Luohan 18 Shou, road 1:
as previously mentioned,
Deyang's Luohan 18 Shou is the 1st road (at p.2 of the 2nd vol of the
Encyclopedia). however, this was not justified, and besides, Deyang's and the Encyclopedia form were thought to have the postures in much different orders with respect to each other. here i show that not only they are the same, but that their postural orders are very closely the same:
Deyang begins the form with the crossed palms at standing stance, then switches the palms (figs 2-3 of the Encyclopedia), then before continuing with stand and join palms near the shoulder (fig 4), Deyang, as a repetition, does the down-cut palm at side transitory step (T stance) and uppercut palm at bow step (figs 7-8, Deyang does the latter in bow step, but the Encyclopedia on horse), afterwards, he continues with join palms near the shoulder, down-cut palm at side transitory step, uppercutting palm at bow step, then, again, down-cutting palm at side transitory step and the uppercutting palm at bow step (figs 4-8), then he does two elbow strikes at bow step to right and left (figs 9-10), down-cutting palm in side transitory step (fig 11). instead of the turn and transition in figs 12, Deyang goes to the join arms at bow step (fig 13) directly. then he turns back, joins fists while pushing the elbow in bow step (fig 14), turns body and spreads the palms on-horse stance (fig 15, Encyclopedia doesn't spread the palms, but instead spreads the elbows), left bow or 4-6 step with palms in guard in front (fig 16). here Deyang does a strange postures, he thrusts right fist with the other fist near shoulder, which the Encyclopedia doesn't have. before ending with crossed palms and standing up (figs 17-18), Deyang thrusts elbow in bow step, while the Encyclopedia does the same after the crossed palms (fig 19).
* throughout the form, except in fig 15, all the directions and left/right of Deyang's and Encyclopedia's form are the same, but the stepping methods are usually different. this difference in steppings in forms is usual among SongShan Shaolin lineages, but the Encyclopedia is unusually full of such different steppings. stepping means how the feet move to form a specific step/stance. it's usual in the Encyclopedia forms to form the same steps/stances with somehow different transitory moves of the feet. this, however, is not something bad with the Encyclopedia, but rather teaches the same form wit different transitions. if we consider that the same posture when done with different transitional movements can have totally different applications, then such differences in the Encyclopedia will seem as new materials we can learn from.
Luohan 18 Shou, road 8:
now, as another famous Luohan 18 Shou form,
Dejian and others' Luohan 18 Shou (videos:
1 (at 26:38, with Wugulun lineage shenfa),
2 (at 26:13, with Wugulun lineage shenfa),
3 (with standard shenfa)) is the 8th road (at p.32 of the 2nd vol of the
Encyclopedia).
this time, besides the above-mentioned differences, there are differences such as left/right exchange, and even skipping some movements or performing them in a hidden way, etc, between the resources. so we must consider all the resources (Encyclopedia and the videos) together to identify what they do:
the videos have the crossed palms followed by a few pushings of palms at the beginning, which the Encyclopedia doesn't show except for the 1st, 2nd, and 6th roads. after this, they continue with push both palms in bow step (fig 2), take two lift-leg steps spreading the arms (figs 3-4), then a short step and short-range push palm (fig 5), squat and pound the palm with fist (fig 6), turn to bow step and spread arms (fig 7), turn again and after taking a step (fig 8) twist the arms (fig 9) and squat while pushing palm downward (fig 10). instead of the steps and transitions in figs 7-9, videos no 2 and 3 do a simple turn to fig 10. after this, they turn (fig 11), squat and collect the hands in front of chest (fig 12), bow step and push one hand forward the other backward (fig 13), the videos here do 2 punches that the Encyclopedia doesn't have, then there's back palm strike in bow step (fig 14) followed by crouching down (fig 15, videos no 1 and 2, because of their shenfa style don't do a full crouch downard, but just lower their body slightly), there's turn and spread hands on horse stance, which the Encyclopedia doesn't show, then it's squat and collecting the hands (fig 16), spred arms standing on one leg (fig 17), followed by blocking left and right with palms in transitory step (xue bu) (figs 18-19), and the end. at the ending, the videos do luohan sleeps/contemplates posture, which is not a luohan 18 shou posture; they've got it from Luohan quan.
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* NOW consider this technical description of these Luohan 18 Shou forms:
these show how much the technical contents and shenfa of these 1st and 8th roads are close together. i think we see the same among the rest of the 8 roads that are in the Encyclopedia, which clearly indicates they are of the same very system! each of these 8 roads has 18 postures, which makes it most likely that they are of the same 18-road 324 posture Luohan 18 Shou (18 roads, each road 18 postures) mentioned in the Encyclopedia.