Mike Sigman Admin · October 26

Appearances versus Reality in Asian Martial-arts.

So much of western renditions of various Asian martial-arts seems to be about appearances and role-
playing. People wear exotic uniforms, they get into macho-looking poses, they utter fierce-sounding
words like "Osu!" to each other, they over-do the rituals and bows to authority figures, and so on. Their
martial-art becomes their "tribe" that they are loyal to. I don't have a lot of use for all of that sort of
stuff: to me, there is a deep, intrinsic value to the physical and mental discoveries of old Asian martial-
arts and I'm curious about things. All the other stuff is the distraction of flowery appearances, distracting
in the same way that monkeys get distracted by shiny baubles and colorful objects.

Sure, some people who do Asian martial-arts can fight, but a lot of people who don't do Asian martial-
arts can fight, too, so that doesn't mean much, in the larger picture. Many of the old cornerstones and
principles of Asian martial-arts meant something beyond just cool talk and role-playing and it seems
important, at least to me, to look at those things. Were they just window-dressing or were they really
important?

Things like ki/qi have been almost completely lost in some Asian arts like Judo and some styles of ju-
jitsu, karate, and so on. Ideas about how to actually use the "center" or "hara" or "dantian" have
become ritual talking points ... nothing more. Cool phrases like "sink the qi" and "Sung", etc., have been
co-opted to mean whatever some westerner thinks it means ... and without considering the
ramifications to their own reputations, further down the road, some of our current crop of mini-sages
just broadcast their ideas as part of a sales pitch for their schools. But by doing this sort of vacuous
exploitation of terms, wrong ideas are being promulgated into the martial-arts community.

I ran into the symbol below a few times while internet-surfing and it caught my eye. "Yiliquan" means
basically a style of fighting that utilizes the yi controlling the strength ... which is basically about jin. The
guy who has 'founded' this Asian-sounding art is someone I've met a few times over the years, or at
least seen him. He's the kind of guy that used to walk around town with silken outfits and maybe a kung-
fu Dao strapped to his back. Heavy into appearances. In recent years he's written a book about jin and,
as is my habit in these matters, I bought the book to see what he knew about jin. Not much. But he has
co-opted the terms "jin" and "yiliquan" into an external and appearance-focused rendition of an Asian
martial-art. All I can do is shake my head. Sam Chin's "I Liq Chuan" is/was supposed to be spelled
"Yiliquan", but Pete Star co-opted the word first because it sounded cool, leaving Sam Chin with no
choice but to use the mongrelized term "I Liq Chuan". I think I'd prefer that Sam Chin had used the
term. ;)
Zac Alstin I assumed I Liq Chuan was dialect...supposed to be a Hakka art.

Mike Sigman Doesn't matter. "Yiliquan" would be the desired way to write it.

Zac Alstin Mike desired in what sense?

That's just Mandarin pinyin. They may not even speak Mandarin...their founder's name was Chin Lik
Keong, but you wouldn't say his own name was a mongrelized version of Zeng Li Qiang.

Mike Sigman Well, when they talk about the antecedents of I Liq Chuan, they use the Pinyin spellings for
Taiji, etc.

Zac Alstin That's true. Sam Chin also went on to call his system Zhong Xin Dao in 2016 so I guess he
found the Mandarin preferable....there's definitely a perception that Mandarin is more
educated/cultured than Southern dialects.
I bet they weren't expecting the art to go international when they decided to call it I Liq Chuan back in
the '70s.

Mike Sigman They just didn't know how many westerners would be anxious to be part of a
movement. ;) Everyone is looking for a religion and Sam hits just the right note with a little bit of Zen,
"meditation", and so on. Tugs at the heart-strings.