Issue 37 - Tse Qigong Centre

technique called Gow-Choi, Tony deliveredthree or four blows which would have flooreda lesser opponent. Monk Yan Tze shruggedthe punches off without so much as a changeof expression. Then he asked Tony and a fewothers to pick up a handy tree trunk and usethis as a battering ram on his stomach.Amazingly, Monk Yan Tze withstood this,again with no sign of discomfort.Yet, aside from the sheerquality of Monk Yan Tze’s WuKung, none ofthis was very new or different. We’d all seenthis kind of thing before, most notably in thetwo recent UK tours of the “Shaolin Monks”- actually students of the Dengfeng WushuAcademy - during 1996 and 1997. It was thenext part of Monk Yan Tze’s demonstrationthat really caused something of a stir.In Roots of KungFu we’vespoken many times of the incredible powerof ChiKung. I myself have seen manyimpressive demonstrations of this arcaneChinese art and I’m currently underinstruction from Sifu Leung, learning to addthe power of ChiKung to my SteelWireMantis training. But none of this had preparedme for what I saw next.Monk Yan Tze took twovolunteers from the audience and made themstrip off their shirts. He then positioned themin a sort of bowing position. This, he said,was for their own safety. The Monk thensummoned up his Chi Power. This took twoor three minutes. Standing a good eight feetfrom the two volunteers, he reached out hishands and made a slow downward clawingmotion. When the volunteers turned around,each had a clearly visible red claw mark downhis back. A murmur of surprise went aroundthe room and the Chinese camera crewmoved in to take close-up shots of thephenomenon. When I quizzed one of thevolunteers, Steve, afterwards, he describedthe sensation as being like the feeling youget when you hold your hand a little too neara candle. Not hot enough to cause pain, butcertainly enough to cause discomfort. Thecurious bowing posture the two volunteerstook up was so that the Chi power projectedby Monk Yan Tze wouldn’t strike thevolunteers square on. If it did, they wouldhave almost certainly been injured by thedemonstration.Even after this remarkabledisplay of inner power, Monk Yan Tze’sdemonstration wasn’t over yet. Choosingfrom a pile of bricks, the Monk built a bridgewith three bricks that he could use as a pillow.He then went through a short serious ofexercises to focus his Chi power in his headregion. He laid his head down on his brickpillow and placed another column of threebricks on his head. He then asked Sifu Leungto bring another brick down as hard as hecould onto the three brick column. SifuLeung counted to three then brought hisbrick down on the stack on Monk Yan Tze’shead with a mighty crash. Incredibly, all threebricks on top of Monk an Tze’s head and thebrick beneath forming the span of the bridgeshattered. To tumultuous applause, Monk YanTze bounced to his feet, smiling and wavingand completely unharmed by the massiveblow delivered by Sifu Leung. It was aspectacular display of the defensive powersof ChiKung.This last feat signalled theclose of the display. The Abbot, who hadwatched impassively, was led away to a sideroom, accompanied by Monk Yan Tze andthe audience filed out, discussing what they’dseen.As we have stated severaltimes already, Monk Yan Tze will be teachingShaolin WuKung at the Temple Schoolthroughout 1998. This is a uniqueopportunity. While there are many martial artsschools both inside and outside China thatclaim to teach genuine Shaolin KungFu, theonly place in the United Kingdom to learnthe real thing is at the Temple School. Whileno one can guarantee that even the hardestworkingstudents will be able to take blowswith bricks to the head and tree trunks to thestomach and still come up smiling, trainingwith a real Shaolin Monk is a chance thatcomes up only once in a lifetimeCaptions:Top. Shaolin monk Shi Yan Tze gives anamazing demonstration of his Chi power,burning red marks appear on the skin of twoluckless volunteers from a distance of threemetres, without touching them.Centre. The gathering of ChiKung masters- fromleft ShaoLin instructor Monk Shi YanTzi, ShaoLinAbbot Shi YonXin, 5 Animals ChiKung SiFuWang GuanQiu and SteelWire Mantis SiFu LeungYanLon.Bottom. Sifu Leung prepares monk Shi YanTzefor his incredible ‘breaking bricks over thehead’ feat, the actual strike was too fast for thecamera to catch.Qi Magazine 15