Strong and Experienced Youth

拳怕少壯, 棍怕老郎

The fist fears the young and vigorous, the stick the old gentleman.

身體力行

A body acts according to physical strengths¹.

讀萬卷書不如行萬里路

It's better to walk thousands of miles than to read thousands of books².

An old martial saying states that experience itself represents half, if not more, of the value of a warrior.
The vigorous young and old gentleman also points to the two main qualities a martial artist shall look for, a strong, vigorous, ever-young body and experience. In times when people are more looking to obtain skills and strongly lack experience (meaning numerous fights with “cold weapons” of ancient times), such saying may be another example of how the old martial arts have changed since they became a practice for civilians.

Because our societies have become more civilised, for the better part, and since modern weaponry is much more advanced, for the worst part, old martial practices coming from times with no firearms cannot any more fulfil their main purpose. That is why they have, over the last two centuries, gradually transferred to the civilian world, offering everything from self-defence to personal enlightenment. By doing so and from a lack of regular experience, they have definitely evolved to something which was not their main intent, whatever dreamy practitioners may sell. This is actually not something unseen before, as martial requirements can collide with a social and more civilian life. An example can be found with the quite non-practical way swords used to be worn at the waist sometimes during the Han, Jin and older dynasties, hilt pointing towards the ground and firmly attached to avoid the blade from leaving the sheath, making it very hard to draw.

Having to sit on the knees when swords were getting longer and longer, etiquette which imposed not to be able to easily draw one’s sword when interacting socially and maybe also just a fashion for nobles wearing swords more to show their status than as real fencers³, were some of the possible reasons. Nevertheless, this was totally against the need to have its weapon ready and easily drawn as far as martial artists are concerned and, actually, it might be the reason why King Zheng⁴ was almost killed by the assassin Jin ke, not able to draw immediately his sword.

If even in the old days when swords were really used, interacting in the civilian world could force martial artists to adopt this kind of dangerous habit, it is easy to understand how a full conversion to the civilian sphere can change practices, especially when one does not anymore have the chance to get real experience on a regular basis.

The aims of regular training have also evolved according to what a school sells, from physical competition to enlightenment to self-defence, the needs are different and so are the physical requirements. In the civilian sphere, the need to be strong and vigorous, slow down the ageing process, may not be opportune, or just not what people are looking for as leisure. Still, it may be interesting to notice that this saying doesn’t emphasise on skills but just on vigour, youth and physical sturdiness. The logic is actually quite simple, one has to first improve body and health, then spirit, because a stronger body and spirit naturally allow someone to do more⁵. If martial arts competitors are in line with this saying, big belly easily out-of-breath teachers coming from a misunderstanding of the non-strength concept and breathing techniques are a far cry from such a requirement. In the old days, a martial artist had to be able to carry a lot of weight on him, ride a horse or walk for hours, stand or lie still also for a long time, if not impervious at least very resistant to weather … all qualities an athletic body could provide. And if internal practices had a slightly different idea of what could be an athletic body, it still had to lead to the capacities just mentioned above.

A strong body to be able to easily handle a weapon and experience to understand the dangers one faces while fighting with it. Further posts will try to develop more in detail such qualities.

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1 "Practice what you preach" is the common meaning of such proverb.

2 This is actually one of the very few chinese sayings where books are not revered, because it points to the need to get real experience. Chinese culture, of course, tends to generally give a lot of value to books with sayings like 書是隨時攜帶的花園, book is at-all-times carried garden, or  好書如摯友, a good book is as good as a close-friend, illustrating it.

3 Some sword blades were even sometimes made of wood since they were just worn for apparences.

4 Who later became the famous Qin Shi Huang, founder of the Qin Dynasty.

5 To put in perspective with the saying 功到取成, fetching when the skill is there.