156. Genchitaofu Baguazhang's Jingong - 艮氣道福八卦掌の勁功 (☴/☳)

Every now and then I wonder if I had gone off the deep end with Baguazhang? And when I think that I have, I am pleasantly reminded that despite my weirdness I am still quite grounded. Everything I have tried to express has been an attempt to make it easier for the ordinary person to grasp this style, provided that they are doing martial arts and are willing to transcend the levels up. The levels have nothing to do with being graded by a shifu. But everything to do with where a martial artist is at, with regards to their focus. For example, a person focused on self-defence is of a lower energetic frequency to a person focused on fighting. This is because self-defence is about survival. Whereas fighting is about wanting to win. From wanting to fight, broadly the levels go up as teaching, physical healing, spiritual guidance and so on. With the internally focused martial arts like Baguazhang, there comes a point where doing Baguazhang and doing Qigong are one and the same thing: It just is so. And nobody can dispute this fact. With the Genchitaofu Baguazhang, it happened to be an exact number of sets done: four thousand and ninety-six sets. The reason for this number is specific and it is directly related to Bagua and the I-Ching. And I will leave it to you to figure it out... It shouldn't be too hard. So now I get into that weird and wonderful subject of Chinese martial power or Jingong 勁功. On the internet, it is quite a rare topic with vaguely defined parameters. Jingong 勁功 is even harder to understand than Qigong. And this, despite it being the yardstick by which Chinese martial artists outside of Wushu measure themselves. It isn't even understood my martial artists themselves. A lot of it being masked as family or style secrets only handed down from master to select initiates. Rarely discussed. Or more openly displayed in Wuxia literature as "Lightness Kungfu" 輕功夫. "Lightness Kungfu" 輕功夫 is the stuff that defies nature and physics. And is awesome to watch in the movies. While being in direct opposition to the guys obsessed with being grounded. So here goes with defining Jingong 勁功 as far as Baguazhang is concerned: While Qigong is the work or art of cultivating one's qi, Jingong 勁功 is the ability to generate one's qi at will and project it outwards externally. And it is this Jingong that allows somebody to experience qi as a tangible sensation. In terms of it being a mysterious gift a master can give to a select disciple, I find that ludicrous given how many Qigong masters use Jingong to heal people, and that strong Qigong masters naturally radiate qi the way a strong aura can influence its surroundings. And here in Australia, we use qi as a medium between masters to get to know each other. Something which we happily share, to the shock of newly arrived Chinese masters still in the old mode of keeping secrets from others. So if you have ever gone to China, and found yourself being "tested" on your internal martial art abilities by an old mysterious Chinese master appearing out of the blue and you've felt weird energy sensations during the encounter that are hard to explain to people who are not part of your martial world, then your Jingong 勁功 is the reason why.