Song family Xingyiquan originator Song Shirong

Since the late 60’s I began accompanying my master to the Song family house in Taigu, and I have met many seniors from the Song family and their Xingyiquan training methods and fighting techniques that are both traditional in taste and classic in form, especially recalling very clearly the impressing ability of senior uncle Wu Lixiao called “as a dead person” gongfu, as well as his ability and fighting methods of overcoming speed with slowness, used in a whole unity. And not only that, the Xingyiquan fighting that I have seen through many decades, is the old taste and old characteristics form of Xingyiquan fighting. Furthermore, the Xingyiquan that my master gave me is also the form of fight that is old in taste and characteristics. However, in the “Origins of Xingyi” it was the first time that the inside practitioners of the Song clan ever saw the Song family using this “new Sanda form of fighting” to accept a challenge. If I am not mistaken, within the Song clan and its annals this is also the first time that such a shame happens.

No one dared say it wasn’t great…and when in the split of a second when Tian Jinzhong began falling back and before he could completely fall down to his place, grandfather Song Tielin immediately screamed “Well done!”, we can conclude that the war between the two Tian was a battle of experts.

In truth, the direct descendent, gatekeeper uncle Song Guanghua should not allow that a challenge would be met with this “new Sanda form of fighting”, because uncle Song Guanghua is very aware of the fighting methods and skills of the people inside the Song clan, and definitely knows that the Song family Tian clan is well recognized by all as a fighting clan, and he also knows the fighting characteristics of Tian Zhonglan’s clan. I believe that uncle Song Guanghua will not forget the form of fighting that he saw when, in the early 70’s, in his home, grandfather Song Tielin organized an internal fighting challenge. In that day, present in the fighting arena were grandfather Song Tielin, senior uncle Wu Lixiao, my master Tian Zhonglan, uncle Zhao Yongchang, uncle Song Guanghua, and the oldest disciple of uncle Zhao Yongchang – Wang Rugui, among others. The challenger was Wu Lixiao’s oldest disciple Tian Jinzhong, and the challenge was accepted by the older son of Tian Zhonglan – Tian Baolin. Back then, in the battle of the two Tian, everything happened according to the true form of challenge in Xingyiquan. No one dared say it wasn’t great…and when in the split of a second when Tian Jinzhong began falling back and before he could completely fall down to his place, grandfather Song Tielin immediately screamed “Well done!”, we can conclude that the war between the two Tian was a battle of experts. Therefore, I really don’t understand why the contemporary Song family Xingyiquan deviated so far from this way of fighting when accepted those challenges, instead using this “new Sanda form of fighting” to accept a challenge. What was the purpose in doing so?

 …because of the current level of the Xingyi of the Song family, it cannot include or represent the wonderful and deep fighting culture of my clan, which is unknown to the general public.

The hurried actions of the Song family already gave rise to adverse effects in the whole world of Xingyiquan. At the same time, it brought many problems to my clan and me. Therefore, I could not help but to write three articles in relation to “The origins of Xingyi”, to generally explain my ideas and clarify the differences between my clan and the Song family, in thinking, training and usage of Xingyiquan, Indeed, I do not deny that master Tian Zhonglan was a disciple of Song Tielin. However, even if it is so, because of the current level of the Xingyi of the Song family, it cannot include or represent the wonderful and deep fighting culture of my clan, which is unknown to the general public.

I have practiced Xingyiquan for more than 50 years and now I am already 60 year old, I have retired and spend most of my time at home. However, to propagate the exclusive model of fighting culture of Xingyiquan taught by my master Tian Zhonglan, starting from September 2010 I have especially established a window to the outside world and began publicly and commercially transmitting to outsiders this form of fighting culture that is old in taste and characteristics and that was transmitted by my master. Besides, every year I also have to leave my province for 5 or 6 times to teach, therefore I have been so busy in the last year that I haven’t written anything on my blog. Furthermore, I also don’t have time to consider the things that happen on the WWW and I especially don’t have the idle time to make irresponsible remarks about other schools. The reason why I have recently written in succession 3 informal essays about “The origins of Xingyiquan” is only because I have an unbroken link of lineage with the Song family; only because the shockwaves created with the trembling resulted from “The Origins of Xingyiquan” affected myself and my school, bringing trouble to many people. Otherwise I would certainly not be overcritical about “The Origins of Xingyiquan”.

The form of Xingyiquan that I teach commercially now is exclusive to my school and very original. The way in which is expressed is different from the rest. Not only follows the old taste and characteristics that are the soul of the Chinese martial arts, but also follows the classics of ancient Chinese culture, including this magnificent fighting form and its plastic appreciation. Besides, the fighting form and theory of the Xingyiquan that I now commercially teach, together with its exquisite training methods, are very unique.

…instruct, perform and demonstrate fighting and teach a Xingyiquan absolutely different from what was seen in “The Origins of Xingyiquan”.

This fighting form and its theory, as well as its training methods, are formed and expressed by 3 different boundaries, which are expressed in a way that even less people understand. In order to reveal this true way of Xingyiquan fighting, I have created in my house a training ground that was developed so as the students will not get hurt while training, where I can demonstrate and instruct, perform and demonstrate fighting and teach a Xingyiquan absolutely different from what was seen in “The Origins of Xingyiquan”. In case one does not believe me, he can search my blog for the articles “Using the martial skills of ‘teaching someone a lesson’ to appreciate the art of ‘teaching someone a lesson’” and “An informal essay on my understanding of the Xingyiquan transmitted by Grand master Tian Zhonglan – the process of teaching someone a lesson”. In these 2 articles I have, in a conservative manner, included some photographs of explaining, teaching and fighting that can prove that the Xingyiquan that I teach nowadays is completely different from the fighting form of the Song family in “The Origins of Xingyiquan”. Because I didn’t want to violate the rights of image of other people, I have especially made the pictures in the articles a bit unclear.

As far as I know, in the Shanxi Jinzhong area there are 3 orthodox schools of Xing (Xin) yiquan that are very emblematic, all being very prestigious schools of Xing (Xin) yiquan. One is the school of Dai family Xinyiquan. The second is the Che style Xingyiquan represented by the Bu family. The third is the Song family school, which has a prestige of more than 100 years. In fact, the martial culture of these 3 big schools of Xing (Xin) yiquan is really splendid and they are very good schools of Xing (Xin) yiquan. Even though the 3 men from the Song family didn’t fight well in “The Origins of Xingyiquan”, one cannot deny that the cultural knowledge of these 3 families of Xing (Xin) yiquan is good. For example: I think that the cultural knowledge of the “Iron gate bolt” of the Song family is very good, but I don’t know why Cheng Wenxin didn’t use the “Iron gate bolt” when he was fighting in “The origins of Xingyiquan”? I hope that the world of Xingyiquan can receive with unity the lesson from “The Origins of Xingyiquan” and that it can in unity raise the level of fighting of the Xingyiquan culture, and I finally hope that in a non-distant future Xingyiquan can once again walk towards its glory.

Song family Xingyiquan originator Song Shirong

Analyzing Fighting the martial world II “The origins of Xingyiquan” and the particulars of the fighting in it, it was really a pity that amongst the 3 people from the Song family Xingyi that accepted the challenges of Jerry and Philip, actually no one was able to demonstrate the deep art of Xingyiquan’s fighting culture! Because of it， the whole world of Xingyiquan trembled, and especially the reputation of Shanxi Xingyiquan, felt the humiliation of it. Analyzing the reasons why the 3 people from the Song family didn’t fight well, the one that writes does not agree with the saying that the opponents were professional fighters or 3 times Hong Kong Sanda champion, for this allegation only throws more shame upon the national treasure. This kind of allegation is nothing more than people trying to say that by crossing hands with Jerry and Philip, professional fighters, even not wining they lost with honor. In the Internet it is not small the number of people that believe in this “do not feel ashamed but honored” kind of thinking. Precisely these people are the ones that think that the thousands of years old traditional martial culture, the Xingyiquan culture, is not as good as sportive Sanda. The reason why the 3 people from the Song family didn’t fight well, is definitely not because the opponents were professional fighters or Sanda champions, and the essential true reason is entirely because they don’t understand what is martial culture, what is the true knowledge of the fighting culture of Xingyiquan, that they brought upon themselves such undesirable result. The key point that fundamentally doomed them into not fighting well actually is that they do not understand the following 5 points:

1. Analyzing the movements through which they put out their hands and fists during the fights, first it can be seen that, those 3 didn’t study the fighting ways of Xingyiquan, not even having studied the most basic classes and knowledge necessary. Therefore, it is unnecessary to analyze the movements of those 3, for they have no use, and I will only speak of their 2 arms and 2 hands during fight. I will start with the 2 hands: In Xingyiquan the 2 hands that go out in a fight, are like 2 armies that are sent to battle, and the 2 armies sent into battle will have different assignments. They are only sent out with the mission of completing their assignments, and since they have to complete different assignments, of course they will behave and be used in different ways. From a different perspective, the 2 armies in this hypothetical example are your own 2 hands, and the 2 hands that have different assignments, therefore each of the 2 hands will behave differently in essence, absolutely not in the same way. However, seeing those 3 fighting, from the messy usage of their hands, not one of them understands what is the assignment of each of the 2 hands, or, what’s more, what is the assignment that each hand must complete upon going out.

2. After having analyzed the 2 hands I will then speak of the 2 arms of the three men during fighting. In Xingyiquan fighting, the arms have an extremely important usage, and the missions they have to accomplish are, in comparison with the hands, both bigger in number and more important. If the arms can or can’t perfectly materialize the ideas of the knowledge of Xingyiquan fighting, is directly related to their usage and the very important tasks that they have in Xingyiquan fighting. In the knowledge of the abilities of the 2 arms, besides being able to restrict the attacks of the enemy in a regular fight, they also have the usage of adjusting the speed of an opponent’s attack, and also can show, during the fight, controlling speed with slowness, borrowing form and borrowing force, among other things. However, even with the using of these abilities, one cannot be certain that Xingyiquan will not lose in a fight, and this is not the main usage and responsibility of the arms. To make sure Xingyiquan will not lose in a fight, make sure that one can use the especial art of fighting of Xingyiquan, during the everyday fighting training, the most important assignment for the 2 arms is, from the beginning, first to learn a kind of behavior that can surpass the instinct of people, a fighting form that can change the regular habits of behavior of the body, so that when meeting high level practitioners in fight, one can proficiently use Xingyiquan’s higher, deeper and more clever methods of controlling the enemy’s hand, such as: twist controlling, twist grasping, twist killing and other “special ways”, and only in doing so attaining the objective of winning the opponent and controlling victory. However, seeing the whole process of the fights of the 3 Song family men and the behavior of their arms, they clearly don’t understand this knowledge of the fighting culture of Xingyiquan. Therefore, I conclude that those 3 do not understand the peculiar efficacy of the 2 arms during fight, as well as other much better and much deeper kinds of fighting culture knowledge.

3. Without exception, the practitioners who really understand fighting with Xingyiquan need to understand to some extent the application of Sunzi’s war methods (Translator’s note: The art of war). If one only knows how to often practice techniques of martial arts and attacking methods, not studying some war strategies and tactics and the application of war methods in fighting, if one only knows how to rigidly use a few techniques and attacking methods in accordance to a certain dogma, invariably rigidly protecting his own centerline and attacking the opponent’s center and centerline, only utilizing “protecting the center and attacking the center”, this type of stiff defense and stiff attack commonly used in regular fights, then when he fights, when he accepts a challenge, he only needs to meet opponents that, like Jerry and Philip, really stress defending their own centerline like Yongchun and other martial arts, and it will be really very difficult to win and he won’t be able to take any kind of advantage. If when fighting Jerry and Philip the 3 men of the Song family understood some ideas of the Sunzi Bingfa, understood how to use the art of making a detour from the Sunzi Bingfa, understood how to use a bit of the fighting method of Sunzi Bingfa “Circling faraway”, or if they understood the usage of “In wanting to take it, one must first give it away” and other methods to lure the opponent to a deep place, when meeting the challenges from Jerry and Philip the result would surely have been of victory, and the result would also have been very beautiful. Regretfully, the 3 men from the Song family don’t understand the usage of such war methods in Xingyiquan fighting. This is the third thing they don’t understand.

At the end of the blog article which is the first part to this one, I’ve written about a very old and famous sentence about martial arts fighting, “The martial art that can be used has a scale and if you can’t weigh yourself then don’t go into battle”. Really good traditional martial arts, all kinds of martial arts that really can be used in fighting, each one of them must have a scale that can weigh and measure whether a person can fight or not, and this scale is a weight that is especially used to judge how deep or shallow a martial arts is. Therefore, all schools of martial arts, before going into fight, must first use this scale and weight themselves, checking whether they have the competence and the means to fight, whether they have reached the level where they can really fight. If after using this scale, one discovers that he does not have absolute certainty of the victory, then it is entirely possible to change the way in which you accept a challenge, just like the Dai family Xinyiquan that at least did not embarrass themselves or lost face. However the 3 men from the Song family, to this day, might not understand how to weight and judge martial arts, and what is the scale that you use to weight yourself. Therefore, they also don’t understand how to weight and judge their own fighting level, and this is the fourth thing they don’t understand.

What do we use to weight ourselves? To weight and judge if the martial art we practice can be used? Besides the scale that people do not know of, there is also a kind that is famous and old, a kind of “fighting maxim” widespread in the Xingyiquan circles and that also has the function of judging if a martial art can be used or not. This “fighting maxim” is very bold and direct, clearly saying to martial arts practitioners that: “A spear of a thousand days, a knife of a hundred days, a fist of ten thousand days cannot make his waist straight”. We might as well use this “fighting maxim” and compare it for a moment to the part in the show Fighting the martial world II “The origins of Xingyiquan” where the Song family Xingyi practice with spears and teaches the spear techniques of block, seize and trust. Many people know that what the internal spear of Xingyi seeks is the taste of the six coordination long spear, as well as the inner meaning of the theory of spear creating the fist. However, it is really regretful all the people from the Song family that performed the spear, none of them reached the general idea of “a spear of a thousand days”, not a person was able to demonstrate de taste of the six coordination long spear, and no one was able to demonstrate the inner meaning of the theory of the spear creating the fist. The strange thing, however, was that, in fact, haven’t we seen the methods of external martial arts to practice the spear?

After speaking of “A spear of a thousand days”, let me continue to use the “fighting maxim” “A fist of ten thousand days cannot make his waist straight” and judge the asymmetric behavior of the 3 Song men. Before the fights had begun, we cannot deny that the 3 Song men practiced Xingyiquan really nice, with very fast speed, also with vibrating power, showing good basic training, and when explaining static fighting methods their changes were also fast, showing many different movements with enough power, especially Cheng Wenxin from Handan in Hebei, that showed even more uncommon skills, and deep basic training. We cannot say that they don’t practice Xingyiquan well, however why is it that during fighting, all those skills and abilities, attacking methods, movements and all the other ways, went out in smoke, were not as they expected and could not be used? What on earth was the reason that caused the 3 of them to jointly not achieve the result they wanted?
In fact it was only one problem, namely that those 3 men do not understand the points that “A fist of ten thousand days cannot make his waist straight” implies, and though those 3 men got to a point where they can practice Xingyiquan really well, they still don’t understand that what they practice cannot make their waist straight. Not even being able to keep their waists straight, how can they dare take part in fights? This is the fifth thing they don’t understand.

What I have described above, analyzing the reasons why the 3 Song men didn’t fight well in “The origins of Xingyiquan”，I have only analyzed five reasons they don’t understand, but in fact there are many other things they don’t understand. However I don’t have time to give examples of all the reasons, but I wish to say something about a key reason why they didn’t fight well. By seeing the whole thing, it is not difficult to find out that the knowledge of the culture that those 3 men practice, is the knowledge of practicing for the sake of practice, It is definitely not the knowledge of using for the sake of usage, and it is certainly not something that you fight for the sake of fighting. Why do they practice in that way? Is it a problem in the transmission of the art? I really don’t know. Just because what those 3 men practice is not the knowledge of the fighting culture of Xingyiquan, we can make a parallel with two very popular ancient and modern martial art sayings. In the antiquity we had the popular saying that “Ten years of martial arts cannot defeat 3 years of bad opera”, and now we have the popular saying that “Twenty years of martial arts cannot defeat one year of Sanda”. To define it I can say that those 3 men, at best only train skills, definitely don’t train something that can be used, and to appoint those 3 men to accept a challenge is really an embarrassment, and this is why those teachers that do not understand fighting messed up the state of the traditional Chinese martial arts to the point where it is today.

Song family Xingyiquan originator Song Shirong.

After watching the documentary picture Kungfu Legend II ¨The source of Xingyiquan¨ I was astonished! It was a complete shock! What was shown in the documentary was especially indicative. The behavior of the direct descendants of the Xingyiquan School has caused irreparable, irreversible and adverse effects. The impact of this behavior is both wide and deep, greatly diminishing Xingyiquan’s reputation on the Internet. All over the world, in many different countries, many netcitizens have been saying ¨Is that the legendary and famous Shanxi Xingyiquan? ¨. The greatly confused direct descendants of the Xingyiquan School, upon first meeting the visitors, showed off as if they were imponent flying eagles, daring to promote themselves as masters, even teaching the visitors and educating them on deep theoretical aspects of the art as if they were professors. However, by the end of the program, they ended up as small and weak sparrows.

The whole process: from the teaching of theory to static applications, and later on again from the teaching of theory to the usage of dynamic fighting, and then the 2 visitors checking the ¨Dragon master¨ and the ¨Monkey master¨, 2 people whose net names do not correspond to the reality, finally ending up with them going to Handan to have an ultimate fight with the high level fighting representative of the Song family. According to the description of one of the visitors: meeting the high level practitioner Cheng Wenxin was a great opportunity for him, because only by testing his skills against a high level practitioner he could then validate what he has studied. Therefore, Jerry had an ultimate combat with Cheng Wenxin, thus validating what he has studied before. At the end of the show, the 2 visitors from Hongkong , Jerry and Philip, were able to conclusively attain their objective, which was to check ¨The Source of Xingyiquan¨, having successfully used fighting to check on the usability of the fighting methods of the traditional Song family Xingyiquan.

By the end of visiting ¨The Source of Xingyiquan¨, not only 2 traditional and direct descendant branches of Xingyiquan are brought to disgrace, but also the name and prestige of all Shanxi Xingyiquan is brought to the ground, thus forming a verdict that closes the coffin of Shanxi Xingyiquan, in a situation that is very difficult to revert. A reputation of a hundred years, a fame of a hundred years, and the title of more combat oriented martial art that Xingyiquan has, all collapsed with a loud noise in just about a few seconds, leaving the practitioners of Xingyiquan really feeling deeply hurt, not knowing where to hide out of shame! Especially after seeing the strong and derogatory reactions of so many netcitizens, I really cannot find words that can describe this. Deep in my heart I am in really in low spirits! A reputation of a hundred years and a direct line of transmission, however not only they did not show the deep cultural and artistic elements of Xingyiquan, but on the contrary they made Xingyiquan’s theory into something difficult to cope with reality, separated practice from usage, and not knowing how to actually use Xingyiquan merely acted out as if they knew.

The knowledge about the fighting culture of traditional Xingyiquan is like a science and it just won’t do to pretend you know it. If you do not understand it then you do not understand it, and my no means try to pretend you do understand it – if you don’t now how to play don’t try to pass as a member of the orchestra! You don’t understand the knowledge of using Xingyiquan for fighting but in fact still wants to show off the dragon shape, the monkey shape, the snake shape. According to the picture: Philip first challenged the one that practices the dragon shape, Wang Tianbao, and the one that met Jerry’s challenge was the so called ¨monkey shape¨, Cheng Wenbin. However, while fighting the 2 visitors, I wasn’t able to see not even a shadow of half an evidence of Wang Tianbao and Cheng Wenbin using the methods of fighting of either the dragon shape or the monkey shape, also not knowing if the so called dragon and monkey shapes of those two refer to their using them to fight or to them just enjoying training them?

Moreover, there is still one doubt that is hard to solve to this day! Modern practitioners of Xingyiquan both domestic and from abroad, all of them know that now the Song family has a very special effective weapon, the so called ¨vibrating power¨ (¨Dou Juejing¨ in Chinese), and in this program they also showed it off. However, I was not able to see its fighting usage in any of the 3 challenges. Now, since it is a special weapon of this branch, why can’t we see it being used in the fights? Why not use it to defeat the enemy? Is the ¨Dou Juejing¨ just used to decorate the house or is it just an ornament for people to admire? Or maybe it is just a decoration and a bluff? The usage of this ¨Dou Juejing¨ is really hard to explain.

Whatever level of ability you have, you’d better live according to it. When it comes to this idea, the practitioners of Dai Xinyiquan really understood it and acted accordingly, only discussing their own training methods and static applications, not teaching anything dynamic and accepting challenges. Even if in comparison they looked a bit inferior to the Song family, at least they didn’t lose their ancestors’ faces. At the end they were much better off than not showing in fight a single trace of ¨dragon shape¨, ¨monkey shape¨ and ¨Dou Juejing¨. In the famous thousands of years old traditional Chinese martial arts culture it is said that: ¨The martial arts that can be used have a measuring scale, and if you don’t know it then don’t go into battle¨. However, in the present situation of the Chinese martial arts, things are in such a way that precisely the ones that go into battle, most of them cannot clearly see the extent of their abilities.

Not even the Chinese clearly understand what kind of country China will become.

China is under the spotlight these days. It seems that the whole world is paying attention to the largest country in the world. No wonder this is happening. China has to be one of the countries that are experiencing amazingly fast change over the past few years. However, much of the attention China is receiving falls under the economic aspect. Governments, companies, speculators and businesspeople all have their attention focused on the economic and political changes that happen here, ergo the demand for information in those two areas. At the same time, I feel that more needs to be written about what’s under the hood. What powers the country? How can it maintain its unity under so much international pressure? Until when is the country going to be able to pay the price for its amazingly fast growing rate? These and some other questions are left untouched and unanswered in most articles I have read over the years. Therefore, I have decided to throw some light into the social element, on what’s happening under all the changes and advancement that people outside China are able to see. These, are the visible elements of modern China. Follow me into the invisible realm that powers what most people know about the “center kingdom”.

I would say that we could affirm, with a good degree of certainty, that the economic and political situations of a country are a direct reflection of its social condition. Following this line of thought, I believe that we can establish a direct relation between the Chinese society and its economy and politics. Going a bit further, we can also affirm that the social will influence politics, and politics will determine economy. Even though we could also affirm that the social affects the economy, it seems that the relation between “social” and “politics” is a more direct one. Consequently, it is clear that to be able to gain a better understanding on both the economy and the politics of China, a person needs to also understand its society. By doing so, anyone will be better prepared not only to understand the different aspects of modern China and identify social, political and economic tendencies, but also to predict future developments in those areas.

In the third example, we have a highly educated person with a very good technical and theoretical knowledge of China and its culture, but with assumed limited direct experience with it. After all, how many professors you know lived in a Chinese slum?

Despite the fact that the social element is key to understand China in different areas and levels, it appears that not much is known about the subject. There is, of course, the occasional foreigner that worked for a company and spent a few years in Beijing, or the consultant that stayed one or two years in Shanghai. There is also the Harvard specialist that has all the theory, spent some time in China and wrote a couple of books on the subject. All these people can provide valid information and should, of course, be respected and recognized as reliable sources, but in my opinion, each type of example lacks one or two little things that would add much weight to their opinions. In examples one and two, the foreigners most probably have a very good insight on the particulars of how business is conducted and the life in large Chinese cities (limited to their own daily routines). However, they lack a deeper understanding of the “real China”, of the life in the smaller cities, of the mind of the migrant worker and of culture that is more traditional. In the third example, we have a highly educated person with a very good technical and theoretical knowledge of China and its culture, but with assumed limited direct experience with it. After all, how many professors you know lived in a Chinese slum?

It is clear that even though there are many qualified people that can give reliable information on many aspects of the Chinese society, most of them might not necessarily be able to give a deep insight in the particulars of the Chinese life, and this might be one of the reasons why there is not much information about the subject. Either this or the people that are directly interested in the Chinese economy or politics are not clearly seeing how they are a direct result of the social element. A third option would be a combination of both possibilities- not having enough people able to provide a deeper social insight and a lack of understanding the importance of actually having this insight as a tool to better understand economy and politics.

The first possibility happens because high quality training in a subject needs to happen with the inclusion of direct experience. There are first-rate institutions that offer instruction on matters related to the Chinese society. Their curricula surely includes the study of different theories, lectures of reputed specialists, the reading of related material, field studies and other appropriate learning venues. I am sure, than some of those venues might include spending time in China, but I’m afraid the time might not be enough. Considering that a BA in eastern studies or some other related area can usually be obtained in four years, we can understand that spending more than a few months in China would be extremely difficult. Yet, even with all the knowledge that a first rate institution is able to offer through its curricula, there is only so much a student can acquire with a few months of direct contact in China. I believe it is common sense that the more time a researcher spends in China, the better he will be prepared to discuss about it. However, we should make a clear distinction here: spending time and spending time with a purpose are two very different things. I know people that have spent years in China and do not know much about the people. They know what anyone that spends years in a foreign country would naturally learn, but that alone is not enough to allow someone to convey a deep social picture of modern China. Spending time with the intention of research, always looking for what is not evident and trying to understand the reason why things happen in a certain way is what makes the difference here.

The second possibility would be the one where those directly interested in the Chinese economy and politics cannot perceive the importance of the social element. This is a tricky possibility. Most of the people interested in these areas are just looking for economical profit. China is possibly the biggest market on earth and it has been a while since businesspeople learned they could obtain amazing profit here. Not only China represents the bigger market, but it is also a virgin market in the sense that, until very recently, many of the services commonly offered in western countries were virtually inexistent here. Some still are. The possibility of introducing a service, in national scale, that will reach a tremendous amount of people in the biggest market in the world is enough to make any businessperson in the word water his mouth. What most businesspeople do not know (even though at this point some are already guessing) is that common social rules, social knowledge that makes interacting with people from other cultures possible, might (and probably will not) apply to the Chinese. They look at the data but not at what is underneath – the social element. This might work for most of the countries in the world, which have merged under the usage of globally accepted social rules, but not here, not in China. Understanding the social and the local culture is essential for doing good business with the Chinese and to understand the countries policies and the behavior of its leaders. They are politicians, of course, but above all, they are Chinese. They are the direct result of being brought up in this specific environment, under a specific set of social values and conventions, and just like anyone else in the world, their behavior can be predicted. Once a businessperson, a consultant or a government analyst understands this, they will have a big advantage.

The third possibility is the result of possibilities one and two happening at the same time. Not much needs to be explained here. It might be of value to note that I believe this to be the main reason why most of the information available about China is related either to its economy or to its politics. I believe people need to give more attention to the social, to what lies beneath all that economic data and political analyses. Ultimately, China is emerging as one of the most important countries in the world, and acquiring a deep insight into its society is what any person with an interest in anything related to it should be doing.

Life in modern China is singular, to say the least. Socially triggered phenomena can be identified everywhere and the government faces some amazing challenges. China is going through a moment in its history that one could consider as a kind of rite of passage. The country is trying not only, as many people would correctly perceive, to position itself in our new globalized reality, but also to understand itself as a country. The gap between the old and the new China is enormous and not even the Chinese clearly understand what kind of country they live in at the moment or what kind of country China will become. It is a singular moment because China is still defining its identity. What needs to be noticed is that, unlike most of the developing countries that are defining their international identities, China is also searching for its own national identity, for the very basic concepts and ideas that define, to the people, the identity if a country.

To write about the life in a certain country is not something very difficult. However, when the country in question is China writing about it proves to be amazingly challenging. Not only important things happen in China, but also many important things happen at the same time. It is not easy to have a scope of understanding that will allow you to perceive all this elements, and to make things worse, at least half of what happens in China happens “behind the curtains”, away from the attention of the general population. At times, it is difficult enough to perceive what is evident and happens around you, but perceiving what doesn’t officially happen is even more difficult. To understand life in China,, one must develop this ability, the power to perceive the evident, the subtle and the inexistent. Only by doing so can a person accurately construct a reliable picture of what life in modern China is.

China faces several challenges, and even though many of them are common to all developing countries, we must put them into perspective to be able to fully appreciate their complexity. With the advent of the famous Cultural Revolution, which spanned over an entire decade, China began losing much of its cultural identity. The Cultural Revolution was a complicated event and one of its main characteristics was the strong opposition to what was then called “the old culture”. The basic idea behind this was to help establish a new cultural identity for the country, one that would be free from the fetters of the past and the ever present shadow of foreign domination. The decision to adopt this course of action began putting in motion a process that was critical to the future of the country. The Chinese government has publicly recognized that some of the choices made during that period might not have been the best ones, and has been trying to minimize the social impact of such decisions, but the fact is that even though the Cultural Revolution spanned only over a decade, it happened with such intensity that its effects can still be clearly felt. It helped shaping the way many generations think, including the younger Chinese teenagers from the present. Therefore, even though the Cultural Revolution might represent a darker page in the book of Chinese modern history, it is important for us to understand that it is one of the reasons why some of the changes happening in China occur is very particular ways. Nevertheless, obviously it isn’t the only reason.

 The first big difference here is the idea and usage of “control”. For most westerners the idea of control goes directly against the concept of freedom. In fact, ”control” has been an important and accepted part of this relationship for thousands of years and it is a reflection of the adoption of three very important schools of thought: Confucianism, Militarism and Legalism.

The Chinese political system is usually very criticized by foreigners that are used to a much more democratic approach. China is often criticized because of its choice of a political system and its implementation. In the eyes of many western people, the Chinese live under the tyrannical ruling of the Communist party, which controls the country with an iron hand, enslaving the people, disregarding its will, personal affairs and individual rights. This is, generally speaking, the understanding that a westerner has of the political situation in China, but in my opinion, this idea does not reflect the reality of things. In China, the relationship between the people and the government is a bit different from what westerners might understand. The first big difference here is the idea and usage of “control”. For most westerners the idea of control goes directly against the concept of freedom. In fact, ”control” has been an important and accepted part of this relationship for thousands of years and it is a reflection of the adoption of three very important schools of thought: Confucianism, Militarism and Legalism. In this model, the leaders of a country are expected to have a very strong sense of responsibility towards the people and, as in a family, they are supposed to act in a commanding capacity. Control and command are two very traditional Chinese concepts that are clearly present in the way the leaders conduct internal policy. They are, of course, alien to the reality of most democratic countries, but most certainly very common in the Chinese thinking (even though they exist in other political systems, they are implemented in a very particular way by the Chinese government). Not only they are common in politics, but in virtually any social relationship – husband and wife, boss and employee, older brother and younger brother etc. Of course, there are people in China that firmly oppose this kind of policy, but this is true for any kind of policy in the world – some will support while others will criticize. The problem here arises from trying to understand this policy based in “control” and “command” from the western perspective. From that perspective, this would be a very oppressive policy, where personal freedom is not emphasized enough and society is under heavy control. However, these are elements familiar to any Chinese person. In addition, even though there are surely people who disagree with it, it might shock you to find out that my personal experience tells me that most people are actually content to live in such a society. I would say that once this becomes clear, a westerner would definitely have a better understanding of the relationship between the people and the government.

Master Li's correct body method is a direct result of specialization.

Specialization, cross training, styles. In the world of the Chinese martial arts, these words carry great meaning and weight. Yet, most martial artists will not agree on their meaning and importance. Over the years, I have written about the subjects but I think it is time to give a “fresher” look into the matter and write something more definitive.

When the words specialization, styles and cross-training or on the table, it seems that one of the main possible discussions is the one that focus on specializing in one martial art as opposed to practicing more than one martial art at the same time (practicing what is now known as “cross training”). The matter is, in fact, a simple one and the answer should be quite evident to anyone who is not too lazy to make use of his logical skills (although I must admit that being logical is not humanity’s forte).

True skill in any field of knowledge can happen only after specialization. That one needs to spend a great amount of time learning something to the point where serious skill can be attained goes without saying.

True skill in any field of knowledge can happen only after specialization. That one needs to spend a great amount of time learning something to the point where serious skill can be attained goes without saying. Your level of skill will always be proportional to the training you put into it, therefore the more you train the better you get. This basic formula has many variants and by applying it in different ways, you can power up the formula so that people can train less and attain more, but this goes into the area of how to maximize your training and I will not talk about it in this essay. Continuing to develop my line of thought, If we refer to a certain field of knowledge, specialization is one of the reasons why some know so much while others know so little (even though they might, at times, believe they know more than they actually do). Specialization is paramount in attaining the higher levels of any martial art. By specializing you will be able to reach that which is hidden for most people. You will be able to go deeper into your martial art and to unite with it in a very powerful manner.

Imagine for a moment a powerful spacecraft that is designed to leave Earth’s orbit and go into space. The rockets that power the spacecraft need to have a certain amount of power for it to have enough momentum to leave Earth’s orbit. Nothing less than that specific amount of power will generate that kind of momentum, thus allowing the craft to leave orbit, but once the power is reached the craft leaves orbit and space itself is revealed. All that before was hidden to the astronaut, is now evident. The same applies to Xingyiquan.

As a martial art, XYQ is very deep, but its true deepness reveals itself only for those that spend the necessary time into training. Just as the craft must achieve a certain momentum to leave orbit, so the XYQ practitioner needs to put a certain amount of training into it, in order for him to begin to understand its intricacies. Nothing less than that kind of training will suffice and if that standard is not reached, a person might very well practice the art for a life time and still have no clear idea of its intricacies., in which case he will probably mistake shallowness for deepness, the unimportant for the important.

We do have to be clear though, that putting the time into physical training is not the only thing to it. If that was the case one needed only to have enough time to specialize in two or three martial arts and voila. It isn’t that simple. Over the past years I have been hinting how XYQ is not only physical but also mental, and that one needs to spend as much time thinking about it as he spends on practicing it. Again, let us be logical about it (do not lose me now) – Half of the art’s name is composed of a “mental” element, represented by the character “Yi”. Moreover, if you know your theory well you will remember that the mind comes before the form. A correct understanding of the art is gold. Again, I will tell you: do not be fooled by learning this or that technique, this or that movement. You go to a seminar, attend a class, learn 10.000 applications and you feel good, “God that was an amazing class, well worth the money I paid for it!” you think. Well then, think again, because you are wrong. Therefore, thinking about the art is as important as training it. Any teacher can teach you XYQ’s whole content. You can learn the basic forms (the 5 fists), the animals, the longer forms etc., but the “mental” part, this is what you might never find. When you combine the time you need to spend training and the time you need to spend thinking about it, analyzing it, understanding it and creating correlations with it, then it is clear you won’t have time to do the same for another martial art (not if you want to learn a martial art the way it is supposed to be learned, that is). In XYQ, only this combined effort, this union between the physical and mental elements will take you to the point where you are going to be able to reach deep enough into the art. When you get to that point, a world of possibilities will present itself. Naturally, when that happens, you and other practitioners will “see” the same but “perceive” things in very different levels.

 The correct attitude, that people who do not specialize miss is, that when you are taught something, when you train something, you train it, you analyze it, you think about it, you develop it, you live it.  Nothing less than this gets a student deep enough to begin to perceive …

This kind of training is in accordance with the traditional Chinese method of teaching. In this method, very differently from what a westerner is used to, the teacher will not give all the necessary information at once. This method of teaching is based on a kind of guidance, almost as if the teacher, the holder of knowledge, leads the student through the intricate particularities of a martial art. Following this method, the teacher will probably explain a key concept and its basic usage in fighting, as well as the basic method for training it, but he will fully expect three things to happen: he will expect the student to “master” the movements, to understand its concept and applications and to further develop on the basis of what he has learned. These expectations demonstrate how a level of specialization is not only more than necessary for a student to begin to understand the art on a deeper level, but also expected from the part of the serious teacher. The correct attitude, that people who do not specialize miss is, that when you are taught something, when you train something, you train it, you analyze it, you think about it, you develop it, you live it. Nothing less than this gets a student deep enough to begin to perceive what is behind the veil that separates the shallowness of the uncommitted from the deepness of the specialist. The veil is there for a reason, and the great masters were very aware of its existence. I have heard, many times, several teachers referring to their students and saying, “I will not teach them this. They do not commit enough and it is not necessary for them to study it or for me to waste my time in teaching them”. True, true indeed.

Cross-trainers will argue that by studying a different martial art you might be able to better understand your main martial art. This logic presupposes that by making contact with a foreign element, you will perceive what you already have from a different perspective, thus gaining additional insight and a more complete knowledge about it. I will not say that this is not correct, but I will most definitely say that it is incorrect in the way most people do it. In terms of traditional Chinese martial arts, what we can often see is people training in different arts at the same time. Concomitantly training in different martial arts can be good, or it can be terribly detrimental to you.

On a very basic level, when someone is making initial contact with a certain martial art, it is a good thing to have a basic idea of its particularities, about other martial arts’ particularities and of how they differ from the one you are mainly interested in. Humans learn by comparison, by putting things together and analyzing them to gain an understanding of how they conform and differ from what they already know, constantly building new blocks of knowledge and comparing them to the ones previously “stored” in their brains. This process happens for any kind of knowledge we learn and it happens involuntarily. This is a very interesting subject and I will probably write about it in an essay that has a more direct relation with the cognitive sciences. Let us get back on track then.

I established that, on a very basic approach, comparing martial arts is beneficial so that a person makes an informed decision on what martial art better suits his needs. Even though I am not going to indicate this course of action, I can still understand that, even after choosing a certain martial art and starting training on it, a person might still cross-train to “better understand” his main choice of a martial art. However, after a certain point, cross training is extremely detrimental for the practitioner. After the very basic stages of practice occur, a student is supposed to begin training in different skills and this is the moment where the deep training starts. This is the moment when a student has to put the other martial arts behind, so that he can absolutely commit to the training of the art he has chosen (Please do notice I wrote “put behind” and not “throw away”). Finding commonalities and differences between your art and others is beneficial in the basic stages, but as you proceed into deeper stages of training you really need to concentrate on what is important, and that is the skills that make your art unique. People are not doing that and this is not just me thinking, it is a fact. There are many signs to that effect but an evident one is to perceive how most people discuss about the CMAs saying how “my art has this too” or “this is very similar to what we do!”. They are comparing “A” (what they practiced originally) and “B” (the second art they are training), even though that have no real knowledge on the essence of “A”. These kinds of statements clearly show that people are not going as deep as they were supposed to, for if they were, comments such as these would not be so common. When you never go pass the basic level, all you can see are the commonalities between martial arts, and therefore you say “we have this too” or “we do it almost in the same way”. No, my friend, you do not have it and we do not do it in almost the same way. It is only your lack of knowledge (a direct result of your lack of specialization) that makes you think this way. How can you find out commonalities between Xingyiquan and (for example) Tongbeiquan when you have no solid knowledge on XYQ? Acquire the knowledge first and compare afterwards, this is the correct approach. If you have only basic knowledge and try to compare, then you will get sidetracked and most probably stagnate on the level of understanding you already have. By doing so your knowledge will increase horizontally but not vertically. It will become broader, but not deeper. You will have basic knowledge in XYQ, Tongbeiquan and whatever other arts you choose to practice, but you will never get deep enough in XYQ to actually understand it pass the basic level. This is what the Chinese call “Pimao”. By insisting in the “Pimao” course of action, you will probably fool yourself into believing you are getting deeper into XYQ. You will feel you are beginning to see the differences and you say “Hey, look! This movement exists in both XYQ and TBQ, but it is executed in a different way, with different power!”. Really? Did you have to practice other martial arts to figure that out? Interesting.

You might also think that training the same movement in TBQ helps your understanding of it in XYQ. All that you need to correctly understand XYQ is contained in your practice. If you have not been taught, it means only that your teacher is holding back on you or he simply does not know. Masters and teachers, they were all students once and many of them have holes in what they teach. There is a tendency to believe that teachers know everything and at times, it is hard to face the fact that a certain teacher does not know a part of the system he teaches. Now, once you have actually acquired and mastered the higher levels of a martial art, when your skills have “solidified” and are already a part of you, then cross training becomes beneficial again.

Have you ever seen a neurosurgeon who is also an ophthalmologist? Or perhaps a neonatal surgeon who is also a vascular surgeon? Maybe a different question. Supposing there was such a thing as a neurosurgeon who is also a neonatal surgeon being a vascular surgeon as well. If you had to go through brain surgery, would you go for the neuro/neonatal/vascular surgeon or for the best neurosurgeon in the country? He does not do neonatal surgery or vascular surgery. All he does, all he has been doing for the last 30 years is neurosurgery. He operates, teaches, and attends seminars, all about neurosurgery.

Surgery is a heavy subject. Let us chose something lighter. You are taking your girlfriend to a restaurant and she likes Italian. Are you going to take her to the fancy new restaurant that does Italian, Brazilian, Japanese, Korean and Mexican or to the old Italian restaurant that has had the best Italian food in town for the last 50 years?

Specializing on a certain martial art requires many years of constant effort and self-sacrifice. It is not easy and it is certainly not for everyone. Few westerners had done it but I am sure as few as they are they will speak and demonstrate with authority (about) the benefits of it.

When I was starting in Xingyiquan I hated the veil, but now that I can see pass it, I like it. It keeps the knowledge safe and intact for those that are actually willing to train a martial art the way it was supposed to be trained.

Xingyiquan coming from a non-specialist never looks quite right. The difference might never be very evident for the people that do not make the effort to specialize. How could they see the differences when they do not understand them themselves? Instead, they will take the easier approach, which is to criticize the specialist for not understanding the benefits of training in different martial arts. It is interesting, indeed. When I was starting in Xingyiquan I hated the veil, but now that I can see pass it, I like it. It keeps the knowledge safe and intact for those that are actually willing to train a martial art the way it was supposed to be trained. I will never lift the veil for others. Even if I did, most people would not understand what they would see, because others cannot lift the veil; it has to be lifted by the practitioner himself, by means of countless hours of training and thinking, and by doing what specializing is all about: living the martial art he chose to learn.