Searching for the Essence of kung-fu
    Since two or three centuries ago till now, wishing to master Kung-fu quite well has been a main objective for thousands of Kung-fu players in various Dynasties either consciously or not.
    The consciousness and unconsciousness have been sent up by lots people due to the battles in courts and interest conflicts in ancient time. They were forced to fight for their lives and profits both in war and in peaceful time. In order to survive, they needed to possess some good marticial arts abilities in having Kung-fu. Their objective was the same to eliminate their enemies, and preserve their survival, livings and health. That was the reason why they had to pursue a good mastery of Kung -fu as well even unconsciously.
     The so-called consciousness refers to the fact that those who had been indulging themselves in swaying spears, playing sticks and fighting in boxing and kicking. Through all these               years, they had looked for tutors and tried very hard every single day, just in a hope to master Kung-fu. There have been several reasons behind one's Kung-fu practice. The first is to protect his homeland, second, to master a skill to make a better living and, the third, to be an influential person. The point is that mastering arms in the past had been so important like controlling great military power in recent years.
     After the historical periods of Ming Dynasty and the Qing, the number of people wishing to establish their own schools of Kung-fu had been increasing dramatically. In the Chinese Kung-fu circle, there had been thus gradually forming a lot of various Quan schools. The emergence of different schools had presented something important for the most of the Kung-fu players to do with their hard-working in order to master Kung-fu devoted to improving their skills. It is also a representation of the group power, comity of sects and transferring links in the society then. Meanwhile, after Ming and Qing, the development and prosperity of society had helped abundant integration of the geographical culture and the anthropological one. Thus, the emergence of Quan
schools had gained recognition from the society.
     Since Chinese Kung-fu has been developed continuiously till now for ages, there lies more than a thousand Quan schools. However, the principal disciples of Chinese Kung-fu have got a common objective, to search for its essence. For thousands of years, a lot of Kung-fu martial art masters and Kung-fu disciples have been boasting that their Kung-fu each must be certainly the best, the most genuine or the most original. This fact shows how agitated those Kung-fu players want to search for the essence of Kung-fu.
    From its formation to its development on, Chinese traditional Kung-fu has got a history of thousands of years, within that long period, countless grand old men had concluded and accumulated many precious practical experiences by struggling under different circumstances. Those ancestors had gradually got to understand the possible strength and forces human beings possess in motion, acting or combating even if they were standing still; attacking and defending themselves with the understanding of the human body science. They had also got enough knowledge of self-defending consciousness with high level intelligence as well as the integral Kung-fu culture, tactics, strategies and ideas including some shaped scientific Kung-fu commonness of tremendous value, namely, the objective truth of men's Kung-fu practices. In other words, by adopting modem vocabulary, it is the alleged essence of Kung-fu.
       From this issue and later on, the magazine of Chinese Traditional Kung-fu will insert the process of how the traditional Kung-fu principal disciples and masters searching for the essence of Kung-fu together with their descriptions and presentations. We expect any or all the Chinese principal disciples and enthusiasts to get to know the commonness of Chinese traditional Kung-fu and Kung-fu in reality. Through the column of Da Yi Jia (one big family, the coherence between different schools of Chinese Kung-fu), we will do it. By this platform, all of us will help each other to reach a better understanding, and at target to improve it hand in hand, to carry forward and develop the quintessence of the Chinese nation.
     (Researching the essence of Chinese Kung-fu issued by all the Kung-fu principal disciples and enthusiasts over the world is appreciated.)

 

Sak Fong Chuean( the deadly ‘wind element’ palms)
    This art goes back to more than 100 years ago. SFC was purportedly the ingenious creation of the famous Abbess Wu-mei of the White Crane Five Elements art. It is in turn one of the five elements that constitute the Five Elements Palms. In the course of my 40 years of discipleship with Master Chee Kim Thong, the Five Elements Palms was taught openly to me.
    The Five Elements Palms comprises the following five elements: Wind, Thunder, Rain, Mist and Lightning. SFC personifies the wind element. These five elements, as emphasized in Five Elements Palms, should not be mistaken as being synonymous to the five more commonly known elements, namely Gold, Wood, Water, Fire and Earth, that pervades many aspects of our Chinese culture - medicine, geomancy, religion and martial arts.
    The ultimate goal of a practitioner in Five Elements Palms is to be able to apply the techniques according to nature's characteristics of the wind, thunder, rain, mist and lightning. Each has its intrinsic presence of ferocity, tenacity, suppleness, agility and is ever changing to the prevailing circumstance.
    Master Chee explained the underlying principles that govern the inter-relationship and practical application of these elements are based on the Eastern philosophy of Taoism and Buddhism. It is an embracement of the 'Tao' – the way of life, and a harmonious blend of the Buddhist 'Zen' teachings that gave rise to the forms of SFC.
    SFC does not comprise many forms or sets. They are relatively short and the movements are deceptively simple. Its application should be executed with suppleness. There are approximately 20 techniques, some notable ones are open palm, slapping, intercepting and grabbing. The training is very systematic. The application of using the palm is akin to that of a cleaver. The difference lies in its explosive power as opposed to brute strength.
This explosive power can be explained scientifically using Newton's Third Law on the Theory of Motion and Equilibrium. The net force that causes the acceleration comes from an intrinsic energy that originates from the waist down to the heel, it travels up to your hands and finally to the fingers.

Retrospect to Master Hong Junsheng
    Being the founder of the Hong's school of Tai Ji Quan (shadow boxing), Master Hong Junsheng had passed away ten years ago. As one of his earliest students, I was urged by my inner vocation to write this article in memory of him.
     Master Hong became one of the apprentices of the great Master Chen fa-ke in BeiJing in 1930. In the following 15 years, Master Hong did in-depth research into his Kuan-fu field and took pains in drilling. His hard effort paid off when he finally acquired the mastery and gain the essence of Tai Ji Quan. With both civil and military talents, he went to Jinan (a city in Shandong Province, China) to make a living in 1944. His career in learning and teaching the Quan completely required scientific experiments and void of impulsive feelings with profound knowledge, proficient practicing skills, lofty moral of martial arts and innovation having him a great Tai Ji Master of his generation as well.
     Succeeding to and evolving from the Tai Ji theories studying founded by his predecessors, Master Hong had developed his own style of martial theory. He was due being recognized as a great Tai Ji master in his Age. His martial theory owns an evident mark of the time since it is a combination of traditional Chinese philosophy and modem western scientific theories.
     As early as in 1950, Master Hong had applied the opposite unification theory of materialistic dialectics to explain the principle of Tai Ji Quan. As he explained, the theory of the Quan is based on the principle from Yi Jing (Book of Changes) that the masculine and feminine factors are interconvertible. This principle could be better understood being considered in the framework of Tai Ji ball. The central section from the ball is called Tai Ji Picture, which could illustrate the configuration of the ball. In the Tai Ji picture, there is an image that a black feminine fish is embracing a white masculine one, with one's head connected by the other's tail. It implies a harmony between relative independence and mutual coexistence. Likewise, there are masculine and feminine interconvertions in the form of opposite unification existing during the whole process in practicing the Quan or in real fighting. There are three analogies given to clarify the point. Suppose a practitioner is being a big Tai Ji ball, his body would contain numerous small balls in his limbs and other bones all associated and independent, connecting one another successively in a few different systems. Under the command of the big Tai Ji ball, the small balls of different systems would move at the same time in a certain orbit once the big one revolves. Master Hong also explained that there is also an axes lies in one's physical body, and a principle axis connecting Bai Hui Xue (an acupoint located at the top of one's head) with Hui Yin Xue (an acupoint located in one's private parts) that could be visualized during the movement of the body. As a human being is erectly a standing animal, he surely sets the criteria of erection movement in practicing Tai Ji Quan. The principle axis must be vertical to the groun without any incline. To do this, one should let his tailbone stretch outward slightly in order to keep his bottom from being projecting or contracted.
     As mentioned above, the body of a practitioner is like being composed by numerous small Tai Ji balls, these small balls would move in spiral. Moving in spiral is the basic principle in practicing Tai Ji Quan, which produces leverage Practicing Tai Ji Quan is tantamount to using two weighbridges, what the Xia Pan (the lower part of one's body) is like a balance, knee is to poise; while arms seem to be somewhat steelyard, hands are being a sliding weight, and the back neck in the principle axis is seeming the fulcrum of the two weighbridges. Drooping knees equals to adding poises while stretching arms equals to lengthening the arm of force and Vice versa. Hands could be used flexibly in the leverage. The overall rule is, lighten strength when the opponent strike hard, leading him to go by the board; and when the opponent strikes with lightening force, then counterpunch with added strength.
     Master Hong enjoyed a wide-spread popularity in the world of martial arts both home and abroad. During a national Tai Ji Quan seminar in Shanghai in 1982, Fu Zhongwen, Gu Liuxin, He Fusheng and Feng Zhiqing compared notes with my teacher, Master Hong. Afterwards, they credited my teacher's proficient mastery of Tai Ji and diversity in practicing techniques, acclaiming as the peak of perfection. In the sodality of Chen Style Tai Ji Quan held in Jinan at the New Year’s Eve last year, Master Feng said, "My fellow Master Hong's lofty martial moral and exquisite techniques should be learned well and carried forward", with his earnest sincerity flowing over his words. The director of Japanese Tai Ji Quan Association Zeng Wo Zhonghong once wrote in an article, "we can feel that be has the incredibly elegant bearing of martial arts and, he bears profound mysteries of human on earth just like a marvelous philosopher." "When Master Hong smashed his opponent, the accuracy of his hands' movement can be exact to millimeter, thus we all call his hands as magic ones. Some Japanese fellow friends wide spread his fist-applying method, crowning him as an Oriental Tai Ji Giant.

Requirements & Points in Practicing Wing Chun Quan
    Xiao Nian Tou is the first set of Wing Chun Quan. The purpose in practicing it is to help the Quan player to find out the exact location right of his ribs, to let him master the tactics of central defensive(defense movement based on the central part of his body), to learn some simple but incisive ways in his attacking and defending and, to practice the principles of all types and rules of his movements in blocking and attacking.
    To practice Xiao Nian Tou, you first stretch your chest and back laterally and downwards, then open your legs with your waist staying in a squatting tendency. Store up your strength so as to burst out in a flash. Relax your body with your Yi (intending) while some firmness is running through Try to reach a state where your entire body is in a complete harmony. Remove the aggressiveness and stiffness from you. Work up your mind and strength with Qi (interior strength and breathing) till your Yi, Qi and Li (force) become in one. Pay particular attention to the persistency of your power and your physical strength.
    Requirements of the movement: Have your entire body focused. Slacken up with controlling your tightness. Be persistent when you are practicing the Quan. Mobilize your internal strength with your mind not showing any looseness.