Part IV
The Healing Art.

CHAPTER NINE

On Chi Kung Practice

Chi kung refers to general and specific health exercises that combine Buddhist and Taoist elements. Such exercises are viewed as techniques for regulating the body, the mind, and the breath, and involve movement exercises and self-massage to effect changes in one’s health. More specifically, chi kung is the art of exercising the jing (essence), chi (vital energy), and shen (spirit). The nucleus of chi kung is the exercise of consciousness and vital energy. Specifically, chi kung exercises combine the practice of xing (shape-postures), yi (intention or concentration), and chi (vital energy). To perform the so-called genuine chi is to exercise the three treasures of the human body (jing, chi, and shen) so as to relieve pain, strengthen the body’s constitution, improve intelligence, and prolong life.

Indeed, for centuries in China, people have engaged in the practice of tai chi and chi kung for health, well-being, and the martial arts. To this day, these slow movement exercises and breathing disciplines, used to harness intrinsic energy known as chi, are practiced daily by millions of people in the parks of China and Taiwan. For the martial artist, however, the development of chi is sought for reasons other than health maintenance.

Martial artists look to develop chi as a means of becoming invulnerable to strikes, to make them stronger, and ultimately to enable them to harm an opponent if necessary. To harness and develop their internal power, martial artists practice various chi kung exercises.

TYPES OF CHI KUNG

The varieties of chi kung can be divided into four categories each containing three areas. As for a global categorization, there are Buddhist, Taoist, and Confucian chi kung practices.

Within these categories, there are three primary applications of chi kung. In times past, chi kung was used in conjunction with various Chinese martial arts. Practitioners would spend countless hours memorizing the so-called deadly points along the meridian system, and the specific time of day and month of the year during which each point was most effective. This was the prelude to using the secret “death touch” techniques, known as dim mak, to maim or kill an opponent.

The primary use of chi kung today is to improve one’s health, thus extending life. This is known as medical or healing chi kung, of which there are three subdivisions: (1) external therapy whereby a Chinese doctor would project his own chi into a patient’s body to effect a cure; (2) self-training therapy whereby a person would choose a chi kung program and perform the exercises over a period of time to improve his own health; and (3) a combination of external chi kung treatments from a doctor and an individual’s chi kung training program. Within the self-practice method, exercises are done in any combination of three ways: slow movements, meditation, and breathing exercises.

The third category is the use of chi kung for various demonstrative purposes. Many chi kung and martial arts masters today use this method for attracting new patients and/or students.

To develop his internal strength and power, the practitioner of Chuka Shaolin engages in the daily practice of chi kung by focusing his mind and intention on his tan tien (a place three centimeters below the navel) while assuming the chi kung postures described below.

Regarding Chuka Shaolin, chi kung training exercises are not done during class. However, this does not diminish the importance of such training. In fact, regardless of what is practiced in class, students are urged to practice chi kung every morning before beginning the day’s activities. It takes three years of diligent and continuous training to properly develop the chi. The end result: amplified power in strikes and better health and vitality.

CHI KUNG EXERCISES OF CHUKA SHAOLIN

The chi kung exercises of Chuka Shaolin are taught to each student on an individual basis. Students of Chuka Shaolin begin their chi kung training after they have been practicing the art for about two or three years. They are taught how to use their tan tien, breathing methods, and how to bring their strength into their fingertips and then down to their feet.

The fundamental chi kung exercise practiced by exponents of Chuka Shaolin is described below. While it is best to breathe naturally through the nose, bringing the air (or chi) down into the tan tien, no specific expansion or contraction method of the lungs or stomach is used. Indeed, maintaining an even and “normal” breathing pattern will garner the best results, making sure one does not hold the breath at any time. It is also vital that you keep a calm and undistracted mind during these exercises. In an effort to release the many thoughts that tend to arise during such practice, it is best to concentrate and focus all of your attention on the tan tien area, thus reducing distracting thoughts. While the chi kung exercise requires the forming and holding of various postures, it is important that you do not focus attention on your hands, arms, legs, or any part of the body other than the tan tien. Indeed, the circulation of energy will permeate throughout your body and out through the fingertips naturally.

There are five positions that will be assumed during the following chi kung exercise. Each position should be held for the length of twenty to thirty breathes, depending on the practitioner’s stamina, before twisting to the other side or changing postures.

Begin the chi kung exercise by sitting into a horse-riding stance and facing to your right. Hold your arms in front of your body at a 90-degree angle, palms open and facing up (fig. 1). After a count of twenty to thirty breaths through the nose, turn at the waist to your left—do not change the stance—and breathe through your nose another twenty to thirty times (fig. 2). While remaining in this stance, extend your hands out to your sides, keeping palms up and hands open, and breathe through your nose another twenty to thirty times (fig. 3).

You will now move out of the horse-riding stance and into the hanging-horse stance by sitting onto your right leg and pulling the left leg in. As you assume the hanging-horse stance, turn your torso to the right until your shoulders and hips are aligned. Then, with arms fully extended, point your left hand diagonally down and your right hand diagonally up (fig. 4). After a count of twenty to thirty breaths through the nose, turn to your right and assume a right lead hanging-horse stance, with arms fully extended, your right hand pointing diagonally down and your left hand pointing diagonally up. Take another twenty to thirty breaths through the nose (fig. 5).

The exercise is completed by standing up, feet shoulder-width apart, and breathing in and out while expanding and contracting the chest. When breathing in (expanding the chest), move onto the balls of your feet and extend your arms out to your sides with wrists bent forward (fig. 6). When breathing out (contracting the chest), drop to the flats of your feet and at the same time lower your arms to your sides (fig. 7).

CHAPTER TEN

On Injury Healing

According to the Chinese Taoist philosophy of yin and yang, the world is composed of opposites: up and down, hot and cold, strong and weak, male and female. Rather than opposites, though, these terms are actually relativistic in nature. After all, there is no up without down; there is no hot without cold; there is no strong without weak; and there is no male without female. A more precise description of the Taoist philosophy of yin and yang, then, is one of complements.

Regarding the fighting arts philosophy throughout China’s history and culture, no skill of killing is attained without also attaining at least a fundamental skill in techniques of healing. Indeed, many of China’s martial arts masters are also doctors of traditional Chinese medicine. Such traditional healing practices generally include any combination of chi kung exercises, acupuncture, massage, bone-setting, meditation, and herbology.

It is also widely held that truly good kung-fu has more to do with healing and chi than with fighting. It is believed that those who practice kung-fu but do not also practice chi kung will have nothing when they become old. Without continued and prolonged practice of chi kung the body will break down from wear and tear and one will be unable to effectively perform their martial art, or even daily tasks, as a senior citizen. However, if one practices chi kung and also learns the healing tradition of Chuka Shaolin, they will not only be healthy when they are senior in age but will also have the ability to help others.

Philosophically speaking, exponents of Chuka Shaolin believe that if one knows how to harm a person he should also know how to heal him. It is a matter of adhering to the yin and yang philosophy of balance. In Chinese kung-fu, chi and healing are of vital importance. In fact, they are so important that the most senior exponents of Chuka Shaolin today—Cheong Cheng Leong and Tan Hun Poy—are also traditional Chinese doctors. By Chinese beliefs, then, the art of Chuka Shaolin is considered a complete and well-rounded discipline, encompassing both a fighting art and healing art, and Cheong Cheng Leong and Tan Hun Poey are considered fully evolved masters as a result of having mastered both dimensions. While there is no specific name attached to the healing dimension of Chuka Shaolin, it encompasses the aforementioned chi kung exercises, impact slapping, massage, and herbology.

The Chuka Healing Art

Cheong Cheng Leong began learning the healing dimension of Chuka Shaolin from Master Lee Siong Pheow when Cheong was eighteen years old and already quite advanced in kung-fu. Master Lee asked Cheong, and his classmate Tan Hun Poey (fig. 1), to help him with picking special herbs on a designated Penang hillside. After gathering the herbs, Cheong and Tan would cut and dry them for Master Lee. They would then take the herbs to a local Chinese medicine shop in town and have them ground into powders of varying consistencies.

At first, Master Lee did not allow Cheong and Tan to assist him with the healing of patients. But when the patients would come to see Master Lee for a treatment, Cheong and Tan were inevitably present and would just sit and observe the healing session. After some time, though, Master Lee saw that the two teenagers held a strong interest in the healing art, and he began to explain to them the hows and whys of healing different patients with various ailments. Then, after some time, Lee eventually allowed Cheong Cheng Leong and Tan Hun Poey to work on patients themselves.

Although Cheong Cheng Leong is the grandmaster of Chuka Shaolin, and is a master of both its fighting and healing arts, only for direct students and close friends does he perform healing treatments. In wanting the art to be preserved and promoted in its fullest, Cheong prefers to concentrate on teaching and imparting the physical fighting art. The healing art is headed by Master Tan Hun Poey. Cheong advises those students who care to study the healing art to do so under the direction of Master Tan.

The healing art of Chuka Shaolin is good for treating old injuries, like an old back or shoulder problem. Exponents of Chuka Shaolin believe that merely removing pain from a person’s legs and arms with manipulation or massage is elementary healing, anybody can do it. But with an old injury—one that is more than ten years old—a person often suddenly feels excruciating pain. This occurs when an injury was received at a young age and was never properly treated or allowed to heal. As a result, the injury has become “locked” deep within the musculoskeletal system of the body, being somewhat bothersome all along but unexpectedly surfacing in full force a decade or so later. This happens because, as one gets older, chi is not only depleted but blocked in the muscles, which means one feels the pain more than when they were young and physically active.

The Chuka Shaolin healing art is very specific to the types of ailments it can effectively remedy. It is not effective for curing organic diseases or viruses. Rather, it is concerned solely with the healing and repairing of old injuries to the body’s musculoskeletal system.

There are two specific healing methods that are used when treating old injuries: slapping and massage. If it is a new injury, massage will do. But if it is an old injury, you have to slap the injured location with the back of the hand to get through the muscle and energy blockage, which is quite deep by this point. Although it depends on the seriousness of the injury, sometimes a patient will need only one treatment; however, three consecutive treatment sessions are best. Chuka healers have found that, where old injuries are concerned, one slapping treatment is more effective than ten deep-tissue massages.

Before and during the impact-slapping procedure, the Chuka healer applies a homemade liniment of wine and herbs on and around the injured area so as to keep the blood flowing, stimulate the chi, and keep the area from bruising again (fig. 2). While slapping the patient’s injured area (figs. 3 and 4), if there is truly a bad and old injury, the healer will feel a lot of heat coming out of the area. Once the release of heat is felt, the slapping stops. Since the healer is also skilled in the fighting art of Chuka Shaolin, he cannot strike a patient very hard for fear of causing a secondary injury. Thus, the healer slaps lightly but repeatedly while projecting his chi into the injured area. After hitting, if a lump and veins appear and the healer can see the wound, the chi will then be able to flow freely. The blockage is now open and the body is once again balanced.

After the slapping is complete and a bump appears on the injured area (fig. 5), liniment is again applied, followed by the application of a homemade herbal paste (fig. 6), which is then covered with a cloth for one night (fig. 7). The paste hardens and can easily be removed the following day, at which point the medicine has had a chance to effectively seep into the body and stimulate the healing process.