Feng Mo or YinShou gun??

[SHemmati]

This staff from performed by Shi Xing Sen, which has been under the supervision of Liu Zhenhai as I searched:

Shaolin Feng Mo (Wind and Devil) Staff [by Shi Xing Sen] (youtube)

is both said and written in the video to be Feng Mo [风(風)魔] gun! But it has nothing in common with the well-known Feng Mo gun form, while is very much like Yin Shou gun. Isn't this a version of "Yin Shou gun"?
Here are the videos of the well-known Yin Shou and Feng Mo gun forms for reference:
Shaolin Yin-Hand (Yin Shou) Staff [by Shi De Yang] (youtube)
Shaolin Mad Devil (Feng Mo) Staff [by Shi De Yang] (youtube)

thanks.

[LFJ]

Can't seem to open Youtube right now, but I vaguely remember seeing this one. There is a standard Shaolin competition stick set which goes through about half of Yinshougun and then has extended postures, presumably to reach the minimum time/length requirements for competition sets. If I remember, Shi Xingsen's was similar but not the same.

There are other weapon and empty hand competition sets as well. I never bothered learning any of those, because they are just modernly constructed and standardized for competition. Usually they are made up of random movements from the popular boxing sets. It doesn't really make much sense to combine them.

[LFJ]

By the way, a Shaolin brother of mine is his disciple and knows him quite well. Shi Xingsen has a pretty good "knowledge" of Shaolin sets, and a wealth of knowledge can be learned from him, and he can teach well, but as should be clear from his performance he never really practiced that much personally, and some of his sets in his series are made up. For example, look at his Chunqiu Dadao set and then look at his Saobagong (broom) set. They are the exactly same. So don't take all of his videos too seriously.

[Sima Rong]

There are other weapon and empty hand competition sets as well. I never bothered learning any of those, because they are just modernly constructed and standardized for competition. Usually they are made up of random movements from the popular boxing sets. It doesn't really make much sense to combine them.

I'd guess Shaolin Guiding Quan is one of these ones, made up of random movements from empty hand boxing sets, right?

[LFJ]

Yes. That's it. "Guiding".

[RenDaHai]

It has a bit from yin shou, but it has a lot of other techniques. It is a distinct form, but its not great. I'm skeptical about this one.


In my sect for example FengMo Gun is a DuiLian, a two man form. For one man sets we have stuff like ShaoHuo, MeiQi, YinShou and YuanHouBang.

Saying that our Shao Huo Gun is very different. Deyangs SHaoHuo Gun for example also has a lot of YinSHou Gun in it.

It confuses me all the time.....


As to the made up modern exam sets, they are generally called Jinsai Quan

In Dengfeng Guiding Quan (follow the rules fist) is an acceptable name as well but it usually refers specifically to the 5th Dan Chang Quan Form.... I don't know why. But this is used for exams a lot in the big schools, even though it is not Shaolin. Nice set though.

[LFJ]

So, if this form is mainly a partial extraction of Yin Shou gun, why should he name it "Feng Mo gun"?? It has only a few movements like those of Feng Mo gun, even the flow of movements and the stepping scheme are copies of those in Yin Shou gun.

A lot of modern stick sets hijack this name because fengmo (wind demon) describes the nice whooshing sound their moves make. But in fact, they have nothing to do with traditional Fengmogun in Shaolin, which by the way is also a name of traditional stick sets in styles other than Songshan Shaolin. It's a common name easy to use for a new set.

[omarthefish]

A lot of modern stick sets hijack this name because fengmo (wind demon) describes the nice whooshing sound their moves make...

Sorry to be the one to break it to you but, no. That is not what "feng mo" means. It means "mad devil". "mad" as in "insane". ie. "like a bat out of hell". Like "Hell Rider" kind of thing. Talking Warner Brothers tasmanian devil here.

The confusion is because there are two different characters with the exact same pronounciation. 疯(mad, insane) and 风(wind). But when you say "feng mo", even if you use the "wind" character, 风魔, it is simply an alternate "spelling" for the same meaning, a demon from hell that has gone batsh1t insane.

Check baike: http://baike.baidu.com/view/44641.htm#1

You can see that not only are the two characters pronounced the same, they are even written almost the same. The character for "mental illness"/疯 is just the character for "wind"/风 surrounded but the radical for "sickness". Probably relates to old pre-scientific ideas about mental illness. "evil wind" entering the brain and stuff like that.

[LFJ]

You didn't break anything to me, Omar. I'm quite aware of the difference between 疯魔 and 风魔.

See in the Original Post, the stick set in question uses the "wind" character, and this is also as I said often used to name the modern flashy stick sets in Shaolin for the meaning. It's kind of a generic name for modern stick sets.

The 疯魔, crazy devil, name refers to the zui luohan, drunken arhat, movements found in the traditional Fengmogun set as done by Shi Deyang.

[omarthefish]

You didn't break anything to me, Omar. I'm quite aware of the difference between 疯魔 and 风魔.

See in the Original Post, the stick set in question uses the "wind" character....

My point is, regardless of which of the two characters are used, it means the same thing. There is no such thing in Chinese culture as a "wind devil".

The 疯魔, crazy devil, name refers to the zui luohan, drunken arhat, movements found in the traditional Fengmogun set as done by Shi Deyang.

It is not unique to the zui luohan, drunken arhat movements. It's a generic name used for staff sets across style just like "bagua". There are "bagua" staff sets in many styles and there are "crazy devil" staff sets in many styles. The Bajiquan staff is also called "fengmogun" as is the pigua staff set. I've seen at least a half dozen "fengmogun" sets from various different styles over the years. It would be a mistake to think that "wind" vs "crazy" indicates anything more than an alternate spelling. It's just one of those naming conventions like the "liuhe spear" (6 harmonies). I'd estimate at least 3/4 of all the northern spear sets I have ever seen from all styles are called "6 harmonies spear".

As far as staff sets go, "feng mo gun" is a very common name, regardless of style.

[LFJ]

RenDaHai said Shi De Yang's Shao Huo (burning fire) gun is different from other versions and has a lot from Yin Shou gun, so he believes it is a modified version of Shao Huo gun. Here just one question arose for me: What about Shi De Yang's Feng Mo gun? Is it a pure Feng Mo gun?

In Shi Deyang's lineage, Shaohuogun is the oldest, from the Yuan Dynasty. Fengmogun (crazy devil) is from the Ming Dynasty and follows Shaohuogun exactly until about halfway through. Also at about the mid point, Shaohuogun has a small section found in Yinshougun.

[GeneChing]

The Final Newsstand Cover Story Exorcising the Mad Demon Staff of Shaolin By Gene Ching with Gigi Oh is available online

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Spring-2020
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