There are many different types of courage. Recently I wrote about an incident that I witnessed many years ago when Chu Shong Tin put his reputation on the line in front of a large packed hall of admirers. After being challenged by another Sifu he invited the man onto the stage to test his ability. He risked being humiliated in front of his followers without a moment’s hesitation. I knew CST personally for thirty years and never witnessed or even heard of a moment where his courage and honesty failed him. Here is another example of how this man lived his life.
Imagine having spent a lifetime building a reputation as one of the foremost authorities in your field. Imagine making a discovery that changes your understanding and requires a complete reassessment of how you practice and teach your skill. Imagine if nobody understands your breakthrough. Imagine if your followers left you because they had no interest in your new path. Picture yourself at the end of your career, over seventy years, alone in your school with hardly any students to teach.
Over thirty years I regularly visited CST in Hong Kong for training. His school was never large. In fact for most of that time the training hall was his tiny apartment. His family simply lived their lives in a kung fu school, surrounded by CST’s students. All of us who travelled there owe them a great debt for their patience and generosity.
Although the school was small, there was always a decent amount of students training in it. The space was cheerfully cramped. However, around 2007, I arrived to find that for the first hour or so I was the only person in the school with this legendary master. CST was his usual cheery self. As I practiced he observed closely and corrected me, warming me with his famous genial smile. But I was unnerved to be the solitary student in this usually bustling space.
In his constant pursuit of finding a better way to pass on his knowledge, CST had come across a new training method, which he hoped would guide his students to the transcendent level of skill that he had attained. However, this new method was not commercially viable. It required hours upon hours of standing meditation. While instituting this change to the training regime CST stopped teaching Chi Sau and all the fun stuff that had drawn his followers in. Even forms were put aside for the moment. Students who had been with him for years baulked under the strain of this austere and demanding form of kung fu training. One by one they dropped off until only a handful remained. So it was that I was privileged to be the only student present for the first hour on that particular day.
Still, there were students who were prepared to follow this method. As they began to get results others heard about this new improved path to understanding Wing Chun. More and more students started to arrive and eventually the school grew to be bigger than ever before. CST was forced to lease a larger space and for the first time in decades his family members were able to enjoy privacy in their own home.
When discussing this difficult period of having lost most of his students he mentioned a resolution he made then which epitomizes the unflinching courage that flowed through every aspect of his being. He said, “So in the last 3 to 4 years I decided even if no one is left training here, even if I need to close the school down – then so be it. I will do whatever I can to find someone who can execute Siu Nim Tau properly”.
That is real courage. Chu Shong Tin inspires me to this day!
~ Mark Spence