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Healing and the Martial Arts: a Book Review

© Kent Fung

To many old-school Chinese martial artists, an important part of training was (and is) acquiring an understanding of how the human body works - how to destroy it, and conversely, how to fix it and make it stronger. This tradition is philosophically rooted in Taoist duality - if you know how to maim, you should also know how to heal. On a practical level, the golden age of martial arts was purely based on developing real-world fighting skills, and thus extremely hard core. Students were injured all the time, and in an age before health insurance, hospitals, and doctors in white lab coats, a master had to know how to treat injuries and sickness if he wanted any of his students to survive long enough to complete their training.

Indeed, martial arts masters were often master healers who were called upon more often for their medical skills than their fighting abilities. Sun Lu Tang and Wong Fei Hung are two legendary fighters cast in this mold. Indeed, though Wong's martial exploits make more entertaining movies, his status among Chinese legends has more to do with the fact that he famously had a policy of treating anyone at his clinic, whether or not they could afford to pay.

Martial arts masters/healers treated blade wounds, traumas, sprains, bruises, concussions, and broken bones, and along the way, developed methods of keeping the body healthy and free of illnesses. In many ways, the methods they developed still surpass anything modern Western medicine has to offer. Don't believe me? Observe an elderly old-school Chinese martial artist. He's spry, flexible, alert, and balanced. He can hike for miles without getting winded, and when you spar with him, he still hits like a mule. Now observe an aging athlete from the Western tradition, amateur or pro. He has problems getting out of bed every morning - heck, he probably grunts and groans every time he sits down or gets up. He regularly takes pain relievers for his back, knees, and/or shoulders, uses a brace, and though he hides it well, there are some simple things he simply cannot do anymore. Things like lifting his hand above his head. He's long since given up practicing the sport(s) he loves at even an amateur level, and can look forward to a steady path of declining physical ability, accompanied by a procession of treatments and surgeries that don't really help.

Knowledge about Chinese healing methods has remained largely inaccessible to the West, even though other aspects of Chinese culture - including the martial arts, have become rather popular. There are a number of factors for this. Learning about Chinese medicine requires, first of all, a knowledge of the Chinese language that surpasses basic conversational skills (which is difficult enough for the non-native speaker to acquire.) As well, many materials used in Chinese medicine are not exactly available at your local drugstore. And, Western medicine has had a propaganda-like lock on the public's perceptions of healing for so long that most people believe that the American Medical Association, in association with Harvard Medical School and the pharmaceutical industry, are the sole source of legitimate medical knowledge.