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Lee Jun Fan - Date of birth - 27 November 1940, San Francisco, California, USA. Lee Jun Fan - Date of death - 20 July 1973,
Hong Kong. (brain 0dema) Credited As: Little Dragon Lee - Siu-Lung Lee - Xiaolong Li.
Bruce Lee Jun Fan Yuen Kam (Bruce Lee's full birth name) was born in the year of the dragon (1940), at the hour of the
dragon (between 6:00AM-8:00AM).Height 5' 7" - Spouse Linda Lee Cadwell (17 August 1964 - 20 July 1973) (his death)
Father of Brandon Lee. Died of brain edema in Hong Kong at age 32. He is considered the greatest martial artist of the
20th century.
Developed his martial art style called Jeet Kune Do (Way of the Intercepting Fist)
which is more of an idea of being flexible and practical with learning martial arts.
Father of Shannon Lee. Interred at
Lake View Cemetery, Seattle, Washington, USA.
Salary for The "Green Hornet, (1966) $400/episode.<p> While the "The
Green Hornet" TV series was in production, Bruce made several promotional appearances as Kato, but made a point to never do
the standard martial art stunts like breaking boards which he felt had nothing to do with what the martial arts are about.
Bruce Lee was the ultimate Martial-arts expert of Chinese descent and virtual deity to a legion of enthusiasts the world
over. A philosophy major who graduated from the University of Washington, Lee entered show business in the mid 1960s, achieving
recognition as Kato, devoted sidekick to "The Green Hornet" in the 1966 TV series designed to capitalize on the wild popularity
of the "Batman" show.
He supervised the martial-arts stunts in The Wrecking Crew and Marlowe (both 1969), also appearing in the latter, before
starring in his own action vehicles Fists of Fury (1972), Enter the Dragon, The Chinese Connection and Return of the Dragon
(all 1973). His acting, some would say, was negligible, but his athletic skills seemed almost superhuman, and he practically
defined the fledgling martial-arts movie genre. The circumstances surrounding Lee's death just one year after his starring
debut were somewhat mysterious (he was only 32), and helped transform him into a cult figure. Three "Green Hornet" episodes
were edited into a feature to capitalize on his popularity (Kato and the Green Hornet 1974), (The 1978 release The Silent
Flute was based on a story he had written with James Coburn.) Perhaps the ultimate testament to his enduring stardom was a
Hong Kong picture called The Clones of Bruce Lee (1977), in which three karate experts, Bruce Li, Bruce Le, and Bruce Lei
battled it out for the right to assume the master's throne.
Actor Jason Scott Lee (no relation) starred in a 1993 screen
biography, Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story.
His son Brandon Lee launched his own film career in the 1990s, but died in a tragic accident during production of The Crow
in 1993.
Extracted from: http://www.brucelee.org.uk/
  
Quotes:
"Before I started martial arts, a punch was a punch and a kick was a kick. When I started martial arts, a punch was no
longer a punch and a kick was no longer a kick. When I understood martial arts, a punch was a punch and a kick was a kick."
"Knowing is not enough, you must apply. Willing is not enough, you must do."
"It's like a finger pointing to the moon... Don't look at the finger or you will miss all the heavenly glory."
"Water is formless. If you pour it into a cup, it becomes the cup. If you pour it into a teaport, it becomes the teaport.
Be water, my friend."
  
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Gung Fu : The Centre Of The Oriental Martial Arts
(Bruce Lee's handwritten essay on gung fu, untitled.)
Gung fu, the centre of the Oriental arts of self-defence, is a philosophical
art that serves to promote health, to cultivate the mind, and to provide a most efficient means of self-protection. Its philosophy
is based on the integral parts of the philosophies of Taoism and Ch'an (Zen) - the ideal of being harmonious with and not
against the force of the opponent. Just as a butcher preserves his knife by cutting along the bones, a gung fu man preserves
himself by complementing the movements of the opponent.
The word gung fu means "discipline" and training toward the ultimate reality of the object - be it health promotion, mind
cultivation or self-protection. There is no distinction to make between the opponent and the self because the opponent is
but the other complementary (not opposite) part. There is no conquering, struggling, or dominating, and the idea is to "fit"
harmoniously your movement into that of the opponent. When he expands, you contract; when he contracts, you expand. Expansion
then is interdependent with contraction and vice versa, each being the cause and result of the other.
Gentleness/firmness is one inseparable force of one unceasing interplay of movement. If a person riding a bicycle wishes
to go somewhere, he cannot pump on both the pedals at the same time or not pump on them at all. In order to move forward he
has to pump on one pedal and release the other. So the movement of going forward requires this "oneness" of pumping and releasing.
Therefore, gentleness alone cannot forever dissolve away great force, nor can sheer brute force subdue one's foe. In order
to survive in any combat, the harmonious interfusion of gentleness and firmness as a whole is necessary, sometimes one dominating
sometimes the other, in a wavelike succession. The movement will then truly flow, for the pure fluidity of movements is in
their interchangeability.
So neither gentleness nor firmness holds any more than one half of a broken whole which, welded together, forms the true
Way of martial art. The tendency to guard against is from getting too firm and stiff. Notice that the stiffest tree is most
easily cracked, while the bamboo or willow survives by bending with the wind. This is why a gung fu man is soft yet not yielding,
firm, yet not hard. The best example of gung fu is water. Water can penetrate the hardest granite because it is yielding.
One cannot stab of strike at water and hurt it because that which offers no resistance cannot be overcome.
In actual application, gung fu is based on simplicity; it is a natural result of four thousand years of exhaustive experimentation
and is of highly sophisticated complexity. All techniques are stripped down to their essential purpose without wastage or
ornamentation, and everything becomes the straightest, most logical simplicity of common sense. The utmost is expressed and
performed in the minimum of movements and energy.
The method for health promotion is again based on water, as flowing water never grows stale. The idea is not to overdevelop
or to overexert but to normalise the function of the body.
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