This book could be called “The Ultimate Guide to Jing.”
Dr. Yang talks about jing in his various other books and DVDs, but I’ve found this to be the most comprehensive resource on the subject. In fact, Dr. Yang spends 119 out of 197 pages of content discussing jing.
So what is jing, anyway?
“Jing,” says Dr. Yang, “is more than just muscular strength.”
He advocates that although the muscles in the human body are a component of whether a technique is successful, they aren’t everything. Muscles are visible. We can see them. When you look at John Cena, Brock Lesnar, or The Rock or Ronda Rousey, it’s pretty clear they’re ripped. And you clearly wouldn’t want to try to steal their money as they slip out of the grocery store or a restaurant.
But look at Dr. Yang. Think about the martial arts instructors you know. How many of them do you know have a physique like those world-class athletes? Not many. That’s because, I think, they understand the concept of jing.
Dr. Yang explains between the explicit qualities of muscular strength and implicit qualities of jing:
“You can’t tell the strength of a bow by looking at it; rather, you must pull it to see if it has the potential to generate a lot of power. Once it releases an arrow, the strength of the jing is shown by the power (li) of the arrow.”
He breaks jing down into two types.
Manifested jing is easier for me to grasp, and it’s what he spends a bulk of the book talking about. It involves contact with somebody else, and he demonstrates each sub-class of manifested jing with a tai chi chuan application.
Sensing jing, Dr. Yang says, does not require contact with the other person. It’s when you sense another person’s motion or energy and ultimately know his intentions.
If you’ve wanted to learn more about jing, or you just wanted to get some cool new tai chi chuan fighting applications, get this book. It is one I will be reading again to catch what I missed the first time.
You’ll see a few described in this excerpt.
Thank to YMAA for the copy in exchange for a review.
