Beyond the Third Hall
What do the ancients have to teach us? Fighting knowledge is the best today that it’s ever been in the history of the human race. Technological advances have convinced us we’ve reached a pinnacle of achievement in human ingenuity and effectiveness. but certain aspects of modern-day fighting are not better. Hand-to-hand combat, for example, began to decline with the advent of explosives. These new weapons were first used in war about 800 years ago, but were not in widespread use until about 400 years later. Fighting strategy and training changed, of necessity, to accommodate this new reality, and hand-to-hand knowledge declined.
The past still holds this knowledge. When hand-to-hand combat was at its height, and knowledge of effective fighting skills meant life or death. There was a tradition that kept this knowledge alive. This history of traditional martial arts goes back at least a thousand years, though much of it is passed on via an oral tradition, which is an imperfect transmitter of information. Shaolin has a history of not only developing efficient methods for fighting as well as training, but of recording and compiling the knowledge into a comprehensive system. Keywords and concepts were written or passed down to ensure their survival. Over generations individual masters added to the body of knowledge that is Shaolin, perfecting methods to improve efficiency, practicality, and superiority in fighting skills through scientific investigation (Chan/Zen method), observation, and insight.
What were the training methods which produced such a high level of fighting efficiency, as well as technical understanding of exact position, structure and technique?
Modern Research into Ancient Methods
The Ving Tsun Museum’s research reveals that the Southern Shaolin Temple trainees progressed through three “Halls,” or stages, of learning. These could have been literal, stone-and-wood buildings or metaphorical levels of development. For this article, we will present them as actual stone-an-wood buildings.
The First Hall
Mastering the Two Training Blocks
At the First Hall, the practitioner was expected to master two training blocks in order to build a strong foundation for more advanced training.
The first block was Basic Exercises. This stage of training covered six areas: flexibility, strength, endurance, nutrition, hydration, and rest/recovery. Beginners started here, to build the body and mind for more advance training. Examples of basic exercises include walking long distances to fetch water, using extra heavy utensils, pots and pans, and meditation, which is a form of active rest and recovery as well as mind training. The goal of Basic Exercise was to build fitness and mental strength by pushing individual practitioners beyond personal limits.
The second block taught Basic Movements. This stage of training encompassed six areas of focus: hand/arm work, body work, leg work, stances, foot work, and fighting postures. These were taught through movement drills and forms. Forms linked together the six components, while adding concepts to be further developed during application training.
Basic Movements trains the body in proper mechanics. A good foundation in Basic Movements speeds the learning process at the higher levels, so more complex moves can be quickly learned and executed naturally with correct alignment, without having to think about details of balance, stances and positioning.
An example of what you might see in the First Training Hall exists today in the fundamentals of Wu Shu, which focuses on Basic Exercise, Basic Movements and Forms. Wu Shu was intentionally designed not to teach actual fighting skills, but its training approach is an excellent preparation for further development. Perhaps the best modern example of mastering the First Hall is Jet Li. He mastered this First Hall while still a teenager and has since developed into a dedicated student of the martial arts and a positive role model in the larger human community, thus incorporating cultivation into his approach to the martial arts.
Into The Second Hall
Application Training
Training in the Second Hall of the Southern Shaolin Temple advanced beyond Basic Movements and Forms proactive to Heaven-Human-Earth Training. The Second Hall introduced the student to Application Training, based on four skills sets: Kicking (TI), Striking/Pressure Point (Da), Throwing/Wrestling (Shuai), and Seizing/Submissions (Na).
Heaven-Human-Earth, however, had many layers of meaning, so studying at that level meant progressing spiritually as well as mentally and physically. On the literal level, Heaven-Human-Earth refers to ranges of combat, and the appropriate use of techniques within these categories.
Heaven Spirit
Human Mind / Emotions
Earth Body
Heaven techniques included long-range kicks and strikes. Human skills included anything in the range of both hands on the opponent, such as bumps, traps, grabs, locks, clinches and breaks. Human distance is the most versatile because the maximum number of limbs can be employed simultaneously, creating the most options for use of techniques and tactics. An Earth move included takedowns, throws, sweeps, submissions, and breaks with body contact.
The Illusion of Style
The Illusion of Style individuality began to surface at the Second Hall, but was not fully realized until the Third Hall. Just as a university requires foundational courses before specializing in a major, Shaolin monks mastered Basic Exercises, Basic Movements and Heaven-Human-Earth Training before being given specialized knowledge in areas where they naturally excelled.
For example, one practitioner may have displayed talent in Qinna (capture and control skills) while another might have excelled in Ditang (ground skills.) Such specialization led to the development of the many styles you see expressed in Traditional Martial Arts. It’s important to remember that styles arose from the expression of an individual practitioner’s art, to showcase and utilize uniqueness their natural talents, and at the same time develop greater personal efficiency.
Style is an illusion, in the sense that, for a beginner, “style” is copying someone else. As you come to know yourself through your study of martial arts, you come away with certain specializations. The uniqueness of the artist is the style.
Styles also came to be identified as fighting knowledge was collected, preserved and researched in the ancient Song, Wudang, and Emei mountain regions. Ancient militaries maintained cutting-edge knowledge in fighting skills for hand-to-hand as well as weapons combat, while civilian martial arts incorporated a grab-bag assortment of training methods and techniques.
As military technologies changed and developed and soldiers retired from military life, military knowledge spread out to the civilian world. With different needs and goals and varied access to information, civilians focused on specific areas of skill which led to the formation of unique approaches to the martial arts – which we call styles today.
Inhabitants of both the military and civilian worlds would leave public life and seek Enlightenment. While in the temples, they would share their knowledge of the fighting arts with the monks and priests. Combining Chan/Zen’s non-illusion insights and methods with the military mindset of efficiency and practicality brought new heights to the Shaolin Martial Training Halls.
Third Hall Curriculum
The Science of Efficiency
The essence of the Third Hall was the science of efficiency. As monks developed higher and higher levels of fighting skill and self-mastery, they moved beyond the realms of Heaven-Human-Earth as a range-based concept to what is referred to in the language of the Hung Fa Yi Wing Chung System, headed today by Grand Master Garrett Gee, as “Inside the Box” training, which uses Heaven-Human-Earth as gate-based concepts to describe three-dimensional space.
The training progression, because it was a complete system, culminated by coming full circle. The study of the outer (physical training and fight strategy) led to the development of the inner (character qualities and realization of one’s spiritual nature). Basic Movement from the first Hall laid a solid foundation for studying Ranges of Combat in the second Hall. Finally, the Third Hall’s curriculum expanded and deepened the earlier introduced Range by adding height and width to all movements. This created the conceptual framework to measure any and all fighting movements.
Beyond Technique
The focus of this higher-level training in the Third Hall was to move beyond technique. No more practicing styles. Here, it was all about the physics and science of efficiency: the study of theory, concepts and principles which, when applied, lead to efficiency in fighting. Ultimately, efficiency is not a style, not a uniform you put on or take off – efficiency is a state of being. It’s who you are as a human being and it touches every facet of your life. These same concepts and principles could also be applied towards living a more efficient life; this was one of the key reasons the monks studied fighting in the first place – to live a better life, an enlightened life.
In today’s world we are often told to think “outside the box.” This is a reminder to be open to connections and ideas outside our personal perspective and beyond the old adage of, “that’s how we’ve always done things around here.” As the monks delved deeper and deeper into the true nature of life, combat, and spiritual cultivation, they discovered that all things shared a Heaven, Human, and Earth relationship: the concept of dharma involves the coming into being of things/thoughts/feelings/perceptions (Earth), the temporary existence of things/thoughts/feelings/perceptions (Human), and the going out of existence of things/thoughts/feelings/perceptions (Heaven). This flow of arising, existing, and extinction, when turned to the particulars of martial arts techniques, led to the development of a concept termed Economy of Motion. Simply stated, Economy of Motion is “using the least amount of movement, in the shortest period of time, with the least amount of energy, to accomplish a task.” From these two concepts was born a new concept, called Box Theory, in Hung Fa Yi Wing Chun.
The eventual goal was to reach Maximum Efficiency, the point or state where nothing can be added or subtracted without losing efficiency. This concept was referred to a Weng Kiu, (Everlasting Bridge). Wing Kiu represents a human being operating in harmony with universal laws, responding with liveliness to the flow of the moment.
The Weng Chun Dim (Everlasting Spring Hall), the final Hall in the Southern Shaolin Temple, took its name from this concept of Weng Kiu. Weng refers to things of universal nature that do not change over time, such as the laws of physics. Kiu means “bridge.” Universal principles are the bridge which connects all that we do. For example, Gate Theory uses the natural dynamics of the human skeleton, which does not change over time, and applies physics to express the technique.
Taken in total, this process from Basic Exercise to Basic Movements, to training Heaven/Human/Earth as a Range concept, top training Inside the Box using Heaven/Human/Earth as a Gate concept through either a loose or systematic approach contains the overarching theme of ancient hand-to-hand training still preserved in the traditional Chinese martial arts.
The six Gates represent the combat formation structure that is based on the human anatomical form, and determines the areas of attack and defense. Gate Theory can be understood as triangulation of a technique for the purpose of efficiency. This triangulation based on the Time/Space/Energy of the Human body is what we, today, call “The Formula.” The Formula describes the exact positions and structure that are the most efficient within three-dimensional cube-shaped conceptualizations of space in the human-range fighting zone, defined as “Inside the Box.” The term, as used here, has specific meaning in Hung Fa Yi Wing Chun. When talking about Gate Theory, “Inside the Box” refers to any technique that expresses the Formula. If the Formula is not expressed in the technique, it is “outside the box” because even if effective, the move would be less than maximally efficient.
This last frontier of training, the Third Hall, was centered on understanding and applying “Inside the Box” principles. The closer the execution of a technique comes to expressing the Formula, the higher the state of efficiency. In this context, the Formula harmonizes the human anatomy with the reality of the dimensions of time, space and energy.
In Harmony with Liveliness
The Third Hall’s objective of Weng Kiu was in harmony and in parallel with spiritual cultivation, because it is in spiritual cultivation where one tries to achieve perfection. When you reach the Original Nature, the state where nothing can be added or subtracted, that is actually a way to express the concept of perfection on an objective level.
Perfection in life is usually very subjective. People have different perceptions of what is perfect. Application of the formula is the technology to attain objective perfection in the physical dimension, as well as clarity of inner and outer awareness.
At that point, you have mastered the Third Hall. Liveliness has awakened in the body through training, and awareness through internal cultivation. You are operating at the Weng Kiu, or Universal Level, experiencing your art as a vehicle for personal realization, and living in the lively flow of maximum efficiency as a human being.
A Cohesive System
What we gain from the study of this ancient training program is the benefit of learning within a cohesive and comprehensive system which supports each student’s development spiritually and mentally, as well as physically.
Having a specific curriculum which guides the practitioner from Basic Exercise, to Basic Movement; to Heaven-Human-Earth training for all ranges of combat, to application of the Formula for maximum efficiency, to internal cultivation, to living in harmony with universal law, is a method still preserved in some traditional martial arts today as in the Southern Shaolin System. And it is a path of awakening each day, to gain fulfillment of your potential, more joy, and more liveliness, as you live fully in each moment through your art.
Taken in total, this process from Basic Exercise to Basic Movements, to training Heaven/Human/Earth as a Range concept to training Inside the Box using Heaven/Human/Earth as a Gate concept through either a loose or systematic approach contains the overarching theme of ancient hand-to-hand training still preserved in the traditional Chinese martial arts.
