When Li Youfu, who is kind-hearted and compassionate, sees others suffering, he is willing to help them. However, he does not use his abilities; instead, he uses ordinary acupuncture.
Authentic martial arts is a transcendent state
Li Youfu became an acupuncturist thanks to the acupuncture techniques he learned from martial arts master Chen Jisheng.
Master Chen was highly skilled in martial arts. It is said that when he was young, he participated in the national martial arts competition, and the martial arts masters who fought against Chen couldn’t even touch his body. They punched randomly, without any organization or strategy, and eventually became completely exhausted and fell to the ground. Chen always won without having to spend too much effort fighting.
His disciple Li Youfu said many years later that martial arts are divided by levels. The lowest level of martial arts focuses on attack, the next level is defense, and the highest level is neither attack nor defense, but rather an intuitive and transcendent state. Chen was just such a transcendent master.
Chen Jisheng’s mentor was Chen Shengfu, an extraordinary martial arts teacher. He excelled in all 18 forms of martial arts and was the first martial arts professor in China. It was Chen Shenfu who was Li Youfu’s first martial arts master.
The master chooses a disciple, rather than a disciple choosing the master
Professor Chen Shengfu was very strict in selecting his disciples. When Li Youfu was just 18 years old, he began learning from the professor, though he never expected that his teacher would only teach him one set of martial arts techniques over the next 10 years. However, Li Youfu did not mind. Despite the cold winters and hot summers, he would travel a long way to his teacher’s house every morning to practice martial arts, and he held his teacher in great respect.
It turned out that his teacher assessed his character during those 10 years. After passing the assessment, his teacher taught him everything he knew. He taught him not only various martial arts techniques and martial arts weapons, but also how to practice Taoist techniques. His teacher even taught him a unique skill that he possessed called Shanxi Whip. In 1982, at 33, Li Youfu became China’s national martial arts champion using this fantastic skill.
Professor Chen Shengfu later recommended Li Youfu to Chen Jisheng. From Chen Jisheng, Li Youfu learned even more about the profound aspects of internal martial arts.
Slow is fast: The highest realm of martial arts
Chen Jisheng taught a martial arts method called the “Tai Chi 108 steps.” While regular Tai Chi practice typically lasts less than one hour, the 108-step approach requires three hours and is very slow. Moreover, when practicing, one must balance a ball on one’s head; no matter how one moves, the ball must not fall to the ground.
It is said that speed is the key to victory in martial arts. So why do top masters teach that slower is better? Chen explained that slow practice is fast practice. When one slows down and reaches a state of stillness, in the eyes of others, one moves incredibly fast, which is also why his opponents cannot touch him during a competition. Because he was always one step ahead of them, their fists could not land on him.
At that time, Li Youfu didn’t quite understand this concept. It wasn’t until many years later that he realized that when he was in a state of stillness, he was in a different space, and the concepts of time and speed differed. It seems slow, but it is much faster in speed in other dimensions.
But perhaps the most incredible skill he learned from Chen was the acupoint technique. At first, his teacher wanted to teach him how to strike acupoints, which could instantly kill a person with just one touch. For martial artists, this was a hidden secret and vital technique. However, Li Youfu, who had a kind heart, refused to learn it. He said he only wanted to learn how to save people’s lives, not how to kill them. So his teacher taught him the acupoint release technique instead.
At that time, Li Youfu had not yet fully grasped the techniques. But as his teacher taught him how to guide his internal energy, he was gradually able to build his inner power. Li Youfu said: “When your acupoints were struck, you might not feel anything significant initially, but problems would slowly arise later. Sometimes your muscles would become stiff, sometimes you would feel like you had a serious illness, and sometimes you could die within a few months.”
Li Youfu gave one example about a qigong master who used this strike point skill for improper reasons. He eventually died of a severe illness. Li Youfu believed this was retribution “because this technique cannot be used this way.”
When one is granted such powerful abilities, if one does not maintain a righteous mind and actions and instead tries to harm another, acquire fame, or gain for oneself, he will surely suffer consequences.
See Part 1 here.
