練 in Chinese / Japanese...

練 is a Chinese, Japanese, and Korean word that is the simplest way to say practice, train, drill, exercise, or to describe the effort taken to perfect one's skill.

練功 is a martial arts term that can mean to practice and attain working skills, feats of practice/practise, or skills acquired through hard training.

練功 is often used as a martial arts term but can apply to other skills (or professions).

If training or drill is important to you (especially for military drill and training), 訓練 might be just the thing for a drill master to hang behind his/her desk.

This term is universal in Chinese, Japanese Kanji, and old Korean Hanja. It can also mean practice or exercise, depending on context.

鍛練 is the Japanese Kanji and Korean Hanja word used for discipline.

This has a meaning like “forging or creating something from lots of training and practice.” My Japanese dictionary translates this as “tempering, forging, hardening, disciplining, training.”

This is for Japanese and Korean only. In Chinese, these characters might be translated as (physical) “exercise.”

The modern form of the second Japanese Kanji looks like the first image to the right. There’s also an alternate modern form after that, and finally, an alternate traditional form. Because calligraphy is an art, the calligrapher could choose any of these possible forms. Let us know if you have a preference.

磨鍊 is a form of discipline which suggests training of the mind and character, aimed at producing self-control, obedience, etc.

One of my Chinese-English dictionaries even translates this as “tempering oneself” or turning yourself into hardened steel.

In old Korean Hanja, they use these characters in reverse order but with the same meaning. If you want the Korean version, please click this link instead of the button above: Korean version.

不怕练不成就怕心不恒 literally translates as: Do not worry about not being able to master [a skill]; What [one should] be concerned about is lack of perseverance.

Figuratively, this means: One's skills cannot be perfected without perseverance in practice.

For me, I've learned that you can only get so much from school or studying. You've really got to do “on-the-job training” to perfect your ability and skill.

For martial arts students: You can read about a kick in a book, or someone can tell you about a certain kick but until you practice the kick, there's no way you'll master it.

A customer asked me to split these Wing Chun maxims into two parts, so he could order a couplet.

It thought this was a good idea, so it's been added here.

Be sure to order both part 1 and part 2 together. They need to be a matched set. It will be incomplete as a single wall scroll. Also, each wall scroll is handmade, so if you order them separately, weeks or months apart, they will vary a little by length, shade of paper, etc.

This text is the chant or poem of Wing Chun.

I call it a “chant” because it was meant to be a somewhat rhythmic poem to help practitioners memorize many aspects of Wing Chun.

You will see this referred to as “Wing Chun Kuem Kuit.” This Cantonese romanization is popular in the west (and there is no official way to romanize Cantonese, so many variations exist). In Mandarin, it would be, “Yong Chun Quan Jue.” The last character (kuit or kyut from Cantonese, jue or chüeh from Mandarin) kind of means “secrets of the art.” It's a short way to write 口訣, meaning “mnemonic chant” or “rhyme for remembering.”

In the west (especially in the military), we often use acronyms to remember things. There are no initials to make acronyms in Chinese, so in ancient times, chants like this are used to remember vast amounts of information. I will presume you already know the meaning of the 10 maxims, so I will skip that to keep this calligraphy entry from getting too large.

Some think 练拳者必记 is the title but that just says, “(When) training (the) fist, people should remember:.” Therefore, I've not included that in the calligraphy. However, you can put a note in the special instructions if you want it added.

Note: On a traditional calligraphy wall scroll, the characters will be written in vertical columns, starting from the right, and proceeding left.

Note: This is an except and variation from a huge 口訣. These 10 maxims are used extensively in Wing Chun training, and you’ll find them all over the internet. Just know there is a much longer version out there, along with several variations and excepts like this one. If you know of, or want a different version, just contact me, and I will add it for you.