The Asian martial arts rely on thousands of years of experience when it comes to fighting skills. Injuries happen in the martial arts, and fortunately, the arts also rely on thousands of years of healing skills. Fatigue is also a frequent companion, and there are traditional strategies to deal with that as well. This book contains in-depth analysis of three topical preparations, and well as five energy teas – all of which you can learn to make yourself!
Dit da jow, or “iron strike
wine,” is common to many forms of Chinese martial arts. Or to be more
precise, the concept of dit da jow is
common. Exactly what a dit da formula
is supposed to do and how it works elicits as much opinion and heated debate as
how to distill the perfect Scotch or cook the ultimate chili.
A Westerner can make some sense of the apparent
confusion by realizing dit da jow is
a generic term for a family of herbal preparations to be used in conjunction
with iron-palm training. Iron-palm training itself has been the subject of much
contradictory information in the West; for our purposes, it is the repeated
striking of a bag of iron pellets, pebbles, or beans to strengthen the muscular
and connective tissues of the hands and to teach the student how to direct chi
into the target.
A pre-practice dit da jow must loosen muscles and connective tissues in the hands,
so chi can flow through the hand during the striking. This type of formulation
often is applied as a hot oil or as a pot of hot liquid in which the hands are
soaked.
A post-practice dit da jow must heal any damage that has occurred during iron-palm
training. Since proper iron-palm training should result in nothing worse than
occasional bruising, this formulation is not geared to more serious damage such
as bone contusions or sprains. Iron-palm training is not for
“hardening” the skin or knuckles, so don’t look for something that
will build up calluses. In fact, in classical arts, calluses
are regarded as the symptom of an inferior martial art.
A between-practice dit da jow is a general strengthener, and is often taken orally (yao jow, medicinal wine, or yao pian, pills).
Each school or sifu has its own “secret
recipe” for dit da jow, since as
the masters say, “no jow, no
power.” Featured here is the recipe of Dr. Lyle Buller, a chi kung
practitioner and doctor of naturopathy who recently has moved into the Pine
Barrens, a wilderness area of southern New Jersey. He finds the wetlands a rich
source of botanical materials.
Dr. Buller’s interest in Chinese herbal medicine
dates to his student days at New York University, near Manhattan’s Chinatown,
where he worked for the president of the Chinese Herbalist Society of New York,
who later became director of the Oriental Medical Institute of Hawaii. Dr.
Buller also practices tai chi chuan
and Vietnamese freestyle kickboxing. To understand the action of a dit da jow, Dr. Buller says you must
first understand the basic anatomy and functions of the soft tissues.
“This formulation is based on what happens
to your body when you get a bruise,” he notes. “There is a layer of
energy just beneath the surface of the skin and external fat, called the wei chi. It is this energy that protects
you against 90 percent of external injuries, and can be thought of as roughly
analogous to the lymphatic system. In Chinese medicine, it is this system that
is strengthened with chi kung breathing exercises, and advanced exercises like
‘iron shirt’ or ‘golden bell cover.’ If your chi is strong, even a knife blade
can be deflected (but not stopped) while you move out of the way or prepare a
counterattack. A bruise is a gap in this protective layer of wei chi. This is more serious than it
appears, since the gap can be a doorway for what Chinese medicine calls ‘evil
pernicious influences.’ ”
Although it sounds pretty spooky, “evil
pernicious influences” can be understood as neurological disruption or a
reduction in general immunity. The term comes from the Chinese belief that if
the pores open too far, a “bad wind” or “wind attack” can
get into the body.
“When you get a bruise, you also have blood
stagnation,” Dr. Buller notes. “Because of ruptures in the
capillaries arid smaller veins, the blood pools in surrounding tissues where it
stagnates and turns purplish-black. When the. bruise turns red a few days
later, it’s because the stagnation has broken up and fresh blood is beginning
to move into the area again, and that new blood flow helps rebuild the injured
cells.”
Blood stagnation leads to swelling, which closes
off other blood vessels, can damage nerves, and in extreme cases, can tear the
skin. In Chinese medicinal theory, it also closes off chi vessels. Each of
these effects can obviously lead to other problems.
