The Golden Bell Kung Fu 金鐘罩

From at least the Ming dynasty there has been a kung fu training method called 金鐘罩 jin zhong zhao or golden bell cover.
The Shaolin Book of Short Strikes has this to say.

If you've mastered the golden bell cover, what is there to fear of spears,
sabers, swords and axes?
若得學成金鐘罩﹐何怕鎗刀並劍戈。

Golden Bell Cover was popular enough to be included in martial novels of the mid to late Qing dynasty, so its existence was no secret.
It was taught to peasants for use in the Boxer Rebellion of 1911 where many unfortunate peasants discovered that Golden Bell Cover does not stop bullets.

What I am trying to discover is if it was taught to small Chinese militias at the beginning of the Qing Dynasty as part of their military training program to take China away from the Manchurian rule.

Are there any other schools that teach or taught or have heard of the Golden Bell Cover?

The most prominent and respected history of the boxer uprising has strong evidence that the "boxers" didn't practice real "golden bell" but rather were sold fake superstitious nonsense and conn'ed into running to their death

If a school practiced this it would be as the Seven Star Praying Mantis School of eighteen individual and accepted whole stand-alone techniques.

Yet Golden Bell is not a Kung-Fu as much as it is the result of the practice of two stand-alone Defensive Kung-Fus Turtle Back is one. Iron Bull Kung is the other. Unless you're just going to call callasing the front and back Golden Bell.

No_Know

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Originally Posted by Tainan Mantis

Are there any other schools that teach or taught or have heard of the Golden Bell Cover?

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Brendan Lai some of us some partner exercises that he called Golden Bell cover.

Basically it involved pressurizing the chest cavity while taking kicks to the ribs and doing torso kao da. The pressurization bounces the strikes off as if they were hitting a ball.

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Originally Posted by lkfmdc

The most prominent and respected history of the boxer uprising has strong evidence that the "boxers" didn't practice real "golden bell" but rather were sold fake superstitious nonsense and conn'ed into running to their death

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Yes, it seems that these people were being mislead. They combined their training with superstitios practices such as writing charms on paper and burning them and drinking the liquified ash.
Wang Yifu, a Mantis teacher wrote in the 30's about this specific practice being bogus and not a part of the training of Luohan.

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Originally Posted by No_Know

If a school practiced this it would be as the Seven Star Praying Mantis School of eighteen individual and accepted whole stand-alone techniques.

Yet Golden Bell is not a Kung-Fu as much as it is the result of the practice of two stand-alone Defensive Kung-Fus Turtle Back is one. Iron Bull Kung is the other. Unless you're just going to call callasing the front and back Golden Bell.

No_Know

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Do you have a specific reference that ties together Golden bell with the two methods (which I have not heard of) together?

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Originally Posted by -N-

Brendan Lai some of us some partner exercises that he called Golden Bell cover.

Basically it involved pressurizing the chest cavity while taking kicks to the ribs and doing torso kao da. The pressurization bounces the strikes off as if they were hitting a ball.

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Thanks for posting, this is close to my method of understanding. Usually called Three Turns Nine Rotations, several old manuals give it a combined title of Luohan Gong THree Turns Nine Rotations, but from the Luohan Gong book it is clear that it is also known as Golden Bell.

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Originally Posted by Tainan Mantis

Do you have a specific reference that ties together Golden bell with the two methods (which I have not heard of) together?

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Chapter title 11 Chapter Title 42

p.102 of the pdf;p.101 in the book reference to Iron Bull end of 1st paragraph

No_Know

In the book The Unseen Mind Force of Kung Fu, in the description of the Turtle Back (Kung) there's a note stating that this combined with Iron Bull Kung makes a different Kung Fu called Golden Bell.

No_Know

Well I'm intrigued. How is this different than the standard iron body training, if there is such a thing as standard iron body training?

I think I'll pull up a chair, nom on some popcorn and wait for y'all to elaborate on this interesting subject.

Cool thread T Mantis!

When the Muay Thai kick the banana tree in the movies, that's iron body training. Leg sweeps called Iron Broom. Iron arms, Iron Head, Iron Palm, Iron Leg, Iron Bull (toughening the belly), Iron fingers, Knees and Elbows are naturally hard or are effectively useable strikers--elbows are not ever Iron. Knees might be trained individually or as part of a collection of honing hard strike tools. Notice these are individual body areas. And there is no Iron Back.

The Irons seem to be impact conditioning of a body area usually an appendage.

Golden Bell from my reading is a composite of two skills--Iron Bull and Turtle Back.

No_Know

If you've ever seen pro wrestlers, they are highly conditioned to take falls of all kinds. They also run into each other hard. They make it look easy, and add some exaggerated acting to act hurt, but the simplest falls they take would mess up most normal people, even if they landed properly. There is give in the ring, but the surface is not soft. I remember years ago a sports reporter was saying it was all fake and that anybody could do it. So he went to a pro wrasslin' school to show how easy it is. Well, the first time he took a body slam, one of the basic requirements, it took the wind out of him and it really hurt like hell. He tried one or two other things, and couldn't take anymore. He was in a lot of pain. He left with a lot more respect for how conditioned they are. Even 'running the ropes', where they run to and fro, bouncing off the steel cable ropes with their backs, will hurt and tear up a normal back.

True, that messes their bodies up over time, but that could very well count as a type of 'iron body' conditioning. Now, whether or not it's equivalent to Jin Zhong Zhao (Golden Bell Cover) or not, I don't know.

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Originally Posted by No_Know

Chapter title 11 Chapter Title 42

p.102 of the pdf;p.101 in the book reference to Iron Bull end of 1st paragraph

No_Know

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Thanks for that link.
1934 for the publish date with no information on the original sources.

Here is an original. There are several that are very similar, all dating from some period in the Qing dynasty.

The Venerable Monk Enters Nirvana
Third Round; Divide the Legs Ride the Horse

The twenty-four joints make the spine.
Yin and yang combine and harmonize at wei-lu.
With a mouthful of qi raise up the anus.
The floating toad rushes to the bottom of the well.
Use strength and grab your legs.
Exert your knees and straighten your waist like a stone column.
If you’ve mastered the Golden Bell Cover,
What is there to fear of spears, swords, sabers or lances?