Role of sets
Mantis 108,
I cannot add substantially to the list you have given for Qixing. It is a very complete description.
I would observe that it is indeed that set of ideas and description of technique that defines Tanglang. It can be quantified, listed to that number of major ideas and demonstrated. What I find today is that many "tanglang" practitioners know 8hard 12 soft and a few forms and then add whatever they can find to supplement the rest rather than seeking the traditional answers. They take cover behind some vague adherence to "principles" that they cannot define clearly. You hear it on this forum repeatedly as instructors seek to redefine saying, "Ling is like controlled sparring". It is not. Luo Guangyu had a progression from Ling to freefighting making it very clear that Ling is something unto itself.
Though I can only comment on your comments in terms of definition, I can speak to the role of sets in the training of Qixing. One learns to fight like the sets and from the sets, not always exactly in the same sequence, range or technique as it appears in the set but the set is both the mold and the resource nonetheless.
The movement from Lien, (drilling) to Ling (partnered exercise using the form), Pi (broken out parts of the sets), Chai, (combinations of techniques) that yeilds the Yongfa, (method of use) that then moves into the Bianhua, (variations), is a clear one for the traditional practitioner that leads to increasing levels of freedom within the system, just as one learns to play anything once one learns to use the chords on a guitar. If it begins to depart from the dynamics one finds in the forms then there is a problem, (ie, one must kickbox before learning tanglang at some schools, a problem and a counterproductive waist of time IMHO, if one's goal is to learn Tanglang).
Many schools learn Tanglang technique and forms then move incredibly to kickboxing when they fight, using their feet and hands in that manner rather than the distinctive method of Qixing Tanglang. This always happens when the instructors knowledge is incomplete in teaching the progression that leads to fighting with Tanglang. THere are entire organizations, I am sorry to say, that propagate this kind of approach.
The fact that the question "what is traditional Tanglang" has to be asked and answered regularly on this forum is evidence of the degree to which the art has been obscured by misinformation and ignorance.
(Let me note here that I am not implying that anyone asking this question on this forum is among the ignorant. I know full well that some ask this question so that others may read the answers).
Anyway, my usual rant. Sorry...
Hope it helps anyway,
Steve Cottrell
www.mantisquarterly.com
www.authentickungfu.com