lineage has kept its own reading.
- Wang Xiang Zhai
Founder of Yi Quan - Yao Zong Xun
Disciple of Wang Xiang Zhai, named his successor - Cui Rui Bin
Disciple of Yao Zong Xun - Ilias Calimintzos
Initiated by Yao Zong Xun, then formal disciple of Cui Rui Bin — national technical director, France - Your teacher in Brussels
Student of Ilias Calimintzos for nearly 20 years
- Le Dachengquan — Wang Xuanjie, You Feng, 1992
- L'art du combat du Dachengquan — Wang Xuanjie, You Feng, 1992
- The Way of Power — Lam Kam Chuen, Gaia Books, 1993
- Yiquan and the Nature of Energy — Fong Ha, Summerhouse Publications, 1996
- Le Ki et le sens du combat — Kenji Tokitsu, Désiris, 2000
- Zhan Zhuang: l'Art de Nourrir la Vie — Dr Yu Yong Nian, CIPP, 2015
- The Complete Book of Yiquan — C.S. Tang, Singing Dragon, 2015
- La boxe de l'esprit — Wang Xuan Jié (transl. Christian & Michèle Ribert), Kiwi, Esprit martial series, 2020