Don't Come Empty Handed

技巧者，習手足，便器械，積機關，以立攻守之勝者也。*

To become skilled, one shall study hands and feet, which is useful for weapons, accumulating gears, to establish victory in attack as well as in defence.

刀隨身轉，身隨刀行

The single-edged sword shifts following the body, the body moves following the single-edged sword

身不離槍，槍不離身，槍隨身走，身隨槍動

The spear does not leave the body, the body does not leave the spear, the spear goes following the body, the body moves following the spear

槍紥一條線，棍掃一大片

The spear pierces a line, the staff sweeps a wide expanse

In most of the old schools in China, empty handed and with weapons are both trained. If training weapons seems totally logic, It can be useful to dispel the confusion surrounding the notion of empty hands. In the old days, a martist could sleep naked, but certainly not without his/her weapon. Warfare and combat was, in the old world as it is now, mainly a question of weaponry. The weapons have changed with technology, but they always have been a part of human conflicts.
Therefore, everything in one's training could only be towards the aim of handling weapons, and certainly never for fighting with bare hands. Nowadays, because most of the old weaponry is obsolete and old practices have become mainly a hobby for civilians, the empty hands training have often become the main part of one's training. Therefore, ancient practices in modern developed societies at peace have evolved towards the goals of competition, self-defence for civilians, spiritual accomplishment... all stressing more on empty handed skills since most the legislations doesn't allow to carry weapons at all or allow firearms. This may be one of the main reasons the empty hands practice original aim, getting a nimbler body with fighting customised abilities (speed, endurance, strength...) and motion (speed, balance, rooting...) has been more or less put aside, if not totally forgotten in favour of training empty handed fighting techniques. Indeed, as a hobby, things cannot be too complicated, one cannot spare the time to train and understand deeper body mechanisms when training only a few hours a week, what is true for any study or training is no exception for martial arts, the deeper understanding and achievement are sought, the more time and dedication is needed, there is no magic trick or shortcut here.

It was common within many schools, as it has already been mentioned in the two previous posts, to have empty handed and a very heavy weapon as parts of the basic training. Following this method may be an other interesting way to understand the old practices logic. Indeed, empty handed was all about training the body in its most natural state, while a heavy weapon would provide with a quite uncomfortable way of training, the final use of a much lighter weapon being exactly the middle way. This is, indeed, a pure application of the Yin-Yang theory.

Empty Hence Natural

As it has alredy been mentioned times and times again in this blog, most of the training in the old methods had little to do with learning fighting techniques, and especially empty handed, but was about acquiring useful skills in combat.

Most certainly due to the country size and many different populations, old weapons in China are numerous, much more than the traditional eighteen martial arts weapons, a list which already has at least five different versions... If the regular armies preferred weapons followed more or less the general trend of bow, crossbow, spear (but including a more complex version), shield, sword and then single-edged sword, axe and stick, weapons in other fields could be quite inventive. This quite extensive choice made that most of the martial arts practice in China had numerous weapons at their disposal, and one had to find which weapon(s) would suit him the best. Different weapons, different ways to move, the principle for handling a hard stick and a flexible sword are quite different, if not opposite. The first obvious method to find one's weapon(s) was to train them all and then select which one(s) was(were) the better fit. Still, since old practices were, as for every other field of study, trying to be as efficient as possible, they devised another way to find one's fit, training with no weapon at first, yes, another paradox. Why? Mainly for two reasons, to concentrate on the minimum common principles regardless of weapons, and because once a student would have found his own and particular motion, the weapons suiting would be much easier to determine. Just to give an idea with a simple, hence not really totally accurate, example, a thick stick would probably be a better fit for a sturdy person and a light sword for a tall and skinny one.

Putting the handling of a weapon aside, a lot of skills, like speed in motion, strength and flexibility, are better studied first when one's body knows no constraint, so bare hand. Furthermore, when the aim is to profoundly change the body mechanics from contracted/loose muscles to extended/retracted fascias, a hard process, apart maybe for young kids, empty handed would seem a better choice than holding a weapon because of the automatic reflex to contract muscles to support the load.

Eventhough, another way to practice was to put the student in a much more stressful situation than he/she will be while fighting, the direct application of "training heavy using light" described in the two previous posts.

Herculean Hence Unnatural

Weapon is not a natural extension of one's body, making us more clumsy, and even more when it is heavy and oversized. If one can really manage to become one with such a weapon, hence natural again, handling lighter and smaller ones would not be difficult.

Then, once the extending and retracting motion through fascia elasticity was mastered, one could train weapons, and some schools would have their student train with a heavy and oversized weapon. Apart from the fact that weight is a way to accelerate one's training, hence to improve drastically fascia elasticity, reinforce one's organs and bone structure (see previous post), it is one of the way given to an internalist to be able to check if he/she can really use the whole body force as well as move through the principle of non-force being the better force.

Whole Body Force

Some postures like "hanging the spear" for the long spear**, are just impossible to achieve through the sheer force of the arms only. Being able or not to hold them is a sign that the whole body force has been somehow yet mastered, or not. Furthermore, the heavier the load, the more the body will have no choice but to use its every part to handle it. It is also interesting to notice that, for old martial arts practices, overloaded and super light are two joining extremes, therefore trying to move empty handed all and any body parts together as if they were all lighter than a feather is also a path to the whole body force.

Non-Force

Breathing, as always, is the main way to judge if one is using fascia elasticity or something else. To be able to keep a long, deep and uninterrupted breath all the way to the end of a rather long routine with a heavy and unpractical weapon, not being even slightly out of breath, is a sign of not using any muscle contraction. Furthermore, annihilating the weight sensation the weapon is another one.

Not feeling the weight sensation of the weapon and breathing without panting, one's body would then really unite with the weapon and start to be able to move naturally.

For old internal practices, empty handed and with heavy weapons were two side of the same coin, different paths to the same skills with the final aim of handling a weapon with the most efficiency. Therefore, the martial outlook of routines were just a reminder that they were not just dance or acrobatics, but hardly ever empty handed techniques to be studied.

* Book of Han, Treatise on Literature 漢書，藝文志

** Very close to some fishing techniques, the long spear is raised vertically with both hands touching each other while holding its very tip, then slowly lowered until horizontal, both hands remaining at their "tip of the spear" position.