Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Dr, Yang Jwing-Ming a memory of the man

 
 
I was not a student of Dr. Yang Jwing-Mang. But I observed his influence on many martial matters over the years, and thought a reminiscence of what I saw might be useful.

 

First off Dr. Yang came to America to study engineering and became a Doctor of Engineering I believe at  Perdue. He had served in the Taiwan armed forces and had been a student of several martial arts there. I believe on viewing the American martial arts seen he likely felt he could offer information that many would find valuable. He taught Yang Tai Chi and other Chinese arts.

 

He worked to contribute new martial information than many might find useful. So he began publishing books on what he knew. And as time went on more and more of them. When I saw his Advanced Tai Chi 1 @ 2, what attracted me was not the historical tai chi knowledbe, rather his description of the martial use of t’ai chi and the manner in which he presented that information.

 

IMO he set the template many could use for their own martial investigations. Every movement was shown from 3 different uses contained there in:

 

1.       How that movement could be used to down an enemy.

2.       How that movement could be used to strike in a cavity (I understood that as a vital point)

3.       How that movement contained chin na control over an opponent’s attack.

 

It made a great deal of sense to me.

 

My own studies in the Chinese Arts was more a study of forms, including my T’ai Chi studies. Never deep enough to study such matters. O’ I was shown how to apply some movement at times but that was not the focus of my own studies in the early 1980’s.

 

His books and then video’s on Chin Na became more involved. I think he rethought how to present Chin Na knowledge. He logically restructured what he was presenting in a manner in which an engineer might think.
 
 
Chin Na for the fingers, for the wrist, for the forearm, for the elbow and so forth. Grouping those studies by area to be affected. Extremely logical and not necessarily in the same order the original art(s) presented that material.

 

Then the books got more involved, and video tapes to become dvd’s followed. A very impressive body of knowledge.

 

I had noted how there was a similarity to the aikido I studied (aikido studied to prepare for advanced karate application studies. Then as I lived somewhat in the neighborhood of his school outside of Boston, I was able to see him perform a few times. From my wife’s studies with him, I got to feel his Chin Na on the receiving end.

 

Several years later I was able to attend a 2 day weekend seminar with Dr. Yang in his school. It was on Tai Chi Sword and Chi Kung. The sword he presented was not what I had studied and I am sorry to say that did not stick with me. But he also talked about what he as doing with his books. Many of them on various Chinese aspects of the arts. What he did whenever he returned to Taiwan, was to buy as many Chinese original books as he could afford, those books became the source of much of his translations on many topics.

 

I got a bit more out of the Chi Kung presentation. For I recognized several of the drills, except what Ernie taught them to me, they were linked together. Then it was a drill his eagle claw instructor, Sheum Leung, used to being and end every class. I just did not know that drill was Chi Kung [Side note  I still practice that drill to this day, in fact several times a day as it is incredible to loosen my shoulders.]

 

That was the extent of my meetings with Dr. Yang.

 

But there is an alwful lot that pertains and appends to our study of karate, should you use it.
 
Without question it is difficult to obtain information from books. I never truly understood many of them. For example it is said a great book on T'ai Chi can contain 50 years of information, but it can take 50 years to understand what is in that book.
 
But I suggest that Dr. Yang has tried his best to make so much available to use, even if we can't be his students.

 
I have written about Dr. Yang several times before on my blog.







 

 

 

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