Touch of Death

The touch of death (or Death-point striking) refers to any martial arts technique reputed to kill using seemingly less than lethal force targeted at specific areas of the body.

The concept known as dim mak (simplified Chinese: 点脉; traditional Chinese: 點脈; pinyin: diǎnmài; Jyutping: dim² mak⁶; literally: "press artery"), alternatively diǎnxué (simplified Chinese: 点穴; traditional Chinese: 點穴) traces its history to traditional Chinese medicine acupuncture. Tales of its use are often found in the Wuxia genre of Chinese martial arts fiction. Dim mak is depicted as a secret body of knowledge with techniques that attack pressure points and meridians, said to incapacitate or sometimes cause immediate or even delayed death to an opponent. Little scientific or historical evidence exists for the existence of a martial arts "touch of death", although mild trauma may cause disproportionately catastrophic consequences when applied to known pressure points under specific circumstances.^[1]

The concept known as vibrating palm originates with the Chinese martial arts Neijing ("internal") energy techniques that deal with the qi energy and the type of force (jin) used. It is depicted as "a technique that is part psychic and part vibratory, this energy is then focused into a wave".^[2]

Claims of practicability

Advertisement for Count Dante's 1968 World's Deadliest Fighting Secrets: The text reads "Black Dragon Fighting Society brings you the forbidden secrets of Dim Mak 'The Death Touch' in this exclusive book!"

Numerous martial artists claim to practice the technique in reality, beginning in the 1960s, when the term was advertised alongside the English translation "The Death Touch" by American eccentric Count Dante.

In 1985, an article in Black Belt magazine speculated that the death of Bruce Lee in 1973 might have been caused by "a delayed reaction to a Dim-Mak strike he received several weeks prior to his collapse". Other authors have also said Lee's death may have been due to a "quivering palm technique"^[3] (alongside an article about Cai li fo instructor Wong Doc-Fai) to the effect that "dim mak does actually exist and is still taught to a few select kung fu practitioners."^[4] A 1986 book on qi identifies dim mak as "one of the secret specialities" of wing chun.^[5] However, this matter is not identified in the ving tsun kin kut and traditional practitioners of ving tsun (wing chun) take no stance in the matter.

Around 1990, Taika Seiyu Oyata founded the style of Ryū-te which involves "pressure point fighting" (Kyūshojutsu). In the 1990s, karate instructor George Dillman developed a style that involves kyūshojutsu, a term that he identifies with dim mak. Dillman eventually went as far as claiming to have developed qi-based attacks that work without physical contact ("no-touch knockout" techniques), a claim that did not stand up to third-party investigation and was consequently denounced as fraudulent.^[6]

Also, during the late 1980s, Erle Montaigue (1949–2011^[7]) published a number of books and instruction videos on dim mak with Paladin Press. Montaigue claims to be "the first Westerner to be granted the degree of 'Master' in taijiquan", awarded by Master Wang Xin-Wu in 1985. According to Montaigue's own account, dim mak is an aspect of traditional old Yang style taji quan which he claims he began learning in 1978 from a master called Chiang Yiu-chun. Montaigue stated this man was an illegal immigrant, making his existence difficult to verify. Erle subsequently learned the remaining "qi-disruptive" forms of wudang shan from Liang Shih-kan in 1995.^[8] Paladin Press has other titles on the topic of dim mak, including Kelly (2001) and Walker and Bauer (2002), both with a foreword by Montaigue.

In Eastern popular culture

A "Five Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique" appears in both the Shaw Brothers films Clan of the White Lotus (1980) and Executioners of Shaolin (1977). It also appears in Kill Bill: Volume 2. The "delayed action" of dim mak is depicted in Executioners of Shaolin (1977), where a "100-step Soul Catching" move allows the victim to take a certain number of steps before dying. A dim mak attack is used to paralyze a character in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000).

The manga Fist of the North Star centers around the fictional martial art school called Hokuto Shinken, whose practitioners are trained to kill or incapacitate opponents by striking the specific pressure points on an opponent's body. The protagonist of the story, Kenshiro, is the successor of this style and will often end a battle stating how much time the opponent has left to live after delivering a finishing move, or follow up with his famous catchphrase, "You are already dead", before his opponent dies, usually from violently exploding.

In contemporary western pop culture

Dim mak has become a kind of camp pop culture item which is recognized also outside the genre of martial arts films. In Thomas Pynchon's novel Vineland, one of the protagonists uses the "Quivering Palm Death Touch", which kills the opponent one year after it is used. In the TV series Quincy, M.E., a 1977 episode entitled "Touch of Death" features a martial-arts movie star whose mysterious death is found to be a result of a dim mak attack against him ten days earlier.^[9] The lead character of the British TV series Gangsters (1978) is murdered by a hired assassin 'The White Devil' using a similar attack, with death occurring four days after he is touched.^[10] Dan Brown's novel Inferno depicts a character incapacitating a guard by putting pressure on his wrist, explaining the technique as "Dim Mak". In the comedy film The Men Who Stare at Goats, George Clooney's character claims to have been hit with the Touch of Death, a "light tap" that causes death at an unknown point in the future, in one case "about eighteen years later".

In the Star Trek universe, the Vulcan nerve pinch is frequently used as a non-lethal method of applying pressure to a pressure point in order to render the target unconscious.

In the Kung Fu Panda series of movies, the Wuxi Finger Hold technique used by Po is a form of Dim Mak.

In The Simpsons episode "When Flanders Failed", Bart Simpson claims to have learned the touch of death in his karate classes—having actually stolen the concept from an arcade game—and uses the threat of using it on his sister to make her perform tasks.

In the Batman: The Animated Series episode "Day of the Samurai", Kyodai Ken, Bruce Wayne's rival from his days training in Japan, forces Master Yoru to reveal his secret death touch. Wayne survives the technique by wearing a protective pad to absorb the force of the blow.

In the Robert Rankin stories Hugo Rune, and others, are credited as practitioners of Dimac. Rune himself claims to have been taught by Count Dante.

Although not mentioned as dim mak, the ability to kill with a mere touch is attributed to Chiun, the mentor of Remo Williams, who is the protagonist in the series of fiction novels known as The Destroyer. The style of martial art practiced by Chuin is called Sinanju, which incorporates distinct knowledge of the body's energy channels, known in western culture as acupuncture meridians. In the 1985 film Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins, Chiun uses this knowledge to render a female Army major helpless, bringing her to over-heightened levels of sexual arousal and pleasure by simply tapping her wrist.

In the 2012 Square Enix video game, Sleeping Dogs, Dim Mak is a counter-attacking move that can be learned from the protagonist's Sifu (master).

Dim mak is referenced in Bloodsport (1988), a film allegedly "based on true events in the life of Frank Dux", the founder of the first Neo-ninja school of "American Style Ninjutsu". In the film, Dux (Jean-Claude Van Damme) proves that he has been trained by Master Tanaka by demonstrating a move described as a dim mak or "death touch" attack to the judges as a means to gain entry into a full contact Kumite by striking a stack of five bricks with his hand and breaking only the bottom brick.

See also

• Ansatsuken
• Wuxia
• Neijia
• Martial arts fraud
• Iron Palm

References

Further reading

• George A. Dillman, Kyusho-Jitsu: The Dillman Method of Pressure Point Fighting, Dillman Karate Intl (1993), ISBN 978-0-9631996-1-4.
• Michael Kelly, Death Touch: The Science Behind the Legend of Dim Mak, Paladin Press (2001), ISBN 978-1-58160-281-4.
• Art Mason, Novice Kyusho Jitshu Certification Workbook
• Erle Montaigue, Dim-Mak: Death Point Striking, Paladin Press (1993), ISBN 978-0-87364-718-2
• Erle Montaigue and Wally Simpson, The Encyclopedia of Dim-Mak, Paladin Press (1997), ISBN 978-1-58160-537-2.
• A. Flane Walker and Richard C. Bauer, The Ancient Art of Life and Death: The Book of Dim-Mak, Paladin Press (2002), ISBN 978-1-58160-574-7.
• A. Flane Walker and Richard C. Bauer, The Book of Dim-Mak, Paladin Press (2014), ISBN 978-1-61004-878-1.
• Jin Jing Zhong. Authentic Shaolin Heritage: Dian Xue Shu (Dim Mak) - Skill of Acting on Acupoints. Tanjin, 1934.
• Beissner, Florian (2009). Mu and Shu points vs. HEAD's maximum points: The Phenomenon of Dian Xue from the Viewpoints of Chinese Medicine and Modern Neuroscience.