Justifing Evil

I want to talk about very interesting thing in martial arts. Before we start I suggest the reader to check the article about the role of the heroes in human society and especially martial arts

 Heroes in Martial arts

People will have heroes, especially in people who practice traditional martial arts. I am not a psychologist or sociologist  but it is more than obvious that traditional martial arts attracts certain kind of people.  What is interesting, people not only completely disregard negative things their heroes did or stand for but they aggressively defend those negativities. While many of  “martial heroes” were drug addicts, gamblers and abusive spouses and parents, these things belong to the domain of private life and do not impact society on larger scale. As if having a junkie or a man who beats his wife and children as a role model is not bad enough, people worship racist, criminals, fascist,  psychopaths… Following link shows some of the most popular martial idols,worshipped by millions today. 

Martial Idols

When confronted with facts considering their idols, people become aggressive and they are trying a justify their behavior by any means necessary. Let’s  analyze few of these people. Probably the most famous and worshipped almost as deity is Miyamoto Musashi, described as a Japanese swordsman, philosopher, strategist, writer and rōnin and a perfect warrior. In reality he was a man who killed others for pure pleasure of killing under the excuse of improving and testing his skills. Among his victims were also unarmed children. I will not debate his “philosophical”  achievements, everyone has a right to choose what philosophy is for him. Anyway, when confronted with a fact that Musashi killed people for no real reason, that he wondered around challenging people for death duels just because he enjoyed in that, his worshippers say that he had no other choice, that he lived in a time when something like that was usual practice and that he did nothing wrong. Killing a 13 years old child is wrong in any era, in any culture, just this should be enough to make people rethink who do they worship. About that he had no choice and death dues were norm of the time, that was not true. Without detail historic analysis ( all the data about the period in which  Musshi’s lived are publically available and easy to find) it enough to say that Musashi caused a lot disturbance with his way of life and what he did was certainly not a norm of behavior at the time. Even if they claim is true (which is definitely not), what Musashi did is completely unacceptable in modern society and worshiping  Musashi today is the same as worshipping a serial killer. There are many heroes throughout history, Japan also does not lack real heroes, many of those heroes killed many people defending their countries and their people. And those people are heroes because they fought for a right cause , for right reasons, when all other options were exhausted and they had no choice.

Let’s look at another example. Yip Man today is worshipped as a god, his martial style, Wing Chun, is often practiced more as cult than martial art. Besides the fact that he was a gambler and opium user, he was also a racist. When confronted with the fact that he was a racist his followers say he was just man of his time!!! Hitler was also a man of his time. Racism cannot be justified under any circumstances. No one in the right mind would say that segregation in U.S. was right, although it was a social norm of the time. Same Wing Chun people will condemn the racism in U.S or any other place but they will justify racism of their idol. 

There aremany examples like this but these two perfectly describe how followers of traditional martial arts justify things for which people today would end up in prison. 

Chopsticks as a weapon ?

Chopsticks are shaped pairs of equal-length sticks that have been used as kitchen and eating utensils in most of East Asia. They are held in the dominant hand, secured by fingers, and wielded as extensions of the hand, to pick up food. First used by the Chinese, chopsticks later spread to other East Asian cultural sphere countries including Japan, Korea, and Vietnam. As ethnic Chinese emigrated, the use of chopsticks as eating utensils for certain ethnic food took hold in South and Southeast Asian countries such as Cambodia, India, Laos, Nepal, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, and Thailand. In India (mainly in Himalayan region), Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Nepal, chopsticks are generally used to consume noodles.

Ancient Chopsticks 

Historical evidence of putting together two sticks to use during cooking or eating have been found in East Asia and the Middle East. The earliest versions were probably twigs used to retrieve food from cooking pots. The fabled ruins of Yin, in Henan province, provided not only the earliest examples of Chinese writing but also the first known chopsticks—bronze sets found in tombs at the site. Capable of reaching deep into boiling pots of water or oil, early chopsticks were used mainly for cooking. It wasn’t until A.D. 400 that people began eating with the utensils. This happened when a population boom across China sapped resources and forced cooks to develop cost-saving habits. They began chopping food into smaller pieces that required less cooking fuel—and happened to be perfect for the tweezers-like grip of chopsticks.. This new method of cooking made it unnecessary to have knives at the dinner table—a practice that also jibed with the non-violent teachings of Confucius, as expressed in one of his numerous quotable quotations: "The honorable and upright man keeps well away from both the slaughterhouse and the kitchen. And he allows no knives on his table." During the Chinese dynastic times, silver chopsticks were sometimes used because it was believed they would turn black if they came in contact with poisoned food. This practice must have led to some unfortunate misunderstandings—it's now known that silver has no reaction to arsenic or cyanide, but can change color if it comes into contact with garlic, onions, or rotten eggs, all of which release hydrogen sulfide.  Wood and bamboo were the natural early forms of chopsticks, and are still the most common materials today. In time bone, ivory, bronze, brass, silver, gold, jade, agate, coral and other exotic materials have been used, especially for wealthy chopstick owners. Ancient sets of chopsticks in China were commonly found with a knife and pouch, and chopsticks were frequently bound together at the handle end by a chain. Disposable chopsticks are modern invention, in the past everyone had his own pair of chopsticks and they were usually made from some kind of durable material so they could last long. 

Silver Chopstics 

Chopsticks are traditionally utilized as an improvised weapon. Martial artists have trained with them and carried them not as much as weapons but for having a meal for centuries, but they make excellent improvised emergency weapon for certain situations where taking out the main weapon is not easy, for example while sitting in the restaurant during a meal. While chopsticks don’t have enough weight and the grip really doesn’t allow firm hold of a weapon, therefore they can’t be considered a lethal weapon, they can definitely hurt the opponent and give time to the fighter to either escape or reach the main weapon.  Of course, in the past chopsticks were made form durable and heavier materials, some kind of metal and hardwood and could be used as weapon in the case of emergency or as a concealed weapon. Modern, light, disposable bamboo chopsticks can’t be used as weapon. 

Ancient chopstics set with a small knife as a part of the set

Chopsticks can be used as a weapon in three different ways, and can be trained in three different ways of technique development. It can be used as a throwing blade. There was a wide variety of throwing darts used in ancient China that are similar in length and weight with chopsticks. Throwing any kind of dart is technically really complicated and hard and requires a lot of training. Chopsticks can be also used as a stabbing weapon. Technique for this kind of using is similar to other short blades techniques with a difference that chopsticks can’t cut, they can only be used for stabbing. Chopsticks can be also used as tool \weapon in joint lock (Chin Na) techniques.

Most of Kung Fu styles do not use chopsticks as weapons. There are only few rare styles in China and two Ju Jutsu styles in Japan that teach use of chopsticks as a weapon. Snake Crane Wing Chun is one of the rare Kung Fu styles that uses chopsticks as a weapon and as a training tool to enhance the strength and mobility of the joints.

 

The disappearing world of White Crane

World of White Crane is disappearing quickly in Taiwan and seems no one cares about it. South of Taiwan is the repository of many old and unknown Fujian styles, many of them older than popular styles like Tai Chi or Wing Chun by far, and definitely more significant  historically culturally and technically. These styles, practiced traditionally for centuries, pretty much without contact with other styles still keep original technical content, language, mythology, oral histories even some aspect of religion. Traditionally, in Taiwan, particular kung fu style is practiced only by  family members or the members of the community (village). Styles were not secret in a sense that they were hidden behind closed doors but they were almost never taught to outsiders.  This tradition is very much alive today and it is one of the reasons why all these styles are on brink of extinction. Vast majority of these are some form of White Crane. Many styles are pure Crane styles while others have been mixed with styles sometime in the past but Crane flavor is still prevalent. Many of  these Crane styles are far older that better known White Cranes like Yong Chun Bai He fist,  Shihe, Suhe, Zonghe…

Having in mind that strong tradition prevents masters to teach people outside their community or family and that majority of these styles concentrated on the south part of Taiwan, endangeres the survival of these styles. For decades young people for the south , especially from villages, migrate to the north, to big economical centres in serach for better jobs and better life. It came to the point that many schools in far south had tobe closed because there are no more kids. Young people leave early, in search for better education that will give them better oppurtunities later in life and there is no time for the masters to pass the complete styles to next generations. On the other hand , young generation do not show much interest for kung fu. Baseball and tennis are much more popular than any other sport or activity. In Taiwan, kung fu is a thing of old people, those who want to keep and preserve the tradition, but there is not many of them.

Another reason for declining interest in kung fu is rasining popularty of MMA and asscoated arts. Kung Fu in general didn’t show well in full contact fighting and that is one more reason for declining interest in it. Thai Boxing and MMA gyms have much more students in Taiwan than average kung fu club.

Having all this in mind we can see that extinction process of kung fu is at the point that simply cannot be reversed. Many interesting Crane styles (and other kung fu styles) simply disappeard in the last few decades. The rest will probably disappear with last masters of those arts in the next decade or so.

Disappearing of these old styles will be irreplaceable loss for traditional Chinese cultural heritage. People’s Republic of China started a project of documenting rare and disappearing Kung Fu styles,which will  be preserved at least in digital formand could be revived some time in the future with some effort. If nothing else, preserveing Kung Fu in this format can be valuable source for all kinds of research in the future. Bottom line, these styles won’t be alive but they would not disappear completely. Unfortunately, In Taiwan such a project is not even considered.There were few tryes done by a private researches and kung fu pracitioners, but they simply lack resources to complete such a big project.

    To  conclude this article, chances are that we will have accept the fact that allthese beautiful old styles will disappear in the future, leaving an enormous gap in traditional kung fu heritage. 

Morning in the 228 park

After  a few a months break due to lockdown caused by supposed virus I have finally returend to Taipei to continue my White Crane training. I came to 228 park near Taipei Main Station at 8 am. There were already several groups of people practing different Kung Fu styles. Older people practiced Tai Chi and Bagua, it was interesting to watch sword play preformed by people who are definitely above 80 years of age. Countles decades of training are easily seen in their movements. It was quite an experience and honor to watch those people who would beem in any other place, considered grandmastes, but here they are just Kung Fu devoties, nothing more and nothing less.  Younger people engaged in vigoros training of modern Wushu and some Northern traditional styles, but I really have very little knowldge about Northern styles so I couldn't say what did they practiced exactly. Usually, park is full of people who exercise, but people were still afaried of the virus and groups were much smaller in number of the practitiones.

 

By the time I finished coffee, my teacher arrived. After a warm up we started the training. Because we had a long break teacher decided to teach a whole bunch of new things, to cover the time we couldn't practice together. On comfortable 35 degrees Celsius and humidity that requires gills for breathing the training started. Big air-conditioned training hall with matts, heavy bags  wooden dummies and other exotic  equipment is standard for practicing martial arts in the west. In Taiwan most of the schools operate in local parks and some of the most significant teachers in the past as well as today still teach in the open. Taiwanese people practice Kung Fu regardless of the weather, only typhoon can stop them. Next two and half hours were very hard, teacher was strict but patient, he was correcting my movements, explaining the underlining  principles and applications. At one moment I had ask teacher to stop showing new things because it was too much information to absorb at once.

                                 

Master Elton Chiu is one of the best Taiwanese Kung Fu teachers. Extremely knowledgeable and very patient he has the ability to pass very complicated concepts and principles effortlessly. Well educated and speaking perfect English, Master Chiu taught a number of domestic and foreign students. Despite all the knowledge and skills he generously share with everyone interested, he is a perfect example of Kung Fu Master we read about in old stories.  Humble and quiet, he keeps low profile in Kung Fu community while preserving the most traditional forms of Kung Fu, not only in technical context but also social and cultural. Being accepted as student by Master Chiu is a rare privilege and I consider myself extremely lucky to learn from such teacher. There are no words to express my gratitude to master Chiu. Hopefully, next time when I go to Taipei, weather won’t be so harsh on this poor foreigner who still can’t adapt to tropical heat of this beautiful island.

                                                                                                                     

White Crane , mother of all southern kung fu ?

 

White Crane is not just one of many southern Chinese Kung Fu styles, it is a style that many other arts claim they descended from.  What is obvious in all southern Kung Fu styles is that they indeed share many similarities in principles and techniques, especially styles from Fujian province. Most Fujian styles to untrained eye may look pretty much the same and even people involved in one of those styles can’t really separate other styles and recognize them at first glance. It is evident that Fujian styles share common origin and same goes for Guangdong styles but to a lesser degree. Although influence of some proto style from Fujian that influence development  of all southern Kung Fu is not as strong in Guangdong as it is strong in Fujian, that influence is still very strong and many foundational principles and basic body mechanics are shared thorough different styles. Of course, styles developed in different direction but common origin, as it is the case in Fujian styles is obvious for majority of Guangdong styles.

How White Crane came to the place of that proto-style remains unknown. Early history of White Crane remains unknown. Early history of the style is completely mythical without any historical evidence. Today it is wide spread opinion that the oldest White Crane style is Young Chun style from the village with the same name. In reality, we have no evidence to support that believe. Just like with all other Kung Fu styles, White Crane history could be tracked with some certainty from 1860’s after the end of Taiping rebellion. Before that time legends and myths is all we have regarding the development of the style and people involved in it. We have some evidence that White Crane as a style under that name existed prior 1850, but the technical content of that style remains unknown and the evidence surprisingly comes from Guangdong province. There are also Crane like styles in Taiwan that are brought to the island prior or in early 1850’s, but there is no clear proof for White Crane in particular. The conclusion is, there is not clear historical evidence that can prove White Crane is really the proto-style from which all other southern styles developed or at least were influenced by to a certain degree.

On the other hand, technical content of White Crane speaks in favor of that belief that this style indeed is the proto-style of most southern styles. We can see Crane techniques, principles, parts of forms or entire forms and body mechanics in most of Fujian and Guangdong styles. From purely technical perspective Crane really could the proto style we are talking about in this article.

How and why White Crane came to be what it is today in technical, social and historical terms remains unknown. What is known is the fact that all White Crane styles are extremely sophisticated, beautiful, and seemingly simple. Also mastering White Crane can allow practitioner to master most of the other southern styles in a very short time.  

WING CHUN: STRUCTURE AND INTERNAL POWER - the book

I present my book

 “Wing Chun - Structure and Internal Power” is an insightful, very practical, and also sometimes quite provocative book that takes unique approach in explaining the very foundation of Wing Chun style. The author is describing the history of some popularly used terminus in Martial arts supported by science and not mythology. Same approach is used in explaining the true nature of “internal” powers and body structure. Separating myths, religion and esotery form real facts,author gives clear and easy to understand explanations of internal practice in Wing Chun through the prism of medical science, biology and physics. This a book that every serious Wing Chun practitioner must have in his library.

 Book can be found here:  WING CHUN: STRUCTURE AND INTERNAL POWER  

"In depth" knowldge in kung fu

 

"In depth" knowledge is term frequently often used in Chinese martial arts . What is interesting, it is not easy to define this and “in depth” knowledge really means. I asked a question on some Kung Fu internet groups and interesting answers appeared. According to some kung fu practitioners, ‘in depth” knowledge is :

-       A very detailed or complete study of something...

-       unconscious competence

-       In depth knowledge means a thorough study of any subject to the finest of detail, also covering all aspects through experience

-       A very detailed knowledge about everything that's related to Kung fu

-       A solid knowledge base of “on paper” facts and factors and some fundamental understanding of the subject,

As we can see, answers are rather positive, if fact this is an impression that people who supposedly possess “in depth” knowledge are trying to leave. But what really does that term means. To understand it correctly first we have to understand what martial arts are, or what they should be. Chinese martial arts are, or at least they were before Taiping rebellion, systems of fighting concentrated on weapon usage with rudimentary empty hand techniques, if any. But no matter what martial art we are talking about they, weapons oriented or empty hands systems, even modern fire arms training, all of them are based in same basic principles. In order for any martial art to be efficient three conditions must be met: timing, distance and power. These tree basic conditions include more sub conditions but they are not important for this article. Note, power in fire arms training comes from the weapon, but essentially doesn’t change the requirement of sufficient power to stop the opponent, small caliber weapons with not enough power to penetrate body armor or to cause enough damage can have dire consequences for the user of such a weapon. There is only one way to gain sufficient skill in any martial art, and that is hard training and real combat experience. In order to be effectively trained and applied martial arts systems have to be simple. Over complicated movements not only that are not easy to learned but because of the complexity they can never be used in real situation because two reasons, first- timing will be off because complex movements require more time to be executed than simple movements, best example in Kung Fu is two or more block on one punch followed by a counter punch, basically three techniques in response to one attacking technique, which means that the person who is using such a defensive approach must be more than a three times faster than attacking opponent which is physically impossible. Second, conflict situations cause surge of adrenalin, on the other hand adrenalin effectively suppresses fine motor skills in which complex movements are based, simply under the stress of combat only the simplest movements can be executed, complex techniques simply fall apart.  There are numerous studies that show effect of the adrenaline on the fine motor skills and there numerous full contact competitions that proved what kind of movements can and can’t be applied in combat.

Having this in mind it is obvious that martial arts are not based in complex knowledge, but rather in hard training that develops physical and psychological attributes necessary for fighting. Of course everything can be explained with various levels of complexity, one simple movement can be explained through a volume of books from pure physics of the motion the can be explained through complex mathematics and physics and also through biochemistry and medicine. On the other hand there is a question in usefulness of such knowledge for an average practitioner who wants to learn self-defense of to compete in contact sports. Truth is vast majority of practitioners do not have sufficient knowledge and education to understand such a complex approach in explanation, and even those  who can, will not benefit from it because it is useless for the purposes of self-defense or competition. Of course vast majority of teachers do use modern science to explain their arts, simply because they don’t know it nor understand it well.

So the questions are, what is and why do we have “in depth’ knowledge in traditional martial arts?

 Answer first question, what is in depth’ knowledge in traditional martial arts, is not easy to answer. Every style has its own standards in the “depth” of ‘knowledge”. In my experience “in depth” knowledge is a mix of pseudo- science, Taoist theories and often esoteric concepts picked from other religious systems. For example we have a Wing Chun system that uses terms like “time\space\energy” which are modern physics terms and not only did not exist before recent times but those concepts in such form are impossible to be expressed in old Cantonese language, mixed with theories for  traditional Chinese “medicine” and Taoism to explain their fighting concepts. Not to mention that there no real “depth” in those theories, terms like time\space\energy are just used in order to give serious and scientific appearance to the people who do not really know science, esoteric part is aiming towards people who already believe in such things. Another example is “teacher” who explains that in order to execute a proper movement practitioner must use specific part of the brain, taught properly only ( what a surprise) in his system, while all other are using different part of the brain, thus their movements and entire arts are not correct. Of course, this particular teacher is also using concepts like “qi” and “internal” energy\force. I wonder where is the documented research that proves what part of the brain is used by him and his students while practicing their art compared to the brain scans of the people who are doing “incorrect” movements? Most of the teachers do not use pseudo-science because they are aware that it easy to debunk those theories. On the other hand, “Qi” and “internal” power are perfect for “in depth” presentation of the art. It is impossible to debunk those theories simply because no one knows what “Qi’ is, there is no clear definition of it and it can mean whatever a teacher wants in particular moment. It is important to mention that every try to measure the effect of “Qi” in controlled condition failed, same as any other kind of magic or esoteric arts. Accompanied with pseudo-science and religion, “in depth” knowledge is consisted of one more important element, growing complexity of the movements, drills and “what if” scenarios. I have personally witnessed different teachers showing that knowledge, Sometimes teacher will “correct” the position of the body part by few millimeters with an explanation that a “proper” position will open ‘qi” channels or be connected properly to the body structure and provide better “force flow”.  Sometimes teachers will show complicated set of movements usually called “drill” that, although completely unrealistic and without any combat value “suppose” to develop some necessary fighting attribute. People pay a lot of money for this nonsense and what is worse they pass that nonsense to others. There are many other examples of “in depth” knowledge so many that they are actually prevalent way of teaching kung fu these days.

The question why “in depth” knowledge in this form even exist is much easier to answer. First it is the financial moment involved in kung fu. Chinese Martial Arts are big business and they attract a large number of people. In order to draw as much money as possible from those people, over complicated systems in theory and practice are invented and they are still growing in complexity. During Ching dynasty period, for which we have the most historical evidence, kung fu training lasted for no more than a few years, and later people trained in kung fu sought jobs in military, police or as a private security. Training was harsh, similar to training of the special military and police forces today, and those people had to learn their arts properly because their lives depended on them. How and why form simple and effective combat systems Chinese martial arts came to what we have today was a subject of one of the previous articles.  This also brings the second reason for “in depth” knowledge existence. Vast majority of kung fu teacher have no fighting experience what so ever. So, how can a person who doesn’t know how to fight teach other fighting skills. It is impossible, just like a person who doesn’t know how to swim can’t teach swimming to others. But those teachers are teaching kung fu, martial arts, so they have to offer something, and they offer arts that are based in imagination and assumption, based in Hong Kong action movies and developed with completely compliant training partners with zero resistance or simulated resistance in training.  On top of that , those teachers are also selling the “tradition” , some famous, often mythical ancestor had superhuman powers and fought usually hundreds if not thousands of fights, he never lost any, and his fighting abilities somehow magically transferred through generations of successors ( who never had a fight) to the current teacher. Best example is revered Wing Chun master Yip Chun, a son of most famous Wing Chun figure today Yip Man. Although we have no evidence what so ever that Yip Man had any fight he is considered by his followers to be tremendous fighter and there are numerous legends about his fighting skills which grow in number over time. Yip Chun proudly states that he never had a fight in his life, and even if his father was a good fighter how that makes him competent to teach others martial art?

At the end, it is important to say that “in depth” knowledge can be very dangerous for the practitioners, not only it will drain their pockets but giving them false confidence in their fighting ability may cause them to act irrationally in potentially dangerous situation and that may cause serious physical injury of death. Those things did happened in the past, so I urge to all martial arts practitioners to test their skills in controlled conditions in order to get a realistic assessment of their fighting abilities.

Snake Crane Wing Chun History - by master Wayne Yung

 

" History is often replaced by legends , our teachers passes old stories to us as a true history and those stories are often taken for granted , just because Sifu told us .Often times “history” of particular style begins with a story where some god or ancestor passed the system to the founder in a dream. Sometimes there is a research conducted and examination of the artifacts and written sources leads to some old (often unknown)  hermit who lived in a mountain. The question is ,will we insist in believing impossible or improbable things or will we make an effort search for the true historical facts ?」

Abbot Chi Sin and Southern Shaolin 

Snake Crane Wing Chun family historical records hold the Abbot of  Southern Shaolin monastery Chi Sin and a nun Ng Mui as their founders. They developed the shorter bridge and smaller stance system to deal with long bridge and wider horse stance system of Ma Ling Yee , a traitor who assisted the Qing government in destruction of Southern Shaolin Temple. Coincidentally, many southern systems also trace their origin to Abbot Chi Sin and Southern Shaolin as their source. The question is, with so many southern systems with distinctive flavors and differences that exist today, did Abbot Chi Sin had time to create so many different systems? Moreover ,different systems place Chi Sin in different  time periods , so , the other question is , how long did he lived and is it possible that he lived couple hundred years? There are even more important questions like, did the Southern Shaolin really existed? Moreover, why create a completely new martial arts system to solely  deal with one person, traitor Ma Ling Yee?

 

There were a lot of efforts to prove historical accuracy of burning the Southern Shaolin by Qing government. Furthermore, martial arts historians put a lot of effort in proving existence of Southern Shaolin monastery but to this day , without any success. Latest researches discovered that Southern Shaolin story has its roots in real historical events but the temple its self never existed and actual burning happened  in 1855.  Events which led to Southern Shaolin story creation are closely connected with Taiping uprising and “Dachen Kingdom” in Guan Xi. Red Boat opera troupe from Gunagdong province , led by Lee Man Mao ,joined the rebellion and established a headquarters  in “Fine Jade Hall” in Foshan.  Qing government ordered destruction of Fall Jade Hall as base for Anti Qing supporters and soon after Opera was prohibited in that area for more than a decade.  After rebellion was crushed, rebels who survived and who were mostly opera actors scattered all over Guangdong . A lot of them found a refugee in Foshan. Since opera was banned and it was not safe to talk openly about these events, story about Southern Shaolin burning emerged containing all key elements of the real events. There was one more purpose of this story, to give a sense of unity and common origin for different anti Qing fractions who still operated at the time. Term "Chi Sin" , it came from Confucius teachings and represents a state  of absolute kindness. As for a person with such a name really existed we do not have proof

History from the perspective of Snake Crane Wing Chun

There are different versions of Wing Chun history today, however, none of them have any mention of  Red Boats and Lee Man Mau involvement Taiping rebellion. There is one very interesting question, how Wong Wah Bo, Leung Yee Tai and Leung Jan were able to practice the art openly after the Opera ban and prosecution of opera members who were involved in Taiping rebellion .The only conclusion , supported with available documents and other historical sources , Wong Wah Bo , Leung Yee Tai and Leung Jan were never took a part in the rebellion , that is the reason why they could practice their art openly , without any fear of prosecution. On the other hand, lineages whose ancestors took a part in the rebellion and anti Qing activities ,like  Ban Chung Wing Chun and Snake Crane Wing Chun kept low profile over the last hundred years. Due to the low profile, these arts were passed down only to family members and stayed unchanged , still keeping all the characteristic of the classic martial style form Red boat period. Also origin of Wing Chun 3 empty hands  sets and  connection to the old rivalry between Wing Chun and Choy Lay Fut is still remained unknown to the public. Earlier in 2007 New Martial Hero published an article written by Mr Liu Kwong Wah about butterfly swords has some interesting points regarding the questions  mentioned above . All unanswered questions regarding Wing Chun history brought me to my personal quest for facts. Following  historical analysis contains data from, Snake Crane Wing Chun 3rd generation successor, Law Tiu Wen’s (1890) writings and also data and analysis from different  sources like Yuen Kay Shan Wing Chun and GuangZhou Wing Chun  which are for references and further studies.

 

Snake Crane Wing Chun Successor Lineage line:

 

Chi Sin (1st) – Sun Kam (2nd) – Law Tiu Wen (3rd) –Law Ting Chau (4th) – Law Chiu Wing(5th)

 

In 1855, the Qing Government burned the Fine Jade Hall and banned  Red boat troupes. Yik Kam, Red Boat actor and  Ban Chung Wing Chun founder who was associated with Lee Man Mau and his Dacheng Kingdom which was situated in GuangXi was still practicing the one long  ,108 movements ,Siu Lim Tau set , also known as Snake Crane Fist. He found a refuge in Poon Yu village , not taking any other involvement  in anti dynastic activities and Ban Chung Wing Chun preserved this long Siu Nim Tao set to this day .Why there was a need to break one long set into three empty hands sets found in  most Wing Chun styles today? The reason for  splitting was a need for immediate application of the skills. The splitting should happened  after 1855 but not after 1860. How do we know this ?According to the Snake Crane Wing Chun notes(1890) written by Law Tiu Wen, the 3rd generation successor  we can roughly  calculate span of one  generation is around  30 years. If we know that first generation had one long Siu Nim Tao set and  Law Tiu Wen, the 3rd generation had 3 empty hands sets ,the split of the long SNT set happened  during 2nd generation period .  is approximately 1890-30 =1860.

 

Qing Government bribing Taiping Leaders

 

Most of the Southern Fist system has the similarities of being originated from Southern Shaolin and Abbot Chi Sin. From the Snake Crane Wing Chun Siu Lim Tau Song last verse has a significant meaning: 「Snake Crane (Fist) can subdue the traitors」. This shows that the Snake Crane Wing Chun was created to deal with Ma Ling Yee who specializes in using wider stance and longer bridge. However the questions is with why it was necessary  to create Snake Crane Wing Chun system with smaller stance and shorter bridge. It is believed that Abbot Chi Sin or Nun Ng Mui were sufficient to handle the traitor Ma Ling Yee. Therefore, “Ma Ling Yee” is not a only one person but a group of traitors who are specializes in using wider stance and longer bridge.

After First Opium War . Choy Lee Fat Chen Heng with his disciples returned home, put forward "YeeWuKeungJok" slogan, and  recruited numerous disciples who had excellent training. Two years later, more than a hundred men and women disciples are sent all across southern China and opened forty-four Choy Lee Fat 'HungShingMartialHall "in various parts of Guangdong, Guangxi. After the peasant movement broke out, Choy Lee Fa became the main military art of the Tai Ping Heavenly Kingdom forces.

After the Taiping Kingdom established its capital in Nanking, the momentum of the movement went nationwide. During those times they have encountered a lot internal conflicts and different points of view. Thus, there were generals who will be bribed and went over to the Qing Government. In 1854, the attack of the City of GuangZhou led by Lee Man Mau, the Red Boat troupe with the Taiping Army, and established Dacheng Kingdom in GuanXi in 1855, enraged the Qing Government. The Qing Viceroy Yip Ming Sum led the Qing Army ,burned the Fine Jade hall and the Red boats. The Survivors of the Red boat troupes and Anti Qing fighters were scattered. Most fled to Foshan for hiding. The traitors who had become members of Qing army, also resided in the same area. Canton opera theaters were banned for fifteen years. In order to seek revenge against the traitors, the evolution of one long set splitting to three sets was developed to shorten the time for training so that Foshan can be a stronghold for confrontation.

Why single form set system split to three forms set system.

Grandmaster Cheng Heng and his students from Choy Lee Fut were the trainers of the TaiPing Heavenly Kingdom army. As the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom grew bigger, the Qing government bribed and recruited many officials from the Taiping Army. Wing Chun evolved from the single long set which is non-open teaching and the way of fighting not being well known, to three sets for the purpose of quick training. The Single Set needs a longer time to learn and to handle .This is because it is based on ancient Chinese internal development as prerequisite thus it was separated into three sets to focus on the applications and it was easier to learn and handled in a short period of time. With the focus in applications, the three forms set system could train good anti-Qing fighters within a short time to deal with the traitors, by using the close contact fighting from the centerline to deal with the long range fighting from the side attack. And this is what it means by 「Snake Crane Fist can subdue the Traitor」 as the combat strategy of non-open teaching of Snake Crane Fist is using capturing the center line and close quarters concept against wide stance and long range bridge distance combat

 

 Article written by : Sifu Wayne Yung

New Book - Self-defense, safety tips

 

Security and safety challenges rank among the most pressing issues of human society of all times. There are numerous books and video courses about self-defense that cover various scenarios from hand to hand combat to fire arms. All these courses teach how to survive violent attack and offer wide variety of techniques and approaches to the problem of self-defense. Best way of self-defense is when attack never happens. While practicing martial arts and tactical shooting is certainly good, actual fighting is the last resort and it represents only 2% of complete self-defense strategy. Prevention is the key that allows people to be safe. Avoiding or preventing an attack is the safest way to ensure security and it is surprisingly easy. Most situations do not require physical self-defense or martial arts and 98% of potentially dangerous situations can be completely avoided or defused. To implement safety strategies you must understand the fundamentals of prevention, when you do, you will be able to improvise safety strategies that are relevant to your needs. This books offer essential safety tips that will help you to stay safe by preventing and avoiding violence

                           Book can be found by following this link            Self-defense, safety tips

Change in TCMA, let's do it properly

 

Chinese martial arts started to change. Under the influence of full contact competitions in which Kung Fu people started to participate, at first in extremely low numbers, but as time passes, we can see more and more people are engaging in those kinds of competitions. As a rule, kung fu practitioners performed very badly in those encounters.  It became obvious that so called traditional martial arts have little to no martial value and they became pure art forms.

Why and how old fighting systems became completely useless in modern day competition arena was explained in some of the previous articles. What became obvious to everyone involved in full contact competition is that focus in training in traditional martial is not compatible with fighting training. Facing this simple truth many changes started to happen in TCMA community. People started to question everything, even the untouchable “masters” of the old. Of course this process is slow and there are still a lot of people locked in all that “tradition”, “original style”, “pure lineage” and other things used for more than a century to justify and cover lack of real martial training. On the other hand more people realize the truth about their previous training and they not only start to question everything but also begin to change their training approach and focus.  While that is certainly a good thing there are few points we have to be aware of in order to preserve traditional martial arts in all their fullness of content.

First thing we have to have in mind is that not all people practice kung fu for fighting. They are drawn to kung fu for other reasons like health, fitness, tradition, ect. For these people, training certainly shouldn’t be fighting oriented.

When we talk about fighting oriented training there is one thing we should be aware. Over time I have noticed that, fighting training in TCMA looks exactly the same as in boxing, kick boxing and Thai boxing. These arts were developing and improving their training approach for a long time in the direction of creating good fighters. While I do think it is important to learn from these arts because they have a lot longer experience and have explored many different ways of training in order to achieve good fighting results, I don’t think it is wise to copy them completely.

Adopting training approach is one thing, copying the complete system is something else. It is easy to fall in the trap of copying these styles because they do offer simpler and apparently more effective solutions. As rule, kung fu people who work toward improving their fighting approach, copy kick boxing or boxing completely not only in training but also in techniques. While I do respect full contact sports and never have doubt in their efficiency, I do think that TCMA should develop their own repertoire of full contact techniques based in TCMA foundation principles of body structure and power generation. We also have to make a clear distinction between sports fighting and self defense. Sports fighting reinforce one dangerous belief. In sports fighting, professional athletes get hit many times, thus people believe that taking a punch in a real fight is something like a norm. We have to be aware that in sports fighting people who engage the a match are pretty much equal in terms of physical traits and skills. In random act of violence there is very little chance that we will encounter someone who is equal to us in any way. Getting hit, even once can be a death sentence. And here we come to the point of blocking. While blocking in sports fighting, due to protective gear and lack of weapons is pretty much ineffective, in real fight blocking can save your life.

What we should do is to save the technical content of TCMA in its entirety and simply adopt better training systems that will allow us to use our  traditional styles to their full potential .