Animals

[Yung Apprentice]

I haven't heard to much about leapard,snake,dragon,and tiger styles of Kung Fu.Does anybody know the difference between them?Which ones specialize in what, a description or links to a web site.

[David Jamieson]

there are articles a plenty about the five animals of shaolin. or rather the "original five".

many other animal styles exist, but the main models for shaolin styles are the tiger/crane/leopard/snake and dragon.

tiger develops bone and strength.
crane develops sinew and tendon
leopard develops blood flow via speed
snake develops breath and chi
dragon devlops internal strength and refines all the rest of the above and therefor the dragon is the pinnacle of the animal styles and has aspects of them all while maintaining it's own distinct flavour.

each of the five is realted via cosmology to one of the five elements and all of the five elements.

the practice of all five is the gaining and retention of not only the spirit of the animals as they are expressed in combat, but to also develop the body and the mind according to the aspects inherent to each.

there is a lot of information about the five animals of shaolin. take in as much as you can find and you will be able to piece together a meaning to them that will lead to your own understanding of them and yourself.

peace

[Yung Apprentice]

What different syles of dragon Kung Fu are there? I'm very new to Chinese martial arts,and sometimes for instance tiger,I read there was black claw tiger or something like that,and it gets very confusing,because there are different types and some ppl write a certain style in english or chinese but it the same style and animal.

[Starchaser107]

Yeah Kung Lek , or any one else ,
I have a similar concern regarding tiger
I think I might have asked this already in another post but I dont recal getting any response. but here goes again just for the record.
Whats the difference between BLACK TIGER and WHITE TIGER
as far as Im aware one of them was developed by rebels (or enemies of shaolin) , and one was from the temple itself , is this correct?
and is there more in depth information , could you or anyone else help me out ?
Also are there any significant differences between the two styles.
I have seen two seperate forms one of each and i doubt that there is anything much I can ascertain from just judging what Ive seen from one form of each style.
Although the white tiger definately had more emphasis of the raking and tearing movements of fu jow application, and the black tiger was more the spirit of the animal utilizing more fist strikes and low kicks.

[David Jamieson]

Shaolin styles are the forbearers to the animal styles for the most part.

this was due to a number of factors. on one edge we see the shaolin studying animals in combat and compiling methods that map across to use the human body in such a way as to utilize the methods and outward principles seen in the true animals in combat.

so, a tiger is powerful and aggressive, uses it's claws and overpowers it's "victim". this notation was absorbed into the way a human would do the same thing and hence tiger style.

attributes of the way an animal faught such as crane hopping and point striking with it's beak were mapped across to the human form and the human would take on those attributes as far as their own body would allow them, substituting the hand form of cranes beak for the actual beak and so on.

snake had coiling power and pinpoint striking after releasing from the coiling power, also wrapping and strangling power or constriction principles were applied to the development of snake styles.

leopards incorporate speed, share some similarity with tiger due to inherent similarity in the actual animals themselves but leopard is smaller and use some different tactics than a tiger would. the personality of the leopard or "spirit" differs in this way.

and the dragon, being mythical is a pinnacle or highly refined ability to use all the animals in a continuous flow and to apply some of the esoteric principles of the beast into the fighting style.

Dragon style as a named style is rare, but anyone who has developed their kung fu to a high level uses principles associated with the cosmological aspects of the dragon in their fighting style.
to evade, to overwhelm, to ride the wind, and to generally be in total control of the situation and having the choice, the clear choice to do harm or to not do harm. the dragon does not haphazardly smash through things like a tiger would, but a tiger stylist with long practice and experience only does this when it is required, the same as a dragon would. so the tiger stylist eventually fights like a tiger but maintains dragon principles in doing so.

A tiger system makes use of the claw hand form or "fu jow" regardless of the named style. the named style dictates the amount of use it gets or whether or not other techniques are used dominantly.

as for this tiger, that tiger and so on, these styles get their names based upon who developed them, or where they were developed, from which temple, from which village and so on. the principles and techniques are more or less very similar and in many cases the same from style to style.


So the differences come from the styles themselves but not from the "spirit" associated with the animals. some practitioners had personal preferences for techniques that worked for them and when they built their styles they emphasized those techniques. this is the where and why of differences between white tiger/black tiger/ bok mei etcetera.

the same can be said for all other animals.
some styles have all the animals flavour wrapped into a single set, other styles pick out the aspects of each animal and seperately work them and so on.

the whole idea of animal systems may have begun with qigong exercises known as "animal frolics" which go back very far in time. these frolics got their name because of the [practitioners either conciously, or in a trance like state of meditation in motion outwardly seeming to imitate animals and taking on traits of different animals. like in: he moves like a tiger, or a monkey, or a bear and so on.

it is a complicated tapestry that has been woven and worn for more than a thousand years.

the most important things about any style in my opinion is, that it is effective in combat, it delivers exercise to maintain health and instills a sense of personal discipline.
if it is flowerey or flash without substance, then it can still be good for you and not combat effective and so on.

So to me, in order for kung fu to be developed in an individual, the style must be the three things mentioned above. but that is just my opinion. anyone can get whatever they want out of their personal experiences in life.

peace

[Gargoyle again]

Well said Kung Lek!