Master the five elements and then you can see the other world

From the Chronicles of Tao

By Deng Ming-Dao

The Grand Master summoned Saihung as soon as his disciple had returned to the mountain.

"You think you're talented, don't you?"

Saihung nodded confidently.

"You're not. You've been lucky. If you want to be good, you need meditation. Your internal system must be perfect. It is the internal that is the source of power, and you must go deep inside and use the totality of yourself in order to develop."

"I have won tournaments and challenges."

"You can be better if you meditate before your practice. It will unleash unusual energy."

"I already know internal martial arts. I can fight."

"But you do not go deep enough into meditation, and the spiritual, after all, is higher than fighting."

"Perhaps I'm not interested. It's great fun out there. I have, in my wanderings, been in the Peking Opera, joined a circus, and learned from many boxers. I would never have been able to do this if I had no been a wandering Taoist. Members of a holy order can't learn the most brutal parts of martial arts. I want to learn the ultimate techniques, and I'd never be able to do that here on the mountain."

"You think your skill is so great?" asked the Grand Master casually.

"Yes, I do."

"Then fight me. If you win, I will introduce you to many masters. You'll be free to enter the outside martial world. But if you lose, you return to your studies. Agreed?"

Saihung looked at his master. Standing on a terrace overlooking a vast view of mountain ranges, they seemed alone at the top of the world. Saihung asked himself why he had climbed all the way simply to talk with this recluse who lived such a spare and severe life. Life seemed better down below, and in spite of years of training, the Grand Master looked like any other old man. Saihung judged his master's weight. Saihung knew he outweighed him.

"I agree," said Saihung with a confident smile.

"All right," returned the Grand Master. "Fight!"

Saihung attacked immediately with strong and sure whirlwidn strikes so swift that most men would have fallen simply because of their slower reflexes. The Grand Master, however, only retreated calmly before Saihung's advance. He let Saihung try all but not even a single blow touched the Grand Master's robes.

Saihung grew angry, and gathering in his full might, charged his master. The Grand Master gracefully launched himself in a spinning leap over Saihung's shoulders. Saihung turned and struck out, but a whipping force sped by his face. A moment later, a devastating slap turned his head. It was the Grand Master's sleeve.

His master now took the initative, and Saihung backed frantically away from his spinning arms. Through his blocks, he could seee the Grand Master glaring ferociously at him as sleeve after sleeve came. Before long, his arms had been whipped numb. He dropped his guard. His master struck him with a plam blow, and Saihung flew across the terrace.

Saihung lay stunned on the stone pavement. The Grand Master came over t ohim. He was kind and smiling again. Helping Saihung up, he patted him reassuringly.

"You've lost," the Grand Master said softly. "You lost beacuse you do not have enough concentration. I won because my concentration is complete. Concentration is impossible without meditation."

Saihung stood up and caught his breath.

"I'd still rather be a wandering Taoist. Look at you. Yes, you're a holy  man. But what has it gotten you? You're starved. You live in a damp room on a lonely mountaintop. You're a nobody. Are you successful? Do the gods listen to you? Will you go to heaven? How do you know there's even such a thing as heaven?"

"You can only see the godds and heaven by mastering this world," replied the Grand Master patiently. "Then you can see the next world."

"I admit that if I were to see heaven, I might believe, but how can I go to heaven? Wouldn't I fall out of the sky?"

"Not the body," laughed the Grand Master. "Your spirit travels to heaven and returns. That is the way."

"Your spirit? Can come out from the body?"

"Oh yes. But you must control the senses. When you realize that this world is an illusion, you can control the senses, master the world, and travel on."

"The world is an illusion?"

"Yes. Nothing is real."

"What do you mean, 'Nothing is real?' Of course this world is real!"

"It isn't. It's illusion. Once you  master your senses and the five elements, you will know that too."

"I don't believe you. How do I know what 'mastering the senses' and 'masters the world' mean?"

"Master the five elements and then you can see the other world. But you have to study if you want to achieve this. Contemplate this. Make a decision. Some things must be begun in youth to aceive success later. A tree grows from a seed. I know it's difficult for yout o believe. You're young. You haven't seen fruit. That's why I shwo you. But you cannot always demand complete proof efore you begin something. In some things, you  must have blind faith. The gods are supreme. They will know."

Wang XiangZhai Combat Science

Notes from Master Wang XiangZhai

While learning martial art, you should think about why you are learning it. If you are clear about this, it is easy to achieve results. In most cases it is about health and self defense. Health is basis for all activities of human beings. So you shouldn't neglect the issue of cultivating health. When you learn in proper way, benefits are great, but if methods are wrong, it could even cause death. Among those whose training is based on fierce movements not many achieve longevity. There are numerous cases of people who became cripple because of improper training. Such martial art is cause for laugh and for sadness at the same time. Practice for health and practice for self defense are one thing and should not be separated. If one part is lost, it will create deviations and lead astray. 


First you should start from mind training, to reveal and develop natural human ability of using nervous system and body. First step in learning martial art is mind training as basis, experiencing subtle movements of body. Second step is shi li - testing force and shi sheng - testing voice. Third step is self defense. 

1. Basic training

You should start from zhuangfa - postural exercises. You can fit them freely into everyday life, practicing anywhere and anytime, standing, walking, sitting or lying on bed. You should assume the posture, body should be straight, there should not be any distracting thoughts, in the state of non-movement and calmness nervous system is positively stimulated, breath becomes even and calm, muscles are mildly stimulated, each cell is naturally taking part in movement, force is everywhere inside and outside. In this way, although you don't use typical form of training, bones and muscles are trained, mind is trained naturally too. You only need to observe all the subtle changes. If you practice for longer time, this seemingly simple standing will bring incredible results and satisfaction. If you want to learn essence of combat science, you should start from zhan zhuang.

2. Testing force and testing voice

After you practice basic exercises for some time, your natural potential develops. Very often, because illusory thinking, practice changes into something opposite to what I'm talking about. Pulling sprouts up will not make the plant grow faster. But you should understand the state of force in movement. Only then you can move further. If talking about introduction to combat science, shi li is most important method. Ability of using force is developed thanks to shi li. By testing you get to know force. Thanks to knowing you can efficiently use it. First you should make sure that the feeling of force is even in whole body, that your body feels agile, bones are supporting posture. This way you can use mutually related contractions and stretches, relax and tension. Force from inside is issued outside. In shi li there, shouldn't be partial, superficial force, especially there shouldn't be unbalanced one directional force. You should observe if the whole body force is round, full or not, if it is possible issuing force at any moment, if there is feeling of mutual reaction between body and surrounding air. Intention shouldn't be broken, spirit shouldn't be dispersed. Light and heavy are ready to be used. If one moves, whole body follows it. Force should be unified, swift and solid at the same time, round and full. There shouldn't be anything forgotten or lost on any side. Summarizing, if someone has not achieved satisfactory state of comfortable force, we don't call it combat science.

3. Self defense

Self defense is combat skills. You should know that big movement is not as good as small movement, small movement is not as good as non-movement. You should know that in nonmovement the never ceasing movement is born. Movement which has obvious form is expression of lack of proper force. The wonderfulness of using it is in using mind, intention leading, elastic use of joints working, stretching and contracting, strong point of support, spiral force, movement around pivot, moving center of weight in stable way, using elastic force of breathing. If someone can use it, he has basis for combat. What I'm saying sounds abstractive. But there are many things which it is difficult to express with words. If someone practices diligently, he will achieve understanding. Differentiating between big and small movement is actually depending on mastering basics, whether you achieved practical perception of various kinds of force. If you master basics of using force of whole body, movement can be big or small, it doesn't matter if it is big or small. When basics are not mastered, everything is wrong. Summarizing, dachengquan is not based on beauty of outside form, but on using mind. Shortly, when there is form, this is something not ripe. Only when technique achieves level of unconscious using, miraculous appears. This is what I'm talking about.