It was students of
Chan Pui of the Wah Lum Temple in Orlando, FL that first intruduced
Mc Coy Sensei to the Chinese Martial Arts. In those days there was
not nearly as many schools as there are today and most of the instructors
in town were pretty good friends and often shared information.
Much later, Al Gardner
of the National Martial Arts Association sparked a a deeper in the
Chinese Martial Arts. He was a teacher of Taichi, Bagua and Hsing
Yi. I know that Sifu Gardner was a student of Cheng Man Ching. Although
I believe he had other teachers, I do not have names. Later I met
Dr. Clement Riedner of the Christian Black Belt Association and
earned teaching credentials in the Ba Men Taichi that he teaches.
Koroho Goshinjutsu that I learned from Masashi Yokoyama Sensei is
also largely based on Chinese Martial Arts. It was meeting students
of, and training with Dr Yang Jwang-Ming, that took these arts to
a higher level.
 Of
the arts taught by Dr. Yang, we primarily work with the Chin Na.
Chin Na translates to mean "Seize and control" and is
essentially "Chinese Jujutsu". Given the meridian theory
applied in Hakko Ryu Jujutsu, this is very similar to Hakko Ryu.
Chin
Na (pinyin: qín ná, Wade-Giles: ch'in na) is a Chinese
term describing techniques used in the Chinese martial arts that
control or lock an opponents joints or muscles/tendons so he cannot
move, thus neutralizing their fighting ability. Also chin na su,
su meaning technique. Chin na su literally means "technique
of catching and locking" in Chinese. Some schools simply use
the word na to describe the techniques.
While
techniques along the lines of chin na are practiced to some degree
by most martial arts worldwide, many Chinese martial arts are famous
for their specialization in such applications. Styles such as Eagle
Claw (Ying zhua quán), which includes 108 different chin
na techniques, Praying Mantis (Tánglángquán)
and the "Tiger Claw" techniques of Hung Gar, Shaolin 8-Animal
Kung Fu (Chi Lu Chuan) and Pan Nam Wing Chun are well known examples.
Though they do not use the Chinese name of Chin Na, many of the
Japanese martial arts (or budo) utilize techniques of locking, trapping
and breaking identical to Chin Na. Notable among these are Judo,
jujutsu and Aikido.
Chin
Na can generally be broekn down into the following categories::
Fen
Jin (dividing the muscle/tendon, grabbing the muscle/tendon).
"Fen" means "to divide", "Zhua" is
"to grab" and "Jin" means "tendon, muscle,
sinew". They refer to techniques which tear apart an opponent's
muscles or tendons.
Cuo Gu
(misplacing the bone). "Cuo" means "wrong, disorder"
and "Gu" means "bone". Cuo Gu therefore refer
to techniques which put bones in wrong positions and is usually
applied to joints specifically.
Bi Qi (sealing
the breath). "Bi" means "to close, seal or shut"
and "Qi", or more specifically "Kong Qi", meaning
"air". "Bi Qi" is the technique of preventing
the opponent from inhaling. This differs from mere strangulation
in that it may be applied not only to the windpipe directly but
also to muscles surrounding the lungs, supposedly to shock the system
in to a contraction which impairs breathing.
Dian Mai
(sealing the vein/artery or acupressue cavity).
Dian Xue
Sealing Qi points
Similar
to the Cantonese "Dim Mak", the last 2 are the technique
of sealing or striking blood vessels and "Qi" points.
Chin means to
seize or trap, na means to lock or break, and while those actions
are very often executed in that order (trap then lock), the two
actions can also be performed distinctly in training and self defense.
Which is to say, a trap isn't always followed by a lock or break,
and a lock or break is not necessarily set up by a trap.
There is quite
a bit of overlap between Chin Na theory and technique with the branches
of traditional Chinese medicine known as tui na as well as the use
of offensive and defensive ch'i kung as an adjunct of chin na training
in some styles.
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