"From your five senses to your many bones, your movement is presided over by your stepping. Your step provides the base for your body and the crux for its movement. When fighting with an opponent, it is always the case that you are to use your whole body. But without your step, your body really has nothing to stand on. Adapting according to the situation lies with your hands, but the capacity for your hands to maneuver lies with your stepping.
When advancing or retreating, turning around or to the sides, you will create no opportunity for power generation unless you step. When raising or lowering, expanding or contracting, you will show no ingenuity of adaptation unless you step. We say that operations are in your sight and adaptations are in your mind, and therefore you are to twist and turn in endless variations to stay out of danger, but this cannot happen without the step being in charge. However, it is crucial that you do not try to force this.
The movement begins mindlessly, its motivation arising unconsciously. When your body is about to move, your step [with the front foot] turns outward [to prepare]. When your hand is about to move, your step [with the rear foot] hastens to get ahead of it. This quality will happen in its own time, arriving without your driving it. When we talk of the upper body being about to move and the lower body naturally going along with the movement, this is what is meant.
Stepping divides into front and rear, fixed and unfixed. When the front foot advances and the rear foot follows, they are fixed [i.e. front foot remaining forward, rear foot remaining in the rear]. When the front foot becomes the rear foot or the rear foot becomes the front foot, whether it be because of the front foot becoming the rear foot by way of the rear foot stepping forward, or because of the rear foot becoming the front foot by way of the front foot stepping back, they are unfixed [i.e. front foot and rear foot switching roles].
It is always the case in boxing theory that the crucial thing to grasp is the stepping. Whether you are lively or not is a matter of stepping. Whether you are nimble or not is a matter of stepping. The function of stepping is a huge factor. [The specific theme of stepping now fades from the spotlight. The text from this point on was likely originally intended as part of the 10th section.]
This kind of boxing is called Mind & Intent [Xinyi – an older name for Xingyi]. It is called this because intent is generated by mind and the fist then expresses as dictated by the intent. You should always know both yourself and your opponent, and respond according to the situation. Mind and energy express as one. Your limbs act together. In lifting your foot, there is direction. In lifting your knee, there is degree. In turning around, there is position. Unify your forearms and aim with your hips. The three points are to align with each other. Mind [is united with intent], intent [united with energy], energy [united with power] – these are the three internal unions. Fist is united with foot, elbow united with knee, shoulder united with hip – these are the three external unions. The three centers – palm, sole, solar plexus – are united as a single energy.
Do not shoot your hands out from a distance. When the striking range is between three and five feet, whether going forward or back, left or right, step with each strike in order to strike the opponent with precision and to keep your technique wonderfully invisible to him.
Your hand shoots out fast as wind or an arrow, the sound like thunder or an avalanche. Come and go like a rabbit darting here and there, attacking like a hungry bird entering a crowded coop. When fighting an opponent, be like a huge cannon reducing a wall to rubble. With your joints readied to spring, leap straight in to consume him. Before there is contact, energy should go forth, but once your hands have connected, the ingenuity lies in quick action.
Do not attack just because you notice a gap, look for a way to deflect him aside and then attack. Do not seize the position just because you notice a gap, look for a way to deflect him aside and then seize the position. Above, middle, below, always the energy between them is kept consistent. Body, feet, and hands are bound by discipline. Do not seek to lift and drop meaninglessly.
Proficient skill is entirely a matter of fluency. Be able to both strike and stick, to be both hard and soft, to both advance and retreat.
When not moving, be like a mountain. Be as mysterious as duality, as limitless as the universe, as filled as a warehouse, as vast as the ocean, as dazzling as the sun, moon, and stars. While watching for the moment in which the opponent may attack, estimate his strong points and shortcomings. The superior method is to use stillness to await his movement. The baiting method is to use movement to occupy his stillness. The baiting method is easier and the waiting method more difficult, nevertheless start with the waiting method.
When fighting a courageous opponent, you must not worry about doing anything wrong, for if you do, you will seize up and not be able to do anything right. Lift like an arrow releasing, then drop like the wind. When pressed to frustration, stop his hand and draw it aside. Cloak everything you are doing, then emerge like lightning. Deflect to your sides, guarding both, and when you turn around, it is like a tiger searching a hillside. Swipe aside and strike fiercely, and he will not be able to withstand you. Swipe aside his limbs and go directly forward, and you will seize his center. Striking above or below, move like a tiger. Seem like an eagle descending on chickens in a coop. Having “diverted the river and turned back the sea” [signifying a stupendous achievement], you do not need to be in a rush. Because “the phoenix has landed on the sunny slope” [signifying the arrival of talent], your ability has become potent. When sun and moon go behind clouds, the world is changed. When martial artists clash, inferior and superior become apparent.
Step in this way: between your feet is an inch in width and a foot in length.
When chopping to his face, step forward with your right leg and follow with your left foot. Here is the method of moving forward: when advancing on an opponent, you must advance with your body. When body and hand act in unison, it is right.
There is a trick to issuing, and when you get the idea, it will seem miraculous. A hawk slips through the trees without a touch to its wings. A eagle catches prey without unbalancing its body.
To win, your limbs must act in unison. If you lose, it must be because you brought his aim to your center. Carry out your strategy adaptively, send out your spirit thunderously, consider viciousness to be the best plan, and your hands and eyes will then defeat him.
What are evading and advancing? Advancing is an evasion. Evading is an advance. It is not necessary to think about this too hard. What are attacking and defending? Defending is an attack. Attacking is a defense. Just shoot out your hand. Mind like gunpowder, fist like a bullet – just a nudge of the trigger [i.e. with the merest thought], and the bird cannot escape. Body like a bow, hand like an arrow – aim, and the bird falls like magic. Lift your hand like lightning flashing. When lightning flashes, there is no chance to close your eyes. Strike the opponent like thunder clapping. When thunder claps, there is no chance to cover your ears.
The five methods [the five elements techniques] are basically five ways of closing off an opponent. There is no one there to guard against because the blocking is an intrinsic part of it. As your left hand covers your left side, your right hand attacks from your right side, and then as your right hand covers your right side, it is your left hand’s turn. Each hand is wrapped into a fist and punches directly forward while the doorways of the five closings close tight. Your fist shoots from your center and lands upon his nose, while your foot lifts and steps quickly through his center like fire surging. Of the five elements of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth, fire blazes upward and water floods downward. We each possess a heart, a liver, a spleen, lungs, and kidneys. Our five elements urge each other on without error."
Excerpt from the translation by Paul Brennan of "The Art of Xingyi Boxing" (形意拳術) by Lǐ Jiànqiū(李劍秋), to be found in the Brennan Translation blog.