Jardine Sifu's Story
Jardine Sifu began his lifetime study of Tai Chi after the arrival in South Africa of Master Tchung Ta-Tchen in 1970. He learned the six-part Long Form which Tchung Sifu developed from the 108 Yang Style Tai Chi Chuan.
When Tchung Sifu moved to Canada to expand Tai Chi there, Jardine Sifu looked around in South Africa for different Tai Chi schools. Many people claimed to teach Tai Chi in those days, but Jardine quickly realised they were not really teaching Tai Chi at all.
At that time in early 1970s in South Africa, few people outside the Chinese community knew about Tai Chi. Mostly as a consequence of the oppressive apartheid regime Tai Chi was taught to the Chinese community only.
Jardine was training and teaching a hard martial art, and after his classes, he trained on his own, doing gentle Tai Chi exercises to relax. His fellow students in the karate school expressed an interest to learn because it was so different from what they were doing, so he started teaching Tai Chi.
Through training Tai Chi, Jardine began to understand that it is more practical to learn to use softness against hardness. Meeting force with force is fairly primitive and does not require much developed thinking. As well, clashing with others just creates more conflict.
Sifu Jardine and his teacher, Grandmaster Duan Yu Chang, and …
Many of the martial arts in those early days were designed for young strong people. Jardine realised the limitations of this approach, and that all good martial arts should have a balance of hard and soft. This thinking prompted him to travel to the East to find a martial art that balances hard and soft.
He stopped off first in London where he graded to first dan in a hard style under top Japanese masters, but continued his search for a softer system.
He travelled on to Japan, where he met Motokatsu Inoue O’Sensei, headmaster of Yuishinkai and Ryukyu Kobjutsu Hozon Shinko Kai. Yuishin is a Buddhist word that emphasises the essence of training martial arts with the earnest endeavour of improving bodymindspirit through the techniques. This is the thread that runs through both Tai Chi and Yuishinkai Kobujutsu in South Africa.
Inoue O’Sensei graded Jardine to 6th dan in Yuishinkai and Ryukyu Kobujutsu in 1986, making him the first person outside of Japan to attain the status of shihan in the system.
In 1976 Jardine then travelled to Taiwan to further his studies in Tai Chi. He looked into many styles of martial arts, among them Northern Praying Mantis and Wing Chun, and met many different masters. He also joined the Kuo Shu (Country Arts) Association in Taiwan – the main controlling body of the martial arts in Taiwan. He is a life member of the Association.
One day, he found Duan Yu Chang Shifu in New Park, in Taiwan. From the moment their eyes first met, the two men felt a yuan fen (destiny), an instant and powerful bond that continues to this day.
In effect, Tai Chi led Jardine to Yuishinkai Kobujutsu. In the two, he found the balance he had been seeking. Both stress a good balance of hardness and softness. He has now found two teachers who both taught and practised universal principles of kindness and compassion.
Duan Sifu is humble about his own achievements and claims that his expertise in Tai Chi lies simply in learning from everyone and everything around him. He always says the skill of the students is not based on the fame of the teacher, but on the students’ own hard work.
He bestowed on Jardine many precious inheritances along with the gift of his extensive knowledge and understanding of Tai Chi. These include his personal jian (straight sword), dao (broad sword), teh san (fans) and his certificate from the Tai Chi Association of Taiwan.
When Jardine first arrived in Taiwan, he could speak only a smattering of Japanese and Cantonese, and no Mandarin. Duan Sifu could speak Mandarin, Taiwanese, some Japanese and no Cantonese. He taught Jardine in broken Japanese, and from gestures, sign language and pictures he drew in the sand with a stick.
Duan Sifu could often be seen, sitting cross-legged on a large, flat rock watching his protégé train.
Jardine trained every day in the park for three hours under Duan Sifu’s personal tuition and soon became almost fully conversant in Mandarin. Duan Sifu also took Jardine into his home to teach him.
After Jardine returned to South Africa, he formed the Tai Chi Society of South Africa, and pioneered the teaching of Tai Chi outside the Chinese community.
He also established Yuishinkai Kobujutsu in this country, and started one of the first multi-racial martial arts schools in South Africa, in Actonville, an area on the East Rand called “The Asiatic Bazaar” reserved for people classified as “non-whites”.
Duan Sifu came to South Africa for the first time in 1982 and stayed for eight months. Since then, he has visited South Africa four more times, staying at least a month, often longer. On all his visits to this country, Duan Sifu had continued to teach Jardine privately, as well as to teach in Jardine’s school. Prior to Duan Sifu's passing, Jardine had continued to visit him in Taiwan regularly.
Jardine has taught Tai Chi in Taiwan and Japan, and is regularly invited to teach in the United States and the Scandinavian countries. He has researched Tai Chi and Chi Kung extensively in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan and continues his study and own practice daily.
Jardine’s Yuishinkai Kobujutsu and Tai Chi schools are unique in the age range of students: from four to over 80. He believes that this success in age range is due in part to the noncompetitive philosophy approach.
His schools have also helped to change other people’s thoughts and approaches to the martial arts.
Jardine believes that Tai Chi is an endless journey of self-discovery. People are more worried about what other people think about them, than what they think of themselves.
He says: “I believe the true training of the martial arts is to teach us to overcome ourselves".