'Kung-fu' (the contemporary term for any traditional martial art from China), is simply, 'applied human physics'. There is no secret, 'way', or, 'mysterious technique'. No. Everything in kung-fu can be explained with good old fashioned science and logic. Granted, it may APPEAR to be magical, superhuman, and even supernatural at times, but kung-fu is nothing more, and nothing less, than, 'applied human physics'.
Essentially, we're big bags of water floating around a skeleton. Some parts of our body are denser than other parts, some parts more elastic, and some parts are as soft as dough. It's our skeletal structure and our elaborate system of tendons, ligaments and muscles that makes it possible to be a human weapon. Look at a tiger for example, they are nature's perfect predator, a true killing machine from nose to tail. A tiger is so perfectly designed for killing, that it has a set of floating vertebrae, razor sharp fangs, claws, and even a tail for counter balance! We, on the other hand, are probably one of the most pathetic and helpless species of mammals on the PLANET. As far as I'm concerned, there is a huge chunk of information missing in the story of human evolution, because basically, a medium sized dog can best the average human when I comes to combat. We're hopelessly, and strangely, inept at combat as a species. We have no claws, no huge incisors, and no thick hide to cover our easily torn skin. Usually, from my experience of having to engage in combat with humans on a sometimes daily/nightly basis (try working in a nightclub if you want to get some real life, 'combat', experience, you won't be disappointed, promise...), people usually close their eyes, put their heads down, and swing their arms like two meaty helicopter blades, and when that fails, they latch onto each other, hold their breaths, and squeeze each other until one, or both, of them runs out of gas. It's a sad, yet thoroughly entertaining, display of ridiculousness.
If not for our big juicy brains, which allows us ways of compensating for our wretched natural fighting ability, we'd be eating the leftovers of larger predators and hanging out by the edge of a forest or jungle somewhere huddled up in big groups waiting to be killed. Plain and simple. Yet, somebody in ancient India figured something out. They then took what they learned, and went to China. The man responsible for bringing this bizarre human, 'technology', to China via India, is know as, 'Bodhidharma'. He was a prince from southern India who was the patriarch of what is now, commonly known as, 'Zen', Buddhism. I will not go into the details of his history, Zen, or the endless amounts of topics concerning him, as there are books upon books written on these subjects. I will, however, point out that he brought a set of yoga based health exercises with him that he taught to the monks of the Shaolin temple. Now, a small amount of background is needed on the Shaolin monks if my point is to made crystal clear. The Shaolin monks, as much as people would love to believe, were not a bunch of saints. Yes, a few were, and these days, generally speaking, are good guys. But this was NOT true in ancient China (actually, up until 1911 if you ask me). In ancient China, if you were a murderer, a rapist, a thief or any other sort of wicked bastard, there was a loophole you could dive through to escape persecution. You could join a Buddhist, or Daoist, monastery and be completely exempt of any, and all, punishment. What? Yes. The thinking behind this is as follows: When one joins a temple, of any kind, you become a new person. You change your name, shave your head (or grow your hair out if you're a Daoist), you get a new name, and PRESTO! No more criminal. He, or she, ceases to exist! It was just that easy. In the China of old, pre-gunpowder, knowing martial arts was essential for self defense and even survival. There was no such thing as police in rural China. You hired a bunch of kung-fu bad asses to hang out in your village and stomp the guano out of anyone who messed with your tribe. You needed people like that to protect you, because there were guys just as skilled waiting on the edges of society for an unsuspecting caravan, or villager, to wade away from the safety of their protectors. Every once and a while, they'd go to far and get hunted down by bounty hunters, a vengeful family member, or even the government, and have to take flight. When they had run out of places to hide, they'd, inevitably, have to get, 'holy', and become monks. So you ended having these massive, untaxable, 'holy', refugee camps full of some of the nastiest bastards to have ever walked the earth.
Basically, monks have not a whole lot to do other than chant, read, eat, sleep, meditate, pool their mental resources and combat experience, all day long. It was like a meeting place for evil geniuses. This is why, today, Shaolin martial arts remain one of the hugest, elaborate, and most extensive systems of martial arts, and, can be attributed to being the, 'mother', of hundreds of styles still practiced to this day. Not to mention, the Shaolin monastery is somewhere between 2,500-5,000 years old. So, as you can see, they've had some time to think about it. Just a little bit. So, aside from being a cesspool of badmen, the Shaolin monks had one particular weapon that permanently altered the face of ALL Asian martial arts systems. This thing was Bodhidharma's, 'muscle/brain/tendon/sinew/bone washing classic'. It was/is simply a set of yogic health exercises that completely transforms the human body, inside and out. He taught these exercises to the monks of Shaolin because he found that they were unable to meditate for long periods of time due to weak physiques, and a lack of general health. The exercises utilized dynamic muscle stretching and strengthening, and by doing so, cleansing and purifying the human body all the way down to the bone marrow by simply promoting proper blood flow and in turn, cleansing the body of toxins. Plain and simple. Now, the wicked monks of old found that these healing techniques could be applied to combat. As they say, 'he/she who giveth life, can taketh away'. Who better knows a way to end a human life than a doctor? Exactly. So, they played with these concepts, applied them to their furious arsenal of techniques and lifetimes of combat experience, and developed an unrivaled system of whoop ass that is still holding it down to this day.
One of the things they figured out, is that the human body, when bent and tweaked just the right way, is capable of delivering, and even withstanding, a single strike so powerful that it can end a human life. This method, or theory, is called the, 'six harmonies'. Six harmonies? Yes. Six harmonies. Allow me to enlighten you. There are three, external, 'harmonies', and three, internal, 'harmonies'.
'San Wai He' ('Three External/Outside Harmonies'):
1- Shoulders and hips.
2- Elbows and knees.
3- Hands and feet.
'San Nei He' ('Three Internal/Inside Harmonies):
1- Thought/understanding/comprehension.
2- Intent/mental projection.
3- Breath/energy.
The basic idea behind the six harmonies principle is that if you have your body perfectly aligned, understand what you're doing, are able to coordinate your entire muscular/skeletal system, are able to project your thought, or, 'intent', beyond the actual striking area, AND, time it with your breathing, you are able to deliver a fatal, or at least crippling, blow. Phew! Seems like a lot of work! Well, yes, it is an extremely difficult set of concepts to even grasp, let alone apply! But, like anything else, with practice, it can be done, even effortlessly, at that. Once it is learned, it's like riding a bike, you may get a little rusty, but after a hundred feet or more, you're back on the saddle like you never got off. Another interesting point about this system, is that it only gets more and more powerful the longer you practice/apply it. I've seen ninety pound withered old toothless Chinese men launch 250 pound brutes sixteen feet backwards with a simple pat on the chest. As a matter of fact, I've had it done to me personally. While it seems magical, it can be explained, learned, and applied.
First, let me break down the three, 'external', harmonies. When your hips and shoulders are lined up properly, you've got a base structure for your skeletal system that allows from maximum reinforcement, shock absorption, and power distribution. The same goes for you elbows and knees. When you have these parts of your body lined up, you now have a way of further distributing force. Furthermore, when you coordinate your hands and feet with these two things, you've just made a perfect tool for applying human, 'physics'. When issuing a strike, one must first initiate the technique from the ankle, through the calf, leg, hip, shoulder, elbow, and finally, the hand. This is taking advantage of your entire body. Most people, at best, even when properly trained, strike from the shoulder. Some are able to distribute power from the hip, but I seldom ever see this. I would say that most street fighters strike from the elbow, and even worse, the hand. How much does your arm, shoulder or hand weigh? Not that much. Basically, when you strike this way, you're hitting someone with about as much force as the particular point of origin (i.e: the actual limb its self), weighs, whether it be the shoulder, elbow, or hand. When you figure out how to coordinate a strike all the way from your ankle, you are now issuing a strike that weighs as much as you do (however much you weigh, even if it is ninety pounds, I would NOT want to get hit in the face, or anywhere else on my body, for that matter, with a ninety pound weight at one hundred miles per hour!). That, on top of velocity, makes for an astonishing amount of destructive force.
The the three internal harmonies are not as perplexing as they seem, yet are hard to grasp if not explained properly. I learned them in Chinese, even with my toddler-like level of comprehension and expression, which didn't make it any easier, I was able to, 'get it'. The first thing you have to grasp is what you are actually doing, how to align your body, articulate the proper coordination and visualize. Simple enough? The second part is nothing more than follow through, like a baseball bat. You don't hit the ball, you hit way past the ball, making it possible to send it hundreds of feet into the air. Aiming at the ball its self allows for a very small amount of power distribution, and seldom sends the ball very far from it's point of impact. This is called, 'intent', as far the six harmonies are concerned. When you strike something, you don't think about striking the surface of the target, you literally, 'aim', several feet behind it, or more if so desired. Someone who has large muscles, iron robe techniques, or just good old fashioned conditioning will dust off a surface strike like a gnat. However, when you apply this method of, 'follow through', or, 'intent', all the muscles in the world can't stop the destructive properties of this particular method of, 'thinking'. The final part is simply, 'breath'. Energy, and life, begins with breathing. You stop breathing, you die. Plain and simple. Energy enters the body when you inhale, and exits the body when you exhale. When you time your strike with your exhale, you are able to channel all of your, 'energy', through a single part of your body perfectly. This is how a tiny little old man is able to launch a football player like a rag doll in a, seemingly, 'magical', manner.
So, with the understanding of the physics of your body, proper muscular/skeletal coordination, follow through, or, 'intent', and proper breathing, you too, can use and apply the, 'six harmonies', of Chinese martial arts. It's not rocket science, it is, simply, 'applied human physics'.
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