Classical Dim-Mak

[Rick Bauer]

Hi everyone,

On the subject of classical dim-mak training, many modern schools point to the published translations of the Bubishi as a reference to what is and is not the classical teachings.  But there is some sharp disagreement between the two english-language versions of the document... (1) the McCarthy translation, and (2) the Alexander & Penland translation.  Specifically, McCarthy's text (which is by far the more popular, and heavily referenced) makes some highly generalized (and somewhat controversial) conclusions, in both the historical and technical narrative.  Alexander & Penland's translation is much more focused, and properly divides out the subject into its three component levels: (1) dim-mak, (2) dim hsueh, and (3) dim ching.  As such, are there potential problems here, which may be contributing (or influencing) future misconceptions?

On some of the commercial e-forums, certain martial arts groups have also made specific referrence to "old shao-lin" material which describe dim-mak (and which, not suprisingly, they claim supports their view of the subject 100%).  As an example: in 1998, a certain notorious instructor claimed to have copies of "old shao-lin" poems, which specifically stated that any application to a pressure point... be it a strike, joint lock, etc., were all exactly the same.  Further, this person asserted that all these various techniques were just different terms for the exact same thing (dim-mak = torite-jutsu = chin-na, etc.)  He noted that his authoritative basis for his opinion were "old shao-lin poems." Interestingly, when this individual was asked to specifically annotate (i.e., give the author, title and era of the referenced shao-lin works) or better yet, produce a copy of the "documents" (or tell what museum collection they were in, etc.), they refused to do so.  As such, are there any of these types of records (other than the Bubishi) which discuss this subject which pre-date the 1900's? (hint: the answer is "yes.") :-)  Has anyone seen them?  What do they discuss and cover?  

All the best,

Rick

[Anthony Clark]

Good morning (or evening, Bahrain time),

Short answer, yes.  There are plenty of texts out there that pre-date 1900's.  I have a few copies which I have aquired.  Some of them are on accupuncture and herbology, some are on Internal Energy Cultivation, and some are on point striking and the effects (to include healing).

The ones I have I haven't fully translated yet.  But they are interesting to note.  One of the texts that I have specifically references Shaolin in the opening line.

Of the ones I have, they are short in length with plenty of Chinese Characters and some drawings.

Anthony

[Chris Romero]

I've just acquired a chinese wood block. It has only one sentence. It's also said to be very rare and holds the key to all Dim Mak.

The block has been authenticated by an accredited research historian. I didn't see the credentials, but I believe him. Although he offered to translate, he said I would not understand the full concept of the message unless I translated myself. Real nice guy. Even insisted I have a coca cola before I leave. For some strange reason, he said the cola had some significance..... Strange...  

Anyway,
I can translate the first half of the characters, but am having difficulty with the rest.

It reads:
"Me chinese... Me play joke..." and that's where I'm stumped.

 

[Rick Bauer]

I've just acquired a chinese wood block. It has only one sentence. It's also said to be very rare and holds the key to all Dim Mak...

Anyway, I can translate the first half of the characters, but am having difficulty with the rest....

It reads: "Me chinese... Me play joke..." and that's where I'm stumped.

Hmmmm... I think you may have mis-translated that last line in Chinese, Chris.  Although I am no expert in the Chinese language, I am guessing it may actually say "Me smack you..."  (grin)  

Perhaps the next time I am back in Annapolis, I can help you translate it more. (grin!)    No really, it is no problem at all!  Perhaps you can buy me a Coca Cola later as a special "thank you."  Hmmm... maybe I should bring along a special can of "something something," too... just to open up...  just in case.    (Frankly, I'll need all the help I can get!)

Hmmmmm... on further examination, it sounds like you may have stumbled across the fabled "Donkey Kata."  It is said to be a v-e-r-y rare form, devised by an Old Master, who was said to have a v-e-r-y smart donkey (and a v-e-r-y keen sense of humor!).  Acording to legend, the fabled donkey kata actually causes the person to transform into the animal itself!    The amazing thing is, it works backwards, and transforms the person from the "tail end" first!  

Just kidding!  You are tooooo funny!  

Rick

[Chris Romero]

Oh.... DUDE!!! You are too funny!!! I got every message deep out of your "WOOD BLOCK"! HAAA HAAAA!!!!!

[Rick Bauer]

...yes.  There are plenty of texts out there that pre-date 1900's.

Some examples still exist... but to my knowledge, the few examples which survive today are extremely difficult to find, and are virtually impossible to even view (let alone obtain) outside of Asia.

During Mao's Cultural Revolution (1962-1969), the Communist Red Guard burned hundreds of thousands of old martial arts texts... simply because they were seen as potentially subversive to the State.

During the Japanese Invasion of China (1937-1945), countless martial arts books and relics were burned and destroyed during the massive turmoil... particularly in the Southern Chinese maritime provinces and Okinawa.

During the Boxer Rebellion (1899-1901), the foreign expeditionary forces destroyed entire monastic libraries (as well as monastic orders!) throughout China... particularly in Fukien, Shantung and Honan provinces.

The few examples of original Chinese martial and medical books which survive today are extremely rare, and are highly regarded by the Chinese.  

Just my humble opinion,

R

[Rick Bauer]

Hi Everyone,

The following article recently appeared on one of the discussion forums, called THE STRAIGHT DOPE, by Cecil Adams (http://www.straightdope.com/columns/040521.html).

Any thoughts on the opinions expressed by the author?

All the best from the Gulf of Arabia,

Rick

***

[Start of Article]

IS THE "NINJA DEATH TOUCH" REAL?
(c) 21-May-2004

[Question]:
Is there such a thing as the "touch of death" in martial arts? Can I walk up to someone, pinch them in a certain spot, and kill them instantly? I've heard people swear such a thing exists, but I find it extremely hard to believe. --Jon Huff

[Answer]:

Even martial arts enthusiasts don't take this one too seriously, except for the impressionable souls who think assassins used the touch of death to kill kung fu star Bruce Lee in 1973. (The more widely held view says he was done in by an allergic reaction to painkillers.) One smartarse on a martial arts message board observes, "One time I hit a guy in a pressure point, and he EXPLODED! It was like something out of a video game man! I swear, there is a point somewhere that makes a human being just burst into giblets if you hit it right!" However, we scientists don't dismiss such phenomena antecedent to inquiry. Having browsed the medical literature, I'd say the verdict on whether this mysterious Oriental skill has any basis in reality is as follows: The touch of death, no. The less-forceful-blow-than-you-might-expect of death, occasionally yes.

Known in Cantonese as dim mak and in Japanese as kyusho jitsu, the touch of death is said to be something like acupuncture's evil twin. The idea is that chi, or energy, flows through the body along lines called meridians. A blow or squeeze applied to certain pressure points on these lines will supposedly put the whammy on the victim's chi, leading to incapacitation or death. Though none of the techniques of dim mak seems likely to work consistently as advertised, medical journals describe many incidents in which a seemingly mild trauma results in disproportionately serious injury, and the sites of some such traumas correlate with dim mak pressure points. Cases like these include:

·   Commotio cordis, also known as cardiac concussion. This is a syndrome in which a nonpenetrating impact to the chest causes heart failure but little or no structural damage. The classic victim is a kid or young adult who takes a baseball, hockey puck, or other hard object in the chest, but a 44-year-old teacher died when she caught an elbow while breaking up a fight at school. About half the time the victim collapses immediately, and in the balance of cases within a minute or two. Death is thought to result from ventricular fibrillation, a state in which the lower heart chambers start fluttering and stop pumping blood. One study of 128 cases found that 84 percent of the victims died, and nearly all the survivors received prompt defibrillation. Relatively little force is required for the killing blow--one researcher estimates that the blunt instrument need be moving at only 30 mph. Don't think this is something you'll be able to pull on the next ninja who leaps from the shadows, though. Animal experiments suggest that you’d have to strike within a 15-20 millisecond window in the heartbeat cycle to have a reasonably good chance of taking down your attacker.

·   Trauma to the carotid artery. Located in the side of the neck, the carotid artery provides blood to the head. Pressure on the carotid sinus, an especially sensitive area where the artery divides into two branches, can damage the blood vessel walls, leading to stroke followed by partial paralysis, other neurological problems, and, once in a while, death. The precipitating event can be surprisingly trivial--a karate chop has been known to do it, but so has the strain of playing the French horn.

·   Miscellaneous unexplained injuries. A 13-year-old girl fell in gym class, struck her head on the crossbar of a hurdle, and died. Finding little obvious trauma and stumped for a cause of death, doctors blamed "transmission of a concussive force through the reticular activating system." Michael Kelly, an osteopath and author of Death Touch: The Science Behind the Legend of Dim Mak (2001), claims that the hurdle hit the girl on the "bladder-10" pressure point at the base of the skull, "one of the most lethal dim mak points."

Case reports suggest that incidents like the above are mostly accidents, more often than not unrelated to martial arts training or theory. The question remains: Can some dim mak practitioners achieve these results at will? I'm skeptical, but sometimes you have to wonder. In a 1999 report in the Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness, C. Terry et al tested a dozen participants in a demonstration of kyusho jitsu pressure-point techniques intended to produce "knockouts." Experts hit the volunteers with successive blows at prescribed spots, e.g., just above the right wrist, just above the right elbow, and in the middle of the back. The recurring result: a "period of unresponsiveness" lasting from 11 to 55 seconds. The tests, which included EEGs and the like, showed no loss of blood flow to the brain or other obvious physiological cause. Were the KOees going into a hypnosislike trance or faking it? The authors think not, commenting, "The exact mechanism for this phenomenon remains uncertain." I'm not about to invoke chi and meridians, but it's possible there's more going on here than we currently understand.
--CECIL ADAMS

[End of Article]

[cjperk]

Hi Rick!
 I feel one of the major down falls of the understanding of Dim-Mak the author here states in his opening line.  

Even martial arts enthusiasts don't take this one too seriously

In my opinion there are those who have learned a few points and there effects and use them to exploit themselves, their knowledge or lack of in some cases to promote their art. But buy not understanding there is so much more to Dim-mak then knocking someone out, like this author people are getting the wrong impressions of  what Dim-Mak is.

The touch of death, no. The less-forceful-blow-than-you-might-expect of death, occasionally yes.

Again in my opinion this is clearly western thinking and they do not understand TCM or the variation in strikes and how they relate to Dim-Mak. Most of the rest of his article seem to be pulled from deferent sources I would like to read a copy of that article in 1999 Journal of Sports Medicine though.
Thanks Jim

[Rick Bauer]

Hi Jim,

I agree with the points you raised.  

In my humble opinion, there appear to be a large number of  problematic assumtions within areas of the modern martial arts community.  They include the following:
(1) dim-mak is a common subject, which is thoroughly known and understood by the majority of modern martial artists,
(2) the effects of a dim-mak strike are nothing more than the trauma response to applied physical force.
(3) dim-mak strikes = nerve strikes.
(4) the "meridians" are nothing more than nerve pathways.
(5)  if you expand the definition of dim-mak to include such "fables" as delayed death strikes, then you are full of BS.

Essentially, the retort always seems to be "Well, If I can't do that dim-mak thing you just described... then it must not be possible."  This type of simplistic logic-loop fails to take into account that not all martial artists and training programs are equal, and that not all people have the physical skill level, talent and gifts to do all things!  

The article that you referenced is the Dillman study, conducted at the University of Pennsylvania in 1997.  The findings of the study (as reported in the Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness (DEC 1999; 39(4), pp. 328-325) were all inconclusive.  The study assessed (sort-of) 17 KO's performed on 12 volunteers by Mr. Dillman.    

Purely as an academic note: there is additional info on this particular study in Appendix One of Mr. Dillman's book, HUMANE PRESSURE POINT SELF-DEFENSE, (c) 2001.  It was also featured in BLACK BELT MAGAZINE (Sept 1998, pp. 64-68, 70), and was the subject of a DKI video tape (THE SCIENCE OF PRESSURE POINTS - AN INVESTIGATION OF PRESSURE POINT KO'S).  On a personal note, I am no fan of this particular study.  I thought it was poorly designed and carried out. The conclusions of the DKI study are extremely biased towards their way of thinking and the central nervous system... but that is just my opinion.

All the best,

Rick  

[T'ang Yin]

Traditionally, a true Dim Mak practioner was also a doctor in TCM.  Looking at modern times, I've met TCM doctors educated from the Bejing Medical School of China for which Tai Chi is actually required as part of their studies.  I believe that even the College of Acupuncture here in Houston has Tai Chi instruction available for its students.  

Two major points I am trying to make with this.  First, you can't be a Dim Mak master unless you can heal as well as harm.  Second, TCM doctors practice Internal Martial Arts because some level of Chi manipulation is required in order to achieve a desired effect rather than just sticking a person with a needle.  Therefore, you can say the same is required when the intent is to harm the person.

Dillman is a hurter and not a healer nor is he a faithful practioner of the internal arts.  Therefore, any study done with him would be limited only to the "physical" or "nerve" aspect findings.  They left out the X factor of the study, Chi.  Therefore, they can conclude what ever they want but the best they will be is half right and half wrong.

[Rick Bauer]

Traditionally, a true Dim Mak practioner was also a doctor in TCM...  First, you can't be a Dim Mak master unless you can heal as well as harm.  Second, TCM doctors practice Internal Martial Arts because some level of Chi manipulation is required in order to achieve a desired effect rather than just sticking a person with a needle.  Therefore, you can say the same is required when the intent is to harm the person. Dillman is a hurter and not a healer nor is he a faithful practioner of the internal arts.  Therefore, any study done with him would be limited only to the "physical" or "nerve" aspect findings.  They left out the X factor of the study, Chi.  Therefore, they can conclude what ever they want but the best they will be is half right and half wrong.

Hi T'ang Yin,

I would respectfully agree with your assessment.

All th best from the Gulf of Arabia,

Rick