Online Video Libraries

Youtube is truly amazing. It will no doubt completely and fundamentally transform marketing for anything that moves or incorporates learning.

Martial Arts video libraries never existed before. Forget that a hundred years ago Chinese martial arts training was almost universally kept secret. Before Youtube all those 2 minute film clips of old masters that people had in their private collections were simply too short to collect in any easy to access location. It's only going to get better.

Check it out: http://www.youtube.com/DPGDPG

What does Taiji mean?

The most common translation of Taijiquan (often just called Tai Chi) is great ultimate fist. This is a pretty hilarious translation because it has little meaning in English. With the popularity of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), and all the irony this implies, it is high time we actually get a working translation.

To do this I must first explain some difficult terms. There is a saying form the Taijiquan classics, "Taiji is born (sheng) of wuji and is the mother of yin and yang." Immediately we have a problem. Wuji is generally translated "emptiness" or "the ultimate void," and it is a term most commonly associated with Buddhism where several distinct types of emptiness are described. While the term Taiji is generally associated with Daoism . It is easy to understand how this conflation of Daoist and Buddhist terminology happened. The vocabulary of Buddhists, Daoists and Confucians has been mixed up a lot in promotion of the idea of "the three religions" (sanjiao). This Sung Dynasty idea, which comes in and out of fashion, recognizes all three religions as important and mutually compatible. It is also the case that many Buddhist terms were translated from Indian languages into Chinese using Daoist terminology, which sometimes led Daoists to then change their vocabulary to distinguish their concepts and practices.
Thus the word that should be used with taiji is not wuji, but huntun.

If you go into a Chinese restaurant and order wanton soup you get a stock made from a combination of beef, chicken, pork and vegetable with dumplings floating in it. Tasting the stock you might exclaim, "hmmm, I can't quite figure out what this is made from, it's a kind of undifferentiated chaos," And that's what the name wanton means, completely undifferentiated chaos--"wanton" in Cantonese, "huntun" in Mandarin. The soup is a representation of a Daoist cosmological concept; the dumplings are the clouds floating in chaos.

An experience of totally undifferentiated chaos is, by definition, the closest a human being, with human senses and anatomy, can come to experiencing Dao. It is what we experience when we taste all tastes at once (thus the soup named for it), or we hear all sounds at once, without any differentiation. It is when we see all color and movement simultaneously, without any references to up and down, in or out, light or dark. It is all sensations- hot-cold, moist-dry, hard-soft,--felt simultaneously.

The funny thing about this experience of huntun is that it is transient. The moment we get there, we start to notice patterns, light-dark, up-down, salty-sweet--suddenly we are observing qi. But what happens right in between the experience of huntun and this recognition of patterns? That is what we call taiji! It is the moment where things have just begun to differentiate, a place where there is still light inside of dark, an experience where up is still inside of down, where warm is inside of cold. The idea is well captured in the familiar yinyang symbol.

Now that we have replaced wuji with the term huntun, the saying from the Taijiquan Classics above would read:  "Taiji is born from huntun." This is still problematic because birth implies only one direction. Sheng, the term being translated here as "born" can also mean "life," and in this case it means "life" in its total sense-- both manifestation and destruction together.

In this cosmology all things are mutually self-re-creating.  Creation is an event/experience without agency. All inspiration emerges from huntun, but also, all ideas die there.  All aggression arises from huntun and it also resolves/returns to huntun. It is multi-directional. All things which come into existence pass through taiji on their way to manifestation, as do all things going out of existence on their way to disintegration or dispersion.

Softness vs. Flexibility

For most people looseness and softness will add more ease to ones normal daily life than flexibility will; activities like brushing one's teeth, picking up children, riding a bike, and getting into a good seat at the movies when we arrive after the lights have gone down.
Some people may be thinking, "my muscles are already too soft."  This, however, is unlikely to be the case for anyone who has even a mildly active life. What is more likely is that there are parts of one's body that are very soft and other parts which are rigid- a muscle imbalance problem not a softness problem. Softness is a problem when paired with rigidity or when there is so much deficiency in the underlying structure that the muscles no longer function. The development of true strength is aided by softness and built on underlying structure. (What we sometimes call jing.)

Xingyi

I've studied both types to Xingyi quan (hsing i ch'uan), Wuxing (Five element) and Liuhe (six harmonies), but I've trained Liuhe a lot more. Both are powerful internal fighting arts. Both can be performed in a small space. Video

More, and More.

The histories I have read about this art really don't tell us much. Liuhe is thought to be the older style. I find it difficult to believe, but Liuhe was taught only to Muslims before 1949. Wow, there is some truth there but at some point they must have been teaching others because it's supposed to be the older style.

I do think liuhe is actually an older style because wuxing seems to have become simpler, perhaps even gentrified. (George Xu used to say "think kill!" when we practiced liuhe.)

The main weapon of war for the infantry for most of history was the spear. A phalanx protected by a small cavalry was very difficult to beat. Cavalries with huge Arabian horses became a cult of the emperor by the time of the Tang Dynasty (cavalries were later used by the Mongolian hordes conquered the world) and they were formidable, but training war horses was harder and more expensive than training huge infantries. The spear remained very important until the invention of the gun.

Spear training is evident in luohe xingyi both in the stepping and in the shrinking of the body size, not to mention the turning maneuvers and the focus on forward movement. I really can think of no martial art that is better designed for fighting with a group in tight formation, shoulder to shoulder.
I have heard that xingyi was officer training for the infantry but I don't know of any facts to back it up.

Another theory goes that xingyi could be practiced on the thin paths of the rice paddies and in small places (as opposed to Shaolin which needs an open court yard or a walled park). It could be practiced on the road, going and coming from work.

Update: China From Inside is a pretty good site.

Qi Jocks

Qigong Doctor or Qigong Master (notice my finger is half-way down my throat) Sha can download new software for your organs.

It's a typical Monday afternoon here in the city, but something very unusual is happening in Stacey’s Bookstore on Market Street. Sha Zhi Gang, a licensed medical doctor and acupuncturist from China, is downloading a new lung into a Sacramento lawyer's body.

The lawyer, Kevin Lams, had gone through three rounds of chemotherapy over the last two years, but the cancer is back again. He is getting desperate, he said, and turned to Sha for help.

Dr. Sha looks like any other Asian businessman in his dark blue suit and yellow tie, but he's actually an eccentric spiritual healer who claims the Divine has given him the power to download soul software and heal a range of ailments.

When I saw this article in Wired Magazine, and watched the video, I started writing an essay called Qigong Ethics. It isn't finished yet, partly because a difficult question arose.

Your average American with what I call a functioning BullSh_t buzzer will recognize this as faith healing. Most parts of the world have some version of it. Subordinate yourself to a charismatic, fun for the whole family. It is always a performance but the vocabulary changes. Believe in the power of _____ to heal you. The problem arose because in China instead of calling it god, magic, or the spirit of Mumukupa-- they called it qi (See my definition of the many meanings of qi.)

Historically, qi is one of several words used by trans-mediums and shaman to describe unseen power. What happened is that in 1949 China banned all religion and all religious expression. It is still controlled but there was an opening after the Cultural Revolution ended in the Early 1980's when the government said it was okay to practice Qigong for health.

This little opening in the 80's led to an explosion of emotion, ecstatic expression, and religious feeling all focused around qigong. Nancy Chen's brilliant book, Breathing Spaces Historically there was no distinct subject called qigong. Movement and meditation practices were always tied to, and regulated by, a religious group or martial arts lineage.
Here is the ethical issue: About 65% of the problems people go to a doctor for are self-created problems. When a person gets us to change our un-healthy behavior it has a real medical effect. Doctors may tell patients, change or suffer and die.  How often does that work.?

On the other hand, the performance language of a qigong master is frankly insane; but for some reason, after a "master" performs a healing, if he/she tells the patient to "meditate in this position for 45 minutes a day for 108 days and stop eating fried foods," the patient often does it! They certainly have a better chance of getting someone to change their un-healthy behavior than I do. I get a really strong vibe of dishonesty from these qi jocks, but those behavior changes really can help people.

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Daoism and Martial Arts

If you read Stephen R. Bokenkamp's excellent Book Early Daoist Scriptures you can learn something about Daoism. There was a Daoist precept against keeping (or collecting) rare or excessively sharp weapons. This suggests that it was pretty normal to have something handy around the house, but that fighting was not considered part of their job (also weapons are talismanic, they are said to attract demons).
There is another precept which is really interesting: Daoists were forbidden to fight in the army, but if they were forced (threatened with the extermination of family) than they were forbidden to serve in a subordinate position--Meaning they had to command troops.
Other important precepts are cultivate: weakness, softness, stillness and non-aggression. There were also prohibitions against wasting qi or jing, or loosing your qi (i.e., getting angry to the point of self injury).
The vast number of Daoists were house holders, married men and women, priests whose job it was to regulate or manage local cults and the rectification of the unresolved dead.
Daoist thinking is important in the creation of internal martial arts, but the connection is not easy to make.
Kristofer Schipper who I mentioned in an earlier blog, says that there were two types of Daoists, black hat and red hat. Red hat were aloud to practice martial arts and black hat were not. The distinction between these two is not a simple one, but red hat's are usually transmediums or shaman (wu).
The idea that certain internal martial arts (taijiquan, xingyiquan, baguazhang) are Daoist or Daoist influenced may not predate the 20th century. It very much depends on what we think Daoism is, and what constitutes an "influence."
I intend to deal with this subject in depth in the coming months, but I thought I might give my readers a head start on the reading.

Our Teenage Qi Bodies

What ever type of movement or training we do when we are still growing has a lasting effect on the shape our physical body takes as adults. As the physical body is developing so is the 'shape' of the Qi body.  The particular quality and flexibility of the muscles we have as teen-agers will give shape to the qi meridians in and around the body, the body we develop as teen-agers will usually be the body shape which for us has the most unrestricted qi flow.  Practices like Northern Shaolin have been specifically refined to maximize qi circulation and should be taught in the schools.
Adults cultivating weakness should consider their development toward flexibility, softness, looseness, and internal connection in relationship to the body they grew into as teen-agers. For instance, someone who developed big muscles and played football as a teen-ager and now has muscles which are much smaller will tend to be sluggish  the circulation of qi will tend to stagnate in meridians that originally developed in a highly active muscular body.  Assuming such a person is not suffering from injuries they should consider building up the muscle a little to re-familiarize themselves with what their body feels like when qi circulation is at it's optimum.  If we take the uninhibited circulation of qi as our measure of health and our measure of how to practice- the best way for each individual to practice will reveal itself effortlessly.  The process of cultivating weakness should be a gentle peeling back of the layers of history, not an abrupt end.

Flexiblity, how important is it

Many people think of flexibility, muscle length or extension, as the opposite of stiffness, but oftentimes people are both flexible and stiff.

Looseness is a quality of movement which includes the ability to change spontaneously, quickly, and easily. Looseness and flexibility each require different approaches to training. Flexibility, looseness, softness, and internal coordination or 'connection' are four distinct qualities of movement which work together. Missing one of these four will create a deficiency. These four together support the uninhibited circulation of qi.

Stretching often feels invigorating, but it is possible to over stretch. In transitioning between stretches, ease and balance should not be over looked. If we focus primarily on developing flexibility by getting our muscles very warm, even hot, and then stretching, but little on transitions, we may end up reducing the flexibility we have when our muscles are cold, thus, making our comfort range in daily activities smaller. The nervous system becomes like a rubber-band: it stretches way out, but then it springs back in response to having been pulled out of its comfort range. This kind of flexibility is usually combined with strengthening, exacerbating the problem further with insensitivity.

In contrast, the qi gong approach is gentle,

and can be done without having to first warm up the muscles. Muscles which are always stretched to their limit don't know what a safe range of motion is, the muscles themselves appear to recoil in fear.

Someone whose muscles are very loose when they are hot but tight when they are cold will have to practice stretching in a much smaller range of motion in order to calm the recoiling effect of their nervous system. Much less common, but equally problematic, is combining over stretching with reckless looseness. Looseness with out evenness and balanced development or internal connection, can create over stretched ligaments. Many of the chronic injuries stemming from this type of looseness will be familiar to dancers.

The natural wrapping and twisting of muscles and tendons is an important developmental stage. Dancers who began their training at a young age sometimes skip this stage of development. The ability of all muscles to wrap and twist can be highly developed but it can also be overlooked in an attempt to get what is called 'a better extension.' Ligament injuries are associated with the impulse to release and extend in order to get the hands and feet as far away from the spine as possible. With out the the twisting and wrapping of muscles and tendons to support looseness in the joints, the ligaments eventually take the strain, and ligaments have little elasticity. People with these kind of injuries are usually taught to strengthen all the little muscles around the injury (a la Pilaties).

The qigong approach to dealing with this kind of an injury or tendency needs to be shown and felt first hand. It involves learning to draw qi into the central core of the body while simultaneously expanding, a sense of 'closing inside of opening.'

Individual muscles are capable of very complex movement, like the tongue which is a muscle that is only attached at one end. Many people think of muscle movement simply as a sort of on-off switch, contraction-release. In the case of most weight lifting the emphases is put on contracting muscles. Modern gyms use all sorts of apparatuses for muscle building, all essentially designed with this contraction-release concept of muscles.

Chronic tension in the spine is sometimes compensating for ligaments which are stretched to the limit by poor alignment. When the muscles around the spine attempt to protect the ligaments and become chronically tense, circulation and ability to feel the area are undermined. If any one part of the spine is restricted, it tends to restrict the movement of the rest of the spine, this is because the muscles and ligaments tend to release either in a wave sequence or simultaneously, not in isolation. When we attempt to stretch chronically tight regions of our spine, we are more likely to over stretch ligaments than we are to release the area of tension. Eventually many people strain ligaments, bone or discs.

The process of unraveling tension in the spine should be gentle and gradual. Having partners who watch or lightly place their hands on each others spine to give direct feed back about how the spine is releasing is the best way to learn this.

Many hip injuries happen in a similar way. People with a chronically tense hip, may have begun with very loose hips. The muscles around our hips twist and wrap in many complex ways. If the ability of these muscles to twist and wrap hasn't been developed in someone who has naturally loose hip sockets, minor dislocations of the hip can lead to strain on the ligaments which causes the hip muscles to contract leading to loss of mobility and sometimes chronic pain. Twisting and wrapping in muscles is a kind of developmental ground for the most dynamic and refined movement the body can do and it is an essential support for the development of healthy looseness in the joints.

When all the soft tissues in the body work together, the bones can move in effortless spirals. It's ironic that learning this is often easier for both young people whose bodies are still growing, and older people, who are losing muscle mass and find it difficult to build and keep new muscle. Those who find it easy to build dense protective muscle tissue tend to rely on bulky muscles to do everything. 'Why be weak when you can be strong?' is the conventional wisdom.

Gordon Liu

My favorite classic martial arts movie routines of Gordon Liu fighting and giving a Medical Cupping treatment and fighting while getting measured for a suit. Dreadnought!

Here you really see the roots of Chinese Opera in the Kungfu movie!  Gordon Liu was of course, the old master in the Tarantino film Kill Bill 2.