If you're going to use pinyin,
jin is more accurate. Many of the older
“classics” of chinese MA have been translated
by folks who used Wade Giles, and have
used the spelling Chin (Fa Chin vs fa jin).
Doing so will make it less confused
with the chinese word jing (essense) (ching
in Wade Giles).
In short, a better translation for
jin might be “refined forced.” Usually,
in martial arts texts they make a clear
distinction between jin (refined force)
and li (more of muscular strength
connotation).
In day to day chinese (as opposed
to martial arts jargon), jin and li both
tend to relate to strength. This synonym
type usage recurrs in martial arts
terminology in the usage of the term fali
(lit: emit strength) when refers to showing
some power (vs. doing it soft either as
in taiji form practice, or just not pummeling
your partner).
That said, every single chinese
martial seeks to cultivate “jin” and
consequently fajin (lit: emit refined
strength) as opposed to cultivation of
brute strength (which implies the best
way to martial arts is Gold’s Gym –
though raw strengh does have it usages
and advantages).
Consequently, the jin cultivated
by different martial arts differ, as methods
differ. I have James DeMille’s book on
the 1 and 3 inch punch, and based on some
of Bruce Lee’s writings I have to conclude
that Bruce’s exhibition of short power
is not the same as in taiji or xingyi based
on the following
1) the description in Sifu DeMille's
book simply reflects clever and efficient
body mechanics but not manipulation of neijin
(jargon for a specific physical thing) and
waist/dantian usage
2) Bruce Lee talks about adding the
shoulder ala western boxing, which while
effective runs counter to the use of neijin
and the waist/dantian – no BS judgements as
to which is better/worse, they are different
3) The 1-3 inch punch from what I
can discern is more of a palor trick –
something for demos and special occasions
and thus is not an variation of one’s normal
mechanics, whereas in taiji and xingyi,
short power is simply abrupt long power –
i.e. same mechanics, different duration,
rather than specialized mechanics for a
special purpose.
W/in chinese MA Wing Chun jin is
different from xingyi jin, etc. In a sense
all martial arts seek to cultivate refined
body mechanics over brute force, and
consequently employ different methods.
Fo
The training methods quite easy every day just take a dumbell and do the inch punch movement using the dumbell, thats it in about 3 months do it on someones shoulder and theyll go flying back
