"Internal" styles- martial arts or something else

Today there are two completely separated worlds of martial arts. World of so called traditional martial arts and world of competitive sports. It seem that these two worlds have nothing in common and it is pretty much obvious that they never meet in any aspect of training approach, philosophy, goals and anything else. The only thing they have in common is that both sides claim they have superior fighting skills.

This “great divide” happen recently, although the separate path of two different training approaches started around 150 years ago. A century and half ago there was no “traditional” , “internal” , “sports” or whatever martial ARTS , there were just fighting styles, mostly weapon oriented and people fought with those styles , they fought for survival , they fought to save theirs and lives of their families. The big change came after the Taiping rebellion when fire arms made old fighting styles absolute. Taiping rebellion brought another change , social structure of the society changed under the influence of the western culture and rich merchant cast formed and separated from the rest of the society. One of the things they do, they started to practice martial arts as sign of social status, something like having sports car now days, and being rich and without the need for real fighting they took kung fu training to another direction.  Around that time a concept of what is today known as “internal” skills emerged and several new arts appeared (of course claiming to be much older) based on these concepts like Tai Chi , Ba Gua ,Xing Yi, several styles of White Crane ect.  Of course, on the other side there were people who practiced kung fu for fighting, like professional body guards, caravan escort, bounty hunters, soldiers and others.  Of course these people put much more faith in fire arms than in fists and spears so slowly much of the real fighting techniques and serious fighting training was lost.

This trend continued in republican period when government supported spreading of kung fu as form of activity that served several purposes. Kung fu already stopped to be exclusively set of fighting skills, but during republican period it got social, political, economical, religious, health and philosophical attributes. Fighting component in this period started to be disappear completely and many styles were practiced for a lot of different  reasons while fighting was neglected and sometimes almost forgotten. Kung fu as we know it today got its final shape in republican period.  There were only few people who insisted on fighting and realistic training, like Tang Hao, and this the period when western boxing as introduced to China and many masters studied it deeply and included it in their own fighting systems. It is also a time when Chinese army adopted boxing as a part of hand to hand combat training. There is one more significant thing that happened in this period which will change the shape and the path of kung fu forever. Famous master Sun Lu Tang connected his arts, Tai Chi, Ba Gua and Xing Yi to Taoist teachings and Qi gong which were never part of kung fu before. This new fashion spread like forest fire among kung fu practitioners  pushed fighting even further from kung fu practice.

After WWII Japanese and Korean martial arts found their way to the west while Chinese styles stayed fairly unknown until the middle of 70’s when death of young Hong Kong actor, Bruce Lee brought something that is today known as “kung fu” craze. Many teachers from Hong Kong and Taiwan spread all over the world teaching kung fu. Hong Kong movies were (and still are , even for Asian people) the main source of information about Chinese martial arts. Everyone expected to learn what was shown in those movies so “teachers” in order to meet the market demand adjusted their styles and made them visually attractive without any regard to efficiency.

Neglected combat practice was covered with other content. All kung fu styles without exceptions have some famous ancestor who had if not powers of the gods then at least had such a level of skill that can be freely regarded as superhuman. All styles have ‘histories’ with at least one , but usually generations of tremendous fighters with hundreds or thousands of fights and no one ever lost. All styles insist on important historical role of the style’s founder in some important historical events that involve war, rebellion, secret societies ect. They all stress the importance to preserve the style’s content as it is because that is original , superior , often secret , deadly style of fighting and nothing else on the world can compare with it. All styles claim only they have the “true” knowledge while all others waste time practicing worthless techniques. Some styles even kept hard body conditioning and out much effort in developing raw physical strength. What they don’t do is fighting or even sparring . People simply believe their arts will work without any proof. When asked why they don’t spar or fight ,the usual answer is that they have nothing to prove or it is unnecessary . Instead they do a lot of sticky\push hands practice , a lot of “dead drills”( fighting simulation with complying opponent) , “techniques”( prearranged set of movements with complying opponent) ect. In essence they do anything to avoid been hit. They of course achieve high level of proficiency in what they do and use that as a proof ( to them selfs) to have high level of fighting skills. Of course they have cult like mentality and anyone who point out the flaws in that kind of training approach will be attacked on personal level and marked as ignorant , stupid , aggressive or worse.

Now days, a new fashion emerged in the world of “traditional” martial arts. It is called “internal” martial arts. Word ‘internal” in not so distant past was referring only to qi gong training but today it means something else. Today that word is used to separate one art from all others in terms of “efficiency” ,”effectiveness” , “originality” , exclusiveness”  , “knowledge” ect. While proponents of these styles fail to explain what “internal” actually is , they insists that they are the only one who have true knowledge. Mix of different theories borrowed from all kinds of sources , forgeries , and newly invented terms make a confusing and hard to follow explanations. These new theories are changing quickly , every time when someone point out the inconsistencies in them . They “cultivate” “internal” power which is according to them a mix of some esoteric energies and particular body mechanics. They sometimes go so far that claim internal training is totally opposite from “external” training, where by external they consider everything else outside their style. So, they cultivate skills and measure the level of someone’s skill by undetermined standards known only to them. The more attractive, effortless , relaxed someone looks the more praise he gets. They never fight, never spar only practice with in a closed circle of people by strictly set rules. Every time they encounter any real resistance their “high internal skills” fail.  

On the other hand we have competitive sports like boxing , MMA, Kick boxing ect. In these sports complete training revolve around fighting. Basically, training is going in direction of developing necessary skills and attributes for fighting like

• Distance - How to control the distance between you and your partner.
• Rhythm - How to break your opponents rhythm.
• Timing - How to judge the timing of your opponent and know when to hit.
• Combinations - How to land combinations whilst your partner moves forwards, backwards and tries to counter.
• Footwork - How to move in, out and to the sides to strike or evade a punch.
• Speed - You will learn how to use your speed to hit your opponent before they can block, as well as move quickly out the way of a strike.
• Balance - You will learn to control your balance and center of gravity whilst in a fighting motion.
• Reaction - You will improve your reaction times.
• Focus - You will be forced to keep focus and concentrate on the fight without distractions. The second you switch off you will know about tit!
• Cardiovascular - Your fitness levels will have to adapt and will improve.
• Muscular endurance - Your endurance and stamina will have to adapt and will improve.
• Conditioning - You will learn to get hit and fake that it doesn't hurt so you can carry on.

All this is  put   to the test in sparring which helps practitioner to combine all these skills and attributes together and push them on a higher level. Sparring is the closest we can get to a real fighting situation and is probably the most important training exercise there is. Sparring requires you to use every one of your attributes - forcing you to sharpen your skills and practice things like the controlling distance, timing, speed, agility and focus as well as cardiovascular and muscle endurance to name just a few. Sparring is the nearest thing to a real fight, without actually fighting.

People don't like sparring because they aren't confident with their abilities and are worried about getting hurt. That is why those who want to practice martial arts but are afraid and not confident turn to some esoteric arts that promise high fighting skills without any real effort , most importantly without pain and sweat. These people often characterize those who practice contact sports as aggressive, stupid, competitive ect , not realizing that the vast majority of those people ( including the author) simply enjoy in physically and emotionally challenging training without any desire for fight , violence or urge to prove anything.

At the end there are two important questions we have to ask our self. Are “traditional”, “internal” arts can be even called martial , and if they can , is it possible to fight with those skills? The answer on both questions is yes , but only with proper understanding what “internal” actually is and proper training approach 

Wuxia

Wuxia is an important part of kung fu culture.  Wuxia stories are basically martial arts stories about ordinary people who do incredible things through martial arts. Novels are grounded in real-life Chinese martial arts and internal energy cultivation (qigong) techniques that are kicked up to an exaggeratedly awesome level. Wuxia is a distinct genre in Chinese literature, television and cinema. One of the oldest genres in Chinese literature, wǔxiá  stories are tales of honorable warriors fighting against evil, whether it be an individual villain, or a corrupt government. Although some wuxia stories are set in modern times, or even the future, most take place in the "Martial Arts World" of Jiānghú ,literally "rivers and lakes", a Fantasy Counterpart Culture of Imperial China. Very popular in Asia , these stores are gaining more  fans all over the world in the last decade and few subgenres developed from the original Wuxia story patterns.

Wuxia stories have their roots in some early youxia , "wanderers"and cike , "assassin" stories around 2nd to 3rd century BC.

Xiake stories made a strong comeback in the Tang dynasty in the form of Chuanqi , "legendary" tales.

The earliest full-length novel that could be considered part of the genre was Water Margin, written in the Ming Dynasty. Water Margin's championing of outlaws with a code of honor was especially influential in the development of Jianghu culture. Many works in this genre during the Ming and Qing dynasties were lost due to prohibition by the government. The ethos of personal freedom and conflict-readiness of these novels were seen as seditious even in times of peace and stability. The departure from mainstream literature also meant that patronage of this genre was limited to the masses and not to the literati, and stifled some of its growth. Nonetheless, the genre continued to be enormously popular

China during the Qing era (1644-1911) was ruled by a foreign aristocracy, the Manchu, and subject to ferocious censorship purges aimed at rooting out any references to revolution, resistance, or the glory days of earlier dynasties ruled by ethnic Chinese. Authors were hence incentivized to locate their stories in a vaguely-defined dreamtime, the jianghu [literally "rivers and lakes"] of an idealized Fantasy realm, safely situated in the distant past, or devoid of overt references to contemporary places or people. Drawing on older traditions of wandering swordsmen, the wuxia tales sought to allegorize Chinese heroes as a Pariah Elite of picaresque warriors, often drawing upon inner power derived from Daoist sorcery and quasi-magical kung fu training .

Following the proclamation of the Chinese Republic in 1911, and the loss of the prime impetus to allegory, wuxia fictions drifted further into Pulp. Initially encouraged as a domestic antidote to foreign incursions and influences, the stories fell out of favor because they were often used to critique corrupted and unstable republican government. This is the period when Wuxia made a breakthrough in movie and received instant success. In republican period we can see first glimpses of new subgenre which will later became known as Xianxia.

Post-1949, wuxia remained suppressed in Mainland China until the 1980s and Taiwan until the 1960s, but remain extremely popular Hong Kong and among overseas Chinese communities. New Wuxia tales now fearlessly dealt with issues of the Manchu conquest and oppression, in allusion to the rise of the Communists that had forced so many Chinese from the Mainland. Recurring themes often favored the end of the Ming dynasty, with its echoes of an unwelcome change in government and a flight to the south. The rise of wuxia film among overseas Chinese communities during a time when Mainland China  was shut off behind Iron curtain, and  restrictions still held in Taiwan, also created an entirely mythical and unhistorical fantastic base for the stories, without any specific references to historical periods. Secret Masters, often from the fictionally opposed Shaolin and Wudang monasteries, fought  each other and with agents of Western Imperialism and Manchu domination.

From 1970 onwards, the wuxia tradition enjoyed a new expansion into the world of  Comic books  , with many adaptations into graphic form.

In last decade, when censorship in Communist China loosened , brought  rise on new term ,Xianxia ["Immortal Heroes] to distinguish the more fanciful and magical stories popular in Hong Kong and on Taiwan from the  more down-to-Earth narratives tolerated on the mainland.

Modern wuxia stories are historical adventure stories. A common plot typically features a young protagonist, usually male, in ancient China, who experiences a terrible tragedy , goes through exceeding hardship and arduous trials, and studies under a great master of martial arts, or comes into possession of a long-lost scroll or manual containing unrivalled martial arts techniques. Eventually the protagonist emerges as a supreme martial arts master unequalled in all of China, who then proffers his skills chivalrously to mend the ills of the "Jianghu" world. Another common thread would involve a mature, extremely skillful hero with a powerful nemesis who is out for revenge, and the storyline would culminate in a final showdown between the protagonist and his nemesis. Other stories create detective or romance stories set in ancient China.

The meaning of the term jianghu ,literally "rivers and lakes has evolved over the course of Chinese history. It is used to describe the pugilistic world of ancient China. It was a world where the law doesn't exist. The people of "jianghu" are those who try to make a living, or survive, in this world. The variety of people in "jianghu" is endless. Each has their occupation, their membership of a brotherhood, their martial art skills and their personalities. The way of jianghu was either join a brotherhood or be a wanderer. A brotherhood, can also be sisterhood, uses a particular weapon, follows a particular religion, does a particular trade, or looks over a particular area. "Jianghu" is a place where the law doesn't exist. Each person has their own morals and rules that keeps them alive. The code of brotherhood is important in "jianghu" as chivalrous people would be loyal to their friends. . The five basics of the code are:

1. xia (chivalry)

2. hao (gallantry)

3. li (virtue)

4. yi (righteousness)

5. zhong (loyalty

Wuxia realm is all about an honorable and generous person who has considerable martial skills which he puts to use for the general good rather than towards any personal ends, and someone who does not necessarily obey the authorities. Foremost in the xia's code of conduct are yi ("righteousness") and xin (honour), which emphasize the importance of gracious deed received or favours  and revenge over all other ethos of life. Nevertheless, this code of the xia is simple and grave enough for its adherents to kill and die for, and their vendetta can pass from one generation to the next until resolved by retribution, or, in some cases, atonement. The xia is to expected to aid the person who needed help, usually the masses, who are down-trodden. Not all martial artists uphold such a moral code, but those who do are respected and recognized as heroes            

  Although wuxia is based on real-life martial arts, the genre elevates the mastery of their crafts into fictitious levels of attainment. Combatants have the following skills:

Fighting, usually using a codified sequence of movements known as zhāo  where they would have the ability to withstand armed foes.

Use of everyday objects such as ink brushes, abaci, and musical instruments as lethal weapons, and the adept use of assassin weapons  with accuracy.

 Use of qīnggōng , or the ability to move swiftly and lightly, allowing them to scale walls, glide on waters or mount trees. This is based on real Chinese martial arts practices. Real martial art exponents practice qinggong through years of attaching heavy weights on their legs. Its use however is greatly exaggerated in wire-fu movies where they appear to defy gravity.                                             

 Use of nèilì  or nèijìn , which is the ability to control inner energy (qi) and direct it for attack or defense, or to attain superhuman stamina.  

 Ability to engage in diǎnxué  also known by its pronunciation Dim Mak , or other related techniques for killing or paralyzing opponents by hitting or seizing their acupoints with a finger, knuckle, elbow or weapon. This is based on true-life practices trained in some of the Chinese martial arts, known as dianxue and by the seizing and paralyzing techniques of chin na.                           

   Consistent with Chinese beliefs about the relationship between the physical and paranormal, these skills are usually described as being attainable by anyone who is prepared to devote his or her time in diligent study and practice. The details of some of the more unusual skills are often to be found in abstrusely written and/or encryption|encrypted manuals known as mìjí , which may contain the secrets of an entire sect, and are often subject to theft or sabotage

 The fantastic feats of martial arts prowess featured in the wuxia novels are substantially fictitious in nature, although there is still widespread popular belief that these skills once existed and are now lost. A popular theory to explain why current martial arts practitioners cannot attain the levels described in the wuxia genre is related to the methodology of passing on the martial arts crafts. Only the favorite pupil of a master gets to inherit the best crafts but the masters tend to keep the most powerful or significant chapter to himself. Hence what we have today at the Shaolin or other schools are but a fraction of what they were centuries earlier. There is little evidence to support this claim                                                                      

The wuxia genre is popular in Chinese culture because it is the unique blend of martial arts philosophy of xia  developed throughout history, and the country's long history of wushu. Although the xia or "chivalry" concept is often translated as "knights", "chivalrous warriors" or "knights-errant", most xia aspects are so rooted in the social and cultural environment of ancient China that it is impossible to find an exact translation in the Western world. Despite wuxia has been a strong inspiration for popular cinema for decades, it was only Ang Lee's "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon"  what made a global audience aware of the wuxia genre.

Xianxia, the characters forming it are ‘Xian’ and ‘Xia’, which literally means ‘immortal hero’.  Xianxia is a newer genre and is essentially a ‘fantasy’ version of Wuxia, with magic, demons, immortals, people who can fly, etc.  The biggest contributor to the Xianxia genre is actually not martial arts, rather, it is ‘Taoism’, which is a major part of Chinese history.  Taoism is both a philosophical way of life as well as an actual religion.  Religious Taoism is often blurred together with Chinese folk mythologies, and is chock-full of stories about demons, ghosts, and people learning how to become immortals through meditation/understanding the ways of heaven, and flying in the air and casting powerful magic spells.  Xianxia blends lots of these folk stories and magical Taoist legends into their stories .