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.

Light Heavyweight

無力優力

No force is the better force

重裏觀輕勿梢留*

Watching lightness inside heaviness, leaving no extremities

練重不如練輕

Training heavy cannot match training light

Weights used to be a very important part of martial trainings, it was, after all, already part of the military exams during the reign of the first Chinese female emperor, Wu Zetian (AD 624–705), as well as later for higher levels examinations when military exams were taken seriously. Therefore, in the old days, training with weights would never have been an issue, just regular practice. Furthermore, it was also a way to further understand some of the meanings of the oxymoron of the first quote, being powerful without using force.

Going Deep, Flying High

練重使輕

Training heavy, using light

練低使高*

Training low, using high

輕則靈敏，重則穩健**

Light then agile and quick-witted, heavy then stable and steady

逍遙遊***

Enjoyment in untroubled ease

While fighting with sharp blades, speed seems to be a major issue, and the lighter the faster. Regardless of the needs of specialised professions, It would seem then natural to train high postures for faster mobility and lightness to be swifter. Still, training the body to become faster and moving fast are actually two different things, and especially when both speed and strength are coming from the connective tissues elasticity.

Tiny Dancer

練長使短

Training in length, using short

練高使低

Training high, using low

大動不如小動，小動不如不動，不動之動乃生生不息之動！*

Large motion does not match small gestures, small gestures do not match stillness, moving within stillness brings the never ending motion

磨轉千遭臍不動

The millstone turns a thousand times, its pivot remains still

Fighting with old weapons, i.e before firearms, was all about not giving anything away and using as little energy as possible in order to last as long as possible, hence short movements. One would think that, then, it is pure logic to also train short movements in order to prepare oneself for combat, programming the body to move as it will need to do so in battlefield. If training was only aiming at motion while fighting, it would be so, but it was also a means to improve one's body and its skills (see previous post), a different trend with different objectives and ruling principles**.

Dark Side of the Moon

拳有勢者，所以為變化也。横斜側面，起立走伏，皆有墙戶，可以攻，故謂之勢。拳有定勢，而用時無定勢。然當其用也，變無定勢，而實不失勢，故謂之把勢*

Fists have a posture, which implies changes. Transversal, oblique, sideways or frontal, getting up, standing, moving or lying prostrate, everything has walls and doors, attack being then possible, therefore we talk about posture. Fists have fixed postures, but when boxing there is no fixed posture. So that it undertakes its own usefulness, changes knowing no determined posture and yet one actually not losing posture, which is the way to be skilful in the art.

戚繼光曰：“操手足之號令易，而操心之號令難；有形之操易，而不操之操難”**

Qiji Guang said: " The command to practice the hands and feet is easy, but the one to train the heart hard; practicing form is easy, but the drill with no drill hard"

For old internal practices, fighting was chaos, hence no rule, while training, to compensate, had to be made with method, hence rules and order. Training with rules for the chaos was another oxymoron to be solved. Indeed, because fighting was chaos, one would aim to reach the formless even though training was ruled by form. There are therefore a lot of sayings in Chinese martial arts that, as oxymorons, ask the students to do the opposite in fighting of what was done while training.

Talking to Your Heart

教拳不教步，教步打師傅

Teaching boxing but not stepping, teaching stepping beats the master (the master enables the student to be able to beat him)

教一手，不教一口，教一口不教一走

Teaching a technique but not telling, telling but not teaching how to move

Books and writings are a very good help, especially when doing researches, but they are hardly a way to really learn, and especially at the very beginning, so are videos. This is even more true for old practices which were not a product for the masses but a tool customised for each and every student. Hence, this blog, like any other writing, is totally useless for any person willing to study the arts, it can only be a means of reflexion.

Hold On

心為令，氣為旗，腰為纛
The heart commands, vapours are the flag and the waist the banner

肛門不提，丹田氣散，内中空虚，元氣*虧損
When the anus is not pulled up, the vapours around the cinnabar field disperse, the inside becomes empty and one's vitality depletes

A lot of Chinese practices consider the waist to be the most important part of the body, 腰为主宰, the waist dictates. For those practices, the waist refers not only to the anatomical part of the body, but can also point out specific vertebras or extend to the whole part below the navel to the crotch, the pelvic area. Since it is not only the centre of one's body, where the legs and the chest connect, but also the most important place for vitality, most of the organs being more or less located around it, keeping a correct structure in the area is key to a fruitful training. Among the many requirements one stands out, the necessity to literally pull up the anus that you find in a lot of practices (or its symmetrical version, to pull up the bladder) and hang the stomach (or its symmetrical version, to pinch the sacrum vertebras).

Rock the Cinnabar

內有丹田，氣之歸宿*

Inside are the Cinnabar Fields, the place vapours return to

勁從足下起，還得丹田足

The strength raises from the feet on the prerequisite the cinnabar field is sufficient enough

掌心力從足心印

The force from the centre of the palms comes from the mark in the centre of the feet

Working on one's vitality flow, as it was explained in the two previous posts, was one of the objectives in the old practices. To do so, apart from mobilising one's organs, one could work on, or enhance, certain parts of the body having an impact on such flow. Of the numerous parts, the most famous are the cinnabar fields, 丹田.

Vitality and Strength

眼無神, 拳無魂

Eyes with no expression, boxing without spirit

氣發若風行, 氣納吞百川*

Vapours are emitted like the wind, vapours receive, swallowing a hundred rivers

夫內勁寓於無形之中，接於有形之表，而難以言傳**

The inside strength is in the incorporeal, connecting with a corporeal expression, thus very hard to convey in words

Chinese arts differentiate strength from just body force. In Chinese, force is 力, which originally was a representation of human tendons or connective tissues***, "筋也。象人筋之形". Strength is 勁, the "underground river", 巠, of force, 力.