Bruce's Classical Mess:
Cleaning up the Mess the "Little Dragon" Left Behind
By Hawkins Cheung, as told to Robert Chu
(First published in Inside Kung-Fu 92/02)
Bruce's sudden death left behind a classical mess. We can't deny the
impact that Bruce had. Eighteen years since Bruce's passing, and hundreds
of martial artists are still trying to copy Bruce's movements, punches
and kicks. Some learn wing chun simply because wing chun was his mother
system. There are now many jeet kune do instructors teaching "his methods."
Eighteen years and many are teaching jeet kune do, but many still don't
know what jeet kune do is, Many of these so called instructors make their
art mimic Bruce's movements. Some instructors have nothing to do with
Bruce, but try to relate their teachings to him.
Some of Bruce's first-generation students came to study from me when
I first immigrated here. When I told Bruce of my intent to immigrate to
the U.S. before his death, Bruce thought it would be great to have me
help out his students, but whether they came to learn or not was another
thing.
Different way
When I touched their hands, I found that Bruce didn't teach them the way
he developed body power from wing chun. So, I tried to teach them the fundamentals
of how to develop Bruce's power. There are no secrets. First, you have to
connect your body as one unit. Then you should develop it with a partner
who tries to interrupt your unit by pulling, pushing and other types of
physical interruptions. If you can manage physical interruption without
disrupting your body unit, then you can talk about separating your unit
into individual parts. If you don't like physical interruptions (i.e., punches,
kicks, etc.), then you may move your unit away before the punch or kick
arrives. If you can do this, you can then move on to attacking techniques.
You can also speak of unit attack with the body or either individual parts
(arms or legs). For Bruce, every punch or kick had unit or body power behind
it. This ability is something that you either have or don't have.
The reader may ask, what is the difference between unit body power and
individual power? When you punch at your partner during practice, your
technique is usually delivered with your individual (arm) power. When
you punch to destroy your opponent, the technique is delivered with body
connection power. Techniques to impress your friends are delivered with
speed and timing; techniques to destroy your opponent are delivered with
speed, timing and body connection. Again, using my analogy of a hammer
and nail, you have your choice. You can throw a nail and injure your opponent,
or hammer the nail forward to kill him. When Bruce threw his punches and
kicks, he used his body as a hammer.
When Bruce's first-generation students came to me, I tried to teach
them how to develop this unit power. Unfortunately, they did not believe
me. Because I did not immediately teach them wing chun techniques, they
felt I was keeping the knowledge to myself. Since then, I have kept my
mouth shut. Whenever people talk about Bruce, I just walk away. These
students wanted wing chun techniques and feeling. To me, the wing chun
techniques are of secondary importance. Techniques can be learned from
any wing chun teacher. However, without body connection and physical development,
the techniques become useless.
Trained to fight
Back in the 195Os, Yip Man trained us to fight, not be technicians.
Because we were so young, we didn't understand the concepts or theories.
As he taught us, Yip Man said, "Don't believe me, as I may be tricking
you. Go out and have a fight. Test it out." In other words, Yip Man taught
us the distance applications of wing chun. First he told us to go out
and find practitioners of other styles and test our wing chun on them.
If we lost, we knew on what we should work. We would go out and test our
techniques again. We thought to ourselves, "Got to make that technique
work! No excuses!" We learned by getting hit. When you are in a real fight,
you find out what techniques are good for you. Just because your technique
may work for one person doesn't guarantee it will work for you. When you
test your techniques on someone you don't know, you experience a different
feeling than when training with your friends. If you discover through
your own experience, it's much better than relying on anothers experience.
In this way, you won't be in his trap.
For this reason, physical and strong tool development are more important
than the techniques. The way you apply techniques comes from your courage
or confidence. You gain courage and confidence through your experience.
For application, you have to ask yourself, "How much experience do I have?
How many ways can I use this technique?" There is an old Chinese saying
that in real fighting, you must have three points: courage, strength,
technique. Technique comes last, unless you have superior timing to deliver
techniques. These qualities are of personal development; they have nothing
to do with styles. Through your fighting experience, you can check your
system's concepts and theories.
As I reflect, I think that if Yip Man first taught us the concepts or
theories, we would follow them based on their requirements and rules.
We wouldn't need to test them out, simply because the wing chun system
already had generations of testing. We would try to make the art as perfect
as Yiin Wing Chun displayed. Perhaps Bruce and I would have become perfect
technicians.
We wanted to find out what is important and not important when we fought
outsiders. This is why we fought a lot when we were young. Only through
application can you prove if the theories are valid. Techniques without
timing are dead techniques. Display timing without power and the results
are equally disastrous. Nowadays, many wing chun people have the same
techniques, but how many wing chun people have gone through Bruce's and
my development?
Make the art alive
Some of Bruce's followers say that wing chun people don't have what
Bruce had. To me, Bruce's followers don't have what Bruce had. What they
teach is Bruce's techniques, like his classical Jun Fan gung- fu, which
is similar to wing chun. Only the body structure differs. These two classical
arts were fixed by their founders. The individual that learns them needs
to make the art alive. Both wing chun and Jun Fan's goals are the same:
simple, direct and economical movement to intercept. Wing chun utilizes
the centerline as the fastest line of entry. Jun Fan allows their followers
to choose whatever line they want to make their movements simple, direct
and economical to intercept. Bruce's followers need Bruce's superior timing
to catch up with wing chun's centerline concept of intercepting.
Later, Bruce found that his Jun Fan was not direct to the goal of intercepting,
so he advanced and improved his way of intercepting and created his jeet
kune do. Bruce found that wing chun actually went further in' terms of
intercepting the opponent's mind. Because Bruce never completed his Tao
of Jeet Kune Do, many sections in it are not consistent with what we discussed
in Hong Kong. Bruce's five ways of attack and five ranges of fighting
are attempts to systematize his teachings, but they fail. Were he alive
today, he would have explained his JKD in detail. Jeet kune do translated
into English means the "way of the intercepting fist." Bruce realized
that wing chun was straight to the point for intercepting and embodied
the essence of jeet kune do. It was the nucleus of his personal art. Wing
chun utilizes one method to close in to the attacker. With wing chun,
one way handles all: you rush in to close the gap, intercept the opponent's
attack and finish him. In intercepting, there are no ranges. In wing chun
and jeet kune do, there is only one range and goal: to intercept and finish
off the opponent.
Bruce had no intention to create a style or system. He just wanted to
prove to his sifu, Yip Man, that he could find another route to get the
job done. Bruce's work matches a wing chun saying, "Don't speak of seniors
or juniors. The one that attains first is senior." We in wing chun have
no seniors; we strive to become better than seniors or even the founder.
During Bruce's last stay in Hong Kong, Bruce and Yip Man met at a dinner
party. Bruce asked Yip Man, "Do you still treat me as your student?" Yip
Man replied, "Do you still treat me as your sifu?" They both laughed.
When Yip Man died, everyone thought that Bruce wouldn't pay his last respects
to his master. But he did show up, like one of us, to pay his final respects
to his sifu.
Each martial arts style or system goes into battle believing it has
all the answers. Any classical style deals with the imparting of fixed
knowledge that becomes alive when it is mastered. It is up to the disciple
to use that knowledge to develop and carry that knowledge to the point
of free expression. Bruce did that. Every martial art master created something
new and alive. His followers, later changed the system, intentionally
or unintentionally, and made it deviate from the founder's original intention.
What was passed on from then was a dead system.
With wing chun, you still have the tools and concepts intact. Some individual
in each generation that applies the tools and concepts will make wing
chun alive. No one can say he has the "original wing chun," as it has
undergone generations of refinement, but if you apply the tools and concepts
and can use it in combat, then you are using "live wing chun." In applying
wing chun, you have to change to keep up with your opponent's change;
your target is always moving. Wing chun is a system that has no particular
style. We wait for the opponent's style or way to show, and then we start
from there to create our own style. You don't waste time. You just react
naturally to your opponent's action. When Bruce said, "Your technique
is my technique," it is an example of his high understanding of wing chun.
There are now many so-called jeet kune do instructors teaching "jeet
kune do-this" and "jeet kune do-that." Everyone claims he is Bruce reincarnated.
To me, all these claims are outdated, because Bruce had regretted naming
jeet kune do. Jeet kune do was not designed for public consumption. Bruce
said, "Jeet kune do doesn't mean adding more, it means to minimize. In
other words, to hack away from the non-essentials. It is not a daily increase,
but a daily decrease." Some jeet kune do people are flow adding more ways,
telling the public that this is Bruce's way.
This is against Bruce's way.
Jeet kune do is an advanced-level martial art: the question is whether
beginners in martial arts can learn it without a proper foundation. Are
they ready for it? You do a "daily decrease" only after you've studied
and sorted out your background and what you have collected and have done
the research to know what fits you.
When I teach wing chun, I don't teach the Hawkins Cheung style. Each
student has to customize the art based on his character, size, strengths,
etc., and refine his personal style of wing chun. Bruce chose the simple,
direct and economical way to express his style. What Bruce meant by jeet
kune do is that it is not a style, but rather a process of refinement.
It can't be packaged. This is why he regretted naming 'jeet kune do."
Those teaching "jeet kune do" and saying that this is the "original Bruce
Lee art," are turning a non classical art into a classical art. This is
not what he meant by jeet kune do.
Real jeet kune do
Real jeet kune do was not at all like what he presented on the screen.
What he displayed on the screen was his showmanship. People were awed
by his ability and skill, but it wasn't his real art. Jeet kune do was
Bruce's personal art. Now Bruce's followers can be grouped in one of four
categories: Those who teach the screen version; those who teach the "Bruce
lee classical;" those who teach the search and development to create their
own jeet kune do; and those who teach their own art and label it "JKD
so and so." The goal of jeet kune do is to add your own personal style
to your martial art and decrease the extraneous. One day when you've sorted
out your own martial arts, you'll understand what Bruce meant by jeet
kune do. If you are still in the process of collecting and developing.
you haven't yet attained jeet kune do. You have to find what fits with
your background, not Bruce's. That is jeet kune do. Ask yourself--- What
is your goal?
Bruce left behind the means to test your martial art. I know Bruce's
wing chun background and know what Bruce decreased for himself. But I
don't know the background of Bruce's followers, so I ask: What are they
decreasing? Have they tested out what they have? Why do you have to add
more? What is the problem? Bruce changed for his own reasons. Myself?
Rather than changing, I solved the problem of making my wing chun alive.
Now some of Bruce's followers are adding more and more to their art. They
are losing the way.
You fight with your hands and feet, not your memory. When your mind
becomes boggled with too many fighting systems, you find it difficult
to know which to discard and which to keep. In actual fighting, you win
or lose in a few seconds, not like a gung-fu movie where the actors fight
for a half-hour. In those few seconds, you make up in your mind which
style you will use. Every style is good, if you have trained for it. Every
style can be useful, but you have to train to develop its usefulness in
combat. Bruce was fond of saying, "Take what is useful, reject what is
useless." What you kept in your system is what is best. If you have too
many styles, in real fighting, you can hardly decide which one to use
under mental pressure. How can you finish the fight in a second if you
haven't decided which method to use?
Bruce's trap
Many are caught in Bruce's trap; even Bruce was caught in his own trap.
Bruce decided to name his art jeet kune do based on his personal ideas
without testing it in combat. Whatever is created by man can be destroyed.
Before Bruce made jeet kune do, he fought a lot. After he created jeet
kune do, he said this is the way to fight, but without testing it in combat,
how do we know the art is alive? Bruce's jeet kune do concepts are simplicity,
directness, and economy of motion. Bruce stressed "non-classical" motion,
which is your way of expressing the tools that you deliver. But some of
Bruce's followers are going in the opposite direction. They are collecting
more tools, more ways to display their martial arts.
When Bruce Stated, "Take what is useful, reject was is useless," he
meant that you must already have the tools. The tools were whatever you
have learned from your classical style or way. You have to put those tools
into testing and finding out what is useful. if you are still increasing
or gathering tools, it means that you're not ready to reject the useless.
You're not up to jeet kune do yet. You must ask yourself if you are increasing
for the goal of intercepting, for Showmanship, or some other personal
goal. "Reject what is useless" is for the fighter to throw away unessential
movements or change with whatever circumstances in which to survive. At
this stage a person is beginning to do jeet kune do to personalize the
art for his needs.
Every martial art system has its useful parts, otherwise it would become
extinct. Bruce's followers are taking what is useful from this style,
another style and so on, and becoming collectors of "useful styles." But
all the while, they have no time to test out those "useful styles" in
competition or combat. Meanwhile, there are still other "useful styles"
out there which they haven't learned. Where is jeet kune do's home? Jeet
kune do doesn't have any specialty techniques that make it a unique martial
art. Boxers box, wrestlers grapple, wing chun people in-fight and stick
and trap, but where is jeet kune do's home or specialty? Jeet kune do
means the way of the intercepting fist, but how do Bruce's followers attain
that?
Any expert in his system or style has spent years continuously training
the basic movements to discover the most effective movement. Every expert
has to find a way to make his movements simple, direct and economical.
if you have a lot of fundamental movements, you have to test out each
movement to discover how to refine them and make them simple, direct and
economical. This process will take years and years to refine.
When Bruce formed jeet kune do, he stated in a magazine article that
"99 percent of oriental self-defense is baloney!" It really shocked me
that Bruce was so blatant. It seemed that he meant to challenge the whole
world! if he said that in Hong Kong, martial artists would line up at
his front door to challenge him. He was in the U.S. at that time. The
wing chun clan in Hong Kong just smiled and sat back to watch the show,
because we knew the gun wasn't pointed at us. We knew that Bruce was trying
to stir up trouble!
In our youth, during the 1950s, we did the same to other gung-fu systems.
That was how wing chun's name spread. Now Bruce was doing the same in
the U.S., but with his personal credit and name. if he won the challenges,
he gained fame. if he lost, it was his personal style that suffered, not
wing chun. The question was, who dared to test out Bruce to see his bottom
card? That was the same game we played from the old days.
When the "Green Hornet" and "Longstreet" series played on TV, people
liked the characters Bruce played. His fans loved the series, martial
artists loved it, and gung-fu guys loved it. It starred a Chinese gung-fu
guy, so maybe people forgot what he said. He made it. Later on, when his
movies premiered, the characters he played spoke out for all martial artists.
Bruce made his opponents become his friends when he became a hero. The
challenges were over, and he won the world over to his side.
The real enemy
Bruce's real enemy was his mind. When he became successful, his fans
wanted more. He continued to work out very hard, but no longer had people
challenging him. Before he died, I saw Bruce on TV. He looked exhausted,
he lost weight and was ill-tempered. He wasn't the Bruce I knew before.
Bruce had strayed too far from the center. We always said, "When you play
the game, it's very exciting. But when you're controlled by the game,
you have no way out. It's terrible, you have to pay for it."
In wing chun, the term "centerline" not only refers to the line in fighting,
it also refers to your mind, the things you do, the problems you solve,
the way that you live your life. If you stray too far to the right or
left, it takes some time to return to the center. The center has no opinion.
To Confucius, the centered mind sees clearly. In life, your yin and
yang must be balanced for you to be in the center. Bruce's followers should
know that his main theme or center of his art is intercepting.
Whenever anyone says he teaches Bruce's art, he is making it a classical
art. This was against the jeet kune do founder's rules. Remember the essence
of Bruce's jeet kune do is embodied in the three qualities of simplicity,
directness and economy of motion in entering the target. Bruce said it
was a daily decrease, not a daily increase. His followers are not supposed
to mimic the way he moved, but use their fighting knowledge to represent
the three qualities. If any martial artist expresses these three qualities,
he is doing jeet kune do. Bruce's followers do not own jeet kune do. If
you can express the three qualities and intercept in combat, you can say
you are doing jeet kune do.
Bruce didn't leave tools behind to support the concept of jeet kune
do. Bruce was a wing chun man. His research was to prove the wing chun
concept of the centerline, which is the fastest line of entry. Bruce's
speed and timing were an expression of that concept. Again, I say Bruce's
followers lack his physical ability because they fall short in his mother
art, wing chun.
Wing chun was born out of frustration to find the quickest, most efficient
way to fight. The founder of wing chun must have found no way out. Wing
chun is designed as a combat system. For this reason, the system emphasizes
confidence, timing, intercepting, capturing the centerline, shocking the
opponent, setting up for consecutive strikes, and trapping. Jeet kune
do was born out of Bruce's frustration. That frustration made him search,
experiment and develop into the legend that he is today.
Conclusion
In writing this series, I hoped to have proved that Bruce's jeet kune
do is research and development. Some of Bruce's followers are teaching
JKD incorrectly. Jeet kune do is the art of using simple, direct, economical
motions to intercept in one beat. Jeet kune do is not a style or system,
and does not feature unique tools; it is a means to check your current
system to refine it further and monitor your progress. JKD custom-tailors
your martial arts with your own "non-classical" movement.
Bruce left behind a martial arts system or systems, but they are not
jeet kune do. Many call their art jeet kune do, but are teaching their
personal interpretation which may or may not have anything to do with
Bruce's jeet kune do. Finally, jeet kune do was a means for Bruce to check
and prove the wing chun concept of the centerline. He finally proved to
Yip Man that he could achieve this without staying in the classical system.
My intention here is to help Bruce's followers and clarify jeet kune
do, not destroy or downgrade them. In this way, we can preserve Bruce's
ideas and memory for all time. I don't want to cause political problems.
I just want people to evaluate their efforts in promoting jeet kune do.
I was Bruce's close friend and training partner. I came here in 1978
to promote wing chun. I have been pretty low key about my relationship
with him. The public always knew we were close friends, but I never discussed
much about his martial arts. The goal of these articles was also to clarify
the connection between wing chun and Bruce's jeet kune do. If I have frustrated
any of Bruce's followers, it is because I want them to question themselves
and analyze their efforts. Jeet kune do was born out of Bruce's frustration,
but I don't think many of Bruce's followers suffered that same frustration.
It was that suffering and frustration that made Bruce aspire to greater
heights. Too many of Bruce's followers have deviated from Bruce's original
intention.
These articles were written with the hope of helping my dear lifelong
friend cleanup the mess he left behind. May we all let Bruce Lee rest
in peace.
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