Chinese Gung Fu: The Philosophical Art of Self-Defense Revised and Updated

by Bruce Lee

Originally published in 1963, this book includes personal testimonies regarding the author and his art from James Y. Lee, the legendary Ed Parker, and jujutsu icon Wally Jay. Through hand-drawn diagrams and captioned photo sequences, Lee’s text comes to life as he demonstrates a variety of training exercises and fighting techniques. Topics include basic gung fu stances, waist training, leg training, and the theory of yin and yang.

 

The re-edition of Bruce Lee’s original thoughts on kung fu offers martial arts enthusiasts and collectors exactly what they more Lee. Featuring digitally-enhanced photography, new pictures of Lee from a lost session and an original essay in Lee’s handwriting, Chinese Gung Fu still maintains its position as a timeless work by one of martial art’s greatest masters.

Genres: Martial Arts, Nonfiction, Philosophy, Sports, Collections, Ebooks, Asia

112 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1987

About the author

Bruce Lee was an American-born martial artist, philosopher, instructor, martial arts actor and the founder of the Jeet Kune Do martial arts system, widely regarded as the most influential martial artist of the 20th century and a cultural icon. He was the father of actor Brandon Lee and of actress Shannon Lee.

Reviews

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Establish nothing in regard to oneself. Let things be what they are, move like water, rest like a mirror, respond like an echo, pass quickly like nonexistent, and be quiet as purity. Those who gain, lose. Do not precede others, always follow them." - Bruce Lee



At this time in my life, I have three philosophical mentors: Lao Tzu (Tao Te Ching), C.S. Lewis (Mere Christianity), and Bruce Lee. Bruce Lee recently changed my life. The story involves an autobiographical explanation involving a divorce, a train track, and a pint of vodka, and I will leave the rest to your conjuring mind. I found a series on Netflix that weekend about Bruce Lee's life, which led me to Lao Tzu and Wing Chun Kung Fu, both of which have also changed my life.

Bruce Lee collected the notes for this work but never published them. They focus on the Chinese art of Kung Fu and it shows the philosophical and martial arts development in his earlier years. I had a previous review containing all quotes from the text but it mysteriously disappeared. Perhaps if I don't infringe on copyrights this one will stick around?

Lee builds most of his explanation on Chinese philosophy and history, with a primary emphasis on Yin and Yang principles and Taoism. His deduction and relation to Kung Fu manifests an ingenious tactic for overcoming opposition, one that will differentiate one from Western thinking. He proposes this when facing opposition: do not resist, but yield until the point of the absolvement of the energy of opposition, and use that force to defeat them.

Most of the discussion of the martial art of Kung Fu covers his primary training, Wing Chun. I appreciate this book, a treasure to me. Sometimes our minds find a way to freedom when we unlock them from cultural paradigms. I'm not a religious Taoist, I'm a Christian, and find the teachings of Bruce Lee and Lao Tzu compliment, rather than oppose, the teachings of Christ. For this reason they have been a blessing of greatest magnitude.

Bruce Lee writes about the similarities of Taoism and Christianity:

"From this naturally arises the absence of desire for strife and contention and fighting for advantage. Thus, the teachings of humility and meekness of the Christian 'Sermon on the Mount' find a rational basis and a peaceable temper is bred in man. It emphasizes non-resistance and the importance of gentleness."

[Vaishali · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely blown away. Each line in this book is a precious drop of cool water on a sweltering summer day... savory and refreshing. Few pages, but so packed with jewels you want to stay at each sentence forever, until your DNA, then your soul, ingests it. Long live the great, mighty Bruce Lee.

Quotes :
-----------------

"A simple life is one of plainness in which profit is discarded, cleverness abandoned, selfishness eliminated, and desires reduced. A life of harmony, unity, contentment, tranquility, constancy, enlightenment, peace, and long life."

"One should do nothing that is not natural or spontaneous; the important thing is not to strain in any way."

"When activity (yang) reaches the extreme point, it becomes inactivity; and inactivity forms yin. Extreme inactivity returns to become activity, which is yang. Activity is the cause of inactivity and visa versa."

"From this one can see that the two forces (Yin-Yang), although they appear to conflict, in reality are mutually interdependent; instead of opposition, there is cooperation and alternation."

"Contrary to popular belief, the yin principle, as softness and pliableness, is to be associated with life and survival. Because he can yield, a man can survive."

"The mind is trained to direct the movement of the body. The mind wills and the body behaves."

"The emotions that destroy the inner rhythm of a man are hatred, jealousy, lust, envy, pride, vanity, covetousness and fear." - Glen Clark

"To perform the right technique, physical loosening must be continued in a mental and spiritual loosening, so as to make the mind not only agile, but free."

"A gung fu man has to remain calm and quiet, and practice no-mindedness. No-mindedness is not a blank mind that excludes all emotions. The gung fu man employs his mind as a mirror: it grasps nothing, and refuses nothing. It receives but does not keep."

"No mindedness, then, is not being without emotion or feeling, but being one in whom feeling is not sticky or blocked. It is a mind immune to emotional influences."

"No mindedness is to employ the whole mind as we use the eyes when we rest them upon various objects but make no special effort to take anything in. These are the principles of mental hygiene."

"Concentration in gung fu does not have the usual sense of restricting the attention to a single sense object, but is simply a quiet awareness of whatever happens to be here and now."

"When dealing with many opponents, as soon as one is disposed of, he will move on to another without permitting the mind to stop with any. This is only possible when the mind moves from one object to another without being stopped or arrested by anything."

"The mind is present everywhere because it is nowhere attached to any particular object."

"The flow of thought is like water filling a pond, which is always ready to flow off again."

"A gung fu man aims at harmony with himself and his opponent. Harmony with one’s opponent is possible not through force, which provokes conflicts and reactions, but through a yielding to his force. In other words, a gung fu man promotes the spontaneous development of his opponent and does not venture to interfere by his own action."

"Let one’s mind alone, trusting it to work by itself."

"Wu wei means the governing action or spirit action, in the sense that the governing force is the mind and not the senses."

"During sparring, a gung fu man learns to forget about himself… he lets his mind remain spontaneous and ungrasped. As soon as he stops to think, his flow of movement will be disturbed and he is immediately struck by his opponent."

"Placidly free from anxiety, one acts with the opportune time; one moves and revolves in the line of creation."

“One who advertises himself too much is ignored.” - Lao Tzu

"A gung fu man, if he is really good, is not proud at all."

"Gung fu is aiming at self-cultivation, and therefore the inner self is one’s true self. So in order to realize his true self, a gung fu man lives without being dependent upon the opinions of others."

"A gung fu master, unlike the beginner, holds himself in reserve, is quiet and unassuming, without the least desire to show off. To him, fame and status mean nothing."

"Let the mind think what it wants without interference by the separate thinker or ego within oneself."

"When his private ego and conscious efforts yield to a power not his own, he then achieves the supreme action: nonaction."

"Establish nothing in regard to oneself. Let things be what they are, move like water, rest like a mirror, respond like an echo, pass quickly like the nonexistent and be quiet as purity. Those who gain, lose."

"Those who know do not speak. Those who speak do not know." - Lao Tzu

"The heart is humble, but the work is forceful."

"The highest skill operates on an almost unconscious level."

"Who can make muddy water clear? But if allowed to remain still, it will become clear itself."

"He wins because he cannot choose."

"In the waist, not the limbs, lies the mainspring of the movements of the body. One turning of a big axis is equivalent to hundreds of turnings of small axes."

"Attain complete vacuity, and sedulously preserve a state of repose."

"Mighty is he who conquers himself."

"Inside your energy must not stop, your mind being ahead of your opponent all the time."

"To know the eternal pattern is to be enlightened. He who knows it not will be blasted and withered by misfortune. " - Lao Tzu

"That man in whom truth is bright has no anger."

"The secret waits for the insight." - Lao Tzu


.

[T.R. Preston · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've always loved to train in and learn about as many martial arts as possible. Bruce Lee, as I'm sure he was for almost everybody, was a large inspiration for my own work ethic. He was passionate about what he did and brought such charisma and technique to a wide audience. He changed the game and his influence shall be felt forever.

[Vincent Harris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ah, Grasshopper, you have much to learn. I tell myself this everyday.

[Bremer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bruce Lee, a legendary action star and martial artist, wrote a classic book on Chinese martial arts, called “The Tao of Gung Fu.”

More than an instructional on proper technique, Lee explored combat like a philosopher. He believed that fighting wasn’t Chinese or American or Korean, but rather, a deeply human, creative expression. Dogmatically following a particular style of martial arts was a limitation on the human potential for growth and fluidity.

Imagine the Yin Yang symbol. Yin can represent negativeness, passiveness, gentleness, internal, moon, darkness, femininity, and so on, while Yang can represent positiveness, activeness, firmness, external, sun, and so on. Together, Yin Yang is one, whole, changing from one to the other.

There is no true duality between Yin and Yang. They are complementary, not in conflict. There is no black without white, no force without gentleness, no before without an after. There is a Yin in every Yang and vice versa.

In martial arts, one should be adaptable, fluid in movement. One doesn’t strike. The fist strikes without any thought of striking. When trained properly, there is action without action, strategy without any thought of strategy.

There is no strength without gentleness or gentleness without strength. To strain too much is to tire just as to be too submissive is to be overwhelmed.

The bamboo, yielding and then bending along with a strong wind, doesn’t crack like the stiffest of trees.

What the mind focuses on, it emphasizes while neglecting the rest. To neglect the rest is to be blind to all but one thing. To ignore all is to be blind to all. When the mind perceives what happens without attaching to one thing or two things or more, then it intuitively understands, adapting to change as it happens.

“When I look at a tree, I perceive one of the leaves is red, and my mind stops with this leaf. When this happens, I see only one leaf and fail to take notice of the innumerable other leaves of the tree. If, instead of restricting my attention to one, I look at the tree without any preconceived ideas, I shall see all the leaves. One leaf effectively stops my mind from seeing all the rest. But when the mind moves on without stopping, it takes up hundreds of thousands of leaves without fail.”

Where the mind focuses, it is captive. The mind should flow freely through the body. When it is nowhere, it is everywhere. By not calculating, it acts as it should. By planning, it is inhibited. Become one with whatever activity is taking place, not trapped in how or why it takes place. Water flows where it does without an obstruction, spontaneous and alive.

When there is no intellectualization in fighting, no thought of superiority or inferiority, winning or losing, the fight happens naturally. There is no true separation between the internal and external, between one opponent and another, until one makes distinctions between the two.

Yin and Yang are not in conflict, but the mind makes them appear to be so. To be intuitively aware is to act without acting, to let the mind alone, adapting to what happens as it happens, like the calm mirror of a pond and the rushing of a waterfall.

A martial artist should strive for perfection in simplicity, avoiding flashiness. Rather than study a thousand techniques or overcomplicate oneself with too many steps, develop what is essential, reject what is unnecessary.

One should not block thoughts or try to think too much. Instead the mind is not grasping, not getting stuck in ideas or emotions. A martial artist uses no-mind, being everywhere and nowhere at once.

Martial artists should not concern themselves with status, with being superior or better than others. Pride is illusory, based on a fixed idea of self, given and eventually taken externally.

When one is prideful, one is always terrified of being dethroned. A wise martial artist cares about discipline, knowing themselves truthfully through self-cultivation. To be self-sufficient is what matters, not the appearance of success, based on the opinions of others.

When a martial artist begins, he or she is ignorant. Then after training, the martial artist knows some about defense and offense and thinks a lot about both. After the martial artist masters their training, they no longer think about it. They are wise like an expert and ignorant like a beginner.

“If you try to remember you will lose. Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless. Like water. Now you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You pour water into a bottle, it becomes the bottle. You put water into a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow or creep or drip—or crash! Be water, my friend.

A martial artist must never be rigid in thought or in movement. Like water, combat is uncertain, changing from moment to moment. To be stuck in dogmatism is to be severely limited, resisting the nature of what is.

“To me, styles that cling to one partial aspect of combat are actually in bondage. You see, a choice method, however exacting, fixes its practitioners in an enclosed pattern. I always say that actual combat is never fixed, has no boundaries or limits, and is constantly changing from moment to moment. Because one does not want to be made uncertain and be engaged in broken rhythm, so he establishes a fixed pattern of combat, a cooperative pattern of rhythmic relationship with his partner. As his margin of freedom is getting narrower and narrower, he becomes a slave to the pattern and accepts the pattern to be the real thing. Such exclusive drilling on a set pattern of one’s choice will only lead its practitioners to clogginess, because basically it is a practice of resistance. In reality, the way of combat is never based on personal choice and fancies, and one will soon find out that his choice routines lack pliability and are incapable of adapting to the ever-changing swift movement of combat. All of a sudden his opponent is alive and no longer a cooperative robot. In other words, once conditioned in a partialized style, its practitioner faces his opponent through a screen of resistance. In reality, he is merely performing his stylized blocks and listening to his own screams.”

An effective martial artist is not bound, but rather, free of self-imposed prisons. Spontaneous, broken in rhythm, open in mind to all possibilities, sparring to keep sharp in combat, unconcerned with belt and status. There is no rigidity in forms, overthinking of techniques. There seems to be an action of no action, an intuitive mind focused on nothing and yet on all that occurs, not concerned with mere externals but with momentary change.

[Wilde Sky · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some basic martial arts moves / techniques are described in this book.

I found this book very interesting, but I’m not sure how practical the techniques are for a beginner.

This is really one for Bruce Lee / martial arts fans only.

[Dave · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is pretty basic.
It's no wonder that Bruce Lee later asked it to no longer be printed.
Fun fact: This is the ONLY book which Bruce Lee ever wrote.
Any other book claiming Bruce Lee as it's author is actually fake or misleading.

[Josiah]

A good explanation of the more metaphysical aspects of "hard work".

[Jason Langley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I truly believe Bruce Lee is one of the greatest martial arts of all time . This book is a glimpse into the mind of genius .

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great beginning guide to Wing-Chun.

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

I stole my copy from a coffee shop

[Abby · Rating 3 out of 5]

i honestly just thought that this had some interesting parts here and there. the section about yin/yang was intriguing. and that’s probably about it.

[Mark David Vinzens · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bruce Lee describes his experience with his Master Yip Man (may God sanctify his secret) and his moment of awakening to Oneness or union with Tao:

“Gung fu is a special kind of skill; a fine art rather than just a physical exercise. It is a subtle art of matching the essence of the mind to that of the techniques in which it has to work. The principle of gung fu is not a thing that can be learned, like a science, by fact-finding and instruction in facts. It has to grow spontaneously, like a flower, in a mind free from emotions and desires. The core of this principle of gung fu is Tao—the spontaneity of the universe.

After four years of hard training in the art of gung fu, I began to understand and felt the principle of gentleness—the art of neutralizing the effect of the opponent’s effort and minimizing the expenditure of one’s energy. All these must be done in calmness and without striving. It sounded simple, but in actual application it was difficult. The moment I engaged in combat with an opponent, my mind was completely perturbed and unstable. And after a series of exchanging blows and kicks, all my theory of gentleness was gone. My only thought at this point was “somehow or other I must beat him and win!” My instructor at the time, Professor Yip Man, head of the Wing Chun school of gung fu, would come up to me and say “Loong, relax and calm your mind. Forget about yourself and follow the opponent’s movement. Let your mind, the basic reality, do the counter-movement without any interfering deliberation. Above all, learn the art of detachment.” “That was it!” I thought. “I must relax!” However, right then I had just done something contradictory against my will. That occurred at the precise moment I said “I” <+> “must” < − > “relax.” The demand for effort in “must” was already inconsistent with the effortlessness in “relax.” When my acute self-consciousness grew to what the psychologists refer to as the “double-bind” type, my instructor would again approach me and say “Loong, preserve yourself by following the natural bends of things and don’t interfere. Remember never to assert yourself against nature; never be in frontal opposition to any problems, but to control it by swinging with it. Don’t practice this week. Go home and think about it.”

The following week I stayed home. After spending many hours of meditation and practice, I gave up and went sailing alone in a junk. On the sea I thought of all my past training and got mad at myself and punched the water! Right then—at that moment—a thought suddenly struck me; was not this water the very essence of gung fu? Hadn’t this water just now illustrated to me the principle of gung fu? I struck it but it did not suffer hurt. Again I struck it with all of my might—yet it was not wounded! I then tried to grasp a handful of it but this proved impossible. This water, the softest substance in the world and what could be contained in the smallest jar, only seemed weak. In reality, it could penetrate the hardest substance in the world. That was it! I wanted to be like the nature of water.

Suddenly a bird flew by and cast it’s reflection on the water. Right then as I was absorbing myself with the lesson of the water, another mystic sense of hidden meaning revealed itself to me; should not the thoughts and emotions I had when in front of an opponent pass like the reflection of the bird flying over the water? This was exactly what Professor Yip meant by being detached—not being without emotion or feeling, but being one in whom feeling was not sticky or blocked. Therefore in order to control myself I must first accept myself by going with and not against my nature. I lay on the boat and felt that I had united with Tao; I had become one with nature. I just laid there and let the boat drift freely according to its own will. For at that moment I had achieved a state of inner feeling in which opposition had become mutually cooperative instead of mutually exclusive, in which there was no longer any conflict in my mind. The whole world to me was as one.”

― Bruce Lee, The Tao of Gung Fu: A Study in the Way of Chinese Martial Art

[Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brief but insightful look into Bruce Lee's philosophy, martial arts, and how they intersect. In retrospective the connection between Bruce Lee's martial arts philosophy and Tao should have been obvious, and the book does a good job explaining both and showing how they flow together.

The book has a raw feel to it, no doubt in large part due to it being unfinished before his death, with lots of simple sketches and informative illustrations. But also because it has a very personal tone, like you're having a casual conversation with him rather than reading something very formalized and refined. If I had one complaint it would be that some of the sketches depicting a back and forth between two fighters can be really difficult to follow, but I also understand that these were meant to be a guide for a more refined final product.

It works as both a primer for martial arts and Tao philosophy while also providing additional context between the two if you're already familiar with both concepts generally. Definitely worth the time.

[Tai-chi Kuo · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'll admit that this book was a bit of a slog for me. It is a collection of period-specific, unpublished writing and you can really tell that because the technical instruction for Wing Chun training is very sparse, while the philosophy is heavy. Bruce Lee also spends a great deal of time delineating different styles in a way that is more relevant to a 1950s-60s era introductory martial artist reader than to more distinguishing/knowledgeable martial artists. As such, the book provides great insight into Bruce Lee: the man and you can really see him beginning his journey away from Gung Fu and towards Jeet Kune Do in these writings. However, if you are interested in technical instruction on Bruce Lee's personal fighting style direct from the source, you will be disappointed.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

I got more out of this by mentally changing Tao/Dao to Way/Path, and depending on the context changing Gung Fu or gung fu man to either Wushu/Martial Art or Master/Mastery as needed.

I'm guessing that the meaning and double entendre of Tao and Gung Fu are more clear to Chinese that also know English, but as a Westerner and native English speaker, translations of those words to those equivalents would make it clearer and add to the profundity.
Examples
"The Way of Martial Arts" Or "The Path of Mastery"
Pg. 79 "The master, therefore, should keep his mind always in the state of emptiness so that his freedom in action will never be obstructed."
Pg. 80 "Like water, a master has no shape or technique of his own, but molds or fits his movement into that of his opponent's."



"It is better to do two things effectively than to do a hundred things poorly."
Or, as Ron Swanson put it, "Never half-ass two things, whole-ass one thing."

[Howard A]

Establish nothing in regard to oneself. Let things be what they are, move like water, rest like a mirror, respond like an echo. This book is a must read for every martial artist. A reference book that one can read multiple times and gain new wisdom with each reading.

[Adam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyed the heavy focus on Tao. Unique book and one I will revisit often.

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's a brilliant book. Get it. Rad it.

[Matt Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic. Lee is charismatic, funny, extremely principled, informative, and concise.

[Shazzy P.]

This brief read may be beneficial for individuals with a background in martial arts. However, it serves more as a general guide to complement existing knowledge rather than a comprehensive instructional resource. For complete novices, this book may not provide sufficient information to effectively learn self-defense techniques.

[Teo · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a striving student of Wing Chun marshal arts (direct lineage of grandmaster Yip Man) I have to say that this book helped me fill a few gaps I had about certain elements of Wing Chun.

To be very fair it helped me much more on theoretical and conceptual level than it did with actual implementation. That is no surprise at all. It is extremely difficult for words to express the sense of helplessness one feels when you witness someone small moving around a 90+ kg person effortlessly and without breaking a sweat.

I've seen many students who join the class (mostly after watching the Ip Man movie) hoping to kick some ass, learning the moves but not understanding the concept. As a result their moves become empty... It's like punching an empty bag which gives no resistance.

I learned a lot about myself just by observing the inner workings of my body and the way it behaves during interactions with others (sparring is extremely important for this as the force of others provides you with direct feedback). Reading this book helped me verbalize what I slowly started understanding on a deeper level. For some, this may be just a bundle of nonsensical words without meaning but for the others it is a way of life based on key Taoist principles.

Through better understanding of concepts of Wing Chung comes the better understanding of self and vice versa. This is an interesting book but if you want to apply what's written in it, I would suggest taking up any sort of physical activity and explore yourself through it!

[James Love · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Art of Fighting Without Fighting.

Bruce Lee explains Chinese Boxing or Gung Fu (often referred to as Kung Fu) in the simplest terms. The work is a mirror of the classic TV series Kung Fu and is a more in-depth teaching of the lessons given to James Franciscus' character in the short lived TV series Longstreet. The follow-up Jeet Kune Do is much easier to understand after reading this book. I equate the books The Tao of Gung Fu and Jeet Kune Do as the martial arts equivalent of Sartre's The Transcendence of the Ego and Being & Nothingness. In order to understand both books they must be read in the aforementioned order.

The author teaches the basics from good posture and simple self-defense to reacting without thinking during combat situations. The author explains how in situations where a person's life is in jeopardy certain thoughts can slow the reaction time like a poison injected into the body leading to that person's physical harm or death. The author also imbues his essays with the important knowledge that a teacher should not be afraid to learn from their students while imparting knowledge to the student.

Hollywood's desire to re-boot TV shows like Hawaii Five-O, MacGyver and the upcoming Magnum, P. I should consider a reboot of Kung Fu with up and coming Asian martial artists as Caine and the Shoalin priests that teach him. What would have happened had Bruce Lee been tapped as the star of Kung Fu, back in 1972, instead of David Carradine?

[Jeannette · Rating 4 out of 5]

My husband recommended this book to me. It is one of his favorites, but I honestly knew nothing about it when he left it on my pillow one night, in exchange for the first volume of Harry Potter which I'd left on his office chair. I did not ask him about it (and I still haven't yet), because I wanted to go into the book with an open mind. I am not a martial artist nor am I a philosopher, so I didn't want to make an assumption that I would not understand it or be interested in it. What was great was how much more interesting that lack of knowledge or preconceptions made the experience.

The book itself is a collection of Lee's writings on the art and philosophy of gung fu and includes a couple of his own experiences learning about the craft. I've been pondering taking up a martial art, so the notes about actual techniques were very interesting, if (of course!) not detailed enough to learn very much. What was far more of an experience was reading Lee's philosophy. They're wonderful to contemplate in terms of how one would participate in gung fu or another sport, but I found so many of them applicable to life too. Some of it is almost beautiful in its imagery. It was a great recommendation for contemplation.

[Roger · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was delighted to come across this book in a used book store on Chicago Ave. in Evanston. Not at all what I was shopping for, but as soon as I saw it, I knew I must buy it, since I am a big fan of Bruce Lee and had no idea he had written a book. The book was a very interesting peek into the mind of a man who devoted his entire life to the perfection of the art of Gung Fu. Compiled from many of his writings, the book doesn't always transition smoothly, but the philosophical and spiritual depth of Lee's beliefs is ever-present. He expounds upon the concept of the Tao and his understanding of it. This makes the book a worthwhile read, for there are truly some gems of knowledge within that can be applied to any art or craft, not only to martial arts. However, for the most part, the so-called "practical" advice Lee offers on training regimens, Gung Fu techniques and such are over my head and I think would be for many who are not extremely well versed in the martial arts. Nonetheless, I am glad I purchased this book and gained a better understanding of Bruce Lee, a man I have great respect and admiration for.

[David Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Admittedly, I would have gotten much more out of this book if I were actually studying the martial arts. But it remains very fascinating for the clear way in which Lee explains the basic principles of combat in the gung fu tradition. Without being obscure or esoteric, Lee relates the concepts of yin/yang and complementary action to fighting techniques and the motions of everyday life.

That's a pretty basic summary, but the particular details expressed in the example photographs bring those simple principles to life in a striking way. Perhaps not as animated as in Lee's films, they still depict much of his remarkable skill in the light of his gung fu philosophy. Unfortunately, at least in the edition of the book I have here, the photos are a little blurry and grainy, making it difficult to appreciate some of the more subtle movements and positions. There are also a high number of typographical errors that can be distracting. But over all, the experience of this book is intriguing, even if you don't intend to throw any punches in the near future.

[John Fredrickson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a planned effort by Bruce Lee which did not get published in his lifetime. It is a fragmented book, bouncing between subjects pretty rapidly. The subjects of the book mostly focus on aspects of Eastern philosophy and how the principles of soft and hard apply to the practice of living. This is the really fascinating thing about this book: the light that it sheds on Bruce Lee as a philosopher rather than as a preeminent martial artist.

Lee discusses Taoism (with a high degree of redundancy) throughout the book. He also goes into the principles of wu-wei and the opposing notions of hard vs soft techniques. While this is not at all a manual on martial arts, these principles are applied to self-defense throughout the book. One of the key elements that Lee returns to is that of simplicity, where skills are developed such that they become simplified, and one's defense blends quickly into attack. Interesting book.

[Martyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great little book, probably more historically interesting because of its author than for content. Bruce Lee makes the point early on that you cannot learn Kung Fu from a book but the line drawings and explanations (both, in the visual sense, fantastically out-dated), make more sense than anything else I've read in this field. His drawings have a kinetic energy to them that teases out understanding in the reader and the commentary is upbeat and direct. Sure there are numerous typos and grammar issues but it's the ambience that carries this title through.

EDIT: Just in case I've misled anyone, the typos I refer to are there because this is bascially a facsimile of the original hand typed and hand drawn pamphlet - not because of some tardy modern day editor!

[Stewart · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a bit of a strange one. This is one of the few books actually published while Bruce was still alive. It's very short with large print - combine this with the drawings and photographs and what you are left with is not much more than a pamphlet showing some of the basic moves of Chinese Gung Fu. Having read other 'Bruce Lee' books, in particular Tao of Jeet Kune Do, I have concluded that this Chinese Gung Fu book was nothing more than a precursor for Bruce, briefly examining form and technique and only touching on practicalities.

Some great pictures are included but considering most of these are already available in other more thorough studies of the man and the art, I would suggest that this is only for the devout Bruce Lee collector.

[Ryan Zielke · Rating 4 out of 5]

If somebody didn't know what Kung Fu would look like, I think this is a good primer. I feel this is what you would learn in the a couple weeks of training in Kung Fu. In that time you would learn stances and could do some one-step attacks drills examples like portrayed in the book. This book focuses on basic core fundamentals and a quick preview of what the idea encompasses without the fluff.

"I like to stress this is not a text book on Gung Fu techniques; rather, it is a book on some of the basic blocking and striking in that art." - Bruce Lee