Bruce Lee or Jin Yong, who is the true father of the "formless victory over form" philosophy?

It can be said that almost all of the fame and legend of Chinese kung fu is built on the names of two famous figures in Hong Kong martial arts - Bruce Lee and Jin Yong.

Bruce Lee made a breakthrough in philosophy within the Chinese martial arts community - Photo: PN

Bruce Lee, as well as Linghu Chong

Kim Dung was born in 1924, while Bruce Lee was born in 1940. There is a significant generation gap between them, and they are virtually unrelated.

However, for generations to come in the Chinese martial arts community, the debate about the two nearly identical martial arts philosophies of these two renowned martial arts masters and novelists has been extremely lively.

That is the famous concept of "defeating techniques without a technique," found everywhere from Jin Yong's novels to Bruce Lee's martial arts demonstrations.

Bruce Lee's martial arts philosophy revolved around the idea of ​​"formless defeats form," and "be water, my friend"—being soft, flexible, and not bound by rigid structures.

In an interview on The Pierre Berton Show in 1971, Bruce Lee expressed his view on martial arts: "Be formless, shapeless, like water."

"When you put water in a glass, the water becomes the glass. When you put water in a bottle, the water becomes the bottle. Water can drip. Water can flow in a stream. Water can destroy," Bruce Lee added.

Bruce Lee's philosophy of using water as a guiding principle represents his renowned Jeet Kune Do technique. Even today, it is considered a groundbreaking idea in Chinese martial arts at the time.

But almost simultaneously, Bruce Lee's martial arts philosophy was expressed through the pen of Jin Yong, with the description "no technique defeats technique".

Image of Linghu Chong on screen - Photo: SC

This is the central idea that Jin Yong expressed throughout his novels written in the early 1960s.

And especially in *The Smiling Proud Wanderer* (published in 1967), Jin Yong created the characters Feng Qingyang and Linghu Chong with their Dugu Nine Swords technique, encapsulating the entire philosophy of "formless victory over form".

The description by the late Hong Kong writer is quite similar to how Bruce Lee spoke about water. That is, martial arts combat is multifaceted, not bound by specific techniques, not confined within conventional theories, and was a breakthrough for Chinese martial arts at that time.

This similarity has led many to question whether Bruce Lee's martial arts philosophy was influenced by Jin Yong's, or vice versa, whether the two shared a common denominator.

The debate becomes even more interesting when looking back at the timeline. Jin Yong established the "no-technique" philosophy in The Smiling Proud Wanderer in the late 1960s, before Bruce Lee gained global fame with his Jeet Kune Do system in the early 1970s.

Bruce Lee was born in 1940, moved to the United States in 1959, developed his personal martial arts system in the early 1960s, and officially named it "Jeet Kune Do" in 1967.

He later became a global icon thanks to his classic martial arts films in the early 1970s.

Meanwhile, Jin Yong, born in 1924, began writing in the 1950s, and the philosophy of "avoiding moves - no moves" was gradually developed through his novels such as The Condor Heroes (1959) and The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber (1961), before reaching its intellectual peak in The Smiling Proud Wanderer .

Taoist foundation

To explain this similarity, we need to go back to the origins of each person's thought. Bruce Lee was directly influenced by Eastern philosophy, especially Lao Tzu and Zhuang Tzu, as well as by Western philosophers he encountered while studying at the University of Washington.

In *Tao of Jeet Kune Do* (1975), he repeatedly emphasized the ideas of "following the flow," "non-action," and "emptiness to contain." This is also the spirit expressed in the excerpts from the Tao Te Ching that he favored.

Writer Kim Dung - Photo: TD

As for Jin Yong, he was an intellectual with a deep understanding of Confucianism, Taoism, and Zen Buddhism. In interviews, he has admitted to incorporating Eastern philosophical ideas into his works, particularly the principles of "using softness to overcome hardness" and "formlessness triumphing over form" from Taoism and Zen Buddhism.

The wisdom of Lao Tzu—an extremely important figure in Chinese Taoism—is the source of all the martial arts philosophies of Bruce Lee and Jin Yong.

"Nothing in the world is as soft as water, but when attacking the strong, nothing can surpass it." This saying of Lao Tzu is quite similar to a statement made by Bruce Lee in 1971.

The common ground between Bruce Lee and Jin Yong lies in how they used philosophy to liberate martial arts from dogmatic constraints. Both highly valued Chinese pride, but also embraced the liberal ideas of the West.

Bruce Lee in a scene from Enter the Dragon (1973) - Photo: Archival

There is no direct evidence to suggest that Bruce Lee read Jin Yong's novels or vice versa. The two worked in different fields – one in Hong Kong literature, the other in martial arts and American cinema.

However, scholars argue that they share a common East Asian philosophical system, particularly Taoism, so the convergence of their ideas is natural.

Professor Tran Tuong Minh, a martial arts professor at Beijing Sport University, commented at a 2015 conference: "Kim Dung incorporated Taoist philosophy into his novels, while Bruce Lee brought Taoism to the international martial arts stage. One wrote it, and the other truly lived it."

It's difficult to say whether Bruce Lee or Jin Yong is the true originator of the "formless defeats form" philosophy.

Kim Dung was older, but Bruce Lee was the one who truly engaged with martial arts in practice. And both announced their martial arts philosophies at almost the same time.

"Both are examples of the famous Chinese saying, 'Heroes share similar viewpoints'," Professor Tuong Minh said.

HUY DANG

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/ly-tieu-long-va-kim-dung-ai-moi-la-cha-de-cua-vo-chieu-thang-huu-chieu-20251018221728397.htm