Quote Originally Posted by Wushu_Tiger View Post
Even then I read through thousands of topics in this forum about what your saying. Yeah there is a difference between "contemporary" wushu and shaolin wushu. I feel a few hand sets are tossed in there to certify it as "traditional". True wushu translates all to martial arts but it's been the most used statement about the whole shaolin debate. The problem that I personally have seen with the modern shaolin schools is that each monk would take one specific form but modify it. So the same form is done three different ways by three different schools. What is real; what is fake? I am not against any of it and by no means am I trying to scrutinize who anyone trains in modern shaolin. It just depends on what you seek.
Well this problem is not likely to go away soon. Throughout a monks training at the Temple he is taught by different masters. Some masters have different ways of teaching the same forms, one master may teach a technique such as a low crouch knee break where you go down to the thighs being paralell with the ground, another may teach halfway down, and another may teach standing erect. Also some masters may teach the same form with one or two different movements. There are also different sets of the forms, for instance, Xiao Hong Quan has a 24 posture form as well as the longer 56 posture version. Tong Bi Quan has several different sets in the same form. This can account for the variations you are talking about. Maybe this is as it should be, or maybe each form and their sets should be standardized that is a question that I or anyone cannot answer, we should leave that one up to the Temple. Each monk though teaches according to what he was taught by his main master. No doubt that some monks may add or subtract movements based on what they believe is effective or ineffective. This has happend for centuries and will continue to happen for centuries. However, the core of the form remains the same. Some monks make up forms. In our school our master has created a staff form that he used in competition and for performances. This form is based on traditonal staff techniques. We teach this to our students as the second staff form they learn. We call it Xing Ying Guen (Xing Ying Staff). Now, is it "real" since it was not taught in historic times? I guess that just depends on your beliefs and preferences. The techniques are real and it is a cool form and that is all I need. Forms like this one only add to our heritage and besides, this will also continue, like evolution, descent with modification.