"Rock pillows", "cold baths" and "wood-chopping" refer to what his daily living styles consisted of. .
The speaker goes on to talk about his father's skills and the philosophy he brings back from his journey. His father also teaches his son who in this poem is the speaker a little bit about the "Art" of martial arts and ends up learning a few skills that makes him better at fighting than the "other little boys of his village". In this third stanza, the speaker's tone begins to change possibly showing a sign of maturity as we draw closer to the end of the poem. He also uses the word "infrequently" when speaking of the "tricks" that his father taught him. This could imply that the speaker's father was not always there for his son and perhaps the speaker felt it subconsciously, but nevertheless loved his father for his strength and wisdom. At this point in the poem it seems as though the young boy (who is the speaker of the poem) is beginning to accept the strange lifestyle of his father and begins to follow in his footsteps. The speaker's father would rise before dawn to practice his martial arts. The young boy's father would shout out "hah, hah, hah" showing the poetic device of onomatopoeia to imitate the sounds of emphasizing his father's martial arts practices beginning early in the mornings. .
The last two stanzas of this poem are when the author begins to dive a little deeper in the meaning behind his poem. "From a busy street I brood over high cliffs on O Mei", as if taken into deep thought over high cliffs and "shadows spread across their faces as the smog between us deepens into a funeral pyre", brings a darker mood to this poem. In this last stanza the dark and almost lonely feeling that the speaker portrays seems to reference the lost of a loved one, possibly the father of the author.