Book of Wise Investors

Being a fan of kungfu movies, especially the profound interlinking of blocks and punches unique to Wing Chun, the obvious movie of choice for me during this period of time will be Ip Man 2 and not really Iron Man 2, though I would recommend most to simply watch both. With the relatively good plot, theme music and fighting scenes of Ip Man 1, there was much anticipation to the sequel of the first Ip Man movie.

There is a Chinese saying of life experiences reflect movie stories and movie stories reflect life experiences, (人生如戏，戏如人生), it is due to the meanings and principles (and of course Donnie Yen and Wing Chun) that I found in Ip Man 1 movie that if I were to decide between Ip Man 2 and Iron Man 2, I would choose the former but since the price of a movie ticket is not really out of the world, unlike housing, it will not be much of a dilemma to watch both in the movie theaters.

You need to listen to this music as you read this post in order to have the feel.

1. Being in a crisis forces creativity thinking and innovation out of you

Ip Man is a movie about Wing Chun superb techniques, the history and story of Wing Chun holds important implications for us all. Without the crisis in Shaolin Temple around 400 years ago, Reverend Ng Mui will not have escape and force to innovate and there will not be no Wing Chun, no Ip Man and no Bruce Lee. While it is unfortunate that the Shaolin Temple is destroyed by the Qing Government at that time, along with some profound Shaolin martial arts, the great blessing in disguises is that one of the world’s greatest martial arts is born as a result of it.

Think about it, without retrenchments, without job security, with iron rice bowl, will you have venture out and eventually business multi-millionaires.

2. There is a formula for success

One of the key reasons behind the success of Ip Man movies, other than good plot, theme music and fighting scenes, is the stirring up of nationalistic feelings among the Chinese. The first person to use this strategy to boost box office sales in the Chinese movie market is none other than Bruce Lee in his 1972 Fist of Fury. The whole story line is similar to the first movie in the sense that got the bad guys belong to some races that oppress the Chinese during the turbulence last 100 years of China history. The difference between the first and second movies’ bad guys is none other than the first is Japanese and the second is a British. Also got around the same number of fight scenes with a final showdown and family oriented scenes.

I know that got people with surname Yip, feel very proud of their surnames after watching Ip Man 2, when the profound blocks, punches, kicks and techniques enables a shorter and smaller sized Chinese to defeat a larger westerner, the Chinese whole world over felt that Kungfu belong to the world but Wong Feihong, Huo Yuanjia, Yip Man and Bruce Lee belong to the Chinese people.

为了生活我可以忍，但污辱中国武术就不行 – I can endure to earn a living but cannot stand insult to Chinese Kungfu

Hung Jan Nam(Sammo Hung’s Character in Ip Man 2)

Ironically, it is the British controlled Hong Kong that saves Wing Chun from extinction as due to a man (by the surname of Mao) and his cock ideas, Cultural Revolution, that almost destroys the rich heritage of Chinese Culture, including and especially Chinese martial arts like Wing Chun.

Be it movie or other fields of endeavor, there is a formula for success.

3. Philosophy or beliefs of a person leads to different outcomes

The distinctive differences in fighting style between Taekando and Wing Chun are evident. In Taekando, it is believed that legs are the strongest weapon of the human body and hence the using of legs more often. While Wing Chun is designed for a weaker person and supposedly shorter in height also, to overcome a stronger person and it doesn’t make sense to use legs often since, you are supposedly physically weaker than the other feller and his legs are most probably stronger and longer than you.

In addition, when you are shorter and kick higher than waist level, not only center of gravity is temporally raised higher, reducing stability, more vital parts are exposed to attacks. While the beliefs behind Wing Chun is that kicks above waist level reduces stability by raising the body centre of gravity and if the kicks, especially high kicks does not happen to strike, a Wing Chun expert can easily advance close to him and finish off with double quick bong san, tan sou, etc., or 来留去送 which is why Donnie Yen in the Ip Man 1 and 2 fight scenes only use kicks as a finishing move, after Jin ShanZhao, Japanese General or Mr Twister has been traumatized by machine gun punches.

As a result of differences in the thinking and philosophy between these two schools of martial arts, there is different in outcomes of the way practitioners of them react to the same fight scenarios.

The extreme opposite between Eastern and Western Philosophy leads to wide differences in the practice of medicine and martial arts. Western Philosophy is traced back to Aristotle reductionist thinking, that is reducing them to the interactions of their parts, or to simpler or more fundamental things while Eastern Philosophy is more of influenced by Taoism concept of wholeness, yin and yang, and that all living and non-living things interact and counteract one another.

We can see the difference in medicine, in the treatment of poisonous bite by a snake. Western medicine may sought to develop an organic compound to neutralize the snake poison by analyzing molecular formula of the snake poison and then synthesis another organic compound to neutralize it. Traditional Chinese Medicine from one of the core Taoism philosophy, 五形三界，相冲相克，all the biological and non-biological objects interacts and counteracts one another in this realm, means that within the vicinity of where the snake lives lay the antidote for the snake’s poison, most probably in some of the plants.

In the movie Ip Man 2, the Mr Twister martial arts skills – western boxing is none other than some simple blocks and punches. A result of reductionist thinking? While that of Ip Man’s Wing Chun is more complicated when the whole martial arts system spring from considering the whole system and of course built on existing Shaolin martial arts at that time. Which is also why Bruce Lee decides to use the Taosim Yin Yang symbol for his Jee Kune Do as the philosophy and concepts draws heavily from Taosim philosophy.

The moral of the story at the end of the day is adopt different philosophies so that one can use each when problem solving because sometimes reductionist thinking in more effective in this circumstances and sometimes, expansionist thinking is more effective in another circumstances, like mixed martial arts, using skills and techniques from different styles for different fight scenarios. The practice of medicine today is also moving towards using western and traditional Chinese medicine in the treatment of various diseases.

We can see this in two different thoughts when it comes to investing in equities, like some feel technical investing is better while others prefer fundamental analysis. Both can actually combine and use at the same time.

4. Using of mantra to simplify learning, remembering and application of whatever things you learn in life

Unlike martial arts from other countries like Japan and Korea, Chinese martial arts, including Wing Chun, usually contain mantras to summaries all the key philosophies, core concepts and principles in four letter Chinese words. The beauty of China girls Chinese language lies in four words can transmit deep and profound meanings that will take more than four English words to convey. We shall see some of these four words mantra from Wing Chun and their meanings, together with all the life lessons that can be reflected from it.

Think about it, be it creative thinking, critical thinking, programming, engineering problem solving, real world business problems, aren’t that we need to go through certain thoughts processes, methods of analysis, as a result, coming up with mantras for methods of solutions enables fast and effective recall of the mental processing strategies required.

5. 永春绝技，源起少林 – Wing Chun Superb techniques, originally originates from Shaolin

The first line of the mantra recognizes Wing Chun roots in Shaolin. As mentioned before, the acquisitions of appropriate knowledge of a field must come first before innovations in that field can occur. Reverend Ng Mui study Shaolin martial arts throughout all her life. As such, the knowledge and insights gained would be deep, profound and enlightening because she literally faces martial arts every day. It is by standing on the shoulder of giants that she can see further. In other words, it is by sitting on a large pile of knowledge that Ng Mui is able to derive and invent a much better fighting system than previous versions.

6. 拳打中线, 两点之间, 直线最短, 以弱胜强, 拳入三关,　任我行走 – Fist hit centerline, shortest distance between two points is a straight line, the weakness can overcome strong, once cut into centerline, can attack anyhow I want

When you are fighting with someone much larger in size and taller in height and with muscles here, there and everywhere, like Mr Twister, it is obvious that the only way to survive is by attacking the person vital points which lie along the centerline. If you are much large in size and height, and opponent does not know any martial arts, you anyhow beat can also win by common sense. However, this is not the case in real life situations as in not every time the other feller is of smaller size and shorter height than you. In addition, the shortest distance between two points is a straight line, when not only your legs are shorter but hands also; it makes sense to deliver punches using a straight punch along the straight line.

We can see this in the jobs and careers that we pursue, just like a physically weaker person need to hit along the centerline so that there is much higher probability of winning, if one is not that good in talking and sales, it is also wiser that he or she does not involve himself in things like network marketing and commission based financial adviser, and screw himself because the most crucial element require for success happens to be his greatest weakness. There are many ways to make millions, one do not necessarily have to be in network marketing or financial adviser that needs to requires excellent verbal communications skills for success.

In the movie Ip Man 2, in the final showdown between Yip Man and Mr Twister, the grandmaster eventually win by cutting into Mr Twister centerline and whacks aggressively using some techniques and forms from Hong Gar. As you can see, once one cut into centerline using Wing Chun techniques, Yip Man can use the more damaging Hong Gar forms to impact greater injuries.

This is like in investing in stock markets, when various benchmarks showed that stocks are seriously undervalued, it is time to start aggressively buying into.

7.连消带打, 以攻为守,　以守为攻 – Simultaneous attack and defend, attack is defend and defend is attack

To merge attack and defend together is a novel concept at that time and to this day, there are not many martial arts styles that stress and emphasize much or contain techniques of simultaneous attack and defend.

As with actual fighting, look at the job scope or task in your everyday job and businesses, are there two tasks that can be done at the same time without sacrificing the quality of work.

6.招无虎鹤, 法无五行, 只谈线位, 力与角度, 蓄劲似蛇,　发劲似猫,　朝形似鸡 – Forms contain no Tiger and crane hand forms, no specific patterns, only about relative positions, strength of force and angle in the application of force, preparing to exert force like snake, applying force like cat, standing stance like chicken.

While history has it that Reverend Ng Mui invent Wing Chun after observing how a crane fight, Wing Chun does not contain any Crane hand forms, unlike Hong Gar which still retains the five animals hand forms from which the Hong Fist style is derived. Wing Chun deviates substantially from the martial arts of that time in that it do away with directly mimic the movements of animals and choose certain elements from animals fight for applications in human fights. One can see Crane in Bong sau, ding sau and snake in Huen sau, bill gee, etc, but the hand movements in Wing Chun do away with crane and snake hand forms, Tiger hand can be seem in Hong Gar used by Sammo Hung when he is fighting with both Yip Man and Mr Twister but Wing Chun has do away with unnecessary forms and movements that directly mimic animals movements.

There are many aspects or elements of an area that can be applied onto another area or field of studies. One should recognize whether if certain elements can totally do away and only apply those that are the most suitable.

9. Importance of mastering the basics, 永春小念头 – Little Idea

所为永春真妙法，必需先从小念头开始

Wing Chun Siu Nian Tou contains some of the most important blocks and punches which aspiring Yip Man and Bruce Lee must learn and master well in order to fight like them in real world actual fighting. At first sight, it seems that the patterns of Siu Nian Tou are nothing much impressive and one at first really wonders if they are of practical usage in actual fighting.

We can see that in investing and engineering, mastering the basics is also equally important for success. It is by understanding what are light transmittance and the unique properties of fiber optics., all the fundamental Physics concepts that the following NUS students can come up a device to capture Sunlight and only transmit the light minus the heat energy of sun.

Before you can be like Warren Buffet, one must first understand and grasp the concept of time value of money well, the basic terminologies used in financial statements and concepts like price-earnings ratio, dividends yield, etc.

10. 下三路手,　以脚消脚 – When kicks are below waistline, use legs to neutralize legs (or kicks)

One of the fundamental Wing Chun principles is when kicks toward you are below your waistline, you use legs to neutralize the leg attacks. This illustrates the importance of systematic problem solving. Fighting is like creative problem solving in the sense that both are dealing with a dynamic situation. So that when a certain problem situation is similar to another, one can always use the same techniques.

11. 禅宗绝学,　旨在修身 – main objective of Wing Chun is to cultivate oneself

While Wing Chun got deadly effects when truly mastered, one should aware of benevolent and compassion. The Chinese word for martial arts is actually made up of two words, one is stop and the other is war. The original intention of martial arts is to stop warring.

In the wet market fights, when Ip Man finally got a chance to display Wing Chun Butterfly knifes, we can see that he flipped over the knifes to the blunt side just before the hacking begins remembering that they most probably have a mother or wife at home, because he knows that the group of them will most probably not be his match.

One should always be aware of the original intentions and sacred duties of various professions (if you belong to them), graduates from Medicine faculty need to take a meaningful Hippocratic Oath, future lawyers also need to take a similar oath of upholding the justice while engineers need to remind of their duties in life – that of improving the life of humanity through science and technology.

Too often, however and unfortunately, people learn martial arts and develop more violent tendency, lawyers instead of upholding justice ended up only help rich people to win court cases regardless of actual circumstances, doctors knowingly prescribing Subutex even though it is an addictive drug.

12. 肉身成佛 古今几人 无为无我 无界无终 – since the beginning of ages, how many people ever become invincible in fighting, (exact words meaning are how many people ever become Buddha since the beginning of ages) there is no boundary to the ultimate level of martial arts, no boundary where learning stop

The final words of Wing Chun mantra mention another profound fact of life, that of lifelong learning, one should live until old and learn until old. Knowing all the Siu Nim Tao, Chum Kiu, Biu Tze and Muk Yan Jong does not make you a Yip Man and Bruce Lee, neither to attaining black belts a few dans in Karate or Taekando. As what academic professors say even though they already got Phd or doctoral degrees in their respective fields of study – the more I know, the more I don’t know. There is really no boundary to the degree of knowledge that one can acquire.

We now know why Bruce Lee made a certain statement, given the profoundness of Chinese Kungfu.

I am here to tell you that China is the ancestral homeland of all martial arts.

International Kungfu Superstar Bruce Lee, during a speech given in Edison Technical School

13. Everyone got a God-given talent and a place where the heart is

Had Sammo Hung being born in a particular city state, he will most probably ended up as a doctor or lawyer if he is good is his academic studies or as a toilet cleaner/taxi driver if he does not fare too well. If the career option available to Sammo Hung is university or it’s the end, not only will there be no Ip Man, there will also not have the hugely successful vampire series of movies during the 1980s and early 1990s which create an iconic character of a vampire expert that up to this day, they still cannot find someone to replace Lam Ching Ying as the vampire and ghost expert.

There is a Chinese saying; 十年树木，百年树人- it takes ten years to grow a tree but 100 years to know the outcome of an educational system. It is a joke that barely less than half a century when a particular education system has yet to produce a single Nobel Prize winner, some people can self congratulates them for creating a good class education system when cracks or problems already started to surface.

Had you seem and realize that more wealth is created for humanity if the education system is more of helping to discover each child inborn talent and passion rather than one that overly stresses on academic achievements. Had Reverend Ng Mui not devoted herself to deep study of martial arts (a supposedly non-economical activity by today’s perspective), due to passion and gained a deep understanding of Shaolin martial arts due to talent none other than commonly defined notion of academic achievements, there will be no 永春绝技. The Japanese feller who compose this piece of music for Ip Man may well become retarded if he were forced to study some courses like Medicine, Lawyer and Accountancy that were supposedly brings better career prospects and earn more money.

I will write the word Kungfu into English Dictionary.

International Kungfu Superstar Bruce Lee, during a speech given in Edison Technical School

Bruce Lee almost graduated with a first class honors in Philosophy from  University of Washington when he decides to quite school and open martial arts school,

He said, if my life purpose is to let the whole world know what Chinese Kungfu is, what do I have to afraid to lose?

14. Morality and professions should not have differences in status

“今天的胜负，我不是想证明我们中国的武术，比西洋拳更加优胜。我只是想说，人的地位，虽然有高低之分，但是人格不该有贵贱之别。我很希望，从这一刻开始，我们大家可以学会懂得怎样去互相尊重”

Yip Man(Donnie Yen’s character in Ip Man 2)

In today materialistic society, people have the tendency to value fellow humans on the basis of his monthly income and net worth, or by his profession, or even by the way he look. But since morality should not have the distinction of high and low, so should job and profession. In some country, even engineers are deemed to be of lower status than doctors and lawyers by virtue of income and stability in income.

This is very similar in meanings, though not entirely similar to “one of the best well known sentences in the English Language”, from United States Declaration of Independence.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Ip Man should wear Iron Man suit and Iron Man should learn Wing Chun so that they will become invincible. The combination can be called Ipron Man 2 so that people will not have to become indecisive as to watch which movie.

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