Lien quan, bu lien gong, dao lao yi chang kong!

"Lien quan, bu lien gong, dao lao yi chang kong".

Literally translated: "Practice fist (another way of saying: 'style', or, 'system', in Chinese), no practice skill, arrive at old age, the one thing you will have is empty (or, 'nothing', while this is not the usual word for, 'nothing', it means just that in this instance)"

More elaborately translated: "Practicing (or, learning) a style's superficial, or, 'surface', elements (just the forms/routines, the showy aspects, and the parts that are not physically, and/or mentally demanding), without practicing the hard, unpleasant, or, 'bitter' (as painful training is often referred to by the Chinese, and appropriately so), aspects of martial arts training, will leave you with no real ability, skill, or power, at the end of your life/training".

Quick and easy? It translates like this: "Practicing martial arts without ever practicing (or embracing) the essential painful/difficult/boring basic parts of training, is a total waste of time".

I have had three different masters who independently used this phrase over and over again. As a matter of fact, I have it written in Chinese on a post it note and folded up neatly in my wallet. It's just that serious.

These days, students are usually rushed into the complicated and challenging forms that a student from forty or more years ago would learn after a few YEARS of practice, not the first WEEK. Today, students learn a handful of sets (routines/forms) in the span of a year! Why am I so shocked by this? Allow me to enlighten you. Traditionally, Chinese martial arts are broken down into three major groups of techniques (excluding weapons):

-Footwork (or, 'Bu Fa', in Mandarin): Basic stepping patterns, kicks, and static stance training (a single stance would be held for an hour or more at times!).

-Body movement/coordination (or, 'Shen Fa'): Using the body in coordination with footwork, aligning the shoulders, hips and spine for maximum structural integrity.

-Hand techniques (or, 'Shou Fa'): Grabbing, locking, striking, pushing/pulling etc.

Usually, the modern day student learns the hand techniques first (especially in the west), rarely the body movement skills, and usually touches upon the footwork to a very small degree. As westerners, we're traditionally a society of boxers and wrestlers. The last thing we think about when we're about to get into a fight is our opponent's footwork. We put our hands up, straighten our legs and hammer each other about the face and head until one person falls. When one, or both, of the combatants is inept (which is nine times out of ten!), it goes to the ground. This is usually because one (or the pair) does not want to be hit anymore, and when you engage in a grappling/wrestling situation, it immediately (and greatly) lessens the chance of this happening. It is very difficult, without proper training, to land powerful blows on someone when they're holding onto you. Striking works best from a distance, wrestling cancels that out. Another aspect of this is purely psychological. Humans are attracted to movement, the hands are incredibly fast, we use them all the time, and, without them, we are basically helpless. A person naturally takes to hand techniques because they are something that seems practical, and immediately, useful (and, at first, superficially, are, against an average opponent). When someone says, 'hey, let me see your kung-fu', the first thing someone usually does is wave their arms around, shoot off some punches or hand patterns. No one ever hops about, shuffles around and then drops into stances. That's not something that the human mind finds interesting, or can even comprehend, functionally speaking, without some sort of real understanding/training. Most people would laugh at you and roll their eyes.

Traditionally, footwork was the first thing you learned and practiced for years. You would have had to have mastered stances and stepping patterns until they were second nature. Then, and only then, you would move on to learning how to coordinate your torso, shoulders and hips along with your footwork. Once that was mastered, you'd finally begin to develop your hand techniques. There are seven places on the human body you can use as a striking instrument:

-Head

-Hands

-Feet

-Elbows

-Knees

-Shoulders

-Hips

These are called the, 'seven stars', of kung-fu. As you can see, learning only hand techniques gives you only two of these weapons (unless you're brave enough to try and head but someone) with which you can properly use! Mastering footwork and body mechanics allows you to fully utilize all of your natural weapons. Yet, most people find footwork and body mechanics drills boring, tedious, and unrewarding. Little do they know that without practicing all of the three arenas of skills in balance, they are practicing emptily, and incompletely. One who only uses their hands when striking has about as much force as their arm weighs collectively, maybe fifteen pounds (give or take). One who can distribute their force from their heel, through their legs, hips, torso, shoulders, arms and finally, hands, is unleashing their entire body weight in force through a single, devastating, strike. This can be applied, and used, with any of the, 'seven stars', when all three areas of skill have been learned.

In my early training, I learned maybe five forms/routines in seven years. They were often times short, except for maybe two, and could be performed in less than forty five seconds (yet, it took me seven years to learn them!). The first thing I learned was stances, footwork drills and kicks. We'd do these things over and over again, my legs burning with white hot fire, my knees buckling without warning. After my first class, I had to slowly lower myself onto a toilet seat with my hands due to the unbelievable agony that had overtaken my lower body. It was completely impossible to stand up without using my arms to lift myself. Yes, it was hard and boring training, but having seen the intoxicating beauty of my older brother's and sister's skill, it seemed like a small price to pay for such astoundingly incredible ability. Of course, we did do punches and other hand techniques, but they were not the main focus of our early training, that was much further down the road, the footwork came first, and without question.

One thing I find shocking, is that students ASK their teachers to learn certain things, as if they are masters themselves, as if they know what's good for them, as if they have ANY idea of what martial arts training 'should' be. I remember asking my first teacher to show me some more movements in a routine I was learning one day. He gave me one of the most frighteningly dirty looks of all time. I was unaware that this was extremely rude, frowned upon, and just NOT done. He made me practice what I had learned already for six months, even though the form was only five motions from being complete. I also learned that you do NOT get to chose what you learn next. That would be like telling a doctor what surgery you need, or asking a chef in a Japanese restaurant to cook one of your favorite French dishes, and how to do it. It's just not done. They know what's good for you, and until you study/practice for 'x' amount of years, you most certainly, do NOT.

Most masters have to put, 'asses in the seats'. Martial arts practice is usually nothing more than an alternative method of fitness to most people in modern times, nothing more, nothing less. It's a business, we're capitalists, that's just the way things work. Adapt to the demands of the people, or become extinct like the dinosaurs. They can't stay in business doing boring, painful, repetitive exercises for years on end. People want change, they want to learn new things, they want to say, 'look what I learned today'! Not, 'I've been doing these five god damned drills for three years straight, I hate this shit, why am I paying this guy again'? People want to leap about, wave their arms, make fools of themselves and never develop true and tangible skill. And that's fine. It looks great to a non-practitioner, and it does make someone, 'feel', like they are learning martial arts to some degree. It boosts their self esteem, confidence, and yes, you do get some sort of health/self defense benefits from this, nothing wrong with that. Nothing wrong with dance and yoga either, because, basically, that's the equivalent to what you're doing. Hopefully, later on down the line, they'll see that what they have learned is empty, superficial (and basically useless), and want to, 'eat bitter' (training hard, and properly), solidifying the formerly useless handfuls of techniques they have learned into a weapon of iron that will stay with them for the rest of their lives, growing stronger and stronger every day, nurturing mind, body and soul, never leaving them, 'empty'.

This is what is meant by this age old adage, 'Lien quan, bu lien gong, dao lao yi chang kong'.