43. Skill of Deft Jumps

CUAN ZONG SHU

Brief description*

*Excerpt from the book: Jin Jing Zhong. Authentic Shaolin Heritage: Training Methods of 72 Arts of Shaolin. ISBN: 978-1440474170

Shaolin “Skill of jumps” is a soft GONG FU, it leads to strengthening the internal. The way to the acquirement of that skill is also soft. In the past knights devoted their whole life to the acquirement of the skill. Now, when science thrives and develops, there are no outstanding achievements in that field. People show irresponsibility toward repetition of what they have studied and toward training. It is horrible to see that a good half of the people take the road of crime and cruelty. The reason is that spirituality which fed the Middle Empire and the Chinese nation in the past and feeds in the present gradually disappears and is doomed to obscurity. Cultured and educated people dip their brushes into ink-pots and jabber as before, they do not answer for their own words. One can feel sincerely sorry for them: they failed to properly succeed in civil branches of sciences, not to mention their achievements in military ones. All comes to proclamation of truths to the mob by the people who have high opinion of themselves as Teachers. But has all this idle talk anything to do with the true Martial Art?
 

In the recent past some official Han from the province of Shandong narrated about a man called Guang Zhi Fei who could walk on walls and cornices. But nobody thought Han’s story to be true. Indeed, a good half of people in the past thought that tales about “Skill of jumps” were ridiculous chatter, not worth of trusting. That happened because few people who acquired that skill to perfection hid and kept his mastery in secret...

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...Seven or eight years of hard training can not be thought a perfect mastery. Regular exercises and continuous improvement of the technique are required. When the trainee acquires the technique to full extent, his body will become light and will be able to move at a significant speed. He will be able to move much faster than any other man. He will be able to ascend and descend at a great speed, jump high and overcome high obstacles. He will be able to move on wall of a room and move as if he flies. “Skill of jumps” is absolutely noiseless, therefore it can be used even at nights. The skill being studied completely, it can be used against bandits and offenders.
 

So-called “Skill of jumps”, it is also called “The skill of walking on cornices and walls”, as well as jumps over houses and other similar techniques are thought to be absurd. At our time “The skill of jumps” is kept up by some family dynasties and passed over from father to son, but it gradually “goes out of fashion”. Few people can bear 6 or 7 years of hard training and feel no doubt in efficiency of that skill even for a second.

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