Fourth Hao's Through the Branches

[Tainan Mantis]

Fourth Hao is the nickname of Hao Henxing, teacher to Zhang Kaitang.

This is a story of Through the Branches combined with information on White Ape. A famous character from Chinese literature.

One thing that I neglected to mention in the article is that during the Ming Dynasty, White Ape and Qi Tian Da Sheng, the Sun Wukong character, had the exact same introduction.

Originally they were distinct from each other, but there is a period of time lasting maybe several hundred years where the distinction between the two is a bt muddied up a bit.
Here is their common quote, this is what they would say as the walked on stage.


Conquering the misty peaks of lofty mountains coming and going as I please.
Climbing mountains and crossing the peaks I display my bravery.
Overturning rivers and stirring the seas I flourish my magic powers.
Mounting the clouds and riding the mist I ascend the violent rain, throwing rocks and hacking sands with my demonic wind.


When idle I climb harsh mountain ridges of the thousand year old tree.
In boredom I play at the summits of the 10,000 foot pine.
In the evening I'm holding fruits while the apes cry at the moon.
During the day I'm at the foot of the forest as tigers roar with the wind.

占斷煙霞萬里峰. 任吾來往自縱橫. 爬山過嶺施英勇. 翻江攪海顯神通.騰雲駕霧昇狂雨. 走石砍沙起怪風.

閑攀峻嶺千年樹. 悶戲巔峰萬丈松.夜隨獻果猿啼月. 晝件林前虎嘯風.

White Ape Swings Through the Branches (http://www.plumflowermantisboxing.com/Articles/2013/Through%20the%20Branches.htm)

[B.Tunks]

Good point regarding their potential interchange. Their origin stories are very different though and they were clearly not the same figure in the beginning. As I mentioned to Claudio on the other board, in my understanding Bai Yuan was actually supposed to be a man with animal spirit rather than an actual ape. I think the mixing of the two was mainly in the Ming but you would know a lot more about that.

BT

[mantis108]

Thank you, Kevin for an interesting article.

About White Ape, I believe there are quite a few different versions of it. Nevertheless, the White Ape (any version) and Monkey King from the novel "Journey to the West" are definitely very different. I am sure the mixed up is mainly the playwrights' artistic licensing.

As for the spear move "White Ape drags the sabre", it has a very practical use in the military formation.In a square formation, whenever the front roll soldiers needs to be replaced by the second roll, so that they could take a break, this move is used in order to allow the front roll soldiers to leave their position safely and orderly and move to the back of the formation.

Warmest regard

Robert

PS Brendan and Kevin, I have made a Facebook page for CCK TCPMers. I hope you guys have time to visit the Facebook page and share. Thanks. :)

[Graculus]

Nice article, as always.

Did you realise that the pictures of monkeys from the Wu Bei Zhi were actually from a Japanese Kage ryu manual that was captured by Qi Jiguang during his campaigns, and anthologized into his writings?

The Kage ryu had a connection with several animals who acted as divine messengers, one of which was the monkey. This seems to be the only copy of this manual to have survived.

Graculus
http://ichijoji.blogspot.com

[Tainan Mantis]

Robert, always nice to get your feedback.
The battlefield aspect is fascinating. I would like to see more of that.

Hi Graculus,
I did not know about a Japanese connection to the ape in this manual.
Can you go into more detail?

I am guessing that you know of the Sun Wukong Japan relationship?
The oldest version of Journey to the West predates the Chinese novel of the mid ming dynasty just happens to be in Japan.
They were kept there for hundreds of years in a Buddhist temple.

[B.Tunks]

Xi You Ji was the consolidation of folk tales that were told centuries before it's publication.

[Graculus]

It seems the ape pictures came from a manual which was picked up on the battlefield by one of Qi Jiguang's men when he was fighting against the wu-kou. As we know, he had some trouble with the pirates, and specifically commented on their use of two-handed swords, devising the mandarin duck formation to oppose them.

He also introduced the chang dao (erroneously called the miao dao by many nowadays), and there was always much speculation that his techniques were based on Japanese sword techniques. Why the speculation? He included the manual he had found in the Jin Xiao Shin Shu. This was the 1582, re-edited, 14 chapter version, not the 1561/2, longer (18 chapter) original.

It was this re-edited edition part that was included in the Wubei Zhi. Although the Kage ryu no longer exists, the techniques listed in the Wubei Zhi, although the characters were imperfectly copied, are recognizable from other documents from this and related schools.

As I mentioned before, the Kage ryu was associated with a number of animals who were seen as divine messengers – like other notable systems that were created in the medieval period, Kage ryu included an element of divine revelation in its creation story. Several animals were connected to this deity, including a monkey. As monkeys are humanoid, it is an easy step from there to having them illustrate techniques. The Shinkage ryu, which descended from the Kage ryu, used tengu (winged goblins) for similar illustrative purposes.

Graculus
http://www.ichijoji.blogspot.com

[bawang]

there was always much speculation that his techniques were based on Japanese sword techniques. Why the speculation?

he said it very clearly in the book. he thought chinese sabre was very flowery, so he learned and used japanese swords for his army.

in ming dynasty there was a japanese sword fetish but it went away.

[Tainan Mantis]

I am thinking of doing this form in the upcoming Orlando Kung Fu tourny.
I haven't made a solid commitment.