APPLICATION OF EAGLE CLAW KUNGFU
Another Version of Combat Sequence 40 -- Eagle Claw Strength Grip Tchnique
The nun invited Li Chooi Peng into her temple, and offered her a pot of fragrant tea.
After some preliminaries, Li Chooi Peng asked, “I don’t mean to be inquisitive, but why did sitai become a nun, and live in this temple far away from other settlements?”
The nun explained, “My name when I was a layperson was Wen Yin Sang, but now I am known as White Crane Nun. I had an elder brother, but he was beaten to death by a local cruel chieftain called Tit Choui Cha. To avenge my brother’s death, I ascended a mountain to learn kungfu for five years.
“When I returned, Tit Choui Cha heard about me and escaped. I looked for him everywhere but could not find him.
Then I found this temple and became a nun. Once I entered the ‘gate of emptiness’ (i.e. became a Buddhist nun), my thought for revenge gradually eased. Perhaps it was due to my facing Buddha and reciting sutras everyday.”
Li Chooi Peng was pensive for some time.
“There was an interesting story why I called myself White Crane Nun,” the nun continued. “A lot of white cranes flew to my temple. A first I used to chase them away with a long stick. But they seemed to play with me. They avoided my hitting them and flew about. I had an inspiration. From their movements I devised some kungfu techniques which you had seen just now.”
Here was a person who learned kungfu to avenge her brother’s death. But after becoming a nun, she even let go of her revenge, and from the cranes’ movements devised some kungfu techniques that resembled those of cranes. After a long conversation with White Crane Nun, she bade her farewell and went her way.
After two days she was in a small town on her way back to the City of Wei Yang to see her mother. She had a drink in a tea shop.
There was a huge man sitting opposite her, with a parrot in a cage which he was holding. The man was feeding his parrot. It was quite obvious to Li Chooi Peng that other customers as well as the shop attendants were sacred of this man, and tried to be far from him.
Suddenly, the man left the cage, with his parrot in it, on his table and walked towards Li Chooi Peng.
“Why did you keep looking at me and my parrot? Haven’t you seen a parrot in your life?” the man roared.
“I thought your parrot was beautiful,” replied Li Chooi Peng.
But before she could complete the sentence, a punch was struck at her. Li Chooi Peng leaned back to avoid the punch, and when it had reached its maximum extend, she gripped the tendons of the upper arm of the punch with her three fingers, causing the man to yell frantically.
This was Combat Sequence 40 of the 50 Combat Sequences of Eagle Claw Kungfu, and was called “Yin Jow Lek Pat Fatt” or “Eagle Claw Strength Grip Techniques”.
“Oh! You’re hurting me, you’re hurting me,” he cried loudly. Li Chooi Peng gave him a gentle push, which made him fell backward many steps onto the ground.
“Wait here. I’ll tell my sifu, and he’ll beat you up!”
“Who’s your sifu?” Li Chooi Penag asked.
“He’s Tit Choui Cha, well known in all these areas,” the man replied.
Tit Choui Cha! The cruel chieftain who killed the brother of White Crane Nun!
A thought arose in Li Chooi Peng’s mind. She wanted to find out where the cruel chieftain lived. She was quick in her thinking.
“I thought Tit Choui Cha was dead.”
“Dead?” his student was very surprised. “He’s alive and kicking!”
“Where does he live?” Li Chooi Peng asked.
“Just down this street. There’s a chrysanthemum tree in front of his house. He’ll beat you up!”
Li Chooi Peng paid some money to the owner of the tea shop, and went down the street with a chrysanthemum tree in front.
She found it, and knocked at the door. A small boy came out.
“I’m here to see Sifu Tit Choui Cha,” she said. A boy ran in to inform Tit Choui Cha, who waved Li Chooi Peng to come in.
Li Chooi Peng found a huge man with dark complexion and round, shining eyes. “Are you Sifu Tit Choui Cha?” she asked.
“Here I am,” the huge man replied. “I don’t change my name whether I move or sit.”
“Do you remember killing a man many years ago whose surname was Wen?”
“I have killed many men,” Tit Choui Cha replied. “I don’t care whether his surname was Wen or Chen.”
“I’m here to avenge his death.”
Tit Choui Cha laughed out loudly. “You? You little fellow? Your head couldn’t even reach my shoulder. Know you limitation. How could you avenge his death?”
“Avenging his death doesn’t need brute strength,” Li Chooi Peng replied. “Show your techniques.”
Tit Choui Cha was furious. He rushed in with a right punch. Li Chooi Peng remembered what her sifu, the Venerable Chee Seen, had said. Meeting force with force against a person whose shoulder was higher than your head, was unwise. She “swallowed” the punch, i.e. retreated her body to avoid the full force of Tit Choui Cha. When his arm was fully extended, she used her left eagle-claw to grip at his elbow, and her right eagle claw to grip at his wrist.
Tit Choui Cha pulled back his right punch and executed his left punch. This time Li Chooi Peng was precise in her timing. She withdrew her right front leg from a Bow-Arrow Stance to a right False-Leg Stance, and simultaneously used her right eagle-claw to grip the left elbow of Tit Choui Cha from outside inwards, and her left eagle-claw to grip his left wrist, at the time when the punching arm was fully extended.
This was Combat Sequence 29 of the 50 Combat Sequences of Eagle Claw Kungfu, and was known as “Ngoi Poon Khuen“ or “Outward Grip”.
Tit Choui Cha felt his body numb, and gave a loud yell. Still holding Tit Choui Cha’s left elbow with her right eagle-claw, Li Chooi Peng move forward her right leg from a False-Leg Stance to a Bow-Arrow Stance, and simultaneously jabbed the middle finger and the index finger of her left hand into his eyes, using the pattern “Two Dragons Fight for Pearl”. Tit Choui Cha could not defend. He fell down with a loud cry and his eyeballs were lying on the floor.
Li Chooi Peng went back to Silent Cultivation Nunnery and told White Crane Nun that she had avenged her brother’s death. She told the nun that she spared Tit Choui Cha’s life, but the bully was blind.
Wong Kiew Kit
12th January 2018, Sungai Petani
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