ChangWuJi
Orange Belt
Joined: 23 Jul 2001
Posts: 144
|
 Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2002 5:25 pm Post subject: |
 |
|
Here I will put write some interesting parts on the section "Author's Comments" in the book "The Secrets of Eagle Claw Kung Fu".
"In the more than fifty years that I have practised kung fu, nothing has impressed me as much as events from a very early recollections, none of which I have seen repeated since. I saw many street demonstrations in China, so I don't know exactly when it was, but I must have been very young. Many kung fu practitioners were also tid dar (herbal doctors). It was common for them to sound loud gongs to attract customers, then demonstrate their kung fu and medical skills. Once, I saw a performance by a man about forty years old. At one point during the demonstration he introduced an ordinary red brick. First he showed it around, then threw it on the ground to test its toughness. He picked up the brick and placed the tip of one of its fingers against the face of it, then, with about ten twists of his finger, drilled a whole right through it! Perhaps I was ten, and since I have never seen anyone do anything like that. But I saw stranger things.
One night, in an open field in China. I witnessed a Sun Da ceremony. Sun Da is a Chinese religion that requires absolute dedication to and faith in the gods. When called upon, the gods sopposevly come down and inhabit the body of the practitioner, rendering him invulnerable to edged weapons and techniques. (I myself do not follow any religion or sect - I only believe in myself.) Well, in this field a crowd gathered to see the inhabitation of a Sun Da practitioner. He lit and placed three joss sticks before him, then kneeled and prayed in a muffled voice. After about ten minutes, his whole body started quivering rapidly. This grew in intensity until he was shaking all over. He reached out with one finger and, in the dirt, drew the character for the Monkey King. He crouched in a deep squat, then suddenly sprang up about twenty feet in the air, somersaulted, and landed in a horse stance. I didn't believe a human being could jump that high, but I saw him do it. Immediately he began fast monkey boxing movements, then collapsed.
Through the ages, many sifus have held back some of their most precious knowledge, so certain secrets are lost forever. Some I saw when I was young, but see no more. As I grew older, I saw fewer and fewer of the incredible things that were at one time common. Even the great Lau Fat Mon kept some things secret. He never actually taught jui Lok Tong (Eagle Claw Drunken Form). He once improvised a drunken form that I was lucky enough to witness. It was filled with beutiful falling, rolling, and tumbling. At one point he landed in a pushup position, then popped up seven feet in the air. Feats such as that are extremly difficult, requiring a lifetime of training to accomplish. Fortunetly, when Ng Wai Nung was a student of Lau Fat Mon he observed Jui Lok Tong closely, made careful notes and questioned Sifu Lau in detail. This is how I came to learn this form.
The old sifus hoarded their secrets and took them to the grave. I want to teach everything I know, but it's hard to keep students long enough. Just when they're starting to become good, they have to leave for one reason or another - usually the job, money, or personal reasons. But even in Hong Kong this is true, so it will be very hard to keep Eagle Claw alive. If I don't teach everything I know, I think it it will go to hell. So I teach.
In our modern times, people don't have to work so hard physically, and the virtue of doing so is dissapearing, so reall high-caliber kung fu is now rare. Also, the need for kung fu has been cut sharply by the popularity of the gun. It takes time to learn good kung fu, but you can use a gun almost immediately. When there were no guns it was important to practise hard for many years in the art of the fist. Now it is mainly a sport, because no one can wait so long to be able to defend himself."
|
|
on the post.
