George Xu Speaking at the UN

George Xu has put out his schedule of workshops for the year, check it out.

He is also teaching at the Open Center in New York in May.

And he is going to be at the United Nations while he is in New York being interviewed by Feng Shui GEO Steven Post.  Steven (who is also a long time student of George's and set up the NY events) tells me this is part of the process of getting Chinese Internal Martial Arts some kind of "Living Treasure," "World Heritage" type of designation.

Here is a recent quote from George:  "You have to make what is imaginary real, and what is real imaginary."  Normally that sort of quote causes me to roll my eyes.  It sounds ridiculus.  But this time he said it in a context that made perfect sense to me.  (We were trading upper-cuts.)  When a person is truly relaxed and "quiet," the only thing which can cause the body to move is what we normally call "imagination."  Normally motivated movement will create tension or resistance in the body and will disturb the experience of "quiet."  Likewise, movement devoid of normal muscle sensory activity, will be perceived as imaginary.  It is as simple as that.

Please share your ironic thoughts.

Performers are Mean People

It would seem the most obvious thing in the world that martial arts are performing arts.  I mean, Jackie Chan, hello?  But denial of this notion is deeply embedded in contemporary Chinese culture.

Beijing Opera (Jingju) has as its most basic physical training something called "da" literally hitting or striking.  The warm ups I learned as a kid studying Northern Shaolin are the very same ones used in Beijing Opera.  The stage roles are divided into either martial or civil categories (wu and wen).  Extensive weapons training is given to everyone because much of the traditional repertoire involves depicting historic conflicts and battles.  Probably the best piece of evidence is the most famous Chinese Opera star of the 20th Century, the female impersonating dan Mei Lanfeng, studied Baguazhang with one of the toughest internal martial artists of his time!  It was said to have improved his sword dance.

Yet people will tell you that Chinese Opera has nothing to do with martial arts.

Beijing Opera is just one of many forms of physical theater in China.  There are urban regional styles like what Jackie Chan studied as a kid and there are rural regional styles.  There are also village lineage families, and there are amateur village and regional styles.  And within all of those categories there are ritual styles.  This is a quick gloss to give readers a sense of the scope--there were probably more than a hundred styles of physical theater in 19th Century China.

But there is a big problem here.  Denial.

Jackie Chan has said in variously self deprecating ways that he doesn't know about fighting.  And although it is well known that the Physical Theater of the Red Junks was created by the first Wing-Chun masters, it is also reported that they kept their fighting skills entirely separate from their performing skills.  Even today tight lines of distinction are drawn---at least in peoples minds---despite the fact that the stances used in fighting and performing are the same, and it is hard to know when a martial arts form has crossed-over into theater.

And everyone knows that Bruce Lee left Hong Kong for the US because he wanted to come here and teach Cha-Cha, right?  It's true.

Martial artists go to great lengths to deny any links to performing arts; the "New Life" and other nationalists movements in the 20th Century set out to completely separate martial arts from religious ritual and theater.  Sometimes they went ahead and just changed the arts, like Yang and Wu styles of taijiquan.  For example, Chen, the older style, is chockablock with pantomime training.  Other times they just discarded whole categories of practice, like back bends and high kicks, and sometimes they went for straight faced denial:  "No, that movement isn't for cueing the music, it's for poking your eyes out!"

Mean People!

I have not even finished reading David Johnson's new book, Spectacle and Sacrifice, The Ritual Foundations of Village Life in North China, but the chapter on Entertainers is so astounding I just had to blog!

Entertainers (yuehu) were a degraded caste in China.  Long time readers of this blog may know that I was deeply shocked and offended by my experiences of caste in India in the 1990's.  Chinese culture is not nearly as shocking to my American sensibilities, but then again, I've been studying Chinese martial arts for 32 years and no one has ever spelled it out to me as clearly as Johnson does in his book.

An entertainer had to move off to the side of the road to let "good people" pass.

[Performers] were known as jianmin, "mean people": they could not marry commoners, could not sit for examinations, and could not change their status.  In some cases they were required to be on call to the local yamen to entertain at banquets and other occasions.  (Just what their responsibilities were is never made clear, but they may well have included sexual services.)  They were treated with contempt by the general population....

While there were two major categories of entertainers, there were also castes within castes.  The basic categories were coarse (cu) and fine (xi), generally it appears that the coarse played music and the fine played music but also had acting skills.

"Mean people" were used for everything from entertaining visiting dignitaries, to weddings, to the most sacred rituals of a region.  "Opera Families" were profane outsiders who lived in separate districts or separate villages and yet were paid to entertain and purify--to bring order and expel evil.

A caste of hated artists brings to mind Roma (Gypsy) culture in Europe [hat tip to Liu Ming for the analogy].  The "mean people" were considered profane, but they were a necessity for the maintenance of the sacred.  Ritual Theater was the most common and widespread religious experience in China before the 20th Century. (Here are some links to previous posts.)

There were many different types of ritual performance throughout the calender year and every single village handled things differently.  So it is important to note that amateur commoners performed important roles in rituals and theater, as did Daoist priest, Buddhist monks, Yinyang masters, military personal, local elites, children and even high officials.  In fact, I think it is fair to say that some village rituals had a role for everyone.

Which brings us back to martial arts.  Martial arts were used extensively in these rituals.  It seems almost too obvious that the basic physical training for popular and rarefied physical theater in China was in fact martial arts training.  Each region had it's own style of gongfu (kung fu) and it's own style of theater (ci).  But the basic training was the same.  It could be refined for either fighting, performing, or both.

What I've just now realized is that the ideology of modernity functioned in China as a cover for the deep animosity towards the performing castes.  These castes are now probably close to extinction.  Of course it's risky to generalize, but we now have a better explanation of why most martial arts lineages did everything they could to deny their past participation in ritual performance (lion dance being the big exception).  While the entertainer castes were officially liberated, their historic vocation as ritual experts was derided as the root cause of China's humiliations and failures as a nation!  I suspect that in some cases individual artists from degraded castes managed to survive by first denying any connection to ritual theater, and then skillfully transforming themselves into pure martial artists.

Now I have to re-think what qigong is in this context.  Kind of gives a different meaning to the expression "secret teaching," doesn't it?

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The Lawyers' Body

How do laws effect the way we train our bodies? Drugs, hormones, and steroids can dramatically change the way we train.  We've all seen the pictures.  Pain is one of the big factors that stops people from training yet some painkillers are totally legal and some are not.  The whole steroid issue is confusing because one of the main reasons people take them is to train past the point at which pain would normally stop a person form training, so why are painkillers OK and steroids aren't?  Oh yeah side effects, like painkillers don't have those.  Many people are now aware that Ma Huang, an important herb in the Chinese Medical Pharmacopeia, is now illegal in the US because it was being used as a steroid, and one person gave themselves a heart attack. Please give us our Ma Huang back!

There are tons of exercise inventions, toys and apparatus that are illegal because someone hurt themselves and sued.  I suspect we are missing out on some brilliant training equipment and other fun stuff because no manufacturer was will to take the risk.

Allow students to wear socks in a dance class and you are at risk of negligence. Neck rolls were out for a while.  I remember when they were a staple of African Dance classes.  Neck rolls seem to be back but with lots of warnings to 'go very slowly.'

OK, that was just my preamble. The thing that drives me crazy is the knees must not go past the toes injunction.  I hear this all the time.  This must have come from a lawyer.

There are two parts to it.  The first is basic physical education.  If a weighted knee rolls inward and the foot turns outward simultaneously, the Anterior Cruciate Ligament is in danger of breaking.  Everyone needs to know this.  Just telling people to keep their knee over their toe is not enough information.  Students need to understand what they are training to avoid.  But a knee really can move in a complete circle around the foot as long as forces are not putting that ligament at risk.  In fact it is a good idea to train this way because it teaches the student to keep their whole foot on the ground, there-by avoiding rolling over on the ankle and many other possible strains.

If the knee goes forward past the toes as the heel is coming upward a great deal of strain can be put on the patella and it's various attachments both directly above the knee and inside it.  This is why squats were quasi illegal for a time and some ballet teachers just abandoned the grand-plie.  But there are important exceptions.  If the whole foot remains on the ground with some weight maintained in the heel and the Achilles tendon has time to reach it's full length-- then it's perfectly safe to let the knee go forward of the toe. In fact, I consider it a necessity for students who want to learn to utilize the power of the legs, or want to learn effortless kicking techniques, or for basic shaolin stances like bow and arrow stance.

With the knee forward of the toe and the Achilles tendon fully extended the heel can even come off the ground.  This is used in Bagua Zhang's so called "lower basin" training, and in Daoyin dragon walk.  These two are advanced techniques and need to be introduced over time, but they are safe.

Some of the old masters were brutal.  And it is probably true that people got badly hurt every once in a while.  I'm happy to leave that in the past.  But there is also a kind of rough confidence about the body which comes from tens of thousands of hours of practice.  To the untrained eye that confidence may look dangerous or risky when in fact it is a gift and a treasure.

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Yongle Temple

The Wall Street Journal just did a nice article and a video on Yongle Temple. Everybody knows about the importance of Wudang Temple. But for monastic Daoism Yongle is just as important.

Check Out This New Poo-Chi Class

My poo-chi loves your poo-chi!

Remember if you are seeing my blog on Facebook you have to click "View Original Post" at the bottom to see videos.

Year of the Tiger!

Tiger years are good for pouncing and exorcisms.  If you want to start off with an exorcism, here is a simple one you can do on-line.

It's from David K. Jordan's website.  He has a lot of China-related resources on his site, check it out.  I'm back-logged with my blogging projects at the moment so the interesting links from his site were sitting on my desk top for about three weeks.  In that time the thing I most wanted to share with my readers disappeared!  Drat!

In the China-related resources he had a link called "108 Term Paper Ideas" and somewhere in there he had a link to "What Ever You Do, Do Not Attempt To Write A Term Paper About Martial Arts."  The link lead to a short essay explaining all the reasons why he has had to flunk every person who ever tried to write a paper about martial arts.  Arrgggh!  I'm working on a paper about Exorcism and the Martial Arts, if you can find his essay, pounce on it and send it my way.

Happy year of the Tiger!

Hormones

I read an article about Autism and Hormones two days ago and it got me thinking...but as these things go, I can't find the exact article. Here is one that is similar from Reuters.

A hormone thought to encourage bonding between mothers and their babies may foster social behavior in some adults with autism, French researchers said on Monday.

They found patients who inhaled the hormone oxytocin paid more attention to expressions when looking at pictures of faces and were more likely to understand social cues in a game simulation, the researchers said in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

This is science fiction creeping into our lives.  A nasal spray hormone?  The other article said that this spray makes men less shy and women more maternal.  I suddenly flashed on a future I-Pod App that you can program to adjust your complex hormone balance.

Imagine you're in an argument.  "Hold on a second," you pull out your I-Pod, "I'm starting to get angry here,"  make the adjustment, inhale the spray, presto, "OK, now what were you saying?"

Or imaging you are sick of a kid who won't get out of your hair.  Pull out the spray, inhale.  "Ah, now what is it I can do for you darling?"

There are a lot of creepy dating possibilities.  If hormones can be used to tip a seduction over the edge...yikes.

Marriages rejuvenated by hormone mists?

We already have people using hormones and steroids for crazy body changes.  I wonder if they could be used for getting rid of muscle too?  How about for meditation?  The martial arts training possibilities are legion.

I believe the original article said something about the inhalant making people more trusting.  Man, imagine what a good con-artist could do with that!

At the moment, our knowledge of how hormones work is limited but it's only a matter of time before college students can just skip the cup of coffee and go to straight to class where the room will be filled with "study optimizing hormones."

No more boring meetings, just put your I-pod air freshner on the table and watch you're employees perk up and smile!

The retail options are endless.  Car dealerships will first stimulate you with feelings of manly independence, and then when they are ready to close the deal they will just spray the "trust-me mist" out of the Flower I-pod app on their lapel.

24 hour appetite regulation apps will get you a discount on your health insurance.  "Easy Driver" air fresheners apps in your car will lower you car insurance.

People found guilty of crimes of passion could be given parole with a hormone balancing app that reports mood swings to their parole officer.

It's a brave new world, again.

What I'm Watching

Here are some videos I've been watching, the first is Chen Style Taijiquan Master Feng Zhiqiang.



The second two are Cheng Style Baguazhang Master Sun Zhijun





Enjoy!

Fighting Skill

So little of my actual life and practice is about fighting; it is absurd to write about it.  Yet, I teach the art of fighting so how can I avoid the absurdity?

The art of fighting is a beautiful thing.  It is art and it is endlessly intriguing.  One of the things I love about it is the absolute necessity of simplicity.  Complexity in fighting is out of the question.  The simplest movement, the plainest idea, the shortest summary--these are all trump cards.

Recently George Xu summarized the highest level of fighting with four words!

Unmovable, Unstoppable, Unreachable, and Unliftable.

Brilliant.

It occurred to me later that these four words could be considered translations of the four primary powers in Taijiquan, peng, ji, lu, and an.

Unmovable is peng,

Unstoppable is ji,

Unreachable is lu,

and Unliftable is an.

I hesitate to say any more about it but how can I resist making fun of "the Unreachable martial artist."  Unreachable means that regardless of whether the situation is wrestling or sparring, the opponent always finds themselves over extended.  Unreachable is not just great yielding, it is the ability to get out of the way--by just a hair every time.

After having thought about these four words for a few weeks they now seem self-explanatory to me.  I could talk about why and how a punch is unstoppable.  Or put another way, why a punch can not be cleared out of the way.  But suddenly we are into details better felt than talked about.

Give these four simple words some time to soak in.  Simplicity is a trump card.

________

Here are some links to articles I've written about peng, ji, lu, an:

Peng,

The Language of Exorcism,

Daoist Shoes, and More,

Push-hands.

Tai Chi - Health Insurance You Can Afford

Catchy title huh?  I listened to California's Insurance Commissioner on the radio for about 3 minutes this morning.  He said California doesn't sell health insurance anymore.  The only products available are pre-paid-medical-treatment packages.  There are 55 state mandated components of anything sold as health insurance, which sort of makes the insurance part of the package fade into the mist.

I'm not big on selling Tai Chi as a cure-all, but if you practice everyday you've done something positive for your health, something which the health insurance companies have yet to calculate the value of.  By practicing everyday you create a standard by which you can measure changes in your experience.  Most people don't pay much attention to their health until it is a problem, and they are convinced that paying attention to health is a waste of time and effort.  But practicing Tai Chi automatically makes you sensitive to small changes in your health.  Of course you can try to ignore them, awareness itself is not a cure, but you are way ahead of the game if you notice small changes in health because the best time to deal with big problems is when they are small.

Something on the order of 2/3rds of all health problems are self-induced by inappropriate conduct.  Those problems disappear when you decide not to "go the extra mile," whatever that mile might be.  For the other 1/3 of problems, most can be wiped off the list by catching them when they are small.  The list of potential health problems got a lot shorter.

The list of things that Tai Chi is supposed to be "good for" will probably grow from time to time, and shrink too.  It's probably like the stock market in that way.  This week "balance" is up, last week "vision" was up, and next week "mental health" may be down.  I can't predict it.  As a "stock" Tai Chi will always be a good long term investment but in the short term it's vulnerable to market fluctuations.

Right now my local weekly paper has an ad selling medical marijuana as a cure for anxiety. Somehow I don't believe that.  Can you say paranoia? I thought you could!

And Newsweek did an article on the uselessness of anti-depressants.  We knew that didn't we?

When I injured my knee a few years back.  I never stopped practicing Tai Chi.  My knee was bad, so swollen I had to keep it elevated as much as possible for months.  I was hopping around on crutches or a cane for weeks.  But the whole time I was still able to do Tai Chi.  It is easier than walking!

Of course that's only true if you have been studying it for years when you have your injury, or accident, or illness.  If you have to learn Tai Chi after you have a problem, that's a whole different can of worms.  It still might be a good idea, but it isn't like having insurance.  Tai Chi Insurance, that is.

I think we are a long way out from having catastrophic insurance specifically for people who practice Tai Chi everyday, but while I'm waiting for it--I think I'll just keep practicing.