Another important article by Hing Chao from the 2317th Issue of Ming Pao Weekly, from the issue discussing White Crane.
Editor: Amongst the many southern styles, the White Crane system is considered to be relatively complete, and uses the whole body power. Master Li Gang states, other styles talk about the different components, either the fist, or the leg, or throwing applications, and these are external martial arts. Karate has absorbed the san jian or three attacks, and although incomplete still retains its power to intimidate. The inhaling and exhaling, rising and falling of the three attacks, emptiness and fullness, hardness and softness is the core of Chinese Kung Fu.
Those who train White Crane know the expression "Living by San Zhan, Dying by San Zhan". Yip Wing Nien, who trains in Yong Chun White Crane with Master Li Gang states, "to learn the three attacks one has to start off hard, this is the foundation, then one has to learn sharpness of movement, and finally one learns the softness, the three sets are completely different and the applications are not the same. When one has reached the level of softness, [one understands] how to fa li (issue power) with each joint, and that power is completely under one's control.
There are only 11 movements in San Jian, very simple, but it requires that each joint is connected, when one joint initiates, then each joint is also engaged [at the same time]. In different circumstances one utilizes different joints, and uses different parts of the body to issue different kinds of jin or power.
Each school of Fukinese Southern Shaolin, including Luohan boxing, Taizu Boxing, Five Ancestors and all of the White Crane schools have San Jian, it is the most basic technique but also the most profound [one].
From ancient times, southern China has always had its own unique culture. From the time of the Han Dynasty, The Min and Yue areas (roughly coterminous with the provinces of Zhejiang and Fujian) inherited the ancient culture of the Chinese central plains, and also retained an indigenous culture that was very different from the North. Southern martial arts is also the same, although there are similarities with the Ming Era martial arts that were popular in Zhejiang, but they had their own unique ways of expressing power and fighting applications. Although some concrete postures may have been the same as that of Qijiguang's boxing manual, the southern close fighting arts (with White Crane at the forefront) have their own set of principles and fighting system.
The most representative martial arts set of Southern Chinese close fighting arts is the three attacks, which is also known as the three attacks fist. The actual time when the san jian set was created is now impossible to determine. What can be determined is that the san jian is the core of southern close fighting, especially in Fujian province all fighting styles have the san jian set and training method, and see it as the most central and introductory training routine. Of these styles, there is much surviving material in the hand copied boxing manuals of Yong Chun White Crane. The manual "The Fighting Ancestor Fang Qilang" states, "when teaching disciples, one must begin with the three attacks". "The Heart Method of White Crane" further states, "
When discussing the practice of san jian, one has to pay attention to the smallest details, the transition from movement to stillness, the secret of issuing force, when one sinks the body and pressurizes it with Qi and pushes with a shout, only then can the body be firm, the Qi be sufficient to utilize the force.
We can thus see that Fujian White Crane treats san jian as its most important training secret, and it is also the basis for applications and theory. In addition the other important schools in Fujian such as Taizu, Huzhun, Five Ancestors, etc all have the "san jian" set.
San Jian (Three Attacks) and San Zhan (Three Developments)
Apart from Fukienese martial arts, Guangdong Province has a training set similar to San Jian, the difference lies in the fact that it is not called San Jian but San Zhan . The Cantonese San Zhan has a fixed training set, and can be seen the comparatively older Cantonese arts, such as Hung Kuen which has a "Tam Family San Zhan" which is set from "Old Hung Kuen" and the "Hung Kar San Zhan" transmitted by Ling Wun Kai, the disciple of Wong Fei Hung.
In addition, the Cantonese San Zhan is also a form of gonfa (body development exercise), and is one of the most commonly seen gongfa in Cantonese martial arts, and is incorporated into many training sets. Its training method is to tense the muscles, and combine this with breathing and various stretching movements. As each set of movements is repeated three times, this is why this training method is called the "three developments". The West has only come to an understanding of this kind of training method in recent years, and uses the modern term "isometric training". In the old Hong Kong kung fu films, we can see the martial artists training in a deep horse stance, with their muscles tensed and their hands held in the "zhi shou" or finger hand position, repeatedly pushing the hands out at chest level. This is "San Zhan" Many famous Cantonese martial arts sets have the San Zhan incorporated into them just after the opening movement, and to the uninitiated this seems strange, but actually this is a very good training method, especially when training "qiao shou" or bridge hand.
The difference in the san zhan of Guangdong versus the san jian of Fujian lies in their horse stance. San jian uses a "bu ding bu ba" horse stance (a stance intermediate between the traditional horse stance and the bow stance), with the ten toes gripping the ground, with power originating from the ground, whereas san zhan uses the si ping ma or traditional horse stance. Another point worth noting is that san zhan is a method for training the muscles in a passive manner, and does not necessarily contain practical combat applications. Comparing the two, the primitive training method of the three developments is easy directly apprehend, and does not have the complicated techniques of san jian with its deep philosophy and theories.
At the current stage of research into martial arts, it is hard to assess the historical precedence of San jian and san zhan, but we can be relatively sure that at the early stage they came from the same source and the field of applications and both were formed and developed in the large "southern martial arts" cultural area.
San jian boxing, was later transmitted via cultural exchange to the Ryukyus and onwards to Japan, and deeply influenced the evolution of Japanese karate. Even today, two of the four large schools of Karate - the Goju ryu and the Shito ryu preserve a complete set of sanchin kata. Many Japanese and overseas researchers have already performed a relatively comprehensive study of this period of Chinese and Japanese cultural exchange in the field of empty hand martial arts and have determined that Karate (which was originally named Tang or Chinese hand in the Ryukyus) has an unusually close relationship with White Crane, although White Crane is not the only Southern Art that has influenced Karate.
San Jian's relationship with Yong Chun White Crane Boxing.
Masters Li Gang and Su Ying Han have mentioned before that early White Crane possibly only had training for single movements and did not have fixed sequences. This point of discussion come from the fact that the "The True Transmission from the White Crane Ancestor" boxing manual only listed fifteen individual postures, but the text did not mention san jian or other fixed boxing sets.
It is also probable that the early san jian, like the Cantonese San Zhan, is only a training method and was not a complete set. One of the earliest boxing manuals "The Boxing method taught by Uncle Li Shu of Yong Chun" has a "fadu exercise" and it lists twelve types of gongfa, one of which is the "san jian single horse method" which states,
The San Jian Single Horse Method : the two feet are parallel to each other in one line, the hands push out when moving your weight to the front [using the] horse [stance], the hands follow [backwards] when transitioning to the back [in] horse [stance]. In this method the posture is upright in front horse [stance] and in the back horse [stance] it is slightly leaning forward, one should pay attention to each step, one advances three steps and retreats three steps , or turns for three steps, all these are possible. When one discusses san jian, one should extend the leg very slowly before moving.
One can see that San jian was a basic exercise for training footwork, and at its core was "advancing three steps and retreating three steps". In addition when it states "or one can turn for three steps, all these are possible", there is room for the practitioner to move freely, the important content is the three inter-connected stepping movements, and does not have the rigid requirements of the sequence of the movements seen in later boxing sets. From this one can see that San jian evolved from a simple sequence to something much more complex.
Actually for Southern Boxing, apart from the characteristic San Jian of Fujianese White Crane and Cantonese San Zhan, Hakka boxing which was also transmitted out of Fujian also has the "Three Step Arrow" or "San Bu Jian" ; Eastern Guangdong's Hai Lufeng area also has the "San bu tui" or "Three Step Push" and "Nine Step Push" (Jiu Bu Tui) which are all core introductory training methods. All these have an intimate blood relationship with Fujian martial arts, and I hope to share them with the readers at a later date.
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