Wel, this is the way I heard it......
Totally off topic, but the reason people could fly, jump around and so forth defying gravity in medievel China was that, back then, you really could do that! O.k., hold up, I'll explain....
Before the industrial revolution, before the spread of handguns making defense easy and, really, before formal, oragnized public eduction, certain people specialized in certain things...A blacksmith only knew blacksmithing (he could barely cook for himself, probably couldn't read, could add enough to stay in business.... that kind of thing...) A tailor specialized in clothing; his dad did it, hid grandfather did it, it was what he was taught and what he did all day, all his life.
A great swordsman, the type so great that he had a reputation and could offer his services for protection or as a teacher, probably trained hours and hours a day, exercising and prcaticing. That was that person's life, that pesron's specialty. Anyone could shoot a gun, great swordsmanship was trickier, took LOTS of practice. Well, in Kung Fu lore, there were those people who practiced so much, and became so masterful at kung fu, that they could work with, even around, nature and the elements ( remeber, kung fu is based on the natural movements of animals, so it is nature based to begin with...) What happened was, via a mixture of word of mouth, superstition, error, and plain old tall-tale telling, it was thought that some kung fu experts could run or swim ( not fly, per se) throught the air, or could run on water, because they were so adept at their craft that they could be fast enough and light enough not to disturb the elements around them too much ( check out the 80's movie "Remo Williams"- Fred Ward, the student, can run across wet cement; Joel Grey, the Master, can run across water. The untrained thugs can do neither...). So, whenever you see someone defying gravity or flying through the air in a martial arts movie, what it represents is the characters are the best of the best, experts who are at the pinnacle of human achievement, at least taken from a midievel Chinese point of view. Kind of like our American legends of Pecos Bill or John Henry, Paul Bunyon, etc. No one EVER roped a tornado and rode it, but you can bet some old tough, salty cowboy got caught up in a twister, was carried away with it, and survived.. and it might have been witnessed by someone, too. Now you can bet each time that story was told in the 1800s by some drunk in a bar, facts changed and things became exaggerated... but enough superstious & drunk old timers believed it & put their own spin on it... and a legend is born. I used to think that those kung fu films were so stupid, watching people defy gravity like that... but after reading about what all that "flying" symbolized, what it represented and why it was there ( don't take it literally, it's more about fighters creating a physical poetry working within nature) the movies made more sense. And, just to keep this slightly on topic, "Wing Chun" has a lot of that flying through the air stuff, and two tickling bits, both with Michelle Yoeh from "Crouching Tiger"...
Shew! I'm worn out!
Now what about Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back being almost similar to Pee-Wee's Big Adventure? Snoogins!
), muttered imprecations, or flung cats or other household animals around in our pent-up anticipation and anxiety?
