Cups & Bowls – Martial, Mystical, Holistic And Everything In-between 🍵

“I’ll kill you...with this teacup.”

~ Riddick  (The Chronicles Of Riddick)

Teacups

The humble bowl and teacup (essentially the same thing for our purposes) have been around for thousands of years making eating and drinking far easier.

With time they have been pressed in to endless other services such as butter/oil lamps, compasses (with a magnetised needle floated on the surface), cookie cutters etc.

Medically they are used in Chinese cupping treatment and even to combat heat stroke using gua sha scraping - Chinese special forces are taught to use the edges of mess tins for this.

Being such ubiquitous objects they have of course found their way into more mystical endeavours.

Singing Bowl

Filled with ink or dark wine they are great for scrying, carromancy another form of divination consists of reading the shapes of melted wax dripped into a bowl of cold water.

A tazza is a thick cup used to burn incense during rituals.

Magic bowls (generally middle eastern) have spells inscribed on them and are used to trap demons.

Singing bowls are used for meditation, space clearing and healing.

Specific bowls are used in religious rites to present offerings such as Tibetan Kapala. In both Lancashire and Derbyshire “Dobby Stones” (river stones with a natural bowl water worn into them) are kept in the home/garden and are used to present libations to the local spirits of the place.

Kapala

Being so commonplace it didn’t take martial artists long to see their potential as subtle yet deadly improvised/camouflaged weapons.

The Five Ancestors Fist Kung Fu system utilises the rice bowl as a weapon along with chopsticks and even opium pipes.

Vagabond Kung Fu (secretive hybrid systems for the road) uses begging bowls and those used in street gambling/magic displays for brutal self-defence methods. The famous So Chan or ‘Beggar So’ martial hero of the Ching dynasty, a wandering acrobat and martial instructor of the Drunken Boxing Style formulated the ‘Golden Bowl/Iron Chopstick Form. An iron bowl is used to provoke opponents while the chopsticks are used for dim mak striking.

Priest Styles (fighting systems used by holy men and women) specialised in using religious paraphernalia as weapons for personal protection, including alms bowls. These rare  systems require a really high level of skill as there are no killing techniques allowed.

The Korean system Ip Sun ‘Standing Properly’ practised in Buddhist temples found its way there via three travelling Chinese Kung Fu masters. This unique form of Tai Chi has adopted the teacup into its curriculum.

In WW2 W E Fairbairn taught an escape method using the teacup to SOE agents. The technique is to grip the teacup at its base and deliver a fast chin jab upwards using a short & sharp wavelength of energy. When the cup breaks it will penetrate and cut. China actually breaks even sharper than glass producing a more devastating injury. The thick base of the cup will protect your hand from any injury.

As a martial training tool cups have always been used in Baguazhang, not just held in the hands but even used to step upon in a circular pattern (base up). In external Kung Fu systems they are placed on the head, shoulders and thighs during horse stance training.

Holistically the tea serving exercise (which has now been adopted by many other arts including Wing Chun and Kuntao Silat) improves shoulder mobility which for martial artists means greater speed.

Blessings

Mathew