Acupractitioner21 is the sequel to the underground hit Acustudent21, from one of the periods when I was training in Chinese medicine. This blog will focus on Classical Chinese Medicine, CCM, the old system, and on what it´s like to practice acupuncture in the West in the 21st century. The name might have changed, but like everybody in old Chinese medicine, I am still a student.
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The
evolution of practice over a lifetime is something I have been
thinking about for many years, as I have seen different long-time
practitioners and what they make of their training in the long run.
This spring, I again had the chance to interview one of my teachers,
Master Ma Baoguo, and get an overview of his evolution of the
material. This is after his more than 50 years of intense practice
and research into the external and internal martial arts and qigong,
under highly skilled long-time practitioners in China.
In
which direction do people go, as they practice?
Master
Ma Baoguo began training when he was seven. He has had several very
skilled teachers over a lifetime of practice in the Internal Martial
Arts and qigong. I thought we would follow his journey in meeting
them, what he learned from them, and how he has kept evolving his own
practice from what they taught.
We
will also look at the principles he uses in his own system: how he
emphasizes that the first and most important thing is to cultivate
one´s own heart and integrity – xiude,
xiuxin
– to become a good person, and then to use the energy and strength
from the training to always help others.
The
practice of internal martial arts, qigong, and meditation continues
to evolve over the life-time of the practitioner. It has done, for a
very long time. So many others have walked the same path as us,
living their life, evolving themselves, and helping others through
the increased clarity and energy and good heart they got from their
training.
It
is a warm day in April in Shanghai when we sit in Master Ma´s
apartment before class, and begin to talk.
Family
Kung Fu: Beginnings
”My
family had it´s own Shaolin-system. This is where I started to
learn.” This is quite common in China, just like in Chinese
medicine, where many middle- and upper-class families already have
quite a lot of knowledge in Chinese medicine before they begin
apprenticing or going to university to become acupuncture doctors.
Formal
training began at age seven, and Master Ma has taught his own son the
same way. Yet there is also the factor that since he was born, he was
surrounded by people who practiced, people whose movements were
percolated through by practice and who talked in ways infused by it.
”My
father was a soldier in the army in 1942,” Ma continues. ”He
fought the Japanese, and he was famous for special missions behind
enemy lines thanks to his skills in gongfu. After the war, he became
a police officer and continued to use his skills to catch criminals.”
In
1970, Master Ma himself joined up. Here he was taught more
gongfu-skills based on military usage, and he kept up training
intensely on the side throughout his service. He was also taught more
advanced gong fu-training for special missions, just like his father.
Discovering
Internal Martial Arts – finding Xingyiquan and Master Shang Ji
In
1982, Master Ma went to university again. But this time, he tells me
over the tea, he had the good fortune to meet Dr Shang Ji, a famous
Xingyi-master.
Shang
Ji is a lineage holder in Hebei Xingyiquan – 94 years old as of
this article and still training every day – and is the third
generation from Guo Yunshen through his teacher Ma Litang. Master
Shang also studied for other skilled teachers, including Chen Fake of
Chen Taiji.
Master
Ma had good fighting skills by now, but Shang Ji could easily beat
him. This made Ma realize that there might be something to this
Xingyi. He began an apprenticeship with intense training that lasted
for the three years of his university course.
He
was taught Hebei Xingyi Five Elements, the Twelve Animals, Xingyi
spear and a lot of pure fighting skills in how to actually use the
system.
Since
then, he has kept training for master Shang Ji, and still is.
Here
you can see Master Ma Baoguo showing his own version of the Hunyuan
Chen Taiji form, where he has added components and intent from the
Daoist martial arts and teachings of Guo Shenghai. He can do it as
the standard version too, just as with Hebei Xingyi and standard
Chen, but prefers to focus on the work that has opened up with the
skills of master Guo.
Deepening
the Internal Martial Arts: a meeting with master Guo of Wudang and
Emei gongfu
Then,
in 1987, he met another of his important teachers: master Guo
Shenghai, a Daoist monk who had been trained in the skills of Wudang
and Emei martial arts.
Guo
Shenghai was born in 1916. He had been left in a temple on Emei
Mountain when he was three years old, to be raised as a monk. Trained
deeply in the martial systems of Wudangshan and Emeishan, he also
knew many of the really old gongfu skills that are lost now.
When
master Ma met him, Guo could easily beat him despite all his previous
practice, so master Ma began training for him. Guo charged a lot of
money for private lessons; 40 yuan for an hour, the same as the
monthly wage for a skilled worker at the time, and master Ma had to
save up money for class. In the beginning he could still only afford
15 minutes, but he kept on training.
One
day, master Guo suddenly said it costs 800 yuan instead. He could
teach master Ma the secret skills of point-attacking from Emeishan,
but it would cost that much. The older gongfu master said this
tentatively – 800 yuan was a fortune. Master Ma realized that his
teacher was in some kind of financial trouble but didn´t want to ask
outright to avoid losing face. As real students should also help
their teacher, Ma borrowed from friends and saved money for this, and
took that single lesson at that price.
Later,
the old master ended up in jail due to a misunderstanding. Thanks to
his own contacts, master Ma managed to help him get out of jail and
then took care of him for a month in his own home, where he helped
Guo heal after the beatings he suffered in prison. After this, master
Guo taught him for free. The daoist master started to spend several
weeks at a time in his home, teaching him all his knowledge.
Today,
it is master Guo´s Daoist martial teachings and knowledge that is
most deeply ingrained in master Ma´s entire system – all his
teaching is based on bianhua,
the study of change, and on principles set out in the Daodejing. He
has also studied the Yijing deeply, both with master Shang and Guo,
and on his own.
The
subtle skills of Chen Taijiquan – Wang Changhai, student of Chen
Zhaokui and Feng Zhiqiang
Master
Ma´s training-journey took another step forward in 1997, when he met
Wang Changhai, a master of Chen Taijiquan. Wang was a disciple of the
famous Chen Zhaokui, and after his death he kept on studying as a
disciple of master Feng Zhiqiang. Feng himself was a disciple of Chen
Zhaokui´s father, the legendary Chen Fake.
Feng
Zhiqiang was a master of Chen Taiji and created the Hunyuan Taiji
system. Now Master Ma began learning them both from master Wang
Changhai.
Earlier
in his training Guo Shenghai had introduced him to push hands, but
never the deeper skills of Taiji. With Master Wang he finally started
to learn how to use a small force to overpower a much larger force.
Both
he and his son trained with master Wang, just like they had with
master Guo and master Shang Ji, and they still practice with him
today. One thing that also stands out concerning master Wang is his
good heart and generosity towards others, and he is always careful to
show students just enough to make them understand the power but never
actually hurt them.
And
here you can see a more recent clip, showing his continual research
evolving, and the energetics and work becoming even more internal
than it already was.
Qigong-skills:
first from family, then from each teacher
”With
master Wang, I also learned more qigong, but this time from the
Hunyuan Qigong-system that master Feng created.”
Master
Ma had been taught qigong ever since he was in his teens – this was
when he was taught the family qigong-system by his grandfather and
his grandfather´s brother.
”My
grandfather´s younger brother was very good at both martial arts and
qigong. He was able to crack concrete slabs through hitting them with
his forearm.”
The
family qigong-system was deepened both with material from Shang Ji
and then, much more, from the Daoist skills of Guo Shenghai.
Now
master Ma added the repertoire of the Daoist-based Hunyuan
Qigong-system to this, and began creating his own version of them.
The
road-map for your practice – whose map are you using, and for what
roads?
It
is interesting to think on where we want to go. What intent do we
have with our practice? What are the actual goals we want to reach?
And when do we know that we have reached them?
I
still remember a great description written by well-known IMA-teacher
Sam Masich: ”One
difference I saw between how Chinese and Westerners practiced, was
that the Westerners went into the practice looking for something; the
Chinese all knew they only refined something that was already there.”
Another
one of my teachers, Alex Kozma, uses the phrase, ”Whose
map are you following?”
So, which practitioner´s map are you using for your own journey?
This is a good place to start. And how is that map-holder as a
person? Do they have a good heart? Do they manifest their life and
practice in a positive, ethical way for others, and for society? Do
they walk their spiritual talk? It is interesting to look at where
their map has landed them: is their map positive for other beings?
You
always want to look at the teacher´s senior students; they are the
litmus-test of the teacher and his/her ways of teaching. Are the
senior students compassionate, balanced, and skilled at whatever the
teacher is teaching? If not, you already there have knowledge of how
that teacher´s map works for others.
Master
Ma´s story also illustrates something important. Many of the really
skilled Chinese practitioners were taught like he was, from seven and
onwards. The material they teach is usually adapted for that kind of
body and background, where solid basic training might already be done
by age 15... It is rare that they adapt their material for Western
bodies and the learning curve they might need. Is the teacher
adapting their material for Westerners?
And
what intent does the teacher have with his or her own practice? Do
they adapt this safely for their students? If someone is a hermit, or
practices six hours a day, do they adapt the material they teach for
a student with a more normal life in the West?
Master
Ma Baoguo has kept researching and evolving his own practice,
continously, all through his life. The past few years he began
distilling the knowledge from his teachers and training into his own
system: the Hunyuan
Xingyi Taiji Men.
This
is a short, improvised sequence where he shows Xingyi.
Teaching
change: a system based on the Daodejing
Now,
after all his training, his system is based on different ways to
teach the core Daoist concept of bianhua,
change.
”Each
sequence in the system was created from principles in the Daodejing,”
master Ma continues. Daodejing is the Daoist practice manual, The
Book of the Way and the Power.
”The sentence that sums it up is this:”
The
Way gave birth to the One;
The
One gave birth to the Two;
The
Two gave birth to the Three;
And
the Three gave birth to the Ten Thousand Beings.
–
Daodejing chapter 42, Mawangdui version,
Lao-Tzu
Te-Tao Ching, Henricks,
Ballantine 1989
His
son, Ma Xiaoyang, is sitting at the end of the table, and he adds,
”All the practices in the system are studies in bianhua,
change.”
Each
of the 12 Qigongs and forms have three levels of increasing
difficulty and complexity, all of which are focused both on creating
good health and very effective fighting ability. Even the first level
is quite complicated, however, and the system is not practical for
practitioners who lack good basics or who don´t have a previous,
very stable practice going.
Over
the past few years, with the generous help of master Shang Ji, master
Ma and his son Ma Xiaoyang have put together a new form for the
Hunyuan
Xingyi Taiji Men.
This has the same three levels and is taught after the twelve
qigongs. In class in his apartment here in Shanghai, there is a
strong focus on applying the form using close-range and abrupt
application practices.
Eight
principles of practice – and nourishing the heart and integrity
When
class is over, we move into the room next to the training-hall for
dinner and continue the interview there. ”What are the keys to your
system?”
”Eight
points.” Ma lists them easily, and it´s obvious that his evolution
physically and energetically also has been built on a strong system
of theory.
1)
Practice your heart. And practice to become a good person. You must
nourish your xin,
your heart, to create a good heart inside you. You must also practice
your de,
your virtue and integrity, which is part of the phrase wude,
”Martial Ethics”.
This
point is the most important, and the principle is called xiuxin,
xiude:
”Cultivating your heart and cultivating your virtue”.
”When
you practice gongfu,” Master Ma leans forward towards me to
emphasize, ” you always need to think about how to use your energy,
strength, and good heart from the practice to help others, and how to
help society.”
(Very
reminiscent of what a Daoist monk said when I interviewed him in the
White Cloud Temple in Beijing: ”We
need to become good people before we can become people of Dao!”)
3)
Practice qigong first, then martial arts. You first need to get your
health good and get a strong body before continuing with martial
practices
4)
First you need to know single movements in depth and very well, only
after that can you learn forms
5) You need to learn the details in the movements of how to change the
direction of force, and genuinely research this and understand it
well. Why this way, why that way? How does it work in real fighting?
And how can you change it, while in a real fight?
6)
Your practice should include both good health, good heart, and the
ability to use your skills in actual fighting and combat
7)
The practice is good for intelligence, and should bring out your
natural intelligence and enhance it
8)
You cannot separate fighting ability in real life from health-care.
If your practice has them separate, it is not really Chinese gongfu.
(You
can read an earlier interview with master Ma Baoguo here: http://www.levandestillhet.se/artiklar/ma_baoguo. Both
articles were published in Tai Chi Chuan Magazine in the UK, 2005 and 2014.)
Master
Ma or teachers teaching his system can be contacted at
http://www.hunyuantaiji.co.uk.
Master Ma is soon publishing a book on his training-life and the
styles he has learnt on the way. Daniel Skyle is an inner door student
of Ma Baoguo. He is also a writer and a practitioner of Classical
Chinese Medicine and acupuncture at his two clinics in Sweden. His
blog in (mostly) English can be found at www.acupractitioner21.blogspot.se
and you can find this article and others in English at
www.levandestillhet.se/artiklar.
He is currently publishing the first book on Daoism in Swedish, which
includes interviews with Daoist monks and a go-through of classical
Daoist and chinese medical texts and their training principles. It
will be translated into English in 2016. Books to follow in the same
series include one with essays on spirituality based on Daoist
practices, and one with interviews with hermits in the mountains of
China. He has recently begun a doctoral thesis on Chinese medicine in medical anthropology, based on interviews he is doing while studying Chinese medicine in China.
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