The Way of Least Resistance

It was Wednesday afternoon in my first week in Taiwan and I was emotionally exhausted. That morning I, among others, had undergone a traditional "bai shi" ceremony where I was accepted as an "inner circle" student of my teacher Chen Yun-Ching. Every facade had cracked; my attempts at maintaining a composed, relaxed front had proved laughable, and even Master Chen's normally inscrutable exterior crumbled as he knelt before the picture of his father and bowed three times, openly shedding tears. Then, with every one of us bai shi, he had the handkerchief at hand. Before me was my good mate "Little" John Scott who so endearingly wears his heart on his sleeve, tears flowing freely. By the time my turn came I resolved to keep some semblance of both my and Master Chen's composure, holding back hot tears behind my eyeballs; pressure vessels about to explode. In the afternoon I felt so spent I didn't bother to note where we were going. All I knew...

I was asked on a forum why the suffix “te” is added to numeric kata names (such as “sanseru te”, “seisan te”, etc.). Furthermore why not the non-numeric kata names (eg. kururunfa)? The Chinese martial arts often add "step" (“pu” or “bu”) to the name of a technique or a form in order to give it some sense. Hence "mabu" is their term for shiko/kiba dachi and it means literally "horse step" . The same goes for zenkutsu dachi (gong bu - forward step). This is to avoid the absurd labels "horse" or "forward" without any qualification. In this case "bu" or step has the same function as stance or "dachi". They sometimes use the suffix "ji" meaning technique, but if the particular technique involves a stance or moving, "bu" or step is preferred. In Okinawa it is traditional to add the character "te" after kata instead of "pu/bu/ji". This is a cultural tradition that distinguishes Okina...

I get the impression that Daoist thought and xingyiquan-like internal arts developed largely in tandem about 600 years ago without any Shaolin/Ch’an Buddhist influence at all (ie. they are truly “indigenous” arts, much like the original Okinawa te). The Shaolin school of external arts was a later development via India, bringing with it a “second wave” of thought and a second wave of martial tradition influenced by yogic exercise and health concepts. These spread/developed in tandem, but were not strictly related. The fact that monasteries became training grounds for various warlords may have strengthened the link between Ch’an Buddhism and the external arts. I get the feeling that initially the monasteries would have taught an “indigenous” xingyi-like arts, but that over time the Ch’an Buddhist/yogic influence conspired to evolve these arts into what we now call the “external” or Shaolin tradition. Their emphasis on pragmatic, effective exercise (cf. the somewhat theoretical and philo...