Northern and Southern

[Yung Apprentice]

I know northern is mostly external.And southern is mostly internal.But are there norhtern arts that are internal?Are there southern arts that are external?

[norther practitioner]

Northern and Southern can be either......
It all depends on the style or system. Northern is usually long and kicks more than southern. This is attributed to the North being dry and rocky, whereas the south was wet, boggy, and so their stances aren't as low also (usually). Southern styles can usually be called short, meaning that it emphasizes hands. Styles like Wing Chun, most of the gar's, southern Shaolin, etc. are all southern. Northern Shaolin, Chang Chuan, Cha Chuan, Northern Mantis (?), these are all long northern styles. As far as internal and external, Tai Chi Chuan, Bagua, and Xing Yi are the three most popular internal arts. Internal, external, southern, northern, hard, soft, linear, circular, imitation, as you can see there are many different words used to classify Chinese martial arts. Just think of where they came from, and some of their characteristics; hung gar is a southern external (or hard) system. Yang style Tai Chi Chuan is an internal (or soft) style that many consider or would call long as well. I hope this helps, as I am still fairly new to CMA myself.

[Shaolindynasty]

Don't pay any attention to the North/South internal/external classifications. They will take to long to learn and even longer to realise they serve no purpose cause they are all wrong. Most all CMA have elements of all 4 catagories.