TANG SHI QUAN SHU: PUGILISTIC ART OF THE TANG FAMILY. Outer Techniques of DA HONG QUAN. /Hangzhou, 1933/

During several centuries Shaolin monks started to comprehend the Pugilistic Art through learning this traditional style. Mastery directly depends on time spent and diligence displayed for perfection certain elements, that is why any stages of learning martial art, however simple they could appear to from the first sight, should not be omitted. Chinese masters spend most of training time for improvement of movements and the base for movements is proper stances. As they say in China, “before learning to go, it is necessary to learn how to stay".

Introduction into HONG QUAN.

Those who learn the Martial Art first of all should pay attention to proper stances and positions. In ancient time, when learning the martial art at the initial stage, first of all they paid attention to mastering proper stances, not to exercises in blows and movements. Only after a disciple learned how to stand, he was taught other techniques, as that section (stances) he must acquire deeply and thoroughly. Three skills, namely YI ZI BU, SHI ZI TUI and SHI ZI SHOU, are fundamentals of the whole art HONG QUAN. Deep comprehension is impossible without studying fundamentals. In ancient time, before starting to learn methods of the pugilistic art and their practical use, this introductory section was learned. It should be specially stressed that at the beginning of a drill one must face due south and strictly observe directions in accordance to the scheme of hieroglyph “ten” during a training session. A trainee should pay close attention to it...