Tiger Lady, Fierce Tiger

武本無德，有德也空 

(See just below)

"The martial is by essence without virtue, any virtue would be in vain" is an old saying pointing out the ruthlessness of combat.
When faced with no choice but to fight for one's life, the apparent obedient lady had to change into something scary, cruel and merciless, hence the threatening tiger. The idea is that from a seemningly prey, one had to become a dangerous predator, exploiting then the element of surprise. Threatening for a last chance to avoid having to fight or, at least, break the opponents morale and fighting spirit. Tiger because of the nimble violence and absence of mercy.

I. Threatening and Wild

Changing in an instant from a nice and obedient looking person to a insane scary one was the way to surprise the enemy as well as to directly influence his spirit. Scary and insane are both what is called "spirit methods".

a. Looking Scary

Often described as 殺氣, the aura of death or murderous look, it was coming from the capacity to "mobilise one's organs". Indeed, once one would master the peeping thief technique, the aura of death would come just naturally and it would be just a question of keeping it in, hidden, or showing it. As spirit methods are linked to the eyes, it was a question, to make it simple, of learning how to look inside or outside. Sometimes, martists would train with animals, testing the power of their aura of death against them.

b. Looking Insane

Following the peeping thief technique were the trainings to learn frenzy. Indeed, just scary was not enough, one had to look totally insane, because not only insanity disturbs even more people but it also means looking erratic. Having one's body set aside and then becoming fearless would directly impact the way one looked to his/her opponents and break even more their morale.

Still threatening was often not enough and if faced with having no choice but to fight, one would have to loose his/her humanity.

II. Violent and Unrestrained

Because of its feline nature, the tiger embodies nimbleness, and because it is one of the top predators, cruelty. 

a. Nimble Violence

Nimbleness is all about, once again, fascia training while violence is mainly a question of speed. Hence, one had to train fascias and speed through frenzy, becoming insanely fast.

b. Empathy's Gone

Internal practices aim to reach an emotional void while, at least, fighting. Hence, in a fight one would loose his/her humanity and empathy. Because modern martial arts are just leisure nowadays and it is certainly unnecessary to teach people to reach this level of violence, the trainings for this last point will not be described. To give an idea of the level of violence to be reached, one just has just to look at the most repulsive acts of violence shown on the web. As it was pointed out, there is absolutely no virtue once one has to fight. 

Old internal practices were all about one's spirit, certainly not techniques, which were just ancillary. Leaving in a relatively peaceful society and/or with modern weaponry, such spirit level is not really necessary anymore. Furthermore, in order to avoid dealing with unpleasant legal repercussions after a fight, one shall never aim to hurt, certainly not to kill... Hence, modern martists are either outmatched by modern weaponry or tamed by legislation. Dogs on a leash, it is no wonder they cannot be really efficient anymore.