Touch of Death

Touch of Death
Chinese name
Chinese: Dim Mak
Traditional Chinese: 點脈 / 點穴
Simplified Chinese: 点脉 / 点穴
Japanese name
Kanji: 急所術
Hiragana: きゅうしょじゅつ

The Death Touch refers to any martial arts technique that can kill using seemingly less than lethal force targeted at specific areas of the body.

The concept known as Dim Mak (simplified Chinese: 点脉; traditional Chinese: 點脈; pinyin: diǎnmài; literally "press artery"; Jyutping: dim2 mak6), alternatively diǎnxuè (simplified Chinese: 点穴; traditional Chinese: 點穴) traces its history to Traditional Chinese Medicine Acupuncture. Tales of its use are often found in the Wuxia genre of Chinese martial arts fiction. Dim mak is depicted as a secret body of knowledge with techniques that attack pressure points and meridians, said to incapacitate or sometimes cause immediate or even delayed death to an opponent.[1]

The concept known as Vibrating Palm originates with the Chinese martial arts Nei Jing ("internal") energy techniques that deal with the Qi energy and the type of force (jin) used. It is depicted as "a technique that is part psychic and part vibratory, this energy is then focused into a wave".[2] According to a United States National Institutes of Health consensus statement in 1997, concepts such as qi "are difficult to reconcile with contemporary biomedical information."[3]

Contents

History

The concept of Dim Mak (Dian Xue) appears among fictional kung fu styles in the novels of Jin Yong from the 1950s.

Although Dim Mak originates in Wuxia fiction, there have been a number of martial artists claiming to practice the technique in reality, beginning in the 1960s with American eccentric Count Dante, who gave it the English name "The Death Touch". However, the subject of the death touch in real life is in much debate and controversy.

There is a possible medically related condition called commotio cordis. Commotio cordis is reported as the second most common cause of sudden cardiac arrest in young athletes after hypertrophic cardiomyopathy in the United States. Commotio cordis is defined as an instantaneous cardiac arrest produced by a nonpenetrating blow to the chest occurring within a specific 10- to 30-ms portion of the cardiac cycle in the absence of preexisting heart disease or identifiable morphologic injury to the sternum, ribs, chest wall, or heart. This period occurs in the ascending phase of the T wave, when the ventricular myocardium is repolarizing. With the average cardiac cycle duration of 1000 ms, the probability of a mechanical trauma within the window of vulnerability is only 1-3%.

By the 1980s, Dim Mak was well known in American pop culture. In 1985, an article in Black Belt magazine speculated that the death of Bruce Lee, in 1973, might have been caused by "a delayed reaction to a Dim-Mak strike he received several weeks prior to his collapse". Other authors, as well, have said the death of Bruce Lee may have been due to a "Quivering Palm technique" [4] (alongside an article about Cai li fo instructor Wong Doc-Fai) to the effect that "dim mak does actually exist and is still taught to a few select kung fu practitioners."[5] A 1986 book on qi identifies dim mak as "one of the secret specialities" of wing chun.[6] Dim Mak is referenced non-ironically in Bloodsport (1988), a film allegedly "based on true events in the life of Frank Dux", the founder of the first Neo-ninja school of "American Style Ninjutsu".

In ca. 1990, Taika Seiyu Oyata founded the style of Ryū-te which involves "pressure point fighting" (Kyūshojutsu). In the 1990s, karate instructor George Dillman developed a style that involves kyūshojutsu, a term that he identifies with Dim-Mak. Dillman eventually went as far as claiming to have developed qi-based attacks that work without physical contact ("no-touch knockout" techniques), a claim that did not stand up to third-party investigation and was consequently denounced as fraudulent.[7]

Also during the 1990s, Erle Montaigue (1949-2011[8]) published a number of books and instruction videos on Dim Mak. Montaigue claims to be "the first Westerner to be granted the degree of 'Master' in taijiquan", awarded by Master Wang Xin-Wu in 1985. According to Montaigue's own account, Dim-Mak is an aspect of traditional old Yang style Taji Quan which he claims he began learning in 1978 from a master called Chiang Yiu-chun, though Montaigue has stated this man was an illegal immigrant, making his existence difficult to verify. Erle subsequently learned the remaining "qi disruptive" forms of Wudang Shan from Liang Shih-kan in 1995.[9]

Paladin Press has other titles on the topic of Dim Mak, including Kelly (2001) and Bauer and Walker (2002), both with a foreword by Montaigue.

Dim Mak is also used in Laura Joh Rowland's book "The Assasin's Touch" which is a sequel to "The Perfumed Sleave" in Rowland's Sano Ichiro mystery series. The story takes place in 17th century Japan during the Tokugawa Shogunate where the Shogun's personal detective, Sano Ichiro, must investigate the death of a man who spontaneously died in the midst of a horse race. Sano concludes that dim mak was the cause of death and must track down and face a suspect with the formidable power to kill with the touch of a finger.

Cultural references

"Touch of Death" techniques appear in a number of kung fu films:

The concept has entered pop culture to the point where it has been referenced in diverse media, including the following:

See also

References

  1. ^ Adams, Cecil (May 21, 2004). "The Straight Dope: Is the "ninja death touch" real?". http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2509/is-the-ninja-death-touch-real. Retrieved 2009-07-14. 
  2. ^ Pickens, Ricky (1991), "the Mysterious Vibration Palm", Inside Kung Fu 
  3. ^ "Acupuncture: National Institutes of Health Consensus Development Conference Statement". National Institutes of Health. 3- 5November 1997. http://consensus.nih.gov/1997/1997Acupuncture107html.htm. Retrieved 2007-01-15. 
  4. ^ Bruce, Thomas (1994). Bruce Lee: Fighting Spirit : A Biography (first ed.). Frog Ltd. ISBN 978-1883319113. 
  5. ^ Jane Hallander, "The Death Touch" in Black Belt ISSN 0277-3066, Vol. 23, No. 6 June 1985, pp. 43ff.
  6. ^ William Cheung, Mike Lee, How to Develop Chi Power, Black Belt Communications, 1986, p. 23. ISBN 9780897501101
  7. ^ Polidoro, M. Just like Jedi knights Skeptical Inquirer, May/June 2008, p. 21; see also George Dillman explains Chi K.O. nullification. URL accessed on June 13, 2009.
  8. ^ [1]
  9. ^ <taijiworld.com "Erle stated he travelled back to Australia upon the death of his father in 1978 and [...] supposedly met Chiang Yiu-chun who became Erle's main internal arts teacher from whom he learnt Tai Chi, Wudang Arts and Dim-Mak. In 1981, Erle travelled to Hong Kong where he met and trained with both Yang Sau-chung (the son of Yang Cheng-fu) and also Ho Ho-choy, a Bagua master."
  10. ^ IMDb.com episode list

Further reading