Obviously there are several aspects of the movement. I think we need to first decide what level we are practicing at. The traditional levels of ming, an and huajing have always made sense to me as they basically describe a very natural progression of a xingyi practitioner’s practice from physical and rather hard to mental and more soft. This also is the natural progression of the human body to a certain extent.

Let’s start by looking pizhang (quan) done relatively fast using more outward expression of jing. The goal of this level is more physical, in the sense that we want to learn how to coordinate and unify the ‘san waihe’ (three outer coordinations): hands and feet elbows and knees , knees and kua/hips. The basis for unification of the various parts of the body in terms of generating maximum power is proper usage of the ground/feet, kua and shoulders. I’m not talking about any kind of meridian connection with yongquan point under the foot. I’m talking about simple principles of gravity and balance. We want to allow the power generated from pushing off the ground to actually reach the palm without being stuck along the way and dispersed elsewhere. To do this, xingyi practitioners practice santi, single movement practice and then simple repetitive techniques: the five elements. Over and over again.

Okay, let’s try here to explain the movement and how that power is issued through the body without talking about qi or other more abstract ideas. Not so easy. My teacher always says that if you want to see how good a martial arts practitioner is just look at his/her feet. But of course there’s more to it.

Standing in left santi we propel our whole body forward starting with the pushing off from the back foot, passing through a bai step with the left and finishing in right pizhang. If the knees stick out too much, power will not pass through them but will instead disperse upward. Therefore, they need to be slightly ‘kou’ inward - but only slightly. The power then travels upward to the kua and waist.