SOME CASUAL TALK ON DRAGON STRENGTH
Grandmaster Wong demonstrating a pattern from the Dragon Strength Set
Question
What is the history of the Dragon Strength Set, both general and in particular to Uncle Righteousness' lineage?
When you first learned the Set, you have stated that you learned it without the internal aspect. However the very name "Dragon Strength Chi Circulating Set" suggests it was specifically developed as an internal exercise. Please can you outline the internal skills originally intended to be crystallized in the Set, and your subsequent rediscovery (or redevelopment) of the internal skills of the Set.
Is the emphasis of the Set the internal aspect or the combat aspect? or both? and what are the most notable combat advantages of training the Dragon Strength Set?
Sifu Andy Cusick
Answer
Interestingly, although Dragon Strength is my specialty, I do not know much about its history. Depending on one’s perspective, this is ironical or Zen. Many people would consider it ironical that although I know a lot about histories of kungfu sets, I don’t know much about the set that I specialize in. But I consider it Zen. What is important is not an intellectualized knowledge of its history or other information, but practical benefits derived from its practice.
In daily life, what is important is how happy you and your wife or girlfriend are together, and not what you know about how she spent her childhood. What is important is how enjoyable and beneficial is your work to you and your family, and not how your job was created in the first place.
The earliest schools of Dragon Kungfu I know of are Dragon Style Kungfu, Pak Mei Kungfu and Ermei Kungfu, all founded by Pak Mei in the 19th century, although techniques with Dragon features already existed a few centuries ago. The Shaolin five animals, which included the Dragon form, were already in existence in the Song Dynasty in 12th century,
The Dragon Strength Set I practice is characterized by “cheong kiew tai ma”, or “long bridge wide stance”, whereas Pak Mei’s Dragon Style Kungfu is characterized by “thun kiew siew ma” or “short bridge small stance”. I believe the Dragon Strength Set and Dragon Style Kungfu derived from the same source, i.e. Southern Shaolin, but had different lineage.
I am not sure from whom my sifu, Uncle Righteousness, learned the Dragon Strength Set? But I believe it was from my sigung, Ng Yew Loong, who in turned learned from Chan Fook, the same master who taught the Drunken Fist master, Bagger Su. Chan Fook probably learned from the Venerable Harng Yein, the most senior disciple of the Venerable Chee Seen, the First Patriarch of Southern Shaolin.
Yes, when I first learned Dragon Strength, it was without internal aspect. I practiced it at a physical level. After learning nei kung, or internal cultivation, and meditation, or mind cultivation, from my third sifu, Sifu Ho Fatt Nam, I added the mind level and the energy level to Dragon Strength.
It is true that the full name of the set, Dragon Strength Chi Circulating Set, suggests that it was developed as internal kungfu, especially. The name of the set in Chinese is “Loong Lek Wan Hei Kuen” (Cantonese), or “Long Li Yun Qi Quan” in Mandarin. “Dragon Strength” is a literal translation of “Long Lek”. A figurative translation is “Dragon Force”, which is even more suggestive of its internal cultivation.
Chinese is a very concise language, and the name of the set may be interpreted in three ways:
- The set is meant to develop Dragon force by circulation of chi.
- The set is meant to develop Dragon force and to circulate chi.
- In performing the set, practitioners employ Dragon force to circulate chi.
In the first interpretation, the intention of the set is to use the circulation of chi to develop Dragon force. There is one intention, and it is to develop Dragon force. The method is circulation of chi.
In the second interpretation, there are two intentions of the set. One is to develop Dragon force, and the other is to circulate chi. It is not mentioned what methods are used.
In the third interpretation, practitioners of the set use Dragon force to circulate chi. It is not mentioned how Dragon force is generated or how it is used to circulate chi.
Personally I favour the first interpretation.
Although theoretically the three interpretations are different, and this will provide good material for intellectuals to quarrel over, in practice the three interpretations are basically the same. When one has successfully circulated chi to generate Dragon force, he already has two skills, namely Dragon force and circulation of chi.
Earlier, when he did not have Dragon force, he could circulate his chi, and consequently developed Dragon force, now when he has Dragon force he also can circulate his chi.
As an analogy, earlier a practitioner could not generate a chi flow, but he could enter into a chi kung state of mind. While in a chi kung state of mind, he could subsequently generate a chi flow. Now while enjoying his chi flow, he can also enter into a chi kung state of mind.
Earlier a person was unmarried but he knew how to court a girl. Eventually, as a result of his courting, he married her. Now she is his wife, he can continue to court her.
My study of kungfu classics taught me that Dragon force was very powerful, and could be manifested in any part of the body. I discovered from practicing the Dragon Strength Set that this was true. I also discovered from direct experience that the manifestation of Dragon force could be at the speed of thought.
I believe that when Uncle Righteousness taught me the set, my sifu did not keep the secret internal cultivation of the set from me. He taught it the way he practiced it. Practicing kungfu sets at a physical level was the norm in the school then, i.e. the Shaolin kungfu school in Soon Tuck Association, Penang, Malaysia in the 1950s. It was and still is the norm in most Shaolin schools then and now all over the world.
The way we practice Shaolin Kungfu, or any kungfu in our school, at the energy and mind levels besides the physical level is a rare exception. Even when I learned from Sifu Chee Kim Thong, Sifu Ho Fatt Nam and Sifu Choe Hoong Choy, all my school-mates and I did not practice kungfu the way students at Shaolin Wahnam now do.
Although Sifu Chee Kim Thong’s school was well known for internal force, all my classmates and I practiced San Zhan at a physical level. San Zhan was the only set I saw at the school, although sometimes I heard my sihengs mentioned some other sets. I didn’t know whether some of my sihengs were selected to learn these special sets. But I knew from direct experience that my sihengs had internal force. It was due to their years of dedicated training of San Zhan, and for some due to Abdominal Breathing, which was not normally practiced in class.
Although my kungfu “enlightenment” was due to Sifu Ho Fatt Nam’s teaching, my classmates and I practiced kungfu sets at a physical level in Sifu Ho Fatt Nam’s school. We trained internal force separately in One-Finger Shooting Zen, as well as Iron Palm and rubbing our arms against hard wooden edges of pillars and tables. Iron Bridge (a form of internal force training), Cosmos Palm, Bamboo Man (a training for agility), Abdominal Breathing and subsequently Small Universe, and Zen meditation were taught to me privately. I didn’t know whether my classmates knew any of these secret arts, but I have never heard any one of them mention it.
Although I was quite good at internal force by the time I learned from Sifu Choe Hoong Choy, all the kungfu sets taught and practiced in his school were at a physical level. The only exception was Siu Lin Tou where mind, energy and physical form were integrated to develop internal force, which my sifu taught me privately after I had learned the physical routine of the set. I didn’t know whether my classmates knew this internal aspect of Siu Lin Tou, but from my sparring with them I knew they did not have internal force, with the exception of Uncle Cheong, an elderly disciple of Sifu Choe Hoong Choy. But there was no doubt that Sifu Choe Hoong Choy had a lot of internal force, indicating that he must have spent a lot of time practicing Siu Lin Tou the internal way.
I do not know of any other kungfu schools practice kungfu the way we do, where we integrate mind, energy and form right at the start. Practitioners of internal arts, like Taijiquan, Xingyiquan and Baguazhang, are supposed to do this, but from my experience, I have not seen them doing so.
Some internal art masters are powerful with internal force. But I believe they have developed their internal force through years of dedicated practice. Some external art masters are also powerful with internal force, though many of them may not recognize it as internal force! They also have developed their internal force through years of dedicated practice where their external training has become internal. But I have not come across any other schools apart from ours where students can experience internal force on the very first day of an intensive course or within a month in a regular class.
My own development as well as my teaching of the integration of mind, energy and form was a gradual process. This progress was much influenced by three factors:
- My teaching of chi kung.
- My study of kungfu and chi kung classics.
- My practice of Dragon Strength.
I taught students to enter into a chi kung state of mind to generate an energy flow. I first discovered and then taught students to use the mind to influence the speed and direction of chi flow, which are manifested as external physical movements. In other words, I taught students to use their mind to direct chi to move their physical form.
I read from classics that some Taijiquan masters regarded using mind to direct chi to move form as the highest attainment in Taijiquan. Although I did not agree with this concept, as I regarded the highest attainment of Taijiquan, or any art, as the return to the Great Void, or the return to God the Holy Spirit, I find this teaching inspiring.
There was an interesting episode that illustrates one can learn great lessons in a most unexpected way. A beautiful woman who learned chi kung from me in my early years of teaching once told me that she practiced Taoist cultivation before. Her Taoist master taught her to use her mind instead of her muscles to perform physical activities. For example, instead of using her hand to turn on a switch or hold a cup. she would tell her hand to do so. If she succeeded, her hand would automatically, and without muscular effort, turn on the switch or hold the cup. It did not occur to me then, and I am sure it did not occur to her too, that this casual talk turned out to be a very important lesson in my own training and later teaching.
I applied these lessons to my practice of Dragon Strength, and it worked marvelously. I was very powerful and very fast, using mind and energy flow, and without using muscles.
Both Dragon force and combat application are important in the Dragon Strength Set. But in my own experience, the emphasis is on the internal aspect.
This does not mean that the combat techniques of the set are not important. But it is Dragon force that makes the combat techniques meaningful and applicable.
My training of Dragon Strength has made me so powerful and fast that I could use any technique, and still I could defeat my opponents. But using the techniques found in the Dragon Strength Set makes my victory doubly sure. Someone who does not have Dragon force and attempts to use combat techniques in the Dragon Strength Set, he would not be effective.
As an analogy, if you are a very skillful driver, you can win a race using any car. But if you use a powerful and fast car that is specially built to accommodate your skills, your victory is doubly sure.
The most notable advantages of training the Dragon Strength Set are developing Dragon force which is tremendously powerful and versatile, becoming extremely fast at the speed of thought, and applying dim mark techniques that are simple and profound.
These advantages are not just for combat. More significantly they can be employed in our daily life. Dragon force gives you good health, vitality, longevity, peak performance and spiritual joys. Tremendous speed enables you to accomplish tasks without delay. Dim mark training enables you to carry out your daily duties in a simple, direct and effective way with profound results.
Course participants using some patterns in the Dragon Strength Set to develop dragon force
Dragon Strength in Video
Old Version of Dragon Strength
Treasure House of Kungfu Sets
Treasure House of Combat Application
The questions and answers are reproduced from the thread 10 Questions on Dragon Strength in the Shaolin Wahnam Discussion Forum.
LINKS