Attack and Defense

By Master Chen Ching-He
Translated by Lu Rui-Hsu, Carlos Gonzalez
and Paula Lyons

Chinese martial arts, coming from the diverse regions across the whole of China, serve many different functions. But because
they were originally developed for defensive purposes, such as the protection of the country and the defeat of enemies, their
attack and defense techniques are of particular importance. Below, we will examine some of the basic concepts of attack and
defense in kung fu (wu shu).

Before discussing this topic, we should first understand the fundamental spirit of wu shu (martial art). The ancients said that in
its composition, the word for “martial” (? - wu) includes “stop” (? - zhi) and “weapon” (? – ge, a halberd-like weapon), revealing
that the true purpose of wu shu is for "stopping war". The goals of learning wu shu include self-defense, avoiding conflicts and
resolving disputes, but should never include boldly showing off physical prowess.

Since ancient times, wu de (?? – “martial virtue”), has guided the training of martial art students, kept them on the right path,
and ensured that they passed on the true spirit of wu shu. Otherwise, to have only kung fu without the proper ethics can only
nurture those who bully others with their martial skills and who make society feel that they use their advantages to do whatever
they please. Such outlaws would make others fearful, make them question the worth of learning kung fu and make them not
want to befriend those practicing it.
This kind of person can only create trouble for society, leading people to believe that kung fu is not for resolving conflicts and
certainly not what people who desire elevating the nation's culture want to do. Therefore, all who practice kung fu must be
courteous and virtuous, and have both perseverance and self-restraint. This must be understood as being of primary importance
in kung fu training. We cannot solely want to further our physical technique but ignore our moral development.

Now that we’ve addressed the necessity of ethics in kung fu, we’ll discuss direction and method in sparring. The practical, or
applicable goal of learning kung fu is to overcome obstacles, which include those of nature (the environment), animals and
people. Today we will mainly use people as a measure for our analysis.

In facing an opponent, we encounter two kinds of attack: active (?? – zhu dong) - one initiated by our opponent, and passive (?? –
bei dong) - one that comes in response to our attack. However, regardless of whether an attack is active or passive, there are
specific ways to counter attacks of every kind. These “specific ways” are what we can call the basic concepts of fighting, which
we must commit to memory before we engage in fighting practice. We will now describe these concepts separately:

1. Relax
In regard to relaxing, it must first be emphasized that one should not relax in a thoughtless or arbitrary manner. On the
contrary, the mind must be focused, the spirit concentrated. Generally, people tend to believe that in order to gather our
strength, we need to tighten all our muscles and our fists. This idea, in fact, is incorrect. In the practice of kung fu, we must
use jin against an opponent (? – jin, power produced by the relaxed integration of the entire body).

In order to do this, we must have the ability to use our jin. First of all, we must relax our bodies and maintain this relaxed
state. Only then can our responses be natural. Secondly, with a relaxed body our movements will not only be fully extended, but
they will be powerful as well. Although often incorrectly perceived as being "hard", Hong Chuan in fact follows these same
principles. The kung fu student who is able to distinguish between gang (? - firm, unyielding) and ying (? - hard, rigid) will be
adept at applying the advantages unique to each kind of martial skill.

What we refer to as “fighting like walking” stresses the need to move naturally and breathe naturally. When fighting, defense
should also be natural. In any fighting situation, your breathing must first be kept stable, allowing your body to relax. Otherwise,
your body will become tight, your heart rate will increase and you will become anxious or jumpy. If you are nervous in a fighting
situation it will not only affect your judgement, but will also tire you out. When you relax you can correct the habit of having
unnecessary, "pre-action" movements, react more swiftly and develop ting jin (?? – “hearing” jin) to become more agile.

2. Follow the Direction of Power
“Four ounces to turn a thousand pounds” is a maxim of kung fu application that stresses you must follow the direction of power
and not resist it directly. The power in a kung fu attack is applied instantaneously, and its use in advancing or retreating must
be like wind, like water, like lightning and like thunder. When meeting an opponent’s power, you must lead or redirect it, not
oppose it directly. But pay careful attention, "not opposing" your opponent's power doesn't mean to allow yourself to be moved
back by it. You should also follow power when moving forward, as in Hong Chuan’s Snake and Dragon styles, but the further
description needed to explain this will not be discussed here.
To be able to follow power, you must first have a strong foundation in the basics. Then you must know the direction of the
power and also where you should be "light" (? – qing) and where you should be "heavy" (? - zhong) in using your own power, while
constantly “listening” for your opponent’s jin. During fighting practice, keep your body relaxed. Use your power, but don’t be
wildly aggressive. To take apart your opponent’s attack, you should first use "lightness" in your approach.

3. Guard the Centerline
Kung fu relies upon technique in attack and defense, not the use of hard power against hard power. So when practicing attack
and defense, keep your chi steady and your mind focused, be on guard, keep up your defense, and then make your attack. What
we call “defending the centerline” is first keeping stable the body and chi, while keeping the mind on the line of defense formed
by sight, step and hand technique.

The main concept is that you should be able to advance or retreat, attack and defend freely from any position if you follow these
rules.
In practice, the first step is to relax, then you must understand the fundamentals of movement in fighting, combining the
methods of hands, eyes and body with jin, chi and mind in forming a single line of attack and defense. Then go one step further
and try to visualize an imaginary opponent in the form, to practice timing and the dynamics of “light and heavy”. Another way is
to follow the method of chi kung. First, calm your heart while keeping your chi stable, then combine this with stances (ma bu,
gong bu, etc.) during practice, and eventually your chi and your movements will become one.

4. Use a High Stance for Fighting
We say, "For za kung (?? – accumulating merit from our work or training efforts), stances must be low – only then will chi sink
and the spirit condense. In the practice of forms, a middle stance allows quick transitions from low to high. In actual fighting
application, a high stance relaxes the mind and body, allowing skills to be used more easily because the body will not quickly
become tired." However, when beginning to learn kung fu, we should not be overly anxious to use a high stance without first
gaining development from low and middle stances. This is because if your power is not truly part of you (i.e. gained from
continuous effort over time), your chi will "float" and your punches will be unstable and not solid. So, the necessary process we
must follow to develop our kung fu is from big movements to smaller and finer movements, from high stances to low stances
(i.e. from high, untrained stances to low stances, then eventually back to high stances in application), and from external to
internal practice.

5. Avoid Double-Weightedness
During practice, zhan zhuang (i.e. ma bu, gong bu, etc.) should be low in order to allow our chi to sink, but in application this
double weightedness should be avoided, allowing our movements to be more agile. Furthermore, in regards to the body, the
back is yang (?) and "solid" (? - shi), with power being issued from the spine. The front of the body is yin (?) and "empty" (? -
xu), allowing your power to have a circular flow. Your front must remain empty (soft), so that when you meet an opponent's
attack you are able to dissolve their power by sinking your center of gravity back and keeping your body slightly in, which will
also allow your attacks and your defense to be agile. This is demonstrated in xu bu (empty stance), si liu bu (four six stance) and
san jiao ma (triangle horse stance). All of these are based on these principles.

6. During Moments of Transition, Take Advantage of Weak Spots
During fighting practice, what are most difficult are the moments of transition. When advancing or retreating, you must have a
clear sense of the actual distribution and flow of your power (i.e. where it is "empty" or "solid") in your movements in order to
control the weak spots in your defense. Usually when we move it is very easy for us to fail to protect our centerline. If you lose
control over your stability, your balance, or your sense of "light" and "heavy" for even a split second, an opening in your defense
will be created.
When you want to attack your opponent you must understand how to take advantage of these same weak spots in their defense.
If you can do this, you won't make wild and ineffective attacks. When attacking others, the weak spots you have they also have.
You must make up for your weak spots, but take advantage of theirs when you attack them. We must not ignore developing this
with the proper training of attack and defense technique.

7. Avoid Meeting Power Directly
Kung fu's attack and defense techniques do not stress using power to beat power, but instead emphasize the skill of using "four
ounces to turn a thousand pounds." Therefore, do not practice attacking fiercely with full force as your method. Because when
strength is pitted directly against strength, the greater strength will win; this goes against the high-level theory of using
technique to achieve victory.
When we train, we must understand this first, and then apply it to all subsequent training. Only then will we not revert back to
our original, untrained way of fighting and let all our efforts go to waste. We should also take care to avoid making direct
attacks at the opponent's centerline or torso, but at the same time use the techniques of "solid and empty" and "light and
heavy".

8. Break Apart the Three Joints
In learning applications, we must not block or hit rigidly. What we want is to attack and defend with technique, so it is essential
to understand the three joints (in the arm - the wrist, the elbow and the shoulder; in the torso - the neck, the ribs and the
waist; in the leg - the hip, the knee and the ankle). These "three joints" are weak points, regardless of whether they are used
for chin na (?? – joint locks), jie fa (?? – breaking the flow of chi), hua li (?? – redirecting power) or dian fa (?? – using pressure
points) - all of which are extremely effective as well as effort-saving attack and defense methods.

9. Choosing the Attack Point
As previously mentioned concerning the use of applications, you cannot block or hit rigidly. You must strive for technique
because wild, hard punches merely affect the surface, won't conserve your energy and will have little effect in defending against
your opponent's attack. So, when we study the methods of attack and defense we must understand how to attack different parts
of the opponent's body, shifting points of attack and alternating methods of attack as needed. It is important to recognize the
upper, middle and lower sections that roughly divide the opponent's body, their pressure points, and how to exploit the weakness
of their joints. We must also be able to use different means of attack, such as the fist, the palm, the fingers, the hook, the
elbow, etc. and be able to use different methods of attack, such as (palm) strikes, punches, (finger) stabs, cutting, redirecting,
pushing, pulling, etc. – you cannot disregard the application of these techniques.

10. Don't Use Power Unless You Actually Meet Power
What must be avoided most in fighting is making "wild" attacks, which will waste your energy, won't bring your desired results
and will make it easier for your opponent to attack you. So, whether attacking or defending, never use power unless you actually
meet power, nor thoughtlessly send out jin.

When fighting, you must be as relaxed as possible, which will allow you to follow the direction and flow of the attack sequence,
and then redirect it. If you meet an attack, focus your mind on redirecting it back on your opponent and then use jin to achieve
the maximum result from your attack.

The above-mentioned points are some of the basic concepts of fighting that should be heeded. Also essential is using technique
and jin in accordance with proper timing, but this takes time and practice to be able to do easily. It's said "a great craftsman
can teach people the skills, but cannot make people skillful." What we learn with kung fu is comprehensive, not one-sided. Every
level of skill and understanding builds on what has been previously learned. It's not just practice without method or thinking, and
its learning can't be forced. Therefore, you must develop true proficiency in form, and when meeting an opponent be able to
combine light and heavy, fast and slow as needed, with correct timing. To really grasp these principles you must truly understand
the logic behind them, not just memorize the motions. You must be able to analyze and compare, then you may reach the next,
higher level. For kung fu it is necessary that all your efforts build over time and accumulate toward genuine achievement. Kung
(? - merit, or achievement) is the essential force behind success. Regardless of whether the kung to be learned is basic kung,
soft kung, or hard kung, all are related and none can you neglect when learning the true way of kung fu.