Obscure Kung Fu Animals

[Shaolin Wookie]

Thanks, Ron.

I was hoping Niao would have been more specific, but I guess I'll have to content myself with its general description.

[RonH]

There isn't any other words before or after niao?

[Shaolin Wookie]

Well, that's the style description.

The three forms are translated as:

Descent from Heaven
Spreading the Feathers
And Performing Dove

They're all grouped as Shaolin Niao. Don't sweat it, though. SD doesn't conform to the CMA mold.

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find info on what kind of bird they're modeled after. We have a Tai Peng system, which is either the Tai, or the peng, or something, but it's not part of that, as far as I know. It seems to me it represents a much smaller kind of bird, compared to the peng and crane systems. It doesn't look like any of the usual "swallow" styles. That's why I figured maybe it was a dove style (which I've heard mentioned only a couple of times, once in that supposedly-spurious book).