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Old 08-09-2011, 11:42 AM   #15
Mike Sigman
Location: Durango, CO
Join Date: Feb 2005
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Re: The Descent of Aiki

Quote:
Ellis Amdur wrote: View Post

Quote:

S: Was it then something similar to Yi Quan (Intention Boxing)?

MR.FENG: I do not know enough about Yi Quan to be able to compare the methods. Hu Yaozhen did not teach standing methods where palms were turned outwards because in his opinion this made Qi flow away.
Quote:

Jarek Szymanski: Mr.Feng, it is known that you studied Shaolin Standing Post methods in your youth. How would you compare it to Neijia practice?

MR.FENG ZHIQIANG: Yes, I learnt and practised Standing Post exercises of Shaolin school. The main difference between them and the methods of Neijia school is that Neijia emphasizes relaxation to greater degree. For this I think there is certain reason in dividing martial arts into External and Internal Families. It is also related to the methods of using Qi - External Family (Waijia) uses physical strength (Li) to drive Qi, while Internal Family (Neijia) uses Intention (Yi) to move Qi. Anyway, I had to give up all my external practise after I started practising Neijia.
Hi Ellis:

One thing I'd point out is that the two anecdotes you used would be considered discussions about how to do internal strength correctly, but they're both refined discussions, in a sense, in that they assume qi and jin are present in a legitimate way already.

The current discussion about the Chinese and Japanese doing things differently is about like suggesting that electrical engineering is done differently in China and Japan and Japan has left out things they don't need, have added some important contributions the Chinese don't know about, and so on. I.e., it's really a sort of silly argument if you know something about electrical theory, but for people who have no idea about electrical theory it's not hard to convince them that there is a difference between Japanese and Chinese electrical theory if you've set yourself up as an expert with legitimate knowledge.

Me, I go to legitimate experts whenever I can to get things checked out... and I've recommended that people do the same thing. Of course, if legitimate experts aren't good enough to judge you, I can see the problem.

2 cents.

Mike Sigman
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