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He did it again. This week at the WTT United States Smash in Los Angeles, Denmark’s Anders Lind walked out against the best table tennis player on the planet — reigning World Champion and world No. 1 Wang Chuqin — and beat him 3–1. The scoreline read 13–11, 11–2, 8–11, 11–7, and with it Wang’s bid to become the first man to win three straight WTT Grand Smash titles was over before the quarterfinals.

“I feel euphoric,” Lind said afterwards. It was the second time he has sent the Chinese superstar packing on the sport’s biggest stage. So how do you beat the World Champion? Let’s tell the story.

The man on the other side of the table

To understand the size of the upset, you have to understand who Wang Chuqin is. The 26-year-old left-hander is an Olympic gold medallist from Paris 2024 in both the mixed doubles and the team event, and in May 2025 he finally captured the men’s singles crown at the World Championships in Doha, becoming the first left-handed World Champion since France’s Jean-Philippe Gatien in 1993. He has sat at world No. 1, captains the Chinese men’s team, and arrived in Los Angeles as the two-time defending Smash champion. In short: the most complete player in the world, in the form of his life.

Anders Lind, by contrast, is the outsider — a Dane ranked around world No. 15, the kind of player the Chinese machine is supposed to brush aside. Supposed to.

Beijing, 2024: the first earthquake

The first time was arguably the more shocking. At the China Smash in October 2024, on Wang’s home soil in Beijing, in front of a partisan crowd roaring for their hero, Lind knocked out the world No. 1 in the round of 32, 3–1 (13–11, 9–11, 11–6, 11–7). Wang had come in riding a 13-match winning streak at Grand Smash level and chasing a clean sweep of the season’s titles. Lind ended it all with a bold, unconventional game that never let Wang settle into rhythm.

Lind later admitted that towards the end he was so nervous he felt like throwing up — and that the feeling afterwards was so surreal he half-expected to wake up and find the match had never happened. You can relive that first upset here:

• Full match — Wang Chuqin vs Anders Lind, China Smash 2024 (R32)
• Highlights — Wang Chuqin vs Anders Lind, China Smash 2024

Singapore, February 2026: the champion strikes back

Champions don’t stay embarrassed for long. When the two met again at the Singapore Smash in February 2026, Wang had done his homework. He edged a much tighter, more controlled contest 3–1 to reach the quarterfinals and settle the score. Heading into Los Angeles, Wang led their head-to-head — victories at the 2023 World Championships and Singapore against Lind’s single Beijing triumph. The champion looked to have the measure of his tormentor.

Los Angeles, 2026: this is how you beat the World Champion

And then Lind did it all over again. Out of the blocks he took four of the first five points and saved a game point to steal the opener 13–11. The second game was a rout — 11–2 — leaving the defending champion with a mountain to climb. Wang, being Wang, clawed one back to take the third 11–8. But Lind held his nerve down the stretch and closed out the fourth 11–7 to win the match and dump the World Champion out in the round of 16. The head-to-head is now level at 2–2, and Lind marches on to face Japan’s Sora Matsushima in the quarterfinals.

So — how do you beat the World Champion?

Twice now, the same blueprint has worked. Lind doesn’t try to out-Wang Wang. Instead he brings a game that is unpredictable and unorthodox — sharp, awkward serves; bold shot selection; forehand and backhand counters that arrive from unexpected angles. He denies the World Champion the one thing every great player needs: rhythm. He starts fast, throws the favourite off balance early, and then refuses to blink when the inevitable fightback comes.

There’s a lesson in there that travels well beyond a table tennis hall. The best in the world are beatable — not by copying them, but by playing a game they can’t quite read, backing yourself completely, and holding your nerve at the moment it matters most. Anders Lind has now shown it isn’t a fluke. It’s a method.

Godt gået, Anders.

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西域羅漢得道真詮
WISDOM OF THE LUOHANS OF THE WESTERN REGIONS
[from 少林衣缽真傳 Authentic Teachings of Shaolin]
升霄道人
by the Daoist Shengxiao
[circa 1800 (in view of his birth/death dates, 1712–1815, and presuming this is the culmination of a lifetime’s work rather than just a young man’s hobby)]

[translation by Paul Brennan, Aug, 2021]

–

▵西域羅漢得道真詮目錄
CONTENTS

仙人拱手
Exercise 1: IMMORTAL PERFORMS A SALUTATION
　束手緊腰、偪氣全神、第一勢、
　1. TIGHTENING YOUR WAIST, HOLD YOUR BREATH AND FOCUS YOUR SPIRIT
　交指翻掌、推送㕠手、第二勢、
　2. LINKING YOUR FINGERS AND TURNING OVER YOUR PALMS, PUSH OUT WITH BOTH HANDS
　曲膝下腰、伏底施禮、第三勢、
　3. BEND AT THE WAIST, PROSTRATING YOURSELF WITH A DEEP BOW
　[仰面朝天、凹腰腆肚、第四勢、
　4. FACING THE SKY, ARCH YOUR BACK AND STRETCH YOUR BELLY]

▵霸王舉鼎
Exercise 2: XIANG YU LIFTS THE CAULDRON
　双手分水、両脚挣力、第一勢、
　1. HANDS SPREAD THE WATERS, LEGS SITTING WITH STRENGTH
　双搥分襠、搬鞍騎馬、第二勢、
　2. DOUBLE PUNCHES ALONG THE SIDES OF YOUR CROTCH, ADJUSTING THE SADDLE WHILE RIDING
　大鵬挺翅、全身使力、第三勢、
　3. RUKH BULGES ITS WINGS, EXERTING THE STRENGTH OF THE WHOLE BODY
　力舉千斤、提杵騎馬、第四勢、
　4. LIFT A THOUSAND POUNDS, WIELDING THE RIDING CROP WHILE ON HORSEBACK
　金盤托月、全身精力、第五勢、
　5. GOLDEN TRAY CARRIES THE MOON, EMPLOYING THE STRENGTH OF THE WHOLE BODY

▵左右挿花
Exercise 3: LEFT & RIGHT ARRANGING FLOWERS
　双手扶鉅、両脚並立、第一勢、
　1. BOTH HANDS HOLD UP A HEAVY WEIGHT, FEET STANDING TOGETHER
　仙人指路、騎馬曲膝、第二勢、
　2. IMMORTAL POINTS THE WAY, HORSE KNEELS DOWN
　单手過腦、偪氣實腹、第三势、
　3. ONE HAND PASSES YOUR HEAD, ENERGY FILLS YOUR BELLY
　埀鈎抱脇、曲膝勾脚、第四势、
　4. DANGLE A FISHING LINE AND WRAP YOUR RIBS, BEND ONE KNEE AND HOOK BACK THE OTHER FOOT
　㕠手交合、收功提氣、第五势、
　5. HANDS CROSSING PATHS, FINISHING POSTURE, ROUSING ENERGY

▵枯樹盤根
Exercise 4: OLD TREE TWISTS ITS ROOTS
　犀牛望月、推送双掌、第一势、
　1. RHINO GAZES AT THE MOON, BOTH PALMS PUSHING OUT
　鷂子翻身、窝裡抱搥、第二势、
　2. HAWK TURNS ITS BODY, FISTS WRAPPING TO THE BELLY
　海底捞月、曲膝下腰、第三势、
　3. TRYING TO SCOOP THE MOON’S REFLECTION FROM THE WATER, YOUR KNEES BEND AND YOUR WAIST LOWERS
　背面回手、貼闭收功、第四势、
　4. PULL BACK YOUR HANDS, FINISHING POSTURE

▵夜叉探海
Exercise 5: NIGHT DEMON SEARCHES THE SEA
　单手舉鼎、第一势、
　1. LIFTING A CAULDRON WITH ONE HAND
　曲膝撲地、第二势、
　2. BEND AT THE WAIST AND REACH TO THE GROUND
　单搥偪脇、第三势、
　3. FIST HIDES BEHIND THE BACK
　把湾拘水、第四势、
　4. SCOOPING UP WATER FROM THE STREAM

▵推𥦗亮格
Exercise 6: PUSH OPEN THE WINDOW TO LET THE LIGHT IN
　來往扭鉅、第一势、
　1. PULLING A HEAVY WEIGHT IN
　推山把木、第二势、
　2. PUSH DOWN THE MOUNTAIN AND UPROOT THE FOREST
　提綱撜力、第三势、
　3. HOIST IN THE NET, WORKING FROM YOUR LEGS
　迎凨双掌、第四势、
　4. BOTH PALMS PUSHING AGAINST THE WIND

[▵韋它献杵
Exercise 7: WEI TUO SHOWS HIS CLUB
　胸前分手、第一势、
　1. HANDS TOGETHER IN FRONT OF YOUR CHEST
　二郎擔山、第二势、
　2. SECOND SON CARRIES THE MOUNTAIN
　合手舉鼎、第三势勢、
　3. HANDS TOGETHER, LIFTING THE CAULDRON
　騎馬收闭、第四势、
　4. FINISHING IN A HORSE-RIDING STANCE]

▵老僧入禅
Exercise 8: OLD MONK GOES INTO A TRANCE
　降龍伏虎、第一勢、
　1. DESCENDING DRAGON, CROUCHING TIGER
　偪襠劈岔、第二勢、
　2. EXERTING WITH THE HIPS, REACH OUT WITH ONE LEG
　分襠騎馬、第三勢、
　3. STRETCH THE THIGHS TO RIDE THE HORSE
　燕子双飛、第四勢、
　4. SWALLOWS FLYING IN TANDEM

▵鉄牛畊地
Exercise 9: IRON OX PLOWS THE FIELD
　背面定息、第一势、
　1. SIT BACK AND STAND STABLY
　並立偪穴、第二势、
　2. FEET TOGETHER, ACTIVATE THE ACUPOINTS
　拔力分筋、第三势、
　3. MAINTAINING STRENGTH, STRETCH THE SINEWS
　攅拳積力、第四势、
　4. DRILLING FIST, ACCUMULATING STRENGTH

▵青龍擺尾
Exercise 10: BLUE DRAGON SWINGS ITS TAIL
　掌腿合手、第一势、
　1. BRACING LEG, CLOSING HANDS
　揚鞭𩣔馬、第二势、
　2. RAISING THE WHIP, RIDING THE HORSE
　提步纒封、第三势、
　3. STEP OUT, ARC & SEAL OFF
　招前擋後、第四势、
　4. BECKON IN FRONT, BLOCK TO THE REAR

▵左右騙馬
Exercise 11: LEFT & RIGHT MOUNTING A HORSE
　扣手獨立、第一势、
　1. COVERING HANDS, STANDING ONE-LEGGED
　鉄门撜膝、第二势、
　2. PRESSING OPEN AN IRON GATE WITH A KNEE

▵燕子啅水
Exercise 12: SWALLOW TAKES UP WATER
　抽梁換柱、第一势、
　1. SNEAKILY REMOVE SUPPORT BEAMS
　回馬撲蝉、第二势、
　2. TURN TO CATCH A CICADA
　翻身合手、第三势、
　3. TURNING BODY, CLOSING HANDS
　金雞獨立、第四势、
　4. GOLDEN ROOSTER STANDS ON ONE LEG

▵乕𨁼人身
Exercise 13: TIGER LUNGES AT A MAN
　両脇扇風、第一势、
　1. FANNING YOUR RIBS ON BOTH SIDES
　四柱懸空、第二势、
　2. FOUR PILLARS FLOAT IN MIDAIR
　死蛇榻地、第三势、
　3. DEAD SNAKE COLLAPSES TO THE GROUND
　胸前掛印、第四势、
　4. HOLDING UP THE OFFICIAL SEAL IN FRONT OF YOU

▵陳摶大困
Exercise 14: CHEN XIYI FALLS INTO A DEEP SLEEP
　井底栽花、第一势、
　1. FLOWERS PLANTED AT THE BOTTOM OF THE WELL
　攢拳劈岔、第二势、
　2. DRILLING FIST SPLITS THE MOUNTAIN
　刘全進瓜、第三势、
　3. LIU QUAN PRESENTS A MELON
　浮水度力、第四势、
　4. USING STRENGTH TO STAY AFLOAT

▵父子三請禮
Exercise 15: THREE SALUTATIONS BETWEEN FATHER & SON
　翻身撞搥、第一势、
　1. TURNING YOUR BODY, STRIKE
　把力千斤、第二势、
　2. HOLDING A THOUSAND-POUND SABER
　翻身扣手、第三势、
　3. TURN AROUND, COVERING HANDS
　霸王掖弓、第四势、
　4. XIANG YU DRAWS A BOW

▵鯉魚打挺
Exercise 16: CARP FLIPS OVER
　黃龍翻身、第一势、
　1. YELLOW DRAGON TURNS OVER
　曲弓扣絃、第二势、
　2. PULL THE CROSSBOW AND LOCK THE STRING

▵張遼献袍
Exercise 17: ZHANG LIAO PRESENTS A ROBE
　起膝抱月、第一势、
　1. LIFTING A KNEE, EMBRACE THE MOON
　撜力曲膝、第二势、
　2. SQUATTING DOWN ON ONE LEG
　双搥硬崩、第三势、
　3. BOTH HANDS CRASH FORWARD
　𩣔馬勒韁、第四势、
　4. REINING IN THE HORSE

▵金鈎掛玉瓶
Exercise 18: JADE VASE HANGING FROM GOLDEN HOOKS
　避日交脛、第一势、
　1. LEAN AWAY FROM THE SUN WITH YOUR LEGS TOGETHER
　叠身存腎、第二势、
　2. FOLD THE BODY TO MAINTAIN THE KIDNEYS
　擎天玉柱、第三势、
　3. JADE PILLAR HOLDS UP THE SKY

行畢照前功仙人拱手跕定
(After finishing the exercises, return to the initial position in IMMORTAL PERFORMS A SALUTATION.)

–

仙人拱手势
Exercise 1: IMMORTAL PERFORMS A SALUTATION – Part 1:

以呼吸定息。用偪氣全神。是虚心實腹。養氣血生津。實腹，一使丹田氣滿。虚心，鼻孔提氣存於心。聽其自然行功積力。氣粗則力壯。
Breathe to calm your breath. Awaken your energy and focus your spirit. Nourish your energy and blood by generating saliva. [From the Daodejing, chapter 3:] “Empty your mind and fill your belly.” To fill your belly means that you fill your elixir field with energy. To empty your mind means that you focus only on breathing through your nose. Practicing in a state of naturalness, you will build up your vitality, going from unrefined energy to polished strength. See drawing 1:

二回拱手势
Part 2:

兩脚併立似繩拴。鼻孔提氣在心间。交指翻掌全身力。往來抽鉅子當先。呼吸定息精神爽。水火既済小周天。隂陽交合轉輪處。後斈只怕志不堅。
Your feet stand together as though tied with rope.
Breathe through your nose, filling your chest.
Fingers still gripping, rotate and extend your fists, applying the strength of your whole body.
Go back and forth with a sawing motion, your fists withdrawing and then extending again.
Steadily inhale and exhale, brightening your spirit.
Internal fire and water work together, energy moving down your front and up your back.
The passive and active aspects merge, rotating like a wheel.
The only worry is that you might not have enough ambition to see the training through.
See drawing 2:

三回拱手势
Part 3:

當胸出手忙施禮。曲漆下腰緊伏底。氣如抽絲細細放。扣手闭氣翻身起。兩脚蹬尽全身力。丹田还氣兩腎居。回手舉鼎双抱月。𫔭合手偪肺呼吸。
After your hands go out forward from your chest as though rapidly saluting,
you then bend at the waist, bringing your hands downward until they are almost touching the ground.
The energy is like drawing silk, pulling out the finest thread.
Then your fists squeeze and your body straightens up.
Your legs tense with all of your strength.
Energy goes from your belly to your lower back.
Your hands seem to be lifting a cauldron or embracing the moon.
The movement of your hands up and down is an action of opening and closing, coordinated with the inhaling and exhaling of your lungs.
See drawing 3:

拱手完势
Part 4:

兩手積力㕠手捧。身似湾弓鯉魚挺。凹腰腆肚蹬尽力。二郎担山盤腦頂。囬轉却用丹田力。攢搥偪脇再重整。
Both hands tense and prop up.
Your body bends backward like a bow bending or a carp flipping over.
Arch your back and stick out your belly, tensing your legs.
In the image of 2nd Son carrying the mountain and following the sun, reach back with your head.
Returning to standing upright depends on strength from the lower abdomen.
Then your hands move along your ribs to again be hanging downward.
See drawing 4:

霸王舉鼎势
Exercise 2: XIANG YU LIFTS THE CAULDRON – Part 1:

當胸分手両脚撐。燕兒挺翅懸空中。肛门一间水火靠。双耳掛紅蝉丁丁。起落全安両腎力。曲膝下腰脚輕輕。行功如要斈得秘。時刻常存心兢兢。
Place your hands spread apart in front of your chest, your feet spreading apart to the sides.
You like look a swallow sticking out its wings to glide through the air.
Tuck in your tailbone, causing water energy to switch over to fire.
This causes your ears to become alert as though hearing the buzzing of cicadas.
Then rise and lower, the action dependent entirely on strength from your lower back.
Bend your knees and lower your torso, and then rise up with a lightness from your feet.
If you do the exercise correctly, you will discover its subtleties.
The longer you practice, the more aware your mind will become.
See drawing 5:

二囬舉鼎势
Part 2:

分水搬岸立後脊。大鵬挺翅奔千里。攢拳盤頂忙提氣。緊咬牙関腮貼闭。推山用盡拔木力。氣如抽絲定氣息。
Your hands appear to part the sea to move the shore as your back becomes upright.
This is like a rukh extending its wings to fly far away.
Your hands then become fists and withdraw in arcs toward your head, suddenly rousing energy.
Your mouth should stay closed and your cheeks not be puffing out.
Your hands again spread away with all of your strength as though pushing aside mountains or bringing down trees.
The energy during this action is like drawing out silk, your breath consistent.
See drawing 6:

三回舉鼎势
Part 3:

跨馬勒韁倒提杵。一起一落千斤舉。曲膝用尽丹田氣。兩手㧓定翻身起。風擁海水升太陽。盤鞍挑蹬偪双膝。按定心火資腎水。胸前掛印行千里。
Your hands move as though reining in a horse or lifting a pestle.
Your body rises and lowers as though lifting a thousand pounds.
Bend your knees, exerting yourself, rousing energy in your elixir field.
Your hands grab firmly and your body rises up.
It is like wind surging and waves rising, reaching up toward the sun.
Wrap the saddle with your legs, pressing in with your knees.
Stabilize the fire energy of your heart in order to support the water energy of your kidneys [to warm it rather than boil it away].
Your hands seem to hang an announcement plaque in front of your chest to spread its message far and wide.
See drawing 7:

四回舉鼎势
Part 4:

攢拳分襠㕠偪膝。四肢蹬力悠悠起。腰肩度尽全身力。擁倒太山㕠手㪯。呼吸定息養神氣。運動尾闾轉腰脊。
Your fists punch downward along the sides of your crotch until they are close to your knees.
Then your legs press with exertion to slowly straighten up again.
Your waist puts forth its full effort, employing the strength of your whole body.
Overturn Mt. Tai, both hands lifting.
Breathe smoothly, cultivating spirit.
Tuck in your tailbone, curling your lower back.
See drawing 8:

舉鼎完势
Part 5:

兩手擎天賽玉柱。双手往來似撲地。提滿氣息壯筋骨。隂陽順逆應節氣。伸𫔭三百六十节。氣血合合過人力。乾天坤地擁太陽。鳳凰展翅雲遮日。
Your hands lift up to the sky like your arms are jade pillars.
Your hands go upward and then downward, also reaching down to the ground.
Take full breaths, boosting your physique.
Let every inhale and exhale activate each joint.
Stretch out each and every joint.
With your energy and blood working in harmony, you will become stronger than ordinary people.
Both sky and ground embrace the sun.
Your arms are like a phoenix reaching out its wings, your hands like clouds creating shade.
See drawing 9:

左右插花势
Exercise 3: LEFT & RIGHT ARRANGING FLOWERS – Part 1:

𨁾地蹬膝似抽鉅。提肩攢拳吸兩闭。氣虚力怯眼生花。何須勉強積滿力。行功悠悠終須成。莫到烟花閒遊戯。
Put your feet together and straighten your legs, standing like a slab of iron.
Pull your shoulders back, hands forming fists, and inhale deeply.
If you are feeling exhausted and timid, trying too hard could make you dizzy.
It is not necessary to force anything happen in order to accumulate your full strength.
Unhurried achievement brings a more lasting success.
However, do not waste yourself on prostitutes, getting lost in pleasure.
See drawing 10:

二囬挿花勢
Part 2:

仙人指路騎馬勢。曲膝抱脇提滿氣。氣滿二十四肢節。吸肺下腰脚蹬力。起膝盤腿翻身轉。囬手合掌貼両闭。如𫔭心机即一刻。一旦豁然貫通處。
Your hands gesture like an immortal pointing the way, your legs getting into a horse-riding stance.
Your knees bend, your front arm wraps over your ribs, and you rouse your full energy.
Energy fills all of your joints.
Your lungs exhale as your torso lowers, your legs exerting strength.
Your legs straighten and you step to the other side, your body turning.
Your palms also go to the other side to be covering both directions.
Open your mind and give the exercise a chance.
One day it will suddenly all make sense.
See drawing 11:

三囬挿花勢
Part 3:

推山拔水過頭力。積成駢脇一口氣。左右皆同是一樣。隂陽交合轉太極。功成全在子午定。鉄丁屋梁莫思慮。
One hand pushes up through a mountain, uprooting all its trees, stretching strongly over your head.
While your ribs are being stretched out, take a full breath.
Then perform the same action on the other side.
The passive and active aspects switch places, the grand polarity rotating.
The key to this action is that one arm stretches straight up and the other straight down.
It is like an iron nail holding a roof beam in place without any doubt.
See drawing 12:

四回挿花势
Part 4:

单手過腦取脚稍。提氣騙脇漫下腰。曲膝挑蹬全身力。智深拔柳萬丈髙。挺胸腆肚偪双拳。翻掌合手立樹苗。滿腹度尽千觔力。氣如抽絲隂陽交。
One hand goes over your head and reaches toward the opposite toes.
Rouse your energy and stretch your ribs, your torso slowly lowering.
Bend one leg, the other flexing straight, using the strength of your whole body.
The position resembles depictions of Lu Zhishen uprooting a willow tree and raising it high.
Stick out your chest and suck in your gut, your hands forming fists.
The palm sides of the fists are turned inward to be facing toward each other, your body standing like a flexible sapling.
Fill your belly with determination and exert your full strength.
The energy is like drawing out silk, and the passive and active aspects are merging together.
See drawing 13:

挿花完势
Part 5:

兩手交合盤腦頂。二郎担山肩背竦。丹田度尽兩腎力。亞賽九里覇王勇。收腿兩脚双並立。呼吸定息神氣整。若还斈尽十八势。一困八百纔夢醒。
Your hands move in unison, one arcing over your head.
In the image of 2nd Son carrying the mountain and following the sun, your shoulders feel the burden.
Engage your lower abdomen and exert your lower back.
Your energy seems to express for many miles, like the boldness of Xiang Yu.
Bring your legs in and stand with your feet together.
Take a full breath, settling your spirit.
Learn well these eighteen exercises.
Long life will be the result.
See drawing 14:

楛樹盤根势
Exercise 4: OLD TREE TWISTS ITS ROOTS – Part 1:

犀牛望月推双手。翻身扭腰胸前走。偷步纒勾偪单膝。一出一入積双肘。还轉須用兩腿力。提氣呼吸收在口。
Producing an image of a rhino gazing at the moon, your hands push out.
Your body turns, your waist twisting, your hands going out from in front of your chest.
One foot does a stealth step, hooking around the other foot, the rear knee pressing against the front knee.
Your hands are positioned one nearer, one farther, strength expressing at your elbows.
Switching sides then requires strength from your legs.
Rouse your energy with a full breath, breathing out from your mouth.
See drawing 15:

二回盤根势
Part 2:

攢拳腆脇出當胸。一來一往似冲風。泰山壓住頂梁穴。偪住肛门氣挺胸。傳尽花街入柳巷。按住腎人心不驚。回頭便知却是岸。空即是色色即空。
Your hands form fists, withdraw to your ribs, and then punch out in front of your chest.
Withdrawing and extending, they move like rushing wind.
The weight of Mt. Tai seems to press down on you, but your head resists upward.
Tuck in your tailbone and stick out your chest.
Go right past temptation, ignoring prostitutes.
Restraint is the key characteristic of a virtuous man, causing him to have a mind that is never startled by anything.
Look with a new perspective to find wisdom.
[From the Heart Sutra:] “Reality is empty, therefore emptiness is the reality.”
See drawing 16:

三回盤根势
Part 3:

海底捞月胸对膝。兩手撲地官一尺。鼻內抽絲一口氣。轉身扭腰悠悠起。兩脚踏定立腰脊。
Lean over as if to try to scoop the moon’s reflection from the water, your chest going toward your knees.
Your hands go the ground, about a foot apart from each other.
Taking a full breath, breathe slowly through your nose.
Then you will turn your body, twisting your waist, as you leisurely rise up.
Your feet stand stably as your body becomes upright.
See drawing 17:

盤根完势
Part 4:

双手㧓定天边月。背面攢拳偪兩脇。呼吸蹬尽英雄力。細如牛毛至不滅。欲要功夫求速成。期定子午分晝夜。調息一在对刻数。掛印升坐將排列。
Your hands lead away to the sides, drawing semicircles.
Once they are behind you, your hands form fists, which then go tightly against your ribs.
Breathe fully and embody a heroic strength.
Study so meticulously that your knowledge will never be forgotten.
If you really want to have skill, put more time into the training.
Practice not only at midday, but also at midnight.
Regulate your breath over and over.
Success will eventually come and you will be counted among the best.
See drawing 18:

夜叉探海势
Exercise 5: NIGHT DEMON SEARCHES THE SEA – Part 1:

一手偪脇一手𣁄。一上一下翻身起。両腿度尽腰節力。燕子含泥身伏底。方寸按定一口氣。両手左右上下劈。渾身使尽過頂力。闭目全神定氣息。
One hand goes behind your ribs and the other rises up.
With one hand high and the other below, stand tall.
Your legs and waist exert strength.
Like a swallow scooping up mud, your body bends downward.
Calmly breathe a full breath.
Your hands switch places, the upper hand coming down, the lower hand going up.
Your whole body expresses its full strength.
Close your eyes, focus your mind, and steady your breath.
See drawing 19:

二囬探海势
Part 2:

曲腰㧓地膘双腿。獅子搖頭大撅尾。恰似单背擒方臘。功成力勇志不毀。仰手擎天賽玉柱。螳螂撲蝉双手擋。挺功跕立整神氣。壓住心火運腎水。
Bend at the waist and reach for the ground, keeping your legs straight.
You are positioned like a lion shaking its head and sticking out its tail.
You look as though you are Wu Song using his remaining arm to capture Fang La.
Success at this movement will boost your courage and give you dauntless determination.
Then your hand will rise up to support the sky, your arm like a jade pillar.
Perform the action of a mantis seizing a cicada, attacking with both arms.
When standing up, regain your composure.
Restrain the fire energy of the heart and instead use the water energy of the kidneys.
See drawing 20:

三回深海势
Part 3:

攢拳頂脇忙扭腰。兩膀度力勾樹稍。伸筋拔力生氣血。推動太極隂陽交。翻手合掌調氣息。功成一畢自然髙。
Your hands form fists and go to your ribs, your waist quickly twisting to the side.
Your elbows are pulling back forcefully, as though your arms are bending away saplings.
Stretch your sinews and exert strength, thereby boosting your energy and blood circulation.
The passive and active aspects switch places, the grand polarity rotating.
Turn your hands over, bringing the palms together, and regulate your breath.
Once you have achieved skill in this exercise, you will automatically be approaching a higher level.
See drawing 21:

探海完势
Part 4:

腆脇下腰資腎水。蹬力提肛纒勾腿。直腰挺尽兩膝力。翻天覆地似海鬼。收功即用双展翅。鯉魚翻身龍擺尾。兩踏脚地雲披土。土培花根花生蘂。
Your ribs reach out and your waist bends over, boosting the water energy of your kidneys.
With your left leg standing one-legged, your buttocks tighten and your right foot hooks around your left foot.
Then you will straighten your body, tensing your knees.
The sky and ground seem to switch places, and you look like a demon emerging from the sea.
Finish the exercise with your arms spreading like wings.
Your body rising is like a carp flipping over or a dragon swinging its tail.
Both feet again stand on the ground, activating the earth energy of your spleen.
The earth feeds the roots of flowers so that they can sprout.
See drawing 22:

推𥦗亮格勢
Exercise 6: PUSH OPEN THE WINDOW TO LET THE LIGHT IN – Part 1:

纒封合手偪住氣。一出一入全身力。鷂子翻身迎風膀。一來一往似抽鉅。磨精鏡面開心竅。胆水往來助兩目。如同八踏連環腿。氣盈兩脇腆兩闭。
With your hands pulling back in unison, you inhale.
You will extend and withdraw, using the strength of your body.
Turn around like a hawk turning over, your arms going against the wind.
Your hands go out and then back in again as though pulling a heavy piece of iron.
Doing the movement over and over is like polishing a mirror, bringing you greater mental clarity.
This action stirs at the water energy of your gallbladder, which can help improve your vision.
Like the “eight steps” exercise, move forward into place without pausing.
Energy fills your ribs and makes your arms stick out.
See drawing 23:

二回亮格势
Part 2:

度力推動太行山。倣斈冲風馬撒歡。回手拉倒黄金塔。竪立長存在身边。能戒酒色並財氣。敢比長眉李太屳。若能調息隂陽轉。天作人身人比天。
Push forward with great strength, as though attempting to move the Taihang Mountains.
It feels like you are the rushing wind or a charging horse.
Then withdraw your hands forcefully, as though pulling down a pagoda,
while your body remains upright, standing tall.
Avoid alcohol and sex, and then you will have abundant energy.
You may compare yourself to the immortal Li Hui with his long eyebrows [representing longevity].
Regulate your breath so that passive and active can alternate smoothly.
Because Nature made man, man imitates Nature.
See drawing 24:

三回亮格势
Part 3:

騎馬拽鞭手提韁。躥山跳涧搃不慌。兩膀蹬尽全身力。身似玉柆腿賽梁。二十四節蹬鉄壁。轉返泥湾放日光。
Get into a horse-riding stance, your hands pulling back on the reins.
Leap with your horse over hills and streams, unflustered by any obstacle.
Your arms pull back fully, using the strength of your whole body.
Your torso is as upright as a jade pillar, your legs straddling like a bridge.
All your joints work together to form a mighty fortress.
Energy rises up to your clay-pellet palace and fills you with light.
See drawing 25:

推𥦗完势
Part 4:

順步推㕠掌。出手連聲响。纒封四平势。提氣度両膀。推出天边月。还步院門闖。調息要还轉。一來即一往。養倒氣合血。一旦筋骨壯。
Step forward into a bow stance and push with both palms, your hands going out in unison.
Your hands then coil and seal, pulling straight back with rousing energy in your arms.
Push out all the way to the horizon even though you are stepping within a small space.
There should be coordination between your breath and switching sides: inhaling when withdrawing your hands, exhaling when pushing out.
By cultivating the union of your energy and blood, your sinews and bones will quickly become robust.
See drawing 26:

韋它献杵势
Exercise 7: WEI TUO SHOWS HIS CLUB – Part 1:

提氣立脊壯筋骨。𫔭合收閉湾風舞。撑腿合手蹬滿力。挺胸腆脇似擂鼓。欲得存孝搏乕力。四時行功要勤苦。
Raise your energy and straighten your back, showing a robust physique.
Opening and closing is like a dance of husband and wife.
Spread your feet apart and bring your hands together, settling into your stance with a solid strength.
Stick out your chest and expose your ribs, poised as though beating a drum.
If you want to possess filial piety, you must have the strength to wrestle a tiger.
Practice throughout the year, always working hard.
See drawing 27:

二囬献杵势
Part 2:

鳳凰展翅積兩肩。両背架住太行山。丹田氣滿挺胸脇。双脚蹅定緊闭関。何愁棍棒徧身打。按定神氣放心寬。一旦豁然功成時。可以延夀作地仙。
Spread your arms like a phoenix spreading its wings, expressing from your shoulders.
Your arms seem to carry the Taihang Mountains.
Fill your elixir field with energy and stick out your chest.
Your feet stand their ground as though you are guarding a border pass.
There is no need to worry about sticks and clubs striking you all over.
Steadiness of spirit will keep you carefree.
At the crack of dawn, practice!
You will be able to lengthen your life to the point of an immortal.
See drawing 28:

三囬献杵势
Part 3:

兩脚蹅平地。肘膝齊使力。合手舉當頂。百節積滿氣。任君徧身排。千斤有何惧。最忌分時刻。截断隂陽氣。若遇截脉客。挺身湧太極。
With your feet stably grounded, your elbows and knees exert equal strength.
Your hands come together above your head, all of your joints filling with energy.
You can accept people hitting you all over, no need to fear even the force of a thousand pounds.
Be aware of the time of day and how it interferes with passive and active energy.
If you encounter an opponent who knows how to interrupt the energy flow of the meridians, stand tall and as straight as the axis that runs through the Earth.
See drawing 29:

献杵完势
Part 4:

𩣔馬挺脊兩分襠。双手勒定意不慌。肘膝使尽滿腹氣。頭似鉄硬更加剛。𣁄手最怕二換氣。面前生花却难當。戒住房事有何妨。
Sit in a horse-riding stance with a straight back and rounded crotch,
your hands firmly holding the reins, your mind unflustered.
Your elbows and knees do their utmost, energy filling your belly.
Your head seems as hard as iron, or even harder still, like steel.
Raise your hands to shield against any influence upon your energy.
Temptations right in front of you are harder to resist.
Therefore stay away from brothels in the first place.
See drawing 30:

老僧入禅势
Exercise 8: OLD MONK GOES INTO A TRANCE – Part 1:

撑腿腆脇緊闭襠。明心見性眼生光。正是老僧坐禅時。風擺竹影照紗𥦗。一盏明灯吹不滅。夢想紅娘到西廂。膏盲着床傳書柬。小僧性烈硬如鋼。功成志滿按不住。何須求佛到西方。
Stick out your chest and squat down on one leg, tightening your crotch.
Express your personality and make your gaze bright.
It feels like a monk in meditation.
The wind blows and the bamboo leaves make flickering shadows.
He holds up a lamp, but the flame cannot be blown out.
His imagination fixates on Hongniang, the matchmaking maidservant in Romance of the Western Chamber.
He writes letters to her in his sleep.
A low-ranking monk gets swept up by his emotions, stubborn like steel.
Success is a matter of your own determination.
You do not need to travel to India to find the Buddha.
See drawing 31:

二囬入禅势
Part 2:

下腰鋪地势。使尽兩膀力。百節筋骨合。須要腆兩闭。挺腰盼日月。肛門要緊闭。心腎得見面。水火須即済。周天徧身用。火車轉天極。
Lower your torso, stretching out your other leg and tensing your arms.
Your joints, sinews, and bones all work together, and your arms should be sticking out.
Stretch with your spine to gaze upon the sky, tightly tucking in your tailbone.
The energies of your heart and kidneys meet, fire and water complementing each other.
Make use of the universe of your entire body, letting the fiery chariot rotate the celestial pole [referring to turning your torso as you perform the posture on the other side].
See drawing 32:

三囬入禅势
Part 3:

二十四節一條脊。隂陽轉合在尾呂。肛门提起一口氣。河螞浮水𨁼井底。双手搬住兩腿力。蹬膝立腰似石杵。若得斈成金中罩。何怕𨩭刀並劍戟。
Engage every joint and straighten your back.
The passive and active aspects merge at your lower back.
Your tailbone tucks in and you take a full breath.
It is like an ant floating on the water that is then pulled to the bottom of a well.
Your hands grab your legs and your legs flex.
Then your legs will straighten and your body will stand upright like a stone pillar.
If you compete the training, you will possess the “golden bell” skill.
There will then be no need to fear attacks from spears, sabers, swords or halberds.
See drawing 33:

入禅完势
Part 4:

腿賽石柱双手挺。自然而然氣力猛。走行常存過人力。单背擎住千斤鼎。收功全要定氣息。兩腎水火似虫蚣。習成十八罗漢势。敢比李逵下山勇。
Your legs stand straight like stone pillars and your hands stick out to the sides.
It is natural for your energy in this moment to be fierce.
With constant practice, you will become stronger than ordinary people.
Your back braces upward as though supporting a thousand-pound cauldron.
Conclude the exercise by breathing calmly.
The energies of fire and water will mingle in your kidneys like worms wriggling.
Practice the eighteen Luohan exercises.
They will give you the boldness of Li Kui coming down the mountain.
See drawing 34:

鉄牛畊地势
Exercise 9: IRON OX PLOWS THE FIELD – Part 1:

垂簾塞对調氣息。舌柱上卧立後脊。及隂復陽細如絲。心火下降腎水舉。隂中生陽陽生隂。天地萬物皆一理。用功純斈生氣血。但壮筋骨更腎体。
With your eyes closed, regulate your breath.
Your tongue touches your upper palate, your spine erect.
Reach the passive aspect and then return to the active aspect, the movement as fine as silk.
The fire energy of the heart descends and the water energy of the kidneys rises.
The active is born from the passive, and the passive from the active.
For all things in the world, this principle is true.
With hard work and serious study, you will boost your energy and blood circulation.
You will gain a robust physique and a hardened body.
See drawing 35:

二囬畊地势
Part 2:

把住三関度尽力。提起肛门闭住氣。身体堅壮硬似鉄。亞賽金梁似玉柱。遍身血湧隨氣走。周流江河全不惧。功要成功人前𩔰。深藏不漏兇徒避。
One hand holds the pulse area at your other wrist with a strong grip.
Tuck in your tailbone and hold your breath.
Make your body tough, hard as iron.
Be like a metal roof beam or a jade pillar.
Blood circulation throughout your body is strongest when it follows the movement of energy.
When energy flows like the great rivers, you will never feel fear.
In order to succeed at the training, one’s character must first be revealed.
The deeper teachings should not be shared with villainous people.
See drawing 36:

三囬畊地势
Part 3:

欲行此功难受苦。攢拳伏地分筋骨。兩膀度尽腰腿力。更比常山子龍武。心頭若存一口氣。咬牙切齒似猛乕。双手養成鷹爪力。亞賽鋼刀強似斧。
Practicing this exercise will involve enduring some difficulty.
Your drilling fist lowers toward the ground, stretching the sinews.
Your arms put forth their full effort, and your waist and legs exert strength.
The position evokes the “Snake of Mt. Chang” battle formation. [Art of War, chap 11: “Attack its middle, both head and tail respond.”]
Focusing your mind, take a full breath.
Keep your mouth tightly closed, like a fierce tiger.
Your hands are cultivating the strength of an eagle’s claws.
Be as a hard as a steel blade, as strong as an axe.
See drawing 37:

耕地完
Part 4:

把住手腕挺兩闭。撁定鉄牛耕沉地。合手上下往來走。吸起肺金一口氣。欲得工夫十二成。搃是伸筋要拔力。整頓精神合氣血。一切一收照前势。
Still holding the wrist, both arms extend forward.
You look as though you are pulling along a strong ox in order to plow deep into the soil.
With your hands joined, go back and forth from the downward position to the upward position.
Drawing upon the metal energy of the lungs, take a breath.
To become skillful at this, do it in sets of twelve repetitions.
This exercise is all about stretching the sinews and building strength.
Bring order to your spirit and also unify your energy and blood.
Withdrawing into this position comes each time from the previous movement.
See drawing 38:

青龍擺尾势
Exercise 10: BLUE DRAGON SWINGS ITS TAIL – Part 1:

尾闾一𣁄存心口。緊闭牙関忙牽手。左右盤旋腿相随。身似鋼鑽風擺柳。四肢度尽滿腹氣。行時起膝好盤肘。一來一往双力势。前蹬後撲囬馬走。
Tuck in your tailbone, but keep your solar plexus upright.
Breathe through your nose, your mouth closed, as your hands busily draw in from side to side.
Your hands circle to the left and right, your legs following along.
Your body moves like a drill, or like the wind is swaying the willows.
Your limbs put forth their fullest effort and your belly fills with energy.
Activate your knees and strongly arc with your elbows.
Go back and forth, strengthening both sides.
Your front leg bends and your rear leg straightens, your stance turning and evading.
See drawing 39:

二回擺尾势
Part 2:

面前撁手似車輪。搃是拔力要伸筋。一條腰脊左右摺。兩蹅脚地緊隨身。積力全要養氣血。行功最忌氣兩分。隂陽合合徧身轉。呼吸定息暗沉吟。
Your forward hand arcs like a wheel turning.
Always put forth enough strength to stretch your sinews.
Your lower back stays erect, but folds in to the left and right.
Your feet are flat on the ground and pivot along with the turning of your body.
Building strength is entirely dependent on nurturing blood and energy.
The most important thing to avoid is holding your breath.
The passive and active aspects join forces, alternating roles everywhere in the body.
Regulate your breath and deeply ponder the movement.
See drawing 40:

三回擺尾势
Part 3:

兩膀牽成一股力。滿腹提尽一口氣。㕠手擺尾忙偷手。曲膝挣腿脚蹅地。徧身一百二十四節。春夏秋冬按四季。隂陽一在分時刻。受氣得節未受氣。
Your hands pull across in unison.
Filling your belly with energy, take a full breath.
Your hands swing like a tail, quickly sneaking into place.
Your knees are bent, legs bracing, both feet flat on the ground.
The many parts of the body are like the twenty-four periods of weather,
the distinct changes that take place through the seasons.
Such moments are divided by way of the waxing and waning of the passive and active aspects.
Receiving energy at the right moment means you will always receive even more.
See drawing 41:

擺尾完势
Part 4:

按定氣息撩双掌。風擺樹稍耳边响。搃是肺金一口氣。摇動肝木氣血廣。要诀全在坎離定。若動意念心神恍。百日功成拿得凖。四海遊雲無遮挡。
Stabilize your breath and raise both palms.
Like the wind blowing through the treetops, your ears seem to hear a breeze.
The metal energy of the lungs gives you a full breath,
while the wood energy of the liver boosts blood circulation.
But the key to the movement lies entirely in balancing water and fire.
Move with intention, your mind fully focused.
You will succeed after a hundred days, performing the movements with precision.
And then wherever you go, nothing will make you cower.
See drawing 42:

左右騙馬勢
Exercise 11: LEFT & RIGHT MOUNTING A HORSE – Part 1:

立起腰脊手當胸。三起三落腿懸空。獨立朝綱千酌舉。松鶴萬年却長春。吸起脾土培根基。如得開竅豈肯鬆。下腰伏腿緊伏地。能架車輪寔可驚。𦂯是成功显人處。九牛二虎力不輕。
Stand with your back erect, your hands going to your chest.
Go up and down three times with your leg suspended in the air.
Rise up one-legged and all-powerful, as though lifting a thousand pounds.
This will grant you the longevity of pine trees and cranes, and you will enjoy eternal youthfulness.
Thereby boosting your spleen and thus the earth element within you, you will develop a solid foundation.
Once you have awakened your senses, you will never want to let them doze off again.
While lowering your torso, continue to reach out with your leg so that it is almost flat against the ground.
In this position, you will be able to stop a cart’s wheel from turning, impressive indeed.
Once you have achieved skill in this exercise, you will be setting an example for others.
As powerful as a team of oxen or a couple of tigers, such strength will never be ignored.
See drawing 43:

騙馬勢完
Part 2:

井底栽花提滿氣。蹬尽腰脊腿鋪地。斈動須要連三反。腿懸當空千斤力。長行積成一股氣。車碾馬踏莫驚惧。氣虚力怯壮筋骨。成功只是行百日。惟恐轉意志不堅。伸筋拔力有何趣。
Your hands perform an action resembling flowers growing from the bottom of a well, bolstering your energy.
Your standing leg bends, your torso lowering, as your other leg reaches out along the ground.
The movement should be performed over and over.
Return each time to the position of the leg being suspended in the air, as though lifting a thousand pounds.
Constant practice will bring success more consistently.
The thought of being crushed under rolling wheels or horses hooves will no longer give you fear.
Even though you may be empty of energy or timid of strength, your physique will become robust.
You will gain noticeable success after a mere hundred days of practice.
Do not become distracted or let your ambition weaken.
Stretching the sinews and building strength is truly a delight.
See drawing 44:

燕子啅水势
Exercise 12: SWALLOW TAKES UP WATER – Part 1:

抽梁换柱双手分。一左一右兩摺身。蹬尽肘膝一股力。手起脚落盤腰筋。提起丹田腰腎轉。惟恐氣息調不真。一成工夫十分力。摇動肝木吸肺金。千頭萬緒有何慮。時時勤斈得細心。
Your hands spread apart as though sneakily removing support beams.
Go to the left and right, folding your body to both sides.
Exert a constant strength through your elbows and knees.
Your low hand rises and your raised foot lowers as you turn from your lower back.
Rouse your elixir field, your waist continuing to turn.
Be careful that your breathing is natural rather than forced.
By practicing this exercise, you will develop great strength.
The movement uses the wood energy of the liver, and the breathing uses the metal energy of the lungs.
Countless troubles need not make you worry.
Just spend all your time training diligently and mindfully.
See drawing 45:

二囬啅水势
Part 2:

轉𫔭双手上下劈。一翻一摺忙叠膝。中心闭住一口氣。回手扭腰翻身起。崩跳蹬力手撲地。左右盤旋立腰脊。兩腿用尽全身力。鷹拿燕雀連三𣁄。搃是滿腹一股氣。一呼一吸調氣息。
Your hands spread apart, one upward and the other downward.
Your arms bend inward and quickly align over your front knee.
Sealing off your center, take a full breath.
Your hands withdraw as your waist twists, your body turning.
Then you will hop with strength and put your hands on the ground.
Twist to the left and right, keeping your waist upright.
Your legs put forth their full effort, using the strength of your whole body.
Resembling an eagle catching a finch, do the movement over and over.
It is entirely a matter of constantly filling your belly with energy.
Therefore inhale and exhale smoothly.
See drawing 46:

三囬啅水势
Part 3:

功成一步非等𫔮。原轉金丹在湧泉。兩手托定日共月。鎖住心猿是真鉛。北斗安定星辰轉。十二時刻面朝参。氣行壹百二十節。血湧江河小周天。把住全在一時刻。失之最易行最难。今朝若得回心轉。悔想桃園二洞仙。
Each step of the training is nothing trivial.
The “golden elixir” gushes up from the “bubbling well”.
Your hands prop up the sun and moon.
To lock away your monkey mind is the true alchemy.
The Big Dipper stays centered while the stars revolve around it.
There are twelve time periods throughout the day, but you can really only perceive three at a time [the one that just finished, the one you are in, and the one about to start].
Energy courses through all of your joints.
Blood flows through your rivers as though you are a small world unto yourself.
Guard all that you have developed at every moment.
It is easy to lose and difficult to obtain.
What you gain today will transform your mind.
You will long to be in the peach garden of the immortals.
See drawing 47:

啅水完势
Part 4:

四肢摇動氣停胸。獨立起膝懸当空。摔𫔭百節合筋骨。左右起手耳生風。若能兩膀千觔力。方可与人賭輸嬴。身体受尽千般苦。切磋琢磨硬成功。
Your limbs act together and energy fills your chest.
You stand on one leg with the other knee lifted and hanging in the air.
Throw aside with all of your joints, your whole body working in unison.
Your hands rise to the left and right, your ears hearing the whoosh of the wind.
Make your arms capable of wielding a thousand pounds of force.
You will then be able to win any fight.
Train your body to endure all sorts of bitterness.
[From the Book of Poetry, poem 55:] “Cut and chisel, carve and polish” – thus you are sure to succeed.
See drawing 48:

虎𨁼人身势
Exercise 13: TIGER LUNGES AT A MAN – Part 1:

站定神氣立住眼。提起湧泉蹬脚心。挺胸腆脇兩腎閉。出手伸筋十指分。起提滿腹全身力。隂陽合合氣血均。凹腰腆肚手撲地。摺叠叠摺節節凖。周而復始分昼夜。宛住尾闾重分筋。
Stabilize your spirit and fix your gaze.
Activate the Yongquan [“bubbling well”] acupoints by pressing into the soles of your feet.
Stick out your chest and suck in your gut, arching your lower back.
Send out your hands, stretching the sinews and spreading your fingers.
Fill your belly with power, the power of your whole body.
Passive and active merge, your energy and blood harmonizing.
You will then bend at the waist, hollowing your belly, and reach your hands to the ground.
Fold in further and further until all of your joints are perfectly placed.
Do this exercise over and over, day and night.
Tucking in your tailbone to rise up again, feel the stretch as you go.
See drawing 49:

二囬虎𨁼势
Part 2:

立起四柱挺起身。自然而然架千金。前撲後縱伸筋骨。提起氣分並血分。氣湧三百六十節。周流合血遍舒筋。四肢蹬尽周天氣。闭住肛門即翻身。呼吸定息悠悠放。龍乕交會便虚心。子午卯酉安時刻。一遍成功一遍親。
Standing on all four limbs, your body rises up.
In this position, you can naturally support a great weight.
Bend forward and raise your tail, stretching your sinews and bones.
Rouse your energy and blood.
Send energy coursing through all of your joints.
Increased blood flow makes your sinews feel so comfortable.
Your limbs press as far as they can, filling with the energy of the universe.
Then tuck in your tailbone to lift your body back up.
Let your breathing be smooth and drawn out.
When dragon and tiger meet [inhale becoming exhale], empty your mind.
Practice at all times, from midnight to noon, sunrise to sunset.
You will everywhere be a success, everywhere admired.
See drawing 50:

三囬虎𨁼势
Part 3:

滿腹壓住一口氣。手腿蹬尽全身力。前撲後縱連三蚣。胸膜懸懸手按地。狼行乕步悠悠轉。圓轉尾闾肛門闭。呼吸定息手當胸。兩脚合合並跕立。提起蹬力挺腰脊。千斤壓頂有何惧。
Fill your belly with energy and press yourself down onto the ground, taking a full breath.
Your arms and legs put forth their full strength, summoning the power of your whole body.
With your body diving forward and your legs kicking out behind, you now resemble a centipede.
Your chest pulls up, your hands pushing against the ground.
Then moving like a wolf and stepping into place like a tiger, you will leisurely transition away from this into position.
Rotate your pelvis, tucking in your tailbone.
Regulate your breathing, your hands in front of your chest.
With your feet together, stand up straight.
Rising up, press against the ground strongly with your legs and straighten your back.
The thought of a thousand pounds pressing down on your head will not cause you any fear.
See drawing 51:

虎𨁼完勢
Part 4:

提起一口氣。抖抖兩膀力。用手双抱月。蹬膝脚踏地。丹田使氣滿。擎天賽玉柱。收功閉双手。攢拳貼兩閉。氣血能調養。圓轉筋骨處。
Rise up, taking a full breath, and tense your arms until they tremble.
Use both arms to embrace the moon, knees straight, feet now flat on the ground.
Your elixir field filling with energy, your hands will then prop up the sky, your arms like jade pillars.
To conclude this exercise, close your hands into fists and pull them back to your ribs.
Your energy and blood can be nourished because your sinews and bones are placed in positions of roundness.
See drawing 52:

陳摶大困势
Exercise 14: CHEN XIYI FALLS INTO A DEEP SLEEP – Part 1:

老僧訪學陳摶眠。起腿蹬力膝懸懸。滿腹提尽丹田氣。曲肱而枕休厭煩。捕腿下腰立後脊。日月生光在目前。玉兔東生还未醒。金烏西墜却入禅。生平受尽二子累。善於偷花非等𫔮。若能志堅功成滿。隂陽兩分莫貪恋。
An old monk comes to learn from Chen Xiyi, but the master is asleep.
Lift one leg while standing on the other, the knee floating in the air.
Fill your belly, rousing energy in your elixir field.
[From Lun Yu, 7.16:] “Bend an arm to use it as a pillow” and take a rest from all troubles.
Bend your leg in and bend your torso forward, keeping your back straight.
Sun and moon seem to shine before you.
The moon rising in the east is not enough to wake you,
but the sun setting in the west can help you slip into a trance.
You have been toiling your whole life, doing the work of two men,
and now you deserve a break to pick some flowers, an underrated pleasure.
If you can maintain your determination for the training, you will succeed.
Distinguish between passive and active, but do not over-emphasize either.
See drawing 53:

二囬大困势
Part 2:

僧入禅堂不怠慢。功成一畢却𦂯眠。尋常不敢伸足睡。一床錦被半床间。唯有小僧不守分。每夜彂狂欠安然。一場好夢不得作。須要忙裏且貪闲。人生天地無樂趣。重整鴛鴦再合歡。㕠手抱住心猿意。一長腿伸一腿捲。
A monk sits down to meditate with solemnity,
but as soon as he has finished, he collapses into sleep.
Ordinarily a monk would not dare to stick out his legs and fall asleep,
but space enough for half a bed is just as good as a full bed blanketed with luxurious brocade.
Low-ranking monks are undisciplined.
Every night, they lose their minds and become unfit for the training.
They must learn to deny themselves pretty dreams,
because they will only hurry inside in hopes of finding a chance for some idleness.
The sky, the ground, and mankind never seem to be happy,
but mandarin ducks find contentment in each other.
Your arms embrace in the manner of an ape.
One leg is straight, the other bent under you.
See drawing 54:

三回大困势
Part 3:

老僧作禅不記年。龍乕交會莫膽寒。双手托定日合月。隂陽合合鳮抱卵。賁門分𫔭隂陽路。瓜熱蒂落左右旋。天氣下降地氣轉。兩手推送頂梁懸。二十四肢節節分。如蹬貼壁到沉湾。
A monk in meditation forgets the passing years.
When a dragon and tiger meet, they do not fear each other.
Your hands brace upward, looking like the sun and moon in the sky together.
The passive and active aspects merge like a hen sitting on an egg.
As though large doors are spreading open, the passive and active aspects pass through.
Once in the proper position, twist to the left and right.
The energy of the sky descends and the energy of the ground rises.
Your hands push away, your head lolling back.
The joints of the limbs work one after another.
You seem to be stretching over a wall to dive into deep water.
See drawing 55:

大困完势
Part 4:

彭祖壽活八百年。豈是俗人大非凢。搃是陳𡊨作一夢。復隂还陽却回还。攔攔身体伸伸足。渺渺𡨋𡨋在眼前。抖抖精神調氣息。功夫重整時不𫔮。若人習成懶漢睡。坐卧行立不記年。
Peng Zu lived for eight hundred years,
far beyond the capacity of ordinary people.
This shows the same kind of ability as Chen Xiyi entering a deep dream state,
withdrawing from death and restoring life.
Energize your body, stretching all the way to your feet.
Let the world before your eyes dissolve into a meaningless blur.
Rouse your spirit and regulate your breath.
Let the training permeate you completely and then time will disappear.
Once you have become skillful at this exercise, you will achieve better sleep.
Thereafter whether you are lying down, sitting, standing, or even walking, you will never feel that you are aging at all.
See drawing 56:

父子三請禮势
Exercise 15: THREE SALUTATIONS BETWEEN FATHER & SON – Part 1:

提氣扭腰崩搥掌。翻身左右十字闖。終須自然功有成。何必努力使勉强。挺挺脚心蹬滿力。轉轉腰腎細囬想。隂陽兩分有何慮。搃是調氣要修養。
Rouse your energy, twist your waist, one hand in the avalanche-punch position, the other a palm.
You will turn your body to the left and right, punching out with the rear hand.
By staying natural throughout the exercise, you will achieve success.
There is no need to try too hard or to force anything to happen.
Press down through the soles of your feet and straighten the rear leg to make a solid structure.
Turn from your lower back, your attention reaching to the smallest detail.
Be mindful of the distinction between the passive and active aspects, and then you will have no confusion.
Always regulate your breath, and stay focused on self-cultivation.
See drawing 57:

二囬請禮势
Part 2:

拔尽氣力蹬千斤。吸起氣分虚其心。隂陽交合徧身走。氣行百節須要親。一處不到一處迷。惟恐氣息調不真。功成便得十二竅。一竅不明暗沉吟。智慧全在一時刻。不滿功成不毀心。
Rouse all of your strength, as though you are pushing away a thousand pounds.
Breathe in and then out, emptying your mind.
Passive and active merge and spread together throughout your body.
To get energy to course through all of your joints requires intimate attention.
One place skipped is one area lost.
Pay attention that your breathing is properly regulated.
Once you have achieved skillfulness at this exercise, it will benefit all twelve orifices [the usual “nine orifices” being eyes, ears, nostrils, mouth, anus, urethra (plus three more for women: nipples, vagina)].
If any orifice is not in perfect health, continue to practice with even deeper concentration.
Wisdom is entirely a matter of consistency.
If you still have not yet gained success in the training, this does not mean you should just give up.
See drawing 58:

三回請禮勢
Part 3:

轉身囬頭脚並立。扣住双手提滿氣。扣腰崩搥忙挣腿。提步蹬尽全身力。左右还轉高拱手。下氣一定肛门闭。氣血合合筋骨強。十二時刻應節氣。地氣上升天氣降。隂陽交合轉太極。
Turn your body and your head, your feet standing together.
Cover with both hands, rousing your full energy.
One fist is pulled back to your waist in the avalanche-punch position, your legs quickly twisting.
One foot rises, the weight supported mostly on the other leg using the strength of the whole body.
Switch sides back and forth, your hands performing a high saluting position on the way.
Stabilize the energy of your lower body by tucking in your tailbone.
Energy and blood work together, strengthening sinews and bones.
The twelve time periods throughout the day correspond to the twenty-four periods of changing weather throughout the year.
The energy of the ground rises and the energy of the sky descends.
The passive and active aspects switch places, the grand polarity rotating.
See drawing 59:

請禮完势
Part 4:

逥身拔力伸筋骨。洩弓搬弦須兩分。挣𫔭兩腿氣要滿。氣行未至血不均。徧身三百六十節。功成無力氣不真。分開隂陽調氣息。未恐子午定不親。酒色財氣不能戒。枉費徒劳一片心。
Turn your body and rouse your strength, stretching your sinews and bones.
Look as though you are drawing a bow, pulling on the string, expressing strength in two opposite directions at the same time.
With your legs spreading apart, fully rouse your energy.
If energy is not coursing through to all parts, blood circulation will not be smooth.
Energy has to be everywhere in your body, reaching every single joint.
If you do not exert yourself in these exercises, your energy will not be genuine.
Distinguish between passive and active in order to regulate your breath.
Be aware of your breath day and night in order to keep your energy steady.
Avoid wine, women, and wealth.
They are a pointless waste of time, effort, and mind.
See drawing 60:

鯉魚打挺势
Exercise 16: CARP FLIPS OVER – Part 1:

手脚㧓地翻身挺。蹬尽氣力血氣猛。凹要腆肚合筋骨。功成未滿力不勇。身堅体壮非容易。調調氣息再重整。十八门路用不尽。各有奥妙竅未醒。經師不及放友妙。虚心長存成一縂。
Your hands and feet grab the ground, your body arching backward.
Press up with all your strength, invigorating blood and energy.
Arch your back and stick out your belly, toning your physique.
If you do not push yourself as far as you can into the posture, your strength will not develop to the extent that it should.
To make the body strong is not easy.
It is a matter of regulating the breath and repetition.
These eighteen exercises are endlessly useful.
Each of them contains marvelous subtleties, little tricks for you to discover.
Because book learning is not enough, you must consult with your colleagues to get a more rounded understanding.
Keep an open mind and success will be assured.
See drawing 61:

二囬打挺势
Part 2:

㧓墻貼壁似湾仰面朝天氣挺胸。脚蹅平地蹬滿力。挽轉尾闾腰懸空。要訣縂是養氣血。筋强骨實大非輕。莫嫌此功無長處。能戒酒色速成功。
Reach to your upper back as though you are the bow an archer is bending.
Look up at the sky and stick out your chest.
Your feet are flat on the ground, legs straight and tensed.
Tuck in your tailbone and suck in your gut.
The key to it is that it is entirely a matter of cultivating energy and blood,
though making the sinews and bones strong and solid is by no means unimportant.
Do not dismiss this exercise or think that it is without merit.
If you can also avoid wine and women, you will succeed even faster.
See drawing 62:

張遼献袍势
Exercise 17: ZHANG LIAO PRESENTS A ROBE – Part 1:

提肩推掌起单膝。挺挺湧泉轉尾闾。丹田閉住一口氣。湧𫔭兩腎串後脊。氣行血足功程滿。四時用功莫心急。呼吸定息養神氣。曲膝下腰緊伏底。
Lift up your shoulders and push out your palms, raising one knee.
Activate the Yongquan acupoint of the standing foot and tuck in your tailbone.
Thereby sealing your elixir field, take a full breath.
Energy gushes from your kidneys and courses up your back.
This movement of energy boosts your blood circulation, enriching the exercise.
Work hard at it all year, year after year, without becoming impatient.
Breathe smoothly and nourish your spirit.
With knee bent, also bend at the waist, leaning forward.
See drawing 63:

二囬献袍势
Part 2:

叠膝蹬力腿鋪地。推送㕠手提滿氣。拔起両腎忙下腰。緊咬牙関肛门闭。伸𫔭百節生氣血。合合筋骨全身力。工夫常存按時行。力𣁄千斤有何慮。
One knee is bent, squatting strongly, the other extended along the ground.
You will then push out your hands, fully rousing your energy.
Your lower back lifts up, your torso suddenly bending forward.
Keep your mouth tightly closed and your tailbone tucked in.
Stretch your joints, invigorating your energy and blood.
Your sinews and bones work together, using the strength of your whole body.
Skill will become permanent and be ready for you whenever you need it.
Once you can lift a thousand pounds, what would you have to worry about?
See drawing 64:

三回献袍势
Part 3:

搬拳度尽両膀力。𩣔裆提滿丹田氣。緊咬牙関㕠推手。摺摺腰腎腿鋪地。下腰伸腿叠单膝。一來一往似抽鉅。合合節骨神氣壮。氣行血走肛门闭。
Your fists squeeze, your arms flexing.
Step out into a bow stance and rouse your energy, your elixir field filling with it.
With your mouth tightly closed, push out with both hands.
Reach from your lower back, your front foot sliding into place.
Lower your waist and straighten your rear leg, your front leg bending.
Withdraw and push out, drawing in as though pulling a great weight.
Your joints work in close coordination and your spirit is robust.
Energy flows, your blood follows along with it, and your tailbone tucks in.
See drawing 65:

献袍完势
Part 4:

提肩勒綱蹬千斤。手起手落緊遂身。挣𫔭両腿提滿氣。湧𫔭氣分並血分。功行百日阴阳轉。氣行百節血養筋。春秋四季應節氣。氣行節應節節親。
Lifting your shoulders, your hands move as though hauling in a fishing net, your legs supporting a thousand pounds.
Your hands rise and lower in coordination with your body.
Spread your feet apart and fill yourself with energy.
In a surge, energy and blood reach to every part.
After practicing for a hundred days, passive and active will switch places [i.e. stiffness will turn into suppleness and weakness will turn into strength].
Energy courses through your body, nourishing your blood and sinews.
The four seasons are broken down into twenty-four periods of changing weather.
Energy likewise moves through each of your joints, one after another.
See drawing 66:

金鈎掛玉瓶势
Exercise 18: JADE VASE HANGING FROM GOLDEN HOOKS – Part 1:

半夜用功身劳苦。期定隂陽分子午。調滿氣息腿交脛。双手避日伸筋骨。舒筋合血善修養。一翻一折兩手撲。心猿意馬鎖不住。氣虚力怯血未足。按定方寸養神氣。立見效騐成功速。
Practicing in the middle of the night could make your body weary.
Establish the times of passive and active, distinguishing between midnight and noon.
Regulate your breath, holding your legs together.
Your hands reach away from the sun, stretching your sinews and bones.
Extending the sinews and bringing harmony to the blood is excellent for self-cultivation.
Your hands will then arc forward and down to your feet.
If you have a monkey’s mind and a horse’s impulsiveness, you will not be able to focus during the exercise. [An old saying: “The mind of a monkey is not stable. The impulsiveness of a horse sends it running in all directions.”]
If your energy is deficient and your strength is timid, your blood will be undernourished.
Remaining steady and precise will cultivate spirit,
and thus you will soon see results and quickly succeed.
See drawing 67:

二囬掛玉瓶势
Part 2:

婉轉尾闾漫折腰。㕠手並合捹脚稍。滿腹壓存一口氣。運動水火隂陽交。拔力伸筋行血氣。僧入禅堂夜难熬。晝夜行功按時刻。不滿功程豈肯消。
Extending from your lower back, slowly bend forward at the waist.
Both hands in unison reach to your toes.
Your belly flattens, exhaling fully.
This action exercises water and fire, merging the passive and active aspects.
Rouse your strength and stretch your sinews, getting your blood and energy to flow.
Be like a monk in meditation, persisting until sleep overwhelms him.
Practice day and night, whenever you get a chance.
As long as you are never satisfied with the results, you will always achieve more.
See drawing 68:

掛玉瓶勢完
Part 3:

力𣁄擎天掌。氣滿身自壮。蹬尽両腿力。百節筋骨响。血走阴阳合。氣行精神爽。功成三冬煖。力怯莫勉强。時時得勤苦。搃是要修養。
Forcefully prop up your palms to the sky, energy filling your body with vigor.
Your legs press you upward with strength, your joints all acting in coordination.
Your blood circulates, the passive and active aspects merging, and your energy flows, your spirit brightening.
The result of this exercise will be warmth in the winter and a boldness that will make nothing too difficult for you.
Constantly put in the hard work that these exercises require, for the key to them all is self-cultivation.
See drawing 69:

–

內觀圖　用功行氣内裏要訣全圖
INTERNAL ANATOMY CHART (a map for moving energy around internally)

泥湾 clay-pellet palace
髓海 marrow sea
天谷 celestial valley
通於尾骶 path to the tailbone
領骨三節 cervical vertebrae
喉 larynx
咽 pharynx
膻中 Danzhong acupoint [CU 17]
肺 lungs
心包 pericardium
脾系 spleen system
胃系 stomach system
肝系 liver system
腎系 kidney system
脾 spleen
脂𫆳 gastrosplenic ligament
肝 liver
胆 gallbladder
腎 kidneys
胃 stomach
賁门 cardia
幽门 pylorus
小腸 small intestines
大腸 large intestines
阑门 ileum
丹田 elixir field
膀胱 bladder
命门 life gate
直腸 rectum
溺孔 urethra
精道 vas deferens
魄门 anus
尾闾 tailbone

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功成縂是善調氣。春夏秋冬安四季。水火既済周天轉。生尅制化應節氣。身堅體壮妙不盡。心快意樂得機秘。奧妙無穷乾坤交。不怕山川雲遊處。幸得偶遇蓬萊客。坐觀海湧太陽戯。西望瑶池参王母。亞賽璠桃群仙聚。
Success is entirely a matter of being good at regulating your breath.
It is a similar pattern to the seasons [inhale beginning (spring), inhale finishing (summer), exhale beginning (autumn), exhale finishing (winter)].
Fire and water complement each other, the universe within you rotating.
Processes of creation and destruction correspond to the twenty-four periods of changing weather throughout the year.
　　A strong and robust body is capable of endless wonders.
A mind that finds delight in the material will gain untold pleasure from it.
In endlessly subtle ways, sky and ground merge.
Clouds wander everywhere, never fearing mountain or river.
　　You may seem to find yourself at the island of the immortals.
Sitting there, watch the waves and see the glorious sunset.
To the west, gaze upon the Jade Lake and consult the Queen Mother.
These exercises are like the peach of immortality, which caused all the immortals to congregate around it.

東方属木木旺春。木属肝經肝主筋。
The direction of east is associated with wood, spring, liver, sinews.
南方属火火旺夏。火属心經心主血。
South: fire, summer, heart, blood.
中央属土土旺脾。四季和平脾主肉。
Center: earth, all seasons, spleen, muscle.
西方属金金旺秋。金属肺經肺主氣。
West: metal, autumn, lungs, breath.
北方属水水旺冬。水属腎經腎主骨。
North: water, winter, kidneys, bones.

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行功要訣　重訂增補羅漢行功短打通解
KEY TO THE EXERCISES (an additional text to improve understanding of the Luohan exercises and fighting techniques)

子午卯酉晝夜還。燒酒房事不可貪。輕擊重打看先後。日就月將無间断。昔人依此成羅漢。我輩學來作奇男。千錘萬煉猶嫌少。何惜工夫一百天。
Practice at midnight, at noon, at sunrise, at sunset, devoting all of your time to it.
Distractions such as wine and sex should be avoided.
To go from striking lightly to hitting heavily, seeing true progress,
requires working at it day after day and month after month without any interruption.
　　It was with this attitude that previous generations created the Luohan Exercises.
If our generation would study it, we would produce remarkable men.
Even thousands of hammerings and smelting would not be enough.
Honestly, how could you expect to achieve skill in just a hundred days?

行功一道。或摘用。或全用。俱要清心寡慾。朝乾夕惕。行功之時。固宜存神固氣。由心經而達於四肢。自然流通。畧無矯强。即不行之時。作止語默。亦須全真養元。使無散亂。斯為精於行功云。
In other words, practicing any art, whether some or all of it, requires complete dedication and no vices, and the discipline to work at it all day long. When practicing, there has to be constant spirit and steadfast energy. Guided by the mind, energy reaches to the limbs, flowing naturally and without forcing it to happen. When not practicing, get into a habit of stillness and silence, like a Daoist monk cultivating oneness, keeping you free from distracting disorder. This is the essence of how to practice.

百日可成
You can expect some success after just a hundred days.

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The post The Eighteen Luohan Exercises According to the Daoist Shengxiao appeared first on DYHR.COM.

International law, treaty obligations, and the hard-won lessons of the twentieth century.

I. A Civilisation Built on Law

Modern democratic civilisation did not emerge by accident. It was constructed, deliberately and painstakingly, on the ruins of two world wars, the Holocaust, colonial atrocity, and totalitarian catastrophe. The founding architects of the post-1945 international order made a simple but revolutionary decision: that certain acts — genocide, aggressive war, apartheid, the systematic violation of human rights — would no longer be treated as the internal affairs of sovereign states. They would be crimes. Universal crimes. Crimes for which individuals, governments, and states would be held accountable.

That architecture rests on several pillars, each legally binding on its signatories. Europe helped build those pillars. Europe must now defend them.

II. The Legal Framework: What the World Has Agreed

The United Nations Charter (1945)

The Charter of the United Nations, signed on 26 June 1945 and in force since 24 October 1945, is the foundational treaty of the contemporary international order. Its 193 current member states — representing virtually every recognised nation on Earth — have bound themselves to its principles.

Article 2(4) is unambiguous: “All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state.” Wars of aggression are not merely inadvisable. They are illegal under the highest international legal instrument in existence.

Article 1 states that the purposes of the United Nations include maintaining international peace and security, developing friendly relations among nations based on the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples, and promoting respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion.

The 193 current UN Member States include every major power on earth. There is no legitimate state that stands outside this framework.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948)

On 10 December 1948, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) — Resolution 217A — with 48 votes in favour, zero against, and eight abstentions. It was not adopted as a binding treaty; it was proclaimed as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations. In the decades since, its core provisions have acquired the status of customary international law, binding on all states regardless of explicit signature.

Article 1: “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.”
Article 2: No distinction shall be made on the basis of race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.
Article 7: All are equal before the law and entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law.

These are not aspirations. They are the legal floor beneath which no state has the right to descend.

The Geneva Conventions (1949) and Their Additional Protocols

The four Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949 represent one of the most universally ratified bodies of international law in existence. As of 2024, all 196 states recognised by the international community are party to the Geneva Conventions — a degree of ratification unmatched by virtually any other international legal instrument.

The Conventions regulate the conduct of armed conflict and the protection of those who do not — or no longer — participate in hostilities: wounded and sick soldiers, prisoners of war, and civilians. Common Article 3, which applies to non-international armed conflicts, prohibits violence to life and person, cruel treatment, torture, the taking of hostages, and the denial of fair trial.

Additional Protocol I (1977), ratified by 174 states, extends protections to civilian populations in international armed conflicts. Protocol II, ratified by 169 states, covers non-international conflicts. Protocol III (2005), on the additional distinctive emblem, has 80 states parties.

Grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions — including wilful killing, torture, and the extensive destruction of civilian property not justified by military necessity — are war crimes under international law. States are not merely permitted to prosecute such crimes; under the principle of aut dedere aut judicare (extradite or prosecute), they are obligated to do so.

The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (1948)

The Genocide Convention, adopted by the UN General Assembly on 9 December 1948 and in force since 1951, currently has 153 states parties. Under Article 1, the contracting parties confirm that genocide — whether committed in time of peace or war — is a crime under international law which they undertake to prevent and to punish.

Genocide is defined as acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group. Forcible transfer of children and deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about a group’s physical destruction are explicitly included.

There are no exceptions. There are no exemptions for great powers, regional powers, or any state’s claimed security interests.

The Rome Statute and the International Criminal Court (1998)

The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, adopted in 1998 and in force since 2002, has 124 states parties. It establishes permanent international jurisdiction over genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and — since the Kampala amendments of 2010 — the crime of aggression.

The crime of aggression, as defined in Article 8bis, covers the planning, preparation, initiation, or execution of an act of aggression which, by its character, gravity and scale, constitutes a manifest violation of the Charter of the United Nations. Individuals who exercise effective control over state action can be held personally criminally responsible.

The principle is simple: no head of state, no general, no minister is above the law of nations.

The European Convention on Human Rights (1950)

Within Europe, the European Convention on Human Rights, drafted by the Council of Europe and in force since 1953, binds all 46 member states of the Council of Europe. It guarantees, among other rights: the right to life, the prohibition of torture and inhuman treatment, the prohibition of slavery, the right to a fair trial, the right to privacy, freedom of thought, conscience and religion, freedom of expression, and freedom of assembly.

The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg provides a binding enforcement mechanism — a legal body with compulsory jurisdiction to which individuals may apply directly when their rights are violated by a signatory state. Judgments of the Court are binding on respondent states.

The 46 Council of Europe member states are: Albania, Andorra, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom.

Note: Russia was expelled from the Council of Europe on 16 March 2022, following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Additional International Legal Instruments

The international legal framework further includes: the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), with 173 states parties; the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), with 171 states parties; the Convention Against Torture (CAT), with 174 states parties; and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), with 182 states parties.

Together, these instruments form an interlocking legal architecture of extraordinary breadth and depth. No state with any claim to legitimacy can credibly argue it stands outside their reach.

III. What Is Prohibited

The following are not matters of political opinion or cultural relativity. They are legal prohibitions, enforceable under international law:

• Wars of aggression — illegal under the UN Charter, Article 2(4), and prosecutable as the crime of aggression under the Rome Statute.
• Colonisation and territorial annexation by force — prohibited by the UN Charter and repeatedly reaffirmed by General Assembly resolutions, including Resolution 2625 (1970) on the Declaration of Principles of International Law.
• Genocide — prohibited and punishable under the 1948 Genocide Convention, customary international law, and the Rome Statute.
• Crimes against humanity — including murder, extermination, deportation, forcible transfer of populations, imprisonment, torture, rape, persecution, enforced disappearance, and apartheid, when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack on a civilian population. Codified in Article 7 of the Rome Statute.
• Apartheid — explicitly listed as a crime against humanity in the Rome Statute. The International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid (1973), with 109 states parties, declares it a crime against humanity and imposes criminal liability on individuals, members of organisations, and representatives of states who commit, participate in, or abet it.
• Forced displacement and ethnic cleansing — prohibited as crimes against humanity and, depending on intent, as genocide under international law.
• Torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment — absolutely prohibited under the ECHR, the CAT, the ICCPR, and customary international law. There are no exceptions — not military necessity, not national emergency, not any other consideration whatsoever.
• Collective punishment — prohibited under Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.
• Attacks on civilian populations and civilian infrastructure — war crimes under the Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols.

The prohibition of these acts is not conditional. It does not depend on whether the perpetrating state is a great power, a regional ally, a member of a favoured political bloc, or a signatory in good standing. The law applies universally, or it applies to no one.

IV. Accountability Is Not Optional

International law is meaningless if it is applied selectively — prosecuting the defeated while exempting the powerful. The integrity of the entire legal order depends on the principle of universal applicability.

The International Criminal Court exercises jurisdiction regardless of the nationality of the accused, subject to its statute’s conditions. The principle of universal jurisdiction, recognised in customary international law, allows — and in the case of grave breaches, requires — states to prosecute serious international crimes regardless of where they were committed or the nationality of the perpetrator or victim.

The ICJ has affirmed, in cases including Nicaragua v. United States (1986), that the prohibition on the use of force is a peremptory norm of international law (jus cogens) — a norm from which no derogation is permitted. No treaty, no bilateral agreement, no political arrangement can override it.

The Nuremberg Principles, affirmed by the UN General Assembly in 1946 through Resolution 95(I), established that crimes against international law are committed by individual human beings and not by abstract entities. Heads of state are not immune when they order or authorise international crimes. The defence of superior orders does not exempt those who carry them out.

When international institutions lack the political will to act, the responsibility falls on individual states — through sanctions, diplomatic isolation, referrals to international courts, arms embargoes, asset freezes, and the full range of lawful political and economic instruments. Silence in the face of documented international crimes is not neutrality. It is complicity.

V. Europe’s Particular Responsibility

Europe is not an innocent bystander in the history of international atrocity. European states invented the slave trade, built the colonial empires, and perpetrated or enabled the worst genocides of the modern era. The post-war international legal order was, in part, Europe’s attempt to reckon honestly with its own history and to build something that could prevent its repetition.

That history imposes a specific obligation. Europe cannot, with any moral consistency, invoke international law only when it is convenient — only when violations are committed by adversaries, by distant governments, by those with whom it lacks economic or military ties. The law demands consistency. Inconsistency does not merely weaken legal norms; it destroys them.

Today, Europe faces a renewed challenge. Authoritarian leaders — some within Europe’s own neighbourhood, some within alliances Europe has long regarded as stable — are openly contemptuous of the post-war order. They dismiss international law as an imposition, human rights as a Western construct, and democratic norms as naive. They test whether democracies have the will to enforce their own stated values.

The answer must be clear, consistent, and grounded not in ideology but in law.

Europe must support international institutions: the ICC, the ICJ, the UN Human Rights mechanisms, the Council of Europe, and the OSCE. It must implement sanctions against those credibly accused of serious international crimes, regardless of their political or strategic weight. It must provide support — legal, material, diplomatic — to those whose rights are being violated. And it must hold itself to the same standard it demands of others.

No aspiring king, emperor, or strongman — however powerful, however nuclear-armed, however economically significant — is exempt from these obligations. Power does not confer legal immunity. It never has, under international law properly understood, and it never should.

VI. A Call for Sanity and Justice

This is not a call for war. It is a call for law.

The international legal order — imperfect, contested, unevenly enforced as it is — represents the most serious collective attempt in human history to make the world less brutal. The Geneva Conventions have saved millions of lives. The Genocide Convention has informed interventions that prevented mass murder. The European Convention on Human Rights has given redress to hundreds of thousands of individuals whose governments violated their rights. These are not abstract achievements. They are real.

To abandon this framework — through indifference, through selective application, through the slow accommodation of authoritarianism — is to choose a world governed by force rather than law. By the logic of the powerful rather than the rights of the individual. By conquest rather than cooperation.

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. This is not a European value. It is not a Western value. It is the foundational legal principle of the post-war international order, affirmed by virtually every state on earth. It means every person — regardless of nationality, ethnicity, religion, or political opinion — is entitled to protection under the law. It means no government, however powerful, has the right to murder, torture, displace, or subjugate people with impunity.

The world does not need more empires. It does not need more strongmen who mistake brutality for strength and lawlessness for sovereignty. It needs states that take their legal obligations seriously, institutions with the capacity to enforce those obligations, and citizens who demand that their governments act accordingly.

Europe — with its history, its institutions, its legal traditions, and its considerable collective weight — has both the capacity and the obligation to lead by example. Not through military adventurism. Not through the imposition of cultural preferences. But through the consistent, principled, legally grounded defence of the rules that make peaceful coexistence possible.

The alternative is not a world of competing sovereignties each following its own code. The alternative is impunity. And impunity, as the twentieth century demonstrated with catastrophic clarity, always ends the same way.

The law is not optional. It is the foundation. And foundations, once abandoned, are very hard to rebuild.

Thomas Dyhr — April 2026

References and Further Reading

• Charter of the United Nations (1945) — un.org
• Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) — un.org
• Geneva Conventions (1949) and Additional Protocols — icrc.org
• Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (1948)
• Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (1998) — icc-cpi.int
• European Convention on Human Rights (1950) — echr.coe.int
• International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966)
• Convention Against Torture (1984)
• ICJ, Nicaragua v. United States of America (1986)
• UN General Assembly Resolution 95(I) — Affirmation of the Nuremberg Principles (1946)

The post 196 Nations Signed. So Why Are War Criminals Still Walking Free? appeared first on DYHR.COM.

On February 28, 2026, the United States and Israel launched Operation Epic Fury against Iran. No congressional authorization. No UN Security Council approval. Active peace negotiations were underway. A deal was described as “within reach” by Oman’s foreign minister — the day before the bombs fell.

This is not spin. This is the record.

The Supreme International Crime

The Nuremberg Tribunal, established by the United States itself, ruled that the crime of aggression is “the supreme international crime” — because every war crime, every atrocity, every civilian death flows from it.

The UN Charter is unambiguous. Force is legal in only two cases: UN Security Council authorization, or genuine self-defence against an actual or imminent attack. Neither applied here.

Iran had not attacked the United States. Pentagon briefers told congressional staff privately that there was no intelligence indicating Iran was preparing a first strike. The administration invoked “imminence” — then cited incidents from 1979, 1983, and 2000 as its evidence.

That is not imminence. That is pretext.

International law professor Yusra Suedi at the University of Manchester: “There really was no evidence of an imminent threat. If it’s pre-emptive, it means you are acting to counter something that is hypothetical, speculative — and that is exactly what happened here.”

Over 100 international law experts signed an open letter calling the strikes a clear violation of the UN Charter.

Pete Hegseth Told You Exactly What He Was Doing

Pete Hegseth — Secretary of Defense, renamed by himself “Secretary of War” — did not hide his intentions. He announced them.

Before the war began, he fired the judge advocates general of multiple military branches — the top lawyers whose job is to keep the military inside the law. He called rules of engagement “stupid.” In his 2024 book he wrote that American soldiers “should not fight by rules written by dignified men in mahogany rooms 80 years ago.”

Day one of Operation Epic Fury, March 2, 2026, Pentagon briefing:

“No stupid rules of engagement, no nation-building quagmire, no politically correct wars.”

March 4: “Death and destruction from the sky all day long.”

March 13: “No quarter, no mercy for our enemies.”

“No quarter” is not rhetoric. It is a war crime. The prohibition dates to the Hague Convention of 1899. It was prosecuted at Nuremberg. It violates the Geneva Conventions, the US War Crimes Act, and the Marine Corps’ own rules of engagement. It means: kill the enemy even when they surrender.

He also dismantled the Pentagon’s “civilian environment teams” — the units whose explicit job was minimizing civilian deaths. The 2026 National Defense Strategy omits the words “civilian protection” and “international law” entirely.

This is not negligence. This is policy.

Minab. 168 Dead. Mostly Girls Aged 7 to 12.

On the morning of February 28, 2026 — the first hour of the war — a Tomahawk cruise missile struck the Shajareh Tayyebeh girls’ elementary school in Minab, Hormozgan Province. Three missiles hit in rapid succession. School was in session. At least 168 people died, the majority children between 7 and 12 years old.

The US initially blamed Iran. Iran does not possess Tomahawk missiles. The US Pentagon has since preliminarily confirmed American responsibility. A targeting error — based on stale intelligence data that classified the school as an IRGC facility, based on the site’s use years prior.

The school had stopped being a military facility. No one checked. The civilians died.

Amnesty International confirmed US Tomahawk missile remnants at the scene. Human Rights Watch called it an unlawful attack and demanded prosecutions. UN experts called it “a grave assault on children.” UNICEF reported more than 1,100 children killed or injured across the conflict in its first two weeks.

The administration initially denied. Then investigated quietly. No accountability. No retraction.

Who Is Accountable — and How

Command responsibility is a cornerstone of international law since Nuremberg: commanders are criminally liable for war crimes committed by subordinates if they knew, or should have known, and failed to prevent them.

Hegseth publicly dismantled the legal safeguards before and during the war. He fired the lawyers. He abolished the civilian protection teams. He announced “no rules of engagement” from a Pentagon podium. The chain of command responsibility leads directly upward.

Accountability pathways that exist now:

• ICC via Article 12(3): Iran can grant the International Criminal Court jurisdiction over crimes on its territory since February 28, 2026 — without being an ICC member. Palestine and Ukraine both used this mechanism. DAWN has formally urged Iran to file.
• US War Crimes Act: No statute of limitations where death results. The death penalty is applicable. Any future administration can prosecute.
• Universal jurisdiction: Multiple EU states and Canada can prosecute war crimes regardless of the nationality of the accused.
• UN General Assembly: Any member state can introduce a resolution declaring the strikes a war of aggression under the UN Charter.

Why This Matters Beyond Iran

The US and Israel went to war without authorization, during active negotiations, and announced in advance they would not follow the laws of war. They struck a school full of children on day one and denied it. They declared “no quarter” — a Nuremberg-era war crime — from a Pentagon press briefing.

If this passes without accountability, the rules-based international order does not merely weaken. It ends.

The Nuremberg precedent was established partly because the United States insisted on it. The argument then: no leader, no nation, is above the law. That argument was correct in 1946. It remains correct in 2026.

The evidence is documented. The statements are on the record. The names are known.

The question now is whether the legal mechanisms built after World War II will be used — or whether they exist only to judge the defeated.

Sources: Just Security, Al Jazeera, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, DAWN, Foreign Policy, WBUR/On Point, Wikipedia (2026 Iran war), US Senate letters to Hegseth (Warren, Reed et al.), opiniojuris.org, The Conversation, In These Times, JURIST, FactCheck.org.

The post Operation Epic Fury: The War Crimes Case appeared first on DYHR.COM.

Most discussions of Yiquan (意拳) and Dachengquan (大成拳) rightly begin with zhan zhuang — the standing post from which everything flows. But once a practitioner has spent serious time in the post, a question arises that reveals whether they understand the system or only admire it: How do you move?

Wang Xiangzhai was unambiguous on this point. According to the Dachengquan training curriculum documented by his senior student Yu Yongnian, the full system comprises zhan zhuang as the main course, completed with stepping (bu fa 步法), testing force (shi li 試力), issuing force (fa li 發力), testing voice (shi sheng 試聲), pushing hands (tui shou 推手), and sparring (san shou 散手). Stepping is not an afterthought — it is the bridge between the cultivated internal state and actual combat utility.

Yu Yongnian states directly: “Steps are decisive in combat and will even determine the issue of this confrontation.” And yet bu fa is probably the least-discussed and least-taught element of the system in the West. This post covers all of Yiquan’s stepping methods in depth, then compares them with the stepping logic of Xingyiquan, Baguazhang, and Taijiquan — with inline video for every method.

The Governing Principle: Centerline Before Feet

Before examining individual methods, you need the principle that governs all internal martial arts stepping. Jan Diepersloot states it precisely in Masters of Perception:

Part IYiquan / Dachengquan Stepping (意拳步法)

The Structural Division: Fixed and Unfixed Steps

Wang Xiangzhai’s writings, translated by Paul Brennan in The Correct Path of Yiquan, establish the fundamental taxonomy:

Fixed stepping maintains a consistent lead: suited to advancing pressure and retreating evasion without disrupting structure. Unfixed stepping enables angular attacks, crossing the opponent’s centerline, and sudden reversal of initiative. The combat stance is 40% front / 60% rear, switching when a technique is applied.

Wang Xuanjie — Dachengquan Moca Bu

Wang Xuanjie, senior student of Wang Xiangzhai and author of Dachengquan, demonstrates moca bu in the hunyuan zhuang posture. Feet barely leave the ground; upper body completely still throughout.

Han Xingyuan — Yiquan Moca Bu

Han Xingyuan — who transmitted Yiquan to the West via Fong Ha — demonstrates moca bu in both the cultivation posture and the combat stake position. One of the few recordings bridging the Beijing and Western transmission lines.

Yiquan Park — Moca Bu: How It Connects With Zhanzhuang, Shili & Combat

Part IIComparative Stepping from the Internal Arts

Yiquan did not arise in isolation. Wang Xiangzhai absorbed Guo Yunshen’s Xingyiquan deeply, studied Baguazhang and Taijiquan practitioners extensively, and explicitly referenced all three in his writings. Their stepping methods illuminate both the shared logic and the deliberate departures that define Yiquan’s approach.

形意拳Xingyiquan — Plowing Steps

Xingyiquan is Yiquan’s direct ancestor. Wang Xiangzhai trained under Guo Yunshen, renowned above all for his half-step crushing fist. The Xingyi classics: “Stepping like a plow overturning the earth; placing the feet as if one is a rooted tree.”

Xingyi Quan Ten Minute Primer — Basic Footwork & Stepping

Full advancing step (整步 通步): Pad step → step-through → follow-in. Toes of the rear foot must not open beyond 45° — more opens the groin and dissipates forward-peddling power.

Half-step (半步 Bàn Bù): Made famous by Guo Yunshen. Left foot advances half a step; right foot slides in and lands behind the left heel with a thump. Weight stays rear. The explosive entry method behind beng quan — directly parallel with moca bu.

Cover step (插步 Chā Bù): Rear foot crosses forward past the front leg with toes out, thighs briefly closing, body obliquely twisted. Used to flank or enter from an unexpected angle.

For the seasoned practitioner: Train Xingyi stepping to develop explosive forward-peddling power and direct entry tactics; then dissolve those shapes back into Yiquan’s formless adaptability. The underlying physiology is identical — rear-weighted, low foot carriage, ground-driven — the expression differs.

八卦掌Baguazhang — Circle Walking

Baguazhang’s foundational exercise is circle walking (走圈 zǒu quān), typically practiced 40–60 minutes per session. Its stepping: the “mud-wading step” (趟泥步 tāng ní bù) — the same earthy friction imagery as moca bu, and for good reason.

Cheng Bagua Circle Walking — A Deep Breakdown

Master NRouHua, 6th generation Cheng BaguaZhang (trained with 4th generation Master Liu Xinhan 1980–1996). Filmed at Tiantan, Beijing, 2015. No subtitles — the stepping itself is the instruction.

Baguazhang Circle Walking — 4 Basic Steps Explained in Full

Full breakdown of the 4 basic Bagua steps with circle walking practice. Timestamps: 15:37 steps demonstrated · 17:20 steps explained · 30:36 inner/outer leg principle.

The four basic Bagua steps:

1. Flat foot step — foot lands flat. Develops even ground contact.
2. Toe-in step (扣步 kòu bù) — inner foot hooks inward toward the circle’s centre, enabling continuous direction change without breaking structure.
3. Toe-out step (擺步 bǎi bù) — outer foot reaches across the circle, heel landing first, toes opening outward.
4. Mud-wading step (趟泥步) — low foot carriage, constant downward pressure into the ground. The quality that unifies all three previous steps.

Organizing principle: “The inner leg walks the square, the outer leg walks the circle.”

For the seasoned practitioner: Circle walking develops rotational centerline movement often underdeveloped in linear Yiquan practice. Integration exercise: practice moca bu on a circular path, maintaining hunyuan or cheng bao arm posture, for 10–20 minutes without stopping.

太極拳Taijiquan — Empty-Leg Stepping

Taijiquan’s stepping rule: “When stepping, be like a cat.” The full weight must leave a leg before that leg moves.

Chen Style Tai Chi — Step by Step for Beginners

Full tutorial on Chen-style stepping: bow stance (gong bu), empty stance (xu bu), and the heel-toe stepping sequence.

Heel-first placement on advance: The heel lands first, expressing “ward off” (peng) from the first point of contact — testing for resistance before weight is committed.

Toe-first placement on retreat: Toe lands first, testing before committing.

The full weight test: Before any foot lifts, 100% of weight must transfer onto the standing leg. Structurally identical to Yiquan’s lift test in lower position walking.

Shifting as its own practice: Taijiquan isolates the centerline shift — from foot to foot in the archer stance — as a standalone exercise. Hours of weight transfer without lifting the feet at all. This develops the weight-distribution sensitivity behind the exquisitely controlled timing of Taiji stepping in push-hands and application.

For the seasoned practitioner: Taijiquan slow-form stepping is the best diagnostic for the plumb-centerline principle. The Chen-style emphasis on chan si jin (silk-reeling) during stepping is also a productive training concept for the ground-driven rotational power Yiquan uses in fa li.

Part IIIThe Common Thread — And What Makes Yiquan Unique

Across all four systems, the shared stepping principles are:

1. Weight clears before the leg moves.
2. The torso stays plumb. Leaning telegraphs and disrupts structure.
3. Foot carriage is low. High stepping empties the base and signals intention.
4. Feet land firmly and immediately. No tentative half-landings.
5. Rear-weighted stance is the default. The rear leg is the primary reservoir of power and mobility.

What distinguishes Yiquan’s moca bu from all of them is the explicit integration of internal force training with footwork. In Xingyi, the step generates power. In Bagua, the step develops evasive structure. In Taiji, the step develops sensitivity and yielding. In Yiquan, the step is a continuation of shi li — it must carry the unified hunyuan force cultivated in the post. If the force is not present when you step, the step is incomplete regardless of how technically correct its mechanics are.

“Your body should crowd him. Your step should pass him. Your foot should stomp him.”

Conclusion

Stepping in Yiquan is zhan zhuang in motion. It is the ongoing expression of hunyuan force through a moving, living body — structured enough to maintain integrity, formless enough to adapt to whatever arises.

The comparison with Xingyi, Bagua, and Taijiquan reveals not competing approaches but complementary training methodologies. Xingyi’s forward-peddling power, Bagua’s rotational evasiveness, and Taijiquan’s exquisitely sensitive weight transfer each illuminate a different facet of what moca bu, at its fullest, is meant to contain.

Start there. Practice daily. Test everything.

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