Breaking bones or destroying the Qi, Wing Chun made its choice

A criticism I often hear is that Wing Chun strike is not powerful, that our direct punch cannot break the opponent’s bones. To that I answer that our goal is not to break bones but to make the opponent vibrate.

Wing Chun is based on Taoist culture, life philosophy but also a way of body wellness through its energetic work, and it is from this knowledge that a large part of system’s concepts, ideas but also strikes ensue from.

Wing Chun strikes are learned at specific locations and heights because despite the low extension we have, we will throw tremors in opponent’s body that will render him less operational.

The center line directly comes from traditional medicine that locates a large number of functional body vital points on well identified ways, the meridians.

The one that interests us goes through the center line, it is the « Ren Mai » meridian, or conception vessel, that has a major role in Qi circulation. It controls and leads all « Yin » meridians and associated organs, and this is on this meridian we focus our attention for basic strikes.

Our direct punch will target three specific points on this meridian: 14VC, 17VC and 22VC.

14VC – Functions usually assigned to this point are:

– regulate heart and calm the mind
– transform mucus and ease pain
– bring down lung’s Qi and unknot chest
– bring back stomach harmony and bring down rebel Qi
Striking this point will therefore destabilize body’s harmony and will generate the opposite of its beneficial functions. For example, heart instead of slowing down will race, mind will be disturbed instead of peaceful and so on.

More practically, as this point is located just ahead of the heart, striking it with our direct chain punch (3 strikes) will generate vibrations that will desynchronize the opponent’s heart rate (tachycardia), leading to a slow-down and decrease of opponent’s performance.

17VC – Functions usually assigned to this point are:

– regulate Qi flow, enslave stomach and lung rebellion, treat Qi issues, harmonize diaphragm, clarify lungs and dissolve phlegm
– it is also a crossing point with the triple heater meridian and it eases the mind among other functions

This point located just ahead of the lungs, is an area that holds a reserve, an energetic storage the body uses in case of emergency. Strike will release this energy in an erratic fashion in the body and vibration on the lungs will impair respiratory functions.

22VC – it belongs to the « window’s sky points », often mentioned as allowing a better Qi and blood flow into the neck and the head, but that in classics have the common feature of decreasing the Qi.

This point, located ahead of the trachea, is a linking point that once striked will desynchronize blood and oxygen supply allowing a decrease in the opponent’s capacity to focus his mind and coordinate his breathe.

These three points are our starting base, there exists more than 360 points on all meridians and at least twenty of them will be exploited by our Wing Chun strikes.