Luohan Quan

[RenDaHai]

Luohan Quan,

Everyones favourite Shaolin sub style.

Here is a video, please watch it;

http://www.56.com/u65/v_MjY0Njg4NzA.html

Who is this man??

Can anyone give me a name or ANY information regarding him?

This is from an 80s Documentary called 'this is kung fu'. It was this exact performance that inspired me to learn Shaolin Kung Fu in the first place... However I have now lived in China in Henan for nearly 4 years and none of the Shaolin masters I have encountered know who this guy is. If he was from Shaolin, many of my past teachers would know who he is, after all his level is high.

So this must be Luohan quan from another place... Everyone I have asked Knows the video, they have all seen it before, but no one knows the man. Some people have suggested that it is Luohan from Wu Tai Mountain. I realise the voiceover is in Cantonese, never the less this style is certainly from northern china.

Can anyone help me? Does anyone know where this quan is from, who this guy is or anything at all about green monk robes?

[bawang]

hi

i was going to say look for him somewhere but i found a video clip of that movie on youtube
theres a small description of a style, then it has modern wushu performers perform. have you thought maybe that guy was a modern wushu performer wearing a monk robe?

if you have the chance to meet famous shaolin masters, why not just learn luohanquan from them, why this guy?

[RenDaHai]

Hey There BaWang,

All valid points

Yes a lot of the video was modern wushu, but I have an intimate knowledge of modern wushu and no this is not it. The guy probably isn't a monk and he may well have created the form for performance, but he certainly didn't pull the moves out of thin air, and I want to know where they came from.

I have spent years searching for the best Luohan Quan of Shaolin, and I have found it. I'm studying still. Never the less it is never enough, I would still really like to know who this guy and where his luohan quan is from.

[bawang]

hi rendahai
most of the techniques he did in that video are in shaolin luohanquan
the pose that he did, luohan listening to sutra and luohan sleeping, they are signature move of shaolin luohanquan

[mickey]

Greetings,

Try checking out the Omei, Wudang and Moslem communities.

This is Ma ZhenWu, a Moslem ( I think he is no longer with us) doing Lohan basics.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjHba...om=PL&index=10

mickey

[RenDaHai]

Greetings,

Try checking out the Omei, Wudang and Moslem communities.

This is Ma ZhenWu, a Moslem ( I think he is no longer with us) doing Lohan basics.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjHba...om=PL&index=10

mickey

Thanks,

I'm in China and I can't watch YouTube (its not inside the great firewall of china) But I'll see if I can put the name in chinese into a chinese video site.

[RenDaHai]

hi rendahai
most of the techniques he did in that video are in shaolin luohanquan
the pose that he did, luohan listening to sutra and luohan sleeping, they are signature move of shaolin luohanquan

Yes they are. I have seen at least 30 different Luohan Quan's in Shaolin and all of these stances appear somewhere, however there is a certain style to this luohan quan that is not familiar... I know he didn't just make up this form from the standard luohan sets that exist in shaolin today, his follows a different character. I think he must have an extended style of Luohan quan and I want to find him and learn it. Luohan quan has the most interesting character of shaolin sets... I'm rather obsessed by it.

[mickey]

Greetings,

The vibe I get from watching that guy is that he is doing Omei (Ermei) Shaolin. In other words, check out Sichuan province martial arts. The temples in China were not as isolated and distinct as some people think. There was much "cross pollination" for the sole purpose of keeping certain traditions alive in case something happens. This is why I suggest that you check out other places where Luohan Chuan can be found. You should not be shocked to find Shaolin forms in the areas that I suggested.

mickey

[RenDaHai]

@mickey

Thanks, good advice.

Certainly there is a lot of cross pollution. Luohan quan especially. Even Daoist alcoves sometimes practice a luohan quan (a distinctly buddhist fist).

I am convinced this luohan quan is not from shaolin, if it was i would have seen it by now.

E'mei shan in my experiance tends to be less exaggerated in its stances, more southern in flavour. I'm leaning towards Wutai Shan. With 100's of buddhist temples and a remote location (many people in trouble would flee to wutai to become monks, it offered sanctuary to bandits, killers, deserters, losing warlords etc and as a result has tons of martial arts) it should have some luohan fist. But i can't find out much about the many many wutai styles.

[Sal Canzonieri]

I have seen that guy in a few Shaolin documentaries on VCD format discs.

Haven't seen his name mentioned in them.

I have seen a clip of him doing another Shaolin set as well.

This doesn't appear to be a Shaolin set though, looks like the salute he did was not Shaolin.

Hmm, I checked through my archives. "This is Kung Fu" was originally called something else in China, it was a documentary about the Emei (Omei) KF and wushu scene. It was mostly about modern Wushu development. My copy is not called "This is Kung Fu" it is called "Emei Wushu".

[RenDaHai]

@ Sal

hmm, That is interesting...

I think they may have used and reused the footage a lot. In the one i have they go to e'mei shan for a bit and show some monkey boxing, but they also go to wutai, song shan, wudang, they go to the south and show nan quan, then they have a large section on jet li and show him doing fan zi quan. It is mainly about the different styles of modern wushu in china but it does contain a few traditional forms as well. If your into modern forms this video has the best performances on it. I actually first got this dvd in a compilation of old jet li movies, since he features heavily in the documentary.

But if they used it in an e'mei documentary as well then there is a chance it is emei luohan, but all the videos i have of e'mei kung fu are pretty ugly close quarters short range sort of forms.

I would love to see this guy doing some other shaolin sets. This luohan quan really has the luohan feeling, I HAVE to find this guys name!!

[Sal Canzonieri]

@ Sal

hmm, That is interesting...

I think they may have used and reused the footage a lot. In the one i have they go to e'mei shan for a bit and show some monkey boxing, but they also go to wutai, song shan, wudang, they go to the south and show nan quan, then they have a large section on jet li and show him doing fan zi quan. It is mainly about the different styles of modern wushu in china but it does contain a few traditional forms as well. If your into modern forms this video has the best performances on it. I actually first got this dvd in a compilation of old jet li movies, since he features heavily in the documentary.

But if they used it in an e'mei documentary as well then there is a chance it is emei luohan, but all the videos i have of e'mei kung fu are pretty ugly close quarters short range sort of forms.

I would love to see this guy doing some other shaolin sets. This luohan quan really has the luohan feeling, I HAVE to find this guys name!!

yeah, I think you are right, in the Emei doc, they do not have all those extra scenes from the other places. So, they must have used just the Emei parts.

I think what I have also seen him do was some Hong quan sets? Not sure.
If I find the other clip, I will post it on Youtube (but you can't get that in China?).

He might be just an actor all along though, if the clips are from another film originally. The other clip I have seen looks like it came from the same source.

-----------------------------

I looked through my archives and I found I have a copy of that film in Mandarin with English subtiles. That clip was indeed filmed at Shaolin itself, so it is not Emei. And, it says that the form he is doing is an 18 Luohan Shou set, 18 Luohan Hands, not Luohan Quan.
Still, it is not one that I have ever seen. It looks like it is just a selection of random movements from Luohan style, which it might have been made just for the film to give an idea of Luohan Quan.
But, it says the film is from 1994, not 1980s, he kinda looks about 50 years old in that clip, so today he is close to 70 years old, yes?
Also, it does not give his name at all.

I looked through as many Shaolin clips as I could so far, but I haven't found him in any of them yet.
Sorry I couldn't have been of more help, if I ever come across him in anything, I will let you know here in this thread.

[Sal Canzonieri]

ha, ha, this is stupid, but most people's highlight of that film when we were much younger is the girl doing the snake or dragon style in the cave with the green body stocking on. Every time she turns around you can see her shiny white behind, looks nice and round and kinda sexy. hah ha.

[mawali]

There are so many variants of Lohuanquan that one will have to identify the region practiced, the origin, location (village, town), the master's name and who was his teacher!

I learnt a Lohanquan form, and 2 man sequence taught by teacher Yucheng Huang (died some years ago) who learnt it in Guangdong (big province, I know) and he supposedly learnt it at Shaolin!

[Sal Canzonieri]

There are so many variants of Lohuanquan that one will have to identify the region practiced, the origin, location (village, town), the master's name and who was his teacher!

I learnt a Lohanquan form, and 2 man sequence taught by teacher Yucheng Huang (died some years ago) who learnt it in Guangdong (big province, I know) and he supposedly learnt it at Shaolin!

The reason that there is so many different Luohan Quan is because of a few reason, which I will explain:

1 - the name "Luohan Quan" is what it became known as but it is not the original name of the style. it was originally called "Defending and Attacking, Advancing and Retreating Boxing", which was composed of all the material that was developed in the 1400s from Monk Jue Yuan's collaboration and further refining of old Shaolin Quan with the Hong Quan and staff methods from Li Sou and the internal ground fighting methods of Bai Yue Feng. They developed a large number of sets.

2 Over time these sets were practiced in the area, they eventually separated into Shaolin Hong Quan system, 5 Fists system (the animal sets) and what became later known as the Luohan System (composed of various 28 Luohan Hands sets and a few Luohan Quan sets. One of which became known as the Da Luohan Quan, a huge set containing all the postures and movements in one set. To help prepare for this huge set, they created many training sets, which became known as Xiao Luohan, Lao Luohan, Duan Da Luohan, and more.
This material is practiced all over Denfeng, Luoyang, Kaifeng, and other parts of Henan.

3 - the Shrine areas of shaolin was were the anti-Qing rebels stationed themselves and they practiced all these sets, plus their local village long fist and mixed it all together, and this stuf, and this stuff spread to other areas, especially Shandong province.

4 - the students of Bai Yu feng and Jue Yuan, such as Yi Quan, and others eventually fled to southern China, where their students became the founders of the Choy Gar style. Eventually this developed into Choy Li Fut style. These southern styles have the most closed connection to Northern Shaolin Five Fists (which they developed the Five Animals sets from). Eventually this material filtered into the other southern Shaolin based styles (Hung Gar, and so on).

So, all these area practice set that they call Luohan Quan, not to mention people that went to Wudang and Emei, and they all do some kind of Luohan Quan material. Some sets are preserved from ancient times accurately, some are parts of the original Luohan material mixed with local martial arts.
Now, there are tons of Luohan Quan sets from all over, and it is just a way of saying "Shaolin Quan".