Sunday, September 16, 2007

Introducing A New Blog



I'd like to introduce a new blog, the very last blog on page two of toplist:
Riposte -Martial Arts News Around The Web. This is why we all should check out page two on Toplist, there are many good blogs there and Riposte is one of them. It features a wide variety of Martial Arts news, and while it's sitting in last place at #69 on Toplist, I predict it will rapidly move upward. Check out Page Two on Toplist and give some lonely Blogs a visit!
Here's one of the news articles off "Riposte"...

The Martial Arts Master Who Has Lived in Three Centuries
The Epoch Times Sep 09, 2007
He is a legendary man whose life has crossed three centuries. Born in the 19th year of Emperor Guangxu's Reign of the Qing Dynasty (1893), he is 114 years old. His name is Lu Zijian and he lives in Chongqing City, Sichuan Province, China. Despite his age, he is healthy and lithe. Once considered one of the top three gong fu masters, Lu is adept at martial arts and can still move a young man of around 150 pounds 15 feet away with just one push. When asked what his secret to longevity is, Mr. Lu said, "The key to a long and healthy life is a combination of movement and stillness—cultivating life by guiding the qi, the vital energy in the body, and moving the hands and feet through practicing Chinese boxing." According to Xinmin Evening News, Lu Zijian started learning martial arts with his mother at the age of seven, and in 1920 the 27-year-old Lu won the martial arts contest held at Yuhuatai, Nanjing City. He became famous in Shanghai in the 1930s and was granted Level Nine status—the top rank in Chinese martial arts.
Lu Zijian never tires of reliving his past. He fought foreigners on two occasions, and before each of the competitions he signed a waiver that said no one was responsible should a death occur during the fight. The first foreigner was an American named Tom, who was over six feet tall. The two men battled for more than an hour and still there was no clear winner. Lu's hands were badly scratched when one of his disciples called out, "Master, use Eight Trigram Palm!" Lu recalled, "I was in a hell of a fight and had become confused." When his mind became clearer he began to walk around Tom, using Eight Trigram, and finally hit Tom's chest with his palm. Tom stumbled backward a few steps then fell to the ground, blood gushing from his mouth. The second fight was with a Japanese Tae Kwon Do master in Shanghai. He was simply no match for Lu and ended up in worse shape than Tom.
Lu is the only unschooled martial arts master who has been granted Level Nine status by the China Martial Arts Association. Since he turned 86 years old Lu has attended every martial arts contest he could. When he was 93, he joined the Martial Arts Training Team of Sichuan Province and took part in the National Martial Arts Competition held in Sichuan.
Many articles on the Internet call Lu "the Great Master of the Yangtze River," joining the ranks of Huo Yuanjia, the Great Master of Eastern River, and Du Xinwu, the Great Master of the Yellow River. Mr. Lu is still capable and travels all over China. When he matches wrist strength with strong younger men, he is able to beat them easily. When he walks or climbs a mountain, he feels light as a feather.
A close-up look at Mr. Lu reveals that his face is almost free of wrinkles and his skin has an iridescence to it. His shoulders are broad and his arms are muscular. His gray hair is dotted with newly grown black hair. At age 95, his skin began to peel. Years later, the skin on his face, hands, and body was gone, and a new skin appeared. According to Mr. Lu, now his skin changes every three years.
Mr. Lu Zijian, named by the United Nations "the healthy old man," gets up at 7 a.m. every day, practices gong fu in the morning, meditates, paints, reads, and visits friends in the afternoon. He is as alive, alert, and as amusing as any young man.
He is a vegetarian, staying away from meat and fish. His favorite food is tomatoes. He meditates for an hour and a half starting at 2 p.m., goes to bed at 11 p.m., and lives at his grandson's home where he eats anything they cook. He told others a secret: eat raw tomatoes every day. They are a good thing.

No comments: