Mo Duk / Wu De - what is it?

[5thBrother]

Mo Duk / Wu De - what is it?

what are some aspects in martial art / ur style/school.

i know it means martial virtue... but anyone share some detial information on it.

one of my teacher would end class with some story / legand or other showing some strong point such as if u can be patient in a moment of anger u will save yourself 100 days of suffering in the future etc etc///

general discussion on mo duk



thanks

[extrajoseph]

Wude or Martial Virtue requires some adherence to good moral behaviour. CLF has the 10 rules and here are two examples, (A) one from Futsan Hung Sing Gwoon (Frank's school) and (B) one from the CLF Code of Conduct (Chan Family).


A. The 10 Rules of Fut San Hung Sing Choy Lee Fut
Provided by the Fut San Hung Sing Goon

"The main purpose of learning Hung Sing Choy Lee Fut is to strengthen the body while being able to protect yourself from harm."

1. Seek approval from your sefu.
2. Practice hard.
3. Fight to win.
4. Sex in moderation.
5. Eat healthy.
6. Develop strength through endurance.
7. Practice your breathing (Chi gung).
8. Make sounds ("Yik" for punches/ "Wah" for tiger claws/ "Tik" for kicks.
9. Never back down from an enemy.
10. Through practice, you cannot be bullied.



B. The Choy Lee Fut Codes of Conduct:

These codes were written by our founder Chan Heung in his original manuscript and are translated here into English.

1. The practitioners of Choy Lee Fut practice for the purpose of developing a strong and healthy foundation for their bodies. Therefore the practitioner should keep practicing and never forsake its way.

2. Similar to the Buddhist teachings, with the high level of skill obtained in kung fu, a kind, gentle, good and patient heart must also be developed. You must never use your skill to commit injustice or injury to others, but only for the purpose of defending oneself. By committing injustice and injury to others you go against the rules and regulations of society and the government.

3. Respect and obey all other previous practitioners of Choy Lee Fut as they are your seniors, this reflects on your politeness and good heart.

4. All your fellow classmates are brothers in Choy Lee Fut and belong to the same generation. Act towards each other in kind, gentle, faithful and reliable ways. Respecting each other through trust, friendship and honesty. Do not bully the weaker brothers in any way.

5. Brothers in Choy Lee Fut are not allowed to fight with each other. To distinguish a Choy Lee Fut practitioner, the action of the tiger claw is used.

6. Do not drink alcohol in excess and eat meat in excess. Alcohol and meat in excess will make you disorientated. Making your mind and spirit to become unclear as a result, accidents may happen which could damage your body.

7. Students are not allowed to teach other people outside the school as it may attract trouble to you and others. The exception is if you deem a person to be of pure and gentle heart, then you may teach him and pass your knowledge on.

8. Never misuse your skill on others believing you are better than they are, as this only causes trouble. Do not fight/bully others to show that you are better than they are.

9. When using kung fu you have learnt, you are to think how to remain humble and not be proud of your success; not placing yourself in front of others. If you misuse your knowledge to gain money, then you are within Choy Lee Fut a betrayer of our founders wishes and bring down the groups name.

10. If you can not abide by all these rules then you may leave or if you break them and dispute the rules, the Master may expel you from the school.

[Crimson Phoenix]

hmmm very interesting...

I specially liked that part about "To distinguish a Choy Lee Fut practitioner, the action of the tiger claw is used".
It reminds me that there indeed were times when schools had little tricks in salutes, stances or gestures to sign their thing and recognize fellow practicionners...

Joseph, do you know (and if so, would you tell me) if that "action of the Tiger claw" mentionned is found outside of CLF, or is it very specific? I mean, now that we have a large scope of styles, are there styles that bear similar actions as well, that back in the days could have been mistaken for CLF when they were not, because the people weren't aware of the convergence?
If you could describe it a bit that would be great as well...
Anyway, don't bother too much, it's just that this part raised a lot of ranting in my head

5th brother: on a side note, and maybe you have done so already, you can pick one of Yang Jwing Ming's books, a lot of them have a part dedicated to Mo Du/Wu De...not all of them (I think the qinna books do not), but I'm quite sure his White Crane book do. It's also filled with nice little stories to illustrate the points...

[extrajoseph]

"Joseph, do you know (and if so, would you tell me) if that "action of the Tiger claw" mentionned is found outside of CLF, or is it very specific? I mean, now that we have a large scope of styles, are there styles that bear similar actions as well, that back in the days could have been mistaken for CLF when they were not, because the people weren't aware of the convergence?
If you could describe it a bit that would be great as well..."

It is a secret sign language specific to CLF as a way to tell friends from foes. It is based on Choy Fook's couplet, "The Dragon and Tiger met in heaven to revive the Shaolin Way, etc", so it is like an open Ming hand solute with one hand in tiger claw and the other in a sort of charp chui to represent the tiger and the dragon meeting in heaven. It is configured in a special way so a trained eye can tell the difference straight away and it is quite unique but sorry I can't tell you more....

[Crimson Phoenix]

thanks for the answer, Joseph...now I know what was meant, even if I still ignore it

[GeneChing]

The Chinese didn't codify it's martial ethics as well as the Japanese, probably because most Japanese martial arts were based on a military tradition while Chinese styles tend to be more folk based. So there are a lot of secular code of ethics in individual CMA styles.

We just ran some in our ezine - check out this article on discipleship.

[Fu-Pow]

Wu De/Mo Duk means martial virtue. It is not specific to any school or branch of martial arts. I don't think it was created by anyone person.

It was a code of conduct that warriors followed in ancient times. It's European equivalent would be a knights code of "chivalry."

Martial artists had great power before the advent of guns. In addition to knowing how to fight, they had to learn the skills to effectively deal with people and know when it was appropriate to use their art.

Martial arts is only one of the components to a larger puzzle in the quest for self improvement and actualization.

If you look at my sig file it says "Zither, chess, book, painting and sword"

These were the five excellences that a gentlemen in ancient China was supposed to excel in.

Zither=music
Chess=strategy
Book=book learning
Painting=aesthetics (taste)
Sword=martial arts

Many people these days only focus on one or two of the excellences. But I believe that in order to be a well rounded and actualized person you should excel (in some way) in all of them.

It doesn't mean that you have to start learning the Zither or start playing Chess. For example, maybe you learn to play the violin or guitar or take up Brazilian Jujitsu.

The problem I see in our society is that people are very unbalanced. People in academia only focus on the "Book" aspect. They have no knowledge of warfare or the warrior spirit. People in the fine arts forgoe analytical thinking and only focus on Aesthetics.

Anyway, Chinese culture is fascinating and there are so many wisdoms within it that can help you in your modern day life.

Like my Sifu says. Kung fu is like a never ending treasure...the more you dig...the more you find.

[hasayfu]

Here's something I posted on another forum on this topic:
===============
In order to understand mo-duk, one must understand who it applies to. Mo-duk is cantonese for Martial Virtue. Wu-de in manderin (Which is how it usually appears in literature). It was a concept applied to the Mo-Lum or Wu-Lin which is literally the Martial Forest but refers to the the martial community. Why is this important? Because while a painter can have good kung fu he can not, by definition, exhibit mo-duk.

So what is it? AFAIK, there is no mo-Duk manual. It is an understanding that we who have joined the martial community should raise ourselves above the dehumanizing act of killing and maiming. It stems from the mythology that fighting was raised to art. It's no coincidence that shaolin is thought of the center of martial ARTS. Mo-duk offered a way for people who studied fighting to lead a life of virtue. Fight for the weak, fight for a cause, fight fair, etc but above all martial virtue is about fighting.
=================

Mo-duk is not a code of conduct. For instance, in the lists provided, "sex in moderation" is not mo-duk. Neither is "don't drink in excess."

Fu-pow is closest with the concept of chilvary though the Wu-Lin and King Arthur's court would probably disagree on several points.

My pet peeve is that people use Mo-Duk to say, "can't we all just get along?" Actually, Mo-duk is more about righting the wrong, fighting the good fight and standing up against popular opinion for what is just. All the while doing it with humility and without seeking personal glorification. It's the virtue of the martial community.

[Serpent]

To exhibit mo duk you must exhibit just action, always stand up for justice, always offer compassion, always protect those less able to protect themselves and try in every way to be a good person.

This is just the beginning of mo duk.

[Fu-Pow]

To exhibit mo duk you must exhibit just action, always stand up for justice, always offer compassion, always protect those less able to protect themselves and try in every way to be a good person.

Or rather.... not "try" to be a "good" person in "any" way.

[Serpent]

Originally posted by Fu-Pow


Or rather.... not "try" to be a "good" person in "any" way.

What's that?

[Fu-Pow]

Zen....or in English, non-cogitative non-striving...hahaha.....

[HuangKaiVun]

Respect yourself, respect others.

It's the 2nd part that most people (especially in CMA) have a hard time doing.

[joedoe]

My sigung summed up wu de perfectly in one word: tolerance.