Blind Cat, Dead Rat

Hong Junsheng was dedicated to practicing the very essence of Chen Taijiquan. All of his life he attempted to emulate as closely as possible what his teacher, Chen Fake, had taught him. He eventually became renowned for his martial skills which was slightly ironic as he never had much interest in the martial side of the art. He had begun his studies with the idea of improving his health and to that end was more interested in being technically correct than in beating other people.

Grandmaster Hongs reputation grew to the point that eventually he became known as “the man with magic hands”. As with other martial artists with a big reputation through his life he was required to face many challenges to his abilities, and reputedly met them all successfully. He was so well known that he gradually acquired many disciples, some of them already established masters in other martial arts.

One of his disciples wanted to create a team that would be successful on an international scale in pushing hands. Push hands in traditional training is a device used to get students used to working with a partner and be able to manifest the correct energies of Taiji in their movements. It leads to martial abilities but in the beginning is done slowly and carefully to gradually get the student used to working with another. It is also the first step towards 'power confrontation' that most students face. Trained correctly a student will have several years of foundations and form practice behind them before they are introduced to this practice. They will be carefully monitored to be sure that they are working correctly and are in fact coached to avoid confrontation and to use Taiji's circular method of dealing with power. This is an important stage because it can set a persons responses to power very concretely.

The disiple of Hongs that was set on winning push hands competitions realized that proper training in Taiji takes a very long time and requires a special kind of student. One who is willing to undergo long arduous training for many years, with a very prolonged pay off. He decided that he would train his students quickly, strictly with the idea of winning but sticking as close to the outer form of Taiji as possible.

It was a genius idea and his methods of training these men very quickly paid off. In short order his team was winning local and provincial level tournaments and eventually went on to win gold at the national level for many years in a row. This was something that no one had been able to do before.

After one particularly triumphant win where several team members had taken home gold, a banquet was held to honour them. By this time in his life Hong Junsheng was quite elderly and had already suffered a stroke. He was sat at the head of the table in a wheelchair.

The team captain was a very large and powerful man. His arms were the size of an average persons thighs, his chest was huge and his legs were like tree trunks. After several toasts he was becoming a bit boisterous and loudly started to call out that his team and himself were number one. Theirs was the best Taiji in all of China proven by the fact that they were the top dogs in push hands.

At the head of the table Hong quietly started to tell a story. The story was about a blind cat who happened to put his paw down on a dead rat. Realizing what it was under his paw the cat was very happy that he had caught the rat. Looking up from his story he gazed at the boisterous team captain and said “You are no better than a blind cat.”

The captain took offense at this and said, “How can you so belittle us with this kind of story. We have just proven ourselves the best in China. You should be thankful to us. After all, we put you on the map. And anyway, in the end, what could an old frail man like yourself do against such a powerful young man as myself?”

Hong replied as he did with most challenges, “Maybe we had better find out.”

This caused the young man some difficulty. Hong was old, infirm and in a wheelchair, not what one would think of as fair game for a physical match. The captain resolved it by saying that he would simply tie up Hong in some joint locks to prove he would be helpless against his abilities. Hong told him to do his best.

Feeling a bit foolish at the situation the young man came to Hong and joint locked him in several places. Hong looked up at him and asked if he was done. Remembering that Hong actually did have a pretty big reputation the young man paused, and then adjusted himself so that Hong really was in a bad position. There was no possible way out of these locks now.

At last he told Hong he was done.

Hong looked at him again and said, “Not bad but your forgot my little finger.”

With that he released his little finger to point straight upwards. He seemed to rotate on the finger and the young man was violently thrown across the rooom where he crashed into a window frame and stunned, sagged to the floor.

This story was first told to me by Hong Junshengs International Standard Bearer. There were many of Hongs disciples present when it occured so we can be sure it is true. I have since heard the same story from other of Hongs disciples making me feel safe in relating it to you as factual.

The point of the story is that Taiji is an internal art that does not rely on physical power for it effect. Sadly this is still a point of debate for some people but Hong and many of his disciples are living proof that it is true. In this story, and others told about Hong and his exploits, we can clearly see that the young mans physical size and strength were made irrelevant by Hongs high level Taiji abilties.