Bruce's Classical Mess
Cleaning
up the Mess the "Little Dragon" Left
Behind
By Hawkins Cheung, as told to Robert Chu in "Inside
Kung-Fu" February 1992
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 another's 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.