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Recently, I have been researching Dim Mak, the so-called “kung fu death touch.” “Dim Mak” is an Anglicization of the Cantonese term, “dim2 mak6” ( 點脈 ), which means “press artery.” The Mandarin term is “diǎnxué” or “tian hsue” ( 點穴 ) which means “press vital points.” It is taught in some martial arts and also a common feature in martial arts fiction. The idea is that through manipulation of and attacks upon the body’s vital points (often the same points as in acupuncture) one can cause devastating damage, paralysis of limbs, death, or even a delayed death that occurs later, often days later, without seeming explanation. “Dianxue” is the pinyin romanization system. “Tienhsue” is the older Wade-Giles system.[1] And when researching Dim Mak, it won’t be long before one comes across a reference to Bruce Lee, the iconic martial arts movie star of the early 1970s. In the minds of many, the two things, Dim Mak and Bruce Lee, are inextricably linked.
This is due to wide speculation and repeated telling of such speculation that Lee was a victim of dim mak himself, specifically the delayed version of the kung fun death touch. Some believe that a highly advanced master of the dim mak technique can touch someone at a vital point, often without the victim even realizing it happened, and then later, at a pre-determined time, the victim will drop dead mysteriously with no easily discernable cause of death. Dim mak is, definitely, much discussed as a cause of Bruce Lee’s death. (Ayoob, Polly, Baker, Beasley, Blate, Block, Crudelli, p. 92, Siemen, p. 33, Hallander, )
Attributing Bruce Lee’s death to dim mak makes a great story, especially as Bruce Lee did die a mysterious and unexplained death after years of publicly offending many of the leading Chinese martial arts masters of Hong Kong and the West’s Chinatowns through his lack of respect for them and their traditions.
Then again, a lot of people say a lot of things caused the death of Bruce Lee. Lee was, regardless of what one may think of martial arts films, undeniably one of the most iconic actors of the late 20th Century. Not only did he offer the world a new and exciting image of Asian masculinity, but, like Marilyn Monroe, he is one of the few actors easily recognized by millions of people worldwide, including many people who have never even seen his movies. When he suddenly died at the height of his popularity at the young age of 32, many, naturally, sought an explanation, and when a great hero or notorious villain dies people seek a cause behind their death that is proportional to their stature. Among those offered for Bruce Lee’s death was “dim mak.” This claim offered a mysterious kung fu death for a kung fu hero.
Tracking the source of this claim is difficult, but one possibility is that it first appeared in an article written by Massad Ayoob for Black Belt magazine in the May 1974 issue. This article has been cited by many for instance. (Polly, Block, among others ) Others such as Thomas have written that the claim originated with Block, then the entertainment for The Miami News. However, the book cites the article. This is despite an apparent date discrepancy. According to the Amazon.com listing for Block’s book, The Legend of Bruce Lee was released on March 1, 1974 which on paper appears to be before May of 1974, but it’s not uncommon for many magazines and comic books to be released several months before the month listed on the cover. The copyright page of Block’s book confirms this publication date as well. However, digging deeper, and starting with the premise (easily checked through checking comic book publication history) that for several reasons at this time in history, many publications, particularly “low brow” publications were placed on the newsstand a few months before the “official month” stamped on their cover, it’s worth asking when was the May 1974 issue of Black Belt magazine released and written. Fortunately, at the time of this writing, most of the issues of Black Belt are easily available to read on Google books, thus enabling an interested person to check the copyright dates. Doing this reveals that the January through March 1974 issues were all copyrighted 1973, and the issues labelled as March onward were copyrighted 1974. The 1975 issues continued this pattern, with the first three issues, January through March being copyrighted 1974 and the March 1975 being the first issue with the 1975 copyright. Using this information, it seems logical to assume that the May 1974 issue of Black Belt was either written or published in February of 1974, making it an earlier publication than Block’s biography. Ayoob’s article seems to have predated Block’s biography.
As for the sources that Ayoob used, seemingly no one knows. A January 4, 2024 email sent to Ayoob courtesy of his organization and handgun school, Massad Ayoob Group at https://massadayoobgroup.com/ went unanswered as of the time of this publication. Some might speculate that it is not inconceivable that being young and faced with a deadline he might have simply invented sources and written an exciting article. As the article is quite old, and he was young and inexperienced at the time, this does not imply that he would do this again these days, and it should be noted that Massad Ayoob is today known as a highly respected author and instructor in the field of self defense.
Although Lee died from cerebral edema (swelling of the brain inside the skull), the cause of the edema is still debated. Explanations include hyperatremia ( Villalvazo, Priscilla; Fernandez-Prada, Raul, et al. ), epilepsy ( Villalvazo, Priscilla; Fernandez-Prada, Raul, et al. ), misuse of steroids and diuretics ( Bleecker ), drug overdoses and reactions[2], family curses[3] , mysterious poisons (Block), even ninjas ( Block, Polly) [4] , and more, “dim mak” is often a common and prominent part of the list. And even if we were to embrace the theory that “dim mak” caused the death of Bruce Lee, it would seem required to explain through what mechanism exactly does “dim mak” produce cerebral edema?
Therefore, while we will probably never know for sure what caused the cerebral edema that killed the young star, a second mystery is not evidence of the existence of the first mystery. For this reason, it is safe to conclude that offering “dim mak” as an explanation for Bruce Lee’s mysterious death, not only fails as evidence of “dim mak,” but it also brings us no closer to solving the mystery of Bruce Lee’s death.[5] In conclusion, despite its emotional appeal, there’s no logical reason to choose it over any other cause and many reasons why it fails as a conclusive explanation for the mysterious death of this iconic figure in twentieth century history.
Ayoob, Massad F. “The Delayed Death Touch: Is it really just a myth?” Black Belt. Vol. 12, No. 5. May 1974: 30- 35.
Baker, John Raymond. “Truth about the Kung Fu Death Touch -- Scientific Evidence Proves Dim Mak Exists.” Black Belt. Vol 28, No. 6. June 1990.Pages 37-39.
Beasley, Jerry. The Man Who Changed the World, How Bruce Lee Continues to Influence the American Martial Arts. Black Belt. Vol. 41, No. 9. September 2003/ Page 54-59.
Blate, Michael. “Acupressure, the Healing Side of the Martial Arts.” Black Belt. Vol. 34, No 1. January 1996. Pages 102-106.
Bleecker, Tom. Unsettled Matters: The Life & Death Of Bruce Lee. Los Angeles, CA: Gilderoy Publications, 1996.
Block, Alex Ben. The Legend of Bruce Lee. New York, NY: Dell Publishing Co., Inc, 1974.
Caulfield, Mark. Bruce Lee Lives? New York, NY: Dell Publishing Co., Inc., 1975
Chang, Rachel. 2020. Bruce Lee: The Mystery Surrounding the Martial Artist’s Death. Published June 7, 2020. Accessed March 26, 2023. Available online at https://www.biography.com/actors/bruce-lee-death-mystery
Clarke, Nick. “Interview with Alex Ben Block.” Bruce Lee Lives. September 2013.
Crudelli, Chris. The Way of the Warrior, Martial Arts and Fighting Styles from Around the World. DK Publishing: New York, NY, 2008.
Hallander, Jane. “The Death Touch – Kung Fu’s Pressure-Point Attacks.” Black Belt. Vol. 23, No 6. June 1985. Page 43-46, 124.
Hendrix, Grady & Poggiali, Chris. These Fists Break Bricks, How Kung Fu Movies Swept America and Changed the World. Austin TX: Mondo Books, 2021.
Maeda, Daryl Joji. Like Water, A Cultural History of Bruce Lee. NYU Press: New York, NY., 2022.
Polly, Matthew. Bruce Lee, A Life. New York, NY. Simon and Schuster, 2018.
Randerson, James. 2006. Epilepsy could solve mystery of kung fu legend’s death. The Guardian. February 25, 2006, accessed March 16, 2023. Available online at https://www.theguardian.com/science/2006/feb/25/film.filmnews
Serebriakova, Polina & Orbach, Danny. Irregular Warfare in Late Medieval Japan: Toward a Historical Understanding of the “Ninja.” The Journal of Military History. 84 (October 2020): 997-1020.
Siemen, Thomas. Strange But True, Mysterious and Bizarre People. Barnes & Noble: New York, NY. 2008.
Thomas, Bruce. Bruce Lee: Fighting Spirit. Frog Ltd: Berkeley CA, 1994.
Turnbull, Stephen. The Ninja: An Invented Tradition. Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, and Perspective. Vol. 9, No. 1. (2014) Pp. 9-26.
Turnbull, Stephen. Ninja, Unmasking the Myth. S. Yorkshire, UK: Frontline Books. 2017.
Villalvazo, Priscilla; Fernandez-Prada, Raul, et al. 2022. Who Killed Bruce Lee? The Hyponatraemia hypothesis. Clinical Kidney Journal. Vol 15, No 12, 2169-2176.
THE END
[1] I have written a lengthy piece on dim mak. While it has been submitted to another publication, The Skeptical Inquirer, Although they have promised to publish it, due to a change in editor, there is no exact date. Regardless, sooner or later, it will be published, perhaps here, perhaps there, perhaps both. Stay tuned, and news will be shared as things become clearer.
[2] It’s worth mentioning that in this context marijuana, cocaine, and a pain killer called “Equagesic” ((meprobamate and aspirin) have all been named as possible drugs.
[3] Talk of alleged Lee family curses was reinforced when his son, Brandon Lee, died tragically at age 28 in 1993 from a mysterious, accidental discharge of a firearm during the filming of “The Crow.”
[4] Stay tuned, subscribe, and you will see a lot here on ninjas.
[5] It’s worth mentioning that in the world of fiction (mostly), there were countless films and some print materials that proposed that Bruce Lee had never died at all or even rose from the grave. See Block, Alex Ben (1975) or the lengthy section on “Bruceploitation” films in Hendrix & Poggiali (2021).
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You are right, we will never know the exact mechanism. I think "Unsettled Matters: the Life and Death of Bruce Lee" by Tom Bleecker did a good job of covering what happened to Bruce Lee, the circumstances and medications the surrounded his death. On the Dim Mak topic, I agree that nothing of the sort was involved. People often focus on the delayed reaction in Dian Xue, but those who train and practice Dian Xue focus on instant results. Otherwise it wouldn't be very good as a method of incapacitating an attacker or enemy. A delayed reaction is a just a consequence of damage being done that wasn't or couldn't be treated.