One of the most famous sayings in Chinese is “Si liang bo qian jin” and is often poorly translated as “Four ounces can repel a thousand pounds”. This saying is so common, it resounds in literature written on Tai Ji Quan, Xing Yi and Ba Gua. Many of the practitioners of these arts say this is what makes their art “internal”. Even Chinese knowledgeable in cheng yu (common Chinese sayings) are familiar with this phrase. In this column, I hope to bring out the true meaning of this phrase and hopefully, people can reflect and see if they can indeed do “Si liang bo qian jin”.

We will start by analyzing the weights and meanings of the words. “Si liang” is a measure of 4 liang. A liang is an old standard of weight since the Tang dynasty. Many times a liang is called “a tael” in English. One liang was equivalent to 31.25 grams in the Tang dynasty. In 1979, the People’s Repulic of China set a standard of 1 liang equals 30 grams. Four times 30 grams is 120 grams. For you metric challenged individuals, that is 4.23 ounces. Not precise, but close to “4 ounces” , roughly the weight of a McDonald’s Quarter Pounder before cooking.

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What most people see in Wing Chun Kuen is the fixed form that may belong to the beginner or intermediate. Even if a person has learned all the forms in Wing Chun Kuen, they may not yet have reached an advanced level. Wing Chun can be learned quickly, but not necessarily deeply if a person does not understand how to use the body. Most have seen a rigid interpretation of the first form in Wing Chun Kuen called “Siu Nim Tao” (Translation: “Focus on the small at the foundation”). A person at the beginner or intermediate stage sits in the basic stance of the system and is rigidly “locked”. At advanced levels, the stance becomes dynamic and engages the body in rising and sinking, absorbing and pushing forward – not mechanical, but based on being able to fa jing in all points of contact with an opponent. Because the movement is very small, it appears that one is “locked”, but that is not the case at advanced levels.

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The late Kenny Gong, my first Xing Yi teacher told me, “To be a complete martial artist, you must know striking, kicking, joint locking, throwing and ground fighting!” I have often passed these words of advice to my students, even though I teach a primarily striking based art of Wing Chun Kuen. Now years later, I get calls from my students after they have learned about the UFC and Gracie Jiujitsu, and the merits of groundfighting and grappling, and that this statement was correct. I might add that training in meditation, and internal work like guiding the Qi, and skill in weaponry with both long and short weapons are also very important to be a complete martial artist. You might examine your current art and ask if it fits the bill to being a complete system for you.

Martial arts began with man’s need for survival, so man developed many means of combat. Some relied more on strength, others on agility, others on weapons, and others on tricks. In China, a skilled student would complete his studies with his master and then go on to travel and study with other masters skilled in other styles. Master Ken Duk Hoi of the Tai Sing Pek Gwa Mun is reputed to have studied Tai Ji, Xing Yi and Ba Gua in addition to his mastery of Tai Sing Pek Gwa Mun. Chan Heung, the creator of Choy Lay Fut, mastered his Uncle’s Southern Siu Lam system prior to studying with Lay Yau San and Choy Fook. He created Choy Lay Fut as an attempt to create a complete system. Five Elder Fist, a style from Fujian was created by combining the essences of the Tai Jo, White Crane, Dat Mor, Lohan and Monkey fist systems. It is also a complete art. Some systems like Northern Siu Lam, Eagle Claw, 7 stars Praying Mantis also attempt to have a complete curriculum by having a great number of sets each teaching particular skills of striking, kicking, joint locking, throwing, ground fighting, internal training, meditation and long and short weapons. The famed Shaolin Temple became a repository for knowledge and collected information on the various fighting arts and stored them. Contrary to popular belief that Shaolin created martial arts throughout China, in early Shaolin history, laymen, retired generals and people seeking refuge from politics and who were already skilled in martial arts came to Shaolin and developed their arts there. Shaolin became a breeding ground for development of the various systems.

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When you come to learn Chinese martial arts, at times you will come across many poetic movements and keywords. These are called Ge Jue (Verse words), Kou Jue (Oral Tranmissions), Mi Jue (Secret Transmissions) or even Quan Jue (Fist Sayings) in Mandarin, or in Cantonese, Gor Kuit, Ho Kuit, Mai Kuit, and Kuen Kuit, respectively. These are the secrets in Chinese martial arts, little details that make it difficult for others to learn the art. I believe it is safe to say that systems from other countries do not use keywords and poetry to impart knowledge of their system.

For example, Okinawan Karate is very close to Fujian Quan Fa. Chinese were probably very secretive and gave the Okinawans only the basics of their systems, but not the inner details. This is why many Okinawans tried to ponder the Bubishi without luck. They were not trained in the White Crane and Lo Han Fist that the book is written about, nor the keywords or medicine. Perhaps the Chinese were willing to share the movements of their Quan Fa, but not willing to share the high level writings of their lineage, or culturally, people were illiterate. The Okinawans however, took the approach to mastery of basics and intuitively understanding the methods of their systems and we still able to develop strong systems. Their arts also changed in a different country’s socio-economic and cultural background.

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As you all might have guessed by now, I am a practitioner of Chinese martial arts in general, but my specialty is Wing Chun Kuen. Over the past few years, Wing Chun has gotten into the magazines as a fighting art and from the fame it received as the mother art of Bruce Lee’s Jeet Kune Do. Since the death of Yip Man in 1972, there has emerged a growing popularity with the art, and a number of prominent instructors promoting the art internationally. Wing Chun Kuen has attracted perhaps hundreds of thousands of practitioners learning this art.

Unfortunately, the system is sick. Two rival groups within the same system have had a major falling out. Grandmasters of these two systems have been involved in public petty squabbles and politics and publicly noted in newspaper and magazine articles throughout the world. Some of their students and grandstudents have been involved in actual brawls. Destructive “kicking down” of rival schools in Germany have occurred. I don’t think there has ever been a Chinese martial art enshrouded with so much controversy. We have lost face throughout the martial arts world with the bickering and infighting. Others laugh and ridicule the Wing Chun family members for fighting amongst ourselves. And why shouldn’t they?

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As a Chinese martial artist, one of the most important quests in learning and mastery of your art is the study of power (“Jing” in Mandarin, “Ging” in Cantonese, and often described as “internal power” in English). The most important thing in the quest for is learning body connection to issuing that power. In my studies, body connection is the first way to Ging and sadly, too many practitioners are still searching for power after 20 years or so of practice. A student of mine, Kim Eng, once remarked that when he studied another internal art, he was waiting to get the “Qi Power” after 20 years of practice. I laughed. I then explained to him the understanding of body connection and how to get power.

Power is dependent upon both internal and external factors. Oral traditions state, “Power originates from the heels, travels up the ankle and knee joints, is in conjunction with the waist, issues forth from the body and rib cage, travels down the shoulders, to the elbow, to the wrist and manifests from the hands”. A proper positioning of the body, muscle relaxation and contraction, breathing and timing are also factors involved in this. Proper body alignment from aligning the 3 dan tian is crucial to the development of this power. One must align the Yin Tang (an acupuncture point between the two eyebrows), Tan Zhong (Ren 17 – a point located on the midline of the body, level with the 4th intercostal space) and Qi Hai (Ren 6 – also known as dan tian – a point 1.5 cun below the navel) points in one line. With this basic posture, and a basic stance practiced in your system, you should try two important exercises. One, you should try to stand when a force or pressure is exerted upon you, let’s say a person putting his palm on your chest and pressing with continuous force. The pressure should be rooting you to the ground. One cannot develop this power if he is leaning backwards like the Leaning Tower of Pisa, nor “hunchbacked” like Quasimodo from Notre Dame. Being hunchbacked is a bastardization of the concept of “Han Xiong” (Empty Chest). The second exercise is to practice striking your partner when he has a focus mitt on his chest. Try to practice an inch punch so that you know where your power is coming from. It should be from the ground up. My speaking of alignment is compliant with Xing Yi’s 7 stars of power and San Ti Shi (Trinity Stance), Tai Ji Quan’s peng jing (expansion power) and Ba Gua’s Niu Jing (twisting power), as well as Zhan Zhuang. Wing Chun also follows this concept of alignment. Chinese martial arts oral traditions also state, “Internally train a breath of air, externally train the sinew, bones and skin”. Yip Man was known to practice the Siu Nim Tao set (Wing Chun’s 1st form) for an hour. He was training to develop power. I believe that power development comes to a student from day one in their training. It comes from the basics of stance, posture and relaxation. It’s just that beginner students are not coordinated, nor do they understand how to put things together. In my opinion, they are just doing things “externally”, simply mimicking a teacher’s motions without the understanding of why they are doing basic motions. If a martial artist only emphasizes “purely external training”, they typically use weight training, stretching, and maintain an emphasis on endurance and speed. That’s fine, yet it does not tie into the rich concepts of complete body alignment, which is internal training.

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