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| Chinese Kempo |
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| Kempo Technique |
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The term Chinese Kempo:
It should be noted here that Kempo is the Japanese term for an art that originated in China or a Japanese art that has been heavily influenced by Chinese teachers and their methods. The term Chinese Kempo is used here solely to distinguish the Kempo that originated in China from much later American and European style developments often spelt Kenpo.
Kempo and Chaun Fa in China:
In this section is outlined a skeletal history of the development of Chinese fighting traditions, from the early Chou (1125-255 BC) through the Han (206BC-220AD) and San Kuo periods (221-265AD). During the later period China was divided into three kingdoms. One these kingdoms was the Northern Wei Dynasty (386-534 AD) where the Shaolin temple was said to have been built in Honan province. It was here that it is claimed Bhodidharma founded the Shaolin martial arts when he arrived in China from India in 527 AD.
It was around 150AD that the first Buddhist missionaries arrived in China from India. They brought with them Knowledge of Ayurvedic medicine , Yoga and its corresponding theory of the Nadi’s which are similar to the Chinese Meridian system, although more complex. However Buddhism in China did not reach any degree of prominence until the wore torn 4th Century, when many Taoists were said to have been converted to Buddhism. It was during this period that many Chinese Taoists engaged in the translation of Buddhist teachings which formed the basis of the Chan sect, that eventually was transported to Japan where it became known as Zen.
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Chou Dynasty:
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The earliest recorded form of Chinese boxing is to be found in the ‘Book of Rights’ published during the Chou Dynasty (1125-255 AD) between 770-481 BC. This work gives reference to the various martial arts that were practices during the dynasty and includes wrestling of a primate nature in which the participants wore horned helmets and butted each other.
This form of wrestling was popular among peasant farmers and is believed to have evolved from a fight between the legendary Emperor Huang Ti, the Yellow Emperor and a Chi’h Yu a horned monster. This method of wrestling in all probability evolved into a more sophisticated system during the warring states period (403-221 BC) when military organisation took place requiring infantrymen who wore breast plates, waist and shin guards along with helmets.
The main weapons used by these early Chinese infantrymen were the Bow and arrow, spear and sword.
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Han Dynasty:
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Sometime between 206 BC and 220 AD attempts were made to unify China and modernise the state, the Chinese body dynamics came to reflect the process of industrialisation and the body organs were organised into a hierarchy of positions were corresponded with the organisation of the new industrial state.
It was during this same period that the Yellow Emperors Classic of Internal Medicine, the ‘Huang Ti Nei Ching’ was popularised and modified through the various dialogues that took place between Confucian and Taoist Scholars in a period of social change and upheaval. This period was marked with the building of canals for transportation throughout China. It has been argued that the meridians in the Chinese body reflect the development of state in this period and that this is why the various organs in the Chinese body are given positions of state (Unschuld 1986).
Huang Ti, the Yellow Emperor, for Taoists was said to have descended from heaven is regarded as the founder of early Taoism, before the writings of Lao Tzu were adopted.
Taoism is not one single, but several different philosophies based on the way of nature which were united by the principle of Wu Wei, meaning non intervention.
Taoism has been subject to the principle of diffusion, meaning that it has been divided into a number of sects with a single tap root and some sects of Taoism have absorbed elements of Confucianism and or Buddhism. Taoism like most East Asian Religo-Philosophical systems has been subjected to syncretism (The combining of various traditions into the main corpus of its original canon).
Confucianism,is based on a work by Confucius called the Analects, the teachings of which were popularised by Confucius’s disciple Mencius,who rose to prominence during the Han dynasty as he created the Han Bureaucratic system of State. Central to Confucianism is the principle of filial piety, this means to honour and serve ones elders, the parents and the family. The parents of all families was the Emperor and the Emperors own Mandate came from heaven. It is tehrefore possible to gain an insight into the type of social structure that existed in this early period by looking to the ranking of the plethora of deities of the Chinese people.
It was during the Han period that the martial arts ceased to be the exclusive province of Nobles and their military servants in individual states. Instead the martial arts began to became more widely practised among the populace.It was during this same period that the Chinese army began to be organised on a national rather than the previous regional basis, This it can be speculated was the origin of Wu Shu Kwan (Chinese Military Martial Arts)..
During the Han Dynasty, a great literary tradition emerged, this was also the beginning of a Chinese Educational System. Confucian scholars began to engage in debates with the Taoist’s and these debates found there way into the great literature of the period. Whether the Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine emerged before the Han or during it, what is certain is that the debates between Confucian Scholars and the Taoists are reflected in what we have of this work today..
Another work published during the Han went by the name ‘Han Shu I Wen Chih’, the ‘Han Book of Arts’, contained six chapters on Shou Po (Hand Fighting). Unfortunately these six chapters of Shou Po were separated from the Han Shu I Wen Chih’ and their actual contents remains unknown.
There is little doubt that the study of martial arts during the Han dynasty was further enhanced by the study of the body in early Chinese healing methods, we see this is most Chinese Martial Arts to this day.
Chinese Medicine during the Han Dynasty;
It was during the late Han period between 25-220 AD that there lived a Chinese surgeon by the name of Hua To, who is said to have developed some exercises based on the movements of the Tiger, Deer, Bear, Monkey and Bird.
It is worthy of note here that the Shaolin fighting system which developed much later was based on the movements of three of Hua To’s animals: Tiger, Monkey and Bird, the latter in the case of Shaolin was the Crane.
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The Shaolin Temple and Bodidharma:
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The Shaolin temple plays an important place in the history of the establishment of Buddhism and martial arts in China. Many sources believe that the shaolin temple located in the Sho Shih mountains of Honan province in Northern China was built sometime in the Northern Wei Dynasty (386-535AD) at the request of Emperor Hsia Wen.
In 527 AD Emperor Wu Of China invited the Indian Prince and famous Monk Bodhidharma, also known as Dua Mo (Japanese: Daruma) to visit China and teach his brand of Buddhism. When Bodhidharma arrived at the shaolin temple he found that the monks were not able to undertake his methods of training as they had failed to keep up their Yogic practice and would easily become fatigued and fall asleep during instruction and meditational practises.
Legend states that Bodidharma remained in China at the Shaolin temple and engaged in a nine year long meditation facing the wall listening to ants scream, a phrase which means deep contemplation. When Bodidharma out of his meditation he is said to have devised a series of exercises to make the monks stronger and bring them closer to what they were meant to be trying to achieve.
The exercises that Bodhidharma devised were written down and published in a book called the ‘I Chin Ching’, the ‘Muscle Change Classic’ which depicts eighteen exercises that were callisthenic in nature and function utilising static tensing postures.
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I Chin Ching: Muscle Change Classic
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It is possible, that Bodidharma only devised twelve of the eighteen exercises that he is often accredited with having devised. The other six exercises of the eighteen actually having being added much later just as two Sutra’s were also later added to the ‘I Chin Ching’. The first Sutra added to the 'I Chin Ching' was called the ‘Yi Jiing Jiin’ which depicted further physical Yogic exercises and breathing.
The second Sutra, which was also added, the ‘Xi Suj Jiin’ served to describe how to develop both mental and physical strength.
It is these eighteen exercises and two sutras that were combined with early Chinese fighting methods and served as the foundation for the Shaolin fighting system known as Louhan Quan, or Eighteen Monk Fist Boxing.
According to Patrick McCarthy’s research in China Lou Han Quan, also known as Arhat boxing, is based on twenty four defensive and offensive techniques which can be found in the original eighteen exercises of the ‘I Chin Ching’.
The training methods consisted of standing in two stances.
The first of which is the horse stance, popular in Chinese Chaun Fa systems, Okinawan Karate, and certain Chi Kung systems.
The second training stance is the hour glass stance, this in Chinese goes by the name of Saam Chien, and is particularly well known among practitioners of Okinawan Karate, espicially Uechi Ryu and Goju Ryu where it is known as Sanchin.
Louhan Chan has six sets which strike with fist, two with palms, one with elbow, four utilising foot and leg techniques and five for grappling, this making a total of eighteen exercises.
Nine more exercises were later added creating twenty-seven skills that were then subdivided into fifty-four techniques, practised on both sides creating 108 techniques.
The Louhan Quan system is characterised by its method of striking vital points, its Chin-na that consists of grappling and dislocating joints, its methods of strangulation, as well as its breathing methods and other healing aspects.
Shaolin Five Animals:
During the Yuan dynasty between 1260-1368 AD a Shaolin monk called Cheuh Yuan is said to have revised the original eighteen exercises contained in the ‘I Chin Ching’ and by doing so created the basis for the original seventy-two styles that claimed their origin from Shaolin.
Later Li Ch’eng and Pai Yu Feng created one hundred and seventy movements from the seventy two styles that Cheuh Yeun had created from the original eighteen exercises. The one hundred and seventy movements devised by Li Ch’eng and Pai Yu Feng were divided into five styles that represented the essences of the human body and their correspondence in the animal world.
The five styles were dragon, which stood for spirit, Tiger for bone, Leopard for strength, Snake for Chi, and Crane for sinew. It was this division which provided the basis for what became the five animal styles of Shaolin.
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| Nihon Go Shin Kage Ryu & Hakuda Ryu Kempo Jutsu
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| Essex |
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| Sensei983@yahoo.com
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Page Updated Fri Mar 13, 2009 12:08pm EST
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