Southern kung fu before the Qing

[Falcor]

All this talk of Hung Ga and CLF and Jow Ga, etc, got me thinking - what is the history of kung fu in the southern regions before the Qing (or late Ming) period? Most of the southern styles we think of nowadays (Wing Chun, Hung Ga, Choy Li Fut, Bak Mei, etc) seems to have all originiated at the earliest in the 16th century. And a lot of it have their histories interwoven with the anti-Qing movements in some way. A lot got started by masters of various styles and from various locations escaping to the south to be ****her away from the Manchus. But there must've been indigenous kung fu systems in the South before that, no? So what are some of them? We hear so little about them. Heck, most kung fu styles nowadays (either north or south) only trace back about 500 years at most. Only a very few seem to have verifyable (read: documented) histories to Ming or pre-Ming. And most of them are classified as Northern. So anyone know about the story for the south?

[Fu-Pow]

According to my Chinese friend the South was mainly thought of as tribes of barbarians. So there might not be any really well documented history.

[NorthernShaolin]

In the south, many of the styles were villiage styles, a mix bag of techniques. Some were more than likely excellent in their own way. But very few of these styles were able to origanize themselves into a systematic method that would enable them to pass successfully from one generation to the next outside their own villiage or local area.

There is a book written with a limited number of published copies. (I have to dig up the title.) The idea behind the book was to let the people of Kwangtung Province learn which styles and past teachers were popular and are "developed locally" since it's beginning (dating back before the Ching Dynasty.) The main distrubition was around the Kwangchou area in China, I believe in the 1980's.

If you know someone in that area they may be able to secure a copy for you.

[Just a Guy]

Southern Tiger and Snake are two older styles that were around pre-Ch'ing dynasty.

[Da_Moose]

Falcor,

Check this link out. You may find it very informative!


http://home.vtmuseum.org/genealogy/chi_sim/chi_sim_history.php

[TenTigers]

Fu-Pow-your "Chinese" friend was probably Manderin. Cantonese people don't even consider Manderins Chinese, just Chings.

[Fu-Pow]

Nope, way off. Hak Ga and Cantonese.

[Just a Guy]

Originally posted by TenTigers
Cantonese people don't even consider Manderins Chinese, just Chings.

Ouch. ;)

[YuLi]

Many styles of the southern part of China are no really historic techniques. But there are some really original systemes , which show us some traditional parts. The link to the ving tsun museum is not bad and will show you some of them.

And there is no style who is really original , isn´t there ?