气 Where is my Bowl of Rice?

練劍莫先於煉气*

Training the sword cannot be done without first refining the Qi

"Listen, swordmanship is the discipline and training of the Great Vitality. So you begin this study by training the ch'i by means of technique. After your beginning studies, you will discipline your ch'i, but move away from technique; yet, there should be no point where you try your hand vacantly. You should become mature in your discipline of ch'i, and master the mind"**

气 is a notion very particular to the Chinese culture, not only a polysemous word, but also a riddle to solve in the old practices. That makes it a complex and hard notion to deal with. But since it is, in most cases, an integral part of Chinese martial arts, leaving out this notion would be like wanting to make wine in France without taking into consideration the "terroir".

武術 War for Peace

故善攻者，敵不知其所守；善守者，敵不知其所攻*
That is why when one is skillful in attack, his opponent does not know where to defend; one is skillful in defence, his opponent does not know where to attack.

There are many names to describe martial arts 武(舞)技, 武道, 武功, 國術, 功夫... From nationalist pride to some special aspects of the training, they express different views. Still 武術 seems to be the most common denomination, and looking at its meaning beyond the simple "martial arts" translation is interesting because its shows the evolution, the misunderstandings and the ability for some schools to play with Chinese characters beyond their usual meaning.

Method

不二法門

The one and only way

"Do you know what I shall study, I asked?

But... Yourself, who has ever studied anything else, he answered smiling?"*

Before they became obsolete, old martial arts practices were a training leading to a possible good career. Money, fame and glory always being the main motivation for most people, they were high in demand and it was quite hard to get into a school. Until relatively quite recently, people used to queue to try to get a master, coming bearing gifts with no guarantee to be admitted as a student. It was said that to become a student, you had to be gifted, diligent and liked by the master. Nowadays, of course, it's quite the opposite.

The Forest

殊途而同歸*

All roads lead to Rome

They are a lot of ways to call martial arts in China, one of them being 武林, often translated as martial arts circles. 武meaning martial and 林circle(s) of people by extension, its original meaning behind wood, forest. However, because 林 is the combination of two 木 (wood, tree), it has also conveyed the meaning of various, a multitude, as in the expression 林林總總 (numerous, multitudinous). That is exactly what this term, 武林, is also conveying.

Standing

不易乎世

Keeping one's integrity through time

It is always better to understand where we stand before starting anything. This blog is mostly about old practices from China, called before martial arts, and more especially about the internal ones. In modern and developed societies, technology has rendered them almost totally obsolete in their previous professional capacities, warfare, security (police...) and protection (of persons or valuables), but, on the other hand, consumerism has dramatically increased their presence as a hobby for self-defense, physical and mental exercices and even spiritual search.