刀 Dao, The Knife of Escape

During a late Thursday night training session, Soke Jim and I were alone in the upstairs room of the YMCA in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

We had spent the evening training hard, and ended up doing some light free-sparring.  I say light because Soke Jim was taking it easy on me.  Even so, he still hit hard and fast!

I noticed that there were times during our free-fighting that he deliberately did not take the shot that he could have. And remember, Soke Jim was well-known for being able to hit you several times in a rush, and even when he did a take down he always snuck in a second punch.

But it was noticeable that he did not hit me a few times when he could have, and I could never resist the temptation to get a question in whenever I could.

He said that “A Kenpo man never cuts off his opponent’s retreat.  A Kenpo man always leaves an opening for the opponent to run away if that is his wish.”

At my age (17) and rank (5th kyu blue belt) at the time, this was more than I could fathom. But Soke Jim said it, and so I pondered on it frequently over the years.

Another time, I was training in Monterey, California, and one of my friends was a Shorin-ji Kenpo black belt.  Whenever we would free-fight, he would occasionally kiai when he charged me and connected with a punch or a kick.  And the sound he would use wasn’t the standard, “Hah”, or “Hi-yah” or any other sound you’ve probably heard.  He would say, “Dao!” (pronounced “dow” as in Dow Jones).

I asked him about it after one session.  He said he had been taught that in Kempo, you don’t seal off the retreat of an opponent. You always leave him room to escape.

Then, on a piece of paper, he drew the character for “dao” which is 刀. 

He said, “This is the Chinese Mandarin character for “knife. You see that small opening in the bottom? That is to remind us to never cut off the opponent’s retreat.”

I said, “Boy that is certainly not the way of the world, nor is it the way to do battle in military situations.  There, you try to encircle the enemy and either force them to surrender or wipe them out.”

My friend said, “That is why Kenpo is so different.”

It makes sense.  When you force an enemy to surrender, you must not humiliate them.  And when they’ve already been defeated, what need is there to do that?  And if you wipe them out, there is no chance for them to have learned any lessons. But you can be sure that the next enemy will fight all the harder so as to avoid either of these two situations.

Confucius once said, “If I am walking with two other men, each of them will serve as my teacher. I will pick out the good points of the one and imitate them, see the bad points of the other and correct them in myself."