The principle of Yin and Yang: "The heat makes me perspire"

Lee, Bruce, Hong Kong-American martial artist and actor (1940-1973). Autograph letter signed ("Bruce Lee").

€ 35.000,00

Submitting an article to Bill Evans of Black Belt magazine and explaining to him the symbolism of the seal of the Jun Gung Fu Institute, which "is the symbol of Yin and Yang in which the Yin & Yang (black [passive] & white [active]) are two interlocking [halves] of one WHOLE, each containing within its confines the qualities of its complementaries (not opposite!). Instead of [being] mutually exclusive, they are mutually dependent and are a function of each other. When I say the heat makes me perspire, the heat and perspiring are just 'one' process as they are co-existent and the one could not exist but for the other. Just as an object needs a subject, the person in attack is not taking an independent position but is acting as an assistant. After all, you need your opponent to complete the other half of a whole".

Offering another example, Lee observes that a person riding a bicycle cannot ride by pushing down on both pedals at once, or "not [pump] on them at all. In order to move forward he has to pump on one pedal and release the other", which requires a "'oneness' of pumping and releasing [...] and vice versa, each being the cause of the other." He concludes noting that "if Gung Fu is extraordinary, it is because of the fact that it is nothing at all special - it is simply the direct expression of one's feeling with the minimum of lines and energy. The closer to the true Way, the less wastage of expression there is". In closing, Lee apologizes for his "incoherence and poor penmanship".

Includes a typed letter signed in type ("Bruce Lee") and with Lee's stamped woodblock signature, also to Bill Evans (no place, 21 Dec. 1964; 1 page, 207 x 280 mm, with a marginal note presumably in the hand of Evans). Lee encloses the promised article (in the form of 12 pages of photocopies including text and diagrams, and requesting that the article be published unaltered and "as it is. If any alteration if absolutely necessary please consult me".

Also includes the aforementioned 12 pages of photocopies. Evans apparently submitted the article, unaltered, to his editor, who considered the piece so poorly written as to be unprintable and threw it away. Evans recovered it and in time developed a friendship with Lee - though he never told him what his editor had said of Lee's article.