is there a Northern Shaolin Five Animal Style?

[TenTigers]

Also, is there a Northern Tiger (except for what is in the book, Shantung Black Tiger-and btw-does anyone actually train this system??)
or a Northern Snake-except for that wushuey crap?
etc,etc??

[mickey]

Greetings,

http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=10022


mickey

[LFJ]

As r.shaolin stated in that thread, the southern styles that use the five animals also find their origins in the Yuan Dynasty at Songshan Shaolin Monastery, with monks Jueyuan and Qiuyue (Bai Yufeng). The system was first simply called Wuquan (five fists/boxing).

Much of the original system is lost in Shaolin now and is probably best preserved in the southern systems like HGK, CLF, etc..

[mickey]

I forgot to add something...

The person known as Kwan Saihung used to teach basic Northern Five animals when he was doing seminars back in the 1980's. While the sets were rudimentary, the movements did suggest a strong connection to Shaolin. I use the term rudimentary because he openly said that each animal had several sets for it. Movements from the leopard style, for example, one would find in Lan Shou, a style of Shaolin origin. The Crane form made emphasis on the use of the wing, palm strikes with most aspects of the palm. In terms of the internal body mechanics, a close cousin might be the Shaolin Jingang Natural style, a style that found its way to Omei.

If Kwan Saihung's forms were anything, it would be the representation of the cross pollenization of styles that took place between the temples to ensure the survival of pertinent teachings.

Shaolin has lost so much. At one time you could have had ten monks standing together, representing ten different schools of Shaolin. Shaolin was that vast.


mickey

[RenDaHai]

The name Shaolin represents a lot more than just the Songshan Shaolin sets.

Most of what you see of 5 animals in the modern shaolin shows is modern performance stuff.

There are several 'WuXIng' Quans forms with the classic 5 animals. But I have never seen any strong evidence to suggest the 5 animals are a Songshan thing originally, and I have studied many Songshan styles in the villages there. The forms do exist, but are not a complete set of technique. Just a few moves.

We have some other animal fists, but they are generally in name only and don't seem to imitate so much. Many of these animal fists in Shaolin are ones that have moved sideways from XingYiPai and are often referred to as such. In Henan there are many bits of XinYi and XingYi that are combined with Shaolin. And a lot of the old XinYi looks very similar to shaolin. In these systems there are some animal forms, like a snake fist. But again it doesn't imitate and you couldn't really tell it is the animal except for the name.


There ARE many forms called Tiger fist. However they rarely contain much you would associate with a tiger and appear to be name only.

HeiHuQuan, MengHuQuan, HuPuQuan, BaiHuQuan, BaoCuanQuan (rushing leopard) etc.


In terms of Claw techniques Shaolin has a style called ShiSanZhua, 13 Claws. They are not Dragon or tiger or eagle, they are just claws. This is the old Claw style of Shaolin. However when we practice the hand conditioning we refer to the skill as 'LongZhua Gong' Skill of Dragons Claws. But that is not a technique, rather the conditioned hand.

[r.(shaolin)]

As r.shaolin stated in that thread, the southern styles that use the five animals also find their origins in the Yuan Dynasty at Songshan Shaolin Monastery, with monks Jueyuan and Qiuyue (Bai Yufeng). The system was first simply called Wuquan (five fists/boxing).

Much of the original system is lost in Shaolin now and is probably best preserved in the southern systems like HGK, CLF, etc..




In these systems there are some animal forms, like a snake fist. But again it doesn't imitate and you couldn't really tell it is the animal except for the name.


In our tradition we don't use the term 五形拳 but rather (五形手). Unlike southern sets: our sets don't 'imitate' animal movements although 'animal' hand shapes are used instead of the fist; these sets travel on a line, that is in 'roads', as do other Song Shan Shaolin sets; and contain many long fist combinations. In other words northern Shaolin 五形手 sets do not imitate the actions of animals like they do in Southern styles or as they do in (northern) Shaolin Monkey sets.





We have some other animal fists, but they are generally in name only and don't seem to imitate so much. Many of these animal fists in Shaolin are ones that have moved sideways from XingYiPai and are often referred to as such. In Henan there are many bits of XinYi and XingYi that are combined with Shaolin. And a lot of the old XinYi looks very similar to shaolin. In these systems there are some animal forms, like a snake fist. But again it doesn't imitate and you couldn't really tell it is the animal except for the name.

see:
http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=35560