|
Wushu
Neijia or Neijia Quan: Waijia or Waijia Quan:
|
Chinese martial arts enjoy a great reputation, having been developed in a large country with a rich traditional culture and a long recorded history. Consequently, many different styles were invented and developed in great detail over several thousand years. Today although more than four hundred styles handed down from older times are practiced in China, about one hundred forty styles are popularly practiced with their own lineages, complete principles, and systematic training methods. Some styles have spread far and wide even to the whole world. Chinese martial arts developed from simple to complex, from low level to high level, from just fighting skill to combining all traditional cultural concepts. The goals of a traditional martial arts training system are to increase one's physical abilities via a method of systematic training, to master effective self-defense skills, to improve one's personality and morality, and to achieve good health and body condition to promote a long life. No matter what style, these basic goals should be followed. So from this point, many people say "All styles are in one family." Although from this perspective, many (if not all) styles want to reach similar goals, there are still some differences especially in principles and training methods. About five hundred years ago, when these differences became sufficiently significant, people started to separate Chinese martial arts into two big groups: Neijia or Internal Kungfu and Waijia or External Kungfu. People usually say that Neijia and Waijia are two big branches of the Chinese martial arts tree, coming from the same source, but practiced, researched, and developed in different ways. Although Neijia and Waijia may use different concepts, they have many similar skills and have influenced each other over the years. Although sometimes it is too difficult to separate Neijia and Waijia clearly, it is necessary and important for martial arts practitioners to attempt to understand the differences between these two distinct approaches. 1. Brief History of Neijia and Waijia Before considering personal interpretations, once should examine the traditional ideas of these concepts. First, one should explore the earliest records differentiating between internal and external kungfu. The earliest written records differentiating the Neijia and Waijia distinction are believed to be found in three articles written close in time and in nearby locations. These three articles are: (1) "The Tombstone Inscription of Mr. Wang Zhengnan " by Huang Lizhou (1669). (2) "Neijia Quan" ("Internal Fist") by Huang Baijia (1676). (3) "The Biography of Zhang Songxi" in "The Government Records and Annals of Ningbo City" (1683 version?). The most important information which these articles brought to us are: (1) the time period when Neijia was generated; (2) that Neijia was developed and separated from Waijia; (3) the differences between Neijia and Waijia; and (4) description of some characteristics and features of Neijia. First, one considers the time period of the birth of Neijia. The Ming (1368 - 1644) and Qi (1644 - 1911) Dynasties were the golden time of Chinese martial arts development. From the Song Dynasty (960 - 1279), for more than four hundred years, the entire country was always at war and in turmoil. Although the government did not encourage martial arts, martial arts still developed quickly and widely. But at that time, the styles were not separated clearly. During the Ming Dynasty, different styles were formed and systematized and special skills were developed in great detail, as discussed in General Qi Jiguang's book "Ji Xiao Xin Shu." At that time Chinese martial arts were developed to a high level and new skills, concepts, and ideas were developed extensively. Presumably, Neijia is an example of just such a new and unique concept developed at that time. The three above-mentioned articles included similar information relating that during 1500 to 1700 there was a new martial arts style called Neijia Quan that was practiced in Ningbo and Wenzhou areas of the southeast China. One popular account is that Wudang Mountain Taoist monk Zhang Sanfeng invented this style. The next well-known figure in connection with Neijia Quan was Wang Zong of Shanxi province. Reputedly, Chen Zhoutong learned this skill with Wang Zong and then brought to his hometown Wenzhou of Zhejiang province. After Chen, there were other famous Neijia Quan masters in several generations were famous. These articles delineate a relatively clear lineage of Neijia Quan at that time. Because The government record is generally regarded as credible Huang Lizhou was a very famous scholar and Huang Baijia was a directly student in this group, these records are highly believable. Consequently, many people believe this is an accurate historical account of the development of Neijia Quan, with the notable exception of the doubt of the identity of its originator. Second, most new ideas are not generated suddenly from one person's brain, but develop out of some previous ideas. From the above articles, is likely that Neijia came from Waijia but developed into its own variation. It is said that Shaolin was at the top level of Waijia. Zhang Sanfeng (or some other early master) probably studied Shaolin and then made changes with new concepts to invent Neijia. Maybe this popular view is not a true story, however, it is probable that Neijia evolved and then separated from Waijia. Third, Neijia specifically brought some new concepts in training and application principles. All three articles described some principle and stories which describe the differences between Waijia and Neijia. Actually, the term Waijia did not exist before this time. When the Neijia concept arose, in order to separate it from traditional concepts and express its different concept, all other styles were called Waijia in these three articles. In other words, when the difference between the new Neijia concept and the old Waijia concept was big enough, two new names were used to differentiate the two concepts. From these three articles, it appears that there was a new martial arts style called Neijia Quan which was taught from the Ming to Qi Dynasties with its own principles and clear lineage although the original source was not clear. This style was taught in north, middle and southeast of China, but it was not popular. About one hundred years later, it became lost (Although today some masters suddenly claimed they still practice it, nobody can prove if their skills are the original Neijia Quan.). But this Neijia principle were still developed in some different ways. Later, three great styles, Xingyi Quan, Taiji Quan, and Bagua Quan, were developed which used different ways to get the similar concept with Neijia Quan. Usually people think these three great styles inherited and developed Neijia Quan concept. In 1892 in Beijing, under the initiative of Bagua Master Cheng Tinghua, some great masters from these styles made a decision to unite these three styles together in one family and call themselves Neijia or Neijia Quan. From that time, gradually most people accepted this decision. Today it has already become a popular and generally recognized designation. Because the original Neijia Quan art was already lost, from this point this article will use the term Neijia to refer collectively to Taiji, Bagua, and Xingyi. 2. What are the main differences between Waijia and Neijia Because Neijia developed from Waijia, there are many similarities. Some people even think it is wrong to separate them. But if one looks deeply at the principles and skills of these two styles, one can find real differences significant enough to separate them into two different styles. Separating Neijia and Waijia is quite reasonable and will make many things much clearer in practice and recognizes the process of Chinese martial arts development. Without understand the difference, one cannot really understand Chinese martial arts deeply. The following analysis highlights some major differences between Neijia and Waijia. (1) Philosophy: Buddhism or Taoism In China traditional philosophy always gave deep influence in all aspects of Chinese activities. Every high level thing must have its philosophy foundation. Martial arts is developed in same way. When people want to push their skill to higher level, they start to use some philosophy ideas to complete their principle and training. Usually people called Waijia a Shaolin style, because most Waijia styles respect Shaolin style, and they even think that the original source of their styles came from Shaolin Temple. So the basic philosophy of Waijia arts tends to follow Buddhism. Usually people called Neijia a Wudang style, because all Neijia styles tend to follow Taoism, and Wudang Mountain is the most famous Taoist holy place. The other reason is because people respect Taoist Master Zhang Sanfeng as a founder of original Neijia style. Master Zhang is believed to have practiced his Taoism in Wudang Mountain for many years. Thus people respect Wudang and think that the Neijia concept came from Wudang. Although Waijia and Neijia follow different philosophies, there are many similarities between them. In China, the most popular Buddhism style is Chan (Zen). Shaolin Temple is recognized as the place of origin of Chan. The basic Chan idea is a mixture of the original Buddhism and Taoism. This suggests that Chan includes some Taoism. On the other hand, one of the most famous Taoism sects is Quan Zhan (Complete Truth). Zhang Sanfeng supposedly belonged to this style. One of the main ideas of the Quan Zhan sect is that the three main philosophies, Taoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism, are based on the same principles, so therefore they should be united together in practice. These factors may have produced the many philosophical similarities between Waijia and Neijia. In fact there are some styles between Waijia and Neijia having characteristics of both branches. Such styles make the separation between Waijia and Neijia unclear. For example, Tongbei is usually considered a Waijia style, but it follows Taoist philosophy and incorporates internal principles. Another example is that some Xingyi masters from Shanxi refer to Xingyi as an outside branch of Shaolin style because Ji Jike stayed and learnt in Shaolin Temple about ten years when he was young. To avoid a common misconception, it should be emphasized that in suggesting that Waijia and Neijia follow Buddhism and Taoism respectively, refers to philosophy and not religion. In China philosophy and religions are usually mixed together. For example, Taoist religion uses Taoist philosophy as its basic principle. But when people use Taoist philosophy, it does not mean they belong to the religion group.
(2) Basic principle: Increase or change the human natural ability The approach of Waijia practice is to increase human natural ability. The basic human abilities for fighting are speed, force, and natural (normal) reaction. All skills follow these abilities. People want to increase absolute speed and force. Waijia skill training is designed and developed based on the bodyˇ¦s natural reaction, what is often referred to as moving externally. From this standpoint it is relatively direct and clear for people to understand this way of training. The approach of Neijia practice is to change the human natural ability. Neijia practitioners consider that changing the human natural ability is much more important than to increase it. Neijia people want to be quick and powerful in relative ways. They also want to change their natural reaction by training directed by the mind, what is often referred to as moving internally. Although there are some practices in Neijia for increasing the human ability too, compared to changing, increasing the natural ability is always secondary in importance and desirability. Thus there are many things that are not direct and clear, and even too difficult for people to understand. To understand this point is very important. Many skills and technical words are same in these two styles but different in inside meaning. If one can not understand this point, he will always confuse by these similar things. High level Waijia training also tries to change the human natural ability. In Neijia practice, the human natural ability also gets improved. So at the top level, Neijia and Waijia often have similar results, it is called "practice internal and external together", but use different ways to reach this level. Perhaps the Neijia idea generated from this point? However, Neijia does not wait until reaching a high level to develop the changes but makes the changes from the beginning.
(3) Training way: From outside to inside or from inside to outside It is incorrect to assume that Waijia practitioners just practice external things and Neijia practitioners just practice internal things. Waijia and Neijia practitioners must practice both. The difference is that they use different ways of training. It is said that Waijia practices from outside (Wai) to inside (Nei) and Neijia practices from inside to outside. For Waijia practice, people first train their physical body like muscles, bones and skin and do not emphasis inside training in the beginning. From this way, they can improve their physical ability first. Then, generally, they will undergo inside training for internal components, like shen, yi, and qi. For Neijia practice, people emphasis inside training from the very beginning. After some basic training that is similar to Waijia, internal components practice is emphasized early in training, along with work on the improvement of the physical body. Neijia practitioners tend to think that without improving the inside, outside improvement cannot enable one to reach high level skill. This difference in approaches causes a lot of training details to be very different in each style. Understanding these differences will be helpful in understanding the two styles. A common misunderstanding is to think that Neijia practices Qi but Waijia does not, possibly many Waijia practitioners do a lot of physical practice and many Neijia practitioners do a lot of internal practice. Consequently, many people misconceive that Neijia is necessarily a high level skill.
(4) Basic skill: To use the External Jin or the Internal Jin Jin (or jing) or trained force is the most important training component in Chinese martial arts. Jin is force but not natural force. Jin is force developed by special training, or perhaps that one trains natural force to become Jin (i.e., "trained force"). There are two basic kinds of Jin: Wai Jin - External Jin and Nei Jin - Internal Jin, which are differently trained and used. For example, External Jin is conspicuous when it is released. Internal Jin is inconspicuous when it is released. In Waijia, people practice and use the External Jin a lot. It is the major thing, and the Internal Jin is just the ancillary thing. In Neijia, the Internal Jin is preferred as the major thing and the External Jin is the ancillary thing.
(5) Fighting tactic: To use initiating attack or to use quiet to defend moving In the Waijia fighting principle, one is the master of fighting and attempts to control everything tactically from the beginning. Waijia designs everything in the training, such as practicing attacking and defending skills based on what one thinks one's opponent will do. Then in fighting, one attempts to have the engagement simply follow these designs so that one can get control. It is called initiating attack fighting. In the Neijia fighting principle, one should keep quiet and let one's opponent take control in the beginning, waiting and leading the opponent to make a mistake. A Neijia practitioner learns how to follow the opponent and wait for a chance. One should not necessarily design any particular tactic, but should learn how to know the opponent. Neijia teaches how to keep changing in order to follow the opponent according to what he does at any particular moment. It is called "to use quiet to defend moving" and "'yield yourself to follow your opponent". Waijia fighting principle is direct and clearcut. People think that if everything is in your hand you can control it. Never give your opponent a chance to control anything. It is the best way to win in fighting. Here the effect is the first thing. Neijia fighting principle is not direct and clearcut. People think that it is not easy to take control all time in a fighting. So only if you can know your opponent well, then you can really control him. Do not worry whether your opponent controls something. He may get control but that also gives you a chance to know and control him. It is the safest and most efficient way to win in fighting. Here the efficient is the first thing.
(6) Others Issues There are some other issues to be considered when discussing how to separate Waijia and Neijia. For example, in China when a person become a Buddhist monk, people say he goes the outside of his family. Because Shaolin martial arts came from Buddhist temple, follow Buddhist philosophy, and Buddhist monks practice it, it is said that this style came from the outside (wai) family (jia) people - Waijia. On the other hand, the Emperor's palace is usually called Da Nei (the great inside); therefore, everything from the palace was called inside things. Taiji, Xingyi, and Bagua were taught in the emperor's family in the early days in Beijing and then became famous from that point. Thus people usually said that because these three styles came from the inside of the palace or the inside of emperor's family they were called Neijia. Of course each group has their own reasons to explain their ideas. Trying to understand different views of different groups may help in better understanding the nature of Neijia. The foregoing discussion merely highlighted some common views on the differences between Neijia and Waijia.
Although there are some differences between Neijia and Waijia, they were not developed in two isolated places, but were bound together by countless ties and influenced each other. Practitioners of both groups commonly exchanged their experience. Consequently, the separation between Neijia and Waijia is not clear, or perhaps it should be stated that the separation is clear from principle but is not clear from the practice of these respective styles. Some styles such as Baji or Tongbei may be between Neijia and Waijia. Even in one style, many things may overlap. So it is often said that Neijia and Waijia are not only different but also similar.
3. How to understand Waijia and Neijia Neijia and Waijia are two big branches of the Chinese martial arts tree which offer us different ways to study martial arts. One cannot say one is better than the other, but one can say which one is better for one's own study. There is no better style but there are better practitioners. The most important thing is to find out which one is more suitable for you depend on your personal characteristics and body condition. Unfortunately, because the development level of skills and principles in each style is not balanced, many styles (especially in the Waijia group) never progress beyond lower level skill. However, this does not mean that Waijia is lower level skill than Neijia. But this confuses many people, so one needs to be careful when deciding what style to practice.
(1) Different training approaches Because of the principles and practice follow the natural way of moving the body, for Waijia in the beginning it is easy to study but difficult for people to achieve a high level. On the other hand, Neijia is difficult to study in the beginning but easy to advance in study. For Waijia most people can achieve middle level skill, but few people can advance to high level skill. For Neijia, most people cannot even reach middle level skill, but many middle level people have a better chance to reach higher level skill. Perhaps this is why famous Neijia masters are more numerous than famous Waijia masters despite the greater number of Waijia practitioners over Neijia practitioners in the past one hundred years of Chinese martial arts history. If one practices Waijia, in the beginning one's good personal physical condition will bring more obvious advantage than if from practicing Neijia. This is because Waijia follow natural ability or the body's natural way of moving. But for Neijia practice, sometimes natural ability can just be a disadvantage or hindrance to acquiring Neijia skill. This is why for beginners Waijia is much easier than Neijia. When people attempt to advance from middle level to high level skill, even for Waijia, the most important thing is internal training. For most people who have trained for a long time in Waijia it will be difficult to catch up in the internal training. But for most middle level Neijia people, it will be not too difficult. This is why many Waijia practitioners learn Neijia when they get older. They know what they want but they feel their Waijia training is too difficult to achieve higher level skill due to the decline in physical ability when one gets older. They want to use Neijia to help themselves in this way. Also this is why many Neijia practitioner want to mix some Waijia skill in the beginning of their training. They are worried that their beginning level Neijia skill is not good enough for fighting. The different training ways of Neijia and Waijia are just like two different roads going to the top of a mountain. One road is easier in the beginning but more difficult later. The other is more difficult in the beginning but easier later. If one reaches the top of the mountain the road used does not matter. But before taking one road over another, choosing the road which is more suitable for oneself is very important. Of course there are many things which will influence one's decision. No matter whether one chooses to practice Neijia or Waijia, two things to remember are to work hard and not get lost, else you never have a chance to reach the top of the mountain. Today one thing is really make people worry. Because Neijia is not direct and clear like Waijia, people are easy to follow Waijia idea naturally. Although the number of Neijia practitioners increased quickly, the qualified teachers are not enough. So that you can find many people misunderstand their practice. They think they learn Neijia skill but they really do it just like Waijia. It will hinder their prograss, even worse, their activities really make more people misunderstand.
(2) Can one mix practicing both together? This is a common and interesting question. Generally because Waijia and Neijia are very different in many aspects, it is too difficult to mix these practices together. But on the other hand, because the final goals of both styles are same, it may be possible to mix these practices together. Most of the time people suggest that one, especially if a beginner, focus on one of these styles first until he can do it well and then to try the other. It is good to understand one style easily and quickly but sometimes this make it more difficult to understand the other. The answer really depends on oneˇ¦s personality and his study environment. If one can separate different practices clearly and can understand what one is doing each time (usually he need to get help from his teacher), maybe one can practice both at the same time and improve in both. But if one always mix up both styles' concepts, it would be better to separate practice so as to focus on only one of these styles. In history, there were many great masters who just studied one style in their whole life. There were many masters who studied several different styles and were great in each one.
Neijia and Waijia are different in many aspects but have the same goal. When the Waijia principle and practice were developed to a high level, the Neijia concept was generated from it. This suggests that Neijia started from a higher level stage in the beginning. Neijia has been practiced, researched, and developed much quicker than Waijia in these last three hundred years. Its charm attracted many educated people to study it so that its principles became much more developed than Waijia. Although from the standpoint of techniques Waijia is richer, Neijia has more high level principles. One can say that each has its strong points to recommend it. Whatever one chooses to study, it is important to remember the goal is always to practice both external and internal aspects of the body, to improve both one's martial skill and morality, to promote good health and long life, and to understand the philosophy of the life. Only in this way can one find enjoyment in one's practice. |
|
