Here at the frontier, the leaves fall like rain. Although my neighbors are all barbarians, and you, you are a thousand miles away, there are still two cups at my table.


Ten thousand flowers in spring, the moon in autumn, a cool breeze in summer, snow in winter. If your mind isn't clouded by unnecessary things, this is the best season of your life.

~ Wu-men ~


Monday, September 03, 2012

The Mind of the Dragon


“The heart of the study of boxing is to have natural instinct resemble the dragon.”          Wang Xiang Zhai



6 comments:

Felicia said...

:-D

Paul said...

Do you have any idea where is the Chinese original of this quotation? I suspect that it's a misquote or wrong translation....as far as I understand, firstly Wang never used the mythical dragon as metaphor for his kungfu, and secondly Wang's 本能 should better be translated as "a power that is latent in everybody, to be able to release with proper training (needless to say, his method of training)" rather than "instinctual fighting like an animal".

Rick Matz said...

No, I've never seen the original.

The Strongest Karate said...

I usually cringe whenever I hear people in martial arts talk about "the samurai did this" and "the samurai thought that", but I was relieved to see that he doesn't take the metaphors too far.

Good video, too. Of course, it's always nice to see a karateka make it big in MMA. Not because MMA is my yard stick to measure a martial art, but because it might just shut up those chest thumping keyboard warriors who disregard the traditional arts...at least for a little while.

Rick Matz said...

I admire the MMA guys and boxers, especially the pros for putting themselves on the line.

Yes, there are rules and yes, it's not a street fight but they are in the ring with someone who means to knock their blocks off. Shoot, in one of Ronda Roussey's recent bouts, she broke her opponent's arm!

Cardinal9000 said...

Rules are the weaklings. Ask the NFL when they hired those under-skilled referees. =))