Some books mention the work of tendon (Fajing). But I haven’t seen someone who is able to explain me and show me that concept.
So what means work of tendon? what is the principle? Which style offers that kind of work and how?
Does anyone experience that work?
cheers
Fajing in cantonese is " ging." The “ging” is one of the highest levels of gung fu. It is at the end of every movement or strike. The “ging” is the snap at the end. Watch Bruce Lee do his backfist. That snap at the end is where the “ging” is found. If you do a mantis strike, the “ging” is at the end right when your hand turns into a mantis hand. To develop your “ging” your arm must be totally relaxed, then at the last moment snap it out.
So to have the ging means to be relaxed. So if do not misunderstand styles which are classified as hard style such as Hung gar do not have that concept.
Anyway Does the forms help to get the “ging” or do we have to do specific work out? How does the mantis style deal with that?
Jing is like internal strike the way to propel jing is to be totally relaxed take the straight karate lunge punch to make it “jingey” relax the whole body as if you are tottaly meditative. then spirall the waist quickly and it will propel the hand to strike. Because you are so relaxed the energy flows from the waist and bang.
In order to do a form really well, it must have “ging” in every movement. The ‘ging’ is already in the form. To improve your ging, try working on only a section of the form for about a month until you feel where it is and where the snap is. If you don’t know where the snap is, ask your sifu.
You guys are making it too complex for fab.
The theory is that jing is stored in the tendons… eventually (it works its way in there) unless you “squeeze” it or “spiral” or circulate it (refer to various methods too numerous to mention here).
The the releasing of jing is based on usage of tendons, not the muscles they attach to. The metafor I like to use is one of the image of a baloon animal:
Inside the legs you have a small amount of water. Water is another way of saying ‘internal jing’ anyways. Now if you pick the dog up and move him like how you would walk. Ie: Lifting and seting him down, the water really doesnt move in any spectacular way.
Now if you push down on his backside and let go quickly, what happens? The water shoots up. Thus the theorys that say “go down before you go up” or “go left before you go right”.
Say in tai chi. Instead of pushing your arm out in a regular snap punch you do a cloud hand movement to wind up then you punch…
The binding, drawing and springing action released more “water” than pushing or throwing… Does that make sense?
I fear this is too overcomplex and based on cultural schisims. Big strong people from the north are barbarians. Chinese are superior, civilised, small people who dont need muscle or horses.
An 80 year old chinese man cant beat me at armwrestling or tug of war. There are different types of combat/war. Those latter are classifyed as “pugnatious”.
Crushing my hand with the tiger claw or using the poison finger are overkill for that kind of thing and a overcompensation for lack of, perhaps, sportsmanship, honor (for the rules).
The best horse breakers i’ve known were all under 5’ 7". Not something most people regardless of gender or strength look forward to.
The main problem now is if you have internal jing, how to train it, how to store it and how to prove you have it and if the time invested in doing so was/is worth it?
“Strength gets the bow string pulled, technique gets the arrow on the target”.
Here what I understood :
the jing is in the tendon, but to be able to use it we have to be relaxed. And they are many way to you use it. thus the muscle is not used to generate ower.
Then that can explain why old master can beat young people who are much stronger. The muscle are dying from a certain age. the tendon aren’t. What do you think about that?
regardless to the way of using the tendon, it seems to be one constant point : the speed. But is it the same speed as the one which is generated by explosive power? I do not think but I do not see what are the diferencies between the two speed. I see that there is a topic in this forum which speak about that. The title of that topic is “what do you think?”
The only risk we can encounter by working the tendons is the tendons inflammations. How can we prevent it?
I like the sentence :
“Strength gets the bow string pulled, technique gets the arrow on the target”.
That explains why the jing can be worked in every single move of a form. The technique is just the way to use the strength. So having a good gung fu is not a matter of a number of form. So I now understand why there is some style wih very few forms.
But do you think that having a good gung fu means to have the jing And that the good gung fu practionner (and teacher) must have it? I say that because some wing chun practionner present the wing chun as a system and do not emphasize the work of tendons. Do they misunderstand their own style?
is there something else than the jing in order to have a good gung fu?
I saw a picture in a website (http://www.hong-gia.org/). Can it be a result of a jing work? Does someone hear about that style? I would like to know more about it.
Thanks all of you for your answers.
Side Note…
I have spoken with many Hung Ga folks that have taught me that there is much more to the system then the “external” ideas most have about it.