I Chin Ching

The precursor classic tome to the Okinawan practice of "chinkuchi" may have come from the I Chin Ching. This is not in reference to the I Ching or Book of Changes. The I Chin Ching is an ancient classic on the physical training used, it is theorized, to train the Shaolin monks so they could endure the strict Buddhist practices Bodhidharma brought to China from India.

The original I Chin Ching explained the 18 lohan or forms or techniques of exercise that just so happened to be the forms/techniques of fighting now referred to as "gung fu."

The definition of the term used, i.e. "Ekkin-kyo," is "muscle/tendon change classic." Chinkuchi means "muscle, bond and energy." The word and characters relate to the ekkin-kyo or Siji kaishin koten [筋改心古典] in Japanese, speak to the same method and it can be theorized that since the ekkin-kyo were techniques/exercises that were combative then it could relate historically and classically to chinkuchi as the interpretations of the Okinawans where the form of "Ti or Toudi," later called China-hand then Empty-hand, were the exercises and techniques used to create the same health and ability to fight.

Read also "Ekkin-kyo"