Chin Na Fa: Traditional Chinese Submission Grappling by Liu Jinsheng and Zhao Jiang (translated by Tim Cartmell)
Lesley Jackson reads about what appears to be an innocuous old Chinese police training manual, recently translated into English, and discovers some alarming ways to inflict pain and injury on your opponent.
: Blue Snake Books; Year: 2007; Pages: 111; Languages: English, translated from Chinese by Tim Cartmell;
Review
Although this book has only been recently published, it is actually a translation of a Chinese training manual for the police academy of the Zheijiang province in 1936. During this time China was in the throws of war and occupation and there was no room for any ‘namby pamby’ community policing for the Chinese police force. When you were arrested by a police officer well versed in this text, you jolly well knew about it!
When you read the forward, written by Zhao Lungwen, the man in charge of police training, he describes the policeman as a “soldier of peace” and Chin Na as “unsurpassed as an art that will allow one to control another without inflicting injury.” Don’t be fooled for a minute by this modest man’s words as the techniques included in this book are both brutal and when done to their extreme, they are lethal.
This book contains a brief introduction and forward and then plunges straight into a recipe of submission techniques that reads very much like one of Nigella Lawson’s cook books. “X continues to push under Y’s elbow until the elbow breaks.” And then put into an oven at gas mark 4 until brown and crispy. Pick a technique that applies to the various body area (which are divided up into chapters innocently named “head techniques” or “finger techniques”) and you will discover a very clearly written explanation, with an authentic picture from the original 1930s edition of how to subdue your opponent, often with a broken bone or death. This is not a manual for the feint hearted, or really for anybody who would actually want to try this stuff out.
What this translation does provide is an interesting historical document that gives the modern martial artist from the grappling world, such as Jiu Jitsu or Judo, an insight into what some of their more watered down techniques are capable of doing. Also, it gives a root idea of some of their origins in a truly martial world of war and civil disturbance and what needs to be done in a case of hand to hand combat. As the translator Tim Cartmell, himself a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu champion says, “the intention of this translation is to provide authentic historical documentation for martial arts techniques that have been modified for use today in both competition and self-defence.”
Although this book is interesting on a certain level to a specialist martial artist who is looking to deepen their own knowledge and understanding of their art, it isn’t really relevant to anyone at a beginner or intermediate level. This isn’t an in depth study into the history of martial arts, it is essentially a training manual with a series of instructions on how to disable and cripple your opponent, with techniques sometimes given odd titles such as “catching the rat.” However, what one can learn is that sheer strength is not always the key to overcoming an adversary as we are told, “clever techniques are favoured over brute force,“ which this book provides in spades.
Chin Na Fa: Traditional 
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