The Daoist mysteries of Qingcheng
Qing Cheng martial arts are virtually unknown in the western world. Sheltered away in the mountainous and landlocked Sichuan Province, this rich internal style has developed in isolation, undisturbed by the massive exposure that its sister styles Tai Chi, Ba Gua and Xing Yi have faced. Known locally as the 'robber's style', Qing Cheng Quan is intimately connected to its Daoist roots, as we learned from Master Liu Sui Bin and his accounts of his predecessors.
We arrived in Qing Cheng late into the night after a disastrous taxi journey from the foothills of Emei Mountain. Master Liu was very quiet and almost unnaturally calm, giving away not a single involuntary movement. At forty years old he carried himself like a man twenty or thirty years his senior. His students seemed afraid to breathe when they were next to him and barely spoke throughout the meal.
Despite this forbidding exterior, Master Liu showed us great hospitality and when we sat down to interview him the next day, he was open and willing to answer our questions. Often masters can appear casual and at ease yet suddenly clam up when asked for details of their style and life. Master Liu was positive about recollecting the history of his chosen style.
Qing Cheng style considers the great Daoist Sage Zhang Dao Ling as its original ancestor and draws its lineage from the second and third centuries AD when Zhang Dao Ling's Tian Shi Zheng Yi sect was active in Sichuan. However, martial arts were practiced in the area long before, reaching back into the realms of pre-history and legend. The legendary martial arts masters Rong Cheng Gong and Lin Feng Zhen Jun are considered by Qing Cheng practitioners as the style's 'Far Ancestors', the latter famous as the wushu teacher of Emperor Xuan Yuan.
Over the two thousand years since then, the martial arts in the area have changed and evolved considerably. The Sichuan Province is situated on the borders of Tibet and became a gateway and refuge for bandits, rebels and other malcontents fleeing the influence of the imperial court. Master Liu explained to us that Qing Cheng martial arts came to be known as the 'robbers style' as criminals temporarily seeking refuge in the area contributed to the local culture.
Many other experts in martial arts also came to the area over the years and taught their styles, attracted by the seclusion and chance to study Daoist and Buddhist traditions in the area. Some styles are still practiced here alongside Qing Cheng Quan and there was huge crossover of ideas and principles between them. In modern times, three main style groups (Daoist, Buddhist and Robber) are recognised around the Qing Cheng Mountain area, each of which contains numerous sub-styles.
The Daoist Qing Cheng Quan practiced by Master Liu is described by him as a water element style, which uses soft to beat hard, small to fight big, weak to win over strong, short to defeat long. Water is the softest substance in the world and seemingly weak, but if the water gathers together it becomes a flood strong enough to destroy a city wall, wash away houses, people and livestock. Master Liu calls this concept Big Water. Its diametric opposite is Small Water; this is the principle of a drops of water falling from on high to penetrate a stone. It is insubstantial, but concentrated and persistent, and eventually the drops of soft water are able to make a hole in the hard stone.
Master Liu's concepts are immediately apparent in the videos we recorded (RELATED VIDEO: Qing Cheng Tai Chi). There is a great delicacy of movement that contrasts with rougher hard styles we have seen. Every movement flows perfectly into the next, changing pace from fast to slow, changing direction like eddies of water flowing. It is clear that despite the calm exterior, there is great power hidden just below the surface.
Qi gong practice forms a key part to learning Qing Cheng Quan and Master Liu stressed that qi gong and qi do not rely on the belief of the practitioner to work. It is not a parlour trick or psychological technique - if you do the exercises correctly you will feel your qi working, whether you believe in it or not.
Master Liu explained that everybody has qi. ?The important thing is to accumulate all the small qi into big qi, like drops of water gathering into a big amount of water. When it is accumulated in this way, then it becomes powerful.?
The benefits of qi gong practice are varied. One martial benefit is in increasing the attacking power and the person's ability to withstand strikes. But for Master Liu the more important benefit is self cultivating your character and health.
There is an expression among Qing Cheng practitioners which reads: ?a qi gong student needs to train when he sits, walks, or stands?. The message is, train all the time. If don't want to train when you sit, train when you sleep; if you don't want to train when you sleep, train when you walk. The best times to train are during the night-time hours of 11pm to 1am, which is seen as the transition point between the cosmic yangand yin energy. Another good time is high noon, when yang qi is very strong. Master Liu explained that in old times a student would train between four and eight hours every day, but that students with students with busy modern lifestyles should not be put off: any training is better than nothing, and if you are only able to do half an hour or even ten minutes every day, it will still benefit you.
Qi Gong is something each student is expected to concentrate on for the first two years. The goal is to develop your dan tian force and only then you would move on to learning attacking skills. Master Liu was unambiguous about the importance of getting your foundation before anything else, ?Three years could approach a small achievement, ten years could reach a great achievement. Without the foundation skill, your force will not be strong enough, when you touch people they will feel nothing.?
Once you start learning attacking skills there are a lot to choose from. Qing Cheng Quan includes closing, punching, wrestling, catching or grabbing, among many other principles. As an example, Master Liu explained the principles of Grabbing to us, ?The grabbing is not very tight. We call it alive grab, we use slight force. For example, when you grab a part on the opponent's body, normally you will try to break it, but if it is too strong to break, then your hand must move very fast to their face and deliver a strike instead. Grabbing, catching or qin na is for fighting, to allow you to strike yourself. So it is not the final purpose. We say grabbing is like taking a burning coal.?
Master Liu and his students demonstrated these principles for us (and on us) and showed how they were woven in to the fabric of Qing Cheng patterns. We were left dazzled by the sheer range of patterns available, from free hand to weapons to two man patterns, incorporating both the soft and the hard sides of Qing Cheng Quan. We were even treated to a demonstration of an astounding Tea Making pattern by one of Master Liu's young students - Zen Jun - who performed feats of acrobatics around a small table, spinning the long-spouted brass teapot in every possible direction while at the same time endeavouring to serve us tea and not spill a drop (RELATED VIDEO: Qing Cheng Tea Arts). The link between martial arts and traditional Chinese culture is exposed in every style we see, in Qing Cheng and so many other traditional styles as well.
