Dear everyone,
I browsed through Jin Jing Zhong's Training Methods of 72 Arts of Shaolin which is a modern (1934) classic briefly going over the training methods for 72 Shaolin Arts of the time. The book is published and apparently also translated by a Kungfulibrary.com team. The exercises were mostly external and grueling, indicating the level of rigor and hardship the Chinese martial artists may have gone through for attaining some fighting prowess. The training certainly was very bitter, but sometimes such Kungfu skills were needed to make a difference between life and death. Any internal dimensions are barely mentioned even for more internal arts, and these can be summed up as having a quiescent and peaceful mind, which we know to facilitate energy flow. Among the arts is included the infamous Five Poison Hand which Sigung suspected might not be an actual Shaolin Art at all. However, the training method described here in this book does not mention anything about getting stung or bitten by venomous animals. Quite a few of the training methods also propose using lead in tinctures exposed to bare skin, which can definitely be something very hazardous to health, whether doing genuine Chi Kung in compensation or not. To anyone wishing to follow the books methods I encourage to use abundant common sense and not to dabble with the training methods carelessly!
The book makes it very clear that only dedicated students who persevere within its set moral guidelines may be successful. Training Kungfu, whether externally or internally, requires a clear mind and peaceful heart. Without severity and respect to the instructions and the tradition that came up with them, the eventual cost of faulty training or moral deviation will result in great harm.
Some of the book's 72 Arts are already included in the 72 Shaolin Arts of our School, but not necessarily under the same name. For the current standards that our training offers, there are not too many exercises left in the book that offer us anything new at all. Most are completely obsolete, which is especially true for anything related to energy projection, finger strength, and body shielding (iron) exercises that have excellent internal alternatives. No need to apply medicated wines either! Another shortcoming of many of the exercises is that the resulting force is hard to control, therefore making it easy to cause accidental damage to innocent people and utilities you didn't wish to break. Those that I see offering even remote chances of meaningful development are as follows:
3. Striking with Foot
5. Ringing Round a Tree (Embracing a Tree)
8. Iron Head
11. Sweeping with an Iron Broon (Iron Sweeping Legs)
19. Swimming and Diving Skill (Swimming Art)
20. Sluice Shutter weighing 1000 JINs (Thoudand-Pound Weight)
23. Louhan's Exercise (Night Vision)
24. Lizard Climbs the Wall (Lizard Art)
39. Exercise for Groin (Golden Cicada)
49. Method of Drawing in Yin (Drawing in Testicles)
58. Pole of Cypress (Cypress Formation)
63. Skill of Nephrite Belt (Jade Belt Art)
69. Skill "Bag" (Stomach Art)
Out of these I could only see myself gladly training 5, 20, and 65 and then with some reservation 11, 58 and 69. In case that sparring enthusiasm strikes, 39 and 49 would be great additions.
Uprooting a tree seems something that could be reasonably translated into the context of internal training, i.e. letting the chi flow to do the work and not work into exhaustion as the original instructions demand. Training the art for two or three years seems a fair investment for being able to comfortably lift as heavy objects as 250-350kg which the instructions give. The Thousand-Pound Weight seems even more effective in this regard with its 500kg lifting and suspending force, and the set up would be trivial with modern gym equipment. I could definitely try either of these once I'm able to comfortably hold 30mins of Golden Bridge and have the resources for a set up. These types of exercises that train internal force to simulate formidable physical strength are highly useful in my humble opinion.
The Iron Leg exercise seems also something that could be trained internally with diving weights tied around legs, hence it becomes a variant of 30 Punches.
Some exercises like Night Vision seem very handy even for modern standards, especially if you do any type of night work, but simply dedication up two hours every day in reaching it seems quite wasteful use of time when you can just carry a flashlight.
What surprised me the most was that the so-called Stomach Art seems to be nothing else than the fabled Cotton Belly! The training instructions seem innocuous and simple enough, but I doubt many would actually covet this art so much as to try learn it without an expert's supervision. Besides, training it would take a long time as usual for the book's methods, which is not cost-effective in our standards.
The book could have used a bit more polishing and editing in terms of language and grammatical errors, but these are small complaints considering the fact that such a niche classic is translated at all. One thing that really could have made the book better is insightful commentary by a genuine Chi Kung or Kungfu master who knows their art and gives enough emphasis on learning from a living teacher among other useful tips.
With sincere respect,
Olli
I browsed through Jin Jing Zhong's Training Methods of 72 Arts of Shaolin which is a modern (1934) classic briefly going over the training methods for 72 Shaolin Arts of the time. The book is published and apparently also translated by a Kungfulibrary.com team. The exercises were mostly external and grueling, indicating the level of rigor and hardship the Chinese martial artists may have gone through for attaining some fighting prowess. The training certainly was very bitter, but sometimes such Kungfu skills were needed to make a difference between life and death. Any internal dimensions are barely mentioned even for more internal arts, and these can be summed up as having a quiescent and peaceful mind, which we know to facilitate energy flow. Among the arts is included the infamous Five Poison Hand which Sigung suspected might not be an actual Shaolin Art at all. However, the training method described here in this book does not mention anything about getting stung or bitten by venomous animals. Quite a few of the training methods also propose using lead in tinctures exposed to bare skin, which can definitely be something very hazardous to health, whether doing genuine Chi Kung in compensation or not. To anyone wishing to follow the books methods I encourage to use abundant common sense and not to dabble with the training methods carelessly!
The book makes it very clear that only dedicated students who persevere within its set moral guidelines may be successful. Training Kungfu, whether externally or internally, requires a clear mind and peaceful heart. Without severity and respect to the instructions and the tradition that came up with them, the eventual cost of faulty training or moral deviation will result in great harm.
Some of the book's 72 Arts are already included in the 72 Shaolin Arts of our School, but not necessarily under the same name. For the current standards that our training offers, there are not too many exercises left in the book that offer us anything new at all. Most are completely obsolete, which is especially true for anything related to energy projection, finger strength, and body shielding (iron) exercises that have excellent internal alternatives. No need to apply medicated wines either! Another shortcoming of many of the exercises is that the resulting force is hard to control, therefore making it easy to cause accidental damage to innocent people and utilities you didn't wish to break. Those that I see offering even remote chances of meaningful development are as follows:
3. Striking with Foot
5. Ringing Round a Tree (Embracing a Tree)
8. Iron Head
11. Sweeping with an Iron Broon (Iron Sweeping Legs)
19. Swimming and Diving Skill (Swimming Art)
20. Sluice Shutter weighing 1000 JINs (Thoudand-Pound Weight)
23. Louhan's Exercise (Night Vision)
24. Lizard Climbs the Wall (Lizard Art)
39. Exercise for Groin (Golden Cicada)
49. Method of Drawing in Yin (Drawing in Testicles)
58. Pole of Cypress (Cypress Formation)
63. Skill of Nephrite Belt (Jade Belt Art)
69. Skill "Bag" (Stomach Art)
Out of these I could only see myself gladly training 5, 20, and 65 and then with some reservation 11, 58 and 69. In case that sparring enthusiasm strikes, 39 and 49 would be great additions.
Uprooting a tree seems something that could be reasonably translated into the context of internal training, i.e. letting the chi flow to do the work and not work into exhaustion as the original instructions demand. Training the art for two or three years seems a fair investment for being able to comfortably lift as heavy objects as 250-350kg which the instructions give. The Thousand-Pound Weight seems even more effective in this regard with its 500kg lifting and suspending force, and the set up would be trivial with modern gym equipment. I could definitely try either of these once I'm able to comfortably hold 30mins of Golden Bridge and have the resources for a set up. These types of exercises that train internal force to simulate formidable physical strength are highly useful in my humble opinion.
The Iron Leg exercise seems also something that could be trained internally with diving weights tied around legs, hence it becomes a variant of 30 Punches.
Some exercises like Night Vision seem very handy even for modern standards, especially if you do any type of night work, but simply dedication up two hours every day in reaching it seems quite wasteful use of time when you can just carry a flashlight.
What surprised me the most was that the so-called Stomach Art seems to be nothing else than the fabled Cotton Belly! The training instructions seem innocuous and simple enough, but I doubt many would actually covet this art so much as to try learn it without an expert's supervision. Besides, training it would take a long time as usual for the book's methods, which is not cost-effective in our standards.
The book could have used a bit more polishing and editing in terms of language and grammatical errors, but these are small complaints considering the fact that such a niche classic is translated at all. One thing that really could have made the book better is insightful commentary by a genuine Chi Kung or Kungfu master who knows their art and gives enough emphasis on learning from a living teacher among other useful tips.
With sincere respect,
Olli
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