The Ravenswood Academy

👀 Check out this trailer I edited for a friend: rooftop applications in Shanghai. May you have fun watching and get some kung fu insights. Cheers! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUGSg4-QGlA

Around a decade ago my mother asked me to travel with her to Seattle to help her take care of HER mother. I'll be brutally honest: I was at a point in my life where I didn't want to "take up time" by traveling. Yet even not being Catholic, I figured there was a special place in Hell for someone who denied their own mother help, let alone when they're mom was simply asking for help taking care of THEIR mom. So when she asked if I wanted to go I said "Absolutely I do."

It turned out to be a great trip, memories of which (involving my mom and grandmother) I still have. Ever the rebel, while we there, Grandmother had left without signing out from her assisted living facility, in order to go scold the construction workers for bulldozing a patch of grass "That's not what we DO here in Seattle! We have to respect nature! I'm a botanist!"

We both shared an intense love for nature. Even when it was cold and wet she would still walk the premises and pick up leaves of all shades of gold and red for her collection (in the northeast and northwest of the U.S., the fall foliage can be intensely striking). Gran held up a leaf with a smile to me "Try as we might: you and I will never be this beautiful." I can see how some people would want us to come in from the cold and rain, but Granny and I just stood their cracking smiles and giggling like crazed infants over the treasure we were picking up. "You and I are of the same mind." she said.

Grandmother is gone, but the city, the leaves and the memories all remain.

So long Seattle, and thanks for all the coffee.

With one last day in town, I had to stop by the Seattle Pinball Museum, tended to by Rocky the Golden retriever, faithful guardian of the shop!

"Mbut Alex!! Who's the useless vagabond in the 400 year old painting?? What a slacker!! Doesn't he know about the hustle/sigma/grindset?!" ...Lu Shang (also called Taigong Wang), brilliant military strategist, advisor to royalty, is, in this painting... just fishing. Not drafting diagrams, not overlooking a great battle, just fishing. This echoes a theme of ambassadors finding early Roman generals "just" farming and roasting turnips for breakfast. Old societies valued you if you could take care of business (be you general, mother, warrior, healer: if you got stuff done it was commended)...but if you couldn't unwind? If you were always high-strung? That was seen as not beneficial for the individual, as you can't always operate at 100%. You need relaxation and recovery too. Every society had games and stories and art... not all of them invented the wheel.

Individual aside, for the society at large, well, how would you feel if your warriors got back from killing... and killing was still all they could think about? "Man that was GREAT!" they say with an unstable grin. "Makes me want to do it again REEEEAL SOON!" ...So societies at least put forth an ideal for many of their warriors: look, you have to be able to dance or sing or enjoy painting or poetry or enjoy nature or something. Did you know Spartan men danced, sang and enjoyed poetry? It wasn't all marching and stabbing you know...

People who study martial arts are excited to learn new ways of punching; reality (and the cultures these arts were developed in), is often more encouraging of entertaining even more ways to solve the problem, other modes of thought, and other varieties of approaches when it comes to experiencing life. More tools for your toolbox.

It is imperative that you find ways to unwind, that you do non work-related things. Go play some pinball.

As promised: Bruce Lee's personal copy of a praying mantis kung fu book by Wong Honfan. Techniques inside the manual include backfists, kicks, throws and more. More details here: https://theravenswoodacademy.com/bruce-lee-the-mantis-connection.

Bruce Lee's grave, here in Seattle.

Why I am I here? Well for one, like me, Bruce had a significant interest in the mantis kung fu books of Wong Honfan. Even after Bruce "renounced" traditional martial arts, he was still translating Wong's Beng Bu book into English (presumably for his students to study). Bruce was personally taught the mantis fighting form Beng Bu (崩步 "Crush and Step"), which makes him the most famous person in the world to have ever practiced it or studied the written materials associated with it. I wrote an entire article about how Bruce grabbed as many copies of Wong Honfan's books as he could, studying them intensively and taking notes (link to the article: https://shorturl.at/8sXC8).

I also was able to discover yet ANOTHER Wong Honfan book that Bruce Lee owned! This has been added to an "updated" section at the end of the article. I'll also share some pictures of it in my next post. Interesting that Bruce took such a liking to Wong Honfan's work (again, loads more details in the article: https://shorturl.at/8sXC8). This is essentially the research announcement that ends this mini-trip.

As this is a gravesite, and these were real people, I have tried to be as respectful as I can in sharing this information; I assume all parties involved would not mind me sharing an article on their interests past in conjunction with a photo of their grave.

Aside form Bruce's interest in Wong Honfan's manuals, I actually don't know that much about his life. You'll notice that his grave is right by his son's, Brandon Lee. Bruce died at 32, and Brandon at 28, so as I stood there I thought it was incredibly sad that they should both have died so very young. There are many things we could observe about this, but here I'll let the quote etched on Brandon's tombstone speak:

"Because we don’t know when we will die, we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well. And yet everything happens only a certain number of times, and a very small number really… How many more times will you watch the full moon rise? Perhaps twenty. And yet it all seems limitless…"

I'm headed to a grave of significance in Seattle this evening. Here's a hint. This dragon (ahem - DRAGON) plaque I'm looking at is around 800 years old, and is carved out of nephrite. See you this evening.

More double weapon imagery at the Seattle Asian Art Museum (let's thank them for keeping a plate that is 300 to 400 years old safe! Can you imagine if it broke??).

In the book on Chinese double sabers that I wrote (link: https://shorturl.at/9Eq0m), I noted that there were times when the military was way more concerned with what you could do on horseback than on foot (and they tested accordingly); this sometimes meant tests involving two blades on horseback. You can see a comparable scene involving two weapons in an equine setting on this beautiful plate from Jiangxi province.

Whether you're riding into battle or just managing today's chores, may you never lose your balance! (...I know which one I'd rather be doing!).

A Japanese scroll painting over 100 years old, of a pair of mandarin ducks (quack)! These birds form a strong bond during their mating season, so they came to be associated with "pairs" in eastern Asia. That's why in Chinese martial culture you might hear a pair of weapons referenced as "Mandarin Duck Blades" 鸳鸯刀 (yuānyāng dāo); a poetic name that's really just part of the local descriptive inventory.

I wrote the ultimate manual on Chinese double sabers which includes even more period poems and names for such weapons. Check it out here: https://shorturl.at/IKurY

In praying mantis kung fu, when a kick is paired with other kicks or with hand attacks (vs simply throwing a kick in isolation), this is called "mandarin duck kicks", again representing this pairing.

Quite the pairing, and beautiful birds to boot! Cheers to the Seattle Asian Art Museum for preserving this painting for us to view!

Should children learn martial arts? A tale in two mirrors.

Both of these mirrors are from the 1700s. The one painted in Guangzhou with boys celebrating the lantern festival has one lad playing with a sword while others strike martial poses with masks relating to the mythical heroes and operatic stories of their day. Just like kids playing "Marvel" heroes today.

Children were sometimes taught martial arts in their youth, but other times were discouraged from learning. Did you know the sword and empty-hand fighting expert Luo Guangyu actually saw to it that his children did NOT become martial arts teachers? He took them to the city for apprenticeships so they could learn other trades. This was back in the era of challenge matches (kung fu instructors actually fighting *gasp*!) and Luo reasoned the lifestyle had been hard on his body. While he greatly appreciated the art...he wanted something different for his children. I detail stories like these in my sword and staff manuals, which you can find here: https://shorturl.at/aVo7z . In my opinion, such tales give "color" to our imaginings of the society these people were surrounded with, and lead to a better understanding of the context that the art was developed in.

Times change. 1700s mirrors (like the other example from England) played an important role in "lighting up" the home (no flood of electric lamps to illuminate every corner). You should try hanging up one in your own living space if you haven't: they liven up and "enlarge" the room.

Unlike Neil deGrasse Tyson, my favorite mirror fact is that in the West, during the Middle Ages, mirrors were used in art as symbols of vanity (self-absorbed preening), but by the time of the Renaissance, the symbolism had shifted over to a positive self-reflection, a "know thyself" introspective meditation tool that one of the four cardinal virtues "Prudence" was often depicted as holding.

Which would you hang in your home?

Cheers to the Seattle Art Museum for housing these fragile pieces of history.

Whoa. Over 1000 years old. This is the deity they honor at the Shaolin Temple, Vajrapani, his hand raised not in a typical mudra (religious gesture) but ready to palm strike any bad spirits that attempt to cross the threshold.

In my book The Art of Chinese Staff (link: https://shorturl.at/ERIpg), I go into great detail how the Shaolin warriors were fighting Japanese pirates and assisting the emperor, but they were also not without their critics! More than one person in the Ming dynasty was recorded as harshly critiquing their staff style! Was this critique actually warranted or merely insubstantial talking?

Back to Vajrapani, this stone artifact from the Tang Dynasty (618–907) that I can't believe I'm standing in front of. His arms and chest are muscular and well developed. His raised palm reminded me of many of the palming techniques in our own martial school (as recorded by Wong Honfan). In the woodblock print I included, you can see monks at Shaolin practicing, but also Vajrapani (eventually equated with Jinnaluo, another deity) holding the staff. Again way more details and stories in my staff book (link: https://shorturl.at/ERIpg), but I thought you would enjoy a brief glimpse at such an old artifact.

Cheers to the Seattle Asian Art Museum for preserving this little piece of history!

Now remember: we're here for serious HISTORY and "ReSeArCh". We don't want to get distracted by any pie shops that mi- what, pie?? ...mmm pie... Do any people in Australia follow me? How did they do?? Because it was good to me.