Jin Yi Ming. LIAN GONG MI JUE: Secret Methods of Acquiring External and Internal Mastery. Shanghai,

An old proverb says: “If you exercise only the technique (style) but ignore special training you will be a nobody till your old days.” “Special training” implies particular exercises for developing both WAI ZHUANG – “the External Power” and NEI ZHUANG – “the Internal Power”. Those exercises (training procedures) are collected under a common title – LIAN GONG, literally “Exercising to Acquire Mastery”. In his preface the author writes: “...It is not an idle talk that “Strength can not overcome the Pugilistic Art (Quan Shu), the Pugilistic Art can not overcome Internal Mastery (Gong Fu)”. The people think that it is enough to exercise the Pugilistic Art (Quan Shu) but few know that the Pugilistic Art can not withstand the Internal Mastery (Gong Fu) as the Pugilistic Art is sprouts of Gong Fu and Gong Fu itself is the base and root of the Pugilistic Art. There are people who exercise only Gong Fu and do not exercise Quan Shu. But nobody heard that Quan Shu can be exercised without exercising Gong Fu. Such “mastery” is like flying fluff or floating duckweed - too weak base. It is necessary to exercise both Gong Fu and Quan Shu, only in that case there will be a strong base and excellent Mastery.” The first part of the book presents exercises which belong to the section “External exercising” (WAI GONG) aimed at the development of “the External Power” (WAI ZHUANG). It includes exercises for the development of “hardness” (YING GONG), “lightness” (QING GONG) and “flexibility” (ROU GONG). The second part of the book deals with the development of “the Internal Power” (NEI ZHUANG): the description of massage according to the method NEI ZHUANG XING GONG, the method “Rinsing marrow” XI SUI, some formulae of drugs to increase the level of the “internal power” are given. Undoubtedly, the book will be useful for serious practitioners of traditional styles of Chinese Martial Arts who are eager to reach genuine mastery.