White Ape Series

[mooyingmantis]

Of the White Ape or Bai Yuan series, how many forms does your school teach? Eight different sets is the most I have heard of.

[mooyingmantis]

Shifu Lee Kam Wing lists four Pak Yuen/Bai Yuan sets required by his schools on his homepage.

Here is the list in order of appearance:

White Gibbon Comes Out of Cave
White Gibbon Steals Peach
White Gibbon Peeps at the Feast (First Road)
White Gibbon Peeps at the Feast (Second Road)

In 2006 I had the privilege of learning the Chiu Chi Man/Lee Kam Wing version of White Gibbon Steals Peach and its applications from Shifu Brian Bateman during a seminar hosted by Shifu Biggie.

It had no resemblance to the White Ape Steals the Peach taught in the Huang Han Xun lineage. Though it seems very common for different families/lineages to have sets of the same name, yet movements that are very different.

[Codeboy]

I have learned the first two (Chut Dong and Tao Tow) but I'm not sure if those other sets are taught at our school....

[mooyingmantis]

I have learned the first two (Chut Dong and Tao Tow) but I'm not sure if those other sets are taught at our school....

Thanks for your response!

Are you a part of Master Chung's school, or the Chui Chuk Kai branch in Michigan?

[Codeboy]

I'm at Chung's in Midland. I'll probably find out the hard way if we do the other ones in our school when sifu drills me into the ground teaching them!!

[mooyingmantis]

I'm at Chung's in Midland. I'll probably find out the hard way if we do the other ones in our school when sifu drills me into the ground teaching them!!

LOL!!!

I meet Shifu Chung years ago at the Great Lakes Championships. He did a wonderful performance of the double broadswords!
Much respect!
Richard

[mooyingmantis]

...the rest of the story!


The names of the White Ape series of forms were inspired by the Chinese fable of Bai Yuan (white ape).

Below is a version of the story that I copied almost verbatim from here: http://arts.cultural-china.com/en/69Arts8025.html

“Bai Yuan is the son of Xi Wang Mu (Queen Mother of the West). Both mother and son were living in Yunmengshan (a mountain in Beijing). The mother fell ill and wanted to eat some peaches. The white monkey was a filial son and went to steal peaches of immortality. Fairy Sun Zhenren who was guarding the peach orchard caught him, but he was moved by the monkey’s filial piety and let it go. To repay, the recovered mother let her son send a book on the art of war to fairy Sun.”

Based on this short story, different forms were honored with titles taken from different events found in the story of Bai Yuan. So far I have found mention of the following forms in different families of tanglangquan:

White Ape Exits the Cave
White Ape Climbs the Tree
White Ape Spies the Feast
White Ape Steals the Peach
White Ape Offers the Fruit
White Ape Gives Gift to Mother
White Ape Offers the Book

Not all families of tanglangquan have the forms and not all families of tanglangquan have all the forms listed.

Wang Yong Sheng is credited by some families as the creator of the Bai Yuan series of forms.

[holymantis]

Hi Richard,
You keeping this mantis forum going on your own,LOL

I have a few of the White Ape forms myself but not all from the same Lineage.
some might say a forms collector but what do they know!
it's a interest of mine to get them all say,LOL like i have the Tsat Yew route forms
i have i think 6 of the ape forms?
like a friend of mine has said a few times, not all the forms are in the same Lineage, so to get them all you have to look around to find who is teaching them, for that you have missing and then ask to learn it or like of old, swap a form maybe .so you teach one form for another...
my favs are white ape exits cave and climbs the branch
regards roy

[mooyingmantis]

Hi Richard,
You keeping this mantis forum going on your own,LOL

I have a few of the White Ape forms myself but not all from the same Lineage.
some might say a forms collector but what do they know!
it's a interest of mine to get them all say,LOL like i have the Tsat Yew route forms
i have i think 6 of the ape forms?
like a friend of mine has said a few times, not all the forms are in the same Lineage, so to get them all you have to look around to find who is teaching them, for that you have missing and then ask to learn it or like of old, swap a form maybe .so you teach one form for another...
my favs are white ape exits cave and climbs the branch
regards roy

Roy,
I have five of the forms so far and doubles of two of them. As you can see from my signature I am a recovering forms collector. LOL! Now I just learn as many forms as I can to take them apart, see the emphases and drill the best techniques.

Climbs the Branch eh? That is one I don't yet have.

As far as me keeping the forum going...I wish guys with greater knowledge than myself like YOU would post more. Then peeps wouldn't have to listen to my idiotic blathering.

[-N-]

Of the White Ape or Bai Yuan series, how many forms does your school teach?

As few as possible

Actually we have just the two from WHF line.

Our emphasis isn't on forms. We're more applications/sparring based. When we do teach forms, we show applications and drill extracted apps. But our applications training is more freeform even than that.

When we're correcting sparring, we will point out, "that is your bung bo", "this is in your plumflower", "it should have the spirit of daggers against spear", "this is classic for Mantis", etc.

But mostly when pointing out forms it's just as a theoretical reference. The feel in sparring is different than extracted applications practice and forms. We just teach the techniques, principles, and strategies directly.

[holymantis]

Hi Richard,
there are loads of better scholars out there than little old me.
N, i agree less forms can be better! i teach applications to the forms that i have and i have been doing Just 7 star Northern Praying Mantis since 1985 . No other style .........
so after a while a move is just that a movement you train it long enough it becomes part of your way of fighting. i don't know the Chinese names to movements(but yet i know them) i am a scolour in what I DO.
BUT as you get older fighting for me is doing it from a different angle of thinking.
less is best,LOL like say your sap say Lo(1 to 14) that in the right hands WOW....
you then get to want forms to preserve them for the next Generation of students that are to come our way like say weapons in the modern day where can we use them! no where it's just part of improving one's skill and in that it helps to better understanding of one's art.
but then we all choose our paths be it more on say looking at the history to each movement or Form or weapon and then the dates they came into 7 star Mantis and who brought them in . which is really the same also in other Arts out there.
it's not about politics it's about one's well being one's journey in life. one's lineage or lineages we are here a short time really so get what you can and train hard and keep to what YOU believe is best for you
Richard,LOL come over some time i can show you it mate,LOL
regards roy

[mooyingmantis]

Just found this via a FaceBook friend:


White Ape Climbs the Branch

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svMPOC1Lrx0