- George Chung
- May 21, 2024
- 10 min read
Updated: May 31, 2024
Black Belt published a two-part article on Bruce Lee (Green Hornet's "Kato") in 1967. Black Belt received received a flood of letters “concerning him and his style of Chinese Gung Fu.” We reprint some of them here and, in cases applicable, Mr. Lee's replies to them.
Bruce Lee Talks Back
It has been over two years since I began taking classical Kung Fu. After reading your two articles in BLACK BELT, especially the second part, I started to really think. Our practice at the school consists of standing on the horse stance, practicing classical forms and doing the two mennset - or what your Jeet Kune Do would call pre-arranged rhythmic sparring.
The stress is on good posture, good energy utilization and good (classical) form. Having read your realistic articles, I began to ask myself, "good for what?" I can see now that all the cramming posture, swinging punches and pretty kicks are too classically involved. There is a world of difference between applying these movements with an obedient partner who cooperates and an actual opponent who is bent on destroying you. Without consistent practice in sparring; I find it practically impossible to adjust proper distance or exact timing with a live, non-classical opponent. I know this because I took up some boxing a long time ago.
The reason I still continue to practice Kung Fu is because I figured our instructor was testing our patience. Though none of us ever saw him spar or engage in any fast exchange, I know my instructor
must be good. After all, he is a professional and I appreciate the saying, "He who knows does not speak; he who speaks does not know." What do you think?
T. Y. Whang
San Francisco, Calif.
Lao-Tzu is supposed to have said, "He who knows does not speak; he who speaks does not know." However, he himself wrote five thousand words to explain his doctrine.
Does the word "sailor" mean that a person can swim? And speaking of swimming, can you learn it by grinding your horse stance and performing idealistic land exercises? What do I think? Forget about this organized despair you have accumulated and go back to your boxing. Hang a heavy bag in your basement and use your legs as you would your hands. Of course, practice as much sparring as you can. You have to get wet in order to learn to swim.
Bruce Lee
I'm sure I'm not alone in having "likes" and "dislikes" regarding some of your articles. Usually I simply grunt to myself at the articles I particularly dislike or don't agree "vith. This time, however, I just couldn't let an issue go by without comment. I'm speaking of "Kato's Gung Fu. "
First the comment Brue Lee made: " ... to me a lot of this fancy stuff is not functional." ... is a line I've heard by phonies who "studied" karate for 5 or 6 months then, because they didn't have the patience or the intelligence, quit, opened their own dojo, put on a black belt and attempted to teach "karate." Bruce Lee obviously does not understand kata. Proof of this is the statement he makes on page 20 (first paragraph) . There are a hundred comments I'd like to make but these 6 will do for a start.
1. The dime and penny trick is just that! A trick that anyone, after a little practice, can do. They don't have to have fast or slow reflexes, just practice.
2. The "powerful punch" demonstration, where he punches his volunteer into a chair (pages 18-19) is a farce.
Take the chair away and he'll only be pushed a few feet (with or without the "protection" of the 2 inch glove). I've done this at demonstrations ... not to prove the power of it but to prove that
the man standing· in a "non-classical" stance is easily "punched" off balance. Had the man in the photos been standing in a karate stance, Mr. Lee wouldn't have been able to budge him! And … yes! I'll volunteer anytime!!
3. Bruce Lee goes on ... "When someone grabs you, punch him! ... " Apparently Mr. Lee thinks a karateist would perform a kata in response. I know what I'd do. But I'm wondering about Bruce Lee ... would he leave a penny in the grabber's hand?
4. As for practicing with "robots" the article states that Bruce Lee “works"
on stuffed dummies ... I wonder how fast and how varied their counter attacks are, and if they move around him quickly???
5. Karate's ultimate goal for techniques of self defense has always been simultaneous strikes or kicks with blocks. It is nothing new to karate. Anyone who has studied karate for a while is well aware of this common fact.
6. As I see it, Bruce Lee is saying (and proving) that he doesn't like, believe in or understand ... karate!!
Paul Arel
Glastonbury Karate Club
I am commenting on classical Chinese Gung Fu and not karate. If your particular style is not of the "fancy stuff" or crammed with "deadly" (in the sense of a corpse) techniques, you need not grunt and be upset.
I am not even a phony who studied karate for five or six months. In fact, I never did take karate. However, my assistants and I do have quite a few students from your circle taking from us. Whatever you like is your privilege, but I do not teach classical forms because of my understanding of them. As I have pointed out, Jeet Kune Do is interested in feeling what IS and not "doing' what was or what might be . .. in other words, the here and now, the direct experience with one's opponent, the two halves of the whole. Forms create situations which do not yet exist, while what IS is constantly moving, constantly undergoing a transformation … never fixed and always alive.
Take, for example, learning to slip a punch. Is there a classical form for that? Isn't slipping a punch a matter of' relationship? It's a different relationship every time as some opponents are fast, some slow, some deceptive, some awkward. It's too bad that out of 100 comments you could make, you come up with only SIX.
1. That is exactly what it is supposed to be, a stunt of speed.
2. I have demonstrated my punch, with or without a chair, and many reputable gentlemen among your circle will tell you it is not a push. If one stands in a classical stance, he will not be thrown back as far ... but it will definitely hurt more.
3. I don't know what you will do, but whatever you do, do it quick.
4. There is a difference between BEING a robot and pounding on a
robot. If you read carefully you know Jeet Kune Do values actual sparring
with a live opponent. However, when one does not have a live partner, he can use these dummies to acquaint himself with the correct distance and exact timing of his punches and kicks. This is realistic synchronization of the self.
5. So it is a common fact that there are no passive blocks in your particular
art too. That is good. I, too, am like you. I do not like to block passively with one hand, with the other on the hip, and then ... and then ... and then ...
Bruce Lee
I enjoyed reading your articles on Bruce Lee. It is interesting to find out the achievements of one of my Wing Chun "brothers." Today, Mr. Lee is the founder of a new style. Just a few years ago, he was only one of us. I am interested in finding out just how much Wing Chun he still remembers and how much of it is included in his style. From your second article on Mr. Lee I recognized the "sticking of the hands" exercise and the "tucked in elbow." Some of Mr. Lee's moves also reminded me of a northern style I practiced when I was small. If BLACK BELT is willing to find out some answers to my curiosity, I am sure that many other readers will come up with more interesting questions and comments. This is one way of finding out the nature of Gung-Fu. I wish to make a comment on Mr.
Lee's philosophy. Zen is very old and many an aggressive style has faded away in it. (If, having learned the art, "a punch is no longer a punch," I would prefer to stay as a student.)
Jack Ling
Bloomington, Ind.
I do not recall you as being one of us just a few years ago, for I left Hong Kong in the early part of 1959 . . . nearly nine years ago. At any rate, "Brother Ling," since you are interested in my Jeet Kune Do, I shall venture to tell you about it.
First, however, I should like to comment on the last paragraph of your letter.
I do not really care what your preference is, but I would like you to re-read carefully on page 18 in the second article. It reads, "Now that I've understood the art, a punch is just like a punch ... " You don't have to understand it, but read it carefully and, "Brother Ling," do empty your tea cup -first so you can taste my tea. After all, the usefulness of a cup is in its emptiness.
The foundation of Jeet Kune Do is very much like Wing Chun in that it advocates elbows in position, the center line and straight punching. Now there are three stages in the cultivation of Jeet Kune Do, each of them interrelated. The first stage is "sticking to the nucleus"; the second stage, "liberation from the nucleus.-,; the third stage, "returning to original freedom."
Classically speaking, sticking to the nucleus is merely based on the interior/exterior straight line and rejects the curved line on the idea that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. True, the straight line is very efficient (depending on the circumstances, that is), but rejection of the curve will lead to separation from the whole and the totality will not be achieved when men stubbornly cling to one partial view of things. After all, a good martial artist should be able to strike and kick from all angles and, with either hands or legs, take advantage of the moment.
Therefore, straight punching in Wing Chun becomes a means to an end, but not the end itself, and it should be reinforced and supported by other compact angle punches and kicks as well, thus, as a whole, making one's style more flexible without confinement or limitation. Like western boxing, Jeet Kune Do is most fluid and the fluidity of movements lies in their interchangeability.
By combining the first and second stages we have the natural returning to a straight puncher; sometimes the straight is useful, sometimes the cure, depending on the circumstances.
In the eyes of combat there is no set course, but the totality of action, and in this totality there is nothing to choose and nothing better or worse. One can say that the pilot of Jeet Kune Do passes through the center where the curve and straight converge and, in the ultimate, Jeet Kune Do is a circle without circumference. "In the landscape of spring there is neither better nor worse; The flowering branches grow naturally; some long, some short, a Zen saying.
Bruce Lee
The reason for this letter is that there are rumors that a man in Connecticut by the name of Bruce Fleetwood is spreading around. He claims to have defeated Bruce Lee twice in public and many times in private sparring. I have never seen this person before, but I feel it would not be that easy to beat Bruce Lee. Also, I don't recall ever hearing of Bruce Lee competing in public.
Please give me your opinion about this so I can set things straight with the karate people in Connecticut.
William J. Chung
New York City
.
Who's he????
Bruce Lee.
I would like to commend you on your very fine article on Mr. Bruce Lee and Jeet Kune Do. There have been persistent rumors about this young master. Some are subtle and some are ridiculous. The latest rumor floating around concerns Mr. Lee being killed by a gung-fu master in Hong Kong. I would like for BLACK BELT to clear the air for me. Did Mr. Lee get killed before or after your fine article was written about him? If he was killed, was he killed by a master of the classical mess or a master of the simple touch system or a master of whatafumo?
All of these systems, I understand, are quite deadly. In fact, there are no instructors who teach them.
Leo Fong
Stockton, Calif.
Before the Green Hornet show there were many tales of my defeats as well as glories, and these tales came from various states - some of which . I have never set foot in. After the show hit the nation, incredible tales began to come in by the dozens and I have supposedly been sent to the hospital about once every three months. In fact, a recent Hong Kong newspaper reported that I had gloriously defeated a "master" in England!
Now this latest one is refreshing. This is the first time I have actually been killed by a "master" in Hong Kong. Well, let's see. I must have been dead now for over two years. You see, the last time I was in Hong Kong was in 1965
Bruce Lee
I am 18 years old and interested in karate and some of the other martial arts. I subscribe to your magazine and just received the October issue. While looking through it I came across the article, on Bruce Lee and read it all through.
Before I began working nights (to earn enough money to join a dojo), I never missed watching "The Green Hornet,” on TV. Could you send me Bruce Lee's address? I like his style of karate. I hope to gain black belt rank in both judo and karate - and others, if possible. Bruce Lee is all you say and more. He is my favorite karate man. Can you tell me what rank he is?
Dennis Totten
After reading Mr. Bruce Lee's article in the November '67 issue of your magazine, I decided to renew my subscription to your magazine. It has been a few years since I was a subscriber so you may have trouble finding my name in your files. You did, however, publish an article my wife (Carol) wrote on the "First Pittsburgh Karate Championship" in your July-August 1964 issue.
I am also sending for your October '67 issue to read the first part of Mr. Lee's article. If at all possible I would like Mr. Lee's address so that I may write to him myself to tell him how I enjoyed his articles.
