SPIRIT AND MOVEMENT OF A DRAGON
The spirit of the Dragon in Wahnam Taijiquan
Question
The Dragon is the most mysterious and mystical of all the animals in Chinese kungfu, and in fact, the only one in the Zodiac that is mythical. There is no credible modern reported sighting of a real dragon. Whereas we can observe the physical characteristics of a tiger or a monkey, and have a sense of the spirit of these animals, we have to rely entirely on our imagination or intuition when it comes to the dragon. Given this, how should we emulate and manifest the spirit of the Dragon or its physical movements in our kungfu practice?
In my own experience, Sifu, I found that it was my qi flow that “taught” me what to do. Before I knew anything about Baguazhang, I had a number of qi flow experiences where I was twisting and coiling around in what I thought were dragon-like movements. It didn’t feel like Taijiquan, Shaolinquan or any other martial art or sport that I knew.
Then, I happened to watch a National Geographic channel on the internal arts and Baguazhang was featured. That was when I realised what I was doing in my qi flow. It was then that I felt that it was heaven’s way of telling me to learn Baguazhang. At that time (6 years ago), Sifu was not teaching Baguazhang yet, hence I asked for Sifu’s permission to learn from Madam Ge Chunyan (she was Jet Li’s sijie, and a disciple of Cheng Tinghua’s lineage).
Sifu Zhang Wuji
Answer
Although they are a rare minority, there are people who have seen dragons. Andrew, for example, told me that while driving to work one morning, he clearly saw a dragon crossing the sky in front of him.
Nevertheless, when we refer to a kungfu style or technique being represented by an animal, like a dragon or a tiger, we do not refer to the real features of that animal, but to the form and spirit symbolized by it. For example, when we describe a certain kungfu style or technique as a tiger, a practitioner of that style or technique does not really act like a tiger, but the internal force demonstrated in his performance of the style, or the way he holds his hand resembling a tiger-claw, is best symbolized by a tiger.
We do not entirely rely on our imagination or intuition when performing a kungfu style or technique symbolized by a dragon or any animal, although some imagination and intuition when applied correctly, can better bring out the characteristics of the animal. We rely on the teaching of the teacher.
When Uncle Righteousness taught me the Dragon Strength Circulating Chi Set, I had no idea why it was called a Dragon set, nor how to manifest its Dragon form and spirit. I also did not know how to circulate chi. It was much later that I knew about the special features of Dragon force, like its tremendous power and its capability of being manifested in any part of the body. It was also later that I knew how to employ patterns of the set to circulate chi.
At the time when Uncle Righteousness taught me the pattern, “Double Dragons Emerge from Sea”, I knew that the hand-form used in the pattern was called dragon hand-form. But I did not know why it was related to the Dragon.
I read in some kungfu classics that the two fingers in the hand-form resembled the whistles of a Dragon. While this may have suggested the name of the hand-form, I did not find it justifiable to describe the whole set as a Dragon set. The great importance of mind in the performance of the patterns in the set to circulate chi to generate Dragon force, and to direct energy flow to move form is a far better reason to describe it as a Dragon set.
Emulating and manifesting the spirit of the Dragon and performing the patterns in circular and swerving movements resembling a Dragon’s motion does not depend on practitioners’ imagination and intuition. Rather it depends on the teaching of the teacher. In other words, even when students do not imagine or have intuition of a Dragon’s spirit and movement, but the teacher teaches them to perform the patterns in dragon-like manner to manifest tremendous power resulting in Dragon force, and to employ their mind to direct energy flow to move form resulting in tremendous speed, Dragon spirit and form will be manifested.
Our chi flow will move our form. If we let chi to flow freely without the influence of our mind, the chi flow movements are likely to be extended, circular and swerving. This is natural and spontaneous. As an analogy, when a person stands up, it is likely that he will be upright with his arms hanging loosely at his sides, though not perfectly due to some bad habits. It is unlikely, for example, that he will bend his body like a bow, or place his hands on his head.
These extended, circular and swerving movements were best described by past masters as a dragon’s movements. This was because these extended, circular and swerving movements resembled Dragon’s movements more than they resembled movements of other animals. I believe this was what happened when describing the Dragon Strength Set as kungfu of the Dragon style and not of any other animal style, i.e. the dragon-like movements occurred first, then the term “Dragon” was used to describe them. It was not the other way round, that past masters decided on the Dragon first, then devised movements to imitate Dragon’s movements.
As a side note, how did past masters know that Dragon movements were extended, circular and swerving. This was due to cultural convention. By cultural convention, movements of dragons were described as extended, circular and swerving, regardless of whether dragons were mystical or real though rarely seen in the human dimension.
Having described movements from the Dragon Strength set as Dragon movements, later master might imitate dragon-like movements in their practice and teaching. Thus, the presence of Dragon movements in the Dragon Strength Set happened in both ways.
The movement of the Dragon in Baguazhang
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