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Thread: Xiao/Da Hong Quan...the only fist forms practiced after Revolution

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    Xiao/Da Hong Quan...the only fist forms practiced after Revolution

    I'm totally unsure about this but I remember reading a long time ago in one of the issues in kungfumagazine.com that following the Cultural Revolution, the only fist forms that were being practiced inside the Shaolin Temple were Xiao Hong Quan and Da Hong Quan. Many of the other styles practiced at Songshan were brought in from neighboring areas. Can I anyone support/decry this assertion? Also, my other question would be on weapon sets taught prior to when the movie, "Shaolin Temple" hit it big?

    Thanks in advance.

  2. #2
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    well, ven. shi suxi for example was known as the "shaolin boxing king" for his extensive knowledge of shaolin boxing. he was in shaolin temple before and after the cultural revolution, and certainly knew and taught more than just these two sets.

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    Neighboring areas?

    You have to keep in mind where Shaolin is geographically and historically. Zhengzhou, the capital city near to Shaolin, served as the capitol of China on five separate occasion for a sum of 3600 years. Henan Province is the very heart of China. So when you say 'neighboring areas' you have to keep in mind that the neighborhood was the center of culture for over three and a half millennium. That's going to have a lot of influence.

    If you're interested in what happened during the CR at Shaolin and the effect of neighboring areas, take a look at our 2008 November/December cover story Shaolin Masters Keeping the Faith. That's just a starter. I've done many articles on the other leading folk masters in the area who helped preserve traditional Shaolin forms, and not just Dahong and Xiaohong.

    Weapons is another question. Start by looking at our yinshougun thread.
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
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    Quote Originally Posted by GeneChing View Post
    Weapons is another question. Start by looking at our yinshougun thread.
    My view is that that the staff set 'yinshougun' being done by the monks today and the
    'yinshougun' referred to by Cheng Zongyou are two different weapons.
    Here are my thoughts on this:
    http://ironbodhisattva.blogspot.com/
    r.

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    Interesting argument r.(shaolin)

    When I was first taught yinshougun by Shi Decheng, we used a longer 'rat-tail' staff, more akin to what is depicted in Cheng Zongyou's work. Some of the modern practitioners have converted it for an eyebrow-height staff, including my present Shaolin teacher Yan Fei (a disrobed monk). It's worthy of note here that there's a traditional Shaolin staff form called qimeigun (eyebrow-height) which is played more like European quarterstaff or Japanese bo staff where you strike with both ends a lot. Rat-tail staffs tend to work more like spears.

    That being said, I tend to lean towards your belief that Cheng's form is different from the modern one simply because the figures in the text don't map well. Even given a wide latitude for variation, I don't see the pattern as being the root of what we do now. I confess, this is based on a rather cursory examination. But I know yinshougun fairly well and I don't see the connection. Perhaps I should look at it more carefully.
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
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    From the research I've been doing, it seems that there were different methods practiced by different factions within and nearby Shaolin grounds.

    Books such as that by Cheng only show one of many different traditions, and I agree because these books are the only ones found today people assume that they are the ONLY methods taught there.

    But other books from the 1500s and 1600s show that there were completely different factions doing totally different techniques with different weapons and each had their own set of followers, some in the many thousands and some in the few dozens.

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