Qing gong

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Qing Gong (Traditional Chinese: 輕功; Simplified Chinese: 轻功; Pinyin: qīnggōng; Cantonese Yale: Hing Kung) translates to "light body skill", and consists of two main skills: One being the ability to perform vertical jumps of a height many times that of the human body, and the other being the ability to travel long distances with a flitting, continuous motion as if flying.

In popular culture, its practitioners perform improbably exaggerated feats of acrobatics, such as easily scaling walls, flying over rooftops, gliding on water or walking on trees. As such, qing gong wirework is a staple of wuxia film.

[edit] Training Method

Traditionally Baguazhang involved training qing gong, which was done using a plank against a wall and the gradient was increased over time. They also attached to themselves weights (sandbags) while walking on a circle. This mental 'strength' is important and it is painstakingly developed during the exercises.

However, Qing Gong is a jing skill that is developed through years of practice.

[edit] Explanation

Mastery of Qing Gong is not achieved by actually changing the your bodymass, weight or by manipulation of the forces of gravity. It is achieved by allowing only certain parts of your body to come into contact with the object you are using. For the scientifically minded, by ensuring that only certain points or parts of your body to come into contact with the object, you are ensuring that your entire mass and resultant weight is concentrated to the point that comes into contact with the object.

If a huge weight is concentrated into a minute surface area it can greatly increase its pressure. Swords work by concentrating the entire weight of the sword into a minute edge or surface area, therefore increasing the pressure of the edge which comes into contact with its target almost infinitely. If you can ensure that the same portion or surface area of your hand as the edge or surface area as the sword which comes into contact with your hand - and at the same speed- you can match the pressure of the sword and therfore provide the same force as the sword, therefore stopping it dead.

Also the running-up-walls feat which is achieved by many a ninja in martial arts movies is achieved by ensuring that only certain points of the feet or toes come into contact with the wall. This ensures that the entire body's weight is directed to only the points of the feet or toes which actually come into contact with the walls. This essentially makes the Qing Gong practitioner "lighter" , in layman's terms compared to someone untrained in Qing Gong.

For the very scientifically minded the practice of Qing Gong can be summed up as "ensuring that the body's mass and resultant weight due to gravity is spread over a smaller area than if the entire part of the body were to come into contact with the object and since masters of Qing Gong can choose which points of their body come into contact with the object, they can perform feats that would appear to be magical or supernatural but are actually just unachievable by those untrained in the practice of Qing Gong."

Although Qing Gong is based on a simple Physics-based principle, it is extremely difficult to actually apply these principles to your own body in a real situation and is therefore extremely difficult to master.