1 On the Soft Element of Hung Gar By Robert T. Tuohey
Hung Gar stylists agree that their art is, primarily, external, or hard, in nature. Indeed, solid stances and powerful hand attacks are trademarks of this Southern Shaolin system. And yet, as any experienced practitioner knows, there is, undoubtedly a soft component to this art as well. Herein, however, lies much confusion. What exactly is a “soft technique”? What techniques in Hung Gar fit this definition? And, finally, what percent of the overall system is soft? These are the questions I’m going to try to answer in this article. A Practical Definition of Softness Very often, discussions on the soft, or internal, aspects of the martial arts are lengthy, vague, and of little practical value. Certainly, the topic is a difficult one, and presents many a knotty issue. My intention here, however, is not absolute analysis, but rather to arrive at a “working definition”. Let me start, then, with an example. A tiger-claw to the face I would term hard, whereas a crane-beak to the Adam’s apple soft. It should be immediately apparent that the first technique is linear, and moves to a general (large) target area, but the second is circular and hits a precise (coin-sized) vital point. With these preliminary considerations set aside, we move onto the central issue, which I will term “type of force”.
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Taking again the tiger-claw attack, I compare it to the straight right punch of the boxer. To my way of thinking, the type of force employed in either case is the same. The components needed are balance, co-ordination, speed, and power; in short, advanced athletic ability. The martial artist hits the attacker – bang! – and the attacker goes down. The type of force used in the crane-beak attack is, however, something quite different; in fact, it is uniquely developed in the Chinese martial arts. For lack of a better term, permit me to call this force “refined”. Let me attempt to convey my meaning via analogy. Imagine that your body is a wellforged steel chain; the joints of the body correspond to the links. The chain is whipped at the adversary, the links smoothly uncoiling with building speed. The very last link of the chain strikes the opponent’s Adam’s apple – thwack! – and the attacker goes down. Note well that I’ve used something hard (a steel chain) to bring forward the idea of softness! Only via the extreme expression of an element, at which point it actually grades into its opposite, is dynamic energy found. The Chinese weapons axiom, “The staff must be bent, the whip-chain straight,” contains this principle.
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The magnificent Ti Lung, with long staff, and Grandmaster Chan Pui, with whip-chain, show dynamic soft energy.
Type of Motion Type of Force Target
Hard linear athletic general
Soft circular refined precise
The Soft Aspect of Hung Gar With the general concept of “softness” now defined, the traditional attributes of the “Ten Forms” take on greater meaning. Specifically, Tiger and Leopard techniques are seen, indeed, to be hard, and Dragon, Snake, and Crane soft. Of the Five Elements, Fire and Gold are hard, with Wood, Earth, and Water soft. Please note that this classification, which is traditional, makes 60% of the Ten Forms soft! However, the Ten Forms are not given equal emphasis within Hung Gar; there is, as we have mentioned, a distinct bias in favor of the hard. For example, the trademark fighting form of the system, the Tiger-Crane Set, stresses the Tiger while supplementing with the Crane. Or, again, reviewing the four essential forms of Hung Gar (Taming the Tiger, Tiger-Crane, Ten Forms, and Iron-Thread), we see all favor the hard.
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The “Master Killer” Gordon Liu, with Gold-Splitting Fists technique, from the IronThread set. I think, therefore, that the structural and applied aspects of Hung Gar work in an interesting yin-yang fashion: the former is 60-40 in favor of the soft, whereas the latter uses the same ratio in favor of the hard! In conclusion, I believe that it is this brilliant “design-feature” of interlocking structure and application that permits such varied, and yet effective, individual interpretations of this tremendous martial art.
Notes 1. The screen shots are from the Shaw Brothers’ classics, The 36th Chamber of Shaolin and The Kung Fu Instructor, now available in DVD from Celestial Pictures. Author Bio Robert T. Tuohey was born in the U.S. in 1961; he began training in the martial arts at nine years of age. In 1977 he was granted shodan in Okinawan karate by Shihan Parker Tallman (7th Dan, Chinese Okinawan Kempo Association); by 1989, he had attained the rank of godan. Since that time, he has trained extensively in various systems (e.g., Hung Gar, Wu style taiji).
5 His published works include numerous short stories and chess articles (see, for example, his column, Past Pawns, at chessville.com), as well as an introductory English literature textbook From Beowulf to Joyce (2001, Taiyuan University press). For the last 15 years he has lived in the Far East, working as an English teacher. Currently he is employed in the Foreign Languages Department at Shanxi University, Taiyuan, Shanxi, China. E-mail: jadedragon61@hotmail.com