Did Bruce Lee Invent "The Six Diseases"?
Did Bruce Lee invent "the six diseases"?
Introduction
Marcin Sygula, a friend of Martial History Team and this project, Sourcing Bruce Lee, sent me a link to Bruce Lee Podcast #47, titled The Six Diseases. He noted that the podcast listed what it called "the six diseases," as shown below:
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| Bruce Lee Podcast #47, The Six Diseases |
In text, the content reads as follows:
"The six diseases of the mind are obstacles that you will confront on your path to wholeness and fluidity. These thoughts can keep you from your full expression and growth.
The Six Diseases:
The desire for victory
The desire to resort to technical cunning
The desire to display all that has been learned
The desire to awe the enemy
The desire to play the passive role
The desire to get rid of whatever disease one is affected by
All of these diseases occur when we seek outside validation."
The question is, did Bruce Lee invent these six diseases? And does the podcast's interpretation reflect the origin of these ideas?
Zen and Japanese Culture
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| Zen and Japanese Culture by Daisetz T. Suzuki |
Along with the link to the Bruce Lee podcast, Mr. Sygula pointed me to sections of the 1959 book Zen and Japanese Culture by Daisetz T. Suzuki (1870-1966). In this book, Mr. Suzuki wrote the following on pages 153 and 154:
"Yagyū Tajima no Kami then proceeds to tell us how certain 'diseases' are to be avoided in order to be a perfect master of swordsmanship... An idea, however worthy and desirable in itself, becomes a disease when the mind is obsessed with it.
The diseases or obsessions the swordsman has to get rid of are:
(1) the desire for victory,
(2) the desire to resort to technical cunning,
(3) the desire to display all that he has learned,
(4) the desire to overawe the enemy,
(5) the desire to play a passive role, and lastly,
(6) the desire to get ride of whatever disease he is likely to be infected with.
When any one of these obsesses him, he becomes its slave, as it makes him lose all the freedom he is entitled to as a swordsman."
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| Zen and Japanese Culture by Daisetz T. Suzuki, 1959, pp 153-154 |
As you can see, these words are almost exactly the same as those quoted in the Bruce Lee podcast.
In the podcast, there is no attempt to attribute them to another author. The speakers use terms like "the way your dad put it" and "your dad didn't mean," indicating they think Mr. Lee invented these six diseases.
Clearly he did not. In fact, it's likely, given the 1959 publication date of Zen and Japanese Culture, Mr. Lee read this book and took notes on it.
Two questions arise:
First, where did the podcast find this material?
Second, what is the origin of this material?
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| Bruce Lee: The Tao of Gung Fu, Bruce Lee Library vol 2, 1997 |
It was easy to track down Mr. Lee's writings on this topic by searching through the Bruce Lee Library.
In the 1997 book Bruce Lee: The Tao of Gung Fu, a section titled Close-Range Gung Fu -- The Sticking Hands Method of Wing Chun contains the following:
"He should get rid of this obtruding self—or ego-consciousness—and apply himself to the work to be done as if nothing particular were taking place at the moment. He should avoid:
1. The desire for victory
2. The desire to resort to technical cunning
3. The desire to display all that he has learned
4. The desire to play a passive role
5. The desire to get rid of whatever disease he is likely to be infected with"
The preface by John Little says the following about this book:
"In the year 1963, twenty-two-year-old Bruce Lee sat down to write a little ninety-seven page primer on the then little-known martial art of gung fu. The book was titled Chinese Gung Fu: The Philosophical Art of Self Defense (the only book that Lee ever authored during his lifetime, by the way). Even then, Lee had envisioned writing a bigger and more in-depth book on his beloved art, going so far as to write on page seven of that little book:
'In the very near future, after my trip to the Orient, a more thorough book titled The Tao of Chinese Gung Fu will be published.'
By November of 1964, Lee was still working on the book, mentioning in a letter to a friend:
'I’m in the process of completing a much [more] thorough book on the Tao of Gung Fu. . . . This book will contain my insight during these past five years. I’ve worked hard for it.'
This is that book. It was to have been published in 1965 and was intended by its author, Bruce Lee, to be his gift to the Western world.
While Lee scrapped the idea of publishing this book, he did not scrap his research notes or sample chapters. Lee left behind substantial chapter writings, notes, photographs, and research materials for books on both gung fu and his then newly created martial art of jeet kune do. In order to shed further light on Lee’s own process of intellectual growth and development as a martial artist, these materials are now presented through an exclusive and exhaustive publishing project involving Tuttle Publishing and the Bruce Lee Estate."
Based on this preface, we know Mr. Lee worked on this content between 1963 and 1965.
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| Chinese Gung Fu: The Philosophical Art of Self Defense, 1963 |
While it's not directly relevant to this investigation, I'd like to point out that Mr. Lee did publish a book in 1963 titled Chinese Gung Fu: The Philosophical Art of Self Defense. The content is not the same as that found in The Tao of Gung Fu published by Tuttle and Mr. Little.
In any case, we have a source for five of the six diseases. "The desire to overawe the enemy" is missing. Does it appear elsewhere?
Artist of Life
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| Bruce Lee: Artist of Life, Bruce Lee Library vol 6, 1999 |
A second look at the Library found the following in the 1999 book Bruce Lee: Artist of Life, in Part 5L Jeet Kune Do -- The Liberation, 5-M: The Ultimate Source of Jeet Kune Do:
"Any technique, however worthy and desirable, becomes a disease when the mind is obsessed with it.
The Six Diseases
1. The desire for victory
2. The desire to resort to technical cunning
3. The desire to display all that you have learned
4. The desire to overawe the enemy
5. The desire to play a passive role
6. The desire to get rid of whatever disease you are likely to be infected with
'To desire' is an attachment. 'To desire not to desire' is also an attachment. To be unattached, then, means to be free at once from both statements, positive and negative. In other words, this is to be simultaneously both 'yes' and 'no,' which is intellectually absurd. However, not so in Zen!"
"The desire to overawe the enemy" is now in place.
In the introduction to Artist of Life, John Little gives a little background on it:
"Approximately six months before his death, Bruce Lee wrote a profoundly personal essay, 'In My Own Process,' which set out his insights on the process of life. Writing from his heart, Lee jotted down his deepest feelings before they could be passed through the filter of his ego.
Over several weeks, he returned to his essay in between filming Enter the Dragon and drafting additional ideas for The Game of Death. He added more jottings as the insights came to him—at his office in Golden Harvest Studios, Hong Kong, in his study in Kowloon Tong, or when he went out to eat. All told, he wrote eight versions of the essay, each containing slightly more of his experiences as a martial artist, as an actor, and, most importantly, as a human being."
If we assume that the material in this book dates from 1973, we might assess that Mr. Lee had decided to incorporate the missing disease #4 in this material, after skipping it for whatever reason ten years earlier.
It's possible that the podcast retrieved the six diseases from the book Artist of Life.
Striking Thoughts
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| Striking Thoughts, 2000 |
I assess it most likely that the podcast retrieved the six diseases from the 2000 book Striking Thoughts: Bruce Lee's Wisdom for Daily Living. It contains thematically arranged, bite-sized chunks of Mr. Lee's writings perfect for plucking by podcasters.
In Part IV - On Achievement - Flattery we find the six diseases:
"The six diseases [of excessive self-consciousness]. - The six diseases are:
· The desire for victory
· The desire to resort to technical cunning
· The desire to display all that he has learned
· The desire to overawe the enemy
· The desire to play a passive role
· The desire to get rid of whatever disease he is likely to be infected with"
Therefore, to answer the first question, I assess that Striking Thoughts is the source of the podcast's use of the six diseases.
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| The Life-Giving Sword, William Scott Wilson, 2012 |
We already assessed that Mr. Lee lifted the six diseases from pages 153-154 of the 1959 book Zen and Japanese Culture by Daisetz T. Suzuki. What was the source of Mr. Suzuki's version?
Mr. Suzuki mentions Yagyū Tajima no Kami. This is another way to refer to Yagyū Munenori (柳生 宗矩, 1571-1646), an Edo-period samurai who wrote a book in 1632 titled Heihō Kadensho (兵法家伝書), or A Hereditary Book on the Art of War.
William Scott Wilson published a translation of this book in 2012 titled The Life-Giving Sword: Secret Teachings from the House of the Shogun. In a section titled The Death-Dealing Sword - Sickness, Mr. Wilson translates the following. I've added numbers to make it easier to count the elements:
"1) To think only of winning is sickness.
2) To think only of using the martial arts is sickness.
3) To think only of demonstrating the result of one’s training is sickness, as is
4) thinking only of making an attack or
5) waiting for one.
6) To think in a fixated way only of expelling such sickness is also sickness.
Whatever remains absolutely in the mind should be considered sickness. As these various sicknesses are all present in the mind, you must put your mind in order and expel them."
What strikes me about this passage is just how combat-oriented it is. It's not flowery language for meditation. This is advice given for battle.
Soul of the Samurai
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| Soul of the Samurai, Thomas Cleary, 2005 |
For comparison, here is text from Thomas Cleary's 2005 translation from Soul of the Samurai of the same section, again with added numbers:
"1) To be obsessed even with winning is sickness.
2) To be obsessed even with using martial arts is sickness.
3) To be obsessed with showing all one has learned is sickness too.
4) To be obsessed with offense is sickness;
5) to be obsessed with defense is also sickness.
6) To become rigidly obsessed with getting rid of sickness is also sickness.
To fix the mind obsessively on anything is considered sickness. Since all of these various sicknesses are in the mind, the thing is to tune the mind by getting rid of such afflictions.
Again, the emphasis here is on martial arts. This is not about "wholeness and fluidity" or "outside validation." The source of this material is advice to samurai warriors.
It would be interesting to read more of Zen and Japanese Culture and the Heihō Kadensho to see what else Mr. Lee added to his writings, and what subsequently has been attributed to him.
To answer the second question, we have confirmed that the 1532 book Heihō Kadensho by Yagyū Munenori is the source of the six diseases.
Conclusion
It's clear from this research that Mr. Lee obtained the six diseases from Yagyū Munenori's 1632 book Heihō Kadensho, after Mr. Lee read Daisetz T. Suzuki's 1959 book Zen and Japanese Culture.
Given that Mr. Lee's language is virtually identical to Mr. Suzuki's, and unlike the other translations by Wilson or Cleary, I doubt Mr. Lee used another translation. I assess that other translations would have been more like those by Wilson and Cleary, if they had existed at the time.
What does this mean for Bruce Lee Podcast 47, and indeed other episodes of that show?
I would like to see some effort by the podcasters to validate the source of the information they include. While it took me a while to write this post, it only took moderate familiarity with a famous philosophical text, Yagyū Munenori's 1632 book Heihō Kadensho, and a tip from a colleague to see that Mr. Lee did not invent the six diseases.
I was familiar with the Heihō Kadensho thanks to the great Walking with the Tengu podcast by Martial History Team member Matthew Krueger.
It would be helpful if Mr. Lee's estate used some sort of fact-checking service to provide context for Mr. Lee's writings. It's clear he did not provide attribution when writing his notes, or perhaps those working with his notes ignore any attribution Mr. Lee did provide.
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