painting mook jong "do not fight force with force"

[ipman1972]

hey the title say most everything. hoping to get a more accurate set of characters than what google translate puts out. 

I've been practicing wing chun Kung Fu for about 2 years now. Awhile back i bought a dummy to practice on. now its kinda shabby and i wanted to spruce it up with a new paint job.

i will need two phrases translated:

"Do not fight (their) force with (your/my) force" 

and

"be like water" cliche i know but specifically

"move (the body) like water"

[IvIvIing]

There are idioms “四两拨千斤” and "静如处子，动如脱兔". 

 

 

[Publius]

Hmm not every Chinese knows Kung Fu. And Wing Chun is only one of the many branches. Took me a while to realize what a mook jong is (木樁).

 

Wing Chun emphasizes 捨力、卸力、借力, I think 四兩撥千斤 can capture it pretty well.

 

"Be like water" is a quote from Bruce Lee. A longer version is “Empty your mind! Be formless, shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. Put it into a bottle, it becomes the bottle, you put into a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow, or it can crash: Be water, my friend!”

I think it's closer in meaning to Sun Tzu's 兵無常勢，水無常形.

[Daniel Tsui44]

22 hours ago, ipman1972 said:

"Do not fight (their) force with (your/my) force" 

"Do not fight (their) force with (your/my) force"＝避实

You can use the phrase "避实击虚"(Do not fight force with force, fight where there is no force).

 

22 hours ago, ipman1972 said:

"be like water"

上善若水（The best is to be like water.）

[lips]

Why not use an exact phrase that a Wing Chun shifu would use?

 

借势攻势 、借力打力

[Demonic_Duck]

On 2017/3/4 at 2:14 AM, Publius said:

I think it's closer in meaning to Sun Tzu's 兵無常勢，水無常形

 

Ooh, this is a good one. The warrior has no fixed force, just as the water has no fixed shape.

 

I like lips's “借勢攻勢，借力打力” too.

 

 

[ipman1972]

thank you all so much!!! 

are the commas necessary for the correct meaning?  can i turn these characters to the traditional direction of chinese language (right to left and downward)

sun tzu's quote is bad ass way better than quoting bruce lee!

 

[ipman1972]

On 3/3/2017 at 9:04 AM, IvIvIing said:

静如处子，动如脱兔

can you explain what this idiom means? haha i know it may be imposible

[Flickserve]

AFAIK, it is also called 木人樁.

 

I guess you want to paint those characters on your wooden dummy. Having large characters written vertically downwards will look good. Write it on paper first and stick on to check for size. Put a space instead of the comma. 

 

How about posting pictures of the process for us to admire? 

[Demonic_Duck]

3 hours ago, ipman1972 said:

can you explain what this idiom means? haha i know it may be imposible

 

Unmoving like a virgin, moving like an escaping rabbit. (I think...)

 

2 hours ago, Flickserve said:

Having large characters written vertically downwards will look good. Write it on paper first and stick on to check for size. Put a space instead of the comma. 

 

You could also write them like this:

   兵
水 無
無 常
常 勢
形 

 

^Alignment's still a little off, but you get the idea. Numbering of characters is:

 

   1
5  2
6  3
7  4
8

 

 

[Kenny同志]

"Do not fight (their) force with (your/my) force" 

=勿以力攻力=避實就虛

 

"be like water" 

取法於水