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The Emei fist is a highly skillful martial art, whether practiced individually or in paired sparring, it emphasizes the application and expression of skillful techniques, forming requirements distinct from other martial arts.

1. Requirements for Techniques:
   • First, techniques should be relaxed, flexible, and devoid of any stiffness. Only by maintaining this state can one remain constantly adaptable and easily neutralize the opponent’s force, transitioning from extreme softness to extreme firmness in an instant, thereby maximizing explosive power. Avoid any stiffness or rigidity in techniques.
   • Second, techniques should be delivered elastically. This method allows for maximum speed: when attacking, the strike automatically springs forward, catching the opponent off guard; when retracting, it springs back, making it difficult for them to follow. It also ensures coordination between rapid striking methods and agile footwork, resulting in cohesive and concentrated force.
   • Third, make full use of the length of one’s arm. According to the fist classics: “Without steps, the technique is useless; without space, the hand is empty.” This means that if the opponent’s attack doesn’t reach within the range of my arm, they cannot strike me, as their fist is also limited to the length of their arm. However, if they enter my arm’s length to strike me, I can use the deflecting technique to counter. Therefore, Emei fist emphasizes exploiting this characteristic of striking techniques during execution, requiring arms to extend forward as much as possible and remain flexible and adaptable with agile footwork, rendering the opponent unable to grasp or withdraw, thus avoiding the strengths of their incoming strikes and utilizing the characteristics of non-contact techniques.
2. Requirements for Eye Techniques:
   • When facing an opponent, remain indifferent, without any facial expressions, making it difficult for the opponent to predict your intentions. Avoid showing teeth or making angry expressions to prevent dispersion of focus.
   • During combat, maintain focus primarily on the opponent’s face or eyes, with peripheral vision monitoring other areas. Avoid letting your eyes follow your hands or shifting your gaze left and right, as this can reveal your attack intentions and make you susceptible to feints.
3. Requirements for Body Techniques:
   • Preferably use high stances over low stances. High stances offer greater flexibility and speed of change, while low stances are slower and less conducive to maneuvering.
   • Try to angle the body sideways toward the opponent to minimize the target area vulnerable to attacks and reduce the area needing self-defense. Straightforward stances expose too much vulnerability.
   • Maintain a straight line of attack when striking, combining offense with defense to leave no openings for the opponent. Avoid leading with the body and following with the hand, which would telegraph your intentions and leave you vulnerable.
   • Ensure swift transitions in body movements, as slow transitions are vulnerable to attacks. Avoid sluggish or unresponsive movements.
4. Requirements for Footwork:
   • Use heel steps when exerting force. This footwork allows for force generation while moving quickly, achieving maximum stride, and enabling sudden halts during rapid offense and defense, providing room for variation. Conversely, horse stances have blind spots, and bow stances are prone to stiffness, so they should not be used frequently.
   • Employ cross steps while moving. The fist classics state: “Without a fixed mind, without a fixed trace, it seems defensive yet offensive.” This method keeps the opponent guessing about your intentions, with rapid changes in direction and appearance, making it difficult for them to anticipate your movements. Avoid rigid and inflexible transitions in movements.
   • Maintain clear distinctions between real and feigned movements. Whether in movement or force generation, Emei fist requires that both feet never be simultaneously planted firmly, but instead, one foot should always remain light while the other is firm, facilitating agile transitions in footwork. Instead of relying on rigid stances to maintain stability, Emei fist utilizes flexible and varied footwork to stabilize the body’s center of gravity.
5. Requirements for Mental Intentions:
   • When executing techniques, focus your mental intention on the opponent’s body to achieve a thoroughly relaxed state.
   • When striking, direct your mental intention beyond the point of impact, allowing for the transmission of force upon contact. A shortened mental focus will limit the striking range.
   • When attacking, synchronize your intentions with your movements. As soon as you conceive an attack, your body should follow through with the strike. Emei fist believes that only in this way can intentions and actions merge seamlessly, eliminating unnecessary movements in combat and making your strikes swift and unstoppable. Avoid preconceived intentions preceding movements, as this often leads to telegraphing intentions before executing the movement.
6. Requirements for Solo Practice:  Emei fist holds that practice is for combat, and training should reflect real-world scenarios. Therefore, individual practice primarily focuses on practicing solo forms. The focus during practice is on the form’s external appearance, imagining an opponent in front and practicing one technique at a time. It does not permit stringing individual techniques into set routines for practice, as this would compromise the effectiveness of each technique by prioritizing the continuity of movements and would limit the flexibility of combat techniques due to the fixed nature of routines. Emei fist believes that solo practice should be conducted using two methods: one emphasizes the flow of movements, focusing on the concentration of force and understanding the internal meaning of the martial art, while the other focuses on applying force, emphasizing sudden bursts of power to each strike. These two methods should be alternated to achieve a balance between tension and relaxation. Using an average speed for practice is not allowed, as it does not reflect the realities of combat.
7. Requirements for Sparring:  Emei fist views this as a fundamental preparation for live combat. Without this step, the next cannot proceed. This process mainly consists of engaging in hand-to-hand combat, incorporating techniques such as joining hands, rubbing hands, probing hands, and yielding hands. Through practice, practitioners develop a sense of timing, distance, discerning genuine intentions from feints, and the ability to maintain a composed offense and defense. During this process, only partial techniques should be executed, with no full strikes, and participants should not consider it as real combat, gradually transitioning to live combat without conscious effort. Full-force strikes should be avoided initially, as they may cause injury and discourage participants from continuing practice.

This is a combat training exercise similar to real combat, conducted after mastering the basic principles of combat techniques and tactics through trial sparring. Practitioners can utilize the rules and techniques they have mastered to engage in offense and defense, maneuvering freely against opponents. Only through application can one truly learn, which is the ultimate goal of Emei fist. Emei fist believes that without completing this step, the process of learning martial arts remains incomplete. Therefore, practitioners are required to participate in this stage of training; otherwise, their learning of the fist is considered incomplete.

9. Requirements for Discipline and Freedom

Regarding discipline, Emei fist believes that in the early stages of learning, strict adherence to rules is necessary. Each technique and movement must be precise, as they are the summation of past experiences. Without this precision, one cannot grasp the essence of this fist style or manifest its unique characteristics. However, in later stages, the purpose of learning is application. Having learned the fist, one should not allow the structure of the fist to become a constraint but rather liberate oneself from it, freely applying techniques and fully expressing one’s abilities. The goal is to make martial skills instinctual so that when executing techniques, it should align with what the fist classics describe: “Without a fixed mind, without a fixed trace, seemingly without a master, yet exhibiting a natural disposition, as if without bodily spirit.” Only then can one’s skill be considered truly mastered. Each individual’s strengths, technical characteristics, and styles should develop during this period. As long as the expression remains within the framework of Emei fist’s combat principles, excessive criticism should be avoided to prevent hindering the personal development of skills.

10. Characteristics of Non-Contact Techniques

In combat, Emei fist advocates for avoiding physical contact as the preferred strategy because:

• Firstly, opponents may employ various defensive techniques, making it impossible to anticipate their actions, let alone defend against them all.
• Secondly, offense is proactive, while defense is reactive. Following an opponent’s movements during defense makes one vulnerable to being controlled, whereas maintaining one’s own strategy is more advantageous.
• Thirdly, opponents may employ feints, making it risky to engage physically.
• Lastly, considering the strength disparity between men and women, it’s often more effective to rely on technique rather than strength.

Therefore, in combat, Emei fist neither initiates contact nor blocks or counters. It focuses on observing the opponent’s body movements rather than the specific techniques they employ. By intercepting the opponent’s movements, one can neutralize their attacks effectively. From these principles and requirements, Emei fist has developed its unique combat doctrine: the secret of cross offense and defense.

11. Analysis of the Ten Cross Offense and Defense Principles

• Formation: This pertains to the requirements for body and footwork while maneuvering against the opponent. It involves standing tall, angling the body sideways, using small steps to advance or retreat, and employing various footwork patterns to make oneself difficult to attack while maintaining an advantageous position.
• Yielding: This involves evading the opponent’s striking points to render their attacks ineffective.
• Dodging: This entails simultaneously dodging attacks while counter-striking the opponent, often landing a blow while evading their strikes.
• Overcoming: This strategy aims to prevent the opponent from launching attacks effectively by controlling their movement and preventing them from reaching the optimal position for an attack.
• Probing: This is a method used during combat to test the opponent’s skill level and intentions by feigning movements and gauging their reaction.
• Following: This technique involves quickly striking the opponent as they complete their attack, exploiting any pauses in their movements.
• Pressuring: This tactic involves inducing the opponent to move defensively, allowing for a continuous offensive barrage.
• Deception: This method involves creating openings in the opponent’s defense by feinting attacks or retreating to lure them into a vulnerable position.
• Concealment: This is a technique used to hide one’s true intentions during the transition between techniques, primarily employed to counteract an opponent’s following attacks.
• Reversal: This technique involves using offensive maneuvers defensively and vice versa, creating confusion and exploiting the opponent’s vulnerabilities intentionally.

Emei fist believes that proficient application of these principles and techniques, even with a limited repertoire of techniques, can create countless variations in combat scenarios, akin to the intricate strategies of a chess game.