Why kung fu sucks

I am aware that this article ( like many of my articles before) will make a lot of people angry . On the other hand , facing the reality is never easy and often , when forced to face real facts , people react with anger , refusing to accept the truth . The truth in this case , Chinese Traditional Martial Arts , known as kung fu are a joke . Yes a joke . As a practitioner of traditional kung fu I am painfully aware of this. It is not once that people give me that “look” when I say I practice kung fu , especially people who practice boxing ,MMA , BJJ ,kick boxing … and I cannot say they are wrong , because ,for the most part , they are not .

While western boxing, Thai boxing , BJJ , wrestling proved them self in full contact competitions , Chinese kung fu failed tremendously to do the same . The question is why ? How systems advertised as the most effective fighting arts ever have no real fighting skills , at all. Even more , how systems which were used for real fighting in the past ,today fail to do the same ?

Well , it is all about the training , everything revolves around that . Just like there is only one way to learn how to swim , you have to actually enter into the water and …swim , same goes for fighting , if you want to learn how to fight , you have to fight , for real . Nothing can replace fighting , no drills , no sticky hands , no “internal” powers , nothing , fighting can be learned only through fighting , there is no other way . More you do it , better you become .

While each and every kung fu style is “the most effective martial style” , at least that is what everyone says , the sad truth is that maybe one Sifu in 1000 can actually fight . Even that one who can fight usually uses some kind of kick boxing which has nothing in common with a style he actually teaches. They use kick boxing because no one taught them how to use kung fu in a real fight .

I am a practitioner of Wing Chun and White Crane . Both are “internal “ styles . I have visited many schools and maybe one or two actually have sparring I their regular training schedule , the vast majority of schools do not spar , ever . Many believe that chi sao (sticky hands) practice is a replacement for sparring . Other styles have similar practice , they put accent on drills , “techniques “ and forms.  While there is nothing wrong in practicing drills , forms and “techniques “ , problems begin with a lack of sparring . Where there is no realistic training , drills and techniques become useless , self sufficient and goal to them self . They become more and more complicated , the accent is on visual effect , not on effectiveness . Now , if we have two or three generations of teachers who didn’t fight or spar , we have styles with a lot of theory , and a lot of “If he comes at you like this , you do this and this and this” . Kung fu stops to be a fighting art and becomes a performing art . People master forms drills and techniques , they are visually pleasing and look really attractive , sadly they have nothing in common  with real fighting . Drills are too precise , too complicated to be used in real fighting under the adrenalin rush , there too many steps , they are based on memorization , which has no sense in real fighting where everything is random . Techniques have too many steps , “opponent” is compliant and , of course , everything and anything can be done on such opponent , but in real fight ,if you try to do three blocks on one hit …well …  Of course , there is also a financial moment , where many teachers deliberately make their systems complicated in order to keep students as long as possible .

There is one more significant moment in this story and that is “internal” practice . More than often and from the side of many teachers deliberately misunderstood , internal practice promises great fighting powers without any real effort . Physical fitness is often despised by practitioners of “internal” arts , most of them cannot do even 10 pushups . It is like someone lifts 5 kg weights every day and that will is some amount of time make him so strong that he will be able to lift 100 kilos . That is not going to happen. If you practice without power , you will have no power , period . The truth is , there is no internal without external , relaxation and softness comes from experience and from the fact that there is something to be softened and relaxed . Like Mohamed Ali , probably the greatest “internal” master of all times . But his softness and relaxation came from hard training and everyday sparring , and of course , he was physically very strong . His softness and relaxation was very powerful , totally different form “softness” and “relaxation” in many kung fu schools , where people scream if you use even a little power .

The last thing is complete misunderstanding of principles and concepts , it is like my French , I can read French perfectly , but I don’t understand a word of it . Same goes with kung fu people and kung fu principles and concepts . Even if people learn proper structure , power generation , footwork ect , they practice it wrong ,because they do not fight , do not spar , so they have no sense how to use those things properly , which leads to the things I already described , too complicated and unrealistic drills and techniques .

The main ,and probably the only problem in kung fu is lack of sparring , if people fight , that resolves all other problems , like politics , lineage wars , “originality” , false histories , debate of which hand position is right or wrong and all other bullshit .

I practiced and believed , like so many others ,wrongly , for years , and wasted so much time ,but eventually I realized where is the problem and I changed my way of training . It is still the same wing chun and white crane I have learned from my teachers , I just put accent on different things , on basics , I train to hit stronger , to hit faster ,and don’t care how does it look like as long as I have results that can be really  measured .

  

Imperial military examination

Common believe is that Chinese martial arts were developed in Buddhist monasteries by monks who researched and experiment with combat systems and later spread it among common people. The story pf Shaolin monastery became so famous that eventually was accepted by many as rue history of Chinese martial arts. Martial arts are much older than Buddhism and for the most part of China’s history had no connection to Buddhism and were not practiced by common people until the end of XIX century . The most important and for the most part of China’s history , the only factor that drove development of martial arts was the army. One of the most important segments of martial development and a system of martial standards were Imperial military examination.

 Military examination mirrored “civil service examinations” or “imperial examinations” in Chinese, known as keju 科舉, keju zhidu 科舉制度, gongju 貢舉, xuanju 選舉 or zhiju 制舉, The Imperial examinations were an essential part of the Chinese government administration and official method for recruiting bureaucrats. First imperial examination started during   Han Dynasty (206 B.C.E. to 220 C.E.) although the idea of imperial examination can be traced to even older , Zhou dynasty(c. 1046 BC–256 BC) .The examination system was systematized and adopted its classical form during the time of  Sui Dynasty (581–618) .Imperial examination  until 1905  , although the degree to which this process was utilized varied over time and i was even discontinued for periods of time . Last exam was held during Qing dynasty and was finally abandoned on 2 September 1905, when the emperor ordered that the old examination system be discontinued at all levels .

To obtain a civil service post, a candidate had to pass through several stages, starting with preliminary local exams, and progressing, if successful, through to district, provincial and palace examinations. Exams were held every three years. Tight quotas restricted the number of successful candidates at each level — for example, only three-hundred students could pass the metropolitan examinations. Students often took the examinations several times before earning a degree.

The  subjects of the examinations was limited to the Four Books and Five Classics of Confucianism as well as  mathematics, law, calligraphy, and in early dynasties , poetry , which later was excluded from tests .

 The examinations lasted between 24 and 72 hours, and were conducted in spare, isolated examination rooms. In order to obtain objectivity in evaluation, candidates were identified by number rather than name, and examination answers were recopied by a third person before being evaluated to prevent the candidate's handwriting from being recognized.

Like it was said before . Military Imperial examination mirrored civil examination system . Candidates started with testing on local level and if successful they would gradually progress to the imperial palace level.

From candidates on Imperial Military exams were required the same knowledge as for the civil service , like Four Books and Five Classics of Confucianism , mathematics ect. With addition of military tactics , strategy,  and of course high level of martial arts proficiency . Candidates for Imperial Military  exams usually came from military families and they were prepared for exams in military schools .

There is little evidence how military exams looked like before Ming dynasty , when they were finally formalized and even from that period we have little data . The best known ,with the largest amount of written documents , artifacts and other evidence were tests from Qing dynasty period .

Testing on provincial level was consisted of three parts . First part was horseback archery . Candidate had nine arrows   and he had to hit at least three targets on the course , he had three laps to ride.

Second part had two sections . First section was stationary archery , basically accuracy testing. Second part was strength testing and had three parts , bow drawing, sabre waving and stone lifting . The strength of the bow was 45 , 55 and 72 kilos . The weight of the sabre was 48, 60 and 72 kilos . The weight of the stones were 120 , 150 and 180 kilos .

The third part of testing was written test . While in previous dynasties this part of the test was quite demanding and probably harder than martial test and included strategy , tactical formations , astronomy, topography , pyrotechnics in Qing dynasty this part of test was just a formality because candidates could not to meet the standards of previous times . Also in Ming dynasty , physical testing included besides what was already named testing with spear , straight sword , sabre , unarmed combat , on the horse and on the ground .

Passing the test would secure the candidate a government appointment to official post with secured income , that goes for civil and military examination .