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There is a popular Kung Fu saying, ‘When the hands arrive the whole body arrives’ which, in practice, is an expression of both physical and mental unity.  In essence this statement captures the practice within Wing Chun of seeking to draw maximum physical power from both the limbs of the body working in unison along with the body and mind working together in synchronicity.  The Six Harmonies is a framework that can act as a guide to the Wing Chun student in understanding and utilising ancient wisdom and learning; explaining how body unison and mind/body synchronicity can be achieved to deliver incredible physiological power and speed.

When thinking about the Six Harmonies it important to remember that the tradition of martial arts arose not just as a fighting art – but as an expression of higher learning in the Chinese culture.  Many Kung Fu systems base their training and idealogy around the Six Harmonies framework, though interpretation may vary between different schools. The Six Harmonies is a term often used to describe the unification of mind and body in a number of well-known Chinese martial arts, including Mantis, Bagua, Tai Chi and Shaolin.  In essence all six combine to represent a solid set of codes that embodies the deeper universal concepts of harmony and balance.

The Six Harmonies comprise the three Internal Harmonies (san nei he) and the three External Harmonies (wai san he).  The three Internal Harmonies relate to the ‘mind’ elements; the essence of using the “intent”, the “yi”, to bring power from the ground or gravity to a place in the body.  Specifically, the three Internal Harmonies are the Spirit & Intent, Chi & Intent and Chi & Power.   The three Internal Harmonies govern and teach the Wing Chun student the mental and physiological control aspects of fighting by managing QI flow, intent, and to tap into and further develop a fighting spirit.

The three external harmonies describe the ‘body’ elements; how it is tied together as one unit controlled by the Dantian, allowing the hand and foot to be connected through physiological control across the muscles, ligaments and structures of the different parts of the body. Specifically, the three external harmonies are categorised into Hands & Feet, Elbows & Knees and Shoulders & Hips. The three external harmonies guide these three parts of body coordination teaching the Wing Chun Student how to correctly generate power through the correct physical structure of Wing Chun.

Traditional Use within Chinese Martial Arts

It is said in the year 1750 that a famous master called Dai Long Bang captured from different classic texts the right way to practice the basic tenets from martial arts theories at the time.  His texts included a short study of what is known as “the six harmonies”.

For many traditional martial artists past and present, there is a central shared tenet which follows a path focused on achieving balance of body and mind.  It is to be remembered that Kung Fu itself is founded on the Ying/Yang ideology and as such many will always be striving to reach the elusive harmonious balance of body and mind.

The Six Harmonies movement represents the idealized movement of the human body and mind in accordance with its natural positions and structure – something which traditional Chinese medicine’s acupuncture theory adheres to; an idealization of the natural flow of energy and strength through the body.  Furthermore, the idea of tying various phenomena of the body, mind and the universe into a simple theory-of-everything is the basis for the ancient Chinese cosmology.

The Six Harmonies guide how the body should move, expand and contract in order to generate the maximum amount of power with minimum effort, and they also guide how the energy is to be managed within any associated focused mental activity.  They show how to maintain a strong structure – a mechanical integrity that is required against stronger, larger opponents where strength alone will not be powerful enough to withstand their offence.

The Six Harmonies introduce the necessary requirement of the ‘movement’ of the mind – something which is more often associated with the spiritual aspects of yoga, meditation and other elements of training that would be traditionally associated with the training in Shaolin Monasteries.   Many Wing Chun students may well be aware of the common expression of ‘emptying the mind’ but have no idea of how to achieve this, or the value that it adds.  The focus on the mind and body working together is often something very unfamiliar with Western students, yet embracing training the mind is a key part of mastering Wing Chun.  The Six Harmonies again provide a useful path towards this new depth of understanding – a path back to the deeper, spiritual heritage of Wing Chun.

Towards idealised movement

The basic theory of Six Harmonies movement starts with the principle of using the powers of the Earth (gravity) and the powers of the Heavens (mainly air and pressure) and combining these powers with personal power – the power of an individual’s whole body.  This balancing of the mind and body using the balance of forces in nature is the hallmark of the so-called “internal martial arts”.  The internal martial arts require a specialised training that extends over a long period of time to properly understand the concept alone, and more time to begin to be able to use the mind and body to express this in a fighting application.

Even today many of the classical Chinese martial arts contain the term “Liu He” (“six harmonies”) in their full title.  However, over time, many martial arts have devolved to a less pure usage of the use of Qi, Jin, and Dantian, regardless of the name they use.  This is because the movement of the body and the application of different parts of the brain must be completely re-programmed.  As a result, only a small number of martial art styles attempt to use the full Six Harmonies movement principles or comply with traditional requirements.

It is very evident in the Western and, in particular, modern teaching of Wing Chun that the traditional training of Wing Chun to a high level of understanding and capability over many years has degraded – to something more akin to the purpose employed in China in enabling non-martial artists to quickly pick up a fighting skill that they could use against Imperial forces.  In this way, Wing Chun can become little more than another self-defence system.

It is a real advantage of Wing Chun that the student can quickly pick up effective skills which can be used for fighting application.  However, to proceed to greater depths of understanding and capability, the correct mastery of the Six Harmonies must be properly understood and developed.  The Six Harmonies are therefore not for the student who simply wants to develop good self-defence.  Instead, it is reserved for the student who wants to embrace the legacy of understanding the exceptional personal, mental and physical development of the great Master’s.  This Wing Chun student must be prepared to train long and hard in re-training their body and mind to work in different ways, and to work in unison together – only then can the true speed and power of Wing Chun be understood and unleased.

Retraining the body

Early Chinese studies attributed the strength of the body along connected pathways involving several muscles, tendons, and connective tissues, using the skeleton as a base.  Yin channels are those which go longitudinally up and down the body and are involved with the downward weight aspects of the body.  In Wing Chun this relates to the ‘sinking’ elements involved in the structure and stance.  The Yang channels, alternatively, are involved with conveying the solidity of the ground upward and outward in the opening of the body.   In Wing Chun this relates to the spring force that comes up from the ground through the body and into the opponent through ‘forwarding’.

The Yin and Yang lines can be understood in terms of the two centre-lines; one which travels like a pole through the body from the heads down to the ground (Chung-Sum-Sin) and the one which extends out from your chest and connects you to your opponent’s chest (Chung-Sin).   With modern advances in the understanding of physiology, psychology and neuroscience we have a much better understanding of the actual involvement of different chemicals and structures in the body – something which the advanced student begins to embrace and understand.  Initially, the basic concepts of Yin/Yang forces are sufficient to begin down the path of the Six Harmonies.

Use of isolated, “normal” strength (which tends to start with tension in the hands and shoulders) dilutes or hinders the flow of ground-support strength upward and gravity-derived strength downward.  Muscular tension blocks the flow of source-power both the Yin and Yang sources of power – hence this type of movement training requires that the body be “relaxed”, but connected.  In this way, reprogramming the body requires switching the approach to strength completely upside down.

It’s critical to constantly remember that the solidity of the ground is the basis of all upward forces and that the weight of gravity is primary base of all downward forces.   These are two internal, mental forces that the Wing Chun student must learn to train into their structure and then to keep in the back of their concentration at all time.

To the untrained eye, the Wing Chun student who is moving with Six Harmonies movement appears to be using normal movement so it’s fairly common to find many people copying their instructors using normal movement and getting frustrated with lack of progress – completely missing the point that it is the movement using Six Harmonies which provide the spring-board for relaxation, power, control and structure in Wing Chun.

To achieve the correct use of internal and external harmonies requires concentrated, dedicated mindfulness and physical practice.  Bit by bit the Wing Chun student comes to appreciate that they are reprogramming their muscles, their postures, how their psychological and neurological processes are changing.   It is in this way that many say that the ‘internal’ martial arts offer the Wing Chun student a path to a wealth of physiological, biological, psychological and neurological knowledge – the cultural Chinese heritage of knowledge and understanding that went into creating Wing Chun in the first place.

So, let’s now look in more detail at the internal and external harmonies.

The Internal (san nei he)

The Three Internal Harmonies are:

1. Your spirit or “emotional mind” (xin) harmonises with your intention (yi).
2. Your intention harmonises with your breath and physical momentum (“qi”).
3. Your breath and physical momentum harmonise with your physical strength (li).

The purpose of the Internal Harmonies

The three internal harmonies allows us to maintain a state of unity between the mind and body, as well as maintaining a clear focus on the task at hand.  The three internal harmonies involve the heart, the intention, the QI and strength (muscle).  The harmonies are described easily by saying that the heart (also known as the martial spirit, desire, emotional mind, or even will) leads the intention to take an action.

There is another familiar saying that ‘it is not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog’ that is important.  In simple terms this translates into Wing Chun that a student may develop capable physical skills, but if they lack the courage and conviction to actually use them to destroy an opponent in a fight, then they are useless.   My Instructor always used to say to me – use your Man Sau / Wu Sau like a sword – do not unsheathe them unless you are prepared to use them and only put them away when the opponent is defeated.

The Internal harmonies also offer a unique and important pathway to balance the level of ‘fight’ inside – and to be able to express this in a controlled manner for the Wing Chun student.   If you are, by nature, aggressive then it is likely that you easily fly into a rage, tap into the adrenaline forces of power, but do so in an uncontrolled manner.  This gives you an advantage over an opponent, but not against a larger or more skilled opponent.  On the other hand, you may be, by nature, someone who does not like fighting, and here your adrenaline takes you down the path of ‘flight’ rather than ‘flight’.  Having spent time developing a martial art for this gives the Wing Chun student no advantage over your opponent if you cannot face your attacker and be confident in employing your skill to defeat them.   The Six Harmonies provide a pathway for both of these types of student to become a focused, controlled fighting machine capable of great power and skill.

And we must remember that Wing Chun is a soft style that was supposedly a ladies style, and ladies typically do not have the same testosterone-fuelled aggression as men.  It is therefore a very powerful tool that enables the student to develop the ‘mind’ of a fighter.  Be being focused on the core of the opponent, by always attacking and stepping in, the Wing Chun student eventually trains a machine like empty mind where the physical tools developed in the external harmonies can be used with focus, but without emotion, aggression or malice.

Internal Harmony 1:

The first intention harmonises with the ‘intent’. The heart is the emotional drive that sets the motivational fires burning.  You must have the intent to fight.  Here ‘heart’ can be seen to refer to if our heart is in the fight – something also commonly expressed as fighting spirit.

Here, spirit doesn’t refer to any kind of ethereal or divine spirit. For martial arts purposes, spirit could perhaps be read as martial spirit – the desire to be alive and stay alive. It is the ferocity or courage with which one preserves oneself or others.   I find the Shaolin saying here to be useful – ‘I seek not to harm others, but also I will not let others harm me’.  This saying carries the martial arts code inherently in it, that the skills we develop in Wing Chun should not be used to hurt others, unless it is to protect ourselves (or vulnerable others) from attack.

Importantly, a lot of people who take up martial arts for self-defence choose a system that allows them to take a passive approach – whereby the use blocks to defend against a series of attacks.  However, this can only continue for so long with an inevitable outcome – eventually the attacker will break down the defences.  The approach of Wing Chun means that from the outset this demands a different approach from the student – there are no defences alone.  Instead, attack and defend are always used together and, in this way, the attack is met with an attack.

This attack approach is often a difficult early hurdle for new wing Chun students, especially who have come from other martial art styles, to embrace.  However, once this is embraced the Wing Chun system does the rest; bit by bit the close-range fighting techniques and principles allow the Wing Chun student to experience first-hand through sparring that this is the only effective way to neutralise an attack.

Xin is sometimes translated as “heart” or “emotional mind”. Bruce Lee once said “look for the emotional content”, Xin is “emotional content”.  Yi is sometimes translated as “intention” or “wisdom mind”. It refers to one’s experience or knowledge base. A fighter might have a strong spirit, but without good tactics, combat knowledge and martial skills, she would not be able to fight very effectively.  The spirit works alongside the intention, and also plays an initiating or driving role. The intention can be thought to temper or focus the spirit, so the fighter is controlled and intelligent, rather than wild and clumsy.

Heart harmonising with intention then is the first of the three harmonies.  Harmonising heart with intention has the tendency to focus the mind on the task at hand.  Within this content, heart is often translated as the emotional mind and the intention is often translated as the intellectual mind.  This subsequently opens the first harmonisation to the interpretation that both the emotional need for survival must be coordinated with an intellectual understand of maintaining proper technique and strategy.  It is tapping into this natural emotional survival instinct that allows the Wing Chun student to realise the Shaolin saying of not letting others harm you.

The wisdom mind must always act naturally, reactively and correctly when required – almost as if it is second nature.  This cannot be accomplished without a great deal of training first.  Our understanding of how the Motor Cortex must unlearn old habits and map new ones gives us a modern insight into the actual brain processes that have to be changed here.  The intent can represent our commitment to training and also winning.  It is our mental strength and focus to develop ourselves.

Spirit & Intent harmony represent our mental strength and focus, our commitment and heart to the task in hand.  Some interpret this as purely spiritual but for the majority it represents our willpower in delivery.  Controlling emotions such as anger and channelling it to a focused mind brings clarity and awareness as well as extra power and speed.

Internal Harmony 2:

The second internal harmony is where the intention harmonises with the Chi.

We have shown above that your degree of intention will determine your degree of concentration.  Concentration in Wing Chun changes over time with experience from being located through tension in the hands to more of a holistic awareness of the state of correct structure and relaxation both internally and externally.  At all times the advanced Wing Chun student is actively concentrating on the key structural points from the feet, through the knees, waist, back, shoulders, neck, elbows and wrists.  This level of concentration comes from intensely trained in movements into the Motor cortex of the brain which mean you no longer need to think about they – they become second nature – namely, you are able to “feel” them using the Parietal cortex of the brain rather than using the pre-frontal cortex of the brain to actively think about them.  The same applies to the internal monitoring of your focus of intent – towards the core of the opponent, and here in terms of your state of relaxation and the ability to use ground energy through relaxed structure to generate power.

YI (intention) harmonises with Qi. Qi is a hard word to translate in terms recognisable to Western anatomical thinking. “Physical energy” is probably a useful translation here. As well as spirit and intention, one needs to be sufficiently healthy and have adequate energy levels to move and fight effectively. Your intention informs your energy – it takes on a guiding role to ensure that you do not over-exert yourself and burn out too quickly. But health also plays a role in determining one’s ability to think clearly and make sound decisions, so the relationship is a mutual one.  The inner focus described above extends to this area within Wing Chun in terms of actively not using muscle force, overcommitting and so on, but instead maintaining proper structure and using correct technique.

The second harmony links one’s intention with one’s Qi.  Qi can be considered to be the body’s essential energy, and to some people the essential energy of the universe and everything that is inside it.  The intention mobilises the Qi, guiding it through the body to energise and protect by gathering it, controlling it, and then eventually releasing it.  In this way, the Wing Chun student is able to move from the beginner position of being physically exhausted in a sparring session of a few minutes to be able to maintain the highest level of skill and power in sessions extending over an hour.  This, in itself, is a key skill in fighting application and gives the Wing Chun student an advantage over an untrained opponent who would otherwise tire quickly.

Chi & Intent harmony offers a clear link between our mental focus and physical reality.  It is our knowledge and strength of mental focus that determines the amount of control we have over the various states of physical energy that flow through our body. By increasing the mental control into our physical actions we become able to focus our efforts more efficiently and as a result we conserve more energy.

Internal Harmony 3:

The third internal harmony is where the Chi harmonises with movement.  For the Wing Chun student it is now time to act.  In the previous two harmonies you have established a good posture, you are focused your energy and now, with intention, choose to move.  The trained brain makes all movements happen as second nature.  Once your intention is set you fire off nerve impulses and off you go – you are a trained, Wing Chun weapon.

Qi harmonises with Li (strength). Effective and powerful physical movement should be guided by all of the other factors listed above.  Li represents the final physical manifestation of Spirit, Intention and Energy.  Again, the relationship is harmonious.  A fighter’s energy levels determine how much strength they are able to exert and the better their physical strength, the more power they are able to exert without expending too much energy.

The final harmony is connecting the Qi with the physical body.  The physical body is the final manifestation of heart, intention and Qi.  The Six Harmonies all work together much like the external harmonies do, namely to create a single unified internal connection.  This single entity is the foundation for the perfect mind-set crucial to winning a confrontation against an attacker.  This final piece allows one to create maximum power with minimum effort.

Chi & Power harmony is the effect of Chi on the physical body and is not easily explained scientifically, but nonetheless its presence can be physically felt.  Understanding the forces at play require a deeper level of understanding of biology, chemistry and philosophy.  Many of us have felt the surge of strength that comes when adrenaline kicks – often this occurs when we are angry.  We have also heard of the amazing feats of strength that the human body is capable of when it uses adrenaline – for example, to allow a slim woman to lift a car off a child.

Physiologically, the body has a number of ‘limiters’ that it puts on its muscles – a bit like a limiter on a car that stops it going over a certain speed.   The body does this to protect damage to muscles, tendons that can occur when they are used over an above the normal levels.  The signals to override these natural limiters come in the form of hormone release – adrenaline being one of these.  This lets the body tap into much more power than normal – something that internal martial arts have been able to exploit to be able to deliver seemingly super-human abilities.

The advanced Wing Chun student is able to harmonies the Chi with movement in the sense that they are able to control the release of adrenaline into a relaxed state in the body to allow the Wing Chun techniques and structure to operate with the maximum amount of explosive power possible, but without damaging the muscles.   The empty mind is a key component to making this happen – being able to channel the rush of energy and power felt from adrenaline but without tensing up the muscles as happens in anger.  To this end, the Wing Chun student seems calm when inside the Incredible Hulk is bursting out into heightened energy for incredible speed and power to be released.

A summary of the Internal Harmonies

We can already see that mastering the three internal harmonies cannot be done in isolation – instead it must go hand in hand with developing the external harmonies; harmonising intention of heart requires the Wing Chun Student to embrace the physical techniques of stepping in and attacking the attack.  In harmonising intention to Chi we see the Wing Chun student must have developed sound structural alignment.  Finally, in harmonising Chi with movement, the student must have reprogrammed their body to use the correct muscles with relaxation.

Just as the three internal harmonies cannot be understood in isolation of the external harmonies, it is also not possible to think of understanding the three harmonies as things which are achieved in a linear fashion, one after the other in the order of 1, 2, 3.  Instead, the inner harmonies are separate stages that the Wing Chun student begins to develop gradually, and collectively.  Having an intellectual understanding of the Six Harmonies is the door which allows the Wing Chun student in, the framework within this allows the Wing Chun student to progress along the path towards its mastery.

The External (san wai he)

The Three External Harmonies are :

1. Your hips harmonise with your shoulders.
2. Your knees harmonise with your elbows.
3. Your feet harmonise with your hands.

The purpose of the External Harmonies

The three harmonies described above are, in short, the nuts and bolts of the Wing Chun structural system – yet it is important to understand that they are much more than walking and posture, they extend much deeper into the principles of how to move the body.  It is important to also remember that, just as the internal harmonies could not be developed or applied in isolation, so to the three lots of external harmonies cannot.   It is useful to think of the hands and feet together, to think of the knees and the elbows together and the hips and the shoulders together – purely because the same physical place they occupy in space within the Wing Chun stance structure.  However, it is crucial to remember that Wing Chun is about whole body movement – quite the very opposite of “normal” fighting in which the beginner student does use isolated limbs.

In this way, the Six Harmonies framework breaks down whole body application into bite-sized chunks for the developing Wing Chun student to grasp – a bit like offering rungs on a ladder which enable you to move step by step to a higher level.  This is where the Six Harmonies acts as a guide, offering a pathway for the Wing Chun student.  Importantly again, just as with the internal harmonies, the student does not learn this in a linear manner – instead, breaking these into components allows the mind to focus its understanding and learning on a given area at any one time whilst understanding the bigger structural picture it is working towards – which see all’s of these elements progressing together towards ultimately bringing them together in whole body unison.

External Harmony 1:

The first external harmony is the Hands & Feet harmony.  This important unison of movement sets the physical foundations upon which the principle of attacking the attack with full-body structure.  For the beginner Wing Chun student this begins to train in a sense of limbs working together which would normally move in a step process, one after the other.  The typical ‘street’ punch would involve an un-coordinated swing of the arm that it detached from the rest of the body.  In this way, the power of the attack is limited to muscular force within a limited range of small muscles.  In short, it is the first step to better body alignment thus improving balance and power.

There is another popular saying in Kung-fu that “the foot and the fist arrive together”.  This usually refers to a strike connecting with its target as the fighter settles into their final stance.  In Wing Chun this extends to the transition from the opening of the movement through to the connecting of the strike – where at all times the hands and feet are travelling through space in unison.  This is important for the developing Wing Chun student to understand at the outset, so as to instil a focus back to the position of the limbs themselves – more focused on the mechanics of moving them correctly into the final position.

This concept is not one that is typically understood by the Wing Chun student as they work through the Sil Lim Tao form, as the basic front-facing stance (Yee gee kim yeung ma) used in the first fist form does not see any stepping.  However, it is possible to introduce the concept so the student can think about the stationary positions of the three external harmonies relative to each other in the static, front-stance.  Furthermore, this is something that can be introduced to the student in 5-point stepping – where the basic structure being developed in Sui Lim Tao can start to be moved around by the Wing Chun student.  It is something that becomes necessary to train in and develop a much deeper understand of in the Chum Kiu form.

External Harmony 2:

The second external harmony is the Elbows and Knees harmony.  This is about their alignment relative to each other. In order to maintain maximum biomechanical structure, the elbows need to be directly above or inside the knee line. The relationship between the elbows and knees is similar to that of the hips and shoulders. At its simplest, elbows are often kept in line with (directly over) one’s knees in order to optimise the strength of one’s physical structure. The elbows are also driven by the shoulders and the knees are driven by the hips.

However, it is important to remember that correct structural alignment extends beyond the physical placing of one limb in space relative to another.  This is the basic starting point of the beginner student which must develop from placing the elbow a fist distance from the body for correct positioning, to correctly understanding the structural integrity of the back, neck, using the correct muscles to straighten the back but allow the shoulders to be relaxed to allow the arm to hang (through gravity) and travel through the power-line as a result of ‘forwarding’ into the correct position.  As such, it is key that the developing student be made aware that understanding the position is a first rung on the ladder, and the second step is to properly learn how to get the limb into position using the correct structure and muscle / tendon / ligament forces of the Yin / Yang centreline downward and outward forces.

External Harmony 3:

The third external harmony is the Shoulders & Hips harmony.  This is the main link in the transfer of power from the legs to the arms and vice versa.  The hips serve as the rooting platform for the shoulders, and the feet as the anchor.  By pivoting the hips in unison with the upper body, spiral tension (known as torque) can be created resulting in an increase of power and stability.

For the Wing Chun student upper body movements should never be disconnected from the lower body.  As soon as this happens the student will either be rocked backwards out of their stance, or try and compensate for the structural break in their mechanical integrity by using muscular force in the arms. The upper body (above the waist) and lower body (below the waist) portions of the torso should move in harmony with each other, so the hips and shoulders need to move in conjunction with each other in order to maximise power.

This is a crucial bridge of structure between the upper and lower body for the Wing Chun student to understand.  As in the case of the first two external harmonies, the correct movement is not achieved simply by turning the hips and the shoulders together at the same time – although this is often seen in beginner students or those at any level who have failed to grasp the correct unifying technique.  This technique involves using many elements together, elements which have to be learned – the head in an straight upright manner (Dung Tao), the neck and shoulders properly opened and relaxed (Ting Bok), the S-curve of the Lumbar area of the spine straightened out (Ting Yui) by the correct rotation of the pelvis (Tei Gong) and sinking of the legs (Kim Sut).  All of which are actively controlled through the longitudinal ligaments that extend from the base of the spine (the Coccyx) up to the C1 vertebrae at the top of the neck joining the skull.  And, all of which are active structural points that the internal harmonies are focused on to maintain this correct posture.

For all of these methods, momentum needs to flow freely between the external harmonies rather than be held in a fixed, rigid position.  The torso needs to ripple or undulate in order for power to travel unimpeded throughout the entire body. The final position for a given movement will often involve the shoulders being directly over the hips as this alignment optimises the strength of the torso. The waist area needs to be strong and flexible for power to be generated in this way, so the waist should be loose and relaxed.  All of this is achieved by the use of the Yin/Yang energies through the two centerlines.

The challenge for the Wing Chun student is how to find the correct structural positions that allow them to achieve this.  This means using different muscles and positions of the body in all of the external harmonies.  It also takes time – when the developing student moves from a “normal” learned position to seeking a new position, this is often forced and over exaggerated to get the ‘feel’ of the new position.  In time, the developing student learns to take out wasted muscle use until the new position can be achieved with ease, using the correct muscles with the very least amount of energy to maintain the right posture.

A summary of the External Harmonies

As we have seen with the internal harmonies, the external harmonies are actually not three separate elements, but rather 3 pieces of a larger puzzle.  Furthermore, it is clear that the position of the hands, feet, shoulders, hips, elbows and knees are also not end positions in themselves, but rather a guide to moving these components together in unison through the entirety of the movement.  And finally, it is crucial for the developing Wing Chun student to remember that this is only made possible through the correct structural positions being able to be ‘found’ through the correct use of relaxation and isolation of the right muscles, tendons, ligaments and subsequent position of the skeleton that it is possible to properly move into these positions.

We have also seen that the mechanical positions can easily be copied by the new student, but it is only the developing student who is following the path of the Six Harmonies, actively combining the internal and external elements, that is able to progress to the deeper levels of understanding.

Conclusion

The Six Harmonies can therefore be seen as a pathway to guide the developing Wing Chun student through many physical and mental hurdles.  These hurdles often manifest themselves as “walls” – where students find the steady progress grind to a halt and their training seem to plateau.   Often this is because one component has been trained in isolation, or the focus has been purely on the external.  Once the student is able to manage their own training, with the support and guidance of their instructor, using the Six Harmonies they transcend from being told where to place their limbs and actively introspect, seeking out the correct way for themselves.  This is a point of transition where the student no longer seeks all the answers from the master, instead realises that they must seek the answer from within.

Like most lessons in Wing Chun, it is hard to understand what is right until you have felt it, but you can use feeling what is not right to guide you.  The Six Harmonies offer a path to the Wing Chun student through which this feeling can, bit by bit, be explored, understood and then ingrained into the correct technique, structure and application.

Wing Chun reveals itself as something that we absorb, slowly grasping and building up a sense of rather than learning in a sequence of defined stages.  In tradition with its Shaolin background we must always pay homage to its saying – that mind and body must be trained side by side, with equal concentration and dedication.  Those who follow this path often describe that Wing Chun becomes them and they become Wing Chun – a unison takes place where your natural expression of yourself is expressed authentically through your actions and thoughts – a philosophical aspect that Bruce Lee often referred to.

The Six Harmonies open up a new understanding – both of yourself, but importantly about others and, further, your place in the wider world, even universe.    Pursuing balance and correct energy has many personal benefits, including greatly improved posture, relaxation from stress and tension and a sense of controlled oneness with yourself – a harmony of your inner self, your body and its connection everything around it.

To achieve this level of self-realisation takes many years of concerted effort, but even with the first step, the path of the Six Harmonies allow many in the Western world to open up to a whole new way of perceiving themselves and those around them.  In doing so the Wing Chun student embarks on an amazing adventure of personal exploration and growth – leading ultimately to not only a highly skilled fighter, but also an enlightened understanding.

This is the legacy of the ancient wisdom that shaped Wing Chun – and which offers itself as a gift to all who truly embrace it.

Copyright @ Craig Sands