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Part 1

Knocking on the

Kung-fu Door

The Contemporary Purpose of Kung-fu

Before the introduction and dominance of guns in warfare, skill in hand-to-hand combat determined the victor in any battle. Armies were trained in martial art. The security of communities, villages, and a person’s family depended on successful martial art training.

In ancient China, the weapons available were limited to those people could wield with their hands: the staff, saber, sword, spear, and of course the primary weapon, the body. In these times the attitude and purpose of kung-fu was very serious, potentially a matter of life and death. With survival as its foremost purpose, kung-fu was learned not for its beauty or meditative qualities, but for protecting one’s family and possessions.

Certainly the ancient practitioners derived considerable health benefits as a by-product of their art. Kung-fu training emphasizes use of the entire body. The body is trained to maneuver in and out of unorthodox positions with fluidity and control. The martial artists of old were not without appreciation for this valuable consequence of training, but their chief purpose for learning kung-fu was selfdefense.

With the introduction of guns to warfare, the weapons of old became quickly obsolete, and the highly evolved art of kung-fu can be said to have reached its evolutionary peak. Because of the deadly power and accuracy of the gun, the role of hand-to-hand combat was greatly diminished. Naturally, with this descent of kung-fu’s importance in battle, the training associated with it also lost value and intensity. Why train with devotion and sincerity if a bullet can defeat your mightiest technique?

Kung-fu skills, which have been refined over the centuries, are not learned easily or quickly.

Although hand-to-hand combat has become less a factor in warfare, the ancient art of kung-fu has endured. Today, in fact, it is enjoying a revitalization not only in China but the world over. Many people have taken notice of kung-fu and have proved by their interest and participation that it most assuredly has a place in the modern world.

Kung-fu is thousands of years old and is a highly developed system of martial art. The student who locates a good kung-fu school will find the training thorough and challenging. Kung-fu skills, which have been refined over centuries, are not learned easily or quickly. The sincere student, however, through hard work and dedication, will not be disappointed with the results.

Although people no longer need to learn kung-fu for survival, those who do study for the purpose of martial art will realize that it remains an excellent system of self-defense.

Although hand-to-hand combat has become less a factor in warfare, the ancient art of kung-fu has endured.

Today, it is common knowledge that daily exercise benefits one’s health, appearance, and mental state. Kung-fu uses the whole body in a way that exercises and strengthens all the muscles, tendons, and ligaments. Unlike most Western exercise, sports, and recreational activities, which focus primarily on external training, kung-fu works on harmonizing the external and the internal.

Some training routines have been developed exclusively for their specialized health benefits. The unique coiling and uncoiling movements of kung-fu can massage the body’s inner organs and lymphatic system. A particular exercise, for example, may correspond to the area and functioning of a single organ. I am of the opinion that kung-fu is unsurpassed as a system for all-around conditioning.

If you are not prepared to invest years of practice, don’t expect to advance far in the art.

The mental benefits of kung-fu are not as easily measured as the physical ones. You can’t just look in a mirror and see the changes and improvements kung-fu training has made on your perceptions, attitudes, and feelings, but often it is these inner changes that are the most profound.

“Kung-fu” literally means time and hard work. I can say unequivocally that there are no shortcuts. The impatient student finds only frustration. If you are not prepared to invest years of practice, then don’t expect to advance far in the art. Those who make the investment, on the other hand, certainly will benefit mentally and physically. Discipline, confidence, understanding one’s limitations, and belief in one’s abilities are all gained from the practice of kung-fu.

Another key element that attracts people to kung-fu is its undeniable beauty. Kung-fu combines power, grace, and agility. Some kung-fu styles emphasize the dance-like and acrobatic qualities of kung-fu. For the performance-oriented student, kung-fu can be a majestic and flamboyant means of self-expression. Forms competitions can provide a platform for displaying one’s abilities and a springboard for recognition.

Each morning at sunrise, hundreds of people gather in China’s parks to begin the day with healthy exercise.

I have tried to reveal that kung-fu has not just one purpose. We see how it can improve our health, that it can be treated as an art form and studied for its beauty, or studied for its original intent, martial art. Kung-fu can develop one’s strength and flexibility, and nourish qualities such as patience, discipline, and confidence.

Like everything that lives, kung-fu is ceaselessly changing. It has proven valuable and resilient enough to endure the sweeping changes of centuries, and to arrive here in the present like an ancient treasure forever being rediscovered.

Traditional Kung-fu: the Complete Exercise

The number and variety of exercise activities available to us today is staggering. You can choose from among baseball, football, soccer, track and field, water sports, winter sports, aerobics, weight training, and cross training to name a few. Why would we ever need kung-fu as an exercise?

Kung-fu training addresses the needs of the inside as well as the outside.

In my opinion, it’s difficult to find any sport or activity that can top kung-fu as an overall form of exercise. For all traditional kung-fu practitioners, even those whose main purpose is self-defense, daily martial arts practice can prevent illness, create a better life, and reach for longevity. In other words, martial arts is a form of exercise that is wholesome, unique, and complete.

What makes kung-fu such great exercise? In reality, exercise doesn’t adequately describe the overall quality of kung-fu. In Chinese, the term yun dong is used to define this activity. Chinese-English and English-Chinese dictionaries typically translate yun dong as exercise, sports, recreation, or athletics. However, these English words somehow translate only dong, not yun.

A better translation for dong is movement, action, and mobility. Motions like waving the arms, kicking the legs, twisting the body, and shaking the head are all visible, whether executed alone or with a team, or with a ball, a stick, or a racquet. All are dong.

I agree that all these types of exercise are valuable and good for the health, but yun is missing. In China yun and dong are never separated. Yun means “internal,” including breath, circulation, mind control, and focus.

Internal and external must be balanced and the exercise must be complete, if we are to really benefit ourselves and others.

Generally, dong deals more with muscle, tendon, bone, and skeletal structure. Yun is more associated with the organs, nervous system, brain, and feeling. A young tennis player, for example, would usually play with lots of dong, relying mostly on external strength. Overdoing dong can potentially lead to health problems because the yun is neglected. Internal and external must be balanced and the exercise must be complete, if we are to really benefit ourselves and others. Good exercise should always be safe, and we should enjoy a sweet aftertaste that lasts several hours, several days, or even weeks.

When we are young, we can enjoy lots of external movement. When we get older, we become less active and can’t as easily enjoy large movements, speed, high impact, and quick twisting of the muscles. Unfortunately, this is exactly the time our bodies really begin to need good exercise to maintain youthful energy and health. Most of the exercise systems available in our society can’t satisfy this need.

I don’t agree with so-called low impact, low-key approach where the contents of the exercise are the same but the dosage less. We need a better prescription to exercise the body inside and out. The kung-fu way is the better way.

There are approximately 250 kung-fu styles-northern, southern, external, internal, long-range, short-range-and numerous weapons. They all have something in common.

Please don’t mistakenly believe mainland China’s government-sanctioned wushu (lit., “martial art”) is traditional Chinese kung-fu. Modern wushu has more in common with Western exercise than traditional Chinese kung-fu. From Western exercise, wushu practitioners learn to keep moving (running, jumping, and tumbling) and to discard internal training. They skip the yun. Some call it Chinese ballet. Can we call it Chinese aerobics? For kung-fu to be a complete exercise, it must be practiced correctly in the kung-fu way.

Our everyday common sense tells us that no movement equals no exercise, and therefore no health benefits should result. I think everyone, even those who’ve never done any kung-fu, can try a simple, scientific experiment. Pick one posture and hold it for awhile. I believe that before three minutes is up your body will experience the same symptoms as if you were exercising. After five minutes, your body’s responses will be quite strong. I doubt that untrained people can last for a full ten minutes, even a boxer, football player, or bodybuilder. Judged by kung-fu training requirements, ten minutes is really a very short period of time.

Sifu Liu Yun Chiao, the author’s last teacher, holds the baguazhang “bear posture.”

If you have access to the equipment and resources to conduct research on this type of stationary exercise, you will see that it actually provides the same results: the pulse rate increases, respiration increases, and more oxygen is pumped into the blood. An easier way to measure the results is by our own sweat.

Moving exercise, dong, is somehow like an investment. An expenditure of energy is required to move the body. When we are young, we have more than enough to invest and can enjoy any returns, no matter how small. As we age, we no longer can afford to invest so freely. Our reserve is much smaller and the risk much greater.

On the other hand, yun exercise yields a very high return for a much smaller investment. The prime attraction of dong exercise is recreational. Health benefits are a side effect. Dong looks outward; Yun looks inward, focusing our attention on our own body (inside and out) and spirit, thus directly providing benefits to our health. Yun doesn’t provide any distractions to divert our attention away from the prime business at hand—rejuvenation of our body, organs, and spirit.

Yun and dong do not conflict. Instead, when practiced together, they are powerful partners, creating a rich yield of health, fitness, mental clarity, focus, and energy for all of us.

The Simple Fact of Yin and young

Almost every martial artist knows something about the Chinese theory of yin and yang Some practitioners try to apply the principles of this theory to improve their technique. Though a useful idea, the theory of yin and yang has been overemphasized and misunderstood in the martial arts. Many people treat yin and yang like an unfathomable truth, an idea that cannot be fully grasped. This respectful attitude, however, does not help to make the concept any more accessible or useful in learning martial arts. The fact is that yin and yang are not beyond our grasp: they are an integral part of daily life and a practical way of explaining an essential aspect of existence.

To clear up the clouds that obscure this concept, we have to go back to ancient China where the theory of yin and yang was formulated. The legacy of ancient China is in part a coming to terms with nature, defining the relationships that govern the universe. Some cultures organize their concept of the universe with man as the center of phenomena. Thus, nature is something that must be conquered and made to conform to human reason.

Yin and yang represent. the continual process of change and flux in nature.

Chinese philosophy is based on a different perspective. The Chinese people sought to harmonize with nature rather than to dominate it. The theory of yin and yang was developed as a practical way of describing and classifying this universe in which humanity is a part of nature, rather than the master of nature. The Chinese perceive the universe as the interaction of complementary opposites such as day and night, male and female, hard and soft, life and death: yang and yin. The dynamic cycle of creation and destruction (embodied in the life cycle of a flower, for example) is seen as a continuous process of change.

Perhaps the best way to understand this theory is to visualize the geometric representation of yin and yang (see Fig. 1). Western culture, unlike Chinese culture, classifies phenomena into fixed opposites; for example, day and night could be configured as a square divided in half.

This relationship could also be depicted within a circular shape that shows how the opposites together form a whole. Neither of these conceptions show any interaction between the opposites, a typically Western perspective. In Chinese culture, however, yin and yang are configured within a circular shape that expresses the interaction and complementary nature of opposites.

The curving line that connects the two entities expresses change, the basic idea underlying the theory of yin and yang. Yin and yang, therefore, represent the continual process of change and flux in nature: day (yang) is always changing into night (yin) and night is always changing into day. This relationship is most fully illustrated by the taiji diagram.

Figure 1

Not only do yin and yang continuously interact, but the yin always contains some yang, and the yang always contains some yin. No pure yin or yang exists, only varying degrees of interaction between the two. The essence of this idea is found in the Chinese saying: “Creation never stops: yang reaches its limit and gives birth to yin; yin reaches its limit and gives birth to yang.”

Many of the old masters were illiterate and could not explain their art, but their kung-fu naturally conformed to the principles of yin and yang.

The Chinese use the theory of yin and yang to explain all facets of life, such as medicine, painting, architecture, weather, food, and kung-fu. Comprehending this theory is not essential to the practice of kung-fu or any other art. Many of the old masters were illiterate and could not explain their art, but their kung-fu naturally conformed to the principles of yin and yang. Mastering kung-fu is impossible without knowingly or unknowingly following the principles of this theory.

Although philosophy is not a substitute for physical training, understanding yin and yang can help practitioners improve their technique. Western culture, for example, evolved based on a philosophical foundation that typically views concepts as fixed, or black and white. Grasping the theory of yin and yang serves to bridge that cultural gap and demonstrate a fundamental aspect of kung-fu.

The theory of yin and yang as applied to the martial arts is quite practical. In a settled stance, for example, all the parts of the body in shadow are considered yin, and the remaining parts, yang. In the taijiquan movement danbian (single whip), the shaded areas and the backside of the body are yin (Fig. 2). Since kung-fu is not a static form, yin and yang can also be applied to the body in motion. In general, any outward movement is considered yang and any inward movement is yin. Danbian is basically a yang movement: both arms and the leg clearly extend outward. When considering this movement from beginning to end, rather than the climax of the movement, or taijiquan (or any kung-fu style) in general, the yin and yang constantly change.

At the beginning of the movement both the arms and legs are closer to the body (yin) (Fig. 3). Then the leg moves out and the whole body uncoils in a highly coordinated twisting action to complete the movement. Note how the arm changes from yin, facing the body to yang, facing and extended away from the body.

Other aspects that characterize a movement are also classified as yin or yang. Any movement that is hard, fast, strong, or clear is yang; movements that are softer, slower, or less obvious are yin. Then jing (power) that is stored or released is also described similarly in terms of yin and yang. In a major attacking movement (yang), for instance, there are smaller, supporting movements that are yin. In danbian the shoulder, hip, and knee are less obvious parts of the body that may be used in attacking. Kung-fu never violates the principles of yin and yang-the yang always contains some yin and the yin contains some yang. As the saying goes: “Yin by itself cannot create; yang by itself cannot grow.”

When the power and movements are balanced and calm, not committed to any fixed pattern, then the percentage of yin and yang jing used to issue the power can easily be changed as the situation demands.

In the taiji diagram yin and yang are mixed, with some yin in the yang and vice versa. In terms of jing, the soft (yin) and hard (yang) energies are mixed in the same way. Soft and hard does not mean weak and strong; it simply implies different kinds of power. Having the ability to manage the jing is important in kung-fu. For example, being able to balance the yin and yang jing has many advantages. Because you don’t know which part of your body you will have to use to attack or defend, or the expertise of your opponent, a calm, balanced awareness should be maintained. When the power and movements are balanced and calm, not committed to any fixed pattern, then the percentage of yin and yang jing used to issue the power can easily be changed as the situation demands.

Figure 2

Figure 3

The training of baguazhang emphasizes this idea. Another name for baguazhang— yin yang bapanzhang (yin and yang eight circling palm)—aptly describes this system. Yin and yang are continually changing in the circular twisting movements, but the jing is balanced. Of course, the percentage of yin and yang changes when a weakness is created or appears in the opponent’s defense, and the power is issued.

The art of xingyiquan has three levels of training for power. Ming jing (clear) develops the obvious, more observable energy. An jing (dark) develops the concealed, less obvious energy, and hua jing (melting) combines the clear (yang) and dark (yin) as in the taiji diagram. At the higher levels of any kung-fu system, the practitioner is able to control the jing; and direct the flow of energy as well as the movement of the body according to the principles of yin and yang.

Understanding the theory of yin and yang can give insight into the depth and sophistication of Chinese philosophy and kung-fu. Both kung-fu and the theory of yin and yang were developed to satisfy the practical needs of the ancient Chinese. Acquiring that understanding is best accomplished through practical, direct experience such as learning kung-fu. Then the theory becomes a reality.