My MA - tall tales and true

Mobility

2011-12-22T15:58:00.002+11:00

I recently travelled to America with my wife, including a cruise from Mexico to Hawaii.

I don't know if it was an American thing, or a cruise thing, but there was a much higher proportion of people, not all of them old, using those electric scooters, walkers, and walking sticks. Some in wheelchairs as well, though able to stand for short periods and walk short distances. There were no lightweights among them, and a fair proportion were morbidly obese.

In fact, I've never seen so many fat people in one place in my entire life than I saw on the cruise ship. Men who looked like they'd shoved Swiss Balls up their polo shirts, women with asses large enough to have a system of moons orbiting them.

It's unfair to accuse people who are infirm or sick as having failed morally or personally, but you have to wonder why there seem to be so many such people from what is meant to be the richest country with the most advanced healthcare in the world.

I love the fact that I can walk, run, jump, climb. Speed, strength, agility, grace, poise and similar qualities are worth fighting to hang on to. The best things in life are free. You don't use, develop and maintain them, you lose them.

When the Segway first came out, something inside me reacted with alarm. Of course there were cars, bikes, trains, skateboards, etc. but the Segway was something else If we stop walking, it seemed, we stop living. A step (no pun intended) too far.

Are we devolving into a species that in the future will only be able to move with technological assistance?

Giving less than 100%

2011-04-21T10:13:00.001+10:00

I enjoyed the free wrestling in Peter King's class last night. Escaped Sonny's first formidable guillotine choke attempt and passed his guard, though he tapped me with a second guillotine right at the end of the round. The local teenage prodigy, Andris, got my back, somehow I escaped that to half guard and fended him off for the rest of the round.

I think I'm going to enjoy the Jiu Jitsu journey more if I ease up on the intensity. In the second half of my sixth decade, I can't beat the twenty- and thirty-somethings with speed, strength or cardio. If I try to give each round my maximum, I end up too exhausted to wrestle well next round, plus I make too many mistakes thrashing around. From now on I want to try to stay below ninety percent, really watch what's going on, make my movements strategic and deliberate, work more defence and escapes, but really work them rather than just "try whatever it takes not to get my guard passed." Tap out more. I could have resisted Sonny's second guillotine a bit longer, but what was the point? It was a great guillotine, well executed. Deserved the tap. Last time I fought my way out of a choke (actually two, an anaconda on a Wednesday followed by a Peruvian necktie on the Sunday) I had a sore neck for a week. Darko says, "I want to be doing this when I'm eighty" - me too, and I'm a lot closer to eighty than he is.

There has to be some sort of corollary of the 80/20 rule that applies here. Well executed technique shouldn't take 100% effort. Eighty and certainly, ninety percent, should be enough. One hundred percent brain, perhaps, but not one hundred percent brawn.

Refereeing

2010-12-17T16:02:00.001+11:00

Refereeing

I've been refereeing Jiu Jitsu for a couple of years. Several hundred matches, at least. It might look like an easy gig, but it's not.

A good BJJ referee requires:

Ability to concentrate and observe
Ability to work closely with the scorer, timekeeper, and other officials
Excellent knowledge of the rules and of jiu jitsu itself
Ability to make FAST decisions based on knowledge if the rules
Confidence
A high tolerance for abuse, both in the local language and Portuguese

Depending on the size of the competition and the size of the pool of referees, you'll probably be refereeing between twenty and fifty matches in a day at a reasonable sized competition. The largest competitions I've refereed at have had about 300 competitors. Even with six mats running concurrently, that's a long day of competition. Keeping the a high level of concentration to see every point and advantage is hard, and it's taxing. There is talk of "mat madness", where it becomes too much, and it's true. By the end of the day, my brain is floating in the stratosphere. Make sure you get the occasional break, especially if you are feeling stressed.

You also need to work closely with the scorer and timekeeper. The scorer should watch the referee like a halk to ensure he picks up all the referee's hand signals; the referee needs to watch the scorer closely to ensure the scorer awards the points correctly. I had a scorer once miss six points I'd awarded during a match; but when I swapped roles with him, I only missed doing the same thing because he kept checking what I was doing. As a referee, award points verbally, "two points white - takedown", as well as using the hand signals. As a scorer, watch the referee rather than the match. If there is a separate timekeeper (the electronic scoreboards keep time themselves), they should also watch the referee and make sure the scorer misses nothing.

I've been fortunate enough to avoid the competitions that are poorly organised, schedule matches on the fly and end up running late into the night. I have been at well organised competitions and know that it doesn't have to be a dog's breakfast.

The rules aren't as complex as quantum mechanics, but they aren't always logical and consistent. There are few quirks and grey areas, especially regarding their interpretation and determining the difference between points and advantages. There are a few unwritten rules as well, things like what is required to get an advantage when passing from full to half guard, and what you can and can't do when applying straight footlocks.

Decide on points quickly, but make sure you do not award points too early. Positions normally have to be held three seconds for positional control. But make a confident decision and award points - or not - confidently.

Competitors' coaches, teammates, crew and hangers-on will get in your face about your interpretation of the rules, and yell at you when they feel their guy was treated unjustly. Knowledge of the rules is your best defence - you should know the rules better than they do, or why are you refereeing at all? Often those who argue the most have a sketchy or nonexistent knowledge of the rules.

You will make mistakes. And you will remember them. The aggrieved parties may get in your face about it. Many seasoned competitors will tell you they have benefited as often as suffered from referee's mistakes, but few complain when a bad decision goes their way (though some do, to their credit). Apologise if you feel you should (or even if you feel you're right, but the argument will end earlier if you pretend to concede), and move on. I usually tell anyone with a problem to see the contest organisers, who so far have always backed me up, should anyone bother to take it further. Move on. The next match is ready to go, the last one is done and dusted. As a referee, you must live totally in the Now.

The sport need more good referees to grow. Some instructors require their students to referee a number of matches, maybe fifty, to be eligible for promotion to the higher coloured belts. Fifty matches is probably only two or three competitions. You get to see jiu jitsu from a different perspective. It will improve your ability to coach jiu jitsu.

Put something back into the sport we love. Be a referee!

50/50 Guard

2010-09-28T15:16:00.001+10:00

While the 50/50 guard has been out there for a while and I'm usually pretty technique-inquisitive, Anthony has been encouraging me to work various other open guards: butterfly (hooks-in), half guard, quarter guard, De La Riva, X guard and I figured that was more than enough to keep me occupied.

He introduced it to most of us in class last night. Simply put, the position is with both of you sitting up. You lock a leg triangle on his near side thigh; he can do the same to you. There is the usual plethora of video clips which are easily found via Google. Anthony said he wasn't a fan but knew he would have to learn the position because guys would be trying it on him and his students in competition.

To me it seems to run against the philosophical grain of what I have been taught that good BJJ is about. My understanding is that good BJJ involves achieving a superior position, so your opponent is put in an inferior position. With the 50/50 guard, you both end up in an identical position, and it comes down to who has the better understanding of the position and can apply it first.

Anthony showed us an entry to 50/50 from where the opponent is on his back and you are standing, and another from a failed legbar attempt, where you keep spinning and end up in 50/50. He also showed us several footlocks - heel hooks are right there, though illegal, so we looked at straight footlocks instead. We also looked at a sweep, and defense against all of those attacks, and a method to pass the guard. All of these would need a LOT of work for me to use them effectively. The guard pass in particular seemed to have large gaps.

Much of the criticism of this guard seems to be that it often ends in a one way or mutual stall on the competition mat, with both guys locked together for minutes with next to nothing going on. You can sweep the guy and then keep him locked up till the match times out. Can you really call it a sweep if the guy is already on his butt?

Love it or loathe it, this is something every competitor will have to deal with at some stage. The continual evolution is one of the things you have to love about this art.

A nice vacation, and reassessment

2010-09-17T15:36:00.000+10:00

I'm just coming to the end of a couple of weeks vacation. During this time I only went to Jiu Jitsu once, the Monday night class with Anthony.

The first week Pat and I spent on Daydream Island in the Whitsundays. We felt a bit locked in on a small resort island and there were peculiarities like the water getting turned off between 11:30 pm and 6 am, the room aircon not always working, and one of the three main restaurants normally available for dinner being closed for renovations, but really it was pleasant and from what we saw it looked to be one of the better resorts in the Whitsundays - Long Island had a fantastic outlook but had fewer facilities than Daydream, and the buildings and facilities at Hook Island were way run down, though it had nice snorkelling right off the beach. If we ever go up there again I'd go for staying at Airlie Beach and go for day trips to the islands. Being on the mainland we could rent a car and get out of the place for a while too if necessary. Airlie had a much wider range of facilities than any of the islands. Hamilton Island has lots of facilities as well, including an airport, but I'd been there before, a business junket back in the late 80s when companies still did that sort of thing, and was looking elsewhere.

We took day trips to Airlie Beach on the mainland, Whitehaven Beach on Whitsunday Island, and Knuckle Reef, part of the outer Great Barrier Reef.

I got up early most mornings to do some training. I'd had some niggling back problems after an injudicious session of kettlebell windmills - with a permanent spondyolisthesis of L5/S1 there ARE some things it is counterproductive for me to do. I did some yoga, ROSS solo grappling drills, one arm and divebomber pushups. Felt strong and flexible.

I went into the gymnasium there to do some pulldowns on the cable machine - there were two women there running on treadmills. There's one of the more beautiful environments on this planet and a .5 kilometre track to run through it on right outside the door, but no, stay indoors on that treadmill and watch Robbie Williams music videos instead. People are strange.

I've decided to stop using my age (55 now, 56 in December) as a reason to treat myself with kid gloves as regards my training. Aging is inevitable, and your sphere of possibilities may gradually shrink, but you can still push up close to those limits rather than not even try to find out where they are. I'd cast myself as an old man who has to to go easy because of fear of injury or making a fool of himself otherwise - I'm changing my role to that of a sensible but mature athlete who still pushes himself as far as he can. Or someone who will, as George Carlin advocates, "Take a f***ing chance!"

I live about a kilometer from Pennant Hills Park, a bunch of sporting fields which back on to Lane Cove National Park, a large and pretty unspoiled stretch of Australian bushland in the middle of northern Sydney. Before I started to have knee problems and let the psychology of aging get to me, I used to run a couple of circuits on the fire trails and single tracks there - one about 6 K's the other about 8, each with a big, demanding hill either at the end or towards the end, depending on which way you go around. I resolved to run the big circuit, going from home, through the bush and back to civilisation after 6 K's through the bush at Thornleigh Oval, then another 2 K's home again via the back streets and Pennant Hills Road. It was further than I'd run in ages, and I had to slow to a walk on the final big hill through the bush to the Oval, but at the top of the hill I started running again and kept it up all the way home without dying and without knee issues. This was much more of a mental rather than physical challenge.

I reread Pavel Tsatsouline's Naked Warrior before the break and resolved to get some of the bodyweight skills back. In my early BJJ days I'd learned to do pistols (single leg, butt-to-heel squats) using a progression involving a flight of stairs and progressively lowering your butt to the third stair, then the second, then the first, and then finally going all the way down and back up without the stairs.

I had an arthroscopy on my left knee about 18 months ago, to fix a meniscus tear, and my other knee is also a bit dodgy, and thus had assumed that pistols were of necessity a thing of the past. I used Pavel's "Grease the Groove" - I got the left pistol on the second day, but my right knee didn't feel up to it. Lots of what Scott Sonnon calls "Fear-Reactivity". I was hoping I'd get the right pistol by the end of the week before I went back to work but I ended up getting it on the second day and am currently running on sets of two with alternate legs. My right knee gets a bit sore and cracks a bit, so I'm not going to push it by stacking on kettlebells or adding jumps, but regaining the pistol is hopefully part of reclaiming my potential and raising my standards.

I'm also working on standing ab wheel rollouts. Rolling out to a barrier (in my case, the doormat) and coming back up, and gradually increasing the distance between the barrier and my feet. These are a bit harder to manage than the pistols because they really fry my abs and the DOMS is a b*tch for the next day or so. I got there today, the full monty with no barrier, though my form could be improved. I did five (not one set of five, but five sets of one, or more accurately three sets of one and one set of two, which is about all I want to put on my abs at the moment, because it really does stress them to the max. Tomorrow, it's gonna hurt, and Sunday I want to roll.

Rest assured, dear reader, that you will not have to wade through microdetails of my fairly ordinary numbers and achievements. This is more about challenging my self-imposed limits and self-image, and is way more mental than physical. Challenge and living outside the comfort zone is what develops and sustains a warrior.

Poor Judgement

2010-02-07T17:49:00.000+11:00

A recent training session found me as part of a class practising some intermediate level setups for double leg takedowns, and for the fireman's carry.

The fireman's carry is a throw where- one way - you overhook the guy's arm, wizzer to make him step with his outside leg, dive underneath him, and roll him over the top of you. A beautiful throw when executed well. However, safe practice of the throw requires your training partner to know how to roll with the throw and break his fall correctly.

On this occasion my partner was a beginner, and by his own unsolicited admission, a bit out of shape. I asked him several times if he was comfortable with me throwing him, and having to roll over his shoulder.

I threw him a couple of times, repeatedly asking him if he was OK, and to ensure he was happy for me to throw him again. I threw him tentatively - a recipe for a crap throw - and he said he was OK with that. I found the tentative throws unsatisfying and frustrating, and so, advising him I was going to do so beforehand and being assured he was OK with it, executed a smooth, fast, throw.

My partner lands awkwardly and injures his shoulder.

I get him an ice pack talk to him afterwards - he says he is OK, but is holding his arm and is obviously not OK. He tells me he moves refridgerators for a living. I feel like a prick.

While I was not in charge of the class and was following the instructor's directions, I am unhappy with my behaviour in this instance. I should have made sure my partner understood the throw and knew how to fall and roll properly. I should have taken his assertions that he was OK and comfortable with the throw with scepticism - he was an unfit beginner and couldn't possibly have known enough about the fireman's carry.

The situation for him would have been full of conflicting emotions, the desires to be seen as cooperative, and not as a wimp, overriding any reticence about the unknown and instinct for self-preservation.

I was concerned with my own desire to practice than his well being. I could and should have practiced only partial reps, or worked on a less risky takedown.

I have been doing martial arts for over 25 years, and have a purple belt in Jiu Jitsu. I should have known better. Hopefully I will do better in future.

The real problem with Wing Chun, and the solütion

2010-01-19T10:03:00.000+11:00

Long and heartrending are the lamentations about the sorry state and fractured nature of Wing Chun. The reasons given are many, but the solutions proposed few and sorry.

Wing Chun needs a tougher image. The pathetic adherence to antedeluvian cultural associations and wishy-washy attempts to make it into some new age pussified version of the already pussified internal martial arts and Buddhist traditions have got us nowhere. The New Age is over, and as The Clash predicted, nobody escaped, especially Wing Chun.

A tougher image. We need a quantum leap into gnarliness and sheer psychic terror. We need ...

The heavy metal umlaut. What got Motörhead charging like a nitro-injected road missile.

Wing Chün. Yes, Wing Chün.

As David St. Hubbins of Spinal Tap said. "It's like a pair of eyes. You're looking at the umlaut, and it's looking at you."

You want gravitas? Depth? Try the Abyss. As Nietsche said. "Gaze into the Abyss for long enough, the Abyss gazes back at you." The Abyss. Depth up to here (or actually, down to There). Same thing with the umlaut. Two eyes, wormholes into the depths of the Abyss. Get some of THAT Godless rocket fuel into your Wing Chün and scare the crap out of those keyboard warriors.

Nietsche spoiled that by prefacing it with "Take care when fighting monsters, that you do not become a monster." Screw Nietsche. You can bet he never won a challenge match or fought MMA. Wing Chün is screaming out like a damned soul for a few real monsters.

I sort of get the WT guys were trying to do when they changed to Wing Tsun, but they missed the point totally. In Germany, of all places, where Nietsche and the two eyes of the umlaut were staring them in the face. A HUGE opportunity missed. The Gracies would have run from Emin had he used the umlaut, that I can guarantee. Unless the Gracies started doing Jiü Jitsu, that is (only one umlaut; two shows a certain desperation).

The pain you endure to include the umlaut in your KFO posts will make you stronger.

Are you going to remain a loser, or will you start practising Wing Chün instead?

Note to fanboys: Yes, I know Spinal Tap is properly spelt with no dot on the i and an umlaut over the n. If you can work out how to do that inside a KFO post, your HTML-fu is stronger than mine, and I will duly grovel at your cyberfeet for the chance to learn from the master.

2009-03-27T13:19:00.001+11:00

Glorified Kickboxing - The Truth (an eyewitness account)
People such as myself who practice a variety of martial arts, expecially non-tradtional arts such as Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, are often showered with insults by ignorant and misinformed Kung Fu purists, who refer to us as Glorified Kickboxers. Well, you lot, suck on this ...

After many months of searching for a true master of Glorified Kickboxing, chasing down rumours that came to nothing, I finally gained an invitation to the McDojo of
the Chief Exalted Grand Poobah of Glorified Kickboxing Harry Wonk, 108th degree master
and holder or the coveted Turquoise Loincloth in Modified Traditional Glorified Kickboxing (MTGK for short).
Harry, an imposing, well-conditioned man of about 32 years old, and his assistant, Wolfgang Smart, greeted me formally with the MTGK Combat Curtsey.
I identified myself.
"So you want to learn about Glorified Kickboxing," Harry said. "Good! Most so-called 'martial artists' treat our art with disdain. But that's only because their only exposure has been to rogues and charlatans, not true followers of the magnificent and wonderful art that is Glorified Kickboxing.
"Do you want to watch our training session, or join in?"
What a singular honour! "Join in, please! And thank you!" I cried eagerly.
We stood in a triangle, facing each other, about ten feet apart.
"We like to warm up with the same movements we use in fighting," Harry explained. "Much more activity-specific." He and Wolfgang began bouncing on the balls of their feet like Masai Warriors from a Discovery Channel documentary.
I joined in with great enthusiasm. How lucky was I?
We bounced on the mats, we bounced on mini-trampolines, we bounced on Swiss balls, we took turns bouncing on a makiwara that Harry had had mounted horizontally six inches off the floor as if it were a tiny springboard.
"Clueless martial artists say bouncing is cr@p", Harry told me as we stretched out our calves and rotated our ankle joints after the bouncing was done. "Fools."
"But doesn't it wear you out? Disrupt your structure."
Both Harry and Wolfgang laughed out loud."No, no. Bouncing does not disrupt your structure. Bouncing disrupts your OPPONENT's structure."
I must have looked doubtful or perplexed, because he said. "I'll show you. Wolfgang, assume a Kung Fu stance."
Wolfgang took up a pretty standard cat stance, weight on his back foot. Harry took up a posture in front of him and began bouncing rapidly up and down, back to front, side to side, diagonally, in circles, all over the place. After about ten seconds I saw that Wolfgang had become mesmerised by the movement. His eyes followed Harry's randomly precise bounces the Way Curly's eyes followed Moe's hand as it moved up and down and side to side before Curly's face shortly before Moe's fingers speared into Curly's eye sockets. Wolfgang seemed to grow dizzy, and abruptly fell on his butt.
"There you go," Harry said, pointing to Wolfgang, still sitting. "These Kung Fu tree huggers talk about 'no-touch knockdowns', Glorified Kickboxers actually do it all the time!"
We now went through a series of mobility exercise for shoulders, elbows, wrists, and fingers, with endless repetitions of a variety of drills concentrating on the first and second knuckles of both hands.
"This is why some people call us Glorified Kickboxers 'knuckle-heads', because we spend so much time conditioning the knuckle joints."
I wondered at the purpose of all this work on the joints. But that was to be convincingly demonstrated to me shortly thereafter.
"Kung Fu styles like Wing Chun pride themselves on being simple and direct," Harry continued. "Glorified Kickboxing, on the other hand, is complicated and as indirect as possible. We combat simplicity with complexity, directness with circumlocution. The Yin against the Yang."
Harry smiled, looking as wise as the Dalai Lama."So, for example, Wing Chun never kicks to the head," Harry continued. Wolfgang snickered, and Harry nodded smugly.
"In Glorified Kickboxing, the ONLY target for kicks is the head."
I was excited. This was starting to make sense.
Harry continued. "When a Wing Chun guy is asked, 'Why don't you kick to the head', their standard response is, 'Why don't you punch to the toe?'" He laughed from the belly like a Qigong practitioner. "These fools have obviously never encountered the Glorified Kickboxing Toe Punch." With that he suddenly dropped to one knee and delivered a horrendous punch to the mat, less than a centimeter from my toe. The entire building shook - the DVD's in the adult store below the MTGK gym would no doubt be covered with plaster fallen from the ceiling. Four new knuckle impressions had become permanent fixtures in the surface of the mat.
"Th ... th ... that was pretty convincing," I stammered.
Harry nodded. "Some guys overuse it, though. We call them 'toe-hunters'."
"How do you guys shape up, say for a streetfight?"
"Like this." Harry and wolfgang squared up, both bouncing as if on pogo sticks, their rear hand held near the shoulder, their front hand circling furiously alternately using the shoulder and then the elbow. It reminded me of La Canne's circling guard, and the wind up used by countless cartoon pugilists, and by Sugar Ray Leonard in one of his matches against Roberto Duran. Harry's foot suddenly shot out, then doubled back, then moved in a path so convoluted that even the Minotaur would have been lost in it forever were it a maze. And finally gently smacked Wolfgang in the ear.
"The Gordian kick, a staple of Glorified Kickboxing," Harry explained. "See, in Wing Chun, kicks always go in a straight line. Hah! In Glorified Kickboxing, we confuse the guy with indirection."
"Wow. What defenses do you have against BJJ guys and groundfighters?"Harry and Wolfgang exchanged knowing smiles. "That old chestnut. Have you ever heard of the Glorifed Kickboxing Reverse Takedown?"
I hadn't, but of course I was now busting to know what this was.
"BJJ guys and all those other losers think you have to fight them while one or both of you are lying or sitting down. With the Glorified Kickboxing Reverse takedown, you do the obvious thing when the guy is on the ground - bring him back to standing so you can fight him there properly!"
He motioned to Wolfgang. "I'll demonstrate."
Wolfgang got down in the crab posture used successfully by Antonio Inoki in his wrestler/boxer matchup with Muhammad Ali. He threw a few kicks at the legs of Harry, whose bouncing easily kept him out of harm's way as his left arm circled like a wind turbine with only a single blade. Suddenly Harry dropped prone to the floor and ... what happened next was impossible for our pitifully inadequate vocabulary to describe, but for an instant he more or less BECAME a human bulldozer, plucking Wolfgang off the ground and onto his feet, surprised and off guard, with Harry in front of him, bouncing and windmilling dangerously.
I don't think I said anything. Just stood there, mouth agape, completely enthralled.
"Just as a final demonstration, I'll perform the Glorified Kickboxing Logarithmic Fractal Spiralling Punch - GKLFSP for short."Harry and Wolfgang begans bouncing, facing each other, their arms, circling rapidly, appearing deadly as the propeller that killed the German strongman in his fight with Indiana Jones in the first movie of the franchise.Harry's arm moved.
I've seen representations of the "electron cloud" around the nucleus of an atom described by quantum mechanics, but Harry's punching actually did it. There was this blur all around Wolfgang's head, then suddenly Harry's fist smacked into his solar plexus and he was knocked supine. Harry immediately picked him up to his feet with a reverse takedown, followed immediately with a vicious toe punch.
Wolfgang hopped in a circle, clutching the impacted foot, howling.
I left there with Harry's best wishes, a preview copy of Harry's soon to be released DVD - "Glorified Kickboxing - the pre-McDojo Years", and a feeling of absolute certainty that I had witnessed a demonstration of one of the greatest martial arts this side of the Andromeda galaxy.

How to succeed at 21st Century Wing Chun

2007-05-21T16:22:00.000+10:00

In response to some unoriginal and repetitive posts from WC-converted-to-MMA zealots on another forum:

How to succeed at 21st Century Wing Chun

YOUR AIM

Too many delusional losers - who we on the 21st Century Wing Chun Internet Jury (21CWCIJ) call Clueless Theoreticians (CTs) believe the end game of training is to learn to defend yourself, become or stay fit, strong and flexible, develop self discipline, determination and persistence, and/or participate in a challenging but absorbing and enjoyable activity. Perhaps even make some friends.

FOOLS.

The aim of 21st century Wing Chun is to impress an internet jury of self appointed peers (21CWCIJ) who understand the true aims of 21st century Wing Chun, and to unremittingly and ruthlessly denigrate those who do not understand the true aims ( the CTs).

You will never meet your fellow 21CWCIJ members in meatspace. But they are more important than your family, friends, real life training partners, or life itself. Your standing with them is ALL. Without the 21CWCIJ, you are NOTHING, or - even worse - a CT.

Don't ask what the true aim is - you will be exposed as a CT, and deserving only of Unremitting Ruthless Denigration (URD) and slow roasting (to maximise the suffering) in the red heat of forum flamage by the *true* 21CWCIJ.

THE ROT MUST BE EXTERMINATED. NO MERCY FOR THE CLUELESS THEORETICIAN (CT) FOOLS!

THE METHOD

1. Forms and solo patterns are NEVER to be practiced. Their only purpose is to serve as a reason to ridicule their adherents (CTs). Use of the dummy is to invite URD as one - or, even worse, as a CT.

2. Chi sao is never to be practiced. The terms patty-cake and steering wheel contest should be used in attacking its adherents (who are of course CTs). Make up you own insults, but clear them with the 21CWCIJ first.

3. The butterfly swords and 6.5 point pole are tools of the deluded. Their adherents (CTs - is a pattern starting to present itself?) should be subjected to URD. Smashing one another with short rattan sticks, however, is an activity approved of by the 21CWCIJ.

4. You MUST crosstrain in boxing and/or Muay Thai, and wrestling and/or BJJ. There are no CTs here - all boxers, MTers, wrestlers and BJJers have IQs above 180 and calculate a couple of extra Mersenne primes before breakfast, unlike the CT's that overpopulate your own martial art, 21CWC, and must be saturation-bombed with URD at every possible opportunity.

5. Spar and fight constantly (when not posting to the forum, see 6). However, you must ONLY use WC techniques from the WC forms, dummy and chi sao, which of course you must NEVER practice (see 1, 2 above), lest the 21CWCIJ say "he's just doing crappy boxing/kickboxing - that ain't Wing Chun" and cast you into the outer darkness of CThood.

6. Post constantly on the forum (when not fighting - see 5 - though the real 21CWCIJ members apparently have no trouble doing both at the same time). Constantly and repeatedly promote at length the true aims of 21CWC, and the virtues of the 21CWCIJ. Attempt to divert all threads to these subjects (after all, other subjects should concern only CTs). Constant repetition will promote indoctrination as resistance is progressively broken (it's for their own good). If your posts do not attract any responses, feel free to reply to yourself, many times if necessary. The 21CWCIJ message cannot possibly be repeated too often, though some posting time must be set aside to burying under gigantic piles of URD any CT's with the rash temerity and fool's courage to post on the forum - the 21CWCIJ's forum.

7. Hire an assistant whose job is to carry and keep primed at all times a state of the art video camera, so that your training sessions, sparring matches and fights (which will all be the same thing as anything else but fighting and sparring - except forum posting - is a complete waste of time) can be captured. Also, they should carry a suitable PDA or equivalent so that the results can be immediately uploaded to YouTube, and the 21CWCIJ immediately informed of their presence via the forum (your second home, though a real 21CWCIJ member would claim it as his first and only).

REMEMBER

THE 21CWCIJ ARE YOUR FRIENDS.

THE CTs ARE YOUR ENEMIES! URD! URD! URD! (sing it with me) URD! URD! URD!

Martial Arts: A Post-modern Approach

2006-09-24T17:50:00.000+10:00

Post-modernism.

What is it? Well, it’s what comes after Modernism.

Modernism is a philosophy, attitude, way of interpreting the world.

Modernism embraces the idea of a Grand Narrative – that reality and the Way Forward can be explained by a single, seamless, grand doctrine. Modern (big M) philosophers and politicians contend that science and rationalism will necessarily lead to a more moral and Enlightened society, a “higher culture”. Its critics claim that Modernism’s ship ran aground and sank after the Holocaust, and after the failures of Marxism, the Mother of all grand narratives. More recent tragic events like Jonestown and 9/11, however, come not from Modern, but pre-Modern modes of thought.

Orthogonality, where there are a minimum number of tools to perform the totality of required functions, no more and no less, is a cornerstone of Modernism. Minimalism is very much a Modern state of mind. Small, simple, ordered, structured, regular. When I think of Modernism I see polished, featureless monoliths – or really a SINGLE, polished featureless monolith - reaching for the heavens. Originality, too, is important to the modernist. Build it from the ground up, starting from nothing. Continue to polish and refine it. Anyone who takes it away and claims it as their own is a thief or worse. Anyone who takes it part and puts it back together, or takes bit of it and mixes them up with stuff from outside, let alone stuff he or she worked out for themselves, is a heretic.

And, this is SERIOUS. You can’t take something the culmination of something that’s been developed and held inviolate, or been developed and carefully distilled by a clear hierarchy of patriarchs and acolytes over centuries, apart and see how it works. Or mix it up with something else, especially for something as trivial and light-hearted as fun or curiosity. And who gave you permission, anyway, huh? Unless you’ve trained for 50 years under an anointed Grandmaster, you can’t possibly understand. Let alone criticise or suggest that there might be alternatives. Know your place, shut up, drink the Kool-Aid and ascend to Heaven.

So what comes after Modernism? How can there BE something after Modernism?

Well, why shouldn’t there be, and on whose authority?

Postmodernists reject the universal, Grand Narratives, in favour of the local and temporal – well, not quite true, universal doctrines can be embraced, but only as one of a number of possibilities and as part of a more complex whole, and when they are appropriate. They embrace differences and contradictions. “High” and “Low” cultures are equally embraced. Authority figures’ ideas of what constitutes “art” or “culture” or what is “good” are rejected in favour of individual evaluations or the consensus of equals.

You have to make up your own mind about things. Analyse, deconstruct, recreate and recombine, not just regurgitate. Modularity and interchangeable parts are good, as is being able to see where everything is joined together. Much easier to fix that way.

Post-modernism advocates multiple approaches and open-endedness.

Forgive me the next digression.

For computer heads, Java was designed to be orthogonal, Perl non-orthogonal. The huge complexity of the Java object libraries indicates that something went astray. Java’s orthogonality got in my face once when I was trying to access a BSD nonblocking socket using the Java networking libraries, which it does not cater for (despite the documentation talking about it), and I’ve mistrusted it ever since. One person on Usenet told me that I couldn’t use such sockets as they weren’t in Java. Wish someone had told the developers of the component who wouldn’t let me have the source code to their proprietary (and non-Java) interface, to which I had to mesh my Java code. I got done what I needed to get done by going outside Java and writing an interface for it to my socket using Perl, a very post-modern approach (and one that freakin’ well WORKED). For non-techheads, sorry about the jargon, but I’m writing about what I know.

Java is a Modern programming language. Perl, despite being older, is completely Post-modern.

Science itself, the Modernists’ Excalibur, turned out to be a two-edged sword. Relativity showed the non-existence of absolutes. Quantum mechanics showed that reality is probabilistic rather than deterministic. Chaos theory showed that even a small number of variables can produce infinite complexity (plus, that Mandelbrot set ... very nice).

With your martial art (and for a postmodernist, it is YOUR martial art) – why are YOU doing it? On what is it based? Techniques or principles or concepts … or …?

Is it based on the ideas of a person or collective that had their supremacy in 1929 in Japan, 300 years ago on a Chinese battlefield, in an Octagon in 1993, or in America the year Bruce Lee died? Has it evolved since then? Should it have? Why or why not? Is it orthogonal or non-orthogonal, is it modern or post-modern?

Do you watch, read about, or train in martial arts other than your major? Why or why not? Do you compete? Have you looked at modern sporting training principles and tools and how they might apply to your training? Are you in the box or do you go outside it? Have you found the false bottom inside the box and what’s inside that?

Do you do your forms the same way each time, or do you do them with different footwork, right side instead of left, backwards as well as forwards? Have you done the various sections on different orders? Are your forms stone tablets carved by the Finger of God, or are they technical vocabularies you can vary and play with, explore?

Is your art perfect, inviolate, and with no weaknesses? Really? Did someone tell you that, is it in a book somewhere, or did you test it out - as advocated by Yip Man? You’re in a non- Yip Man lineage? So there’s no wisdom outside your lineage or style worth listening to, at least to check out before you throw it away? If you found weaknesses (you DID look, right?) what did you do? Even if it’s all strong, could some parts of it be even stronger?

Do you do what you are told or do you think for yourself? What could you teach your Sifu? What could your students teach you?

IMO, and post-modernism entitles you to a different one, Jeet Kune Do and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu are post-modern martial arts. JKD regards each TMA as a Modern Grand Narrative, deconstructs it and allows the practitioner to make his own by recombining from the deconstructions. It is for each to decide whether this will lead to an uncoordinated hodgepodge of disconnected tools, or a custom-built set of sleek weaponry.

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is an altered art (from Judo and Fusen Ryu Japanese Ju Jitsu via Mitsuo Maeda and the Gracies) of extreme effectiveness. It demonstrates that an art *can* be removed from its cultural and traditional environment, and renovated and greatly improved via that removal. The package deal with which it came, traditional and cultural underpinnings and all, was arguably an obstacle rather than an asset, excess baggage stopping it from flying.

This may not be true of other arts - maybe not true for YOU at least - but it demonstrates that deep cultural roots are not always necessary, and certainly not always desirable. You COULD try dropping them, just for a little while ... you CAN always pick them up again. A learning experience whatever your final opinion, I would imagine.

High level BJJ exponents, in true post-modern fashion, and unlike some Modern MA practitioners, recognised they did not have the solution to every combat problem, and so embraced other arts like boxing, Muay Thai, wrestling, sambo, firearms (don't take butterfly knives to a gunfight!) in order to round out their skill sets.

Your humble scribe and, more to the point, his instructor, are post-modern Wing Chun practitioners embracing BJJ similarly. Though you could just as easily say we’re BJJ guys adding some Wing Chun to the mix. If you’re a postmodernist, you can look at it either or both ways, or some other. If it works for you.

Did I say the Post-modern way was better? Not for me to say. Not for your Master to say, either. It’s up to YOU. When they gave you that brain, you were supposed to use it, right? How long did they say you had to study before you could start thinking for yourself?

A Karate black belt I met at a post-modern KF instructor’s multi-style camps told me about the Japanese teaching philosophy of Shu Ha Ri – very roughly translated as “hold, break, leave”. For about the first ten years of Karate – shu - you follow the theoretical and formal requirements of your system until the basics are mastered. After that, Ha, you are EXPECTED to question the fundamentals of what you learned in the earlier stage, look elsewhere, learn to think for yourself and become self sufficient. In the last (Ri) stage, the concept of rules and being inside or outside them becomes irrelevant, as you transcend the rules and your practice becomes an expression of self, and of the Tao/God/Eternal/… But reality is cyclical, and so you end up back at Shu again.

Bruce Lee came up with something similar with the Jun Fan System:

1. Sticking to the nucleus
2. Liberation from the nucleus
3. Returning to the original freedom

Sounds a lot like Shu, Ha, Ri, does it not? Maybe Bruce stole it. But then he would and he could, he was a post-modernist. He never tried to hide his borrowings from other scholars and arts.

If you’ve trained for more than a decade, have you considered something like this? Have you gone past Shu? Ha?

A series of quotes I quite like:

“There are two kinds of joiners in the world. Think of it in terms of anthropology. There are the kinds of people who join a tribe, and kind of get sucked in, like a black hole. That's the last you hear from them, unless you happen to be in the black hole with them. And we need people like this in our tribes, if only to be cheerleaders.

“… is energized by the other sort of joiner. This sort of person joins many tribes. These are the people who inhabit the intersections of the Venn diagrams. They believe in ANDs rather than ORs. They're a member of more than one subset, more than one tribe. The reason these people are important is, just like merchants who go between real tribes, they carry ideas from one intellectual tribe to another. I call these people ``glue people'', because they not only join themselves to a tribe, they join tribes together. Twenty years ago, you couldn't easily be a glue person, because our culture was not yet sufficiently accepting of diversity. It was also not accepting of information sharing...”

“Still and all, things have improved greatly, and the bridges across the gaps have gotten sturdier. Now people can send their memes across wider chasms without getting crucified on one end of the bridge or the other… To be sure, it's a fuzzy, post-modern sort of movement, with lots of diversity, and a certain amount of turmoil, but it's about as good as any movement gets these days. We all suck at slightly different things, but we're in basic agreement that the old way of business sucked a lot worse that whatever it is we're doing now. We've agreed to agree. Except when we don't. “

- Larry Wall, “Perl, the first Post-modern computer language”

Want to meet some Glue People?

David developed and practised an eclectic blend of Wing Chun, Choy Li Fut (itself an eclectic style), and Northern Sil Lum and began teaching it towards the end of the 1960’s. His dad was a boxer and judoka, and David had taken up Goju Karate in 1963 after a multi-opponent street confrontation which indicated that, for him at least, boxing didn’t work too well against more than one attacker. His instructor at the time required him to obtain a first Dan in Japanese Ju Jitsu before he could be graded to Nidan in Karate. There was basically no TCMA available to gwailos in the early 60’s, but when David discovered them, and the advantages of their softer approach, he switched. However, he was too experienced and pragmatic to let go everything he had learned previously, and, already being a comparatively senior instructor in another style, he elected to learn as much as he could from whomever he could, perhaps similarly to Robert W. Smith and his approach to learning Kung Fu during his stays in Taiwan.

David also has a fair number of firearms, and runs an extensive workshop to pack his own ammunition for many of them.

David encourages his students to train with other stylists and frequently hosts multi-style camps and seminars. He advocates building bridges with other stylists and see what they have to offer, and they all have something to offer, rather than to go insular in case your training gets “polluted”. He’s hosted people like Dan Inosanto and Erle Montaigue for seminars in his area, and knows the Hung family in Taiwan very well – any of his students seeking an Oriental experience are sent there. His wife arranged for his students to work as self defence instructors on cruise liners. He even knows a guy in Greece who runs an annual training camp in the Greek Islands and will happily pay expenses for any Australian instructor David recommends. Nice deal, huh?

David was mixing and matching styles thirty years before 90’s style MMA. With great success – David is one of the most respected, if not the highest profile, Kung Fu teachers in Australia today, and holds senior office in several Australian and International MA organisations. While not a tournament stylist, he has had students who have placed well in the top three in various Australian Kung-fu championships, and in Police and Fire Olympics. In my opinion, he is one of very few Kung-fu guys who can teach credible and effective standup grappling and ground combat.

Rick teaches TWC, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and other arts. Even 15 years ago, while Rick was still under his very traditional and Modern instructor’s organisational umbrella, Rick’s TWC had already added a few non-canonical wrinkles. For one thing, the kicking. Eager to push and test himself as far as possible, Rick became a highly successful kickboxing competitor. Most of “pure” Wing Chun’s kicks seldom aim above the waist, but kickboxing rules at the time allowed no kicking below the waist.

What to do? ADAPT, sucker! If it ain’t there in front of you grab it from somewhere else. Good musicians borrow, great musicians just steal. Not quite what happened here, but you get the drift.

Rick developed a highly effective kicking system based on that developed and advocated by Bill Wallace. (Not to say that his teacher or other TWC practitioners can’t kick, they certainly can, but Rick took his own particular path). He won many amateur and pro matches by kick knockout. He’s one of the best kickers and kicking instructors in Australia, if not the world.

Fast forward to about 1998. Rick befriended a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Black Belt, John, himself almost an archetype for the postmodern multistylist, and … well, why not? He had to wear that white belt again after 25 years, but not for too long. He added some boxing, CQC knife and baton work to his curriculum, stuff he’d picked up from other martial artists over the decades. He was invited to grade as an instructor in some of those systems. The focus gets a bit wider, but suddenly everything is new again and everyone is learning and having much more fun, especially Rick. And next year …

David and Rick are my teachers. If martial arts were about purity, adherence to the past or a particular style or teacher, I was ruined from the start. And I have the audacity to feel that I’m better off as a result, even if it means questioning several hundred years of tradition.

How about it?

Be a Glue Person. Celebrate diversity. Explore. Make new friends. Have fun!

Surviving Violent Crime

2006-09-17T17:37:00.000+10:00

SURVIVING VIOLENT CRIME

Living in the 90s

Random, senseless, violent crime occurs with frightening regularity.

Port Arthur - nowhere is safe
Backpacker Murders - Does anyone still hitchhike?
Kicked to Death in Bondi
Home Invasions in the Asian community
Small Business - a tough (and dangerous) way to make a buck

Martial Arts and Violent Crime - Myths and Facts

Some see the typical self defense situation starting with trading of insults, perhaps in a pub or nightclub, gradually escalating until one or the other of the antagonists snaps into a fighting stance and something similar to a sparring match ensues. The prelude to violence is a series of steps or phases which occur in a predictable sequence, and which an aware, intelligent person can avoid.You are attacked, but using a few practised techniques you are able to subdue or knock out the agressor and leave the scene in an orderly fashion with honour and body intact.

THIS DOES NOT HAPPEN IN THE REAL WORLD.

You will be attacked in an isolated place, perhaps while asleep in bed in your own home. The attacker will be armed, possibly with a knife from you kichen drawer, maybe a sawn-off. If all he wanted was your possessions or cash, he would have taken them by now. Your spouse, your kids are in the house. Shoving the weapon in your face, he says: "Do what I say or I'll kill you."

You're in a bank, jeweller, bottle shop, petrol station, two guys with weapons burst in, shouting, clubbing staff and customers with guns.

You're walk back to your car alone at night As you get in. A guy opens the other door and jumps in, shoving a knife at your throat. "Drive."

You break down on an isolated section of the freeway. A man stops. Quickly you discover he is not there to help.

The Facts

Violent crime is random, senseless, and explosive. Reasonable precautions will not guarantee your safety. You probably will have no time to prepare yourself, take a deep breath, or adopt a guard position.

It is a highly probable that an armed robber or rapist has done this before, and that he already has a criminal record. Criminals start small and work up. He probably has a record, so you can identify him. Armed robbery and murder are not that far apart sentence wise, in Australia. In some states of America, kidnapping is a capital offence. He can let you live, or eliminate a witness. Even if capital punishment were brought back, some psychopaths would not care if they lived or died. Some get their kicks from hurting others; they can act pleasant and compassionate until they get you where they want you - then the injuries begin.

There are no honourable criminals, sympathetic rapists or merciful killers. If he has overcome the mental restraints which prevent most of us from threatening, injuring, or killing strangers with weapons, lying to you about leaving you alive or unhurt is of no consequence to him whatsoever.

Whatever you do, obey or resist, you will probably be injured and hurt. If he has a knife, you will be cut or stabbed. If he has a gun, you will be shot. And, if you allow it, you will be subject to whatever other plans the criminal has for you - rape, torture , vivisection, slow death...

Under the extreme duress of a physical attack, your heart rate will soar. Above 150 beats per minute, even trained fighters lose their fine muscle control. Attempting an intricate sequence of complex movements relying on timing and sensitivity under such conditions is tantamount to suicide. Your only chance for survival depends on simple, fast, direct and explosive moves. Learning martial arts can increase your chances of survival by increasing your speed, power, tolerance for pain and exhaustion, and will to survive. But only the core of the system, stripped down to simple, explosive movements designed for escape and survival, coupled with hard core mental concentration on survival, will move the odds in your favour.

The male myths of apprehending bad guys or administering justice and punishment to wrongdoers kill many husbands and fathers each year, sometimes in front of their wives and children. If you want to fight crime, do it properly and join the armed forces or the police, become a prosecutor, or take up security work.

If violence erupts with you in the middle of it, the most important objective for you and your loved ones is your survival. ESCAPE is your prime, indeed your only realistic, objective. Do not take a violent crime against you as a wrong which must be set right or a contest to be "won". Instead, treat it as what it is, a deadly dangerous situation that you MUST survive - NOT win, SURVIVE.

Even professionals don't take unnecessary risks.

I was at the Paragon Hotel at Circular Quay in Sydney one night after an office Christmas Party. There were four or five bouncers there, very good, low-key, very professional. An occasional lone punter came in and got obnoxious, the bouncers had them in a rear choke and off balance before you could blink; out the front door, two on one, the guy was released and refused further entrance by the 2-3 guys manning the door. Not beaten up, just outside ASAP. Outside, you could see a bunch of ten drunken yobbos fighting. The bouncers watched this carefully, but did not intervene. Their job, risky enough already, was to keep the Paragon violence-free; the fight outside was not their lookout, they just called the cops and made sure none of the brawlers attempted to enter the Paragon. A large number of cops came and broke it up.

Professionals don't take unnecessary risks. The necessary ones are dangerous enough. You don't have to "beat" or apprehend your attacker - just ESCAPE.

Most oriental martial arts have principles, creeds, codes of conduct, which are based on various religions, doctrines, and philosophies. These principles usually counsel the avoidance of conflict and consideration for others.

Once the crime goes down, the time for these principles has passed. Your life is at stake. The only principle you can afford to live by is DO WHATEVER IT TAKES TO SURVIVE.

Other Approaches

Gadgets - Pepper Sprays, Alarms, Noisemakers, etc.

Sprays - you have to have them in your hand, ready to go, pointed in the right direction. Many, including cops, spray themselves by mistake in the heat of the confrontation - not a good thing to do while facing a violent attacker. See this article regarding the limitations of sprays.

At time of writing, it is illegal for a citizen to carry such a spray in Australia. A recent publicised case involved a woman being charged for carrying such a spray for self protection. This woman had been attacked before and was terrified of further violence against her.

Noisemakers - the fables about "piercing noises that break eardrums, cause violent nausea and muscular dysfunction" are rubbish.

Alarms - judge for yourself - every couple of weeks we hear at least one in class. How many times have you heard an alarm and not rung the police?

Doing Nothing, Wait and See - The criminal shouts at you "Do as I say or I'll kill you!" or "Do as you're told and you won't get hurt!"

We are brought up to be reasonable beings, to resolve situations through reason and logic, to be polite, to follow orders. For society to function, we must sublimate our primitive urges for fight or flight during a normal day; society cannot function if we explode with berserk rage when someone cuts in front of us in the sandwich queue or the a teacher yells at our kid. The criminal relies on this when yelling orders at us, short circuiting the massive survival response we most need in a life-threatening situation.

The threat of a weapon, with orders being barked at you, makes obedience seem the safer option. BUT in doing so, you are putting the criminal in control of your situation, in control of your life. Remember, a criminal has been lying,, cheating, hurting others all his life, integrity and truthfulness mean nothing to him. He will say whatever he thinks will most quickly exact your compliance and make it easier for him to take or do what he wants.

US crime statistics indicate that compliant victims are injured about as often and as severely as those who resist.

Biding your time, deciding what to do, waiting for an opportunity, for the odds to turn in your favour, are terminal strategies. Every second the criminal is in control will assist him to ensure that it gets better for him and worse for you. If you let him move you from the original crime scene to a place of his choice, or tie you up, the odds are all his. Game over, you lose. Rest in Peace.

What Works

You must take steps to PREPARE yourself to survive a violent crime. While we can certainly do some training in the Kung Fu school to prepare for a violent assault, it is not possible to adequately duplicate the fear, distress, pain and injury, and general life-threatening, frenzied chaos of an actual violent crime.

The way to prepare for a potentially fatal encounter is through the use of mental rehearsal and visualisation based on actual violent crimes. Review the crime itself, what the criminal did, what the victims did right and did wrong, then rehearse the scene as vividly as possible in your own mind under the following guidelines:

Visualise yourself in the crime scene - not watching from some detached vantage point, but IN it, so you must react.

Act immediately and explosively. Scream, run, explode away from him, or through him if you have to.

Fear is a very real part of the equation. Visualise yourself channelling that fear into rage. Fear and rage turn on all your body's emergency systems. Blood flows into the muscles, it thickens to slow bleeding from wounds. Endorphins are released to reduce our threshold of pain. Glucose and adrenalin flood our systems, our perceptual abilities increase, everything around us seems to slow down. The fight or flight response gives us enormous strength and power in a crisis. We reach our maximum potential.

See yourself switching in an instant from a civilised person to a ferocious wild animal fighting to survive in the jungle. Visualise yourself immediately "turning it on" to the MAX in a crime situation.

Expect to be injured. Fear of injury is what paralyses victims at the scene of a crime. Generally in visualisation for sport and martial arts training , we try to see ourselves winning, succeeding, jubilant, easily overcoming our opponents.

However, for crime survival it is ESSENTIAL that you visualise the pain and shock of being hit, cut, stabbed, shot, breaking bones, but continuing the fight to survive.

You must accept, deep down in the core of your psyche, that being injured is the price you must pay to survive violent crime. Getting injured is a lousy outcome, but face it, in a violent crime, ALL YOUR OPTIONS SUCK.

You must decide UP FRONT, before the crime takes place, that you fear the control of a violent criminal and the potentially deadly consequences more than you fear pain and injury. This must be a fundamental decision you make on your own BEFORE the crime goes down - it's too late to consider once you're there.

Take a hard-line approach. Consider absolute worst-case scenarios and decide how you will survive them. Murphy's Law will always apply. Sugar-coat nothing in your plans and rehearsals - only a totally uncompromising and hard-line approach will give you the preparation you need.

Study newspapers ant TV reports of violent crimes. Ignore the sensationalism. Analyse what the victims did right and did wrong. Formulate your own escape plans and strategies. Visualise them until they are part of you.

REMEMBER:

VISUALISE YOUSELF IN THE CRIME SCENE
ACT IMMEDIATELY - MORE EXPLOSIVE THAN YOU'VE EVER BEEN!
EXPECT TO BE INJURED

A Streetwise Attitude

Develop a new attitude towards people and situations. Cops learn to quickly assess people and situations, reacting on a hunch. Some say they are too cynical, paranoid, rude, that they overreact. Cops act this way because their survival depends on it and because they are regularly confonted with the results of violent crimes perpetrated against more trusting souls.

Trust your instincts.

If you are about to use a cash machine on a street deserted except for one person or group who you feel uneasy about, find another in a more public place.

If you are alone and see a man beside the highway beside an apparently broken down vehicle signalling you, it may be better to drive on - if you wish to be public spirited you can drive to the emergency phone, call the NRMA at the next open business, or call them on your mobile. Maybe it's genuine, maybe it's a soulmate of Ivan Milat looking for some fun, with his two buddies hidden out of sight behind the car.

[Note: Ivan Milat was recently convicted of the sensational serial murders of a number of hitchhiking backpackers in remote bushland near Sydney]

If you have an uneasy feeling about a person or situation, trust that feeling. If you need to be short or rude to that person to feel safe, do it. Always, SAFETY FIRST, COURTESY SECOND. If they appear to be broken down or in need of assistance (other than emergency assistance), you can tell them (from a safe distance inside your car) you will call the NRMA or whomever if you wish to be public spirited.

Develop an awareness of what is going on around you. Most crimes of violence occur in or near the victim's home, place of work, or regularly travelled routes or places (shops, malls, etc.). As you go about your business, ask yourself questions like:

If an intruder appeared through that door, how could I escape? What if he came from the other door?

What objects here could I use to defend myself if I had to?

How could I attract the attention of others to the crime?

REMEMBER:

TRUST YOUR INSTINCTS.
SAFETY FIRST, COURTESY SECOND.

Sanford Strong's Four Rules

[Sanford Strong is a San Diego cop who specialises in teaching other cops how to defend themselves and survive, and teaching SWAT police how to use and defend themselves against guns. His book "Strong on Defense" (Pocket Books, ISBN 0-671-52293-0) is one of the best I have ever read on subjects related to crime survival]

1. Act Immediately

Give up your property immediately. "Here's my wallet, here's my keys, there's my car, I'm out of here." If he is holding you, tell him where it is, "you can have it all." Give it up immediately, then ESCAPE. Don't get smart by throwing things in opposite directions - annoying an armed attacker is a poor strategy. Forget zigzagging, that's for the movies, forget diving for cover, some cover won't stop a bullet. Just concentrate on ESCAPE by putting as much distance between you and the criminal as possible as fast as you can.

If the guy is just a robber, he'll pick your property up and run the other way. If he wants more than your property, you're better off running anyway.

If the criminal tells you to stay where you are, you're still better off taking action.

2.Resist

SCREAM. Screaming will help with the adrenalin, help you to concentrate, prepare you for action, unsettle your attacker, attract the attention of others. Rather than the pathetic efforts of the love interest in an action movie, make it a lion's roar, a battle cry, a kiai.

Yell, break windows, do everything you can to draw attention to the crime. Attention is the last thing he wants, and the best chance you have of interrupting his execution of the criminal act.

Practise screaming, LOUD. Alone in your car is a good time - probably you've done this already, but for other reasons.

CONCENTRATE on ESCAPE. The supposed "life flashing before my eyes" really does happen, under extreme duress the mind tends to float, often thinking of loved ones, family, etc. You must CONCENTRATE on your attacker and your ESCAPE from him.

3. Crime Scene #2

Rape, torture, violation with foreign objects, ritualistic murders, etc. require the victim to be isolated and controlled. You may be moved only a few feet, down a hill or behind a fence, or miles away. The purpose is to get you out of sight and reduce the chance of intervention.

Do ANYTHING to avoid being tied up, imprisoned, or moved to a more isolated spot.

If he's prepared to bash, stab or shoot you in public, what's he prepared to do when he's got you in an isolated spot?

If all he wants is to rob you, he doesn't need to move you.

Your chances are as good as they are ever going to get when the crime starts. Time RAPIDLY works against you. If he moves you or ties you up, it's going to get MUCH WORSE. Sometimes all you have are lousy options, and it will only get worse.

Your only option is to ACT IMMEDIATELY.

If you are abducted in your car, CRASH IT.

If you're not driving, make the driver crash.

If bikers abduct you, claw the rider's eyes and make him drop it. You may be hurt, but you won't be raped, tortured, or left for dead - or dead.

Risk injury. Risk being shot. Poor options now are better than no options later. DO ANYTHING to avoid Crime Scene #2.

4. Never, Never Give Up

Churchill won World War II this way.

While you're alive and conscious, you can still resist. You MUST still resist. Whatever damage you take, you must not give up. This is not a sparring match, this is life and death. There really is no choice. NEVER GIVE UP.

If you're injured, continuing fighting to escape helps stop the pain. You expect to be injured, pain is just a signal from the body that this has taken place. Other than that, it serves no purpose. Either ignore it or use it to drive you into a berserk rage. Whatever happens, concentrate on the fight and ESCAPE.

If you have to Fight

Remember that your primary objective is to ESCAPE. You want to IMMEDIATELY, or as fast as possible, incapacitate the criminal to the point where you can escape. Prolonging the fight, attempting to capture the criminal or administer "justice", or turning it into a contest are potentially DEADLY strategies. Take NO chances. Immediately you are able, ESCAPE.

IMMEDIATELY turn on your MAXIMUM response - be a principled, civilised, nice person in the rest of your life, but when you are fighting for your life become totally ferocious and totally ruthless. Become part animal, part machine, a cross between the Terminator and an enraged lion. The criminal is not an opponent to be overcome, but a target to be destroyed.

There are no rules - NEVER fight fair. The criminal, may be faster, more skillful, a better boxer, kicker, grappler, stick/knife/gun fighter than you - but you MUST win the fight whether you are the best or not. When there are no other options, fight fire with fire and more of it. Use any tactic, the dirtier and more damaging the better. Be cruel, be terrifying. If you are being victimised, make your enemy into the victim. If he is bad, be badder. If he is a mean, vicious, remorseless individual, take him to a whole new level of fear and pain. Do everything in your power to make certain that his attempt to hurt you will be the most difficult, painful, damaging and dangerous thing he has ever tried.

Be ruthless. Your primary target is the eyes, then the throat. Stick your thumb in his eye in a second. Bite. If you're struggling and he puts ANY part of his anatomy in your mouth, clamp down hard and chomp right through the bone. If he forces a deep tongue-kiss on you, BITE. If he rapes you orally, BITE. The violence may not be over, but the oral rape certainly will. Be RUTHLESS. Finish the fight as quickly and completely as possible. NEVER GIVE UP until you have the advantage or can ESCAPE,and once you have the advantage use it IMMEDIATELY and COMPLETELY to stop the criminal from committing further violence. Then ESCAPE. Don't try holding him for the cops unless you have adequate assistance with superior numbers to make such action completely safe.

Forget taunting the criminal, or drawing out the fight to impress him or your girlfirend. YOU CANNOT AFFORD TO TAKE CHANCES WITH A VIOLENT CRIMINAL. If he tries to demoralise you with such tactics, use the advantage he has given you to TAKE HIM OUT IMMEDIATELY. If you must impress anyone, do it by hurting him, injuring him, or knocking him out IMMEDIATELY and EXPLOSIVELY and not stopping your attack until he ceases to be of any danger.

He may start the assault, but make sure you control it. Remember, it's either you in control of your life, or a violent criminal. Don't fight to his "rules" or at his range. Capitalise IMMEDIATELY on whatever advantages you may have, terrain, carried or improvised weapons, reach, strength, etc. Your object is to IMMEDIATELY incapacitate the criminal so you can escape.

Criminals try to get what they want with the least resistance possible. Very few are prepared for a "victim" who meets them with total commitment, total ferocity, and complete ruthlessness. If you're fully switched on, you're ferocious, right on top of them, and nothing they can do seems to hurt you.

Intervening in Violent Crime

Direct intervention by confronting a criminal directly during an armed crime is a good way to die. However, it is possible to provide aggressive assistance by following these principles (once again from Sanford Strong):

Keep them in sight
Keep your distance
Keep the pressure on

If on foot, break a window, shout, set off an alarm. If in a car, crash into something, honk, flash the lights. While an alarm on its own may not bring a response, loud crashes, honking, breaking glass, screaming, along with an alarm, will. Noise also helps to distract the criminal, loosens his control on the situation, and puts added pressure of potential exposure on him.

If you think such a response is too extreme, you shouldn't be trying to intervene.

Use your mobile phone to call the police.

Guns

Some people believe they can buy a gun and some ammunition, and they are then protected from home intruders. This is dangerous fantasy. Others believe they can buy a gun and 50 rounds of ammo, go to a range, get some basic instruction, fire 40 of the rounds leaving 10, and then be prepared for a gunfight in their living room. More fantasy.

Effective self defense with a firearm requires specific combat training from experts using simulation training and practice weapons. Such training is not practically available in Australia except to police and defence force personnel.

You also have to be certain, UP FRONT, that you have what it takes to shoot a person to death. The apparent nonchalance with which TV cops blow hundreds of bad guys away bears no relationship to the shock, self-doubt, and deep revulsion that most people feel when forced to live with the realisation that they have killed another human being. This feeling may never leave you, and life may never be the same.

On the other hand, you ARE still alive.

Some facts. In America:

83% of gun suicides occur with a weapon kept for home protection
10% of loaded guns kept in homes get used to kill a family member during an argument
One child per day is killed playing with a loaded gun.

Between 1978 and 1983 in a county of Washington, 396 people were killed by firearms in private homes: Only 2 (TWO) of these were intruders killed by a householder.

On the other hand, in 1980 in the US about 2000 criminals were killed by citizens defending themselves; between 1967 and 1984, only 20 criminals were executed. 60% of criminals interviewed said they feared running into armed citizens more than running into cops; certainly they are more likely to die at the hands of an armed householder than at those of the justice system.

But the law (particularly in Australia) is ambivalent regarding the killing of intruders. There have been several Australiancases recently; all the defenders got off, but in all cases charges were considered. There is no guarantee that if you shoot an intruder you will not be charged with manslaughter or murder.

If you arm yourself in public without authorisation, you are committing a crime. If you arm yourself expecting trouble, and actually shoot somebody, whatever the circumstances, you may be charged with murder (arming yourself constitutes premeditation). You cannot legally carry a knife or chemical weapon (like Mace or pepper spray) for self protection in Australia.

Australian law is also very stringent regarding gun ownership, storage and transport. It is not at all easy to effectively have a gun available for home defense and at the same time remain within Australian law. Put simplistically the law says you are allowed to have a gun for sport or shooting pests, etc. in rural areas, but you are NOT allowed to keep a gun solely for defense purposes.

Mobile Telephones

The single most useful crime prevention tool you can carry. People blow them off as yuppie fashion accessories, but they can save seconds or minutes, summoning the cops immediately. Remember, violent crimes go down FAST - the seconds or minutes you save having the phone RIGHT THERE rather than looking for a pay phone fumbling with change, dealing with householders, etc. may mean a life saved (maybe yours), a criminal who would have escaped apprehended, or a violent crime stopped. Your teenage kids need them, too. Your seventeen-year old can call you if she gets a flat tyre in a bad area, or if she finds herself being taken "somewhere where we can be alone" by a new boyfriend about whom she's having second thoughts.

If it saves you or someone else even once, it's worth much more than whatever you paid for it.

Armed Robbery

The criminal's main objective here is usually: get the money and get out.

If you are justy entering the shop or bank and find a robbery in progress, duck back out. Sounds simple but lots of people freeze.

If you are already inside, but right next to an exit door, duck out if you can do it instantly. Scream and yell as you run, putting pressure on the criminals and helping the people inside.

If you are inside, not near a door, obey their directions as long as their focus is on robbery. If they are robbing customers, give up your property right away.

If they start shooting, stabbing, tying people up, or imprisoning them, react immediately - ESCAPE. There's no guarantee they'll stop the violence before they get to you.

NEVER let yourself be tied up, imprisoned in a back room, safe, locker, etc., or be taken hostage. Hostages only have value while criminals are attempting to escape or bargaining for demands. Some may also be raped. AS time passes, hostage value diminishes, until at some point they are just a nuisance and a threat as a potential witness. When this happens, you as a hostage are at Crime Scene #2, your life is in their hands. Goodbye.

Before they take you hostage, you still haver a chance. If they stab or shoot you while you resist, you can expect the same would have happened later when you have no value to them and they have all the control.

Family, Friends, Other Potential Victims

Criminals manage to control a superior number of victims during home invasions, etc. by using each victim's concern for the others(s) to control and immobilize them. A criminal will train a weapon on a child, while ordering a wife to tie up the husband who may be more than the criminal's equal in a one-on-one situation.

Developing a family escape plan will be time well spent. Such a plan, in essence, is not dissimilar to a fire drill. Each family member should have their own set of escape routes worked out, with places of refuge. such as known neighbour's houses, determined beforehand. If the subject is approached sensibly and not hysterically, children will treat the subject sensibly and may well participate with creative ideas. You need one escape plan for the home, two for the car - one where everyone gets in IMMEDIATELY and you take off, another where you all leave the car IMMEDIATELY and ESCAPE - in Australia, make sure you run to the left to avoid traffic. Even a plan for the work area may not be out of the question if your colleagues are like-minded, especially for small businesses.

If the worst happens, and your spouse or a child is held by a criminal and threatened with a weapon, the same rules still apply. Always ESCAPE. If one or more of the family can escape and summon help, this will place extra pressure and the criminal and limit the damage he can do to those still inside. Do NOT allow the criminal to tie you up, and do not cooperate with him by restraining or imprisoning others. Offer your property readily, and allow the criminal to escape. If he ignores this, do not cooperate with his demands to incapacitiate yourself or others. Remember, it will be a lot easier for him to rape the females (and maybe males too) and then kill everyone if you are all tied up. As terrifying as it may be, your best chance is still to resist; tell the criminal that the person he is holding is your best friend, blood brother, or love of your life, and if the criminal hurts them you will have nothing else to lose and will immediately kill him - say you've killed before, and you'll do it again. Then tell him once again he can take your property and go. If you are lying when you say this, you still need to sound totally convincing and totally committed. Cops rehearse what they are going to say to armed criminals when apprehending them, you should rehearse your speeches to prepare for the worst.

If you are with a group, in a bar, restaurant, etc. and armed violence erupts, ACT IMMEDIATELY. If you act, others will follow suit. Shout "GUN! RUN!" or the like as you escape, warning others of the danger and urging them into action themselves.

The body count in the McDonalds massacre in San Ysidro, California, by James Huberty on July 18, 1984 was twenty-one dead and nineteen wounded. He walked into the restaurant with three powerful semiautomatic weapons and began shooting at random. He reloaded all his weapons twice as he curcled the room, killing anyone he found still alive. He was finally killed by a police sniper on a rooftop.

The death toll in another massacre in 1991 in Killeen, Texas, was reduced because one man immediately threw his table at the plate glass window, and when the window refused to break he charged it full force and dived through. He and those who followed him lived, while others who huddled under tables were picked off at the killer's leisure.

The death toll in a train massacre in New York was reduced by one brave man breaking through his fear and shouting "Grab him!" while tacking the killer as he reloaded his weapon. Several others immediately followed, and the killer was overcome.

No training or course of action can guarantee that you will survive violent crime, which is random, senseless, and goes down very, very fast. But following some simple rules, and PREPARING yourself to ESCAPE and SURVIVE, can greatly improve your chances.

I hope your life remains happy and violence free, but I urge you to plan and prepare in case the worst happens.

References and Related WWW Sites

Strong on Defense; Survival Rules to Protect You and Your Family from Crime. Sanford Strong, Pocket Books, ISBN 0-671-52293-0.

Fighting Back; A Woman's Guide to Self-Defence. Eddie McGee with David Lowen, Sphere Books Limited, ISBN 0-7221-5792-4.

Self-Defense, Street-Fighting, & Close-Quarter Battle

FIGHT Online Magazine

Index: Assault Prevention Information Network

Sexual Assault Information Page

Last update: 10 January 1997

The History and Philosophy of Wing Chun Kung Fu

2006-09-17T17:28:00.000+10:00

The History and Philosophy of Wing Chun Kung Fu

Thesis for Level Ten Grading

Andrew Nerlich

student of Sifu Rick Spain, WWCKFA.

Disclaimer: Since this essay was written, my instructor parted company with the WWCKFA. Also, vast amounts of new historical information on Wing Chun have come to light. What is presented here is both the WWCKFA party line, best not swallowed uncritically, and based on rather less information than is available in 2006. I'm not interested in arguing about its veracity or otherwise.

History

In the Beginning...

The deep nature of our own species, and those that preceded us in evolution, includes competition, violence, and killing. Prehistoric men no doubt fought one another for dominance, food, mating rights, and survival. The dawn of a structured or scientific approach to fighting no doubt occurred with the first primitive man to pick up a stick with which to strike an enemy or prey.

Conflict and warfare form pivotal events in human history. Arguably, many ancient rituals, sports and ceremonies are reenactments of battles in one form or another. The Olympic Games held by the ancient Greeks were regarded as a religious festival, during which war was suspended.

The Epic of Gilgamesh, written down in about the eighteenth century B.C. in Mesopotamia, one of the earliest centres of civilisation, shows that most weapons of war had been invented by then, the major exception being explosives, which were to be invented by the Chinese almost 2800 years later.

Gilgamesh, a hero of Uruk in Babylonia, fought with axe, sword, bow and arrow, and spear. His contemporaries used battering rams against enemy cities, and rode to battle in chariots.

The concept of a martial art or science of combat no doubt developed along with civilisation. Organised warfare required trained and disciplined soldiers, and generals and instructors to command and train them.

The earliest accepted evidence of a martial art exists in two small Babylonian works of art dating back to between 2000 and 3000 B.C., each showing two men in postures of combat.

Whilst there is almost no other evidence to support the hypothesis that martial arts originated in Babylonia and Mesopotamia, and were carried eastward to India and China, there is evidence that trade took place between the Harappa culture of Northern India and the Mesopotamians as early as 2500 B.C. Also, there is evidence that a particular design of bronze axe was in use over a vast area including parts of Europe and China around 1300 B.C. There is also evidence that the performances of acrobats from India and the eastern Mediterranean regions were enjoyed by the Chinese. The martial arts and performing arts have had a long tradition of association in the East, mirroring the similarity between the movements of acrobats and martial artists.

While the case for the origin of martial arts in Mesopotamia is speculative, there is no doubt that they first appeared in the East in a primitive form, and it was in India and China that their development into the intricate and sophisticated systems of recent times took place.

Martial Arts in China

The development of martial arts in China is inextricably linked with the development of Chinese medicine, and of the major religious and philosophical systems which underpin all aspects of life in historical China.

The martial and healing arts have always had a close relationship, of necessity when the wounds resulting from combat required healing, and in the use of medical knowledge to develop more effective targeting and striking techniques. Martial arts through the ages were practiced as much for health and longevity as they were for aggression and defence, and indeed the Shaolin arts were based on movements originally developed for health reasons.

Nearly five thousand years ago, the three legendary emperors laid the ground work for a nationalised system of Chinese medicine for the populace. Emperor Fu Hsi first proposed such a system; Emperor Shun Nung developed a classification of herbs for use in healing; and Huang-Ti, the Yellow Emperor, sent healers out to care for the people. The "Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine" a book on the principles of Chinese medicine, attributed to Huang-Ti but more likely written by others much later, is still regarded as a standard text by many contemporary schools of acupuncture and Oriental healing.

Around this time, mention is made of a form of ritualised wrestling called Go-Ti, in which two men wore horns on their heads and attempted to gore each other. The sport became popular, and spread throughout the land, and was passed down through generations. Go-Ti is performed today, with less blood spilled, traditionally at festivals in Honan and Manchuria. It is theorised also that Go-Ti was exported to Japan during the Tang Dynasty (610-907 AD), and evolved into the modern sport of Sumo; this would be the earliest documented export of Chinese martial arts.

The originators of the great Chinese philosophies all lived around the same time. Lao Tzu, the developer of Taoism, was born in Honan around 604 BC. Confucius was born around 550 BC, and the Buddha around 506 BC.

Legend has it that Lao Tzu worked in the imperial palace during the Chou Dynasty as custodian of the imperial archives. Like many of his compatriots, he became disillusioned by the existing political tyranny, and at age 160 (according to legend) he left the kingdom on a wagon drawn by a black ox. When he reached Han-Ku pass, the gatekeeper, Yin-Hsi, asked him to leave a record of his teachings. The result was a short but enormously profound and influential document of 5,280 Chinese words called the Tao Te Ching (The Way and the Power). It taught a philosophy of living harmoniously with the ways of nature, returning to one's essence and of acting only in accordance with the Way.

(The philosophical basis of the teachings of Lao Tzu, and those of Confucius and the Buddha, will be discussed more fully in a later section.)

Confucius was born to a noble family in the state of Lu in what is now Shantung. His father died when Confucius was three, and the family fell on hard times. Though self-educated, he devoted himself to teaching and a quest to eliminate illiteracy; however, his major purpose in education was to teach and develop a way of harmonious living and interaction with one's fellows, through rules and standards of propriety and behaviour. At age 51, he became Minister for Justice in Lu, but his attempts to spread his doctrines were met with indifference or distain by his superiors, resulting in his starting a thirteen year ministry attempting to disseminate his political, social, and philosophical beliefs. At age 68, unsuccessful, he began to write the classic documents such as the Spring and Autumn annals, the I Ching (book of Changes) and the Analects, which were to have a huge impact on Chinese culture.

Some historians dispute the authorship of these documents (i.e. maybe Confucius didn't write all or any of them), but their fundamental role in Chinese culture is indisputable.

The Buddha, also called Guatama or Siddhartha, was an Indian Prince, born approximately 506 BC As a youth, he lived a rich and pampered life in the splendour of palaces and courtyards, surrounded by the luxuries of the time, unaware of the often desperate and miserable circumstances in which the vast majority of his subjects dwelt.

One day he ventured into the city, and was confronted with the disease, starvation, suffering and death which filled his kingdom. The streets were filled with starving beggars and littered with the bodies of the dead or dying.

Shocked to the bone by what he saw, he spent days alone (five days beneath the Bodhi tree), attempting to come to terms with this shattering revelation. He found himself unable to accept his experiences as reality, and from there came he formed the basis of his teachings, that human existence is an illusion, and nothing is real. He left the palace and travelled widely, teaching.

His teachings and doctrine proposed a disregard for self and materialism, instead emphasising subsequent lives and the eventual deliverance from the eternal cycle of life and suffering which is human existence.

While the seeds of higher philosophies were being sown, warfare itself continued. Before 500 BC, China did not exist as a nation. The territory now known as the People's Republic of China was made up of a large number of minor, independent states, generally operating under feudal rule.

War was seen as an occupation of the nobility, with skirmishes being fought between local warlords, perhaps with small armies of peasants. The lords would be driven to the battlefield in chariots, to fire arrows on the peasant armies of their rivals. Occasionally warlords would resort to single combat before their armies to decide a particular issue.

War was a highly ritualised activity, prohibited in certain seasons or circumstances, such as after the demise of a particular leader. Soldiers might languish for days or weeks while oracles were consulted or a favourable omen awaited prior to an attack.

Gradually the smaller states were assimilated by larger ones, and larger cities were formed, with populations as large as 750,000. Trade flourished between these centres, with tools and weapons of high quality iron among the items exchanged. Around the time of the Warring States period (490-221 BC), a low-grade steel was perfected, allowing the rulers to equip their soldiers with weapons made in foundries and stored in arsenals.

The expansion of the bureaucracy of government at this time allowed for feasible equipping, feeding, training and deployment of much larger armies. This changed warfare from an occupation of the ruling class to a professional activity undertaken by professional soldiers and officers. New specialist skills, such as engineering, signals, and mapmaking became viable occupations for these career soldiers. Sun Tzu was the most famous of these; a brilliant tactician and strategist, whose work The Art of War, which was written around 350 BC, is said to have influenced Mao Tse-Tung, and remains a standard text for military officers, as well as being widely read by ambitious people in other walks of life.

But combat was not solely the province of the rulers and the military. The Chinese countryside was rife with gangs of bandits and outlaws. Merchants enticed by the large profits possible from interstate trade would have employed bodyguards to protect themselves and their wares. The small scale close combat encountered by such bodyguards would have suited a career martial artist perfectly. The itinerant life of such bodyguards would have brought them into contact with others in the same profession from all over the country, allowing for a constant interchange of martial ideas and techniques.

During the Han Dynasty(206 BC - 220 AD), Pan Kuo (32-92 AD) write the Han Su I Wen Chih, or Han Book of the Arts. this work contained chapters on governmental aspects of occupation (during war), battlefield strategy, principles in nature, and a chapter on fighting skills, including hand, foot, and weapon techniques.

Meanwhile, the doctrines of Taoism spread and flourished, with the Taoist monks practising various types of exercise, breathing, and meditation.

During the closing years of the Han Dynasty, Dr Hua To, a famous surgeon, made a major contribution to the development of martial arts, introducing a series of exercises based on the movements of animals, to promote blood circulation, freedom from sickness, and the prevention of the symptoms of old age.. In his book, Shou Pu, Hua To described a system of exercises he called the Frolic of the Five Animals, based on movements of the tiger, deer, bear, monkey and bird.

Bodhidharma and the Shaolin Temple

The first Shaolin Temple was built in approximately 495 A.D., in Honan Province near Mount Sung. It was built by Emperor Hsaio Wen, for the purpose of housing Buddhist monks who were charged with the task of translating the Buddhist scriptures from Sanskrit into Chinese, in accordance with the wishes of the Emperor, who sought to make the scriptures available to the people in their native tongue, as a means of achieving Nirvana for himself.

Around 520 AD, an Indian Buddhist monk named Bodhidharma journeyed from India to China. He was the son of an Indian King, and an excellent warrior in superb physical condition. He visited Emperor Wen, but disagreed with him that Nirvana could be achieved by good deeds (the translations of the scriptures) performed by others in the Emperor's name, as noble as such a project might be. Bodhidharma's method instead involved meditative practices, seeking enlightenment through direct experience.

After leaving the emperor, Bodhidharma then went to the Shaolin temple. The head abbot, Fang Chang, at first viewed him as a foreign meddler and upstart, and refused him entrance. Bodhidharma instead took up residence in a nearby cave, where he reportedly sat facing a wall for nine years, "listening to the ants scream". Legend has it that the intensity of his gaze bored a hole in the cave's wall.

The monks were soundly impressed with his religious discipline and commitment, and he was welcomed into their ranks in the Shaolin Temple. One painting of Bodhidharma dating from the thirteenth century has one of the monks cutting off his own hand as a symbolic gesture of sympathy for Bodhidharma's spiritual commitment during his stay in the cave.

The monks at the temple were most interested in his teachings, but due to their sedentary lives and poor diet and physical condition, were often unable to stay awake during his lectures. To improve their health and assist their meditation, Bodhidharma devised three sets of exercises, emphasising correct breathing and bending and stretching of the body. The monks, who were in constant physical danger from outlaws and robbers, but who were forbidden by their religious code to carry weapons, modified many of the exercises to form systems of weaponless self-defence, becoming the systems of Kung-fu and other Asian martial Arts we practise today.

Further legend has it that Bodhidharma once fell asleep while meditating, and became so enraged that he ripped off his eyelids, casting them to the ground. From them immediately sprang tea shrubs, whose leaves were used by the monks to keep them awake.

As with many episodes in the history of Kung Fu, there are doubts among historians regarding the truth of the stories about Bodhidharma, and indeed, whether he actually existed. Detailed accounts of his exploits only started to appear in the eleventh century, although there were Buddhist historians of prodigious written output around the Temple much earlier than this, such as Hsuan-Tsang in the seventh century, who make no mention of him.

However, the story of Bodhidharma is seminal to the history of Buddhism, the Shaolin Temple, and Kung Fu.

At the height of its prosperity, around 700 BC, the temple had a complement of around 1500 monks, including 500 fighting monks, together with the land and buildings to support.

The Emperor T'ai Tsung of the Tang dynasty first endowed the temple with the right to train a fighting force of monk/soldiers. In danger at one time, he asked for help from the temple and thirteen monks went to his aid.

The grateful emperor attempted to persuade the thirteen to take up positions in his court, but the monks declined, stating that their martial arts' primary purposes were to promote the monks' health and to protect the Temple and its surrounding society. As there was now peace, they were no longer required, but that if the need arose again they would make themselves available.

The emperor then permitted them to increase the size of their fighting force to 500.

Over the next thousand years, the martial arts expanded and evolved, interest in them based to a large degree on the heroic exploits of the Shaolin monks. The military and merchant classes also added to the spread and evolution of the art. Other temples were built, and often became havens for anti-dynastic and revolutionary activity of various sorts, as China's rule remained in the hands of competing groups and dynasties. Temples were subjected to numerous sackings and burnings, with monks fleeing to other areas, and building or rebuilding temples, spreading their knowledge as they went.

This state of affairs continued up to the fall of the Ming Dynasty in the seventeenth century A.D.

Wing Chun

(Note: It is almost impossible to determine a definitive history of Wing Chun Kung Fu.

The circumstances leading to the marriage of Yim Wing Chun and Leung Bok Cho have been described in several different ways by different members of the WWCKFA, including lectures by Sifu Rick Spain, the writings of Grandmaster William Cheung and writings purported to be those of Grandmaster Yip Man.

I discuss alternative versions of events to those set down here in Appendix A.

The enigmatic Ng Mui is used by a number of styles of Kung Fu besides Wing Chun to explain their origin, and she may be as much a legendary as a real figure. She figured extensively in the lore and performances of the Red Junk Opera Company, through which Wong Wa Bo, Leung Bok Cho and Jee Sin play a pivotal role in the art's development. It is perhaps prudent to remember that, as operatic artists, they were skilled in dramatic storytelling, and that many of the best stories have their basis in fact.

It may also be prudent to remember that the cultural basis of humanity's greatest endeavours is based on grand myths, fables and legends - often, based on real individuals and events - rather than on the smaller details of objective fact.

I write this assuming that the truth of history lies as much in each historian's interpretation as in the objective events.)

The Manchus invaded China in 1644, ending the Ming dynasty, and beginning the Ching (Qing) dynasty. The occupation force, as a minority of the population, introduced a number of repressive measures to control the indigenous Han population. These included forbidding the Hans to carry weapons, restricting their opportunities within the civil service, and the practice of binding the feet of women, rendering them totally dependent on their husbands and menfolk, who were thus also restricted in their actions and ability to undertake revolutionary activities.

The Shaolin Temple, which as a Buddhist institution was revered and regarded with religious awe by the invaders, became both a sanctuary for Ming rebels and a centre for revolutionary planning and training. Ming soldiers and sympathisers donned monk's robes and shaved their heads, but trained for war within the temple grounds and plotted the overthrow of the Manchus.

The combat systems then taught in the temple were based on animal movements and required the progressive mastery of tens and hundreds of long, intricate forms, taking fifteen to twenty years. The Shaolin grandmasters recognised that this approach was unsuitable for the rapid development of a fighting force. They began to develop a new system of Kung Fu based on human biomechanics rather than the movements of animals, distilling the enormous and disparate variety of techniques, some only marginally useful, of the animal systems into an essential core of techniques which would turn an average trainee into a skilled fighter in five years rather than twenty-five. As the Manchus had outlawed the carrying of weapons by the populace, the butterfly swords, which were easy to conceal in knee-length boots, were chosen as the system's only weapons.

The system was called Wing Chun, named after the Springtime (Wing Chun) training hall in the temple. Some accounts have it that the system was named after Yim Wing Chun, but it seems she may also have been given that name, after that of the training hall, by Ng Mui, the alternative meaning of the name being "Hope for the Future").

The Manchus heard of the revolutionary role of the Temple, and surrounded it, while a traitorous monk set fires within. The monks fought bravely, but were heavily outnumbered. Only five escaped - Bak Mei, Fung Do Dak, Mui Min, Jee Sin and the nun Ng Mui. The five went their separate ways.

Ng Mui took refuge in the distant White Crane Temple in Yunnan. Periodically, she would journey to a nearby village for provisions including bean curd (tofu), which she bought from a shopkeeper named Yim Yee (or Yim Say) and his daughter, Yim Wing Chun.

Yim Yee and his daughter had fled Fatshan province before impending wrongful arrest by the Manchus, and settled in this remote area, selling the bean curd for a living. However, their lives were not yet free from trouble. One day Ng Mui entered the shop to find the young girl in tears.

Wing Chun was a beautiful young woman, and had attracted the unwanted attentions of a brutal gang leader, who had sworn to take her as his wife.

Ng Mui's immediate inclination was to fight off the gangster herself, but realised that such action was likely to attract the attention of the Manchus, from whom she was still a fugitive. Instead, Ng Mui undertook to teach the girl combat techniques, thus allowing her to defend herself and her honour.

Wing Chun told the gangster that she would fight him in one year, and that if he could defeat her, she would be his. The gangster, a master of Eagle Claw Kung Fu, saw this as a fait accompli and agreed, laughing.

Ng Mui took Yim Wing Chun back to the temple with her.

With only months in which to train Yim Wing Chun, Ng Mui concentrated only on the most essential, direct and effective techniques and training methods in her instruction. The techniques would need to allow Wing Chun to overcome the gangster, who was bigger, stronger, and more experienced than she. As the 108 dummies of the Shaolin temple no longer existed, Ng Mui developed a single dummy on which all 108 dummy movements could be practised. Yim Wing Chun trained day and night, and, when the gangster returned, she was ready. Soundly beaten, the disgraced gangster left and never returned.

Shortly thereafter, a salt (or silk) merchant from Shangxi named Leung Bok Cho visited the area. Leung Bok Cho had been a student of Kung Fu at the Honan Shaolin Temple. He stayed at an inn next to Yim Yee's shop, and witnessed Wing Chun practising her Kung Fu beside the tofu grinders. He fell in love with this beautiful and skilful young woman, and soon, with Yim Yee's approval, they were married.

Ng Mui eventually left the White Crane Temple, travelling far and wide. Before leaving, she made Wing Chun promise to adhere to the Kung Fu traditions, to continue to develop her Kung Fu after her marriage, and to help continue the struggle against the Manchus to restore the Ming dynasty.

Wing Chun and Leung Bok Cho moved back to Shangxi, but soon moved on to northern Guangdong to escape constant fighting between bandits and soldiers. Then they moved to Siu Hing, where they would eventually encounter members of the Red Junk Opera Company.

Meanwhile, Ng Mui's fellow grandmaster at the temple, Jee Sin, was also travelling the country. Among other styles, he was a master of the dragon pole. He sought suitable students to train in his continuing quest to assist the overthrow of the Manchus and the restoration of the Ming dynasty. Like Ng Mui, he was hunted by the Manchus and, to evade detection, he disguised himself as a dishevelled beggar. It was in Guangdong that he heard of the Red Junk Opera Company, and its prized performer, Wong Wa Bo.

The Red Junk Opera members were trained in the performing and martial arts from an early age, and Jee Sin reasoned that, with such backgrounds, they could quickly be trained to become formidable fighters. Jee Sin went to see a Red Junk performance, watching Wong Wa Bo very closely. He was impressed with Wong Wa Bo's considerable skills and enormous strength, but noticed a few technical faults which he felt he could correct.

As the performers were packing up to travel on to a performance in Guangzhou, Jee Sin approached them and asked for passage. The poler of the ship, seeing only a filthy tramp in rags, informed him that the Red Junks were not passenger ships, and that the only way that Jee Sin would get to Guangzhou was by walking. The opera staff continued their packing, ignoring Jee Sin, and then boarded the boat, preparing to shove off. The poler saw Jee Sin take up a stance, one foot on the shore and one on the boat. The poler decided that the foolish beggar was overdue for a surprise bath, and began to push with his pole as hard as he could.

Try as he might, he could not move the boat. He summoned the others, who also thrust poles into the river bed, but the boat remained unmoved. Finally, in desperation, the poler summoned Wong Wa Bo, the best poler of all, still sleeping after an unusually long performance the previous evening. Even he was unable to make a difference.

The disguised Jee Sin began to laugh, and with his foot, began to rock the boat, threatening to flood it. Wong Wa Bo realised that the man in rags before him was no beggar, but a man of exceptional power and skill. He respectfully invited Jee Sin aboard and begged to be taught the master's skills. Jee Sin taught the Red Junk Opera members his Kung Fu, which they called Weng Chun Kuen ("Everlasting Spring Boxing") to disguise its Shaolin origins. Wong Wa Bo became his prized student, one of very few to learn Jee Sin's six-and-a-half-strike pole technique.

Meanwhile, Leung Bok Cho sought a worthy student to whom to pass on the Wing Chun system. He had heard about his nephew Wong Wa Bo's reputation as a performer and martial artist, and went to a Red Junk performance to see for himself. Leung Bok Cho and Wong Wa Bo got together after the show, and it was agreed that, if Leung could beat Wong in a friendly match, the Wing Chun butterfly swords against staff, that Wong would become Leung's student and be taught the art of Wing Chun.

The match was fought on the stage of the Red Junk, Wong with a twelve foot Dragon Pole against Leung's pair of eighteen inch butterfly swords. Wong figured he had the advantage, and invited Leung to attack first. Wong found it very difficult to defend against the swift, tight techniques of the swords, and was forced to the edge of the stage. In desperation, Wong used the most deadly techniques of the pole, blocking Leung's double slash at his head with an upward bon kwun, then jabbing low at Leung's leg. Despite the almost simultaneous block and attack, Wong's strike missed, and he felt the cold steel of Leung's butterfly blade against his wrist. He had no choice but to drop his pole and concede defeat, begging Leung to teach him the superior techniques of Wing Chun.

Leung knew from the fight he had chosen well. Wong mastered the art of Wing Chun, and integrated its principles into the technique of the six-and-a-half strike Dragon Pole, thus making that weapon part of the Wing Chun system.

Next in the lineage was Leung Lan Kwai, a herbalist by profession, who introduced the Iron Palm training into the system. Leung Lan Kwai passed his knowledge to Leung Lee Tai, who then passed it on to Leung Jan, a famous herbal doctor in Fatshan. Leung Jan was famous for his Iron Palm technique.

Leung Jan had chosen his sons, Leung Bak and Leung Chuen, as his successors. However, a neighbouring money changer, Chan Wa Soon, was greatly interested in Leung Jan's Kung Fu and began to spy on Leung Jan and his sons while they were practising. Leung Jan became aware of this very early in the piece, and intentionally modified the techniques he taught to his sons to reduce their effectiveness whenever Chan was watching.

Eventually, Leung Jan became impressed with Chan's keen interest, accepting him as a disciple. However, he continued to teach only the modified version of Wing Chun to Chan, because he feared that Chan would dispute the grandmaster titleship of Wing Chun with his sons after his (Leung Jan's) death.

This fear manifested itself after the deaths of Leung Jan and Leung Cheun, with Chan, a much larger and more powerful man, driving the surviving son, Leung Bak, from Fatshan. Leung Bak went to Hong Kong.

Chan began to teach the modified version of Wing Chun to selected students. Despite his reputation an popularity as a Kung Fu exponent, he only accepted eleven students. Then Yip Man, twelve years old at the time, came to Chan with three hundred pieces of silver, seeking acceptance as a disciple. Chan assumed the boy had stolen the coins from his parents, and marched him home to confront them. There he discovered that Yip Man had indeed saved the money on his own. Impressed with Yip Man's commitment, Chan accepted him as his final disciple.

After four years of study with Chan Wa Soon, Yip Man became a skilled fighter with a considerable reputation. After Chan's death, Yip Man moved to Hong Kong. Through some martial arts colleagues, he was introduced to an eccentric old man renowned for his Kung Fu ability. Yip Man, with the impetuosity of youth, challenged the old man, only to find himself soundly beaten.

The old man was Leung Bak, the hitherto lost surviving son of Leung Jan. Leung Bak explained to Yip Man the story of the modified Wing Chun system which was taught to Chan Wa Soon, and then accepted Yip Man as a student of the Traditional Wing Chun system. He stayed with Leung Bak for four years, and then returned to Fatshan, challenged and defeated his seniors, and declared himself grandmaster of Wing Chun Kung Fu. While respected throughout China for his Kung-fu skills, Yip Man took no students.

The communist uprising forced Yip Man to flee Fatshan for Macau, leaving his fortune behind, as did many of his contemporaries. Leung Shan, a master of Pak Mei (White Eyebrow) Kung Fu found Yip Man living there in impoverished circumstances, and took him to Hong Kong.

Leung Shan ran a Kung Fu school on the premises of the restaurant workers' union in Hong Kong. Yip Man was put up in a small apartment there, and would occasionally watch the classes, occasionally criticising the techniques taught by Leung Shan, without intending offence.

One night in 1951, Leung became annoyed by Yip Man's criticism, and challenged him. Though Yip Man was older and less powerful than Leung Shan, the latter could not match the techniques of Wing Chun and was easily overcome.

Yip Man then revealed himself as the grandmaster of Wing Chun, and took Leung Shan as the first of a small number of disciples, who included the late Bruce Lee and the current Traditional Wing Chun grandmaster, William Cheung Cheuk Hing.

Philosophy

Philosophy and Reality

Kung Fu without its traditional and philosophical basis would be little more than a brutal and inhuman science of injury, death and destruction.

However, it needs to be understood by the student that Kung Fu's primary purpose is self protection. In ancient China as well as in large cities today, real fights may end in injury or death. Philosophising over respect for one's opponent or strict adherence to Buddhist or Taoist principles in the middle of a streetfight is likely to earn the practitioner a ride in an ambulance. As Sifu David Crook wrote, "Anyone who believes in the [Marquis of] Queensbury rules in the street had better be fully insured."

A mugger or other assailant is unlikely to share your Taoist and Buddhist principles, or any sense of fair play. While club sparring and tournaments are conducted under rules and within limits, all such assumptions are off in a streetfight. There are no rules and no guarantees. Real and improvised weapons (chains, knives, iron bars), biting, clawing and gouging, group attacks and group stompings are all very real possibilities.

The training in a Kung Fu school goes only part of the way to prepare a student to deal with real world attacks. While we learn efficient fighting techniques, and practise these in various drills, with varying degrees of contact, these only go some of the way to preparing us for the enormous emotional and physical duress of an encounter with someone wishing to damage us. Streetfights are not stopped because one of the combatants cuts or injures themselves, or because they run out of breath. Streetfights stop when one side is unable to continue - helpless, unconscious, severely injured or dead. The winner(s) may stop short of kicking the loser to death when he is down, but this will be a matter of luck as much as anything else.

To win a streetfight demands that you meet the attack on your person with equal, preferably greater, ferocity, that you overcome your fear and pain in a violent attack, often best done by flooding your system with adrenalin, and that you are prepared to act immediately to render your opponents unable to continue their attack, by any means necessary, fair or unfair, and with complete ruthlessness. Any second thoughts or philosophical principles that restrict your tactics in a streetfight will be giving your opponent an advantage. If your life is potentially at stake, you cannot afford your opponent ANY advantage.

The fundamental purpose of our art, fighting for survival, cannot be ignored or overlooked. Indeed, to do so would be to prostitute it. But the potential for misuse of the capability for violence of Kung Fu requires that we use it as a last, rather than a first, resort. Any other course also prostitutes the art. It is for use when we or others are under threat of violence, not as a means to intimidate or coerce others.

Proper training provides us with means for the reduction of stress through physical activity, and breathing and meditation exercises. We learn to deal with combat, fear, aggression and pain in a controlled environment, and develop discipline and tolerance.

So most martial arts, with Kung Fu being no exception, involve discipline and attempt to instil their devotees with a grounding in the traditions and related philosophies of the art.

In the case of Kung Fu and Wing Chun, we must look more closely at the underpinning philosophies of Chinese culture, starting with the teachings of Taoism, Confucianism and Buddhism.

Taoism

The doctrine of Taoism is concerned with living in harmony with nature, or more precisely in harmony with the natural laws of the universe. Salvation and enlightenment are to be found, not in the achievements and endeavours of the society, nor the doctrines and dogmas of education and organised religion. One lives in harmony with the Tao, not by resisting or trying to overcome the world, but by accepting and yielding to the forces around one. Where a powerful but rigid oak tree may be split by a hurricane, a blade of grass bends with the wind and survives undamaged. The experienced waterman survives dangerous seas not by fighting against a current stronger than he, but by swimming with it, unresisting, until he is out of danger. The Wing Chun fighter does not oppose a stronger force directly, but redirects it to his own advantage.

Taoism promotes the concept of the "Uncarved Block", depicting man in his natural state of existence, unspoiled by social conditioning. Years of education, social and religious rituals, cultural forces, and, in modern times, media hype, condition our attitudes, perceptions and beliefs. Taoism contends that such a state is unnatural, that fulfilment and peace are forever beyond us unless we free ourselves from our conditioned responses to the stimuli of the world and return to our true nature.

Taoism also promotes the concept of Wu Wei, or non-action. This is not a philosophy of indolence, nor of turning the other cheek, but rather of doing nothing which is contrary to the nature of things. Rather than confronting a superior force, yield to it, thus allowing it to unbalance itself, after which the natural order will be restored. This was a difficult concept for most of Lao Tzu's contemporaries to understand during the time of the Warring States, with persecution of the masses an everyday occurrence.

I too find Wu Wei a difficult concept, though a particular Taoist parable seems to point in the right direction, particularly for those of us involved with confrontations and violence.

Imagine a boatman, steering a small craft down a difficult waterway. A boat manned by another drifts directly into his path, and the boatman is unable to avoid a collision which damages his craft and his belongings therein. The angry boatman hurls abuse at the foolish, inept pilot of the other boat.

Now imagine the same boatman on the same river. This time an empty boat drifts into his path. Once again, he is unable to avoid a collision; but this time there is no one to blame.

Living in accordance with Wu Wei and the Tao is to become like the empty boat.

Buddhism

The Buddha's teachings and doctrine proposed a disregard for self and materialism, instead emphasising subsequent lives and the eventual deliverance from the eternal cycle of life and suffering which is human existence.

The foundations of his teaching are "The Four Basic Truths of Buddhism", or "The Four Noble Truths", which are:

All life is suffering - life is an endless, illusory, unreal cycle of pain, unhappiness, and suffering, birth, existence and death. This cycle of birth, death and rebirth is called Samsara, and we are bound to it by the consequences of our actions (karma).
This suffering has a cause - put simply, ignorance, ego, and desire - though some sects of Buddhism have spun this out into a complex web of predestination and cause and effect, with various actions incurring various credits and debits to a karmic account which must be paid off in future lifetimes. While all of have basic needs, these are generally simple and easily met. Not so desire - if we allow it to remain uncontrolled, it will control us; we will be constantly diverted from our higher goals due to the profusion of attractions all around, which we chase blindly, forgetting our original destination. And, unlike our needs, desire can never be satisfied; even if we have everything, we still want more.
Liberation from suffering is possible, by renouncing desire, attachment, and the illusion of self, stepping off the wheel of Samsara and entering the state of Nirvana.
A way exists to attain this liberation and the state of Nirvana - called the Eightfold Path.

Its eight aspects are:

Right view - seeing the world and ourselves as they really are, abandoning expectations, hope, and fear, viewing life simply, without prejudice.
Right intention - If we can abandon our expectations, our hopes and fears, we no longer need to attempt to coerce or manipulate others to meet our expectations of the way things should be. We work with what is. Our intentions are pure.
Right speech - if our intentions are pure, we need not be guarded about our speech. We need not lie, bluff, or put on airs and graces in an attempt to impress or manipulate. We say what is necessary, simply and genuinely.
Right discipline - we need to renounce our tendency to complicate issues. We have a simple straight-forward relationship with our job, our house and our family. We give up all the unnecessary and frivolous complications which complicate our lives and relationships, practising simplicity.
Right livelihood - we should earn our living, and perform our jobs properly, with attention to detail. We look for a simple relationship with our work, dispensing with the image or social status with which our profession may be regarded in society. Our work is important, and we must form a simple honest relationship with it, not allow it to define us.
Right effort - we approach spiritual training not as a struggle, with evil inside ourselves which must be conquered, but with simple, constant practice. We work with things and ourselves as they are, not as evils to be rejected or overcome.
Right mindfulness - we cultivate awareness of everything we do, speech, attitude, the way we work. We are mindful of the tiniest details of our experience. We cultivate precision and clarity.
Right concentration - normally our minds are absorbed with all manner of internal chatter, desires, speculation, self-preoccupation and self-entertainment. Right concentration means that we are completely absorbed in things as they are, right here, right now. Only a discipline such as seated meditation can give us a way to silence our internal chatter and concentrate on simple, unadorned reality.

Confucianism

Unlike Taoism and Buddhism, which advocate detachment from the mundane ways of the social world and attuning one's spirit with loftier principles, Confucianism wholeheartedly embraces human relationships, social structures, and commerce. It concerns itself with standards of social behaviour, morals and virtues in copious low level detail, contrasting again with the principles and truths of Buddhism and Taoism, which are small in number but transcendental in scope.

The teachings of Confucius are set down in a number of classic texts, most notably the Spring and Autumn annals and the Analects of Confucius, the latter being a large collection of aphorisms on all aspects of life, including government, politics, morals, and religion.

The teachings emphasise virtue and morality in government, righteousness, respect within families, and proper conduct in social situations. Elaborate and lengthy rules for conduct in social situations typify the teachings. Undoubtedly the etiquette we practise in the Kung Fu school derives a great deal from the teachings of Confucius. But also we must consider the moral environment under which such skills are taught, and the emphasis place on the correct image of the martial arts and the proper conduct and discipline of its exponents in daily life.

Confucius is also thought by many historians to have written lengthy commentaries on the I Ching, or Book of Changes. Indeed, some believe him to be the author of the I Ching itself. On the other hand, there is no indisputable evidence that he actually wrote any of the texts attributed to him, and their authorship remains a hot topic in historical circles.

Despite the grander scale and loftier rewards offered by Taoism and Buddhism, Confucianism was more easily grasped and therefore more readily accepted by the masses. Largely illiterate, and used to rituals and conformity in religion and under feudal rule, it was easy to exchange one set of rituals for another. Also, Confucianism's emphasis on chivalry and other more macho concepts had greater appeal than did the more feminine, yielding ideas of Taoism.

Confucianism came under attack in the early half of the twentieth century in some sections of Chinese society after they came off second best in several major confrontations with more technologically advanced Occidental and Japanese invaders. The followers of Mao Tse-Tung in particular denounced Confucianism as an obstacle to technological advance, and therefore social evolution.

The Doctrine of Yin and Yang, and the Principles of Chinese Medicine

The ancient Chinese, like their modern counterparts, sought a way to understand and explain the world around them, principle and purpose in the changing pattern of events around them, and order in the chaos of existence.

The most powerful principle used to explain the cause and effect of events was that of the interplay of Yin and Yang, two opposite but complementary forces whose relationship and mutual ascendancies are continually changing.

Yin is negative, passive, weak, receptive; Yang is positive, active, strong, creative. Neither can exist without the other, and each, even at its most abundant, contains the seed of the other.

As Yin and Yang compete and cooperate in the manifestation of all things, so events occur in cycles, with various attributes and tendencies gaining ascendancy, and then diminishing. It was the legendary Huang-Ti, the Yellow Emperor, who first documented the cyclical nature of existence and its manifestation in the Five Elements: Metal, Water, Wood, Fire, and Earth. He noticed at various times the ascendancy of different types of life, and their associated colours; at one time, earthworms and burrowing insects were abundant, the force of Earth being strong; later, grass and trees were abundant, the force of Wood in full ascendancy. Later. metal blades appeared in the waters of the palace, and so on.

This concept of five elements or types applies to all types of things and ideas. For example, with each element is associated a colour (metal - white, water - black, wood - green, fire - red, earth - yellow), a direction (in order, West, North, East, South, Centre), a taste (acrid, salt, sour, bitter, sweet), and similar related categories for every imaginable attribute of reality - emotions, animals, senses, foods, etc.

Simplistically, Chinese Medicine is based on the five elements and their balance or harmonious interaction. Each element corresponds to a Yin organ (lung, kidneys, liver, heart, spleen) and Yang organ (colon, bladder, gall bladder, small intestine, stomach). In a person in good health, ch'i or internal energy flows through meridians, or invisible energy channels, to nourish all parts and organs of the body. Illness results from blockages or imbalances in the flow of ch'i, leading to an overabundance or deficiency of the energy corresponding to a particular element or elements.

Ch'i is an intrinsic energy, or life force. While invisible and intangible, it permeates all living creatures, and is inseparable from life itself. Almost all Eastern martial arts include exercises to develop, cultivate, store and channel ch'i. An adept practitioner can channel his ch'i to vastly augment his/her strength, endurance, and destructive power.

Simplistically again, the smooth flow of ch'i is regulated by two cycles.

The Sheng cycle produces and augments the different types of chi within the body. In esoteric terms, metal melts to produce liquid, or water; water in turn nourishes plants (wood); wood adds fuel to the fire; and from fire comes ashes, or earth.
On the other hand, the Ko cycle causes the mutual retardation of the different types of energy. Metal cuts down wood. Water destroys fire. Wood overruns the earth. Fire melts metal, and earth soaks up water.

Diagnosis of a patient's maladies involves an external examination, including the quality of the pulse etc., but may also involve evaluation of the person's emotional state, colour of their complexion etc. A flushed complexion and temperature may mean an overabundance of fire; a cold sweat on the other hand may mean too much water (or a deficiency of fire). Further complexities will determine whether an apparent abundance of one state is caused by an overactivity of one element or the lack of another (the lack of one element allowing another to manifest itself unchecked).

Treatment, like diagnosis, is a holistic process; it may involve dietary recommendations or an alteration to one's routine, as well as herbal treatments to affect specific types of ch'i, or the use of acupuncture, massage, or moxibustion (the application of heat) to specific points on the meridians to increase or impede the flow of ch'i.

Knowledge of Chinese medical theory and the location of specific acupuncture points is of great value to the advanced Kung-Fu practitioner, as it allows him to control or damage an opponent with far greater efficiency by attacking the acupuncture points. The use of such points is known as Dim Mak; its effective use requires serious study and a certain amount of hand, etc. conditioning to be able to strike with the power and accuracy necessary to cause the desired effect. The use of Dim Mak techniques to cause delayed damage or death is the subject of many Kung Fu stories. While many such stories are certainly the subject of enormous embellishment, there is no doubt that strikes to certain areas of the body may result in only mild pain at the time, but result in severe injury or death later; certain skull fractures may not cause immediate apparent trauma but may result in death later as cerebra-spinal fluid gradually seeps from the skull.

As many of the acupuncture points also coincide with places where the nerves are close to the skin or unprotected by muscles, etc. it is possible to cause significant pain with accurate point strikes or claw techniques to these areas.

Many of the Kung Fu masters of old were also medical practitioners; Dr Leung Jan was one.

The Philosophy of Wing Chun Kung Fu

Traditional Wing Chun has its own philosophical creed:

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He who excels as a warrior does not appear formidable.

One who excels in fighting is never aroused in anger.

One who excels in defeating his enemy does not join issues.

One who excels in employing others humbles himself before them.

This is the virtue of non-contention and matching the sublimity of heaven.

***

My analysis of these maxims follows.

He who excels as a warrior does not appear formidable.

A warrior understands that a dominant or frightening persona will not generally assist him in meeting his goals. A person of calm disposition and unremarkable appearance has greater opportunity to move in a variety of circles without attracting unwanted attention.

Generally his life will be more fruitful and less stressful, as others will be more comfortable in dealing with someone who looks and acts like a calm, rational being , rather than an attack dog or steroid monster.

Cultivating an overly imposing appearance or aggressive personality may evoke fear or resentment in others, and provoke attack rather than submission. However, a skilled and experienced opponent will be unaffected by appearance or demeanour; he will be unimpressed by your Special Forces T-shirt and belligerent facial expression, only with your fighting techniques and strategy. He will be watching your elbows and knees, not your snarling teeth or deaths-head tattoos.

If a combat situation arises, the warrior of non-threatening appearance may be able to take advantage of an enemy's complacency, where an opponent of more belligerent appearance may provoke a more ferocious initial attack, or even a massive preemptive strike. If one presents as a person of violent bent, one may find oneself the first target in a brawl.

He who excels as a fighter is never aroused in anger.

I have already discussed the true nature of combat, its potentially fatal risks, and the potential need for massive and total retaliation in the face of a truly lethal threat.

The excellent fighter realises the true nature of combat. Realising the risks involved and the potential costs - pain, injury, criminal charges, remorse - he seeks to avoid it wherever possible. He will try to resolve potential conflicts using his brain rather than his fists, to use psychology on an opponent rather than smashing his face in. To do so requires awareness, confidence, and self control.

Anger is the enemy of control. Anger causes overreaction, resulting either in rushing in, creating openings which can be exploited by a calmer, thinking fighter, taking on an opponent or opponents due to wounded pride that in a more lucid moment we know we should run from, or in losing control of ourselves and causing unjustified pain or injury, resulting in guilt and remorse at best, criminal charges or violent retribution at worst. Strategy and tactics demand the ability to analyse the situation rapidly, which is impossible when we are burning with anger, out of control.

While a skilled fighter generates and recognises emotion, adrenalin, and the fight or flight reaction within himself and allows them to carry him through, the point is to consciously channel the emotions to achieve victory, not to allow oneself to become consumed by them.

He who excels in defeating his enemy does not join issues.

The practice of martial arts and its underlying philosophies (Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism) teach us respect for others. Buddhism also advises us to practise detachment.

Human interaction often involves conflict. Conflict is not necessarily violent; conflict of a sort arises when two people who live together want to watch different television programs at the same time. Conflict can often be resolved through negotiation; often, everyone involved can win. We watch one program, and tape the other.

Respecting others includes allowing them to carry out their own affairs, and giving them the opportunity to resolve their own conflicts. People learn and grow through fighting their own battles. To involve oneself unasked in the affairs of others is patronising.

Kung Fu is for defence, for situations where body and soul are under threat. While we should attempt to conduct our affairs in harmony with its philosophies, it is not for us to impose our will and desires on others using our fighting skills as an inducement or threat to force submission. To do so is to trivialise our art and our training. Freedom of thought, opinion, and association is the foundation of a free society. We must respect the opinions and wishes of others, even if we disagree.

However, we are morally bound to use our art in the defence of others. This is a complicated ethical area, even more so than when we are personally attacked. One of the urban myths of martial arts, with enough real instances to back it up, is the practitioner attempting to break up a fist-fight between husband and wife by attacking the husband, only to have the enraged wife attack her would-be rescuer (after which the husband joins in as well).

When one comes upon a fight in progress, neither its cause nor the guilt or innocence of any involved parties is usually apparent, and wading in full bore against one side or the other while ignorant of the facts may later prove to be a mistake. No doubt both sides of the conflict would argue (and probably believe) that theirs was the just cause.

It may be better to act to defuse the overall level of violence rather than to take sides - try to talk the combatants down, showing disapproval towards violence from either side, but indicating approval of rational action and discussion. Block and restrain the aggressors rather than flattening them. This probably takes more than one person.

If you are outnumbered or outgunned, common sense indicates a withdrawal. If a brawl is in progress, even the most proficient martial artist would be better getting out of there, and calling for reinforcements, the police usually being the best bet.

The martial artist is not a superhero and, usually, not an officer of the law. You and others have a right to defence, but not to punish others. Guilt and punishment are matters for the law.

He who excels in employing others humbles himself before them.

A good leader recognises the contributions of others, the value of their ideas and the contributions of their labour.

An atmosphere of mutual respect is the only environment in which effective communication is possible. One who rules through fear or authoritarian methods may find that his employees, subjects, etc. may hide or distort information he needs to act and decide effectively, through their fear of bearing bad news, or through resentment.

Respect given to subordinates by a boss does not imply informality or over-familiarity. An effective working relationship requires boss and employee to respect each other's person, but also the nature of the relationship and their roles within that relationship.

Friendships between bosses and subordinates certainly may arise, as they get to know each other on a personal level; but if the friendship and the working relationship should conflict, one or the other may well suffer, probably leading to a breakdown in both.

It is important that a boss or Sifu recognise and subordinate as necessary his own personal traits and preferences to lead effectively, be they a dominant tendency leading to the stifling of his subordinates, or a desire to be liked, leading to ineffective management of the work at hand.

Humility before one's employees certainly does not mean acquiescing to their whims and desires, nor an abrogation of one's role as leader and decision maker.

Rather, humility means that an employer puts the welfare of the group and of the enterprise as a whole before his own wishes for power over others, or for their approval, and to act accordingly.

This is the virtue of non-contention and matching the sublimity of Heaven.

Until recent times, the majority of Chinese were as involved with war, whether perpetrator or casualty, as they were with culture. Survival was a continual preoccupation. Students of Kung Fu were taught skills of violence for the protection and survival of themselves and their society; common sense indicates that in times of lethal conflict, provoking fights (contention) is not a recipe for long life.

Confucianism teaches benevolence and the way of civilised interaction; indeed, even in Europe the rules of social etiquette were originally developed as a set of conventions for interacting with real or potential rivals without resorting to violence.

Buddhism teaches respect for all sentient beings, and detachment from desires and Samsara, the illusory world of conflict and emotion.

Taoism teaches the oneness of all things, the union of opposites, and the virtues of non-action (non-contention), living in harmony with the Way and the natural order of things.

Philosophy then, as well as practicality, indicates that a path of non-violence leads to a long and peaceful existence.

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Appendix A

Alternative versions of Wing Chun History

The following variations to the history detailed in my thesis have been mentioned by one reporter or another.

Rather than there being five masters who escaped the burning of the Shaolin Temple, some have five masters developing the Wing Chun style within the temple to train a revolutionary army, with Ng Mui being the only survivor after the Manchu attack. This theory clashes with that of the role of Jee Sin teaching Dragon Pole to Wong Wa Bo.

Ng Mui is also credited by some as having developed the White Crane (Pak Hok) style of Kung Fu, passing it on to a descendent named Mui Min. A story is told of Ng Mui witnessing a battle between a crane and a snake (some say a fox), with the snake's darting and coiling moves evading the crane's beak, while the crane swept the snake's strikes away with skilful use of its wings. Legend has it that Ng Mui based the Bon Sao (wing arm) on the crane's movement, and the Fok Sao (bridging arm) on the snake (or the paw of the fox). Other stories have it that Yim Wing Chun was the witness of the fight between the two animals.

Some versions have Yim Wing Chun's father as a Shaolin-trained practitioner, and say he taught the art to her and Leung Bok Cho.

Rather than the unnamed gangster being the catalyst for Ng Mui teaching Yim Wing Chun combat arts, some say that Yim Wing Chun made a living as a professional fighter, wagering her hand in marriage (she was a woman of uncommon beauty) against an adversary's money. Leung Bok Cho was smitten by her, and took up the challenge.

Some say he was beaten, but that Wing Chun was as smitten by him as he by her, and she married him anyway. It is said also that the fight took place on a small raised platform, providing the more compact and direct art of Wing Chun with an advantage over the Northern Chinese styles which used wider stances and larger, more acrobatic movements. Leung Bok Cho was said to be a master of a Northern style.

Others have it that Wing Chun, having fallen in love with Leung Bok Cho, intentionally allowed him to defeat her. When she later revealed this to him, he laughed at the notion, but Wing Chun invited him to fight again and beat him convincingly, demonstrating that she spoke the truth. She then taught him the Wing Chun system.

Jee Sin is also credited with teaching Kung Fu to Hung Hay Gung, from whom descends Hung Gar style ("Hung Family Boxing").

Some say that Jee Sin was related to Wong Wa Bo and the Dragon pole was passed to him as a normal family heritage, rather than being initiated via the encounter on the Red Junk. Another version says that he had joined the Red Junk earlier, disguised as a cook.

One account has it that the modern dummy was invented on the Red Junk with the mast forming the body of the dummy, with the arms and leg detachable so they could be hidden from prying Manchu eyes while the Junk was in port. This story also has it that the dragon pole's original form was that of the oars or poles used to guide the Junk.

Appendix B

References

The Way of the Warrior, Howard Reid and Michael Croucher

Century Publishing, London

ISBN 0 7126 0079 5 / 0 7126 0080 9

The Complete History and Philosophy of Kung Fu, Dr Earl C Medeiros

Charles E Tuttle Co Inc, USA

ISBN 0 8048 1148 2

Unpublished manuscript, Sifu David S A Crook, Bac Fu Do Kung Fu

Kung Fu Butterfly Swords, Grandmaster William Cheung

Ohara Publications, Inc, USA

ISBN 0 89750 125 X

Kung Fu Dragon Pole, Grandmaster William Cheung

Ohara Publications Inc, USA

ISBN 0 89750 107 1

Various World Wide Web sites and documents

20 September, 1996

Superluminal

2006-09-14T15:07:00.000+10:00

“So, what epic words of wisdom do you have for me this month?’ I asked.

“Grandmaster” Keith Hamster’s frenzied chomping on the mountain of crispy skin chicken and rice before him slowed marginally. “I don’t think much of that tone.”

As usual, I had to fight off the cognitive dissonance of this fat, bearded middle-aged man stuffing his face across the table in his favourite Chinese restaurant, “The Blue Lobster”, billing himself as a “Kung Fu master, with the fastest reflexes in the world”.

I shrugged. “I need an editorial for next month’s edition. I hope you’ve got some new and improved ways to present the same old crap all over again, because I’m tapped out.”

Hamster waved a waiter over. “More rice. And this tea’s cold.”

The slight Asian man looked Hamster up and down, appraising his designer-label black Chinese slippers, and one of the many elaborately embroidered padded silk XXXXXL frog-button Chinese jackets he insisted on wearing everywhere. Hamster had managed to go native in a China which no longer existed except in his imagination, without leaving Australia.

A smile played around the waiter’s eyes, threatening to spread down his face to his lips.

“I gather you’re new here,” Hamster said. His left hand shot out, effortlessly snatching the order pad from the man’s breast pocket before he could react. “Do I have to write it down for you?”

The waiter’s eyes widened. “No sir”. He took the proffered pad back and hurried away.

Hamster used his chopsticks to pack another large piece of chicken into his Insinkerator-like maw, before fixing his gaze on me.

“While I’m financing ‘Cutting Edge Martial Arts’, I won’t tolerate your disrespect,” he told me. “It’s not as if you’re the only magazine editor in the world. Besides, you’re my student, and I expect you to act accordingly.”

I felt like telling him if he treated his students like primary school children he should expect primary school behaviour in return, but I let it slide. Attitude was pointless.

He owned me.

Like he owned most of Chinese martial arts in Sydney.

Fifteen years ago, there had been a healthy variety of Kung Fu schools around the inner city. Then Keith Hamster had stepped off a plane from Hong Kong, with a brace of acupuncture, Kung Fu, and herbal medicine qualifications and certificates from a variety of Chinese masters and institutions, and, I surmised, as many packets of free peanuts he could pilfer from the galley stock.

He started one Kung Fu school, then another and another, saturating the market, intimidating the less brave of the existing school owners with dojo-storming and threats, working on the harder recalcitrants by setting up schools around the corner and drastically undercutting fees, loss leaders financed by his other business, importing Chinese herbs. Here too, he’d similarly cornered the market, like an exotic species with no natural enemies, disrupting the food chain and eliminating biodiversity.

My interest in Kung Fu had started with Hong Kong movies. Being able to beat the shit out of my enemies had irresistible appeal at the time. I was lucky enough to hook up with Luther Smith, a well-conditioned Choy Li Fut instructor whose party tricks included crushing stubbies with grip strength alone. He’d easily slapped around and kicked out the three Hamster goons who’d showed up to threaten him, one night about eighteen months into my training. But Hamster had entangled him so tightly in assault charges and restraining orders as a result, that he had had to close the school.

Luther, angry, and unknown to me at the time, had gone to Hamster’s school in an attempted reverse dojo-storm, but found Hamster’s freakish reflexes were… too freaky. He’d missed Hamster’s large form and punched a hole clean through the cover of a hanging heavy bag during the fight, but Hamster eventually started to run out of breath, and dispatched Luther with a palm slap to the temple.

“I am truly sorry it’s come to this“, Luther, black-eyed, told me as he locked the school for the last time. “But Hamster will send me bankrupt if I continue to teach.”

“So what now, Luther?”

“Security work. Driving around schools and factories late at night. Boring as hell, but it’s a living.” He shook my hand – ouch. “You’ve got some talent. Do what you have to do to cultivate it. Christ, train with Hamster if you have to. Don’t give up. I won’t either. I’m a long way down, but not out.”

I could have travelled eighty kilometres each way to an unaligned school, for which assimilation into Hamster Inc. would have been a matter of if, rather than when. I bowed to the inevitable and began training at the “Hamster Kung Fu” school in my local community centre.

I moved steadily up through the ranks, more a case of regular attendance and a high tolerance for bullshit than any real talent or hard work, and before long came into the inner circle of the great – in multiple senses of the word – man. He wanted a magazine to extol his virtues to a still wider circle, and gave me the job.

I hated myself for taking it. That I didn’t have more backbone. I dreamt of taking Hamster down, one sweetly executed KO. But whatever raw talents Luther had seen in me weren’t nearly enough for those freakish reflexes.

Hamster had a standing offer to match any challenger’s ten thousand dollars with his own, winner take all, should the challenger be able to knock him down.

“The result of a Grandmaster Hamster accidentally eating too much of a meal made from herbs infected by a rare fungus, at a remote mountain monastery in Tibet. He nearly died, but on recovery discovered that his nervous system had been greatly enhanced.”

So I composed the blurb on his website, reprinted in the magazine at intervals only far enough apart to avoid the numbness of incessancy. My thesaurus was falling apart as a result of frantic efforts to come up with yet more ways to rephrase the same old tired crap.

“An unfortunate side effect is that I gain weight so easily,” Hamster claimed. Anyone who had watched in disbelief at the multiple Everests of food he consumed at a single sitting knew different. His body’s gargantuan proportions indicated fitness only for fighting its way to the front of a McDonalds queue.

Whatever the truth, and there were lies aplenty, there was no doubting his reflexes.

There was a challenger every couple of weeks at his HQ kwoon in the early days. One look at his bloated physique and any reasonably fit bloke with mild macho fantasies would want to have a go. But no, he danced rapidly around all comers like one of the tutu-clad hippopotami in Allegro non Troppo, easily brushing off their blows. It was like the school canteen fight in “Spiderman”, had the hero been played by Mr Creosote. Catching houseflies with chopsticks, Mr Miyagi style, hardly stretched him. The challengers became less and less frequent until they stopped entirely.

The waiter returned with a teapot and insulated rice bucket, which he placed on the table without a word. Hamster did not thank him, but immediately began refilling his bowl with steaming white rice.

I waited until his mouth was stuffed full again. “What about these new articles from Steven Morgatelle? ‘Deconstructing Acupuncture’? ‘Modern Martial Arts – Out With Newtown, In With Einstein?’”

He tried to snarl with his mouth full of food. The result was somewhere between a splutter, choke, and a squeal. His chopstick hand flew in an aggressive semaphore as he chomped and swallowed. “NO.”

“But –“

“They’re rubbish, fruitcake stuff, and the man is a fraud! He knows nothing! He’s making it all up! The Chinese government put him in jail!”

I sighed. “And he was released after the charges were dropped. Have you read the articles? They sounded pretty convincing to me – and even if they’re not totally factual, they’re controversial. Controversy sells magazines. Reality doesn’t, as you of all people should be well aware.”

He sneered, looking the impressive distance down his nose and over his multiple chins at me. “What do you know? You haven’t even BEEN to Asia, let alone trained there for ten years, like me.”

“Morgatelle’s been to Asia, too. Kudos up to here from the Chinese Ministry of Science. The guy’s no clueless crackpot, he’s a scientific genius, professorships in both theoretical physics and molecular biology.” I looked into my drained teacup – no tealeaves, no future. “I’m just trying to investigate some new ideas”.

“There are plenty of new ideas I got from Asia that I haven’t told you or anyone else about,” Hamster said. “Enough to keep you and the magazine going for years, while I choose to keep both it and you. Remember that.”

I really wanted to forget it.

As a journalism student with an interest in martial arts, I’d heard all the hype, and seen little of it substantiated. I was promised miracles, I got cheap trickery. The promise of the stories, nearly always followed by exposure as either monstrous exaggeration or outright lies, had eroded my faith in martial arts, and with humanity.

Aside from Luther’s very real skills, the only two things I’d seen that lived up to their claims were Hamster’s amazing reflexes, and an unfortunate experience I’d had about eighteen months earlier.

A pre-Communist Chinese Shaolin Monk was visiting, and, like a fool, I agreed to act as dummy for the impromptu Dim Mak demonstration at his press conference, out of combined senses of participatory journalism and self-flagellation. Unfortunately for both me and my overdeveloped cynicism, it had worked. My back broke out in seven different kinds of boils like the surface of Jupiter’s volcanic moon, Io, some two centimetres across, while my visual perceptions went fractal. In the mirror, I watched my pupils alternately dilate and contract every ten seconds out of phase with each other.

Fortunately, I didn’t have to travel to a secret cave in Tibet to beg the antidote from a Taoist hermit. I gradually got better after several days of convalescence, while being berated relentlessly for my foolhardiness by Naomi. Though she’d only been my girlfriend for two months, I was already describing her to acquaintances as “long-suffering”.

That night, after listening to yet another litany of complaints about Hamster, her eyes on the ceiling and her crossed arms and legs slowly ratcheting tighter as I droned on, she threw up her hands and yelled, “Why do you associate with these people? Why are you so obsessed with something that only brings you down?”

She jumped off the couch and stalked off to the bedroom, closing the door behind her. I sat there alone, staring into the Void.

Morgatelle’s articles had been a bolt of sunlight through the drabness of my vocation, which Hamster had done his best to snuff out.

But he’d failed.

Ignoring my normal aversion to courage, and instinct for self-preservation, I picked up the phone, and dialled the number Steven Morgatelle had included on his cover letter.

A synthesised voice greeted me. Rather than telling me to "leave a message after the tone," no, it asked me several questions about the prospective interview, as well as how I liked my coffee.

I came up with "soy late with lemon, mint and chilli" in an attempt to throw it, but it responded with "you're trying to be funny, right?" in that soulless monotone. I apologised (to a machine! Idiot!) and asked instead for a flat white, no sugar. The machine confirmed the appointment in two days’ time (“Mr Morgatelle has a meeting with some ANU research scientists in Canberra tomorrow”) , wished me "a nice day, unless you have other plans", and waited for me to hang up first, as would any experienced human telephonist.

Two days. I had some time for research. Google led me not to martial arts sites, but to various archives of university publications, and scientific papers. Morgatelle was a polymath; trained as a theoretical physicist, with a doctorate from the Sorbonne in France and an associate professorship from Waseda University in Tokyo. A photo showed him posing with a stunningly beautiful Japanese girl, both in academic robes, at Waseda. Then the flood of academic activity dried up for a while.

Morgatelle’s own website, a slick piece of work in black and graduated shades of red and orange, displayed a chronology of photographs taken in China, Tokyo and Australia, over five years.

He had spent most of his time in China, researching herbs, and earning the respect of locals by devising new genetic modification and hybridisation techniques, increasing both the efficacy and hardiness of several plants often used in herbal medicine.

Out of gratitude he was introduced to several of the highest regarded Kung Fu teachers, and he took to the training with his towering intellect, amazing ability for lateral thinking, and formable work ethic for several years, winning a number of provincial tournaments and also putting a number of would-be standover men and robbers in hospital.

“China can still be a lawless place,” he told me later. ”But then, so can Sydney.”

One page of thumbnails showed the Japanese girl, and he, smiling less and less, she growing pale and thin, first in a chair during family portraits where everyone else was standing, then a wheelchair, and then a hospital bed. The final link was to a single formal portrait of the girl in her prime, looking radiant, with the caption

Mariko Morgatelle
13 August 1967- 3 March 1999
Wonderful wife and mother
Never forgotten, always loved

About six months thereafter, Morgatelle registered several patents related to recombinant and junk DNA technology. A stunningly astute move - several drug conglomerates paid handsomely to license the technology. This made him unpopular with some fellow scientists who insisted the information should be freely available to all for the common good, but also gained glowing praises from the Red Cross and several dozen other charities after he licensed it to several non-profit medical foundations for free.

It also made him very rich. His private warehouse cum laboratory cum living quarters took up half a block in an industrial area a few kilometres South of the Sydney CBD.

His final work in genetic and biotech research was to be a paper on “The successful use of Gene Therapy to block the Motor Neurone Disease gene,” the patient being a unnamed five year old girl in which the gene was manifest but in whom no symptoms had yet been apparent. Morgatelle believed he had successfully neutralized it, and possibly increased the efficiency of the patient’s nervous system. Several colleagues concurred.

His published output then returned to theoretical physics - articles on gluons and supermassive black holes in the scientific press, most of it impenetrable higher maths.

I studied the formal photograph on his bio page. He looked scarily similar to Doc Brown, the mad scientist in “Back To the Future”. A full head of unruly white hair, big eyes, both intelligent and wild. The smile looked a bit too wide and tense around the jaw. He looked all too much like a violent lunatic someone had dressed in a suit and got to pose as a joke. I had to reread his scientific achievements several times, and remind myself that the lovely and intelligent Mariko had found him sane enough to marry, but my impressions of unease were not so easily expunged.

Digging a bit further, on the eleventh page of Google search devoid of scientific references, I found something else, on the China Daily website, English version. Steven Morgatelle had been arrested in Beijing, charged with attempting to smuggle illegal drugs out of China – a crime punishable by death. Searching the newpaper’s archives, I found that the charges had been, days later, downgraded to export violations, which carried a large fine and possible two year jail term. I checked the dates; the original arrest had been in November 1998; Mariko had died in April 1999. To call the arrest “bad timing” would have been a gross understatement. I wondered how keen he’d be to discuss that in my planned interview.

A few minutes before the appointed time, I pressed the security buzzer outside the featureless grey wall of Morgatelle's two storey laboratory/kwoon located in a large industrial area a few kilometres south of the Sydney CBD. The same genderless artificial voice asked me my identity and business. "Voiceprint verified. Please remain still for facial recognition scan." A few seconds passed. "Thank you. Please enter." Something heavy clicked inside the grey metal front door. I pushed it inward, then stepped through into a corridor of white tiles, chrome, spotlights and smoked glass.
There were several doors on either side of the corridor, one close on the right with a large trefoil biohazard symbol and "DANGER - RECOMBINANT DNA TECHNOLOGY – AUTHORISED PERSONNEL ONLY" in ten centimetre block letters thereon.

Morgatelle himself stepped into the corridor from a door to the left about ten paces down. He wore a grey T shirt and black military pants over his wiry frame.

His face carried the same wild eyes and constrained intensity as his website portrait, alarming me. But then he smiled and spoke in a measured voice devoid of any trace of the edgy tension I was expecting.

"Mr Hope. This way, please."

I followed him into a large room carpeted with blue and grey mats, equipped with an impressive variety of training bags and several kung fu dummies made out of a matt black synthetic material. The only conventional furniture present were two vinyl and steel couches and a low glass table, on which sat a glass cup of steaming white coffee and a tall glass of greenish liquid.

A pretty little dark haired girl was sitting cross legged on the floor, open books around her on the floor, drawing with coloured pencils. She looked up at me inquiringly; I stood transfixed; she was the image of the photos of Mariko on Morgatelle’s website.

“My daughter. Angela. This is Mr Hope, Angela.”

“Hello, Mr Hope,” she said. Luckily for her she had her mother’s eyes, not her father’s.

An unwilling voyeur to the tragedy they’d shared, I waved to the child, weakly.

Morgatelle gestured to the couch facing the coffee cup, and folded himself into the other, taking a sip of mystery liquid from the glass.

"Spirulina, honeydew melon, ginseng and ginko," he told me. "Enhances brain function."

I hoped the coffee might help me the same way. I sipped - flat white, no sugar, per last weeks order taken by the synthetic voice.

"What do you want to discuss?" he asked.

“I wanted to talk about the articles you submitted to the magazine.”

He shrugged. “Sure”.

“Well, they were great, some of the most interesting and unusual martial arts writing I’ve ever read.”

“Thanks. But …?”

I sighed. “I just don’t think I’ll ever be able to publish them.”

He frowned, but looked more puzzled than angry. “Why not?”

“The publisher – my boss - takes a very close interest in editorial matters. He’s, er, not a fan of yours.”

“Who is he?”

“Keith Hamster.”

“Hamster?” Morgatelle barked, leaning forward. He didn’t look puzzled any more. “That fat arsehole –“

The little girl looked up with a scared face. “Daddy …”

“It’s OK, sweetie, I’m sorry” he said to her in soft tones. Then, to me, more quietly and controlled, “The Keith Hamster that runs Hamster Asia Import/Export?”

“Sounds like him. He owns plenty of companies.”

“Let’s just say, for now,” Morgatelle said, “that I’m not a fan of his either. For good reason. You’d better explain how you’re hooked up with him, if you want any more of my time”.

I started cautiously, talking only about the magazine and Hamster hiring me, but shortly I found myself ranting about my disappointments and frustrations, as if vomiting up a spoiled meal I’d eaten by mistake.

“I kept telling myself things were getting better, but they were slowly getting worse. Little things, nothing bad enough in itself but all added together … I’ve been like a frog – put him in a pan of hot water, he’ll jump right out – put him in cold and bring it slowly to the boil he’ll get cooked alive without noticing it.”

“Here’s a bowl of hot water for you, then. Just so you know what a ruthless fat bag of scum you’re dealing with. I was working in China. Some local scientists and I were looking at boosting the efficacy of Artemesia Vulgaris for moxibustion, via genetic modification.

“I was going to freight some of the GM product back here to continue my work, and still look after Angela, and Mariko, my late wife, who was living her last few months. I did everything by the book, and then, at the airport, my colleague and I have just dropped off the crates at air freight – and a dozen cops show up to arrest us.

“They charged me with drug trafficking. Turned out they’d been ‘tipped off’ by someone in the herbal import business in Australia. Luckily one of my colleagues was a Hero of the Revolution, for his agricultural work, and he was able to mobilise some heavies in the Ministry of Science. But, to avoid making a few bureaucrats lose face, I had to spend six weeks in a Chinese prison.” He sighed, looked tired.

“Six weeks that I could have spent looking after Mariko myself, before she died. I spent the time doing some training drills and meditation. Trying not to think about my poor wife slowly wasting away.”

“I did some checking when I came back here. I found out Hamster was behind it. He’d bribed someone in the Chinese Embassy to give him a heads up if anyone looked to be trying to compete with him, importing herbs.

“But that wasn’t it at all. These were experimental herbs, have to be kept under strict conditions, no telling whether they are safe for humans.

“I hold Keith Hamster responsible. Someday I hope to make him pay. But, I’m in no hurry. Revenge is a dish best served cold.”

I nodded. “I’d love to see that fat bastard go down. Watch someone beat him up, or do it myself. But you know about this reflex thing of his, right?”

“I’ve heard something. I don’t believe that story about the rare fungus. More likely, in my opinion, that he uses acupuncture along two of the extra meridians to stimulate his central nervous system. A closely guarded secret in China, but fairly straightforward conceptually, if you understand graduate neuroscience.

“That explanation also accounts for his concurrent, er, weight problem. Big appetite, right?”

“That’s the understatement of the century.”

Morgatelle nodded. “It figures. Dangerous really. Won’t do much for his life expectancy.”

“You’ve heard about this challenge if his? $10,000 to anyone that can knock him down?”

Morgatelle nodded. “Yeah.”

“Can you think of any way to get around those ultra-slick reflexes of his?”

“I could probably find a way to get faster than him through DNA modification. But I don’t want to screw with my physiology any more – I’ve already done enough, hardening the bones in my hand by using gene therapy to bind titanium to their cells. I’m not that interested in serious fighting any more, for that matter, unless I absolutely have to.”

He looked across at Angela, now happily drawing on sheets of butcher’s paper with crayons. “I have my little babe here to think about,” he said, smiling.

“What about me? Could I do it?”

Morgatelle shook his head. “No. I think it’s morally wrong for me to mess with another person’s DNA … I’ve done it before, but that was where a patient was dying and this was the only possibility for a cure.” He looked up at me. “Besides, you take Hamster’s route, you’ll end up with the same problems he has. Do you want to become a fat bastard like him? You’d turn into that which you despise.”

I must have looked pretty glum, because he said, “Hang on … there may be other possibilities. You’ve seen Hamster in action?”

“Yeah. And I’ve sparred with him. I’ve sparred guys, pros with lots of ring time, and they seem to know what you’re going to do even before you do it. Hamster’s different - you can catch him flat footed and out of position, but his reflexes are so fast that he can still see what you’re doing, and counter or evade it, at the last instant.

“With someone like Luther Smith, my first instructor, I couldn’t get set up before he’d have me off balance or on the floor. With Hamster, you’re getting off what on anyone else would be a solid shot, as his defense is pretty average technically, but he manages to evade it because he’s so fast. If you could move faster than he could see or move himself, you’d have him easily.”

Morgatelle got up, and paced. “Move faster than he can see … faster …” he went to the whiteboard, and started drawing diagrams and equations.

I sipped the coffee, now lukewarm, watching Angela and her father, she with her crayons, he his whiteboard, each engrossed in their project.

Morgatelle held his chin in one hand, marker pen gripped cigar-like between its index and middle fingers, inspecting his scribbles. He stood unmoving for almost a minute. “OK. There should be a way. There is a finite limit to how fast an attack Hamster can track.” He looked back at me. “If you really want to do this, there might be a way. I’ll need a few weeks verify that it is physically possible, but it looks good on the drawing board. You’ll have to do some hard training, and really you should start that now. If you’re serious.”

“But wait, what do I have to do, how does it work – “

Morgatelle shrugged. “Close on him, and strike him, faster than the speed of light.”

So matter of fact was his tone, he might have said, “go down the takeaway, get in line, and buy me a ‘burger.”

“What! How?”

He held up a palm. “Trust me. You’ll need a pretty heavy scientific background to understand it. And even then it remains something you’ll have to experience to appreciate.

“Take off your jacket and limber up. I have some ‘light-body’ drills for you to practice. I’ll show you those, then we’ll run through a little theory.”

He showed me some breathing exercises, "to get the qi up from the Tan Tien to the solar plexus," and some complicated and intense leg exercises and agility drills. "Do these. Every day."

Afterwards, while I was stretching out my cramped thighs, he asked, "How much do you know about tachyons?"

Physics I at university hadn’t been a complete waste of time, then. "Hypothetical elementary particles which travel faster than light?"

"Uh-huh. You understand that you can’t accelerate a body with mass greater than zero to the speed of light, because you’d need an infinite amount of energy?"

“Um…”

“OK.” He used a well-worn felt eraser on the whiteboard. Then he wrote up a series of equations, speaking simultaneous incomprehensible geekery with marked enthusiasm, ending with:

E = mc2/sqrt(1 - v2/c2)

"... so, as the velocity, v, approaches c, the speed of light, the denominator approaches zero and the energy required moves asymptotically toward infinity."

"Errrr ... OK. So how about these tachyons?"

"Well. If v, velocity, is greater than c, then E must be imaginary, like the square root of minus one. UNLESS - m, the mass of the moving body is also imaginary, so that then E is negative - "

"Excuse me," I said, "So to go faster than light, a particle must have imaginary mass?"

"Right!" Morgatelle grinned. “and the same applies for a spaceship, human body, …”

"But how?”

He stared off into space, over my head. "Mmmm. I'm not sure I can explain it until you've experienced the "light body" training for yourself. It's similar, but different ..."

"Can you give it a shot? Please?"

"Well, you do the same thing, but sort of go off in another … direction ... dimension ..." He frowned. "No, I don't think I can explain it adequately. If you're REALLY serious about understanding this you need to experience it yourself."

“Do the drills,” He told me. “Come back and see me in six weeks. But call me anytime.”

For the first four weeks, it seemed to be a slow old business practicing Morgatelle's drills. But if they weren't boring, then they wouldn't be called drills. And I really wanted this to happen ...

I'd been doing the seated meditation in half lotus position. Breathing high in the chest. Even though I was meant to be stilling my thoughts, I was thinking about those Transcendental Meditation guys, hopping around the floor on their knees and butts, kidding themselves and anyone gullible enough to listen that they were learning to fly. "And why was I any better?" I suddenly thought, opening my eyes ...

Which were at the same level as that of the ceiling lamp. I cried out and fell seven feet, landing on my living room floor in a heap. OWWWWWW. I would have a sore tailbone for a few days.

I limped quickly to the phone and rang Morgatelle. "Hey!" I told him. "It works. I was meditating, and all of a sudden I was floating up near the ceiling."

"Of COURSE it works." The effort I could hear in his voice to sound patient and not condescending was palpable. "You have two more weeks on this part of the programme. Use the time constructively. It’s not enough to be able to lighten during meditation, or have it happen outside of your control. You’ve got to learn to apply it when you want it."

After dozing off on my bed one afternoon and waking, barely aware of my nose brushing the ceiling paint, then crashing back down, onto the mattress, thankful and now WIDE awake, I started tying myself to the bed when sleeping.

Naomi, who had been becoming steadily less patient and forgiving with my weird schedules and routines, misinterpreted this auto-bondage as a hint that she wasn't providing me with an adventurous enough sex life.

She refused my request for assistance in applying the straps, screamed an itemized and surprisingly long list of my failings at me, slammed the bedroom door and left the flat to move in with her sister.

Good for the short term, I tried to convince myself, as I was meant to abstain sexually, something I’d avoided discussing with Naomi. That immediate problem was now solved, though my longer term romantic plans were now looking shaky. Still, commitment required sacrifice and if sacrifice was what it took...

Sacrifice. Hah. Who was I kidding? I was doing a job I hated for a man I despised, and while I trained, Hamster’s curriculum was a hodge-podge of “deadly” techniques, most of which, if I were truthful, I would never have attempted if my life were under threat, I was going through the motions – no passion.

Naomi was just one less commitment, one less thing to stop me drifting aimlessly along. The only goal I had that was my own was vaguely possible revenge on Hamster, and the only real discipline I had was Morgatelle’s drills. And even then, I was having a bet each way – I had put out another edition of “Cutting Edge Martial Arts” in the interim, and having meetings with Hamster for another. A real man would have made a firm choice … and I was putting it off as long as I could.

I started putting a heavy barbell over my crossed legs for the seated meditation. Every time I floated up unintentionally, I concentrated on settling slowly back down, mostly avoiding the sudden two inch fall that resulted from distraction. The little drop still hurt, but it was better than plummeting from ceiling height or worse.

The morning the six weeks were up I leapt out of bed in anticipation - what would have been my long parabolic trajectory out the bedroom window was halted by the strap tying my left hand to the bed. I more or less armbarred myself and it hurt, though the alternative of a long arc out the window and into the shrubs at the end of the garden two stories down might have hurt a lot more.

"So," Morgatelle said when I arrived, "You've mastered the light body practice?"

"Mastered" was way too strong a word – the process was in charge, not me. "Something like that," I told him.

"Hmmm. Well, it was a bit of a crash course, only six weeks."

He was right about the "crash" part. I was hurting all over from light body related mishaps. The day before, feeling adventurous and bored, I had tried jumping backwards up into a tree, television ninja style, and missed the target branch.

"OK. So I've learned how to turn my mass negative, right?"

Morgatelle nodded.

"So how do I get it to go 'imaginary'? So I can break the light barrier?"

Morgatelle passed for Rodin's "The Thinker" for a few seconds. "OK. We can see and operate in three spatial dimensions. The fourth, time, we pass through in one direction, but as far as our senses and physical laws are concerned - except at the very large and very small ends of the continuum - we are unable to move with any control within that dimension.

“However, with some slight adjustments to the light body exercises, you should be able to move, not just in a negative direction against gravity, but into a fifth dimension, at right angles to each of the first three. In doing so, your mass becomes imaginary rather than negative, much the same as the way complex numbers, involving factors of i, the square root of minus one, must be represented in two dimensions rather than the single dimensional continuum of real numbers - integers, rational numbers, surds, transcendentals ..."

"So - how do I do this?"

"It's impossible to explain - a matter of experience. In three dimensions you have six degrees of freedom - back, forward, left, right, up, down," he said, moving his hands to demonstrate each in turn. That's basically all our perceptions have been educated to handle. But you have to EXPAND your perceptions to see the other two degrees of freedom. Think on that - freedoms you never know you had, freedoms you couldn't even perceive! Escape your four-dimensional space-time prison! Funny thing is, if you read some of the Buddhist sutras, the I Ching, even some of the gnostic gospels, you'll find allusions to this."

Morgatelle stopped, looked at me, appraisingly. Apparently, he had decided I’d reached my level of incompetence.

He resumed his seat on the couch, remaining silent, giving my brain an opportunity to recover from its TILT! Status, and to finish my coffee.

"So," said Morgatelle. "For you, a new regime of meditation. But keep practising the light-body drills." He demonstrated some new ones, this time designed to localise the mass reduction, in an arm or a leg, much like I'd seen other Kung Fu masters move their qi into their extremities, to do maximum damage to stacked bricks, or the vital organs of their sworn enemies. "Come see me again in a couple of months."

"But ... what am I trying to do? What is the goal?"

"Find those extra degrees of freedom."

I did as instructed. I kept remembering the light-body stuff had worked, and reminded myself of the satisfaction Hamster's comeuppance might bring, every time the exercises got boring or I got doubtful, which happened all too often.

Seeing the two extra degrees of freedom was almost anticlimactic. I had performed the prescribed regimen of acupuncture-based self massage to activate various parts of the frontal cortex, then undertaken the prescribed meditation, visualising the qi circulating around my eyes and though my sensory nervous system. Once done, I opened my eyes. Everything swam for a few seconds, like a reflected image in a pool into which a small stone was cast. The new directions were just suddenly just there. At right angles to forward and back were left and right, at right angles to both of those were up and down, and at right angles to all of the above were these new directions, which, Morgatelle told me later by phone, he called "levo" and "dextro".

Morgatelle told me, "Now work to take your light body exercises in these new directions. But go SLOW. Whatever you do, DON'T try to move fast, let alone go faster than light. It's highly dangerous, and I don't want you trying anything like that except under my supervision."

Morgatelle called me a couple of weeks later to check on my progress.

"Good, I think." I could now stay on the ground when doing light body, though it required concentration. I could "lighten" my arm and lift a ten kilo dumbbell, without muscular effort. I could make my kicking leg go light and hold it sixty degrees above horizontal for minutes at a time. I could jump in the air and stay there long enough to kick ten imaginary opponents.

"Stunts," Morgatelle snorted. "Come in tomorrow, I'll show you some SCIENCE."

I had parked outside Morgatelle's building and just shut the door behind me when three big guys stepped out of the shadows. They wore black T shirts with a large yellow hamster, rampant in kung fu guard pose, thereon, above the legend "HAMSTER Martial Arts”, in large, pseudo-oriental bold font. Idiots! Why identify yourself, especially with Morgatelle's security cameras recording the whole thing? Still, people do stupider things in fights, and too often the guys that did the "smart" things still ended up as victims.

"Hope! You punk!" One of them yelled as the other two outflanked me, "Grandmaster Hamster sends his regards!"

They all closed on me at once, charging with simultaneous blows. No escape - other than straight up, which is where I went, kicking two in the face as I did so, landing on the shoulders of the third, knocking him prostrate. So much for me thinking light body had no practical application. The three of them were prone or supine on the floor, just like in a kung fu movie.

Unfortunately, unlike in a kung fu movie, they all immediately leapt their feet and charged me again. I was blocking and dodging some blows, levitating over others, but I was absorbing as many shots as I was blocking or evading. My conscious mind switched off and went into a fugue state; the two extra degrees of freedom, which, during my exercises seemed hazy an unattainable, were now RIGHT THERE, and I was moving through them just as through the other three - and indeed through the fourth, time, though it seemed I had precious little of that just then.

Reflexively, I punched hard and fast through all five dimensions. Then I felt a sudden resistance, then screamed with pain ... my punching hand felt like I'd thrust it into a furnace.

The three were closing in, raining blows as I huddled crouched over my injured hand, their faces masks of obsessive rage ... then one suddenly uttered a strangled cry of pain and toppled forward, clutching his groin. The other two turned, one directly into a vicious overhand right from Morgatelle ... he was down and out. The third tried to Thai-kick Morgatelle, but he stepped off at an angle, delivering a solid cut kick of his own to the kicker's supporting leg, splitting his stance, followed by a rebounder round kick to the short ribs and a palm-heel to the face.

Morgatelle removed a small silver cylinder from a pocket, and held it in his fist. A yawara stick, I thought, a punch enhancer. But then the top end telescoped out, to form a baton about sixty centimetres long; then, starting at one and of the baton, it grew pointed and flattened itself out, mutating into a double edge blade, two prongs appearing above Morgatelle's hand like tree buds, bifurcating into branches to form a short guard. It cycled back to the yawara and then a couple more times to baton and blade. Showmanship perhaps, but the Glock nine millimetre handgun in his other hand was all business.

"You idiots wanna keep playing?" he snarled at my assailants, pointing the gun at each in turn. "Whatever game you want."

They cursed at him, but hobbled away.

Morgatelle helped me inside. The security door clicked into place behind us.

"My hand. AAAHH!" I cried. It was throbbing, agonised, swollen and blistered to the elbow. He took me into his kitchen, stood me in front of a sink, and turned on the tap. "Put your hand under the water," he said, dragging a stool over for me.

"Sorry," I told him. "I didn't mean to try the faster than light punch ... with all those drills for so long ... it just came out ... Man, but that hurts!"

"Don’t feel too bad," Morgatelle said. "I saw it all on the monitor. You have to be really precise with the angle of the punch ... otherwise the mass behind it is not totally imaginary. So you end up going very close to the speed of light ... but at that acceleration, all that radiation, light, heat, everything gets Doppler shifted into very small wavelengths, X and gamma rays ... so basically what you have is a bad radiation burn. Any faster, your forearm would be a smoking stump of charred bone."

"AAAHHHH ... it hurts ... I have to get to a hospital."

Morgatelle snorted. "You need urgent treatment, no doubt. But I have something here which will heal you far quicker than any hospital. This way." He wrapped my arm in a wet towel, then guided me to the door I had passed on the way in on my first visit, marked with the trefoil biohazard symbol and the legend "RECOMBINANT DNA TECHNOLOGY - AUTHORISED PERSONNEL ONLY."

A black oblong box, about three meters in length by two across and high, stood imposingly in the middle of the room. It’s surface was covered with buttons, switches, dials, monitors and other components. "It can handle a full body treatment, but the small amount of radiation involved means it’s best kept away from major organs and the reproductive system. I need a DNA swab from your cheek." He pressed some buttons on the side of the black box, and two hatches, one about five centimeters square and another about three times the size opened. Morgatelle got me a chair. "Put your arm in there", he told me. I did so, and a black membrane appeared from all sides, enclosing my arm. The swab went into the other hatch, it closed. Morgatelle pressed some buttons. A low frequency humming sound, just audible, started. The searing agony in my forearm began to diminish, replaced by a not unpleasant tingling sensation.

"What's this all about?" I asked.

Morgatelle picked up a remote control, clicked a button, and a screen slid down the wall I was facing. "Nanotechnology. Gene therapy." The screen lit up with two windows, each showing the unmistakable double helix of the DNA molecule. Then both panned back, reducing the magnification until each double helix became a single thread. Along each thread moved something that looked like a railway handcart made of Lego. "Two sets of nanomachines," he said. "One reads the undamaged DNA from the sample from the undamaged area - your cheek, while the other rebuilds the radiation-damaged DNA and then your cells in your arm using the good sample as a blueprint."

Something told me this wasn’t covered by Medicare.

"Stay here for half an hour," he told me. "The machine's on a timer, it'll turn itself off. “That timer” – he pointed a to red LCD digital clock, 28:51 and going backwards – “will go to zero”. I'll be up the corridor."

I watched the timer cycle down. Martial arts were full of grandiose claims and charlatans, with very little new under the sun. Morgatelle had shown me something completely new, no tricks, something real, and helped me every step of the way, kept nothing secret, even stepped up and put himself in the firing line to save me from a beating or worse. He was even treating my injuries.

Taking sides to me had previously felt like a betrayal of some concept of journalistic impartiality I’d entertained. My arrangement with Hamster had always felt like the worst of all possible sellouts, making me a pathetic fraud.

But now I felt a different loyalty. And this time it felt good.

When the timer hit all zeros, the machine released its soothing grip on my arm; it felt much better. A few blisters and red patches remained, and the knuckles were still tender, but it looked as if weeks of healing had passed since the radiation burn, rather than a mere half hour.

Up the corridor, Morgatelle was yelling into a silver cordless phone with a dock that looked like the Starship Enterprise. "… I've got the whole thing on security video, including your stooges assaulting my associate, and then getting their arses kicked."

I heard an agitated tone from the other end.

"Give up the threats, Hamster! Leave me alone, and leave Allen Hope alone! You're just digging yourself a deeper and deeper hole - though it'll probably never be deep enough for your gigantic fat arse!" He slammed the phone back into its cradle.

He stared into space, fuming, for a few seconds. Then saw me. “Sorry. How’s your hand?”

“Much better. Thanks.”

“Good.” He took it with gentle hands and inspected it. “A smaller number of nanomachines remain on your arm, still at work. Don’t wash it until tomorrow morning. It should be healed by then”.

“Jeez,” I said, “I didn’t realise the techniques could be so dangerous.”

Morgatelle nodded. ”This is not qigong, dealing with puny electrical forces via meridians.

”We are harnessing the fundamental forces of the universe – gravity, strong and weak nuclear forces, et cetera. Heavy stuff. But to my mind the potential benefits for science outweigh the calculated risk.”

“Risk? Of what?”

“Well. First, as you just experienced, the consequences of failure. The dimensional vectors have to be exact. If the punch doesn’t move completely through the fifth dimension, levo-dextro, you have a partially non-imaginary mass to move, then you get all the problems of the energy required to reach light speed moving asymptotically toward infinity. The Doppler-shifted radiation bath will fry your punching limb, as you now know only too well. I’ve wouldn’t allow anyone else to follow my example, but I altered some of my DNA to infuse titanium atoms into the bones in my hands and forearms, from supplements I take. Higher resistance to impact, which was my initial concern, but also, as it happens, to temperature. Ceramics might be better than metal in that regard, but it’s hard to duplicate that sort of molecular structure of ceramics without firing them, obviously impractical in vivo.”

“So it’s sort of like iron palm training,” I said.

He made a thoughtful face. “Hadn’t though of it that way. And it’s not ‘iron palm training’, it’s really ‘titanium-carbon fibre palm training’. And, to be precise, it isn’t really training at all, it’s somewhere between implants and gene therapy.”

“Anyway, in some ways success is potentially more hazardous than failure. When you go superluminal, according to Special Relativity, what appears to be faster than light movement in one frame of reference, can appear in another as time flowing backwards.

“In such situations, ‘cause’ and ‘effect’ no longer have any meaning. This can present enormous problems – take it far enough you could go back in time and murder your parents before you were born, creating a horrendous paradox in space-time. What might happen to you in such an instance is not known, and probably can never be. Suffice to say, if it looks messy in theory it may be much more so in reality. Bad karma working in reverse. So – only when nothing else will work.

“And … it’s like anything else in martial arts. Rely on it totally, it becomes a crutch, an obstacle to progress. So many so-called martial artists out there are looking for the magic technique – “If done properly, no can defend” – and admittedly, this comes pretty damn close, seeing as in the guy you’re hitting’s frame of reference, the strike will ALWAYS land before he can perceive it, let alone evade or block, due to the backward flow of time. But Miyamoto Musashi counselled us, ‘do not have a favourite weapon’ – and I think he was right.”

He sighed. “The fact remains that, even with exotic and sophisticated techniques in your arsenal, you still have to have sound fundamentals, basic delivery systems. If you can’t fight without the exotic techniques, you won’t be able to fight with them.” He pointed to the exit. “I just hit those guys out there with basic punches and kicks to soft targets. Nothing relativistic.

“You can enjoy the icing on the cake, but don’t try living on it.”

Angela’s voice came over an intercom. “Daddy, can we have dinner soon?”

“Yes, sweetie,” Morgatelle was smiling. “Mr Hope will be joining us. Could you start setting the table, please? I’ll be there in a minute.”

I felt ashamed, guilty, incomplete. “Look,” I said. “What you are doing here is going to change martial arts more in the next year than Hamster and his ilk have in the last three hundred.”

Morgatelle shrugged. “That’s a big call. But…?”

I shifted from foot to foot. ”I’d like to be part of what happens next, as well as documenting it.”

“Well…I was looking at starting classes soon, just small groups. I don’t need the money, but I do feel my research and its application needs a wider, more popular audience.

“Classes. What sort?”

“I’m going to offer training based on traditional Chinese martial arts and medicine, but with a basis in rigorous science, rather than Hamster-style esoteric chicanery designed to impress the uncritical.

“There’s so much room for improvement regarding scientific kinesiology, strength and endurance training, applied learning principles, and basic physiology which could be applied to Kung Fu, but is not, way, way before anyone starts tinkering with relativity and quantum mechanics as you and I have.

“I’ll be looking for fellow instructors. You perhaps, with a year or so more training and a more detailed understanding of the science.”

“Really?” I asked.

“Sure. And right now, I need to set up a vehicle to explain what I’ve been doing in popular language. I was thinking of a blog on my website, at least to start with, you’re a journalist…”

I didn’t know what to say.

“Come on, let’s talk about it over dinner. Angela’s hungry, and so am I.”

After two more weeks of meditation, it was time. Morgatelle put me in the centre of a techno-black cylinder about six feet long and eight feet high, wearing dark goggles to protect my eyes from the three dimensional matrix of laser beams crisscrossing the interior. I took up a punching stance, slowed my breathing and stilled my mind, seeking the fifth dimension. A slight ripple effect crossed my visual field, and there were my new friends, levo and dextro. I punched. There was a loud “CRACK,” but no other spectacle until a blue glow appeared through the red lasers. Cherenkov radiation. Morgatelle told me it would the result of faster than light travel through a medium, in this case the air.

“One point three six five c,” Morgatelle said. “Congratulations, you just went superluminal.”

I tried a mid-level sidekick as well.

“One point two eight c.”

It took a couple of hours on the phone, but I managed to track down Luther Smith. He’d been doing security work at Parliament House in Canberra, and bouncing at a few nightclubs.

“Fly to Sydney to watch Keith Hamster get his comeuppance?” he said. ”Jesus, I’d fly to Neptune to see that!”

Two days later, I was in the back seat, Luther in the passenger seat in front. Morgatelle parked his black WRX around the corner from Hamster’s gym. I punched the gym’s number into my mobile phone with shaking fingers.

“Grandmaster Hamster, please,” I said to the male voice who answered.

“May I ask who’s calling?”

“Allen Hope.” A few seconds passed.

“Hope!” The dulcet tones were unmistakable. “What the hell are you –“

I pressed the red button. “He’s there.”

“Let’s go.” Morgatelle stamped the accelerator. We got a park right outside the gym. Morgatelle reversed into the space, so he wouldn’t need to reverse out. Good – so far.

Luther wore a loose, zipped bomber jacket, underneath which I knew he wore body armour and carried a holstered Glock nine in a shoulder holster. “I’ve got a carry permit,” he told me casually when I’d raised an eyebrow at this back at Morgatelle’s. In one hand, a walking cane of black carbon fibre. “The gun’s for show, the cane for go,” he had told me. A bank cheque for ten thousand dollars was in his pocket.

Morgatelle was clothed in black, like any self respecting relativistic post-modernist. He wore a complex rig on his head, with tinted visor, a small high definition digital video camera and several other more arcane instruments, linked via Bluetooth to a bunch of devices attached to a belt of black military webbing, to which was also attached a holster containing his own Glock pistol. He fiddled with the apparatuses at his belt, seeming far more concerned with ensuring the accurate measurement of various physical quantities associated with the upcoming confrontation, than with its result.

Unlike me. I was wearing a lycra bodysuit and skullcap with crash-test-dummy dots on my major joints, and various other parts of my anatomy. It was annoyingly tight and inflexible in certain places where various telemetry sensors and transmitters were woven into the fabric.

We climbed the stairs into the foyer of the gym. The guy behind the desk was one of the goons who had ambushed me outside Morgatelle’s building. His eyes went wide – no doubt we looked like aliens from three different galaxies. “What are you doing here?” he demanded.

Morgatelle flipped up the visor and snarled, “Where’s Hamster? Tell me now unless you want your arse kicked all over again!”

“Tak..taking a class. Upstairs.”

We took the stairs two at a time, blowing through the swinging plastic doors just as the reception guy announced our arrival via the intercom, in agitated, breathless tones.

The fat man was standing at one side of the jigsaw of green and blue mats, looking over his shoulder. He seemed surprised, but not particularly worried, to see us. “Well, well, well,” he said, “Hope, Smith and Morgatelle. Dressed like some sort of second rate vaudeville act. To what do we owe the pleasure?”

“I bought Luther and Steve with me to pick up the ten grand you’ll shortly be handing over,” I said, my voice sounding surprisingly calm and detached, at odds with how I felt. I wished I’d have worn baggier pants rather than this lycra monstrosity, so that if my knees started to shake no one would see.

“You...” Hamster turned to face us, looking at Luther then back to me. “Smith here I could understand wanting another go, but not you.” He shrugged. “What the hell, I assume you have the cash with you?”

“Bank cheque. Right here,” said Luther, opening his jacket and patting his shirt pocket, also showing Hamster and the class his gun.

Morgatelle stood fiddling with his equipment, seemingly oblivious to the gravity and ambient hostility of the situation. “I’m all set to record this. Any time you’re ready, Allen.”

I stepped onto the matted area.

“So,” Morgatelle said to Hamster, “If Allen knocks you down, he wins. Right?”

Hamster snickered. “Hypothetically speaking of course.”

“If he knocks you down, he wins?” Morgatelle said, a sharper edge to his tone this time.

“Okay. Yes. Whatever.” Hamster waddled over to the center of the matted area. “But I’m going to knock him down. Don’t blink, you might miss it.”

Morgatelle tapped the small camera mounted on his head rig. “Ultra high speed video. It will miss nothing.”

“I’ll want a copy of it. After.”

“Somehow, I don’t think you will,” Luther said.

Show time. I was in the balls of my feet, circling Hamster, out of range. I felt like a tiny moon orbiting the planet Jupiter.

Hamster shot in with astonishing speed. No time to sidestep, I used light body and went straight up, Hamster jerking his head to the side, evading the soccerball kick I aimed at it from six feet up.

Hamster pivoted, fast. I touched down across the mat from him. His reflexes were still lightning fast, much faster than mine. I was seeing levo and dextro. I was about ten meters from Hamster. Far enough.

I hit the dextro angle perfectly, and pulled my punch a centimeter short of approximate location of Hamster’s solar plexus – the thick layer of fat he carried meant that only an MRI could have made for precision targeting. From my point of view it took a tiny fraction of a heartbeat. My visual field shimmered and whited out for an instant; then I saw Hamster’s supine form ten meters across the room.

“YEAH!” Luther punched the air.

Three of Hamster’s students tended to their fallen grandmaster, like a bunch of beachgoers considering how to refloat a stranded whale. “He’s breathing,” one said.

The rest of the class turned and moved to surround me, faces full of threat. “Don’t!” Luther yelled, Morgatelle and he brandishing their guns.

“You idiots have two days to pay up,” Morgatelle said. He pointed at the desk guy who had followed us into the gym. “He knows where to deliver the money to.”

I jogged over to my friends, and with Morgatelle in front and Luther walking backward behind, guns in hand, we made our way slowly down the stairs and out the door, then to Morgatelle’s car. Morgatelle opened the driver’s door as Luther covered him, then he opened his window and covered Luther and I as we got into the car, until Luther was seated in the passenger seat, had the window open and was pointing his own gun at the angry mob on the stairs of Hamster’s gym. The fat man had not joined them – perhaps he was still out. Morgatelle put the hammer down and the WRX shot away. Morgatelle drove flat out for about a kilometre, then slowed to legal speeds and took a roundabout route back to his lab, taking the occasional loop to ensure we had no followers.

“What was that I just saw?” Luther asked. “That was weird. What –“

“I’ll try to explain when we get back to my place.” Morgatelle said. It’ll make more sense when you see the video.”

The video looked like it had been badly edited, some frames removed and others inserted out of sequence. The final sequence showed me and Hamster a distance apart. Then, apparently instantaneously, there was a loud “CRACK” like a firecracker exploding, and Hamster was on the floor across the other side of the room, as if frames had been removed from the video. Then I reappeared, suddenly, about halfway between my original position and that where Hamster lay, a streak of ghostly blue behind me, and a smaller one in front, like ectoplasm tracing the trajectory of my invisible punch. It looked like there had been more ham-fisted editing, with badly executed cheap special effects thrown in.

“What happened?” said Luther. “Looks like the vid got messed up.”

“No. No!” Morgatelle was grinning. “Watch again.” He pressed buttons on a small remote control. “That sound is Allen breaking the sound barrier on his way to much higher speeds. If he’d got completely into the fifth dimension a few microseconds earlier, he could have avoided that, but under the circumstances -” he grinned at me, “- I have no criticism. Everything else seems out of order when Allen exceeded the speed of light from the camera’s frame of reference, because anything going faster than light in one frame of reference can look as if time is working backwards in another.

“That blue light is Cherenkov radiation, produced when a body travels faster than light through a medium, in this case the air. Proof positive that Allen broke the light barrier.

“Allen pulled his punch. To actually hit Hamster at superluminal velocity would have reduced both his hand and Hamster’s body to their constituent subatomic particles. No, Allen created a powerful shock wave. That’s what put fat boy there on his back.” Morgatelle clicked another button, and the image on the wall disappeared. “Right. Excuse me a minute.”

He returned with a magnum of Moet et Chandon in a big ice bucket, a bottle of lemonade in the other. Angela followed, carrying four champagne flutes. He poured Angela her lemonade, then carefully filled the remaining flutes with champagne.

“To a great day,” said Morgatelle.

“Amen to that,” said Luther, as we skaaled.

Two days passed. Not a peep from Hamster. Our calls to his academy were routed to voicemail. Morgatelle and Luther drove past, but the place was closed up. An envelope containing a cheque for ten thousand dollars from Hamster Enterprises appeared under Morgatelle’s security door the next evening.

Morgatelle put the video clip up on bullshido.com, with a voiceover and lengthy text explanation. A huge flamewar ran the gamut of internet martial arts forums. Lots of “impartial observers” claimed the video was doctored; many more “ex-Hamster students” were asking where else they could train. They were directed to a page on Morgatelle’s website, detailing the address of Luther’s new academy, “The first year’s rent to be paid for by the $10,000 won from Hamster by Allen Hope.”

Luther, Steve and I were partners. Twelve months later, I was ready to test for my instructor level in “Morgatelle-Smith Green Lotus Kung Fu”.

“Green Lotus?” I asked. “Is there such a flower?”

“No, there isn’t.” Steve told me. “It was chosen deliberately by Luther and me to highlight the importance of the imagination.”

I passed an arduous grading in front of more than a hundred of our students. Both of Steve and Luther embraced my sweat-soaked body afterwards, then carried me on their shoulders around the gym to loud applause.

Hamster’s academy never reopened. Apparently he moved way up north to start a “New Shaolin Temple” for impressionable rich airheads. I could have followed it up journalistically, had I ever wanted to see the fat bastard again. Enough for one lifetime.

Steven Morgatelle has taken out patents on sentient shuriken that can fly superluminal. Sentience, via artificial intelligence, was required to detect the fifth dimension, and thus fly faster than light. Smart bombs? How about smart star-knives?

I sent Naomi some emails. We started seeing each other again. She finally moved back in a week ago. Apparently I’m fun to be around, at last.

Copyright Andrew Nerlich 2005/6

The Perils of Wing Chun History

2006-09-12T15:04:00.000+10:00

(I published this first on the KFO forum in response to a particularly vituperative and ridiculous Wing Chun history argument).

Wing Chun history was driving me way past the Outer Limits of sanity.

I was arguing with people I'd never met over the internet. I know I know, winning an argument on the internet is like participating in the Special Olympics ...

But I had to know. Had my training in Kung-fu since 1977, the year punk began to really take off, been in vain? Rather than training in the "real" system, was I being maneuvered and manipulated into pugilistic purgatory by officers of the Damned, who, rather than repenting when they had found out their own tuition had been lies, lies and more lies, had crossed over to the Dark side of Qi and began to ensnare unwitting dupes such as myself in their evil web of illusory technical greatness?

I had to know. The books, the websites, the arguments, all led to dead ends or mazes of twisty little passages, all alike. Sterner, more committed measures were required. I was, to quote Pantera, the Cowboys from Hell, "Far Beyond Driven".

Taking a three meter 6.5 point pole which had reportedly killed six warriors, and which I had "borrowed" from a museum, and my own butterfly swords of brass and stainless steel, I drove to a remote crossroads of red gravel, arriving just before midnight. Employing the pole with trembling hands, I scored a wide circle around myself with its brass ferrule, and then placed five red plum blossoms at regular intervals. I removed my shirt and smeared myself with the pulverized petals of more plum blossoms. Employing the pole again, I scored lines to connect the flowers, making, depending on your point of view, either the sign of the pentagram or of the Ko cycle of the Taoist Wu Xing. I wasn't quibbling over what it represented - the dire nature of the ritual I was about to undertake required each and every form of religious and mystical protection I could get.

Taking great care not to exit the circle, I performed the TWC butterfly form, not the public but the private version. I employed the TWC secret footwork, launched myself into the air for the two spinning jarm dao's, and then inverted myself for the Prayer Wheel of Death, spinning rapidly in a one arm handstand on the point of one blade as I held the other horizontal, cutting imaginary enemies off at the knees.

My own contained terror at what I was hoping (wrong word) to invoke, the dizziness from the spinning and the lateness of the hour combined to overwhelm me. I collapsed.

** Fade to Black **

I awoke to find an apparition seated cross-legged before me; An ageless Asian man of slight build, wearing a white jacket with frog buttons, black pantaloons, and cloth-soled Chinese slippers. A white bundle tied with a black cloth strap sat beside him. I could see through his visible form to the scenery behind, a fence, some dead trees, and a few small crosses made from timber, presumably in memory of road accident victims ... or could they commemorate the passings of others, foolishly involved in rites and practices similar to my own?

I recognised the vision. "Grandmaster Yip Man!" I exclaimed.

He recoiled visibly. "All that Master/Grandmaster stuff was my biggest mistake," he said, shaking his head. "My friends call me 'Man'," he said. "For the moment, you can call me Mr Yip." He looked at me, shaking his head. "Translators. The help you get. You're supposed to 'wear' a plum blossom on your buttonhole or behind your ear, not 'smear' it all over you. Clean yourself up, you look like an idiot."

I got my shirt and wiped as much of the perfumed muck off as I could.

"What do you want of me?" he asked.

"Errrr. I had a few questions about your background and Wing Chun history."

He rolled his eyes. "The usual. OK, but a couple of things first."

"Uh ... like what?"

"Firstly, you have to understand I didn't have much of a head for history while I was alive. It bored me to ... er, death. I made a lot of stuff up. Now, here, " he gestured with his arm, "I've met up with a lot of the guys that were around before me and found a few things out."

"Understood. And the other thing?"

"Thought you'd never ask," he said, his eyes flashing a fiery red. "CHI SAO!" He advanced, tan and fook at the ready, laughing, loud and long, starting high pitch but descending into a basso profundo MUHAHAHAHA!

Imagine the best, the softest, the slickest chi sao guy you ever rolled arms with. Not a patch. When you chi sao with an adept practitioner consisting entirely of ectoplasm, that's SOFT. Fine you say, but I hadn't mentioned the flaming qi ball lighting issuing from his fingers that hit harder than Mike Tyson would have if he, instead of Bruce Banner, was pelted by gamma rays and turned into the Incredible Hulk. Basically I was owned with a capital O, and my meridians were lit up with qi leakage like the flashbulbs on the Eiffel Tower when the clock strikes 11 pm.

"Ask away," he said. "But you only have a few minutes, I have another appointment."

"The Leung Bik story. TWC."

"Uh-huh. OK. You would have heard the interview with Royce Gracie, where he talks about his imaginary opponent, the one who's seven foot tall, has three arms, weighs 500 pounds, etc.?"

"How do you know about Royce, Mr Yip?" I asked him. "You're dead."

"Mmmm. It's highly underrated. You get to meet all these historical figures, and still get to watch your own family and friends and anyone else whi seems interesting as they go about their lives ... until something unfortunate happens, and then they front up here, looking all surprised."
"But Royce Gracie -" I began.

"Not Royce, his not-so-imaginary opponent! An alien from the Sirius system, real name something unpronounceable. Appears to people in their dreams, sometimes by mistake."

"So he appeared to Royce?"

"By accident. He, the alien, had been in Rio watching Mardi Gras four days straight. No one noticed, he fit right in." But he got tired and went into the Copacobana academy by mistake one night when Royce had dozed off on the mats."

"He appeared to you too?"

Mr. Yip rolled his eyes. "Mind like a steel trap ... with a busted spring," he said. "Yeah. Beat the stuffing out of my lucid dreaming self, taught me some stuff, suggested I put some of it into my Wing Chun and teach it to one of my younger and thus more impressionable students for a laugh. I wasn't all that keen, but then he said it was either that or he'd come around and school me regularly. And it wasn't so bad, it actually worked. Better."

"So you made up the Leung Bik story?"

"I had to come up with *something*. Who would have believed the truth?"

My head was spinning with the implications of the outrageous facts.

"What about this secret school, where you supposedly learned Weng Chun?"

"I went there all right. Dai Duk Lan. I was shocked. Those guys were doing a lot of the same stuff the alien showed me, some differences, not many. I'd been going there regularly, then one day the head guy pulls me aside and said 'did that weird-looking guy get to you too?'"

"What about this HFY stuff" I asked.

"The alien loved all this intrigue, teaching all sorts of people but teaching all of them slightly different and then setting them against each other, laughing at the centuries of bickering that resulted." He smirked. "What a bastard."

He looked around suddenly. "Holy crap, I'm going to be late. Come with me." He started walking quickly off across a field, fiddling with his white bundle.

"What is that ... " I asked, trotting beside him, then "uhhh?..." He unfolded the cloth. It was a Jiu Jitsu gi, with a black belt, several red and white stripes thereon.

We came to a large grassed area. Carlos Gracie Senior, and Rolls, were kneeling at one side, Karl Gotch and Farmer Burns at Carlos's left. On the other side, Mitsuo Maeda and Masahiko Kimura on the other.

"Farmer Burns looks a bit distracted."

"Yeah. That Matt Furey keeps trying to channel him. Quick, help me change, I love this stuff!"
A number of figures, including Wong Shun Leung, were kneeling along the far side of the grassed area.

Bruce and Brandon Lee were working the standing clinch on the middle. Suddenly Brandon overhooked his dad's arm, stepped out to the right then swung back and leapt up, capturung his father in a perfect flying triangle choke. Carlos, Rolls, and the others applauded.

"You should have come last night, when Cheung Ng and I took the class," he said, putting on the gi jacket and tying his black belt. "We smacked these wrestler guys around quite a bit, but today I fear it's payback time."

This time, Bruce pulled guard on Brandon and caught him with a perfectly timed helicopter armbar. More applause.

"By the way," Mr Yip told me, "Bruce was right. About everything."

I was starting to feel strange ... my vision blurred, focused, and blurred again. "Mr Yip ..." I croaked.

"I like you, call me 'Man' ..." he said, but I was fading ...

I came to on lying face down, hogtied with a purple belt, in the centre of the circle I had enscribed in the dirt earlier. After several minutes of panicked struggling, I extricated myself, ran to my car and fishtailed away, driving dangerously fast.

Copyright Andrew Nerlich 2005/6

TCM and Massage 2

2006-09-10T17:12:00.000+10:00

<- Part 1

MERIDIAN GATE POINTS

Gate points allow energy from one meridian to pass into the next.

LU7 - CO4

CO20 - ST1

ST42 - SP1

SP21 - H1

H8 - SI1

SI19 - BL1

BL67 - KI1

KI22 - PC1

PC8 - 3H1

3H23 - GB1

GB44 - LI1

LI14 - CV12 - LU1

Gate points should be opened regularly to allow free circulation of energy within the organism.

Open points by rotational pressure, only until muscle relaxes. Completely open one side before doing the other side.

LU1 - between 1st and 2nd rib, intercostal space below shoulder fossa - acromial extremity of the clavicle.

LU7 - shake patient's hand - Lung 7 is where you index finger falls on the side of the patient's wrist.

CO4 - on hand, between second metacarpal bone and the end of the crease formed when thumb is adducted.

Open points first. Then strip down arm from LU1 to LU7, then up from CO4 to LU7. Repeat the lot.

CO20 - beside flare of nose.

ST1 - below eye, in center of orbit.

Open points. Strip around ridge of cheekbone, eye socket from CO20 to ST1, then down ST meridian (straight down).

ST42 - 2 tsun below middle of joint in ankle in center of top of foot.

SP1 - Medial (inner) side of big toe

Open, then strip ST42 to SP1, then up SP meridian.

SP21 - under armpit at natural fold of axilla (where latissmus dorsi joins ribs, about 2 rib spaces below nipple line)

H1 - right in center of armpit/axilla

Open points, strip SP21 to H1.

H8 - where little finger bends onto heart line on hand (lateral side of little finger beside nail (SI1 is on lateral/ulnar side of fingernail?)) - between 4th and 5th metacarpals.

SI1 - lateral (ulnar) side of little finger.

Open - strip to H8, then from SI1 up SI.

SI19 - in soft skin in tragus of ear, depression formed with jaw slighly open

BL1 - inner canthus of eye, right in the corner

Stand to the side, open points together, then strip from ear around eye and up forehead (bladder meridian). Lock off skin while doing this.

BL67 - lateral side of little toe.

K1 - divide foot into three. K1 is in center of line for first third measured from toe. Depression appearing in the foot when in plantar flexion.

Pull down BL into BL67 then from K1 up side of foot.

K22 - On line between nipples, halfway between CV and nipple. come down one rib space.

PC1 - 1 tsun lateral to nipple.

Open - strip K22 to PC1.

PC8 - Where middle finger bends to head line on hand

3H1 - lateral side of ring finger

Pull through PC to PC8 then 3H1 up ring finger

3H23 - lateral edge of eyebrow

GB1 - 1 tsun lateral to the eyebone (0.5 lateral to outer edge of cantus of eye)

Open - strip 3H23 - GB1. Lock off skin.

GB44 - lateral side of 4th toe next to corner of nail

LI1 - lateral side of corner of nail on big toe

Open, strip down second last toe, then push up foot from LI1.

LI14 - two rib spaces directly below nipple

CV12 - 4 tsun above umbilicus

Open, strip LI14 - CV12

energy will flow from CV12 up CV to LU1

Do the other side.

Back Massage

1. Lay patient on table, face down.

Shoulders level with top of pillow, which is placed under chest. Smooth back the hair to observe the spine and relax the patient.

No oil is used in Chinese massage, as the friction is used to generate heat and blood flow.

i) Strip neck to shoulders. Run thumbs down trapezius muscle, from lowest tufts of hair at base of skull to shoulders. Move with flow and even pressure. Let hands move in circles, to stimulate the circular flow of ch'i.

ii) Next strip down bladder meridians, 1.5 inches either side of centre of spine (GV - governor vessel), from base of neck to sacrum. Use thumbs. Use circular movements and learn to flow.

iii) Next strip around the bottom of the scapulae (shoulder blades), with thumbs, similar method to i) and ii) above.

With i), ii), and iii), the skin should turn red along the path of the thumb strokes as the skin and muscle heat up and blood and ch'i flow increase.
The direction of ch'i flow in bladder meridians is neck to sacrum.

The direction of ch'i flow in governor vessel is sacrum to neck.

2. Depress GB20 and GB21.

i) GB20 is on each side of the neck, where the lowest tufts of hair are. Press in (thumb or finger) and depress in a rotary motion. Press smoothly.

GB21 is is on the trapezius muscle, halfway between the center of the spine and the shoulder bone (depression on skin around deltoid muscle if patient's head rests on their hands). Press in and rotate as for GB20.

ii) next go to the side of patient. Place one thumb on the near side GB20, place the other thumb on top, and squeeze the soft tissue of the neck between the thumbs and fingers. Move 0.5 inches down neck and repeat. Keep moving down at half inch interval as far as practicable, i.e. until you run out of neck.

3. Depress 1.5 inches bilateral of spine (on bladder meridian) from base of neck to sacrum.

Do not press on neck because of possible injury. Start from large vertebrae at base of neck.

Feel with fingers for the soft spaces between the vertebrae. Move directly out 1.5 inches to each side to locate points on BL meridian. Press these points with both thumbs from above (either standing to one side or kneeling astride them). Press using bodyweight rather than muscle. Press gradually. It is OK if vertebrae click. Move down the back, pressing level with soft inter-vertebral spaces all the way down, until hard bone at the base of spine (the sacrum) is reached. Press hard and do not be tentative - but apply pressure gradually.

4. Three finger pressure to center line of spine from base of neck to lumbar region.

The GV points are in the center of the spine in the soft spaces between the vertebrae. From atop the patient, put the middle finger on the GV point, and the index and ring fingers on the BL point on each side (1.5 in. each side of GV point). The palm rests on the spine below the fingers. Place the other hand atop that one and press down, using body weight, contracting the fingers to press on the three points. Do not press just on the fingers, but allow the force to go through the palm and focus in the fingers. Press gradually. Move down one vertebra at a time until the palm rests completely on the sacrum.

5. Double palm press to the sacrum.

One palm on sacrum, other palm on top. Apply deep pressure using body weight. This is good to relieve congestion on the pelvic floor.

With this press and the next, pressure should be applied gradually, like 1-2-3 on, 3-2-1 off.

6. Double palm press to BL meridian - lower, middle and upper back.

One palm atop the other.

Press same way as for 5, on lower back on BL meridian, then middle, then upper back on bladder meridian, on the same side, then shift sides, and do upper, middle then lower back on bladder meridian, so presses proceed on a circular fashion. Perform two or three cycles.

7. Double forearm press to spine and BL meridian.

First press to lower part of back. Place forearm om spine with land toward patient's sacrum, elbow toward head. Move the arm so the curve of the arm fits the curve of the back, using the softer part of the arm. Place the other forearm on top and press, using bodyweight. Repeat on each side of the spine, 1.5 inches out to each side (BL meridian).

Next do the upper part of the back. Reverse direction of forearm (elbow to sacrum, hand to head). Same principles apply as for lower back. Press first to spine,then to either side of spine on BL meridian.

8. From sacrum to neck - "ripple technique" up spine.

Grab the skin and soft tissue at the base of the spine between the thumb and two fingers of both hands. Ripple up the spine, keeping the fold of tissue between the fingers (GV).

9. Pinch/Pluck with fingers from sacrum to upper back up BL meridian.

At each BL point, pich with thumb and two fingers, grabbing a flap of skin. Pluck by grasping this flap of skin between index and middle finger of other hand. Pull skin down and away from body. Do not be too soft.

Proceed up one side of the spine and down the other, on the BL points (1.5 inches to either side of center of soft spaces of spine). Direction is not really important here, as we are stimulating the spinal nerves coming off the bladder meridian rather than stimulating ch'i flow in the meridian itself.

10. Vibration with double palm, 1.5 inches bilateral to spine.

This is done in a similar pattern and method to the double palm press (6 above). Place the palms one atop the other on the lower back on the BL meridian. Press down using bodyweight, and allow the arms to vibrate the palms. Proceed to middle, then upper back, then upper, middle, lower on the other side following the bladder meridian.

11. Cup palm beating to spine from sacrum to upper back.

Place hand, relaxed but slightly belled/cupped on lower spine with fingers toward sacrum. Strike hand lightly with other relaxed fist. Move gradually up the spine, continuing striking, to upper back.

Finish the massage with a light rub (stripping).

BACK OF THE LEG

BL 50 is located in the center of the back of the leg, on the crease between the buttock and the thigh. Wrap both hands around the leg and press BL50 with both thumbs. Move down leg, pressing at 1" intervals, stopping 2" above the crease of the knee joint.

Do NOT apply pressure in the region between 2" above and 2" below the knee. This region is filled with delicate lymph nodes, blood vessels, nerves, etc. which are easily damaged.

Next we massage BL54. BL54 is in the centre rear of the knee, right in the crease where the knee bends. Place the thumb on this point and bend the leg to 90 degrees from kneecap with the free hand. Rotate gently to stimulate BL54.

Straighten the knee and lay the lower leg back on the table. Press as before starting at BL56 (2" down from knee joint/BL54, top of calf muscle) moving down leg at 1" intervals, finishing at BL57 (where calf muscle joins achilles tendon).

Do not press too hard on the lower leg.

To finish the massage, strip lightly down the center back of the leg.

FOOT

Imagine a line drawn from the heel to each toe. Grasp the foot with both hands. Leaving the bony part of the heel, press with thumbs on either side of each line moving from heel to ball of foot, moving from big toe one to little toe line.

Imagine the big toe divided into four sections from ball to toe. Press and pull the inner section with thumb and fingers of one hand while press/pulling the little toe with the thumb and fingers of the other.

Then do the next big toe section and fourth toe.

Then do the next big toe section and third toe.

Then do the next big toe section and second toe.

BACK/OUTSIDE OF ARM

Arm should be bent to about 90 degrees.

Wrap both hands around arm. Separate bicep and tricep with fingers. Start pressing at join of muscles near shoulder. Press with thumbs, wrapping tricep around humerous. Proceed down arm, pressing at 1" intervals, until hardness of elbow is reached.

CO11 is the point at the eind of the skin crease at outside of elbow when the arm is bent. Apply rotation to this point.

Next press all the way down the forearm at 1" intervals in the crease between radius and ulna.

After this, strip and pull the hands and fingers. Use bodyweight. Wrap hand around each finger and pull.

INSIDE OF ARM - HANDS, FINGERS

Turn patient onto his/her back.

Imagine a line drawn between bicep and tricep (visible on many people). Start at inside of arm on this line, about where armpit hair starts. Wrap hands around arm, press on line with thumbs. Like outside of arm, press tricep around humerus, rolling bicep and tricep around the bone. This breaks up congestion and allows energy to flow more smoothly in H, LU, PC meridians. Move down this line pressing at 1" intervals to the elbow.

To do this, stand to one sode of patient and lock his hand under your upper arm. Let his arm bend, and be relaxed. Repeat a couple of times.
Now lower the arm to the table and work on the forearm. Press at 1" intervals down the middle of the inside of the arm, between the two tendons at the wrist intil the hard bone of the wrist is reached.

This is the Pericardium (PC) meridian. 2" below the wrist, between the two tendons, is PC 6. Pressure (hitting on this point) relaxes the throat. This can be useful in the case of children or adults with objects caught in their throat.

To do this, lock the patient's hand against your hip, but do not press hard on the wrist bone. If you press properly, the patient's hand will close slightly with the pressure. Do this several times.

Next we do the hand. Lock the patient's hand and fingers with your two hands. Let the patient's index and ring fingers go between the little and ring fingers of your hands. Interlock your fingers snugly with the patient's to hold the hand still.

Use your fingers under his hand to support the hand bones. We use the thumbs to strip the palm. We strip the palm out to the thumb (LU meridian), middle finger (PC meridian) and little finger (H meridian). Only strip the palm, using the thumbs. You can strip one or two meridians simultaneously. It is OK to use a fair bit of pressure.

Next press out along these meridians using the thumbs, palm only. You can rest the patient's hand on the table to do this.
Next do the fingers. Press between the separation lines on the fingers, on all fingers. Can do one or two fingers simultaneously.

Next, restrip the hand as before.

Then turn the hand over and strip each finger lightly from wrist to fingertips, as for the back of the arm.

Now, grab the patient's hand with both of yours, locking your fingers into the palm and press outward, stripping the back of his hand with both your palms (double palm strip to upper hand).

After this carefully bend the patient's elbow and place the palm on the abdomen.

FRONT OF LEG - INSIDE

Patient still on back.

Lift the patient's leg, binding the knee so that the foot rests on the table next to the other knee. Allow the bent knee to fall outward, but not all the way, Lift it up off the stretch and let his knee rest on your hip.

Imagine two dividing lines one on either side of the adductor tendon.

Wrap your hands around the leg, press your thumbs onto the groove next to the forward side of the tendon, starting approximately where the pubic hair finishes. Move up this groove, pressing at 1" intervals, at the same time palpitating the muscles with the fingers. Stop when you reach the hard fibers of the knee. Repeat the procedure following the groove on the other side of the adductor tendon.

Next press at 1" intervals underneath the inside of the tibia (SP meridian), pulling the calf muscle away from the tibia.

Next lift the leg so that the knee points vertically. We now massage the outside of the thigh. Look for the line on the quadricep where the long ligament runs. Starting 3" below the hip, press at 1" intervals along this line. At the same time push the knee across to stretch the outside and back of the hips. Continue down to the knee.
Next come down the outer side of the tibia, pressing the muscle away from the tibia (ST meridian). Press at 1" intervals to the ankle, and once again push the knee across.

Now carefully straighten the leg, lay it down and turn the foot outward. Look for the line of colour across the inside surface of the foot. Press from heel to ball at 0.5" - 1" intervals just below this line along the soft tissue.

ABDOMINAL MASSAGE

Digestion - Mouth, Oesophagus, Stomach.

The actual digestion of food occurs in Small Intestine (SI), Middle Heater (3H2).

Liver and Gall Bladder enter into SI. GB stores bile, which goes into SI.

The spleen and pancreas produce enzymes which assist in digestion.

The iliocaecal valve joins small intestine and large intestine (colon).

Abdominal massage utilises Stomach, Liver, Gall Bladder, Spleen/Pancreas, Small Intestine, Ileocaecal Valve, and Colon.

1. Press colon from descending (left) to ascending (right) colon for pain spots.

Start pressing up the inside of the left hip with fingers. One can feel the intestinal tube. Watch for muscular reaction - the result of pain.

The transverse colon cannot be easily reached, so go over and down the inside of the right hip.

2. Tap sound colon from ascending to ascending to show empty spaces or blockages.

Place index and middle fingers of one hand on colon. Tap them with same two fingers of other hand. Follow the same path as in 1 above.

3. Double palm press to umbilicus.

Place centre of palm over umbilicus. Fingers point to ribs, hand is straight up and down. Allow the hand to fit into the natural curve of the ribs. Bodywieght can be used. Press 5 times, 5 seconds each time. This is done to:

Release gas buildup
Allow patient to feel your touch and gain confidence
Relax the abdomen.

Press in time with patient's breathing.

4. Milk the liver.

NB - if either side of abdomen is enlarged, we have either an enlarged liver (right side) or spleen (left side). SEE A DOCTOR ASAP.

Place the thumb of the right hand an inch below the patient's right ribs, thumb extended, curve of the thumb and index finger following the line of the rib curve. Place the left hand on the rib cage. Pres easily, bringing hand together, using bodyweight only.

This excretes old bile from the liver and bladder into the small intestine.

5. Milk the spleen.

Done for similar reasons to milking the liver (4 above). It is done from the left side similarly to the above with hands reversed, or from the right side using the thumbs on the left ribs.

6. Fishtail figure 8 the small intestine.

This is a double finger motion from below ribs to 3" above sympusis pubis bone. Use one hand place upon the other. Start on the liver side. Do very close and shallow horizontal figure 8's (more like infinity symbols), movement coming from the wrists. Move gradually down the abdomen, finishing about 3" below the umbilicus.

Perform about 10 times quickly, always starting from the right (liver) side.

This motivates intestinal movement/peristalsis, promotes blood flow to intestine, and stimulates intestinal nerves.

7. Circular massage with two finger pad mass clockwise to iliocaecal valve.

The iliocaecal valve is located on a line between the top of the ilium and the umbilicus, two thirds of the way towards the umbilicus (one third of the way is the appendix alarm point).

Put two fingers of one hand on the spot and place the two fingers of the other on top of them. Rotate clockwise with fingers in and out, going a little deeper each time.

This stimulates the opening and closing of the valve. The pressure is always clockwise to follow the intestinal direction.

8. Colon strip from ascending to descending with knife hand.

Using the knife hand, strip up the ascending colon, following the inside of the right ilium. Strip across the bottom of the ribs once and down the other side once.

Repeat this procedure several times.

9. Circular pressure to CV12.

Go clockwise. CV12 is 4 tsun above the umbilicus.

Stomach Mu point
Middle Heater Mu point
meeting point of yin meridians

10. Circular pressure to ST25.

ST 25 is located 2 tsun bilateral to the umbilicus. Press one side down with one thumb, while rotating the other side - then swap.

Colon Mu point

11. Circular pressure to CV4.

Clockwise. 3 tsun below umbilicus.

SI Mu point.

Additional Points.

CO4 is located at the highest point on the fold of skin on the hand next to the thumb when the thumb is folded next to the hand.

ST36 is located 3 tsun below the center (or is it lower edge?) of the patella (kneecap) then one tsun lateral to the edge of the tibia. Abdomen point.

CO 11 - elbow point, end of skin crease on outside of elbow when arm is bent. Temperature point.

CO1 is located 4 fen from the edge of the nail (towards thumb) of the index finger. Toothache point.

SP6 is located 3 tsun above the ankle, just off the tibia, center inner side of leg. Meeting point of spleen. liver, and kidney meridians.

CV17 is a chest point. On the line between the nipples.

FACE MASSAGE

The main principle of face massage is to pull outward from the centre on the face.

Patient is face up on table. You stand behind them at the head end of the table.

1. Strip forehead.

Do one side, then the other. Lock off the skin on one side while stripping the other side, to get a push-pull effect on the skin.

i) strip point between eyebrows up to hairline.

ii) strip inner edge of eyebrow up to hairline.

iii) strip center of eyebrow up to hairline.

iv) strip outer edge of eyebrow up to hairline.

v) strip outer edge of eyebrow horizontally out to hairline at temple.

vi) strip from center of forehead out horizontally.

2. Depress three points on either side (upper/lower) of eye socket.

Press bony edge of eye socket not eyeball itself.

3. Strip along eye socket.

Strip in circular fashion, firm outwards, no pressure back in. do both ways around eye. Use the middle fingers. One can use the thumb of the other hand on the ridge of the nose to lock off the skin on one side.

Do 2 and 3 on one eye, then the other.

4. Double thumb to eyes.

Rest the inner joint of the thumbs on the forehead, ans rest only the outer joint of each thumb on the closed eyes. SOFTLY - for rest.

5. Strip cartilage of nose.

Lock fingers under jawbone. Use thumbs to strip down nose.

6. Strip from inner canthus (corner of eye next to nose) out along the natural cheek line under the cheek bone.

Allow the full hand to wrap around cheek and jawbone.

7. Depress and rotate CO20.

4 fen lateral to widest point of nose. Good for sinus congestion.

8. Bilateral circular pressure to cheekbones.

Use heels of hands. Massage cheekbones in a spiral fashion out to ears, right side clockwise, left side anticlockwise. Can lock fingers under jawbone.

9. Depress soft spots between tooth root remnants around mouth.

Start at center and move out.

10. Ask patient to click their teeth 9 times

9 is a yang number.

11. Pinch pull one side of jaw 3 times from ear to chin.

turn head to side

12. Push middle finger down underside of jaw

from 3H17 (join of ear and jaw, under earlobe) to chin. Pull back on top side of jaw with index finger, back to ear.

Do 11 and 12 on one side, then the other. Turn head to side while doing this.

13. Double palm pressure along forehead.

Push out from centre of forehead, then down along cheekbones to jaw. Can lock finger under jaw here.

14. Lock fingers under jaw and vibrate gently.

15. Strip around ear then down alternately front and behind the sternocleidomastoid muscle.

Press firm down, no pressure back up.

16. Strip inside ear with thumbs - to lobe.

Do 15 and 16 one side then the other. Turn head to side.

CHEST DRAINAGE PROCEDURE - LYMPHATICS

Chest drainage procedure uses

Neck
Deltoids
Pectorals
Sternum
Armpits/Axillae
Arms to elbows

All actions are towards the heart - bringing Yang downwards.

For this procedure, and also face massage, a good pillow can be made from a block of wood wrapped in a towel and place under the head.

To drain the chest, we must drain HEAD THROAT and CHEST. To do this we must drain the chest *first*, before we can drain the throat into the chest. So we work from the bottom up.

We must recognise these areas

Clavicle
Top line of pectoral muscle
Deltoid.

1. With hands spaded together (palms flat, one atop the other), go from the hole in the throat (CV22), light up the clavicle, around the deltoid, and firm pressure back down the top line of the pec and then down toward the sternum in the centre. Can also go up the pectoral line, around the deltoid and down the clavicle. But always, light up (away from the centre), heavy down (toward the center).

2. Hold the head with one hand. Strip with fingers and palm with the other hand from back of neck to throat. Push your hand one way while turning the head the other way. Do NOT strip the adam's apple, but rather the muscle groups on each side. Do about ten times each side.

3. Repeat 1.

4. Decongest attachment points of ribs to sternum. Start where the clavicle attaches to the sternum. Press 5 times on each point, flat pressure, moving down to one rib space below the nipple. Wrap hands around points.

5. Place both hands around the tops of the pectoral muscles. Let hands rest into shoulders. Stretch the clavicles and pectorals backwards. Rotate the hands in while pressing out. Use body weight.

6. Place hands on shoulders, Press, spreading chest and shoulders backwards.

7. Press with joined hands (palms together), using knife hand down the sternum,move and separate hands out around rib cage around into armpits, pull up with palms to top of pectorals into center, andthen strip out along tops of pecs with thumbs. Repeat 5 times.

8. Follow the same sequence as 7, but now go down arms and back up and around neck as well as the moves in 7. Repeat 5 times.

9. After finishing 8, pull lightly up the neck and through hair with fingers, pulling hair gently.

Aside on Spring

We go from winter (yin) into spring - the birth of Yang in Yin.

In spring we should rise early. We should shake our muscles and brush our skin and hair to bring the external warmth to the internal.

We should still retire early, for the nights are still cold. We should not expose ourselves to the cold.

Becuse spring is the season of birth, we should praise people and not take away. We should allow our energy to come out freely, without blocking it. In particular do not repress ANGER - the emotion of Wood, spring.

Behaviour

Behaviour is a reflection of what goes on in a person's mind. As such it is a signal for diagnosis.

Emotions

Psychological movement forms, limited in time, which bring about a change in the organism.

Emotional effect on health:

Depressing situation -> mind depressed -> psychological depression

If the depressing situation lifts after a short period, there will be no permanent effect.

If the depressing situation continues for a long time, the psychological depression will lead to a physical manifestation (yin and yang). The liver is depressed, leading to digestive problems.

If the depressive situation is lifted, the psychological depression may continue because the liver is depressed.

Effect of a Toxin on Mind and Body

Food, Alcohol, Drugs, Poisons.

The toxin will affect the liver first, as the liver must deal with it. If the patient comes to us before physical symptoms manifiest themselves, we must help them by pursuading them to stop self-toxification.

If the toxin keeps being ingested, liver activity will increase, bringing ANGER. So many drunks and addicts have an angry disposition and bearing. We can treat the patient at this stage by getting him to stop toxifying himself, and by sedating the overactive liver function.

Continued toxification may bring about the weakening and ultimate destruction of the liver. Anger weakens and grief comes to the fore. Treat by stopping the toxification and tonifying the liver.

If the patient refuses to stop toxifying himself, there is nothing more we can do. Pass him on to a counsellor.

Constipation

Any delay in the evacuation of the bowels.

Ask patient:

Last bowel movement

How often he moves his bowels

Diet - usual, and any unusual food

Emotional stress

Any accompanying symptoms

Condition of faeces - hard/soft, thick/thin

Colour

If blood, dark or light?

If dark, blood comes from upper intestinal tract

If light, blood comes from close to rectum.

if white - indicates no bile - hepatitis - HOSPITAL

if dark - yang diet

if light - yin diet

Psychological Conditions

Affects spirit - heart

Soul - liver -> tendons

Contemplation - spleen - muscles

The condition of the temdons and muscles can result in tightening of the anal sphincter

We can use a calming technique to relax the muscles and tendons.

Colon 4 (on the hand) - may be used to treat psychologically based constipation - should free bowels within 24 hours

Treatment of Constipation

The following Yu points may be useful:

BL18	Liver	Th9
BL19	GB	Th10
BL20	S/P	Th11
BL21	ST	Th12
BL22	3H	L1
BL25	Colon	L4
BL27	SI	S1

Procedure

1. Search bowel with fingers (colon press) and "tap sound" the colon. Patient is on his back. Ask patient about his condition. What does he mean by "I am constipated"? etc.

2. Turn patient onto stomach. Place a hot pack on the back over the area D9-S1 and leave for 20 minutes, to stimulate and relax the back.

3. Stimulate the above points (BL18-BL27), moving down. Use short light rotational pressure until muscle breaks and relaxes. Move down.

4. Turn patient over again, and apply the abdominal massage techniques.

5. Apply circular pressure to CV12, ST25, ST27. ST25 is two tsun lateral to the umbilicus. ST27 is 2 tsun directly below ST25.

6. Advise patient to drink more water, eat more fibre, practise abdominal and reverse breathing (mornings).

Diarroea

Excessively frequent passage of excessively watery faecal matter.

Causes

Diet - reaction to drugs alcohol, poisons
Emotional origin - disturbance affects entire alimentary canal. Any change or stress is of particular interest
Bacteria, virus, cancer, bowel disease
Physical - liver problems

Two types of Diarroea

Hot:

accompanied by temperature
hot evacuation
may be abdominal pain prior to evacuation
possible sweating
possible increased urination
generally acute occurrence
YANG

Cold:

No pain
No temperature, may be accompanied by chills
may often be chronic condition
YIN

Look at colour - brown to yellow

Cold diarroea is due to cold in body

Hot diarroea is due to heat in body

Severe diarroea may lead to dehydration (especially hot diarroea). Advise patient to drink plenty of water.

Treatment of Diarroea

Treat by balancing Yin and Yang.

For HOT - cooling foods and herbs, deep pressure to sedate.

For COLD - Moxibustion to heat up and tonify. Yin type may bring, or be due to, weakness.

Possible imbalances causing Diarroea

If FIRE is disturbed, it will have a resultant effect on METAL (Lung/Colon). Fire melts Metal - fluid in colon. Emotions affect Shen (spirit), which may unbalance FIRE. Ko Cycle.

EARTH may affect METAL through the Sheng Cycle. Possible spleen or stomach problems may thus have a resultant effect on the colon.

The problem may come from the lungs, which may affect the colon. It is well known that people who have had surgery to the pulmonary veins have a very definite alarm signal. If the patient calls for a bedpan in a hurry, this indicates blood clots in the veins (pulmonary embolism) and possible imminent death without immediate intervention.

The heart may affect the small intestine - producing blood in the urine or faeces.

Too much bile may cause diarroea. If the lungs/colon (Metal) are under stress, the liver may go unchecked and the diarroea may worsen.

Massage

For cold diarroea:

Moxa

BL23 (Kidney Yu point, see below)
CV12 (Stomach / Middle Heater Mu point and meeting of Yin meridians)
ST25 (Colon Mu point)

For hot diarroea:

Sedate GV14 - the main heat/temperature point in the body. It also controls the motor nerves. GV14 is located on the centre line of the back between C7/Th1.
Sedate BL23 - Kidney Yu point, controlling Water. It also controls the adrenal glands which secrete adrenalin, which excites the heart and CNS producing Fire. Excess water for too long hurts the heart and may lead to a heart attack (via the adrenals). Adrenals also produce cortisone, a relaxant. So BL23 is connected to the hormonal system.
Tonify CV12 - Stomach Mu point, meeting of Yin meridians. Tonify to harmonise and regulate overactivity.
Sedate ST25 - Colon function (Mu) pount
Sedate CO11 - Colon point on limbs - temperature point
Sedate CO10 - associated Colon point - 2 tsun below CO11, towards hand
Sedate CO1 - start of Colon meridian - can slow rate of chi flow through Colon meridian
Sedate ST34 - sore/alarm point in digestive upsets. When massaged will calm down digestion. When soreness stops, digestion will calm. Located outside of top of patella, 6 tsun above ST36.
Sedate ST36 - main digestion (stomach) point. Harmonises energy in stomach. Located 3 tsun below bottom of patella, 1 tsun lateral from ridge of tibia.
Tonify SP9 - to remove damp heat. Located by running hand up inside edge of tibia. Point is located where bone starts to curve towards knee.

Procedure:

GV14/BL23 - 10 seconds on, 5 seconds off. Deep pressure, 10 times.

CV12 - light pressure, rotate for 1 minute.

ST25 - deep pressure for 10 seconds, release and rotate, put pressure straight back on again.

Strip from CO11 to CO10 (checking the energy flow, then press both points simultaneously. 10 seconds, 10 times.

CO1 - press with fingernail or fingers. 10 seconds, ten times.

Strip ST34 to ST36, then press both points - 10 seconds, ten times.

Rotate SP9.

Reflex Areas

Area of reaction away from the area of origin.

Back

Shoulder and neck soreness indicates Liver problems.

Right side of Th3-Th5 - Heart.

Right side of Th6-Th7 - Stomach.

Below right scapula (right of Th8) - secondary Liver zone.

Lumbar region (especially L2-BL23) - Kidneys.

Front

Front and vack shoulder girdle - Liver.

Left pectoral muscle and down left arm - Heart (like angina).

Just below xiphoid process (lowest part of sternum) - Stomach.

Approx. above umbilicus - SI.

Approx. below umbilicus - Colon, Bladder.

Point 1/3 of way between edge of ilium and umbilicus - Appendix.

ST37 - 1 tsun below ST36 - secondary appendix point.

Baths and Packs

General

All substances mentioned can be obtained from produce stores.

The bath should be filled to neck level. Water should be bearably hot.

N.B. Always take into account your patient's age and strength with regard to temperature and duration of the bath. You should watch patient carefully and get him/her out of the bath if there is any untoward reaction.

Epsom Salts bath

Fill bath, throw in 4 handfuls of Epsom Salts. Leave patient in bath for maximum of ten minutes. The epsom salts will draw the fluid from the joints, and this is good for rheumatism, arthritis, lumbago, etc. This bath can be taken once a week.

Bran bath

Buy steel cut, or rough, bran.

Take a kilo of bran, put into one corner of a pillowcase. Fold pillowcase in half twice. Put pillowcase in bath under taps and run hot tap over it, filling bath. The water will turn brown. When bath is full, squeeze water out of pack into bath. Patient can stay in for 20 minutes maximum.

This bath is good for skin disorders, and particularly it sedates and relaxes an overwrought nervous system. Remember to watch your patient.

Chamomile and Hops bath

Use 1/2 kilo chamomile, 1/2 kilo hops. Follow same procedure as for the bran bath.

Patient can stay in bath up to 20 minutes. This bath is good for insomnia and nervous tension.

Eucalyptus Oil bath

Get "Double D" eucalyptus oil.

Put patient in full bath, then add four capfuls of oil (otherwise oil will sting sensitive parts of the skin). Mix well. Patient should inhale the fumes as they rise, breathing deeply. Good for simus problems, cold and chills.

Foot bath

A foot bath can be very useful and beneficial. Note that:

Liver, Kidney, Spleen/Pancreas meridians start in the feet

Gall Bladder, Bladder, Stomach meridians finish in the feet.

Use a bowl, tray or trough, deep enough to cover the ankles. Place feet in bowl. Add warm water first, then hot, to allow feet to adjust to the temperature. Can use just hot water, or stir in a tablespoonful of mustard.

Good for nervous conditions - Liver, Spleen, Kidney meridians.

Also - cold in body, high blood pressure, insomnia (draws bllod to feet, away from brain), stimulates kidneys and urination.

For insomnia - foot bath, play with walnuts in hands, roll feet over a coke bottle - stimulate kidneys, rest brain/CNS.

Packs

For localised effect.

Bran Pack

Same procedure as for bran bath. Place pack in a bowl of hot water.

You will need a supply of towels and rubber gloves for handling. Soak in water, then wrap in a towel.Wring the water from the pack by winding up the towel.

Place another folded towel over the area to be treated.There should be at least two thicknesses of towel between the pack and the patient's skin. Place the pack with the towel wrapped around it on this towel. Place another towel over the top. To retain heat longer, place plastic cling wrap over the pack.

The pack should be left on the patient until it cools (c. 30 minutes). This allows the body to regulate itself.

Heat brings Yang stimulation. The body will compensate by expanding (vasodilation, Yin). The body will enter a Yin state and then regulate itself.

Make sure pack covers treatment area completely.

For neck, etc. can use a hair dryer or heat lamp. Good for cold problems.

Lindseed Pack

Use 250g of lindseed and crush to a powder. Mix with HOT water to make a paste.

Bronchial problems and asthma - use for about two hours. this procedure draws mucus from the respiratory tract.

Place several thicknesses of cotton cloth (sheet, gauze, etc.) over chest. Apply paste about 7mm thick with knife over cloth. Put a piece of cotton over the top and cover the lot with a hot towel. Place plastic wrap over the top to keep the heat in. The procedure can also be applied on the back, for the lungs.

For localised pain, wrap some bran inside a handkerchief. Soak in hot water, apply 3-6 drops of Zheng Gu Shui (available from Chinese stores). Use this to knead deeply into tissue - use continuous form massage on any joint.

Do not apply for more than two hours

DO NOT USE ON A PREGNANT WOMAN

For bruises, sprains, etc.

Cramps

Uncontrolled muscular contraction. Can be caused by overexertion, cold (particularly at night), or nerve impediment.

At night, blood circulation slows down, and any toxic wastes will attend to accumulate in the extremities. These wastes mat serve to block nerve pathways. They may include uric and lactic acid.

One can take Glauber Salts to "flush out" the system.

Leg cramps and Lower back:

Apply pack(s) first - to lumbo/sacral region, and to legs themselves. The nerves for the legs originate in the lower back.

Procedure

Pinch/bruise BL23 (Kidney Yu point)

Pinch/bruise BL27 (SI Yu point)

Pinch/bruise BL28 (Bladder Yu point)

Pinch/bruise the skin by pinching it between the index and middle fingers, or finger and thumb. Bruising the skin will bring continuous stimulation to the point as the body works to rebuild the damaged capillaries. Pinch/bruise, then rotate with thumbs.

Push skin away from spine. Place one thumb on the spine holding the skin down. Press and push the skin away from the spine with the other thumb.

Compress deeply with double palm over sacrum.

Massage Hua To points. The Hua To points are located 1/2" out from the centre line of the spine, right on the nerve ramifications. Use a heat rub and start from the sacrum, massaging liniment into points in a circular fashion. Move up through the lumbar region.

Pinch/bruise BL54 - lower back.

Pinch/bruise BL56,BL57 - sciatic nerve.

Rotate SP9.

If pain/cramp is one sided, you need only work on the one leg. if not, do both legs and SP9. For lower back, need only do BL54. To pinch BL54 lift the lower leg slightly. Also rotate after pinch.

You can also apply cup palm technique, vibration, knife hand chopping, fist, etc. to lower back with good results.

Moxibustion

Moxa uses a herb - Mugwort, Artisimus Vulgaris. It is dried and stored, then crished and rolled.

Moxa involves burning the herb on or close to the skin. It is a Yang (stimulation) technique.

Direct Application - Moxa Punk

A small cone is formed from crushed, powdered moxa. The cone is placed on the skin and lit. The cone is removed (with tweezers, etc) when the patient feels the burning/pain sensation. May be used several times on the one point.

Indirect Application - Moxa Roll

Light one end of the roll and fan until the entire end is glowing, like a cigarette. Bring the burning end close to (but not touching) the skin in a pecking motion. Repeat for 3 to 10 minutes. Use one finger to stop the roll before it touches the skin. Good for weak people (Yin constitution).

For general health, moxa the following points once a month:

CV6 (Chi Hoy)
CV12 (Middle Heater, Stomach, meeting point of Yin meridians)
ST36 (Metabolism)
BL23 (Kidney)
GV4 - Door of Life

GV4 is located on the spine between the two BL23 points, directly between L2 and L3.

Note that GV24 and both BL23 points can be stimulated at the same time of using the indirect method.

Cupping

There are two types of cup, glass and bamboo. There are no essential differences in their use.

Glass cups are heavier, and transparent, allowing one to watch their effect. They are used more to draw (suppurate).

Bamboo cups are lighter, but opaque. They are useful for bruises and the like.

Cups can be used on the shoulders, back, abdomen and limbs. The area to be treated determines the size of cup to be used.

NEVER use on the face.

NEVER use on the abdomen of a pregnant woman.

Cups can be used to treat

bruises
tightness
for suppuration (pus, fluid, etc.)
nerve impedance
gas in addomen

A cup is a cylinder with one close end used to SUCK on the skin and underlying tissue. It promotes blood flow, nerve energy flow, lymphatic flow, and pulls skin up.

Direct Application

Soak a ball of cotton wool in methyl alcohol or similar. Hold the ball in tweezers, and light it. Use the cotton to take air from the cup by placing into the cup - only for a short time, otherwise cup will get too hot). Take cotton ball out and immediately place cup on the desired spot. Give it a slight twist as you put it on to promite suction.

Leave on for some time, e.g. 15 min for a bruise, 30 minutes for a slipped disk.

Migrating Application

First cover area to be treated (usually bladder meridians on back, and spine) with oil. Apply cup as for direct application. Use both hands to move the cup up and down both sides of the spine, and up and down the spine itself. Watch out for any conspicuous bruising - this may indicate a problem with the nerve ramification of the associated organ. After removing the cup, use thumb pressure to massage the bruising away. This method provides a very powerful stimulation to the bladder meridian.

Removing Cup

Push skin down on one side of the cup to release the vacuum. Do not pull the cup straight off as this may mark the skin.

Points to be used

Big cup over L5 - for lower back.

Yu points - to relieve congestion in organ (Lung, Kidney, etc.)

Abdomen - CV12, ST25 etc., CV8 (umbilicus) - particularly for gas in abdomen - approx. 20 mins.

Can be used on boils, etc. Use 7 star hammer (plum blossom hammer) to break up pus, etc. before cupping.

Available (this was 1982) from: Burlington Centre, Catrician Health Centre - "Chinese Glass/Bamboo Cups".

Headaches

Head pain.

From the Chinese viewpoint there are two types of headache:

Upsurging Headache - from Yang meridians congesting in the head, usually due to tension, etc.
True Headache - brain headache

Causes

1. Tension. Tension affects Liver. Anger tightens tendons, muscles -> circulatory constriction -> pain. We must look at possible Kidney (sheng cycle) or lung (ko cycle) problems as they may affect the liver.

2. Vertebral alignment. A misplaced cervial vertebra may impinge on a nerve to the head, causing pain.

3. Eyestrain (from glare, etc.). Affects Liver similar to tension.

4. Virus. Cold hitting bladder meridian (Water). One of the first symptoms of typhoid fever is severe headache, and pain in back and loins. If patient cannot bend neck back and forth - BL meridian is affected. If they can't move neck side to side, SI meridian is affected.

5. Injury. A head blow may bring concussion, and/or the head musculature may spasm -> pain.

6. Diet. Too much sugar or an allergic reaction may bring on a headache.

7. Congestion - sinus, etc. pressure may impinge on nerves bringing about head pain.

8. Aneurysm - ballooning blood vessel in the brain. HOSPITAL, QUICK! [my aunt died of an aneurysm]

9. Tumour.

10. Tooth problems. A filling, etc. pressing on a nerve.

Modes of Headache

Frontal Headache - may be caused by a heavy day or a lot on the patient's mind.

Occipital Headache (back of the head) - may be caused by anxiety (fear without reason).

Temple Headache - to do with migraine, ec.

If headaches are regular or frequent, ask for a doctor's report before attempting treatment. Tests - EEG, cat scan, spinal tap (cervical/lumbar), MRI, etc.

Migraine

Severe head pain, accompanied by nausea, irritability, vision problems - "fight with the self". Liver is affected, heat from liver affects heart/spirit/shen.

When treating a headache, always watch closely for appearance of other problems. If the headache is tension related, then if we take the pain away, the tension may manifest itself elsewhere.

Biorythms

If headache appears monthly or periodically, get the patient's biorythms done. If it does fall in a regular critical period, get the patient in several days before the next critical period and work on them to free the muscles and meridians.

Ask the patient what time of day they get the headache, and apply the Chinese clock. As well, get them to try to relax if the headache is stress-related.

Points for Headache

General (to relax musculature)

GV20 - Right on crown of head, 5 tsun back from natural hairline on forehead. Use deep pressure, 10 seconds on, 5 seconds off, 10 times.

GV19 - 6.5 tsun back from hairline, 1.5 tsun back from GV20. Same pressure.

GV16 - Between skull and C1, right in the nape of neck. Same pressure.

BL4. (BL1 - medial corner of eye/socket. BL2 - inner edge of eyebrow. BL3 - on hairline, directly above BL1 and BL2. BL4 - 1 tsun lateral on hairline out from BL3). Same pressure.

BL7.

BL10. Between C1 and c2, right on muscle body. Same pressure.

3H20. directly behind highest part of ear, right on natural hairline.

GB21, GB20, BL13, BL38 - same pressure.

Specific Points

Frontal Headache - CO4 - stimulate - to free energy flowing from lung into colon meridians.

Occipital Headache - Stimulate GB20, GB21, GB39.

Migraine - LU7 (interlock thumbs with patient - Lu7 is where your index finger falls on their wrist). Apply opposite side to headache, as it affects colon meridian, which crosses over the body on the way to the head. Tai Yang (extra point) - 1 tsun lateral to eye in depression on temple - deep pressure.

Temporal Headache - Tai Yang.

Top of head - GV20, BL60 (halfway between outer lateral malleolus (ankle bone) and achilles tendon).

Make sure patient isn't looking into the light. Let them rest and relax for some minutes before treatment.

Deafness and Ear Problems

Deafness and sore ears can occur for a variety of reasons:

1. Damage to nerves between inner ear and brain - permanent damage, requires cochlear implant or similar.

2. Ruptured eardrum - can be repaired surgically.

3. Locking of small bones (hammer, anvil, stirrup) in middle ear - can be repaired surgically.

4. Foreign objects or polyps in ear canal.

5. Wax buildup in ear canal - treat using Cerumol (from a chemist) or warm olive oil. Put several drops in ear canal to soften wax, flush out in shower.

6. Eustacian tube problems. Eustacian tube runs from ear to mouth to equalise pressure on both sides of eardrum. The tube may become infected, with sore throat, etc. This may cause a hard lump behind ear, in mastoid antrum.

Massage can be used to treat external ear blockage, eustacian tube problems, and meridian pathway problems (in the yang meridians).

Treatment

First pack neck and ear.

Points

3H17

3H23 - outer end of natural eyebrow

SI19 - middle point of tragus (bone triangle in front of ear)

GB2 - bottom point of tragus

GB20

Active Points

(Can't work out whether this section applies to headache or ear problems from my notes. Should work out OK for either, I guess)

3H5 - 2 tsun above pivot of wrist, on back of arm - meeting of meridians

3H3 - form a fist. 3H3 is behind and between the knuckles of the ring and middle fingers.

SI3 - On the lateral side of hand, opposite side of little finger knuckle from 3H3.

3H3 and SI3 take energy from the gall bladder meridian into their own meridians.

After doing these points, go down the muscles of the back of the neck with deep pressure. Then strip the back down the bladder meridian, paying special attention to the kidney points (BL23).

* * *

Further Information

For anatomy - any decent anatomy book - Gray's Anatomy, Structure and Function in Man, etc.

Meridian diagrams - taijiworld.com - lots of stuff on Dim Mak and TCM here. "Free Books" and then, "Dim Mak Point Location" is what you want.
Bear in mind that the owner of the site is asking you to buy his book if you download this information. It's your karma that has to deal with that, so be nice.

* * *

TCM and Massage 1

2006-09-08T13:27:00.000+10:00

Oriental Medical Philosophy in relation to Chinese Massage - Main Aim, Organs, Meridians, Ch'i.

The main aim of any healing discipline or modality - to regenerate the body function as a whole; survival.

Concepts

Twelve Organs

Lungs
Heart
Liver
Spleen/Pancreas
Kidneys
Colon
Small Intestine
Gall Bladder
Stomach
Bladder
Pericardium
Triple Heater

The Pericardium

Functional rather than organic
protector of the heart
messenger of joy
roughly anatomically equivalent to the sac enveloping the heart

The Triple Heater

3H1 - Upper Heater - Heart and Lungs (Oxygen)
3H2 - Middle Heater - Liver, Stomach, Intestines (Food)
3H3 - Lower Heater - Kidneys, Testes/Ovaries (Reproduction)

Oxygen and food are processed by 3H1 and 3H2 to produce ch'i, the vital life energy. Ch'i circulates throughout the system, and is also stored in 3H3.

The kidneys govern the sexual function.

If 3H1 or 3H2 are put out of action, death will result. If 3H3 is put out of action, reproduction is impossible, ultimately resulting in death.

Qi

Ch'i, Ki, Prana, Qi - synonyms.

Ch'i flows through meridians, which are channels. There are twelve meridians corresponding to the twelve organs. These twelve meridians are bilateral, i.e. are on both sides of the body.

There are two other meridians which are single (not bilateral):

The Conception Vessel, running up the center of the front of the body
The Governor Vessel, runs up the center/back of the body and head.

(NB there are other extra meridians as well - but all their points lie on the above main meridians)

Ill health comes when the ch'i flow along the meridians is blocked. Energy normally flows in circles along these meridians.

LAW 1

Man is the microcosm of the macrocosm (i.e. the universe). Therefore he is governed by the same laws which govern nature.

LAW 2

There is nothing between Heaven and Earth except energy and the laws which govern it.

Man is between Heaven and Earth. Therefore he grows through the four seasons. Man's growth and development is cyclic.

The heart is the monarch of the organs.

The left kidney is the water kidney. The right kidney is the "life door" (sex) kidney - with relationship to the Pericardium (circulation/sex).

Meridian	Points of Action	Location
Lung	1-11	Arm
Colon	1-20	Arm - Head
Stomach	1-45	Head - abdomen - Leg
Spleen/Pancreas	1-21	Leg - Abdomen
Heart	1-9	Arm
Small Intestine	1-19	Arm - head
Bladder	1-67	Head - Back - Leg
Kidney	1-27	Leg - Abdomen - Chest
Pericardium	1-9	Arm
Triple Heater	1-23	Arm - Head
Gall Bladder	1-44	Head - Abdomen - Leg
Liver	1-14	Leg - Abdomen

The six upper meridians are those on the arms - Lung, Colon, Heart, Small Intestine, Pericardium, Triple Heater.

The six lower meridians are those on the legs - Stomach, Spleen/Pancreas, Bladder, Kidney, Gall Bladder, Liver.

Male is right side.
Female is left side.

The movement of energy must follow the cycle of natural flow, heaven to earth and back to heaven again. Rain falls from the clouds (heaven) to earth, then via evaporation water vapour ascends to heaven again.

In the body heaven and earth are defined as forming a polarity between two parts of the body, "top" and "bottom".

Examples:

Heaven	Earth
Fingers	Head
Head	Feet
Abdomen	Feet
Fingers	Abdomen
Fingers	Shoulder

The Meridians of Earth run from Earth to Heaven (flowing "upwards"):

S/P, Liv, Kid, Heart, Lung, Peric.

The Meridians of Heaven run from Heaven to Earth:

Stom, GB, Blad, Colon, SI, 3H.

The three upper meridians of Earth run from earth (body) to heaven (fingers): Heart, Lung, Pericardium.

The three upper meridians of Heaven run from heaven (fingers) to earth (head): Colon, 3H, SI.

The three lower meridians of Earth run from earth (foot) to heaven (body): SP, Liver, Kidney.

The three lower meridians of heavenrun from heaven (body) to earth (foot): Stomach, GB, Bladder.

The heaven and earth relationship also refers to the front and back of the body. The heaven meridians are located on the back of the body and limbs (the tougher, hairy, outer, darker parts of the limbs), the Earth meridians on the front of the body and limbs (the inner, softer, lighter parts of the limbs).

Energy lows continually throughout the body via the twelve meridians in circular flows:

Lung, colon, Stomach, SP, Heart, SI, Bladder, Kidney, Peric, 3H, GB, Liver, back to Lung again.

Meridians must have means of rejoining and redirecting themselves, e.g. when cut during surgery, if a limb is lost, around body piercings, etc.

YIN and YANG

Two antagonistic opposites which complement each other. The Taoist symbol of nature.

YIN	YANG
Passive	Active
Female	Male
Night	Day
Moon	Sun
Internal	External
Water	Fire
Cold	Hot
Bottom	Top
Earth	Heaven
Winter	Summer
Autumn	Spring
Blood	Energy
Front	Back
Expansion	Contraction

Each tendency brings about the search for and production of the opposite tendency to balance.

In winter (cold, yin), we seek heat (yang).

In summer (hot, yang) we seek cold (yin).

Summer (yang) brings growth (yin).

Winter (yin) brings hibernation (contraction, yang).

The human body can be separated into yin and yang. In a situation of
good health, the rate of expansion (yin) matches the rate of contraction
(yang). Health is a balance of yin and yang.

If yang overbalances yin, we get continued contraction. If yin overbalances yang, we get continued expansion.

If the system is unbalanced, we must decrease the deficient aspect. Therefore we require both yin and yang techniques, e.g. techniques to create heat, and techniques to create cold.

Yin and Yang allow us to classify:

persons in constitutional type
techniques
results.

We aim for the TAO - the meeting place at the center.

In the body heaven is Yang, earth is Yin.

ORGANS and MERIDIANS

Yin	Yang
Heart	SI
SP	Stomach
Lung	Colon
Kidney	Bladder
Liver	GB
Peric	3H

Yin organs are primary and will affect their yang partners. The converse is not always so.

One can live without yang organs - not without yin organs.

WU HSING

The Five Elements

The five elements are basically a means of categorisation.

The five primary forces of the universe - seasonal influences.

All living things contain the five elements.

In the original texts, earth belongs to all things at the center.

The sun rotates 1 degree per day - 360 days/year (solar days)

The moon rotates 13 degrees per day

72 days per season (includes 72 for earth - 18 days per season during
which energy is nourished)

Natural cyclic patterns in Man and Nature - SHENG and KO cycles.

SHENG CYCLE

Mother-son cycle
Generating cycle
Anabolic cycle
Clockwise
YANG

Metal - Water - Wood - Fire - Earth - Metal ...

Any blockage of one element will result in a deficiency in the next
(son).

KO CYCLE

Grandmother - grandson cycle
Checking cycle
Catabolic Cycle
Clockwise(?)
YIN

Metal checks Wood

Wood checks Earth

Earth checks Water

Water checks Fire

Fire checks Metal

If the system is overbalanced in one element it will inhibit the
grandson

e.g. excess of sweet will hurt kidneys;excess of salt will hurt heart

We can use the Ko cycle to reduce an excess of a certain element, e.g. treatment with water will check an excess of fire

Note also that if one element increases its "grandmother" will/may go up to compensate, e.g. if the liver goes up, the lung may go up to compensate.

The five elements correspond to various classes of attributes in the
body and nature:

ATTRIBUTE	FIRE	EARTH	METAL	WATER	WOOD
Yin Organ	Heart	SP	Lung	Kidney	Liver
Yang Organ	SI	Stomach	Colon	Bladder	GB
Season	Summer	Long Summer	Autumn	Winter	Spring
Colour	Red	Yellow	White	Black	Blue/Green
Emotion	Joy	Sympathy	Grief	Fear	Anger
Taste	Bitter	Sweet	Pungent (spicy)	Salt	Sour
Related area	Tongue	Lips	Nose	Ears	Eyes
Disease area	Complexion	Muscles	Skin/Body Hair	Bones	Tendons
Fluids	Sweat	Saliva	Mucus	Urine	Tears
Direction	South	Center	West	North	East
Season	Summer	Long Summer	Autumn	Winter	Spring
Agric. Cycle	Growth	Maturity	Harvest	Storage	Birth

Related Areas give indication of organ states.

Disease Areas reflect organ disease.

Directions are for Northern Hemisphere.

Colour refers to primary colours in nature, complexion colours in man.

Agricultural Cycle refers to man also - annually, and to entire life.

Examples: Treat eye problems on liver meridian. Red eyes - too much fire in liver. Treat ear problems in kidney meridian.

MEASUREMENT IN TCM

1 Tsun - 1 anatomical inch.

10 Fen = 1 Tsun

Measurement is based on the patient, and varies between individuals.

The four fingers of one hand, measured across the second knuckles = 3 tsun.

Two fingers across second knuckles = 1.5 tsun.

Each knuckle segment on any finger (length between two knuckles) = 1 tsun.

6 tsun - fingers of two hands

4 tsun - fingers of one hand + 1 knuckle segment

etc.

YU Points

The Yu points are found on the Bladder meridians. They give access to the organ nergy of the 12 organs. The Bladder meridian is the only one which connects to all the organs.

Bladder points are located 1.5 inches laterally from the soft spaces between the vertebrae, e.g. BL13 is between T3 and T4, 1.5 in. bilaterally. Each of the mentioned points has a specific effect on the organ mentioned.

Vertebra (point is below)	Point	Organ
T3	BL13	Lung
T4	BL14	Pericardium
T5	BL15	Heart
T7	BL17	Diaphragm
T9	BL18	Liver
T10	BL19	Gall Bladder
T11	BL20	SP
T12	BL21	Stomach
L1	BL22	3H
L2	BL23	Kidneys
L4	BL25	Colon
S1	BL27	SI
S2	BL28	Bladder

7 Cervical Vertebrae (C)

12 Thoracic/Dorsal Vertebrae (T, Th, D)

5 Lumbar Vertebrae (L)

5 Sacral Vertebrae (S)

4 Coccygeal Vertebrae (?)

Bladder points are located 1.5 in bilaterally opposite centre of disc below vertebra, e.g. BL13 is located bilaterally opposite the disk between T3 and T4.

The disk between T7 and T8 is level with the bottom of the scapula.

The disk between L4 and L5 is level with the top of the ilium (iliac crest).

When the neck is rotated, C7 turns, T1 does not.

MU Points

Complementing the Yu points, Yang, on the back of the body, we have the Mu points, Yin, on the front of the body.

Like the Yu points, the Mu points give us access to the organ energy of the twelve organs. They are also called alarm points.

If a certain Mu point is sore when palpitated, it reflects on the organ function. It also gives us a point of action for that organ function.

The Yu points give us access to the organ itself. The Mu points give us access to the organ function.

If the organ is damaged or weak - use Yu.

If the organ function is wrong - use Mu.

The Mu and Yu points affect different parts of the nervous system.

RIBS

We have 7 true ribs (1-7) - attached to spine and sternum.

8,9,10 - joined to spine and rib 7 by cartilage.

11,12 - spine only - floating ribs.

Location of Mu points

Stomach	CV12	4 tsun above unbilicus
Heart	CV14	6 tsun above umbilicus
Pericardium	CV17	between nipples
Chi Hoy	CV6	1.5 tsun below umbilicus
3H (general)	CV5	2 tsun below umbilicus
SI	CV4	2 tsun below umbilicus
Bladder	CV3	2 tsun below umbilicus
Lower Heater	CV7	1 tsun below umbilicus
Middle Heater	CV12	see Stomach
Upper Heater	CV17	See Pericardium
Kidney	GB25	end of 12th rib
SP	Liv13	end of 11th rib
Liver	Liv14	between 8/9 rib, directly below nipple
GB	GB24	between 9/10 rib, directly below nipple
Lung	Lung1	1.5 tsun below depression at join of collarboneand shoulder
Colon	ST25	2 tsun either side of umbilicus

CV12 is meeting point of all Yin meridians

CV6 - Ch'i Hoy, Sea of Ch'i is used to affect chi flow thoughout meridians - can be used to tone system generally.

Examples:

For lung problems can use:

Lung1 - Lung Mu point
BL13 - Lung Yu point
CV17 - 3H1 Mu point
CV5 - 3H general Mu point
CV6 - ch'i hoy
CV12 - 3H2 mu point
BL22 - 3H Yu point

For constipation:

BL25 - colon Yu
ST25 - Colon Mu
CV4 - SI Mu
CV12 - Stomach, 3H, Yin meridians

with indigestion, CV14 often hurts

Shen - spirit - housed in heart

so indigestion may affect heart point

Learn Mu and Yu points by heart.

<- Previous

Next ->

Pressure

Varying pressure can be used both to tonify, sedate, stimulate (activity and nonactivity).

Deep or superficial.

Remember the three levels of energy

Heaven	Yang
Person	Yin/Yang
Earth	Yin

We treat Yang conditions (Acute, Hot) with Yin techniques.

We treat Yin conditions (Chronic, Cold) with Yang techniques.

It is possible to have a chronic condition which goes acute.

To regulate we use an intermediate technique.

Heaven	Yang	Surface	External	Tonification	Heat	LightPressure	Short Duration <= 3 seconds
Person	Yin/Yang	Intermediate	Intermediate	Regulation			5-8 seconds
Earth	Yin	Deep	Internal	Sedation	Cold	Deep Pressure	Long Duration 10-30 seconds

Disease and the three energy levels

We use the example of the effect of cold on the body.

Heaven - The surface of the body, from wet cold weather, becomes cold. We get a chill.
To treat at this level we can use heat - from a hot bath, warming diet, etc. Massage can be used at this level.

Person - Intermediate. The disease has sunk deeper. We now have a cold.
To treat at this level we can again use heat and massage.

Earth - Deep. The disease has gone internal. We now have pneumonia.
Treatment at this stage involves internal medicines and complete rest. Massage is of no use here.

Note that disease goes from Yang (Heaven) to Yin (Earth). In the example, if the disease process continues it may go back up through the levels until all levels are affected.

If all levels are effected - death will follow.

A chronic condition may be marked by a recurring illness. It is a continuous level of disease which is affected by conditions.

Diagnosis

Knowledge through examination

Diagnosis allows us to make a *Prognosis* - estimation of future aspects of a patient's health.

It also enables us to provide a *treatment* giving a *result*.

Diagnosis involves:

Questions and Answers
Facial Diagnosis - external manifestations
Appearance - walking, sitting, behaviour patterns
Palpitation - Mu and Yu points, abdomen, reflex area, tap sound, etc.

We diagnose through the senses:

Sight - Appearance, colour of complexion, etc.
Hearing - voice tone, breathing, etc.
Smell - Aroma
Touch - Palpitation
Conversation

A prognosis involves knowing

Type of condition (yin/yang)
Area(s)/Organ(s) affected

A treatment involves

Points of Action and procedure to follow
Advice (diet, baths, packs, etc.)

Facial Diagnosis

Diagnosis of the internal environment though external manifestation

Horizontal lines across the forehead indicate a great deal of CNS (central nervous system) activity - much thought
Lines on forehead in hapazard directions indicate erratic or disturbed mental activity
Bright red ears indicate excess heat in kidneys, usually due to excess protein or especially too much salt in the diet. Excess salt can hurt the heart (water destroys fire, from the Ko cycle). Salt draws water from the blood, coagulating it. It also hardens the arteries, bring thirst and dehydration, and possible joint problems.
White circle inside pupil - excess salt
Furrows inside corner of eyes - liver problems
A bubble of fluid between eyes (?) - congested liver
One main line between eyes - SI problems
Darkness in corners of eyes - blue/black - Too much sugar - liver and spleen control sugar digestion or - emotional problems
spleen -> sympathy -> grief -> thought, contemplation
can be supressed anger - burning liver
Puffiness under eyes - tired kidneys
- spleen not transforming water
- may be accompanied by swollen ankles if severe
Big eyes - yin constitution
Thin, narrow eyes - yang constitution
Flares (mares) of nose very red - excess heat in lungs - too much calorific heat
Big cleft in end of nose - heart problems
Large, pitted nose - colon and liver - can be alcohol
Small arterials in cheeks - congestions in arterials in lungs, common in smokers
Very red cheeks - heat in lungs
Very pale cheeks - cold in lungs
One deep furrow between lips and nose (mostly on women) - urogenital problems, uterus and ovaries
Enlarged top lip - liver
Enlarged bottom lip - colon
lines at end of mouth - duodenum (ulcers, worry)
Cleft in chin - yang constitution
Small lines off lips all around mouth - reproductive organs no longer being stimulated (3H3?)
- menopause or sex problems
- usually in older women

Chinese Clock

0300-0500	LU	Arm	Yin
0500-0700	CO	Arm	Yang
0700-0900	ST	Leg	Yang
0900-1100	SP	Leg	Yin
1100-1300	Heart	Arm	Yin
1300-1500	SI	Arm	Yang
1500-1700	BL	Leg	Yang
1700-1900	KI	Leg	Yin
1900-2100	PC	Arm	Yin
2100-2300	3H	Arm	Yang
2300-0100	GB	Leg	Yang
0100-0300	LI	Leg	Yin

The above schedule represents meridian flows of nutritive (blood) energy through the twelve meridians. This nutritive energy nourishes meridian and related organs nourishing the whole body over a 24 hour period.

The energy is strongest in the middle of the period (e.g. SI - 1400, Lung - 0400)

Examples

If heart is weak it will improve at midday, and will be worst at midnight.

If heart is overactive (e.g. high blood pressure) it will be worst at midday, and will improve at midnight.

Lower back problems (associated with kidneys) -
if worse in the morning (0500 - 0700) deficient kidneys
if worse in the evening (1700 - 1900) overactive kidneys

Note that the energy flow in an organ is weakest when the nutritive energy is furthest from it (i.e. 12 hours from its nutritive period).

Next ->

Bil Jee

2006-09-07T09:54:00.000+10:00

Jee Sim was relaxing in a hammock below deck after a hard day’s cooking, drilling the crew of the Red Junks in Wing Chun, and inciting anti-Qing sentiment amongst the port workers.

The sacking of the Shaolin Temple remained the focus of his thoughts. As it always did, even after so many months.

The heat, the flames of bright orange, the choking smell of the thick smoke that stung the eyes, and the screams of monks dying as they fought against the overwhelming hordes of the Qing.

That and his last glimpse of the face of Ng Mui, whose heart-stopping beauty not even the shapeless nun’s robe and shaven head could conceal. Totally gorgeous, totally untouchable. Five years older than Jee Sim, and more deeply committed to the ways of enlightenment and the Eightfold Path than any of the Temple’s menfolk.

Some of the older monks had grumbled that she spent too much time in the forest and grassland around Mount Sung, observing animals at play, at work, and in conflict, though she spent as much time on menial Temple duties as any of them. That and her many dreams, and the long sessions she spent manipulating the yarrow stalks, consulting the Oracle. But none complained openly, for when she brought the fruits of her observations – new fighting techniques and forms – onto the Killing Floor of the practice hall, none of them could match her.

She had been both unusually attentive, and unusually stern, towards Jee Sim; he had indulged himself with the belief that he was somehow special to her, though he knew the foolishness of it.

The week before the great betrayal and the destruction of the Temple, Ng Mui had been teaching him a new form, one it appeared she was still formulating herself. The section she had taught him was part intricate, serial finger strikes to the vital points, wrists curving and flexing like shafts of green bamboo, and part bludgeoning downward diagonal strikes with the elbow. The soft and pliable with the hard and heavy. Yin and Yang. The Way.

Ng Mui told him it had come to her after she witnessed an encounter between a snake and a crane at her favourite spot near the river. “I call it Bil Jee,” she told him. “Now practise. Two hours at least, every day. Do not falter … the Oracle forecasts dark times ahead. Next week, I will show you the next section.”

Thrilled by both the new techniques, and the attentions of his Elder Sister, Jee Sim practised like a crazy man. But next week brought only the Qing.

Racked with exhaustion and pain from their wounds after many fights with armed Qing mercenaries, and overwhelmed with grief over their many brothers and sisters who had died in the battle, Ng Mui and Jee Sim lay, panting, on a ridge overlooking the firestorm that had been the Shaolin Temple. Their home.

“Sister, are we the only ones to escape?” Jee Sim croaked, before convulsing in a fit of coughing. Both he and Ng Mui had inhaled much smoke.

Ng Mui’s lovely face was streaked with tears, soot, and blood, but her voice was strong. “I don’t know, Jee Sim. But we must hope that we are not.”

“Where shall we go?”

Ng Mui’s panting seemed to slow, dropping in pitch, becoming even more laboured. “I must leave you, Jee Sim. To travel together would mean certain capture and execution.”

“Sister, please, no …”

She shook her head, placed her hand on his arm. “You must go to Guangdong. Seek out the performers of the Red Boat Opera Troupe. They are allies, who oppose the Qing. The nephew of my mother’s childhood friend, a young man named Wong Wa Bo, is among them. By all accounts a brash and foolish youth, but with a rare talent for the Dragon Pole, I am told.”

“And you, Sister?”

“The Oracle told me of a village to the south, where a young woman faces great peril, but with the spirit of a true warrior. It is she that I shall seek.”

They sat until their breathing became deep and regular once more. Then Ng Mui stood. Jee Sim did the same.

“Jee Sim, you were the best of my younger siblings. And also my favourite.” A single sob broke through her composure.

Jee Sim though he would die.

“You must train hard, and meditate, every day. My greatest regret is that I cannot pass the complete Bil Jee form on to you. It contains the ultimate techniques, to turn despair into hope, loss into victory. But, dear Brother, the Bil Jee form is already yours. It is not for a teacher to give, for each student already has its secrets within. So find Bil Jee for yourself. Observe the world and its phenomena closely, and when you find something – you will know when you do – add it to your Bil Jee form.”

She stepped closer to him. “I shall see you again, Jee Sim. If it not in this life, then another.”

She embraced him, her tears warm and wet on his cheek. And then she was gone, into the darkness.

He sensed someone entering the cabin. “What now, Wa Bo? Still more of your questions?” His eyes remained closed.

“How did you know it was me, Master Jee?”

“It’s ALWAYS you. Just once, I’d like a noble’s pretty courtesan to drop by, but no, it’s always Wong Wa Bo and his questions.” Jee Sim swung himself into a sitting position in the hammock, then slid out to stand before Wong Wa Bo.

He scrutinised Wong. “Your face. Screwed up with puzzlement like a squeezed lemon. Bad for your health. Now, what?”

Wong personified glumness. “Forgive me, Master, if I sound ungrateful. But there is so much about your Wing Chun fighting system I do not understand.” He looked at the floor. “You tell others things you do not tell me.”

Not this again, thought Jee Sim. “Like what?”

“Master, Sun Kam told me that he asked you, ‘In Wing Chun, why don’t you kick to the head?’ And you told him, ‘Why don’t you punch to the toe?’”

Jee Sim vaguely recalled a casual conversation with Kam tenuously resembling this, which had occurred several days prior.

“Is it true, Master?” Wong Wa Bo looked as if he were about to fall to his knees and beg.

Jee Sim stared serenely at him for several seconds, allowing Wong Wa Bo’s tension to build still further. Then he started to laugh, a strident, mocking laugh. “I’ve got to get that Sun Kam to rein in his imagination. And you, Wa Bo, must not place so much stock in the words of one who wears his stage makeup every hour of the day.”

“So, it’s not true, Master? Wing Chun kicks to the head?” Wa Bo’s eyes were as wide as serving bowls.

“Of course!”

“And we punch to the toe?” Wa Bo’s eyes went wider still and threatened to fall out on the floor.

Jee Sim nodded.

Wong Wa Bo appeared to find this difficult to accept. His face reverted to the same puzzled look it had featured when he arrived.

Jee Sim sighed. “I’ll have to show you, won’t I? All right. Assume your fighting stance.”

Wong Wa Bo put his left foot forward and his hands out in a Wing Chun guard.

“Step and punch. Again. Again. Good. Now, back where you were.”

Wong Wa Bo moved back and Jee Sim took up a guard position in front of him, just out of range. Same again. Step and punch, keep going.”

Wong Wa Bo stepped and punched once, twice. Jee Sim intercepted the second punch with a slap block and a threading arm, then stepped back and dropped suddenly to one knee under Wong’s third punch, dropping his palm heel with full bodyweight behind it onto Wong Wa Bo’s left big toe, just as its foot touched the floor.

“OWOWOWOWOWWWW!” Wong Wa Bo hopped frantically in a circle, clutching his foot.

“Okay, not a punch, a palm heel,” said Jee Sim. “With a punch, you might miss and damage your knuckles on the floor.” He watched Wa Bo’s agitated pogoing, thinking it might make for a good balance exercise for his students. And perhaps there was something there one could use to enter on an opponent’s guard and bridge the gap …

Wa Bo fell over and rocked on his back in place, eyes and teeth clenched, still holding his foot. “W-what about kicking to the head, Master?” he whimpered. His right ear was only inches from Jee Sim’s left foot.

Jee Sim placed the sole of his slipper over Wong Wa Bo’s face.

“Mmmmf! Mfftrrr!”

“It has been a long day in the kitchen, Wa Bo. Do not tempt me.” Jee Sim let him up. “Now, go practice. Leave me alone.”

That worked surprisingly well, thought Jee Sim, back in his hammock. That just might fit into my Bil Jee form.

***

The Red Boat performers were all ashore, putting on a show. Jee Sim sat out at the far end of a small point, his back to the water, slowly cooking a pot of noodles over a small fire.

The night was clear and still, the waxing moon overhead.

Jee Sim stirred his noodles, fully present, fully content.

Footfalls, coming closer.

Three men in Imperial Qing uniforms were coming towards him, two huge brutes flanking a smaller man wearing the insignia of a Major, their bearded faces wearing expressions of ill intent.

“Can I help you gentlemen?” Jee Sim enquired. “Some noodles, perhaps?”

The Major stopped a few yards away. The two monsters kept coming until they stood one each side of Jee Sim.

“We have reason to believe a traitor, one of the Shaolin Temple escapees, is nearby!”

Jee Sim shrugged, and continued to stir his noodles.

“On your FEET!” snarled the Major, and signalled to his men to haul Jee Sim to a standing position.

Jee Sim leapt up as the men reached down, then bent forward suddenly at the waist as they reached up again. He grabbed the pot with both hands, lifting, hurling the pot and its contents underarm, straight at the Major’s face. He continued to rotate his arms backward striking each of the subordinate thugs in the temple, then down, striking each in the floating ribs. Both fell to the ground, unconscious.

Jee Sim then rushed at the Major, whose freshly acquired noodle headdress made him look like an albino jellyfish had leapt from the water to attack his face. Jee Sim dispatched him quickly with three chain punches.

He was about to run, when he heard more voices on the path. Military honorifics, shouted orders. Keeping his eyes on the three he had just downed, he waded backward into the river and quietly cast himself into a backstroke, heading for deep water.

Later that night, concealed in a secret compartment on one of the Red Boats, comfortable again in dry clothes, Jee Sim reviewed the fight in detail. The manoeuvre with the pot of noodles, and the backstroke, worked very well. That, he thought, can go in my Bil Jee form.

***

Jee Sim regarded the young man before him.

THIS was Wong Wa Bo, by some accounts the best pole exponent on the Red Boats? This young pup, all youthful overconfidence and eagerness to please, barely old enough to grow a light fuzz on his upper lip?

“All right,” said Jee Sim, “Show me your form.”

Wong selected the longest and heaviest of the boating poles, and stood it on end beside him. Typical youngster, always trying to impress. Wong handled the heavy pole with surprising poise and dexterity, though even the most ignorant observer would have seen at once that it was far too heavy for him.

Jee Sim watched, silent and stone faced.

“Not bad,” He told Wong. “But you need a lighter, more flexible pole.” Jee Sim selected a willow pole about eight feet long; too light,short and flexible for poling the boat, but ideal for fighting. Jee Sim took the pole and tried a sudden jut kwun. The end of the pole whipped satisfyingly. “This is what you need ,” he told Wong Wa Bo.

Wong Wa Bo laughed loudly.

Against his will, Jee Sim was reminded of a braying donkey.

“Master – always with the jokes. That pole, no strength for blocking, no power for hitting.”

Jee Sim sighed. “I’ll have to show you, won’t I? All right. Assume your fighting stance.”

Both men assumed similar stances, weight on the back leg, the tip of each pole pointed at the other man’s face.

Jee Sim darted forward, feinting a head strike. Wong Wa Bo parried with a tan kwun and yelled triumphantly, launching a downward bludgeoning strike with the heavy pole, confident of snapping Jee Sim’s puny stick of willow.

But Jee Sim parried with a bon kwun, his pole flexing enough to dissipate the force of Wong’s blow, the give, and then recoil, unsettling Wong. Jee Sim now swung a horizontal circular strike at Wong’s head, delaying just enough to give Wong time to smile patronisingly as he lifted his own pole to where Jee Sim’s strike should have been stopped, missing Wong’s head by inches.

But inches were not enough. The tip of Jee Sim’s pole whipped around Wong’s parry, striking Wong behind the ear.

“OWWW!” Wong dropped his pole, clutching his head.

Jee Sim had already whipped the willow pole back overhead, stopping its vibrating tip an inch above Wong’s skull.

“How did you hit me, Master?” Wong asked, still tentatively rubbing the new lump on his head.

“The willow pole hit you.” Jee Sim rolled Wong’s heavy pole, on the deck where Wong had dropped it, away from him with his foot. “That one is for the boat. This one is for you,” he told Wong, giving him the willow pole. “No more questions. Practice hard, two days at least, before you come to see me again.”

Two days later, almost to the minute, Wong Wa Bo rushed into the galley, where Jee Sim was busy sharpening the knives and cleavers.

“Master! I thought for many hours about your lesson on the flexible pole, and I have invented a new weapon!” Wong was carrying a bundle of thick bamboo sticks, maybe seven or eight in number. He took two by the ends and pulled them apart; the bamboo sections sprung together to form a queue, neither rigid nor flexible.

Jee Sim could see that the bamboo pieces were joined together by strong leather thongs. “And what is this?” he inquired.

“Wong Wa Bo grinned. “I call it the ‘articulated pole’, Master,” he said proudly.

Why me, wondered Jee Sim. “Looks interesting,” he said. “How do you use it?”

Wong grabbed the first and third sections in each hand and adopted a stance, giving every indication he was about to start swinging the contraption with all his might.

“STOP!” cried Jee Sim, fearing for the galley, and what he and the crew might do to Wong Wa Bo if it were damaged and their meals affected. “Not in here. We’ll go up on deck.”

Wong Wa Bo raced obediently ahead, Jee Sim following at a more measured pace, feeling the familiar sense of unease that accompanied Wa Bo’s “experiments” and “demonstrations”.

Wong had taken up a position in the middle of the deck. Jee Sim took up a position well out of range, and then, once Wong Wa Bo started swinging, twirling and flailing his contraption, a couple more precautionary steps further back.

It was debatable whether Wong or his invention had the upper hand, as both flipped, whipped, and spun for what seemed like a small eternity. Finally Wong stopped, his apparatus wrapping itself around his torso, the far end tapping him on the shin loudly. Wong grimaced for an instant, but hid the pain well. “What do you think, Master?”

You really don’t want to know, thought Jee Sim, moving closer. “Attack me with that weapon,” he said. “Whatever happens, don’t let go.”

Wong Wa Bo took a couple of swings of the weapon around his head to build momentum, then let fly with a wild horizontal swing at Jee Sim’s head.

Jee Sim stepped inside the arc of the attack, grabbing the outermost two sections with a double larp sao. Using his forearms, his wu sao and intertwining his arms in the interlocking, rapid fire bil jee striking formation taught to him by his Elder Sister, Ng Mui, he quickly tied the multiple sections of the outlandish weapon into a tight, complex knot. An instant’s glance at Wong Wa Bo had him still gripping the end of the weapon tightly, as instructed, though the open mouthed expression of incredulity on his face was not in the script.

Jee Sim took a rapid backward step, still holding the knot of bamboo securely. Wong Wa Bo, still holding on tight, pulled back.

Which was what Jee Sim was waiting for. As Wong pulled hard, Jee Sim threw the knot forward, with an underarm motion. Fut sao, he thought.

The knot, moving with the combined force of Wong’s tug on the end of the weapon and Jee Sim’s throwing motion, shot towards Wong at high speed, striking Wong in the solar plexus and knocking him to the floor.

Je Sim rushed in, assuming the now familiar orientation of looking down on Wong Wa Bo while the latter was supine on the deck, groaning in pain.

“I suggest you persist with the willow pole,” advised Jee Sim.

“Yes … urhgh … Master… Thank you.”

Jee Sim returned to the galley, picking up another cleaver and the sharpening stone.

That worked pretty well, the double larp sao, the interweaving finger strikes and the fut sao, he thought. That goes in my form.

***

Late afternoon, and the Red Boats were running with the strong easterly wind, sliding smooth and fast over the water.

Jee Sim was practicing his balance, stance and footwork at the bow of the Heaven Boat, enjoying the roaring silence of the wind in his ears, and the river-scape unfolding before him.

The boat cut a swathe through a school of fish, Jee Sim occasionally glimpsing a silver flash as a larger fish slipped sideways to avoid the keel. But it was the water itself that captivated him, as it bifurcated smoothly around the sharp end of the bow, twin plumes spouting to either side like blades.

As the boat rolled to port, the starboard plume spouted higher, and as it tilted the other way the plume to port became larger.

Jee Sim took up double weighted stance, hips, knees and ankles light and mobile, using footwork to maintain balance as the deck pitched and rolled, moving his stance to face always the higher side of the boat.

That night, they berthed at Xiansi. Next morning, Jee Sim took Wong Wa Bo into a dense forest, an overgrown track leading up a steep hill.

“Where are we going, Master?” asked Wong.

The locals called the place the Forest of Birds. The creatures were all around, some with plumage of breathtaking colours, others with complex, musical songs, still others with enthralling aerobatic skills, bright flashes of colour careening through the trees threatening, but always avoiding, collisions with their fellows.

“There is a disused temple up here, I am told,” said Jee Sim. “It may be a good place to practice, away from the eyes of strangers.”

Wong followed slowly, staring up into the trees, marvelling at the birds, until they reached a point where the forest rapidly became thicker, the going becoming heavier.

“Come on, Wa Bo.” Jee Sim pushed his way through the branches, long and thin, but so elastic and pliable as to be almost impossible to break. Wong caught up, but still paid more attention to the birds than to where he was going.

Jee Sim pushed hard to bend back a particularly tenacious branch; one he was past, it snapped back hard, the foliage catching Wong Wa Bo fair in the face. “AAH!”

“Look where you’re going!” Jee Sim told him, but only twenty yards further on, the same thing happened. This time, despite a loudly spoken warning from Jee Sim, Wong caught a branch fair in the stomach, and was knocked to the ground. He got to his feet, looking reproachfully at the Master.

Jee Sim sighed. “Right. YOU lead the way. Think you can manage that?”

Wong, face long and eyes downcast, passed Jee Sim and began pushing forward through the trees. Jee Sim caught the first branch with a tan sao; but he found it difficult to judge the best blocks to use, as they continued up the track. The dense foliage on the branches made it difficult to find a single solid contact point. At times it felt as if he were trying to redirect a swarm of insects.

Then he remembered the previous evening on the boat, and the twin plumes of water arcing away from the boat as it tilted and rolled through the water. What if he used two arms to catch the incoming branch? He imagined himself as the keel slicing though the water, one arm high, the other low. He caught the next branch with ease with a combination tan sao and garn sao; the next he had to intercept near the outer leaves and twigs, using a low bon in front with the high hand held in tan behind to prevent the flexible outer fronds whipping around and hitting him in the face, the same misfortune Wong Wa Bo had suffered in his first encounter with Jee Sim’s willow pole.

“Wa Bo,” he cried. “Faster!”

Wong picked up the pace, not an easy undertaking in a dense forest. “Are we being followed, Master?”

“No,” said Jee Sim using his bon and tan to roll away an incoming branch. “This is good endurance training for you. Come on, fast as you can!” The branches came quicker, but Jee Sim found his double arm blocks were easily keeping up.

Finally they made it through to a clearing, Wong heaving and gasping for breath from his exertions, Jee Sim with the excited and thoughtful expression of one who had made a true discovery.

The temple was small, not much bigger than the home of a poor family. A grinning, rotund statue of the Buddha remained intact, surrounded by broken tiles and animal droppings.

While Wong recovered, Jee Sim grabbed a fallen branch with leaves still intact and methodically swept the area around the statue. When he had finished, he bowed to the statue, joining his left fist and right palm before him.

“Wa Bo! Are you ready to train now?”

“But I thought the run up the mountain…” said Wong, until he saw Jee Sim’s expression, all business. “Uh. Yes, Master, I am ready,” he said, though his tone of voice indicated otherwise.

“Practise your kick defences.” Jee Sim kicked at Wong Wa Bo with a wide variety of kicks, low, high, straight, circular and spinning, concentrating on combinations that would cause Wong to be caught with a blocking hand low when it should have been high, or vice versa. Wong, despite his fatigue from the forest-penetrating push up the mountain, did pretty well, but Jee Sim found he was able to tap Wong’s solar plexus, floating ribs, or temple rather more often than he would have liked - and certainly more than Wong would have liked.

“Right. Your turn. Attack me.” Wong, trained from birth for the opera, had retained the natural suppleness and flexibility of childhood, and, despite his fatigue, threw a variety of fast and effortless kicks at Jee Sim. Jee Sim stayed close to Wong, smothering his low kicks with counter kicks of his own, or using his knee or shin to redirect them, and using “soft” arms, catching the middle and high gate attacks with his new two arm blocks. He found that by raising his shin as well when necessary, almost any attack could be nullified.

Finally, Wong threw a fast, mid-level round kick that would have levelled an unskilled fighter. Jee Sim, however, stepped inside the arc and took the blow using breathing and shock absorption, catching the blow on the upper arm of his garn sao, the tan sao of the other arm checking the knee so the shin could not complete its follow through and cause damage. He converted the garn sao into a tan, catching Wong’s leg in the crook of his elbow, and the other arm from the tan sao to a forearm check on Wong’s chest. He then used the circling step that Ng Mui had taught him to open the first form to sweep Wong’s supporting leg from underneath him, lifting him up and then dropping him onto the grass.

“OOF!” grunted Wong. Then, “Master, that technique …”

“Up,” said Jee Sim. “I’ll show you. The first technique, I call the Splitting Block.”

Jee Sim demonstrated, and then drilled Wong Wa Bo in its execution. “The palm of the tan sao should be head high. Good. Now I’ll kick, you defend.”

Once Wong had got the gist, Jee Sim showed him the second technique. “The Rolling Block. Bon sao and tan sao. Keep your elbows and shoulders level.”

Before very long, Jee Sim was satisfied with Wong’s efforts. “Right, Wa Bo, back we go. This time, I’ll go ahead. Use your new techniques to protect yourself from the angry branches of the trees I push out of the way.”

Jee Sim raced through the trees, Wong right behind him. Glad I decided to do this on the way down and not the way up, Jee Sim thought.

Wong was panting, but there were no cries of pain from branches to the face like there were going up. It seemed all too soon that the reached the bottom of the mountain, careering into a clearing, leaving the forest behind.

Both men stopped to catch their breath. Jee Sim looked up. There were birds everywhere, colourful, raising a tuneful cacophony, an inarticulate but raucous audience to their achievements.

“Master, are the birds not beautiful?” Wong asked, after they had stood, rapt, for several minutes.

“Indeed they are, Wa Bo,” Jee Sim said. All the more so, he mused, after such an interesting and productive day. “Come, back to the boat. I’m inspired to cook a special treat for all tonight.”

The next day, once the Boats were out in deep water, well away from prying Qing eyes, Jee Sim asked the Opera performers to come up on deck for a demonstration. He began with the opening movements common to the first two Wing Chun forms, Small Thought and Searching for the Bridge; but then his hands flew in the intricate, curving patterns his Elder Sister had taught him. Fast footwork, crushing elbows, finger strikes flashing in sequence like vipers. Then suddenly, he parried an imaginary blow and dropped to one knee; stood again, split and rolled with his two arm blocks, interweaving a variety of combination kicks; three long, fast backward steps covering the line with fut sao, and then two rapid covering steps forward, followed by rapid fire horizontal finger strikes. A double larp sao, then more vertical jabs with the fingers in interlocking trajectories, and a sudden fold at the waist, the arms leading the torso quickly back to an erect posture, straight into chain punches.

Jee Sim performed the finishing bow. The performers broke into spontaneous cheering.

“This is your new form,” Jee Sim announced to the throng. “It is called Bil Jee. I learned it from my Elder Sister, the Shaolin nun Ng Mui, the finest fighter who ever walked the Earth … a Qing Major … and,” he said, looking over the crowd, “from one of my students.” Once more he bowed.

Early evening. Jee Sim was cleaning the serving bowls.

“Master …”

“Wa Bo. How unexpected.”

“Forgive my ungovernable curiosity … but … which student taught you the Bil Jee form?”

Jee Sim chuckled. “Wa Bo, you would not believe me if I told you.”

***

Several hundred miles away, Ng Mui sat, unobtrusive and disguised, in a teahouse not far from Yim Yee’s tofu shop. She sorted and cast the yarrow stalks six times, asking the I Ching about the fate of Jee Sim.

Hexagram sixty-three, After Completion. Something had come to an end or a resolution, and all was in harmony. But the lines were all moving lines, sixes and nines.

Great success had been achieved, but each moving line warned of a particular quality that was needed to ensure its continuation.

Discipline.

Restraint.

Right association.

Attention to detail.

Frugality.

Consistency.

Jee Sim, she knew, would act as required in the days ahead.

The resulting hexagram, incorporating the moving lines, was number sixty-four, Before Completion. A new phase, a new time was already beginning. Their life at the Temple was gone forever; but fresh and exciting challenges, with great rewards, lay ahead.

Never had she experienced so supremely auspicious a reading.

“Jee Sim, my brother, still our spirits rise,” she murmured, smiling.

THE END

[Acknowledgement to Kung Fu Online Wing Chun forum member SunKuen for providing certain ideas]

Copyright © Andrew Nerlich
Sydney, November 2005