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Bruce Lee (1940-1973)

Introduction

The key to immortality is first living a life worth remembering.

Born as Lee Jun Fan in the hour and year of the Dragon - thus named the Little Dragon - Bruce Lee saw the light on the 27th of November, 1940 in San Francisco. His father was of Chinese heritage and his mother, of German-Chinese heritage. The family returned to Hong Kong when Lee was only three months old, and because of that, he was always known as a citizen of the United States, and never held any other citizenship. He was educated mostly in private college such as LaSalle and St. Francis Xavier, while studying Martial Arts with masters such as Yip Man. After getting in trouble with the police because of some fighting, Lee had to return to the United States. There he began studying philosophy, drama and psychology at the University of Washington, where he also met his future wife.

Lee had always been studying martial arts, even while being very young. It was a world that fascinated him, not only because it taught the values of defense and protection, but also because it had an ability to open and clear the mind. Therefore, while studying at the university, he continued to train and fight to demonstrate his abilities. For Lee, Martial Art had become a way of physically expressing his feelings.

His father being an opera singer, Lee came to be involved with film and theatre early in his life. By the age of 18, he had appeared in over twenty movies. In a demonstration of the 1964 Longbeach Karate Tournament, Lee was observed by the hairdresser of the producer William Dozier. Soon after this, he was invited for an audition. It was here his movie career began. Among his first assignments, he featured in one season of the television show The Green Hornet, and made smaller appearances in movies.

Not happy with only playing support roles in America, Lee traveled back to Hong Kong and played in a movie produced by the legendary Raymond Chow. His first leading role was in The Big Boss in 1971, and turned out to be a big success. After that he gained more and more control over his choreography, production and screenplay until he was given almost full production control in his now cult movie Way of the Dragon. In 1973 he played in the movie Enter the Dragon, which made his career explode in the United States. He also had started to work on a new movie called Game of Death prior to his death, but unfortunately it was never finished.

Lee was confronted even on his stage set by extras and stuntmen that did not believe in his talent. As Bob Wall, a Karate champion, recall himself on a day of filming of the movie Enter the Dragon:

This kid was good. He was strong and fast, and he was really trying to punch Bruce's brains in. But Bruce just methodically took him apart. Bruce kept moving so well, this kid couldn't touch him...Then all of a sudden, Bruce got him and rammed his ass into the wall and swept him, he proceeded to drop his knee into his opponent's chest, locked his arm out straight, and nailed him in the face repeatedly. After his victory, Lee gave his opponent lessons on how to improve his fighting skills. His opponent, now impressed, would later say to Lee, "You really are a master of the martial arts."

Despite his success in the movie industry, Lee was always a martial artist before being a movie star. He based his philosophy on his martial arts training and vice-versa. Lee had a great body that covered a vast range of fast movements that he could use with various techniques he perfected and developed over the years. This was based on a pure and calm spirit; a way for him to transcend the mundane way of fighting that was around at time.

He also wrote some books and partial scripts, which were publically released after his death. In these works, Lee expands on his ideas, his philosophy, and his martial arts thinking that he had been gathering all of his life. The ideas expressed in his works are centered around Jeet Kune Do, cosmic philosophy and stoicism.

He died of full-body seizure and cerebral edema on May 10, 1973. Some events foreshadowed his death, but nothing could have been done to prevent it. He died at the young age of 33, and yet at that point achieved more greatness than most people do in a lifetime.

Martial Arts: Ideas

Kung Fu

We can't understand Bruce Lee's ideas if we don't first comprehend the philosophical basis that was his personal martial arts training. His first style was Wing Chun Kung Fu, also named "Spring Chant;" a way of fighting without tension or aggression. It is about moving within your own range, not charging aggressively upon the opponent, and remaining in control of the situation. In Spring Chant the fighter uses the aggression of his opponent to his own benefit, without using aggression himself. The Spring Chant fighter relies on peace with his mind and spirit, rather than on brute strength. Lee was taught Spring Chant by Yip Man, the first teacher to openly admit anyone to his school.

Kung Fu embodied meditation and rigid form to develop one's own mind and spirit. In combat, it was a devastating way of using the "qi," or life force. It was a self-defense purification of body and will. Its exact origin is unknown, but martial art as a way to fight with bare hands was taught to Chinese soldiers, as early as 2698 BC. The evolution of martial arts and Eastern philosophy are much linked, and so are Taoism/Buddhism and the Shaolin Kung Fu. Practicing this form of Kung Fu made Bruce Lee very fond of simplicity and increased his interest for Eastern philosophy in general.

But Lee also had other influences in his fighting style. He studied Western arts such as boxing, in which he won several competitions, and fencing, a technique and mindset he used to operate on "optimization mode." In other words, he started to see the flaws of a too rigid system and wanted to develop his own fighting method, through what the West had improved in fighting. Even more, fighting for Lee was like dancing; a personal and emotional expression.

Jeet Kune Do as fighting method

Emptiness the starting point. — In order to taste my cup of water you must first empty your cup. My friend, drop all your preconceived and fixed ideas and be neutral. Do you know why this cup is useful? Because it is empty.

Lee's fighting method was to drop everything that is useless, to shape, like a sculptor, a perfect method. It was not an actual form or pre-prepared technique, rather it was a way to adjust to everything; to "actualize oneself." He never wanted to attach a name to it, but had to name it as a concept rather than as a method. To be and to act was also a significant part of this philosophy. Fighting was adapted to do what had to be done; punch when you have to punch and kick when you have to kick. To do something else was to miss the point. It was not about fanciness, but simplicity to life.

Ultimately, Jeet Kune Do as martial art was not a way to look good. It was a way to be good, to express one's own personal feelings through movement and life. It was a way to defend and protect, to be and act.

I have not invented a "new style," composite, modified or otherwise that is set within distinct form as apart from "this" method or "that" method. On the contrary, I hope to free my followers from clinging to styles, patterns, or molds. [...] Either you understand or you don't, and that is that.

Philosophy

Taoism

Much like in Taoism, Bruce Lee saw greatness in the emptiness of the mind and the fulfillment of man through understanding of nature. The inaction of the fighter waiting for the right moment to strike or the appreciation of the knowledge of a cosmic order, were all part of a greater Tao-system that he revered through his writings. Much like the inaction mode of the Tao, Lee wanted to be shapeless, eternal and infinite; to act and react on the moment, not on formal or pre-formed patterns that would trap him mentally or physically.

From form to formless and from finite to infinite.

Taoism, being a philosophical and religious path to inner peace, eternally linked with Kung Fu and other martial arts of China, was already at the basis of the idealistic philosophy of Jeet Kune Do. From the inner depth of the self to the expressive form of the physical fighting, Bruce Lee was always expressing the Yin/Yang complementary vision. Jeet Kune Do, in its own way, was a cosmic representation of fighting.

Stoicism

Forget about winning and losing; forget about pride and pain. Let your opponent graze your skin and you smash into his flesh; let him smash into your flesh and you fracture his bones; let him fracture your bones and you take his life. Do not be concerned with escaping safely — lay your life before him.

In his way of accepting everything through passive adversity in order to react better and form greatness, Bruce Lee had a stoic form of seeing things. Much like Zeno of Citium in his formal years, Lee wanted to depart from the traditions and customs that trapped men inside their minds. Jeet Kune Do as much as Stoicism is a way of having no way; to accept everything and to be what you are. Lee sought to use the will to act and perceive things, rather than to base everything on pre-conceived patterns that force you to follow emotions or instincts. And like the Stoics of ancient Greece, Bruce Lee was someone who sacrificed time and life to help others, by mastering the art of bodily self-expression: martial arts.

Health and physical care

Lee was a great physical self-trainer. He was training every day in order to have the perfect body. He could perform some incredible physical feats and his body fat was so low that he was revered at the time by bodybuilders for having one of the most perfect human bodies in the world.

Lee was on a special diet where vegetables and Chinese food were the primary source of nutritions. His own personal exercise routine was linked with his diet, which allowed him to consume less carbohydrates to keep his body fat low. This routine always started with a jogging that could go on for approximately one hour, changing speed now and then. After that he would go for some bicycle (spinner) on fast pace, and then begin weight training. All this would be the opener for some stretching and martial arts practice. He would do this every day, even when he was elsewhere to do a movie; he always kept his running shoes near.

Lee could perform incredible physical feats such as thumb push-up and one-inch punch - a punch that directs an explosive power effect at very short distances, capable of breaking wooden boards. He could also perform other incredible things that he demonstrated at several karate competitions, leaving most of the public completely speechless. Sometimes he had to slow down his own movement in his movies; the camera at the time wasn't able to catch them all.

Chinese Nationalism

Leee expressed a great deal of nationalistic themes in his movies, celebrating the industrial boom of China in movies such as Way of the Dragon, and portrayed ancient China as powerful and righteous in Fist of Fury. In Lee's movies, the Chinese people are always depicted as strong, fierce, simple and helpful people. The Chinese characters that help strangers or foreigners are depicted as weaklings and simple-minded people with strange habits. This was not implied racism on Lee's part, but rather a way for him to place China back on the world map, be it ancient or modern time.

Bruce Lee - A CORRUPT Perspective

If you love life, don't waste time, for time is what life is made up of.

Bruce Lee is one of the few modern philosophers and athletes, who developed a form of active nihilism through his own way of living: Jeet Kune Do. Corrupt shares the same basic ideals that gave birth to the concept of Jeet Kune Do: celebration of wisdom, spirituality, inner harmony, constant reevaluation of all values and methods, and cosmic interconnection in the universe. The practical side of Lee's philosophy maintains that we can't build a perfect fighting machine with only techniques or a good body; mens sana in corpore sano (a healthy mind in a healthy body). We at Corrupt believe the same is true for a society: no system in the world, no matter how brilliant and strong, will survive if its citizens can't live up to the societal ideals. An ideal society needs ideal individuals who share a common spirit, just like our physique cannot develop unless our mind strives towards purity.

Lee was able to work beyond mind/body constraints to achieve goals that transcended those of the common man. He achieved those dreams by facing adversity with a stoic moral and proved to us that we need to develop inner spiritual qualities in order to have a strong will--a will strong enough to push our ideas to action, in order to ameliorate everything around us. A will that's ready to challenge the world and the universe itself.

Active nihilism, or the attempt to find knowledge and strength by always returning to a state of emptiness, is common sense for smart people who want to get something done in life, and not just please their inner chimpanzee. Why did Bruce Lee rise above others? The answer is that he focused all of his will on achieving goals: he wanted to be good; good enough to transcend the others and their obsession with winning and losing. For him, the cosmic order was reflected in everything and held the greatest and final importance, regardless of personal victories and losses. No matter what he faced, he always kept his head straight, in order to "Forget about winning and losing; forget about pride and pain."

by David Ravel