A while back I wrote a little about what I see as a common misinterpretation of one of the Kempo Hakku in the Bubishi. The more esoteric, for want of a better term, common translation seems to me to be both a translation made without proper context and, when that context is returned, far less obtuse than it appears. I situated this critique within the context of common Fujianese martial vocabulary, in particular the White Crane systems this quanpu, the Bubishi, is said to be based on. I said that Ho Go Ju Don To, usually translated as “The way of breathing is hard and soft” or something like that is probably better translated as something like “The rule is: projecting techniques are hard, absorbing techniques are soft”, which would make immediate, and more importantly practical, sense to anyone trained in most any Fujianese boxing system.

Of course the Bubishi doesn’t have a clear source or any supporting documentation so even though it is a southern Chinese quanpu, we don’t know what system it references or who wrote it, so I can’t know for sure if I am right. However, I have been working on translating Liu Yinshan’s 1983 Japanese language book on Feeding Crane, and I came across some interesting supporting evidence for this idea. As context, Feeding Crane as currently passed down in Taiwan was imported from Fujian in the early 20^th century. It is a straight Fujianese Crane system and has a linear transmission, keeping it’s content and context about as pure as is possible in any cultural artifact like a martial arts system. I am most definitely not suggesting it is the system the Bubishi comes from, but it is from within the same martial culture.

When speaking about similar concepts, Liu Yinshan, the 2^nd generation lineage holder in Taiwan, writes the following in the first part of the first chapter of the book, his overview of the system (slightly edited for brevity):

True hardness is the hardness that is generated through softness. Precise and appropriate movement can be achieved by combining this transition between hard and soft with the principles of “swallowing” and “spitting”. With softness you swallow the opponent’s power, you then “spit” to attack him. This attack is the hardness, the issuing of power.

So this is in essence the exact phrase from the Bubishi: the rule is projecting techniques are hard swallowing techniques are soft. The Bubishi line, hogojudonto, is essentially shorthand in a traditional 5 character format for this idea, that swallowing is soft/absorbing/taking in, spitting is hard/projecting/forcing out. If you look at the characters they are identical:  剛柔吞吐, hard soft swallow spit, which is not surprising as they are so common in this martial culture. This is not an esoteric set of statements, it is a reference to specific techniques, the power generation methods behind them, and their tactical use. In the context of both training and fighting it is a practical statement, not a philosophical one.

Interestingly enough, and as somewhat additional supporting evidence, he goes on to separate breathing from the swallowing/soft, spitting/hard concepts:

This spitting and swallowing is expressed in harmony with the breath. The breathing that accompanies this spitting and swallowing in Feeding Crane Boxing has a unique sound, but it isn’t like a kiai as it comes naturally as the breath is issued.  

Breathing is done in concert with the swallowing and spitting movements, but swallowing and spitting, 吞and 吐, are not terms used for breathing, as is implied by the more standard translations of the Bubishi. Instead breathing has it’s own separate vocabulary (in this case呼吸 , kokyu, a common term in Japanese for breathing) and these terms, these breathing techniques, must be attached to the swallowing and spitting techniques. The breathing is not the point of the terms, nor do those terms describe the breathing. Again, I think some confusion might have resulted from the Japanese use of 吞 to include smoking tobacco, drinking, and catching one’s breath, and the use of 吐 to include breathing out and vomiting. While some of the same ideas may also be included in mainstream Chinese use of the characters, and therefore in a standard dictionary, in the southern Chinese martial arts these terms have very common, very specific and very clear meanings and a standard dictionary translation just won’t cut it. Cross cultural semantics at work?¹

Anyway, this is not “proof” of this approach to the translation. There is no documentation beyond the White Crane content in the Bubishi connecting Feeding Crane to it, though the common cultural roots are obvious. Indeed, while the cultural context is shared in Fujian it may be that the Bubishi’s art dealt with these terms in a unique way, differently than the arts around it. There is no way to know at this point. However, that said this does add a little context to this translation, as in a related art, with written materials (the Liu family Bronze Man Book) transmitted at roughly the same time, the concepts are common and clear, part of an early introduction to the art, and connected to practical action. If this holds true for the art the Bubishi comes from then a translation much more in line with what I am suggesting than the traditional translation would perhaps be appropriate.

1. It may also have come from the practice of adding words to the text. For example, this phrase is often written Ho Wa Go Ju No Don To Su or Ho Wa Go Ju Wo Don To Shi. The Wa is a particle that references Ho, the No is a possive, like ‘s while the Wo would be a particle marking the direct object of a verb like an or the, and the Su could be the verb to breathe, as could Shi, or the Shi could be “is”. Regardless though all these are later additions to the text in an effort to explain a 5 character Chinese poem in a more coherent Japanese sentence. While they may represent a well informed and good faith effort to explain an obscure and gramatically incomplete phrase, the addition of particles and in particular verbs can substiantially change the original meaning. Traditionally these poems are a shorthand for those already in the know; the extra explaination would be unnessary to the initiated reader. ↩︎