Jianghu :: 2.0

I got out again for a bit of training last night. The sun was just going down as I settled in to a bit of zhan zhuang, twenty minutes or so. I got through a few sets of CMC-37 taiji, interrupted halfway through by a largish moth that seemed absolutely determined to settle on my arm, or ear, or face, and absolutely was not going to let me deter it no matter how hard I flapped and shooed it away. Eventually I moved a little further into the open, and that seemed to scare it away.

As it got dark, the usual courting couples materialized on the seats in the garden, or standing in the darker corners away from the paths; arms wrapped around each other tightly, they seem otherwise pretty chaste - no face-eating displays here. There is absolutely no private part of campus that isn’t colonized by these pairs after dark, but I don’t mind them, and they don’t mind me, so everyone just gets along harmoniously…

As I worked on the ba da zhang, followed by the wuji long xing set, I became aware of a solitary figure standing under a tree near the area where I practice. I’ve seen him there before, watching. I think he may be filming me on his cell phone. Oh noez, I haz a stalker! Heh.

Actually, I’ve had a few students approach me on campus to chat after they saw me practicing near the sports field, when I was still going there. I guess it’s like anywhere else, they want to learn, but have no opportunity other than joining the student clubs. I’ve seen the taiji group training here and, well, they look just like the student clubs back in the UK! No better, no worse.

So, I don’t begrudge this kid, though I don’t think he’ll learn much from watching me! Still, who knows - perhaps it’ll steer his path onto martial arts in the future…

It’s been a bit of a rough week; I’m mentally drafting a blog post about it, as it’s required lots of soul-searching. Not sure if I’ll publish it, though.

Anyway, I’ve been feeling bad about how my practice in both martial arts and meditation has been kind of sidelined in the months since I came to Beijing - which wasn’t entirely unexpected, but I didn’t expect the extent of it! So this week I’ve been trying to change conditions to let me get back into the groove.

Buying a bike was a good, and much overdue, idea. I’ve been able to explore parts of the campus I couldn’t easily get to before, and it’s helped me to find a place to practice. Previously, the only place I could find was on the edge of the sports field, surrounded by large areas of concrete. The qi felt really bad there, plus I was in full view of the crowds of students hanging out there, which was a bit awkward. On the bike, I’ve found a courtyard park area in the midst of the older staff apartments. It’s private, shady, and the air is really good. Lots of birds singing in the trees above, and a few old people doing qigong in the morning. It only takes a few minutes to get there by bike - although, going by bike means I have to use a shoulderstrap on my sabre’s scabbard, and sling it over my back. I look like some sort of demented bicycle cavalryman as I whizz around campus; it’s surely only a matter of time before I get arrested

So, I went there this morning - first morning practice for a few weeks, made easier by the new timetable. (I’m able to re-use stuff from last semester now, rather than getting up at 6am every day to start researching & writing on the day’s new lecture material). I started with 15 min or so of zhan zhuang, then went into a couple of sets of CMC-37 taiji. After that, I tried the xuan xuan broadsword set for the first time in ages, but got a mental block halfway through. Now worries, that happened from time to time even back in Singapore, when I was doing it regularly. Experience has taught me that when this happens, it’s best to just stop, rather than keep banging away at it. Next, a few reps of the moves I’ve learned so far of the ba da zhang, working on some details that I’m finding tricky. I followed that with a first attempt in ages of Master Zhou’s wuji long xing baguazhang set; I’m very rusty, but I really need to get back into it. Not sure why yet - I’m sure it’ll bubble up from the subconscious at some point - but having started a bit of zhang zhuang, I think there’s some sort of strong connection with the wuji set. Anyhow, I finished up with a couple of sets of the bagua needles form, before cycling back home through the crowds of students who were by then on their way to the day’s first lectures.

Back home, a met a technician who’d come to fix my computer, which was getting badly clogged up by a couple of years’ worth of Singapore and Chinese dust; it’s now running much cooler and faster. Hooray!

A lot of people I knew in the UK were extremely sceptical about Chinese medicine - and that’s putting it politely. The Observer, a Sunday broadsheet newspaper, ran a column on TCM for a couple of years, written by Stephen Russell under the pseudonym ‘Barefoot Doctor‘. He didn’t do the cause much good, as you’ll see if your read the wikipedia article, but his column was actually pretty good - but caused much hilarity amongst some of my friends, who found ideas such as “the eyes are the flower of the liver” to be preposterous…

It seems that TCM is actually gaining more credibility in the West, though. When I went back to visit my parents after several years away from the UK, I was astonished to see a TCM herbal medicine store on Cardiff’s main shopping street (I didn’t think to ask at the time who their market was, though).

Today’s Times also has a really interesting piece - apparently, acupuncture can raise the success rate of IVF by 65%.

Raffles Hospital here in Singapore is also now pioneering a lot of TCM treatments, using China-trained physicians - which is perhaps a bit of a turnaround, as Western medicine has always been Singapore’s preferred standard.

This is a trend to watch; I wonder if we will in the future see qigong treaments becoming more widespread?

There’s a movement in bagua that I haven’t seen elsewhere: a relaxed, vigorous, shaking of the whole body, used to break the grip of someone who’s got you in a bear-hug from behind, for example. Zhang Sheng Li’s long xing bagua form has it, and last night we got to it in the wuji form I’m learning from Master Zhou.

I’ve never been able to do it well. I’ve always been too stiff, especially in the lower back, so I end up looking as if I’m waggling my backside - to the great amusement of onlookers! Well, it helps teach humility, if nothing else….

Anyway, I had a bit of a breakthrough last night. We were working on the move leading in to this, a move using the hands to attack simultaneously in both directions; this needs a lot of flexibility in the shoulders, to channel the body weight along the arms, like a whip. Same problem: stiff shoulders, couldn’t do it. After we’d been trying to get this working for a while, Master Zhou had to take a call, which wound up being quite a long one. This was quite fortuitous. I kept on practicing on my own, just repeating the same move. Since I’m not that strong, my shoulders tired pretty quickly - which meant that they stopped working against me! Once my shoulder strength was gone, I was much more able to relax and send that energy rippling through… Success!

Encouraged, I tried continuing to shake the whole torso… and it worked. Much to Master Zhou’s surprise  - and relief, I’m sure - I was able to do it correctly.  So we carried on… we’re very close to the end of the form now; I’m confident that we’ll complete it soon, and have time for at least some revision , detail work, and more applications before I head north to the Chinese snow.

One thing left a question, though; as I was shaking, the power was certainly being transmitted… but my intestines and internal organs were also shaking and sliding around,  and it was really a very, very, odd sensation! I could see that this may be a good thing, an element of bagua qigong, in that it would massage and stimulate the organs. My Chinese just isn’t good enough to ask Master Zhou about this. Is this to be expected, or am I still doing something wrong?