The 72 Secret Fighting Exercises or ‘Kungs’ of the Shaolin Temple fall into two separate categories: Soft Yin/Rou Internal Energy Training; or Hard Yang/Gang External Power Training. Iron Cloth Shirt or ‘Tie Shan Bu Gong’, a defensive example of the latter, provides extreme external body-conditioning for those acquiring this Art. As ever, these Shaolin Temple Secret Arts involve prolonged, intensive training extremes but can produce amazing results.
Technical Analysis
Iron Cloth Shirt/Tie Bu Shan Gong is designed to develop the back, shoulders, chest and arms. The skin, elastic and flexible, frequently remains intact, even when muscle damage occurs and bones are broken. This extreme Shaolin Wei Gung Exercise uses external body-conditioning to strengthen the body’s interior.
Iron Cloth Shirt strengthens the muscles and bones, particularly the latter. Bones’ hard and brittle nature makes them prone to breaks and susceptible to fractures. Tie Bu San Gung develops the bones until they become hard, strong and resilient enough to withstand all kinds of Fighting and Training.
Method
A wooden-frame needs to be constructed using two wooden posts approximately eight feet long. These are buried three-feet deep in the ground, approximately four feet apart.The two upright posts are then joined together with an iron-bar fixed across them, about one foot from the top and a pit around one foot deep is dug immediately below. This is filled with fine-sand, sawdust or a mixture of both.
Best practised in the mornings, the Tie Bu Shan Gong student should mount the apparatus and squat down upon the iron-bar. Then, falling forwards, straightening the legs simultaneously, with arms out-wide, chest outstretched and chin pulled back, the student falls chest-first, into the pre-prepared pit.
When Iron Cloth Shirt is first practised, the torso is wrapped-round liberally with cloth and other suitable materials, for protection. Thorough chest-massage, with Chinese Medicinal Wine/Dit Da Jeow, to prevent internal injuries should, similarly, precede each practice-session. After approximately two years of regular practice these precautions can be dispensed with. The left and right shoulders and fore-arms can then be conditioned in a similar manner.
Special Requirements
‘Iron Bullock Arts’ an External Power Training Exercise of the abdomen should always be performed before Iron Cloth Shirt practice. The combined result should be a body hard as stone, impervious to attack by any weapon.
Overall
One of the Four Heroic Shaolin Monks (Si Yi) is credited with the development of this exercise, which is a compulsory part of Monk Training. These were the Monks’ only casualties at the Battle of Wenjiagang during the Ming dynasty when hundreds of Japanese ‘Wako’ Pirates were slain.
