SEVEN-STAR SET AND PAKUA SET
Seven-Star Set
Question
The Seven-Star Set is suitable for smaller opponents.
What benefits would a taller guy like I am gets from learning it?
Then in one of your Q/A series I read about Sitaigung Ho Fatt Nam teaching another Set to one of the Sultans of Malaysia as part of his training. How and in which sense can the training of a Kungfu Set be regarded as a form of high level Chi Kung?
Jan
Answer
While the Seven-Star Set is excellent for small-sized exponents against big-sized opponents, it is not disadvantageous for those who are big-sized except one factor, and that is agility. Big sized-exponents are generally not as agile as those who are small-sized.
Agility is an important factor for the Seven-Star Set. It contributes greatly to Seven-Star being a very formidable set. But if big-sized exponents can develop agility, like practicing the seven-star jump, and as they also know the techniques that small-sized opponents can use on them, the Seven-Star Set becomes an advantage not only in combat but also in daily life.
Big-sized exponents will then have the advantages of sizes. They have their natural advantages of being big-sized, and they also have the advantages of being small-sized from the Seven-Star Set.
For example, to fight against an opponent of 500 units of force, an ordinary exponent needs 500 units of force. But using techniques from the Seven-Star Set he can defeat his opponent using only 100 units of force.
If Peter has only 200 units of force, he cannot use ordinary techniques to defeat Paul who has 500 units of force. But if Peter uses Seven-Star techniques, he can defeat Paul though he has only 200 units of force.
Now John also has 500 units of force. Using ordinary techniques, John will be evenly matched with Paul. But if John uses Seven-Star techniques, not only he can defeat Paul, he can also do so more easily than Peter does.
My sifu, Sifu Ho Fatt Nam taught one of the sultans of Malaysia the Shaolin Pakua Set. Normally the Shaolin Pakua Set is performed fast, like many other Shaolin sets.
But my sifu made some modifications when teaching the sultan this set. Not only he taught the sultan to perform the movements of the set slowly and gracefully, he also taught the sultan how to generate an energy flow, which gave the sultan good health, vitality and longevity.
The secret is not the movements of the set, but using the movements to generate an energy flow. It is the energy flow that gives a practitioner good health, vitality and longevity, not the set. In the same way it is the cash flow that gives a person a comfortable economic life, not the job he does.
My sifu, Sifu Ho Fatt Nam, taught me the secret. Later, another of my four sifus, Sifu Choe Hoong Choy of Choe Family Wing Choon, also taught me the same secret using Siu Lin Tou, the fundamental set of Wing Choon Kungfu.
Our students in Shaolin Wahnam are very fortunate. Now I transmit the secret to them, so that irrespective of what kungfu sets they practice, including the Seven-Star Set, they are able to generate an energy flow to have good health, vitality and longevity.
Pakua Set
The above discussion is reproduced from the thread 10 Questions on the famous and legendary Seven-Star Set (七星拳)
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