The Journey to Wudang

Hong Kong 2012. Foto: Jakob Isaksson

I saw a thread on facebook with the question "Which 5 books should a Taiji Quan student read?"
My answerer would be: Learning Mandarin Chinese 1-5

Right now I have come to one problem for my further development. It is not an closed end by far, but it is slowing me down. What I'm talking about is the language barrier. At the same time as my Chinese is improving I also realize that it is a long way before it reaches a satisfying level where I really can have more than superficial discussions with my teachers here. I wish I studied more than the now and then night classes back in Sweden, or that the school in Wudang would offer quality teaching with in the Chinese language also. Well, not much to do about that now. Instead it is all up to me.

Another thing is that it is also the key to my relationship. Not because my girlfriend don't understand me. Well, I guess sometimes she doesn't, but that's not a language problem (she speaks fluent English) it is more that I have crazy ideas. Anyways, what I'm talking about is the fact that her parents are VERY against her relationship to a "western" boyfriend. "Well that's no problem!" I thought at first, since I'm more Chinese than the average Chinese here in China. But It turned out to be more of a hometown issue where the parents think it is better that she marries someone local. I'm not worried I just need to explain who I am in a good and representable way.. and there we are again. To do that I need to improve my Chinese! Or else I can just pull a Karate Kid speach to her father in really poooooooor Chinese.. but I think that just works if Will Smith is your father. Last time I checked he is not (even though I can Rap and Dance like I'm from Philly').

This week I have been sitting with my books every day. The key to learning this language is writing characters again and again and constant repetition. It is just like the kungfu training, and just as exhausting. The big problem now is to learn the more advanced grammar and how to use the words properly. For that I need a teacher.. but right now I'm on my own. School starts soon and then I get help both there and at home, that is more like it. I'm watching Chinese movies with the dictionary in my hand. Some are more easy to understand than others. (Today I just came 10min into the film. Dang, there where many hard words during that opening! Will watch the rest tomorrow.) This summer my Chinese just have to be on top or else it will stand in the way for my plans. Once again, It is all up to me.. but that is what makes me calm also. I know I will spend every waken hour to achieve this. And that is how it will happen!

This will be a good year!!

The whole autumn here in Guangzhou (that is warm like a Swedish summer) I have been telling everybody that it is never going to be cold here. They complain about the winter that have 5' C in the nights and I try to explain about Sweden where we sometimes go towards -30' C in the mid winter nights. Now I'm sitting here freezing my ass off anyway. Well, I should have known better. I have spent a winter in Wudang so I know what the Chinese winters are about. I decided to share it whith you here.

My experience from Wudang was that during the days there was a nice temperature of 10-15'C but then during nights it fell down to -5'C. I remembered ending the training when the sun was down and the warm sweat turned to ice cold pain on my body. I went in to shower only to find out that the warm water was gone.. again. After showering in cold water I stepped out in my room.. AND HERE IS A DIFFERENCE.. You see, due to knowledge about how to build warm houses in Sweden we have protected our self from the cold the last 50 years. Our daily life inside our buildings is warm and cozy. Here it is not! My room in Wudang was big and nice with white concrete walls. These nice walls turned out to be nothing but messengers carrying a message of winter and ice. The stone floor was like a skating rink and the feeling trying to dry up after cold shower in a room that now was -5' to 2'C was far from pleasant.

The winter in Shanghai was even worse. Somehow there was one week with a wind from the sea or perhaps north Russia (or hell) that just blew straight inside your soul. I thought I would die. So that is partly why I decided to go down south this year. So finally in Guangzhou the whole autumn have been nice and warm witch have been really good form my body and the training. Then right when it started to get cold it turned back to nice weather for a week, and then I went to Thailand and Hong Kong. The first days after the vacation when I arrived here with my kungfu-brother Simon he explained how lucky I was to live down here. Because he lives next to the mountain this winter and there it is snow right now. The first two days here was so good that I totally regretted buying a nice winter jacket for 600RMB. After a few days it all turned to the worse though. Rain came and also the cold. Right now I'm reminded of the wind in Shanghai that was out to kill me. They say it is getting better this weekend so I'm hoping for that to be true.

Right now my apartment have a temperature around 5-10'C, and that is in my bed.. under three blankets! Somehow my warm water doesn't heat up more than half ways so I never really feel warm. This will get to you after a while. Outside it is far warmer than Sweden but the problem is inside. Once again I live with nice, high, and white concrete walls and a stone floor. Every time I put my feet's on the floor I feel the cold traveling up through my heel bone towards the center of my body. In an instant I'm freezing all over. The Chinese people are hardcore to handle this. They aren't even complaining.

This will (soon) be a good year!!

My blog is up and running again after a few weeks of vacation. Hundreds of readers have found their way back and quickly I got response to my writings. I got a request for some fan pictures with me and Jackie Chan (photo shopped of course since he is to busy to hang out with me). I thought I would do a combination of the Jackie post and a before and after picture that is always fun. In these you can both see the progress AND compare the shape with Jackie. That's perfect, so here we go!

1) Jackie Chan in top shape. 2) Me starting at the University after the summer 2011. 3) 2012.. this will be a good year!

Snorkeling with the fishes in thailand

I'm now back from my vacation in Thailand. It was soooo nice to see my family again and I had a great time. Even though I realized that laying in the sun doing nothing all days isn't what I wan't with my life. So.. When I had the chance I sneaked in to the gym at my sisters hotel and worked on "the guns". Some of the fathers from the other visiting families where also there, perhaps trying to get the vacation beer off their stomachs, and it was clear that they never seen my kind of training before. When I walked in there and did my one legged squats with weights on my back, they all looked confused and a little bit scared. All for a good reason! Anyways, after a good week of playing, swimming, talking, snorkeling, eating, drinking, jumping and burning my skin it was time to go back. Hopefully I can see my family again soon in May when I'm planing a short trip back to Sweden. We will see!


Me and my sisters two sons, Edvin and Nils

Now it is the year of the dragons, and what could be a better way to celebrate that than with my dragon friend from Wudang? Me and Simon have been in Hong Kong and Guangzhou the last weeks combining New Year celebrations with training and serious talk about the future. We have some crazy stories to tell as our adventurous life's continues. We are both alive so there is nothing to worry about, at least not now. The stories will not be posted here but can be bought for 1000 RMB with 100% real photos of all events.


Me and Simon in Hong Kong before Xing Yi Quan training with master C.S. Tang

New year and a lot of things have changed. Not only the design of the blog that now have Hong Kong subway systems green walls.. but also me. When I left wudang I was suffering from serious lack of nutrition. I weight just over 70kg which is a lot less than when I came to china. Last week while visiting IKEA I put my feet's on a weigh and noticed the number 80 flashing on the screen with bright red color. I think the food in Guangzhou, protein powder and hard training have paid off and the lead role in the next "Conan the Barbarian" movie might be mine. Now I have the strength I need so it is time to put in an extra gear and just pass my fellow students on our journey towards mastery. If last year was a good year this will be even better. In china we still have time off from school right now so I will not update the blog every day. Bot hopefuly a few times a week.

THIS will be a good year!

"Kong Xiangdong performs drunken straight sword. A weapon wielding version of drunken fist, the practioner mimics the movement of a drunk in order to confuse and surprise his opponents." / Beijingwushuteam.com (One of the good things with being surrounded by kungfu masters is that all the styles you want to study is available. Right now I'm working on my drunken swordplay besides the basic training. Not part of the effective and usefull self defence, but you need to have some fun also! And it is nice for performance and shows.)


The last few days I have had really good training. I have again added night training for the upper body and this weekend I didn't rest at all. This have turned out to give good results. Well.. good results in terms of strength.. and bad results when it comes to flexibility and relaxation. Today in the morning I was back in school and had to perform the standard Chang Quan routine in front of the class. That feeling was totally weird. It was like if I was swinging someone else's arms. The teacher just looked at me and wondered what was going on and asked why I was so stiff. It didn't help that I was wearing "långkalsonger" under my pants so I couldn't even stretch down my usual low pubu's. "JIE KAI, ARE YOU WEARING TWO PAIR OF PANTS?" was her surprised, and a bit upset, reaction. I was about to answer that it was so cold, but at that time It wasn't. Actually it was about 20' C outside and people where wearing T-shirts. The weather is a bit strange right now. The sun is strong down here so it can bring some serious heat, but when it is gone it is just cold, dark and windy.. AND when it is cold, it is cold inside as well. That is the biggest different from back home where your house is warm and you can just stay inside the chilly days and relax. Here you freeze your ass off!

So after a lunch break I was back in the gymnasium again for afternoon training. Today we where told that we have a show on the 24/12 which is also known as Christmas. Not much to say here, so we rehearsed the material and prepared for the show. Turns out that two of the girls can’t (don’t want) to do the show so we are helping two new people with the choreography (makes me think that I could have come up with an excuse to miss this event as well! Damn!). After class I stayed for extra training and, just for the hell of it, added 5 repetitions to my squat rounds. I need to take it easy with my knee but at the same time learn the “tornado kick” to a perfect split. That is an equation that is hard to solve. Before I went home I just kept the kicks coming and forced my self through the air to those damn splits. Not pretty, but they are slowly getting there. I have a motto in life, that is that I can learn anything in three months. I think I have been here three months now so it is time to step up the game these last weeks. After that there will be a nice vacation in Thailand with my family. But before then, this is how I do it:

Training Schedule 19-23/12:

08.30-09.30 Running and Stretching

09.30-11.30 Wushu Class

LUNCH

13.30-14.30 Sword Practice

14.30-16.00 Wushu Team Class

16.00-17.00 Leg Strength

DINNER

19.00-20.00 Upper body Strength
20.00-21.00 Drunken Sword
22.00-22.30 Stretching
SLEEP



This is going to be a good year!

A loot of good practice the last days, and alot of sword practice!

My blog had a little fall lately while I also had a down period. Vomiting blood and some other stuff have been keeping me from training and writing. Now I'm back on track and a week of rest, if you can call it that (no sleep and no food for four days was the first part). Today and yesterday I had really good practice and It feel like everything is going the way I want. In school I have been focusing a little bit less on Taiji Quan and a bit more swordplay and long fist. This works better for me since this is where I lack skills. If my swordplay and faster forms where as good as my Taiji then there would be no problems for me. Right now we are training more form and less basics to get a flow, speed and power and se where in the forms there are things to work on. So I'm training one "drunken" sword form from our system, and at the same time the standard wushu swordplay form for competitions. Well, the drunken sword form is actually what I will use for competition and the standard form is just to get the foundation straight.

So, during practice yesterday I did my standard form and let the teachers look at it. It turns out that it is not advanced enough so the coach of the wushu team doesn't know it. He knows how the movements are supposed to look like so he still can help me improve. Then a teacher to one of the other classes shows up and join the other teachers for some smoking and conversation. When it is my turn to wield the sword he looks at me for a long time, then he just put out his cigarette, walks up on the floor and grabs my sword. Then he shows me how the form is supposed to be. This is situations that I LOVE! Some people might think that this is rude or a strange way to teach, but the feeling when he just steps up and explode in the most incredible movements on the floor is amazing. This guy is in his 50's and look like he can be a teacher in anything, more likely math or physics. Until he MOVES.. then you see who he is. We already had one moment in class where he is teaching next to us and once again just step in and show a move. The whole class he was teaching, and our class too, just stopped and watched. He did a simple front sweep to a low position, but with the grace of a 19 year old female ballet dancer. Everybody just applauded and realized we will NEVER do that move that good. These guys are from the old school when wushu still where hard practice and more about style and flow than acrobatics. The way he moves with the sword is just.. well.. I have no words for it!

Later, I got a private lesson where he corrected my form and it was exactly what I was looking for. Everything became so simple and clear. Today's training had a little bit of that feeling too when I got the chance to work on some basic long fist moves that have been troubling me as well. This was after 1,5 hour of jumps and strength training of course.. and.. that was after 30 minutes of running laps as a warm up. Good end of the week.


This will be a good year!!

Lately some of my students have asked me what I think about learning gong fu from Videos. Hopefully they mean instruction videos and not Shaw Brothers, even though that would be fine with me as well. If you want to train with in our system the master is You Xuan De and it is his videos you should buy. I decided to write some thoughts about kungfu DVD's and how they are useful.


Rule number one with in martial arts is - "Find your self a good teacher". Rule number two is - "Train hard for a long time". If you follow these two rules you will be successful. Actually you can say that you need the way, and the endurance to follow it. A video don't correct you or point out where you are wrong so it demands much more from your self. The risk of missing important details or learning things wrong are definitely bigger and most important you loose your lineage to history. A "lineage" is a family tree that contains energy and information, something that is alive and goes beside the classic books (videos) and the choreographed movements of the forms. It is the none written information that comes with the techniques that have been preserved with in the system since its beginning. With out a lineage you don't practice Chinese gung fu, you just mimic it. Here was a problem for many western practitioners for a long while. Only a few lineages where presented and even If you would find one it wasn't sure it was open for none Chinese people. Today this problem is out of the way. Through globalization, internet and a China that have opened up you can get in touch with pretty much any martial art form you want. This have heighten the standards of Taiji Quan and Gung fu in Europe big time. Just learning from videos will become very empty practice and holds a great risk of walking the wrong way. Videos might become that short cut that turns out to be both long and hard.. in a bad way! (all roads with in kung fu are long and hard!)

Well.. Even though it is no problem to connect to a lineage and find a good teacher, it is still more convenient to order films from internet that drops down in your mailbox a week later. So.. besides the risk of loosing details and information that is not spoken, what is more to know about learning from videos? Well, there is one thing that I would like to point out. Learning Qi Gong from Videos and Books is not to recommend. These things should always be done with a teacher. Here you have an influence on the body that goes beyond the soar knees you might get from performing your gungbu and mabu wrong.. or the time needed to recorrect you basics after bad practice. Usually the Qigong performed in the videos are of the external kind and might not do so much harm. But still I recommend finding a teacher for what you want to learn. So.. The right way to use Videos is for example as a help to remember the form you have studied while you are back home. Perhaps you go to a seminar (or China) and meet up with a master, train for some days (or months) and then goes home. If you then have a Video from the form/forms you have learned your practice will be much better. It is a perfect help for your memory where you easy can go back and get the right details. Personally, I usually also preview the forms that I will learn so I already know the basics of it. I start one or two weeks before the practice, so later when the teacher is there I can focus on details instead of directions and choreography. For me this works good as a method.

If we start again from the top with the two rules, there is something worth mentioning. If you find a good teacher but don't study hard you will not achieve great skills, but if you train hard with out a teacher you still have the chance to reach gung fu (if you are have the right understanding by your self). Some of the people who have great skills have just practiced some "stupid thing" by them self for 50 year. Then they master it and people realize these guys had been training gong fu all the time. It is all about training.. hard... and for a long time! So in the end it doesn't matter if you learn from a teacher, a book or a video. It is more about what effort you put down, and how much time you dedicate. This is what will make you a master. I guess I also need to mention that I personally LOVE buying books and instruction videos. I feel that every time you read a new book you learn sometihing new and usefull, or perhaps just see how wrong some people are. Both ways are good and gives you usefull information as a Taiji Quan teacher. 

The use of the word "Taiji Quan" is what makes the Wudang history become very confusing. Zhang San Feng didn't develope the modern form of Taiji Quan but rather layed a foundation for it. The name is a new description of a (compared to Wudang) fairly new phenomenon. The original proverb states "Wudang is the mother, Taiji is the son", giving us a hint about that the martial arts of Wudang gave birth to the Taiji movement. Taiji Quan went on to develop itself to later take the top position as the No.1 Chinese health exercise AND a respected martial art. No wonder that Wudang is proud of being part of its origin. When promoting the Wudang martial arts it is therefore easy to make use of Taiji. This stings the Taiji families that during hundreds of years have refined and developed the modern Taiji. Taking away the credit from their ancestors. If you look away from the PR-circus and martial arts politics and just ask the masters on Wudang about what heritage they find genuine and are proud of, the many times answer Taiyi instead of Taiji.



Female legend Zhao Jianying, one of the keepers of Wudang Wuxing Quan system

Taiyi is one of the oldest Wudang martial arts styles (Taiyi means "primordial unity of yin and yang" but is also the name of a daoist sage found in Chinese mythology). The roots of the system even predates the visit of Zhang San Feng while many forms follows his legacy. One famous and recognized form from this style is the "Wudang Taiyi Wuxing Quan" created in the Ming Dynasty by Wudang daoist Zhang Shouxing. It was a secret style designed for the priests in charge of protecting the temples, only a few were allowed study and learn it. It is just like Taiji Quan based on "the Thirteen Postures" that was invented by Zhang San Feng but it also incorporated the ideas from the Five Animal Qigong and Nei Gong practice of the daoists. Besides the Wudang Taiyi Wuxing Quan you have other form like for example Wudang Taiyi Xiao Yao Zhang and Wudang Taiyi Swordplay seen in my videos. The Wudang Taiyi takes many different forms, with in different sects, but is said to be the ultimate combination of yin and yang. The forms have a natural flowing grace, but at the same time speed and explosive power.

OK, today I call a time out and don't even show up in School. Holy S#!T my body is soar from yesterdays training. This started with me getting a slight case of "hybris" in the end of last week, since I have now gotten used to the schedule at the school. I added more heavy training at the same time as we started to practice a new move that suddenly started to wake up my old dance injuries. After doing a full 360' front sweep with my feet still in start position because of the grip under my new shoes, well.. my knee was not happy. After being a professional dancer for 10 years my body is tired and relatively old. I should not be able to train this hard, but since the Wushu works with different movements it is actually going well. The teachers see that I can learn what they have so they put pressure, and I'm here to become the best ever so I add some my self also. I know this is kind of a wild shot since nobody that is 33 years old should do this to their own body. But I give it a try. The worry of getting injured is always in the back of my head and for example I'm always one hour early before class so I can warm up and stretch properly. With out this I'd be dead!

So I rested as much as I could after school, so I could show up in class yesterday.. just to know that it is acrobatic training day. You see, Every month we have some general kung fu flipping, spinning and twisting besides the basic jump kicks we always do. I have never even seen some of the things we where training but the other half was just basic break dancing moves. The coach was like "Take it easy today! Be careful!" while I was just looking at the floor thinking "If I ever will be doing back flips again it is NOW!". I did the flips, head flips, back flips, handstand to neck to bla bla bla.. Well the list goes on. All together a good workout and some of the guys where pretty impressed that I could do all this stuff. And so was I since last I did a real back flip was 2003.

This morning I had to face the result of all this. I didn't sleep more than perhaps 30min during the whole night since I was half dreamingly trying to convince my knees to go from "I'm out!" to just a "please take it easy!" reminder. When the alarm went off I moved to cancel it and stand up. And this is when I realized that it was impossible!? My knees where hurting, my neck was hurting, my back was hurting and my wrist was hurting. To top that off I almost threw up. I did the "time out sign" with my hands and went back to sleep. We will see what happens tomorrow. I'm also out of warm water in case I'd like to have a warm shower for the circulation. Well well.. now it is time for an acupuncture treatment, and perhaps later also some herbs. Just need to switch clothes to the white doctor outfit.


This will be a good year!!!

When I grew up the coolest thing around was the art of "Dim Mak" or so called "touch of death". After a few misunderstandings about what it really was (thanks to Jean Claude Van Damme and the movie Bloodsport) it became clear that this was something I needed to learn. Lucky enough there was a manual available at the local martial arts store where I every 3 months got to go with my father to shop new books or training equipment. This manuscript covered some of the deadly points on the body, witch is perfect reading when you are 12 years old. Fortunately the skill also needs training so just buying the book didn't mean that I was able to start killing people around me. The thing with this skill is that even though it sound a bit dangerous and violent it has a deep connection to the Chinese healing arts, and therefore a good way to get young martial artists interested in meridians and acupuncture points. This is what happened to me. From the time I was 15 years old I started to study massage and acupressure. This later grew to more serious TCM and acupuncture, and then all of a sudden the old book I had about pressure points finally made sense. Turns out that you need the medical education first to understand what it is really about. When you know all this you have the power to heal or to make harm. This is when you realise that it is much more interesting to help people and usually chose the TCM aspect. Still I will explain a little bit about the points of death here under.




"Dim Mak" is called Dian Xue in mandarin Chinese. It is a traditional skill from Wudang and is part of the legacy claimed to come from the legendary Zhang San Feng. We know that the chinese history often is simplified giving one person credit for many peoples work. As a fact my teachers told me that San Feng was not alone when he invented the martial arts. He had friends around him that also where skillful and knowledgable. They invented a martial art using methods to overcome stronger opponents. What they did was to integrate the knowledge of Qi in the training. With this concept came the internal training that builds up an unseen strength, but also the much more devastating skill to interfere with the opponents energy flow. If you are stronger you can use grappling and qin'na but this will not help you against a bigger opponent. The teachings about neutralizing the enemies force with softness is the basic skill while the high level practice is about avoiding and striking for energy collapse. The easiest way to handle the attacker is by a quick takedown using precise strikes for knock out.




What you can do with Dian Xue have been exaggerated in the many movies featuring this skill. For example the classic death after five steps, or the legend about Bruce Lee who supposedly died from a Dian Xue stroke causing a delayed death with no trace. "Is there any truth to this?" many people ask. Well.. let me put it like this.. everything you can heal with Acupuncture you can reverse and use for destructional purposes. The use of points go far from just knock outs and the long term problems of having your internal organs out of function is actually a delayed death. The more scary way to use this teaching is for example to hit the acupunture point that helps heal broken bones (a hard strike takes away the energy from the bones), and the follow up with a strike towards the elbow or kick against the knee. By doing this you will be able to break the opponents joints more eays. This is called set up points. You see, many systems have the basic points that make damage, but real Dian Xue is much more complicated. It is in a way also much more dangerous to practice since you can't see all the effects right away. While a knock out is always a knock out it is difficult to see the traces of reversed energy flow or a growing mental disorder for example. It is important that you perform special Qigong after practice to balance the energy system in your body. Often also self massage. 

The Dian Xue is sometimes found as hidden knowledge inside the forms. Something that only a qualified teacher knows and teaches, but there is a lot of obvious practices also. You might have see the hard Qigong strengthening of two fingers that people perform with. This is one of the Wudang foundations for point striking. I have here in Guangzhou doen shows together with one guy who stands on two fingers and breaks boards with them. Here you come to another side of this, where ever he hit you it will hurt and create energy collapse. So the pressure point teaching becomes secondary. Same with people who have massive grip strength. They can just grab any muscle and press so hard you basicly pass out. Ironicly the Wudang skill of onefinger handstand was last performed by a Shaolin Abbot who have now passed. I was taught the Dian Xue by my teachers since I had medical knowledge, so when my students show a diploma from an acupuncture school we will start hitting points right away!