Chapter 16 The first section of martial arts
Ancient Chinese martial artists had extremely strict standards for martial arts skills.In the Spring and Autumn Period, Yang Youji, a famous marksman in the state of Chu, once performed archery in front of thousands of spectators.Yang Youji was very proud, but one person said coldly: "You've shot well, you can learn how to shoot." When archery is not good at relaxing, if you keep shooting like this, you will soon miss the bow due to exhaustion of energy, and as long as you miss a shot, all previous efforts will be wasted ("Historical Records Zhou Benji").Yang Youji has the amazing arrow technique of piercing Yang with a hundred steps. Some people still say that he is just a talent that can be cultivated. This story shows that ancient martial artists were serious about martial arts and kept improving, almost to the point of demanding, just like Xunzi said "Missing one in a hundred shots is not enough to be good at shooting" ("Xunzi Encouraging Learning").During the Three Kingdoms period, Wei Wendi Cao Pi also had considerable skills in archery, and he had the ability to use both left and right bows.He believed that shooting arrows worthy of shooting on a practice range with a fixed target could not be regarded as a high level of skill. Only in the wilderness with lush vegetation, galloping vertically, hitting cunning beasts downward, shooting birds upward, and bending the bow properly could be achieved. If you can penetrate through the middle, you can be regarded as an expert if you reach this level. ("Dian Lun·Self-narration")
In order to make their martial arts proficient, martial artists practice hard for 10 years, 20 years, or even a lifetime. Confucius' Gaozuzilu was once trapped between Chen and Cai when he went out with Confucius. He couldn't eat for seven days, but he still insisted on practicing martial arts with a shield ("Zhuangzi Rangwang").When it comes to martial arts training, people will naturally think of the widely circulated sayings in the martial arts world, such as "Fist is never out of hand, song is never out of mouth", "Three years of learning boxing, three days of throwing boxing", "One day of practice, one day of skill , Do not practice for ten days without practicing", "A small achievement in three years, a great achievement in ten years", "One day of function, one day of technical excellence", "Tai Chi without going out for ten years" and so on.
One of the essential differences between ancient Chinese martial arts and Western martial arts practice is that it has "kung fu".Only from the appearance of the movements, it is difficult for laymen to see how good the kung fu of martial artists is, because the movements of the martial arts masters with profound skills are unpretentious and unpretentious. do not.However, in the actual combat of life and death, these kicks, points, and grabs that seem to be understated have great power to kill the enemy, and the reason lies in "kung fu".
Kung fu is the essence of Chinese martial arts. With kung fu, everyone can rely on ordinary moves and moves to attack hard and hard things without any disadvantages; beginners without kung fu will always be full of flaws when they are tried.Therefore, there is a saying in the world of martial arts that "strength does not punch, punches do not punch", that is to say, clumsy strength and brute force are no match for martial arts skills, and martial arts skills are no match for profound kung fu.Therefore, ancient martial artists should not only train their body, shape, and strength, but also train their essence, energy, and spirit.In this kind of practice of both spirit and form, generations of martial artists have developed a system of extensive and complex martial arts skills with unbelievably persistent pursuit and persistent spirit of exploration.Therefore, martial artists call the practice of martial arts "practice".Kungfu practice is the main content of martial arts activities of ancient martial artists.
The martial arts in ancient China can be divided into two categories: internal training and external training, which is what people in the martial arts often say, "train your breath internally, and train your muscles, bones and skin externally".Practicing internally is to improve the state of mind, breath, viscera, meridians, blood vessels and other aspects of martial arts practitioners, so as to achieve "inner strength"; while practicing externally is to strengthen the functions of bones, tendons, muscles, skin and other parts to achieve Seek to be strong.Internal training is the foundation of external training, and external training transforms strong internal skills into powerful combat power. In this way, the combination of internal and external complements each other. A passage in "Yang's Taijiquan Manual" makes this relationship very clear: "Qi moves in membranes, collaterals, tendons, and veins, and power comes from blood, flesh, skin, and bones. Therefore, all powerful people are strong outside The skin and bones are the shape; those who have energy are strong inside the tendons and veins, and the image is also strong inside. Qi and blood work on the inside, and blood and energy work on the outside." After understanding this truth and knowing the source of strength, one will naturally know "exerting force". , and the difference between moving qi. Circulating qi in the tendons and exerting force on the skin and bones." ("Tai Chi Quan Pu" Volume 7 "Yang Pu: The Old Book of Yang's Biography in the Qing Dynasty") Therefore, the practice of Tai Chi should "shoulder the shoulders Dropping the elbow, the qi sinks to the dantian. Qi can enter the dantian, which is the general organ of qi, from which it is divided into the four bodies and hundreds of bones, and the qi flows around the whole body, so that the qi reaches the point. When you practice to this position, your strength is limitless!" ( "Tai Chi Quan Pu" Volume 8 "Yang Pu: The Old Pu of the Yang Family in the Qing Dynasty")
Chen Xin (A.D. 1849-1929), a Chen-style Taijiquan master, also said: "Punching is also to use the two meridians of the governor and governor, so that they can circulate smoothly." The moving energy of the momentum will gradually be exhausted and the movement will become weak." Therefore, the emphasis is on training Qi. ("Taijiquan Pictorial Lectures First Collection Boxing Manual")
Even Shaolin Boxing, which is famous for attacking hard and hard, also attaches great importance to this combination of internal and external cultivation: "Whether you practice martial arts or skills, you must first cultivate your energy. If you are full of energy, you will be perfect, and if you are perfect, you will be strong." ("Shaolin Seventy-two" Summary of Art Practices")
Generally speaking, the idea and practice of Wushu, which integrates the inside and the outside, is to make the mind, energy, strength, and body of the martial arts practitioners organically cooperate and integrate into one, and the internal and external forces interact to achieve "inner and outer strength". Strong and brave", so that the mind is used to guide, the body is used to guide the qi, and the qi is used to exert force.This kind of force is no longer the clumsy, stiff, or brute force of the limbs.Clumsy force, rigid force, and brute force look aggressive, but they are just superficial. The strength of the blow is limited to the superficial parts of the human body. However, the force produced by the combination of internal and external forces in Chinese martial arts is far and deep, with softness in the hardness. Soft yet firm.This kind of force is extremely penetrating, it can penetrate through the skin and bones, and hit the viscera directly, and the impact effect is far greater than that of clumsy force without skill.
The emergence of martial arts skills, especially internal strength, is directly related to the unprecedented prosperity of ancient Chinese Qi Xingshu since it entered the Ming Dynasty.Since the Ming Dynasty, a large number of qigong publications have emerged, exceeding the sum of all previous dynasties.It was also during this period that after experiencing the low ebb of the Song and Yuan dynasties, the ancient Daoyin technique also set off a climax when it entered the Ming Dynasty.
Internal exercises focus on essence, qi, and spirit, and strengthen the internal foundation, such as the marrow washing scriptures and tendon-changing scriptures; external exercises focus on body flexibility, coordination, strength, and footsteps in order to improve self-defense and attack capabilities; hard exercises focus on training The skills of each part of the body to resist hard blows, such as iron cloth shirt, red sand palm, one-finger meditation, upper pot, stone pillar, row fighting, etc.; lightness skills mainly practice the ability of light body jumping and super-distance, such as running wall swimming Qigong can be divided into nourishing qi and practicing qi. Nourishing qigong is mainly static exercises such as sitting meditation to regulate breath and refresh the mind.Practicing Qi refers to the combination of martial arts and Zen, with the help of blood circulation.Although each kung fu has its own strengths, since the general guiding ideology of kung fu practice is to emphasize the whole, that is, the unity of the inside and the outside, and the practice of both spirit and form, there are many crossovers in the practice of various kung fu, and few of them are purely internal or internal. outside.
So, how did ancient martial artists practice martial arts?
The main purpose of internal strength is to nourish and train qi.Cultivate qi to concentrate qi and clear the mind, practice qi to move the breath, mobilize the breath freely, and serve the practice, just as the "Shaolin Boxing Secrets Qigong Explanation" said: "Nurture the qi and then keep the qi still, and then the spirit will be clear after the qi is still. When you are clear, you can control the advance and retreat at the right time, so you can say that you hit the enemy's side." "The study of Qi training uses movement as the effect, breathing as the work, softness and rigidity as the main purpose, rigidity and softness as the ultimate "Because the inner strength is not for direct martial arts, but to strengthen the inner foundation, so that the martial arts practitioners are concealed, calm and calm, and can freely mobilize the breath according to the needs of martial arts. Therefore, the inner strength is mostly static, or slow. And the simple dynamic exercises seek movement in stillness.The most common are the following:
Zhuanggong "To learn boxing, you must stand on the pile. If you want to practice punching, you must first practice the pile." Zhanzhuanggong is the basic skill of martial arts internal skills. "Zhuang" means standing still like a pile during practice. Solid as a pile.
There are many types of Zhuanggong in martial arts, and each school and school of martial arts has its own Zhuanggong, such as the Bagua Zhuang, Tiger Sitting Zhuang, and Jiama Zhuang in Baguazhang, Ziwu Zhuang in Shaolin Boxing, and Sancai Zhuang in Xingyiquan. Boxing stakes, Miaoquan arrow stakes and Tibetan mountain stakes, as well as horse-step stakes, Ding-step stakes, virtual-step stakes, triangular stakes, Siping stakes, seven-star stakes, supporting stakes, crouching tiger stakes, subduing dragon stakes, etc. .These postures, which are mainly static postures, have various postures, different expressions, and each has its own emphasis. It cultivates Qi, trains spirit, trains mind, adjusts body and strength, and lays the foundation for martial arts in a calm and unhurried manner.
In addition to the above-mentioned static-based forms of martial arts, there are also various types of boxing used to practice basic body postures, such as "walking piles" (also called "moving piles" and "live piles") practiced while walking, walking piles It has a more direct relationship with martial arts, such as Tongbei Liulu rowing pile, falling plum blossom pile, drunken fist swing pile, etc.
Standing Kung Fu, which is the basic skill of martial arts practice, also has a good health care effect. In the middle of Qing Dynasty, someone introduced Zhan Zhuang Kung Fu into ordinary people's health preservation techniques, but it was not widely popular.
The "Yi Jin Jing" mentioned above was named Bodhidharma, but actually appeared in the late Ming Dynasty. "Yi Jin Jing" is a representative work of martial arts, and was regarded as a classic by Shaolin martial artists and spread.
"Yi Jin Jing" believes: "Tendons are also the tendons of the human body. Outside the joints, within the muscles, the limbs and bones, there is no place that is not a tendon, and no tendon is not a network. Connect the whole body, pass through the blood, and serve as a supplement to the spirit. Just like a person’s shoulders can bear, hands can hold, feet can walk, and the whole body is lively and flexible, all of them are those with strong tendons.” ("Yi Jin Jing · Volume 1 General Discussion") Various diseases of the body , such as illness, thinness, flaccidity, laxity, death, etc., are all caused by bad states of tendons, such as laxity, contracture, exhaustion, weakness, and shrinkage.Therefore, it is necessary to replace sick and weak tendons with strong tendons, because "when tendons are strong, they will be strong; if they are relaxed, they will be long; if they are strong, they will be strong;Although "jin" is the object of external exercises, "Yi Jin Jing" starts from the point of view of the unity of form and spirit, and believes that "training the visible is the help of the invisible, and cultivating the invisible is the help of the visible" ("Yi Jin Jing") "Membrane Theory"), that is to say, the invisible internal training and the tangible external training complement each other.
Therefore, the "Yi Jin Jing" divides exercise into three levels, namely, training tendons, training membranes and training Qi.To practice tendons, you must practice membranes, and to practice membranes, you must practice qi.Start with the most difficult qi training, "make the qi clear and peaceful, calm and peaceful, and harmonious and smooth", so that the qi can "go through the tendons, string through the membranes, and even move the whole body smartly, everywhere, everywhere. No. When the Qi arrives, the membrane rises, and when the Qi moves, the membrane expands."Then train the tendons to relax, strengthen, harmonize, grow, and strengthen the tendons, and finally develop into a "body of gold and stone".
According to this practice theory, "Yi Jin Jing" adopts massage, slapping and tranquility induction, mind-shoulding massage, and slapping the parts, supplemented by taking internal strengthening medicines and medicinal baths for nourishing qi and blood, In order to achieve the effect of being strong inside and brave outside.
"Yi Jin Jing" also includes 12 postures for practicing kung fu, which are called "Twelve Figures of Yi Jin Jing", which are Wei Tuo's first, second, and third postures of presenting the pestle, picking stars for fighting, and spreading claws and wings. Stance, Nine Ox Tail Pulling Upside Down Stance, Nine Ghosts Pulling Saber Stance, Three Plates Landing Stance, Qinglong Probing Claws Stance, Crouching Tiger Pounces on Prey Stance, Bow Stance and Work Tail Stance.
The main purpose of martial arts is self-defense and fighting. Therefore, whether the bones are strong, whether the tendons are flexible, whether the muscles are strong, and whether the skin is tough are directly related to whether they can resist blows and falls when defending, protect themselves, and how strong they are when attacking. In grappling, fighting and wrestling, whether you can attack hard and hard, defeat the enemy and win.Therefore, ancient martial artists all spent a lot of time practicing external skills, and did not dare to slack off at all.All tricks, dangerous moves, and ruthless moves in martial arts are all closely related to external skills.Ancient Chinese martial artists have developed a very rich external training method in practice, which eliminates the clumsy strength of the whole body, makes the body firm and flexible, and the strength is infinitely variable and unfathomable. At the same time, breath adjustment is introduced in the external training Luck, mobilizing the mind and other internal skills, use the mind to guide the qi, and use the qi to stimulate the force, which greatly improves the effect of the external skills.
Rougong Chinese martial arts have changeable movement directions, complex lines, twitching, opening and closing, and have extremely high requirements on the flexibility of the body.It is difficult for people with stiff joints and ligaments and lack of elasticity in their muscles to enter the sublime realm of martial arts.Therefore, ancient martial artists paid great attention to the practice of body flexibility, and took it as the basic skill for martial arts practitioners to get started, which is called "soft bone work" or "soft work".Soft Gong includes exercises to develop the range of motion and muscle flexibility of the shoulders, wrists, chest and back, waist, legs, and ankles.Use active or passive pressing, swinging, pulling, pulling, etc. to expand the range of motion of the joints.Methods such as "leg press", "lower waist", "splits", "shoulder press", "chest opening", "kneeling press" and other methods that people often see practiced by martial arts practitioners belong to martial arts soft kung fu.For example, the "Wu Bian" of the Ming Dynasty pointed out that when practicing kicks, one should kick the legs first and then practice kicks.The so-called kicking the legs is to develop the flexibility of the legs (Volume 5 of the first episode of "Wu Bian").The soft work of martial arts is not to blindly pursue softness and stretching, resulting in a slowdown of movement speed, but to be as soft as boneless when relaxing, and as fast as lightning when exerting force.Therefore, soft work is not only static compression and stretching, but also includes a lot of dynamic movement exercises, such as kicking, swinging legs, swinging waist, swinging arms, etc.
Since the flexibility of the joints decreases with age, soft gong must be practiced from an early age.
Self-protection skills As the saying goes, "strike the iron first to harden yourself", the external skills training of ancient martial arts also starts from strengthening oneself.Ancient martial artists used a series of well-designed self-strengthening methods, first training the flesh, then training the muscles and bones, training themselves to be as strong as a body of gold and stone, or a body of steel.Slapping yourself with a weapon is the basic form of self-protection skills for martial artists.Slapping the body with a slapping instrument is actually an important method of traditional Chinese health care. As early as the guide map of Mawangdui in the Han Dynasty, there was a method of slapping the body with a bag.Ancient martial artists introduced slapping into martial arts practice, boldly developed and experimented with slapping equipment and effects, and developed a series of "beating" skills, and more and more equipment were used for slapping, such as In addition to stone bags and lead dust bags, the clappers mentioned in "Yi Jin Jing" also include stone pestles, wooden pestles, and mallets.In actual use, bricks and iron bricks are also used.
Pai Da Gong is generally performed by the martial arts practitioner himself or his companions, using slapping instruments to hit all parts of the body, starting from the upper and lower arms, then the upper and lower legs, then the chest and abdomen, and finally the back.Inflate when hitting, exhale when hitting intervals, and hit once in each row in the morning and evening.With the improvement of the martial arts practitioner's ability to resist blows, increase the strength of the blows, and then switch to more solid striking instruments, such as stones, iron, etc., and finally even use sharp objects such as knives and axes.
Similar to platoon fighting exercises, there are "iron head skills" for the head, "iron cow skills" for the abdomen, and "iron cloth shirt" and "golden bell cover" for the whole body.After these martial arts hard skills are practiced, they often have unimaginable effects. For example, the Shaolin martial artists in the Qing Dynasty "luck in the muscles, the veins protrude, the tendons are like strong ropes, and the flesh is like tough leather. It can't be hurt by a knife attack." "("Qing Barnyard Notes").Zheng Banqiao also recorded that a man named Wei Zizhao in Hubei learned the formula of practicing qi and moving the gods from Shaolin monks, and practiced it for several years. ("Zheng Banqiao's Notes")
Offensive skills There are many moves in Chinese martial arts that look simple and ordinary, but they are surprisingly powerful.At the moment when martial artists make a move, all parts of their bodies, such as head, shoulders, arms, elbows, palms, fists, fingers, legs, knees, feet, etc., seem to suddenly change from a part of flesh and blood to an extremely sharp one. A sword or a powerful hammer are invincible and hard to guard against. There are murderous intentions hidden everywhere between waving palms and fingers.Ancient Chinese martial arts have a large number of various special skills to cultivate and improve the attacking ability of the whole body and various parts.Except for a few of these exercises, which are for the exercise of femininity, most of them are of the external strong type, mainly for the exercise of masculinity.Although these exercises have outstanding mobility and focus on training form and strength, they still cannot do without the assistance of internal skills such as mind and breath for a moment.Most of these skills are practiced with foreign objects. Since one of the outstanding characteristics of ancient martial arts practice is life-oriented, practice and daily life are very closely combined, so the foreign objects used in practice are also common things in the lives of ordinary people.Similar to the self-protection exercises mentioned above, the practice methods of these offensive exercises are not complicated, and most of them are very simple movements.However, with these inconspicuous and ordinary things and these simple movements that everyone knows, the ancient martial artists practiced their unique skills with unforgettable and helpless patience and perseverance.For example, the training equipment used in martial arts training in the Ming Dynasty included wooden benches, stone piers, chaff bags, futons, and wooden pillars.It is advisable to use a wooden bench on the ground to practice kicking, one leg pops out, and it is advisable to kick the wooden bench back without overturning; it is better to practice the strength of kicking by kicking a stone pier; use a chaff bag or a futon hanging on a beam Practice the height of kicking or kicking; use wooden pillars to practice the strength of kicking or kicking. (Volume 5 of the first episode of "Wu Bian")
For example, the "one-finger diamond method" for practicing finger strength is just to tap walls and trees with your fingers during normal walking, and gradually increase the strength. Over time, it will have amazing effects. It is said that "touching wood can make holes, touching stones can break ".Another example is the basic technique of practicing the striking force of the arm, "hitting the paper pier", which is to place a pier of thick paper on a solid stool, cooperate with the footwork, and use fists, palms, fingers, and elbows to hit, pat, insert, cut, cut, etc. Repeatedly beating with various techniques, the skills will increase over time.The somewhat magical practice of "One-Finger Zen" is mainly to hang a metal hammer in the aisle at home, and whenever you see this hammer when you go in and out, you can poke it with your index finger or middle finger. You can move the hammer with your fingers.There is also the "Nail Pulling Skill" for practicing finger grasping strength, which is to knock large iron nails into a thick wooden board, and then use the thumb, index finger and middle finger to pull out the nails one by one.After this skill is practiced, it will have infinite power when holding the opponent's acupuncture points in fighting.
A person with high strength in Qinggong and Martial Arts, when at rest, is like a big tree deeply rooted in the ground, as firm as a rock, as stable as Mount Tai.People without kung fu can't make it move even if they come to him three or five times, but once a martial artist moves, they are as light as a feather, run like a whirlwind, and jump like a monkey.The nimble skills of ancient martial artists are also recorded in official and unofficial histories from time to time.For example, at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, in the thirteenth year of Jian'an (AD 208), Sun Quan of Soochow ordered the mighty Zhonglang General He Qi to conquer Chen Pu and Zu Shan who were guarding Linli Mountain in Danyang.Linli Mountain is steep and the walls are cut like knives, and they cannot be attacked for several months.He Qi decided to send out surprise soldiers, and secretly interviewed a strong man with excellent lightness kung fu, using the iron spear as a climbing tool, under the cover of the dark night, he climbed to the top of the mountain at a precipitous place that the enemy did not expect.Then, more than a hundred soldiers pulled the long strip of cloth put down by the strong man, and successfully climbed to the top, sounding drums and trumpets, and cooperated with each other up and down the mountain to smash the enemy army (Volume 65).Zhang Zhuo (zhuozhuo) of the Tang Dynasty recorded such a legendary story that Chai Shao had a younger brother with superhuman lightness kung fu, and he could fly more than ten steps lightly with a single leap.In order to test his skills, Tang Taizong Li Shimin ordered him to fetch the saddle and bridle of Sun Wuji, the eldest son of Zhao Gong, but he told Wuji in advance that someone was coming to steal and he had to be careful.At night, Changsun Wuji suddenly saw something flying into his house like a bird, cut off his saddles and fled away in an instant, unable to catch up.Tang Taizong asked this person to steal Princess Danyang's engraved gold pillow. He flew into the princess' bedroom, sprinkled a little soil on the princess's face, and replaced the engraved gold pillow with other objects when the princess raised her head. Princess Danyang didn't know about the golden pillow until morning.This person also wore leather boots and walked up the brick city without using hands to guide him to the parapet, stepped on the pillars of the Buddhist temple, went straight to the eaves, and then curled up with his hands on the rafters.Climbing over a hundred-foot castle is like walking on flat ground for him.Tang Taizong was both surprised and a little afraid after seeing it, and said: "This person should not stay in the capital." ("Chao Ye Qian Zai")
There is also a character Yang Yizhong with extraordinary lightness kung fu in the works of Song Dynasty Hong Mai.Once, he and his disciples came to the foot of a mountain in Shuixili, Fuzhou. This mountain stands hundreds of feet high, and no one has ever gone up it.I saw Yang Yizhong lifted the hem of his clothes with his hands, and climbed up the cliff, walking calmly, as if walking on flat ground. When the disciples were shocked, he was already smiling and waving from the top of the mountain. ("Yi Jian Zhi" Zhi Wu Juan)
Some women's lightness skills don't let men.There is a story in the Qing Dynasty about a woman competing with a thief in the "Flying Cornice Technique".I saw this thief "climbing up to the wall", climbing up to the top of the wall like climbing a ladder, turning over and jumping off, quite proud.Unexpectedly, the woman snorted and asked, "That's all you can do?" The thief replied, "This is the technique of flying over the eaves and walls." As soon as the words fell, the woman tiptoed away with much faster movements than the thief. Go up, climb to the top of the wall, then put your back against the wall, and walk down slowly.The thief was taken aback. ("Qing Barnyard Banknotes Skills and Bravery")
How did the ancient martial artists develop a pair of healthy legs and feet, so that they could cross trenches and slopes like walking on flat ground, and go up walls and houses without a trace in a blink of an eye, so that people say that they have the ability to fly over eaves and walls, and lift up flat ground?
Ancient martial arts have a series of exercises designed to practice lightness of the body, called "Qingshenshu".For example, first practice the "jumping vertical technique" of running on the mountain road with a heavy load, and then practice running along the edge of the tank, that is, the martial artist walks on the edge of a large tank filled with water with a load, and gradually reduces the water in the tank until he can practice. Walking on the cylinder edge of the empty cylinder is like flying.Then, replace the tank with a large dustpan filled with iron sand, run along the edge of the dustpan, gradually reduce the iron sand in the dustpan, until finally run on the edge of the empty dustpan.Another example is the pit-jumping technique, which involves binding lead bags on the legs, which can weigh up to three catties, and jumping up from the shallow pit, gradually increasing the depth of the pit until it is three feet deep.According to the "Qing Barnyard Banknotes", in the Qing Dynasty, children in Henan and Shandong used this method to practice "flying over the eaves and walls".Other training methods include running piles and so on.
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