Chin Na Fa is one of several new martial arts titles from Blue Snake Books.  They kindly sent me a copy for review and the more time I spent with this volume the more interesting it became to me for several reasons as a martial anthropologist and historian, as well as on a technical level.

Let me explain...

Physically, Chin Na Fa is a reprint of a 1936 text written for the Zhejiang Province Police Officer's Academy.  The authors were Liu Jinsheng & Zhao Jiang, but in essence this is Liu's book.  Zhao was in charge of training the police in Zhejiang and presumably employed Master Liu in this capacity based on what he says in the book's foreword.

So, what we have here is basically an old Chinese cop book!

I thought this was very cool in a historical sense because China was a turbulent place in the 30's (think of W.E. Fairbairn's exploits as a law enforcement officer) and so you can imagine the kinds of things that Zhao's officers could be facing on the streets!

In his introduction, Master Liu claims to have learned the art of Chin Na Fa from an ancient manuscript his grandfather gave him containing secret techniques which he practiced for three years.  However, "only after training for over 20 years in various arts with the northern master Wang Ziping and more than 20 other teachers did (he) begin to understand this ancient manuscript's worth!"

This little detail made me pause.

That's a pretty dog-gone fishy story about the old book, though not uncommon for the Chinese arts in a way.  It's a classic excuse for not having to say where you really learned something.  Like saying you learned from "a wandering monk".  (Like the founder of Pa Kua Chang did!)

OK, so, with that little detail firmly in mind let's get to the techniques...

The techniques are grouped into 8 sections corresponding to the part of the body that is being attacked.  Presented are numerous locking techniques against the head, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, arm, finger, and leg.  Some made me laugh out loud remembering how much they hurt when I first learned them years ago (such as the 'Grabbing the Face' and 'Catching the Rat').  The photos and text make each one clear, though like most martial arts books they are optimistic about what any given move will do in terms of "effortlessly snapping limbs".

As far as 'techniques' goes, the book contains:

9 Head Techniques
8 Neck Techniques
6 Shoulder Techniques
8 Chest, Ribs & Back Techniques
8 Waist & Stomach Techniques
23 Arm & Wrist Techniques
5 Finger Techniques
5 Crotch, Leg & Foot Techniques

Now, being familiar with Chin Na techniques in Praying Mantis and Pa Kua Chang as well as from studying Dr. Yang Jwing Ming's comprehensive texts on the subject I was at once struck by the familiar and more glaringly...by the foreign...as I skimmed through all of the techniques presented.  It wasn't that anything was bad, far from it - the techniques shown were all sound but something was there that just seemed out of place to me.

When I picked up Chin Na Fa again the next day it immediately hit me.  This looked like Chin Na...mixed with JUDO of the time period.  Suddenly the number of ground fighting arm-bar techniques, the lapel chokes, the use of the mount...they all made sense!

Now, why do I think this?  Because Chinese Wrestling (Shuai Chiao) is NOT ground-based - it's all standing throws - and while Chin Na has many techniques used to pin a man to the floor, they are not part of ground wrestling.  At least not in any Chin Na that I learned...  You kick him, you hit him, you throw him, and then you lock him - that is the Kung Fu formula as I was taught.

Going to the floor and wrestling is simply not part of the game plan in any classical Chinese style that I have ever seen.  In most styles 'ground fighting' is effectively the same as upright fighting and just done from a very low stance such as in the Low Mantis or Monkey styles of Kung Fu.  While there are techniques where you kick from the ground against a standing opponent (such as the circular leg scissors you'll see in Kung Fu forms) these are relatively few and far between.

So, just looking at the technical material and reading Liu's intro where he says that "If we research the origins of Bushido we find its origin in China...Chen Yuanbin traveled to Japan and taught the skills of seizing and locking as well as wrestling...and the government promoted the art under the name Judo.  Slowly the people were transformed into the fearsome and skilled fighters we know of the country today."

Wow, that's a doozy right?

If that's not enough, Master Liu goes on later to say, "The practical applications of these arts (Shuai Chiao, Shaolin, Wudang) is a subject that is never breached.  Those who have practiced them these arts twenty or thirty years have never defeated anyone who has practiced Western boxing or Judo."

Given that kind of admiration he clearly has for Judo from these two statements in the intro I don't think you have to strain credulity to imagine he had some exposure to that art and simply incorporated the things he liked, giving them Chinese names.  Does it matter?  No.  Do I have proof?  No.  Is it an interesting possibility?  Yes.

The fact is Judo influenced a lot of other arts of the time period, including Western police training, so it's not unbelievable that one of the "20 other teachers" that Liu met had knowledge of the art or that he read books about it and incorporated it into his art.  With the great love (cough cough) that the Chinese had for the Japanese at that time period why would a Chinese man even mention a foreign art, especially in a way to praise and claim it as he does?

In any case, this is all conjecture on my part.  If you are intrigued then I encourage you to get a copy of Chin Na Fa and draw your own conclusions.  For people who like historical books related to grappling or are looking for 'techniques' you will be very happy with this book as well.  Overall the reproduction quality is great, Tim Cartmell has done a fine job translating the text, and I look forward to seeing further developments with the Blue Snake line of books. 

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