Dai Kui's teaching in Baotou by 'The years pass by without trace' [web nickname]

(article translated by Jon Nicklin)

I went to M Ren Dahua's house yesterday and listened to him talk about this photograph, now I'm writing what I heard for other martial friends to refer to. People have already discussed the people shown in the photograph; [of the people in the photo] there are 3 who I do not know. All M Ren could remember is that the person standing on the far right was one of his colleagues from the bank, he did not do martial arts.

I will provide some context to the photo below. This photo was taken when Dai Kui came to Baotou to teach his disciples. In the picture are M Ren Dahua himself, his brother Ren Rong, Zhang Yuchen, Ge Yunpu, Li Lanxiu; I think only these few had actually gone through the baishi ceremony.

Of them, Zhang Yuchen was an engineer whose family were well-off, he had his own car which he used to run a haulage business. He lived outside Baotou itself, had originally practiced Hebei style xingyi and was very strong [gong lii chun hou].

Li Lanxiu was from Dingtao in Shandong, he was the one M Ren got on with the best, the two of them once lived in the same compound. Li originally practiced Luohan (Arhat) boxing and worked as a chief electrician. As M Ren tells it, Li was unusually strong, he was just born that way. While working he would carry two poles on his back as he drove in stakes. Li's eldest daughter was good at music and singing. After liberation, she secretly joined a performing arts troupe in the PLA. When she joined up and went south with the PLA, she didn't tell anyone in her family. As soon as Li found out, he hurriedly packed all of his household valuables and chased southwards after her.

Ge Yunpu was a Manchu Bannerman, later on he went missing for many years and only returned to Baotou after the Japanese had surrendered.

Ren Rong was M Ren Dahua's elder brother. He had originally practiced Fan style xinyiquan (a branch of xinyiquan in Qi county coming from Mai Zhuangtu's line). He was both unusually strong and had extremely good lightness skill [qing gong]. His gongfu was possibly the best among all the Baotou disciples. He worked in a bank. He was also multi-talented, being good at both writing poems and painting. He passed away in 1945. M Ren Dahua had originally learned martial arts from his brother and was good at Tan Tui [springing legs]. He first worked at the Qiao family 'piao hao' [note 1] in Qi county, and later worked in a bank. He was the youngest of the disciples, and would have been around 21-22 years old at the time of the photo.

According to M Ren, there were 2 men who followed Dai Kui to Baotou. One was He Shaojiu, a wealthy tycoon from Qi county who was also one of M Dai's disciples. To him, the trips to Baotou were a bit of fun, he would stay in Baotou for a few days and then return to Qi county.

The other person was [Yue] Guining, he would stay in Baotou for extended periods before returning to Qi county.

The two of them [He & Yue] paid not just for all of M Dai's meals, but also bought him 2 liang (~100g) of opium a month. At that time, M Dai didn't smoke opium, he would grind the opium into powder and then drink it in hot water. Also one carton of 'Da hong pao' rolling tobacco, and one stick of white wax (bai la). Apart from that, disciples could give as they wished.

Dai Kui was an introverted man with a mild disposition, always alert. M Ren says that Dai Kui never slept unclothed. M Ren's explanation for this is that he was a bit oversensitive and was afraid of being attacked in his sleep. In the past, people used to use 'foot wraps' (guo jiao dai), M Dai would just tie his foot wraps and then sleep with his head facing inwards, never outwards. You can see that Dai Kui is wearing foot wraps in the photo.

Dai Kui's aunt's family were rich merchants in Taigu with the family owning dozens of stores. As soon as Dai Kui came to Taigu, his cousin would not allow him to go out. But Dai Kui could not enjoy the easy life, he would often go out without telling anyone. When fighting people in Taigu, as soon as he made contact he would knock the person to the floor, injuring them. Later he was locked up [in the local jail] and had to be bailed out by the same cousin.

Apart from teaching in Baotou, Dai Kui also taught in the army in Guihua (old name for Hohhot city in Inner Mongolia). He was introduced to teach there by Shi Xiongba. Shi Xiongba had once worked for the Beiyang government in Beijing [note 2], and later worked as a martial arts instructor to the army of Gen. Shang Zhen in Guihua, one of the warlord Yan Xishan's important generals. At that time, Shang's rank was a Commander-in-chief [du tong]. Dai Kui was introduced by Shi to be a martial arts instructor in [Shang's] army. There, a dispute occurred between M Dai and a local martial arts teacher named Li Ling. Actually, Li Ling's senior disciple was from Qi county too, M Ren mentioned his name but I have forgotten it. At that time, there were a lot of Shanxi merchants in Guihua, and there were even more people from Qi[xian] and Tai[gu]. After Dai killed Li, one of Li's disciples, out of a sense of honour, wanted to assassinate M Dai in revenge, but because of M Dai's alertness, his secret attacks failed. Later, when the same disciple challenged M Dai, he found out he was nowhere near M Dai's level and decided to study under M Dai. It was only then that the disciple gave up his thoughts of vengeance.

Ren shifu said that when learning the Dai family art one should first practice moving 'heavily' (zhong dong) to produce gongfu. However, the kind of gongfu trained in this way is too inflexible, too rigid, and so once moving 'heavily' has been mastered, one should train moving lightly (qing dong) in order to train adaptability and nourish the internal (neii yang). The final stage is to train agile movement (ling dong). The final product of this process is 'rousing' jin (dou sou jin) and vibrating jin (jing chan jin). When you face the enemy it is as if there is a fire on your body, that is, as if sparks from a fire are landing on your body. He then went on to demonstrate.

Ren shifu said that in a fight, the faster you strike the better, use 'crisp' jin (cui leng jin) and vibrating jin (jing chan jin). As soon as you make contact with the opponent you change. The core of xinyiquan is the overturning, both internal and external (note 3). All strikes are powered by the dantian. It's only enough if you can hit people in a real fight. The kind of situation where the opponent 'strikes a pose' and then the defender launches them away won't work in a real fight. Even people who have never trained in martial arts can be difficult to hit. So the commonly seen situation of someone thinking they have gongfu just because they can launch someone away while explaining applications is not enough, you need to be able to hit someone in a real fight.

The Dai family art doesn't have paired routines, because paired routines don't suit Dai style. Its jins and body methods are very distinctive. As soon as you attack, you 'smother' your opponent so that he can't dissolve your attack, which is what is meant when the boxing manuals speak of 'heaven and earth have no intent to oppose' (note 4). That is why it isn't suited to paired routines, victory or defeat is decided at first contact.

When practicing, one should 'enliven the 4 extremities' (jing qi si shao), it is only in this way that you will have courage and will not be afraid.

Ren shifu said that Dai Kui learnt from Dai Liangdong, who had learnt from Dai Erlu.

The Dai family originally ran an inn in She Qi Dian, in Henan. Later on, this inn developed into a caravan agency. Sometime afterward, the Dais offended two groups of people, one group from Hubei, and one group from Henan; there might have been some local officials involved too. These two posses joined up and rode [their horses] straight for Qi county, riding at night and sleeping by day. In the middle of one night they attached the Dai household. The Dai family and their guests awoke and fought back. Because the ground was slippery [because of blood of those killed and hurt], Dai Dalu slipped over [in a puddle of blood], hurting himself in the process, and was captured. The attackers escaped with Dai Dalu at dawn, and killed Dai Dalu by 'lighting heaven's candle' [note 5] somewhere in southern Shanxi. Dai Erlu lead a posse of people to look for his brother, but only found his corpse 3 days later.

From then on,the Dai family closed their doors and retreated from the martial arts world, never mentioning martial arts. In his old age, Dai Erlu taught Dai Kui's father Dai Liangdong. Dai Liangdong taught Dai Kui, but Dai Kui didn't actually like martial arts, so his achievements [in MA] did not reach those of his forebears. He started to practice the 'squatting monkey' stance at the age of 6.

I have said so much in one afternoon, I can only recall this much. Later I will write more about other things that Ren shifu talked about for everyone to read.

Notes

A 'piao hao' was a precursor to modern banks in China. They originally only engaged in remittances of cash. By the Qing dynasty they had also started to offer savings accounts. The main difference from modern banks is that they did not offer loans.

Beiyang government is the name given to a series of warlord regimes that ruled China from 1912 to 1928.

Original text has 'nei wai tian di fan', lit. 'overturning of internal and external, heaven and earth'. Tian Di Fan (Heaven and earth overturn) is a term to describe the movement of Dantian, chest and head.

For example temple of the head is called Heaven, while chin - earth. During Shu/Zhan they "turn", change positions - which is also described as "Head of the Tiger and Leopard".

Same with Dantian - in Shu its lower part is further to the front, while upper is drawn back, in Zhan - it is the opposite.
Original text is 'qian kun bing wu fan yi'. Not sure of meaning in xinyi context.

'Lighting heaven's candle' (dian tian deng) was a way of killing someone by wrapping them in cloth, dipping the cloth in oil then burning the person to death.

(Thanks to Jarek Szymanski for additional explanations for the notes)