Will start with my usual apologies for the lack of posts on my blog, but I have really been concentrating on my sword work so I have tried to jettison most of the extraneous mental chatter. The recent challenge for me is to keep the "flavour" of each of my sword forms distinct so they don't all look the same - Yang Taiji Sword, Bagua You Long Sword and Wudang Sword. I have also attended some introductory Kyudo classes where I gained some valuable insights into the use of the elbows which has fed through into my Taiji. But that is a story for another post.
What I did want to review today was the second volume in Lam Chun Fai and Hing Chao's Hung Kuen series which contains two manuals - Chin Cheung (War Palm) and Gung Gee Fok Fu Kuen Dui (Taming Tiger Boxing Two Man Set) - both core boxing forms in Lam family Hung Kuen. As with all of Hing Chao's books they are of great value to both the Hung Kuen practitioner and martial artists of other styles on a number of levels.
First of all for the martial arts historian, there is an extensive section on the history of Hung Kuen and Southern Shaolin boxing, from its historical origins and its comparison to other forms of southern martial arts, most notably with those of Fujian. Although some of this ground has been covered in the first volume of Hung Kuen training and in the book "The Hong Kong Martial Community" the material here is much more focused upon how Hung Kuen as a style relates to other styles in the region and what Hing Chao terms as archaic forms of martial arts. This is really some of the work that Hing Chao does best. What makes this stand out from other works is that besides historiography, there is an exploration of techniques and principles such as Sam Zin, Sei zi ciu tin and po pai shou and its relationship with those of other styles. Hing Chao takes great pains to set out the case for Nam Siu Lam (Southern Shaolin) as an overarching regional system but at the same time laments that much more work needs to be done studying the many village styles that are still practiced in Guangdong and Minnan, especially Zhangzhou and by studying any other new martial arts manuals that come to light.
For training, another valuable part of the book lies within the section on basic training techniques. In the old days many of these basic conditioning exercises were kept secret, but as times have changed a discussion of these exercises is important in truly understanding the system presented. Practitioners of other styles will find much of value in this section, in how to train a martial body, even though the details of each exercise will still need to be learned from a skilled master.
When we get to the core of the book, which encompasses the two sets, great care has been taken to convey an accurate description as well as clear photos so that it is possible to obtain a very good idea of the sets themselves. As I am not a Hung Kuen practitioner I will not go into great detail in this section. But much is made about the Chin Cheung, a relatively little known set central to the Lam family style, and now fully documented for the first time. Quoting from the book, "Its archaic style, simple structure, emphasis on small frame and subtle movement... makes a sharp contrast to the style of Hung Kuen represented by Gung Gee Fuk Foo Kuen and Fu Hok Seung Kuen, which is distinguished by a relatively big frame, relatively lively footwork, and a combat approach that relies on gaak daa." This set was reputedly taught to Lam Sai Wing by his uncle. Without disputing the efficacy of the set, however, when speaking with other masters, I realized that there is some dispute as to whether Chin Cheong is a later addition which is passed off as coming from Lam Sai Wing due to its very different feel. The differing interpretations are a good example of the fluid nature of martial arts transmission and the difficulty in studying the lineage of martial arts, as well as the difficulties of remaining objective as a practitioner of a given system.
Regardless of the above, this does not detract from the quality of the manuals presented, with terms explained in a copious glossary at the back of the book. In addition to the photos and description of the movements and applications, I do also want to highlight a very important part of this section which called "Core Principles" which describes how archery was still considered paramount amongst the martial arts during the late Qing Dynasty and how martial artists used archery principles to develop new techniques. [Hence the reason for my reference to kyudo in the preamble to this post.] Hung Kuen was no different from other styles in this respect and one of the techniques that best encapsulates the bow's mechanics is the biu sau or zin zoeng (arrow palm). A technical analysis of how power is generated here, and how it mimics the compression of the bow is clearly set out. To me it is worth the price of the book alone and will be of great interest to many of those who want to generate "internal power".
Finally in terms of its appearance, as in the case of the first volume which is also reviewed on my blog, this volume comes in a handsome hardcover edition, the design mimicking the traditional cloth bound hand stitched traditional chinese books in a pale shade of blue. For various design and budgetary reasons the decision was made to forego a dust jacket, which remains one of my main criticism of the design, as the current cover is easily stained. However I was very happy to see that one of my other criticisms of the first volume which was the large number of congratulatory letters and personal messages and praise from students was addressed and limited to a single postscript.
Again I would unreservedly recommend this book and would encourage martial artists of all stripes to beg, steal or borrow a copy. Well maybe not steal...
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