Guan Gung Drags the Blade
by Gene Ching - Head Shaolin & Tai Chi Chuan Instructor

Dear readers, submitted for your approval is this tale of how business with the Chinese lead me on a quest to find the God of War. Unless you have been living as a mountain hermit, you have probably heard that business with Pacific Rim market is hot as hell. What they don't tell you is that it is also crazy as hell. I was in Beijing, on an exhausting reconnaissance mission for Wing Lam Enterprises to seek out new products for all of you. My gracious hosts, our WLE Chinese connection, had been leading me through the blistering Beijing heat and hustle for days. While a buying expedition in China may sound like the martial artist's dream come true, it can really a nightmare. China is full of treasures, but it is buried under tons of dirt. The dirt of more than one billion people, to be precise. Beyond this tiresome task of sifting through literally thousands of unmarketable products, the real challenge of Pacific Rim business lies within the cultural differences between China and the West.

The first problem is how the West perceives the Chinese market. For example, take the only product that we had found during our first few days of shopping, our new telescopic straight swords. One big problem lies within how westerners perceive telescopic swords. Here, many have the misconception that these function as some kind of concealable weapon, sort of like the spring-loaded self-defense batons carried by the Japanese police. Not true. The real reason for telescopic swords is simply to make them easier to carry around. Millions (and I do mean millions) of Chinese practice sword forms everyday, everywhere, all the time. This is one of the great things about China: You can whip out a sword and swing it around just about anywhere and no one would bat an eye. Since everyone carries swords there, there is no need to conceal one. We could probably sell more if we marketed this a concealable sword, but that would propagate exactly the kind of false information that Wing Lam Enterprises has opposed since its conception. We hope that there is enough people who will respond in a little truthful advertising for a change.

A similar problem lies in how China perceives the Western market. Because of this vast sword market, there is a wide range of Chinese swords, however, most of it is poor quality. Cheap swords made of wood, tin, aluminum even plastic (!) are everywhere. We looked at hundreds of swords, dozens of telescopic ones, before finding one with sturdy construction, satisfactory weight and good balance. My hosts were constantly trying to convince me that the cheaper stuff was better just because it was cheaper. I had a difficult time trying to explain that westerners would demand higher quality. This difference in priorities will forever plague business between East and West: quality versus price. None of you would have tolerated this cheap stuff; it could never meet the high standards of the Western market. However, to the Chinese, these pieces were acceptable because they were such a bargain. After all, the average Chinese makes much less than the average American. Much less. There I was, arguing in my broken Mandarin, trying to explain the western market to people who had never experienced it. My hosts would insist "hen pianyi (very cheap)" and I would reply "bu hao (not good)", then we would pause, drink tea, and repeat this dialogue, over and over and over again. I was beginning to give up hope.

However, shopping in China does have its moments of wondrous discovery. After days of digging in the dirt, we eventually found the new book Legends about Guanyu of China which debuted in our last issue. My Beijing companions were surprised that I would want such a book, but it proved to be quite a breakthrough in regards to our shopping expeditions. Little did they know that Guanyu sits sternly on the altar at Lam Kwoon. In April 1992, I published an article in Inside Kung Fu on the symbolic meaning of this altar titled Sun Toi: the House of the Kung Fu Gods. Beyond that, I can remember hours of horse stance facing the image of Guanyu in the Lam Kwoon altar. Even now, when I lead classes for Sifu Lam, I can still feel Guanyu behind my shoulder, gazing at the junior students just like he gazed at me. General Guanyu (a.k.a. Guandi or Guan Gung) is a legendary hero that traditional Kung Fu practitioners revere. His righteousness and martial skill inspires us all. If there is one martial ancestor that deserves respect from all practitioners of Kung Fu, it is Guanyu. As martial roots go, Guanyu is one of the deepest.

I acquired a copy of this remarkable new book and read it carefully that night. Something must have clicked, for the very next day, our trips were more successful. We found many new items that we unveiled in our last catalog; This catalog holds the rest from that trip. Perhaps I impressed my hosts with my scant knowledge of Chinese culture. Perhaps they saw that the kinds of products I was looking for was not what they had presumed, so they listened more carefully to what I suggested. I like to think that the General was watching out for Gene. He knew my mission to promote Kung Fu, and once I made an offering to him, he opened the door for me (and for you).

In Legends about Guanyu of China, there is a wonderful picture of Guanyu's weapon, allegedly the original Guan Dao (Kwan Do), that immediately caught my eye. After spending half a decade of my life as a professional sword-maker and watching Sifu Wing Lam create spectacular kwan do weapons in his own workshop, antique weapons always catch my eye, especially something that claims to be the "original kwan do". To my delight, I discovered that this weapon is stored in a Guanlin Temple in Henan, the same province as Shaolin Temple. That just happened to be where I was headed next. Guanlin Temple is where Guanyu's head is buried. Since I was going to be in the neighborhood, I had to go and burn some incense there.

Unlike Shaolin Temple, which is nestled in the natural beauty of Song mountain, Guanlin Temple is buried in the urban squalor of Loyang city. It is at the end of an unremarkable alley, cluttered with the ubiquitous tourist stalls. Old peasant vendors in soiled clothes bark "Yao Buyao" (want or don't want?) at each passing visitor. With a fat roll of incense in hand I proceeded to give offerings in this venerated place. Guanlin Temple has the typical architecture of any Chinese temple, consisting of a series of courtyards and halls in the center of symmetrical walls. Each room contained another spectacular statue of Guan Gung. Directly in front of each statue was a typical kneeling bench for bowing, a place for incense and a donation collection box. Strangely, to the right of each altar inside the temple hall was a tacky tourist shop counter, complete with a vendor, who was usually reading a book or smoking a cigarette!

The "original" Kwan Do is very impressive. It is cast from solid iron and weighs a whopping 54 kilograms. Lifting this weapon is one of the little tourist activities within Guanlin. Now, as I mentioned earlier, I worked as a sword maker, and have also done some antique weapon dealing. Even with my limited knowledge, it was easy to ascertain that there was no way that this was the original Kwan Do, despite all advertising to the contrary. First of all, it would be a sin to let any common tourist handle something that was that precious. Guan Gung's weapon would be almost 1800 years old! If it was that old, there should be some evidence of natural decay. Apart from a little rust, this weapon showed no sign of any significant erosion. It was obviously a fake. However, it was still an excellent example of a Kwan Do, one of the finest I have ever seen. Even though it was fake, I lifted it with great reverence.

Actually, my favorite part of this temple was the Guan Gung robot. In one of the temple rooms, I was asked to drop a coin into a slot, which activated this rather shoddy robot of Guan Gung in bed. It was a worse robot than the ones at the house of horrors at the beach boardwalk. The robot would rise, then turn and look at me, at which point I was supposed to throw another coin into his slippers, which were resting by his bedside. I was the only one in the group who succeeded. I was told that it would bring me great riches. I am still waiting. Not only do I deny that the Kwan Do was original, I also deny this robot was original.

In many ways, Guanlin is like Shaolin. We westerners go with some fantastic expectation from books or movies, and when we get there, the reality of the situation is much different. It is not the solemn oriental monastery, full of mystery and romance. It seems dirty and run down. Poor peasants live and work there, and the have to provide their families with food, clothes and shelter, just like everywhere else in the world. Often, their garish grab for money seems inappropriate to us. But who are we to judge? We are just ugly tourists on vacation. They have to survive there in poverty every day. While you point your finger, some one else is judging you.

As you probably already know, many martial arts tourists have complained about the state of Shaolin Temple. I have written so many rebuttals that sometimes I feel as if I have joined the ranks of the many lone Shaolin heroes of history that have struggled to defend the honor of Shaolin, using my words instead of my fighting staff. My main argument against these critics is that they lack perspective about Chinese temples. They fail to remember the profound effect of recent history upon ancient history. China suffered horrible blows from the Cultural Revolution of the sixties. It was such a chaotic time that no one knows the exact toll upon humanity or upon Chinese culture. Millions may have perished. Religious temples took some of the heaviest damage. Given the tremendous magnitude of destruction, it is remarkable that any temples survived at all. Since then, China has been attempting to reconstruct herself. Obviously, this is a difficult task. Imagine trying to raise your culture up from the ashes when you have nothing to eat and no place to live. A few decades ago, the Shaolin monks were starving in the ruins of the temple. They faced extreme hardship and poverty before the opportunity to rebuild appeared. What amazes me is that some people can be so self centered to be critical of these efforts. These places do what they must to survive in a place where the only resource is its tattered history. After Shaolin Temple and Gualin Temple have suffered so much, it is unbearable to witness them get snubbed by some egotistical tourist because it does not meet their standards of order or cleanliness.

Ultimately, the issue is about roots. We all like to see ourselves as special, but really we are all just a tiny part of a massive martial tree that is as vast as the whole world and as ancient as time. Some are fruit, some are leaves, some are the manure that nourishes the tree. When some of the tree's fruits lack respect for the roots because they are beneath them and buried in dirt, then something is amiss. Perhaps they believe that the only purpose of the tree is so they can have a place in the sun. They fail to see that we are all connected through branch and trunk. Sometimes you have to prune the branches to make the tree grow straight. Hopefully, these bad fruits shall fall, down to the very dirt that they despise, contributing their flesh to the fertilizer. Through this self sacrifice, any of us may add to the health of our martial tree.

If you really want to know your roots, you have to get down and dirty. You have to dig for yourself. Dig through all that manure with your hands. No one else can help you. The roots of martial arts are old and gnarled. You must dig deeply. Often, the results of your efforts are surprising. When I was looking for a modern telescopic sword, I found a robot of the God of War. These surprises can be good, if you look at them with a positive perspective. We are surprised when something does not meet our expectations, and we can learn from our misconceptions once we admit to them.

Despite all of its gaudiness, my experience at Guanlin was definitely inspirational. I was able pay my respects to one of Kung Fu's greatest heroes. I was able to place my hands upon his tomb and burn incense in his honor. And now, I am able to pass on my experience to you, hopefully igniting another fire in everyone who reads this. This is the real key to tradition: Pay respects and pass it on.