Sunday, November 28, 2010
Styles
5:56 AM | 
Posted by
Mr. Dan |
Branches of the Martial Arts
By reading the section entitled Beginning of Martial Arts, one can see that Shaolin is the birthplace of the Martial Arts and that the monks of that temple were the first practitioners of Martial Technique. Everywhere a monk went he took his skills with him to help and protect. As monks traveled throughout Asia teaching their beliefs, they taught willing students their Martial Arts technique.
Brazilian Styles
After Jiu Jitsu had been developed in Japan, it spread throughout the world like many other Martial Arts. Because of its simple yet affective nature, it became quite adherable to life on the streets of Brazil, particularly Rio de Jinero. Here the Gracie family began developing Japanese Jiu Jitsu even further. Helio Gracie, the family's father, through out the inessentials of this style and incorporated many more practical techniques. Trying to create an error free fighting system, the Gracies pitted their newborn Gracie Jiu Jitsu against almost all others, testing it for flaws. This grappling and street fighting art proved successful against every style it faced. Besides the facts that this style is completely useless against an armed attacker, multiple attackers, or has never been tested against real Shaolin, it still stands to be one of the world's most practical one on one fighting systems.
Another style emerging from Brazil after many years of tests and trials is the incredible kicking art termed Capoeira. After being ripped from their homes in Africa, enslaved and herded onto ships departing for Brazil, these Africans began creating a Martial Art that made incredible use of their feet, in spite of their chained hands. This style was developed for the shear purpose of self defense, where they had to protect themselves from incredulous slave traders and owners. After the slaves were released from the ships and sent to do their work, they disguised Capoeira as a dance to illude the slave owners. In about the 1800's, Capoeira was discovered and obviously outlawed due to its deadly effectiveness. Around the 1900's, however, when slavery was illegal, authorities in Brazil realized how Capoeira was so much apart of their culture and began promoting this amazing art to their fullest. The ban on Capoeira was removed and many Capoeira stylists can be seen practicing in the villages and beaches of Brazil today. This art includes many fast, spinning and whipping kicks with numerous aerial and flipping maneuvers. It also encompasses ground fighting with kicks done on the support of the hands, such as handspins, headspins, rolls, flares and V-kicks. Toward the end of the 1970's, Capoeira and Di Tang Chuan (see Northern Styles of the Chinese Martial Arts section) sparked the development of the most extreme and acrobatic art form, breakdancing.
Chinese Animal Styles
During these stages of Martial Arts history, monks began taking into consideration the fighting styles of animals inhabiting the areas around the temple. By incorporating characteristics of fighting animals into their own fighting systems, Animal Styles were created.
Foo Jou (Tiger Claw) is one of the first five animal forms that were taught at the temple. This style shows the use of deep stances and extremely direct explosions of powerful techniques. Straight lines of attack towards a particular target are more often found in this system than in other animal systems. The illusion of hunting down prey can be seen while watching a Tiger Stylist's intense face and his calm, perfectly still stance just before a lunging attack.
The Pao Chuan (Leopard Fist) style of fighting depicts the pursuit of the prey by its predator. Incorporated in this style is the use of extremely quick and direct hand techniques while on a fast, forward moving line. The use of tumbling and flipping is also employed in this style to recover after failed attack attempts. The Leopard Stylist's attack is extremely persistent, therefore extremely difficult to defend against.
Pai Hao Chuan (Crane Boxing), like the previous animal forms mentioned, originated from Shaolin. Unlike other styles however, Shaolin Crane Kung Fu is thought to be the original style of the Shaolin monastery. In 1644, a monk named Xing Long of the Crane Style was sent from Shaolin to Tibet to study Buddhism. There, he found that they had already developed a fighting style called Lama. Northern White Crane was then taught there and passed down to Canton, Fijian, Taiwan and Indo China. Used in this style are high and low stances, high kicks, jump kicks and pressure point attacks. This style of fighting is extremely fast and, when used properly, deadly, yet dynamically graceful.
She Chuan (Snake Fist) also emerged from Shaolin. When monks saw how deadly the attacks of snakes were they attempted to devise a style that looked and had the same affects of this particular animal. To do this they used their knowledge of chi and vital chi areas to design the movements of the form. The Snake Style therefore focuses on directing chi with strikes to pinpoint locations on an opponent's body that, when struck, can cause great harm or even death. This style also makes use of techniques that require coiling and uncoiling and complete stillness and springing. Still, many techniques are intended to wrap up an opponent's limb while sweeping the other and to use the opponent's body to roll, flip or twist around while striking with fatal accuracy.
The last of the first five animal styles is Lang Chuan, which replicates the mythical dragon. The dragon, which the Chinese base such a great part of their culture on, personifies the swiftness of the wind, the crashing of thunderous waves and the streaking of lightning. These images are what Dragon Style practitioners try to reflect while fighting. The goal of this art is to be completely superior to other styles, as nature is to civilization.
The very effective Ying Jou (Eagle Claw) came into existence between 1127 and 1279, when Shaolin monk Li Chuan combined Eagle Claw techniques (originally discovered by General Yueh Fei of the Southern Sung Dynasty, 960-1279, who is famous for his defeats of Jurden) with traditional Northern Shaolin. The resulting synthesis of techniques created a style making use of Chin Na (Chinese grappling), high kicks, acrobatics, Iron Palm and 108 pressure point attacks. By using all ranges of fighting, Eagle Claw became a very practical and extremely effective fighting system.
Around these same years, another Shaolin monk named Wong Long began devising his own style of fighting in the attempt to defeat his Kung Fu brother who had always beaten him in practice. After hearing the shrieking cries of a desperate cincada being killed by a Preying Mantis, Wong Long began studying how the insect put down its immensely larger prey. He noticed that the Preying Mantis made excellent use of its forelimbs to overpower the cincada. Wong Long adjusted these techniques to work for humans and combined these newly discovered techniques with his knowledge of 17 other Shaolin styles. He went to challenge his Kung Fu brother with his specialized Tong Long (Preying Mantis) style. However still being defeated, he was not beaten as badly as in previous altercations. Wong Long later analyzed his fight and found that his hand techniques worked great but his stancework needed much improvement. After realizing this, Wong Long went out into the forests around the temple and began observing how different animals moved. Seeing the clever and agile steps of the monkey, he decided to incorporate the footwork he noticed into his own style. After this synthesis was complete he called his newly developed style 7-Star Preying Mantis, in respect for the 17 Shaolin styles he incorporated earlier. Wong Long again went back to his Kung Fu brother, challenged him, and easily defeated him.
Kou Sze created Tai Shing, or Monkey Style, toward the end of the Ching Dynasty (1800's). Kou Sze, who was imprisoned for murder, had friends in high places that bribed a judge into reducing the murderer's sentence. Instead of death or life imprisonment, Kou Sze served 8 years in solitary confinement in northern Chinese jail. As of that time, he had already been trained in Northern Shaolin and specialized in Tai Tang (Great Earth) style, which consists mainly of groundfighting. While serving his sentence, Kou Sze spent a lot of his time gazing out of the small jail cell window that faced the forest. He soon saw that a colony of monkeys lived there and started watching them just to pass the time. Intrigued by their playful antics and physical abilities, the prisoner began studying the monkeys and researching their nature, activities and fighting methods.
He discovered that each monkey had its own "personality", in that each responded differently to different situations, and that each's own "personality" affected the way that that particular monkey fought. After realizing that many of the "monkey techniques" were compatible with his Tai Tang, Kou Sze began developing a style that made use of his original style and these new fighting principles. This style also makes use of grabbing, falling, acrobatics and light body jumping, as well as six principles, which greatly set this style apart from other styles. These six principles, gathered from the study of the monkeys and part of the mental aspect of Tai Shing, include deviousness, elusiveness, unpredictability, sneakiness and destructiveness. By separating the monkeys' different "personalities" into 5 classes, Kou Sze founded 5 monkey forms. These 5 forms, which make up the whole of Tai Shing, are characterized by the tall monkey, lost monkey, drunken monkey, wooden monkey and the stone monkey.
- The tall monkey form reflects the fighting of the tallest monkey in the clan. This monkey uses its long limbs to stay out of reach of its foe to avoid being hit.
- The lost monkey form is characterized by a clan of small monkeys that kept getting separated from the rest of the group. Even in their frightened and confused state they managed to defend themselves against larger beasts. The lost monkey form makes use of this innocent and confused appearance to hide a practitioner's tricky and deceiving nature and his extremely quick and flexible footwork.
- The drunken monkey form is based on the actions of an intoxicated monkey. After eating scraps of food and drinking the leftover wine from a nearby village, this monkey became sick and dizzy. Its footwork seems unbalanced and it stumbles around making itself vulnerable to a predator. When this deceptive form is put to use by a good monkey stylist however, it can prove exceptional results against an attacker.
- The wood monkey form's foundation is based on one of the six mental principles, sneakiness. The movements of this form are extremely deceptive with equal effectivity. With very tricky yet aggressive maneuvers, this style of fighting makes use of surprise tactics to overpower an opponent.
- The last monkey form, the stone monkey, is based heavily on brute force and endurance. The stone monkey style resembles the leader of the monkeys and its daring, courageous and brutal nature. Since this style consists of so many difficult techniques, which are dangerous to the practitioner, only the strongest of students are taught the stone monkey form. After Kou Sze finished serving his sentence, he passed his style on to his best friend's son, Ken Tak Hoi.
Pek Kwar (Axe Fist) was created 200 years ago by Ma Chi Ho in the Shang Tung province on the outskirts of a Taoist temple. While Ma Chi Ho chopped trees with an axe, priests from the nearby temple watched. One day, one of the onlooking priests came up to him and said "Metal may conquer wood, but spirit is stronger." Ma Chi Ho thought about this proverbial statement for quite some time. Eventually, he realized what the priest had told him. Since his chi was made strong through his years of work with the same axing movement, Ma Chi Ho could perform twice the amount of work without the axe. Utilizing his spirit rather than a man made tool; Ma Chi Ho started chopping away at the trees with undefined movements. As time went on, he began developing his movements more and more, his arms became tolerant to the pounding and his circulation of chi reached an incredible level. At that point, he was breaking limbs with one strike that, with an axe, would have taken him several swings to chop through. Discovering that his technique was so extraordinary, Ma Chi Ho developed more techniques of the same style for self defense purposes. With the ability to break through large tree limbs, breaking attackers limbs would not be nearly as difficult. Ma Chi Ho put together fighting sets that placed a large emphasis on developing chi in the arms and swinging "axe fists". After many years of refinement of this style, Ma Chi Ho taught Axe Fist to his friend Ken Ming Kwai who then passed Pek Kwar onto his son Ken Tak Hoi.
Ken Tak Hoi then created a style called Tai Shing Pek Kwar (Monkey Axe Fist) which is a synthesis of Tai Shing and Pek Kwar.
Chinese Drunken Boxing
Zhue Chuan, or Drunken Boxing, originated from Taoist and Buddhist folklore around 1000. According to this ancient Chinese legend, 8 Taoists reached enlightenment and gained immortality. While crossing the heavenly ocean, they got drunk and were then known as the 8 drunken immortals. Each immortal characterizes drunken fighting in his/her own way.
- Lam Chey Woh, a very drunk boy who holds a flower basket in one hand anda wine glass in the other, makes use of paralyzing grabs and phoenix eye strikes.
- Tit Guai Li, a drunken beggar with a crutch and a crippled leg, makes use of his other very powerful leg and his acrobatic abilities.
- Han Jung Lei, a very fat man, drinks straight out of the wine barrel and becomes too drunk to even stand up. His style therefore employs falling techniques and groundfighting.
- Hon Seung Dze, a drunken flute player, is also a groundfighter who uses grappling to break joints and limbs.
- Cho Quock Kau is the queen's brother. He gets so drunk that he just stares off into space and if attacked, uses pressure points to deal with his adversary.
- Jeung Guo Lo is an old man who falls into such a drunken stupor that he rides his donkey backwards while hanging on to its tail. Jeung utilizes painfully bending and breaking opponents' fingers.
- Liu Dong Bin is a drunk Taoist priest who makes use of his sword. His staggering steps and waving sword movements make his attacks difficult to follow and very dangerous. The last of the 8 drunken immortals is
- Lady Ho Sin Gu, a beautiful, wealthy and frivolous aristocrat. She teasingly wiggles her body and taunts with her wineglass. Lady Ho uses finger pokes and elbow strikes to take down her adversaries.
The origin of Drunken Boxing begins with Lu Chi Sam trying to escape Chinese authorities after committing a crime. To avoid being caught, he fled to the security of the Shaolin temple and became a monk. One night however, Lu Chi Sam, due to his immoral nature, got drunk and acted without regard for integrity. He was therefore banned from the Shaolin temple. Being intoxicated, he flew into a fit of rage, beating 30 of the monastery's monks. After leaving the temple and coming to his senses, Lu Chi Sam realized what he had just done. He used the legend of the 8 Drunken Immortals to develop a drunken fighting style.
Chinese Internal Styles
"Internal" Martial Artists, as termed by so many, concentrate on directing the flow of chi, or inner energy, to fight. Tai Chi Chuan, Hsing I and Pa Qua are three very popular internal arts practiced by many people across the world.
Wu Tang is the original style of Tai Chi, which was created on the Wu Tang Mountain in northern China. Located in the Hubai province of China, this mountain was among the 5 sacred mountains of China and is the center of Taoism. One of these mountains is Shao Shih of the Hunan province where Shaolin development began. Wu Tang utilizes many elements of the Martial Arts including openhand techniques, weapons, Chin Na (Chinese grappling) and Chi Kung.
Tai Chi Chuan, a subsystem of Wu Tang, is characterized by redirecting an opponent's energy. A very basic example of this style would be the defense against an attacker rushing straight at a Tai Chi Chuan practitioner. The Tai Chi stylist could absorb the attacker's energy and redirect it with a sidestep maneuver which would leave the aggressor either hurling into a wall or straight into a double palm strike, collapsing his chest.
Hsing I and Pak Qua, also subsystems of Wu Tang, make use of inner chi in some similar and some very different ways.
Chi Kung (Qi Gong) is another practice of cultivating, stimulating and controlling chi. It can be used for a vast array of purposes with the most popular being health. Hundreds if not thousands of techniques were developed for curing illness, massage and performing outstanding feats of strength and physical and mental ability including moving objects without touching them, jumping several meters into the air, affecting other people's chi and withstanding extremities that might cause death for another person.
Chinese Northern Styles
Since the history of Martial Arts began with the Shao Lin temple being the birthplace of fighting principles, Shaolin Kung Fu would conceivably be the first Martial Arts style. Since the original temple was built in the northern area of China, Martial Arts here came to be known as Northern Shaolin.
Many characteristics set Northern Shaolin apart from styles developing in other areas of China due mainly to geographic conditions. Because of the mountainous terrain and the type of strenuous tasks that needed to be performed in order to live in northern China, people from these areas developed stronger legs and lengthier bodies. These body types reflected the development of northern Chinese Martial Arts, which incorporate many long reach skills and flamboyant kicks. Fast, whipping hand techniques, thrusting and spinning kicks, high jumping techniques, acrobatics and ground techniques are all indicative of Northern Shaolin.
Dozens of different variations of Northern Shaolin exist with Chang Chuan (Long Fist), Mai Jong Lw Horn and the extremely acrobatic Di Tang Chuan (Ground Fist) being among them.
Patterns of techniques began to develop as well. These "forms" ran length-wise, complimenting the areas utilized for Martial Arts practice, such as riverbanks and forest floors. The techniques in these forms began evolving into extremely difficult maneuvers used for fighting, which took many years to learn. Simple moves such as spinning kicks or sweeps allowed practitioners to build up momentum for flying spinning kicks, falling kicks and eventually flips. As the temple researched and developed techniques for controlling and directing chi (internal energy), these more advanced techniques and combinations turned into extraordinary feats of physical ability. After the basic grounds were laid for developing fighting systems, a vast array of styles emerged from Shaolin.
Chinese Southern Styles
Resulting from the Shaolin monks' display of incredible Martial Arts skill at the battle towards the end of the Tang Dynasty was the Ming Dynasty which placed a huge emphasis on spreading Shaolin through all parts of China. Throughout the Ming Dynasty, a total of 10 Shaolin temples were built across China and a universal thought began developing that Chinese Martial Arts could be classified into 4 different categories. These categories are the Internal styles, which concentrate on controlling chi, the External styles, which place an emphasis on shear physical ability, and the Northern or Southern styles, which then are either termed Internal or External depending on the system. Like mentioned before, Northern and Southern styles differ due to geographical conditions. In southern China, the climate for Martial Arts practice was very different, where the population was much larger and overcrowding was a problem. People tended to be confined to smaller space, so styles evolved that made use of the available area. Southern Martial Arts practitioners also developed extremely low and stable stances. This development occurred because a lot of the time spent in practice was during breaks from their work on small fish boats. Strong stances were needed to stabilize themselves from the rocking boats.
From the Fukien Shaolin Temple in 1734 came Hung Gar. The abbot Gee Shim Sim See created this style after studying the original 18 lohan and Foo Jow. The Hung Gar system consists of Tiger and Crane techniques along with a 5 Animal Form. Many styles from the southern area of China are derivatives of this style.
Choy Lay Fut, another southern style, is a synthesis of three men's knowledge. Chan Yuen Wu first demonstrated Martial Arts at the King Mui village in the Sun Wui district in 1813. He taught his nephew, Chan Heung, these authentic techniques which included iron palm, Fut Gar and weapons. Chan Heung's impressive Martial Arts ability was discovered and he was sent to Lay Yaw Sam and then to Choy Fook to train in various aspects of the Martial Arts. When he came back to his village he started the Hung Sing School in support of the Tung Moon, or Triad (animal sets, open hand techniques and weapons training). He named his new style Choy Lay Fut in reference to the maneuvers that he learned from Choy Fook, the techniques, which he learned from Lay Yaw Sam and the Fut Gar he learned from his uncle.
Wing Chun is another Southern style which makes excellent use of the confined space of southern Chinese city living. This style is often termed a trapping style because the system is designed to entangle an attacker's limbs with little energy and return the attack with an undefendable barrage of straight-line punches and kicks. Along with these three very popular Southern styles many more fighting systems with similar properties. Indicative of many Southern styles is the use of firm stances, effective body movement, powerful hand techniques and low kicks.
Chinese Weaponry
Included in almost every Chinese Martial Arts style is the use of weaponry. Many styles have created their own weapons, specialized in traditional weapons or have amassed an armory of both. The 18 traditional weapons included in general Shaolin styles are the staff, spear, straight sword, broad sword, double daggers, double broadswords, double hookswords, double spear, double ax, 2-section staff, 3-section staff, 9-section chain, Kwan Dao, pitchfork, double bladed spear, long ax, monkey staff and snake spear. Many styles use combinations and pairs of the above mentioned weapons or practice untraditional weapons fashioned for different applications. From the simplest to the most complicated, all of these weapons require a great amount of skill to master. Fighting with an unfamiliar weapon or with techniques not designed for a specific weapon could result in very unwanted results.
Japanese Styles
Martial Arts came about in Japan because Chen Yuan Yen, a Shao Lin monk, spent time there during the Ming Dynasty. He taught his "soft technique", or throwing skills, to followers there which later Dr. Kano helped evolve into the more commonly known Judo. Evolving from Judo are Aikido (Spirit Meeting Way, grappling based on chi) founded by Ueshiba, and Jiu Jitsu, developed on the battlefield, which employ similar skills along with joint manipulations. Many subdivisions then branch from these three main styles encompassing the majority of "grappling". The famous Ninjitsu is also of Japanese heritage. Stylists of this art practice everything from herbal remedy to weapons techniques and from striking to throwing. Much of the style is based on stealth, for Ninjitsu is of a militant respect. Bushido, used by the Samurai, and Kyudo, Japanese archery, are the weapon arts developed. Also branching from Kung Fu-Wu Su is another more popular art termed Karate. The emphasis of Karate styles is mainly on the kicking, punching and Chi Kung (ki, as termed by the Japanese) sections of Kung Fu. The focus of Karate is more on the "one hit, one kill" theory, which may not work in many cases (i.e., armed or multiple attackers). The general term "Karate" has to deal with a vast multitude of very similar, "hard", Japanese styles of Martial Arts including Shotokan, Karate Do, and Shito Ryu.
Korean Styles
The majority of Korea's Martial Arts theories and concepts are derived from Japanese "hard styles". The more sport oriented, and very popular, Tae Kwon Do is a result of Tang Soo Do, which has its origins in Japan, and therefore from China. Tae Kwon Do, or the "Way of the Hand and Foot", deals mostly with high and fast kicks and quick hand techniques. . Hap Ki Do, another Korean style; is very similar to Tae Kwon Do in respect to kicking techniques. This style also employs many Japanese style throws and joint manipulations. Kuk Sool Won, yet another Korean kicking and throwing style, incorporates the use of many weapons including the bo and sword, both Japanese weapons.
Okinawan Styles
The little known Okinawan fighting arts indeed show a closer resemblance to Kung Fu. Although these Karate styles are quite deliberate, like Japanese Karate and Korean Martial Arts, they employ more "tools" in self defense. Taught in these styles, such as Goju Ryu, Isshin Ryu, and Okinawan Kempo, are knee strikes, elbow strikes, jumps, and animal techniques. A vast array of weapons has also originated from this area. Because weapons were outlawed, many farming instruments were implemented as self defense tools. A few of these weapons are the bo, kama, nunchaku, sai, jo, and tonfa. Several Japanese and Korean styles began using these practical devices as well.
Thai Styles
What Thailand is known for the most is probably spicy food and Muay Thai, a viscous style of fighting. Encompassing all ranges of fighting, practicing this style means practicing elbow strikes, knee strikes, punches, kicks, head butts, and throws. Conditioning is of the utmost importance to the Thai boxer, whose whole body can be compared with steel. When executed properly, this art can be lethal.
By reading the section entitled Beginning of Martial Arts, one can see that Shaolin is the birthplace of the Martial Arts and that the monks of that temple were the first practitioners of Martial Technique. Everywhere a monk went he took his skills with him to help and protect. As monks traveled throughout Asia teaching their beliefs, they taught willing students their Martial Arts technique.
Brazilian Styles
After Jiu Jitsu had been developed in Japan, it spread throughout the world like many other Martial Arts. Because of its simple yet affective nature, it became quite adherable to life on the streets of Brazil, particularly Rio de Jinero. Here the Gracie family began developing Japanese Jiu Jitsu even further. Helio Gracie, the family's father, through out the inessentials of this style and incorporated many more practical techniques. Trying to create an error free fighting system, the Gracies pitted their newborn Gracie Jiu Jitsu against almost all others, testing it for flaws. This grappling and street fighting art proved successful against every style it faced. Besides the facts that this style is completely useless against an armed attacker, multiple attackers, or has never been tested against real Shaolin, it still stands to be one of the world's most practical one on one fighting systems.
Another style emerging from Brazil after many years of tests and trials is the incredible kicking art termed Capoeira. After being ripped from their homes in Africa, enslaved and herded onto ships departing for Brazil, these Africans began creating a Martial Art that made incredible use of their feet, in spite of their chained hands. This style was developed for the shear purpose of self defense, where they had to protect themselves from incredulous slave traders and owners. After the slaves were released from the ships and sent to do their work, they disguised Capoeira as a dance to illude the slave owners. In about the 1800's, Capoeira was discovered and obviously outlawed due to its deadly effectiveness. Around the 1900's, however, when slavery was illegal, authorities in Brazil realized how Capoeira was so much apart of their culture and began promoting this amazing art to their fullest. The ban on Capoeira was removed and many Capoeira stylists can be seen practicing in the villages and beaches of Brazil today. This art includes many fast, spinning and whipping kicks with numerous aerial and flipping maneuvers. It also encompasses ground fighting with kicks done on the support of the hands, such as handspins, headspins, rolls, flares and V-kicks. Toward the end of the 1970's, Capoeira and Di Tang Chuan (see Northern Styles of the Chinese Martial Arts section) sparked the development of the most extreme and acrobatic art form, breakdancing.
Chinese Animal Styles
During these stages of Martial Arts history, monks began taking into consideration the fighting styles of animals inhabiting the areas around the temple. By incorporating characteristics of fighting animals into their own fighting systems, Animal Styles were created.
Foo Jou (Tiger Claw) is one of the first five animal forms that were taught at the temple. This style shows the use of deep stances and extremely direct explosions of powerful techniques. Straight lines of attack towards a particular target are more often found in this system than in other animal systems. The illusion of hunting down prey can be seen while watching a Tiger Stylist's intense face and his calm, perfectly still stance just before a lunging attack.
The Pao Chuan (Leopard Fist) style of fighting depicts the pursuit of the prey by its predator. Incorporated in this style is the use of extremely quick and direct hand techniques while on a fast, forward moving line. The use of tumbling and flipping is also employed in this style to recover after failed attack attempts. The Leopard Stylist's attack is extremely persistent, therefore extremely difficult to defend against.
Pai Hao Chuan (Crane Boxing), like the previous animal forms mentioned, originated from Shaolin. Unlike other styles however, Shaolin Crane Kung Fu is thought to be the original style of the Shaolin monastery. In 1644, a monk named Xing Long of the Crane Style was sent from Shaolin to Tibet to study Buddhism. There, he found that they had already developed a fighting style called Lama. Northern White Crane was then taught there and passed down to Canton, Fijian, Taiwan and Indo China. Used in this style are high and low stances, high kicks, jump kicks and pressure point attacks. This style of fighting is extremely fast and, when used properly, deadly, yet dynamically graceful.
She Chuan (Snake Fist) also emerged from Shaolin. When monks saw how deadly the attacks of snakes were they attempted to devise a style that looked and had the same affects of this particular animal. To do this they used their knowledge of chi and vital chi areas to design the movements of the form. The Snake Style therefore focuses on directing chi with strikes to pinpoint locations on an opponent's body that, when struck, can cause great harm or even death. This style also makes use of techniques that require coiling and uncoiling and complete stillness and springing. Still, many techniques are intended to wrap up an opponent's limb while sweeping the other and to use the opponent's body to roll, flip or twist around while striking with fatal accuracy.
The last of the first five animal styles is Lang Chuan, which replicates the mythical dragon. The dragon, which the Chinese base such a great part of their culture on, personifies the swiftness of the wind, the crashing of thunderous waves and the streaking of lightning. These images are what Dragon Style practitioners try to reflect while fighting. The goal of this art is to be completely superior to other styles, as nature is to civilization.
The very effective Ying Jou (Eagle Claw) came into existence between 1127 and 1279, when Shaolin monk Li Chuan combined Eagle Claw techniques (originally discovered by General Yueh Fei of the Southern Sung Dynasty, 960-1279, who is famous for his defeats of Jurden) with traditional Northern Shaolin. The resulting synthesis of techniques created a style making use of Chin Na (Chinese grappling), high kicks, acrobatics, Iron Palm and 108 pressure point attacks. By using all ranges of fighting, Eagle Claw became a very practical and extremely effective fighting system.
Around these same years, another Shaolin monk named Wong Long began devising his own style of fighting in the attempt to defeat his Kung Fu brother who had always beaten him in practice. After hearing the shrieking cries of a desperate cincada being killed by a Preying Mantis, Wong Long began studying how the insect put down its immensely larger prey. He noticed that the Preying Mantis made excellent use of its forelimbs to overpower the cincada. Wong Long adjusted these techniques to work for humans and combined these newly discovered techniques with his knowledge of 17 other Shaolin styles. He went to challenge his Kung Fu brother with his specialized Tong Long (Preying Mantis) style. However still being defeated, he was not beaten as badly as in previous altercations. Wong Long later analyzed his fight and found that his hand techniques worked great but his stancework needed much improvement. After realizing this, Wong Long went out into the forests around the temple and began observing how different animals moved. Seeing the clever and agile steps of the monkey, he decided to incorporate the footwork he noticed into his own style. After this synthesis was complete he called his newly developed style 7-Star Preying Mantis, in respect for the 17 Shaolin styles he incorporated earlier. Wong Long again went back to his Kung Fu brother, challenged him, and easily defeated him.
Kou Sze created Tai Shing, or Monkey Style, toward the end of the Ching Dynasty (1800's). Kou Sze, who was imprisoned for murder, had friends in high places that bribed a judge into reducing the murderer's sentence. Instead of death or life imprisonment, Kou Sze served 8 years in solitary confinement in northern Chinese jail. As of that time, he had already been trained in Northern Shaolin and specialized in Tai Tang (Great Earth) style, which consists mainly of groundfighting. While serving his sentence, Kou Sze spent a lot of his time gazing out of the small jail cell window that faced the forest. He soon saw that a colony of monkeys lived there and started watching them just to pass the time. Intrigued by their playful antics and physical abilities, the prisoner began studying the monkeys and researching their nature, activities and fighting methods.
He discovered that each monkey had its own "personality", in that each responded differently to different situations, and that each's own "personality" affected the way that that particular monkey fought. After realizing that many of the "monkey techniques" were compatible with his Tai Tang, Kou Sze began developing a style that made use of his original style and these new fighting principles. This style also makes use of grabbing, falling, acrobatics and light body jumping, as well as six principles, which greatly set this style apart from other styles. These six principles, gathered from the study of the monkeys and part of the mental aspect of Tai Shing, include deviousness, elusiveness, unpredictability, sneakiness and destructiveness. By separating the monkeys' different "personalities" into 5 classes, Kou Sze founded 5 monkey forms. These 5 forms, which make up the whole of Tai Shing, are characterized by the tall monkey, lost monkey, drunken monkey, wooden monkey and the stone monkey.
- The tall monkey form reflects the fighting of the tallest monkey in the clan. This monkey uses its long limbs to stay out of reach of its foe to avoid being hit.
- The lost monkey form is characterized by a clan of small monkeys that kept getting separated from the rest of the group. Even in their frightened and confused state they managed to defend themselves against larger beasts. The lost monkey form makes use of this innocent and confused appearance to hide a practitioner's tricky and deceiving nature and his extremely quick and flexible footwork.
- The drunken monkey form is based on the actions of an intoxicated monkey. After eating scraps of food and drinking the leftover wine from a nearby village, this monkey became sick and dizzy. Its footwork seems unbalanced and it stumbles around making itself vulnerable to a predator. When this deceptive form is put to use by a good monkey stylist however, it can prove exceptional results against an attacker.
- The wood monkey form's foundation is based on one of the six mental principles, sneakiness. The movements of this form are extremely deceptive with equal effectivity. With very tricky yet aggressive maneuvers, this style of fighting makes use of surprise tactics to overpower an opponent.
- The last monkey form, the stone monkey, is based heavily on brute force and endurance. The stone monkey style resembles the leader of the monkeys and its daring, courageous and brutal nature. Since this style consists of so many difficult techniques, which are dangerous to the practitioner, only the strongest of students are taught the stone monkey form. After Kou Sze finished serving his sentence, he passed his style on to his best friend's son, Ken Tak Hoi.
Pek Kwar (Axe Fist) was created 200 years ago by Ma Chi Ho in the Shang Tung province on the outskirts of a Taoist temple. While Ma Chi Ho chopped trees with an axe, priests from the nearby temple watched. One day, one of the onlooking priests came up to him and said "Metal may conquer wood, but spirit is stronger." Ma Chi Ho thought about this proverbial statement for quite some time. Eventually, he realized what the priest had told him. Since his chi was made strong through his years of work with the same axing movement, Ma Chi Ho could perform twice the amount of work without the axe. Utilizing his spirit rather than a man made tool; Ma Chi Ho started chopping away at the trees with undefined movements. As time went on, he began developing his movements more and more, his arms became tolerant to the pounding and his circulation of chi reached an incredible level. At that point, he was breaking limbs with one strike that, with an axe, would have taken him several swings to chop through. Discovering that his technique was so extraordinary, Ma Chi Ho developed more techniques of the same style for self defense purposes. With the ability to break through large tree limbs, breaking attackers limbs would not be nearly as difficult. Ma Chi Ho put together fighting sets that placed a large emphasis on developing chi in the arms and swinging "axe fists". After many years of refinement of this style, Ma Chi Ho taught Axe Fist to his friend Ken Ming Kwai who then passed Pek Kwar onto his son Ken Tak Hoi.
Ken Tak Hoi then created a style called Tai Shing Pek Kwar (Monkey Axe Fist) which is a synthesis of Tai Shing and Pek Kwar.
Chinese Drunken Boxing
Zhue Chuan, or Drunken Boxing, originated from Taoist and Buddhist folklore around 1000. According to this ancient Chinese legend, 8 Taoists reached enlightenment and gained immortality. While crossing the heavenly ocean, they got drunk and were then known as the 8 drunken immortals. Each immortal characterizes drunken fighting in his/her own way.
- Lam Chey Woh, a very drunk boy who holds a flower basket in one hand anda wine glass in the other, makes use of paralyzing grabs and phoenix eye strikes.
- Tit Guai Li, a drunken beggar with a crutch and a crippled leg, makes use of his other very powerful leg and his acrobatic abilities.
- Han Jung Lei, a very fat man, drinks straight out of the wine barrel and becomes too drunk to even stand up. His style therefore employs falling techniques and groundfighting.
- Hon Seung Dze, a drunken flute player, is also a groundfighter who uses grappling to break joints and limbs.
- Cho Quock Kau is the queen's brother. He gets so drunk that he just stares off into space and if attacked, uses pressure points to deal with his adversary.
- Jeung Guo Lo is an old man who falls into such a drunken stupor that he rides his donkey backwards while hanging on to its tail. Jeung utilizes painfully bending and breaking opponents' fingers.
- Liu Dong Bin is a drunk Taoist priest who makes use of his sword. His staggering steps and waving sword movements make his attacks difficult to follow and very dangerous. The last of the 8 drunken immortals is
- Lady Ho Sin Gu, a beautiful, wealthy and frivolous aristocrat. She teasingly wiggles her body and taunts with her wineglass. Lady Ho uses finger pokes and elbow strikes to take down her adversaries.
The origin of Drunken Boxing begins with Lu Chi Sam trying to escape Chinese authorities after committing a crime. To avoid being caught, he fled to the security of the Shaolin temple and became a monk. One night however, Lu Chi Sam, due to his immoral nature, got drunk and acted without regard for integrity. He was therefore banned from the Shaolin temple. Being intoxicated, he flew into a fit of rage, beating 30 of the monastery's monks. After leaving the temple and coming to his senses, Lu Chi Sam realized what he had just done. He used the legend of the 8 Drunken Immortals to develop a drunken fighting style.
Chinese Internal Styles
"Internal" Martial Artists, as termed by so many, concentrate on directing the flow of chi, or inner energy, to fight. Tai Chi Chuan, Hsing I and Pa Qua are three very popular internal arts practiced by many people across the world.
Wu Tang is the original style of Tai Chi, which was created on the Wu Tang Mountain in northern China. Located in the Hubai province of China, this mountain was among the 5 sacred mountains of China and is the center of Taoism. One of these mountains is Shao Shih of the Hunan province where Shaolin development began. Wu Tang utilizes many elements of the Martial Arts including openhand techniques, weapons, Chin Na (Chinese grappling) and Chi Kung.
Tai Chi Chuan, a subsystem of Wu Tang, is characterized by redirecting an opponent's energy. A very basic example of this style would be the defense against an attacker rushing straight at a Tai Chi Chuan practitioner. The Tai Chi stylist could absorb the attacker's energy and redirect it with a sidestep maneuver which would leave the aggressor either hurling into a wall or straight into a double palm strike, collapsing his chest.
Hsing I and Pak Qua, also subsystems of Wu Tang, make use of inner chi in some similar and some very different ways.
Chi Kung (Qi Gong) is another practice of cultivating, stimulating and controlling chi. It can be used for a vast array of purposes with the most popular being health. Hundreds if not thousands of techniques were developed for curing illness, massage and performing outstanding feats of strength and physical and mental ability including moving objects without touching them, jumping several meters into the air, affecting other people's chi and withstanding extremities that might cause death for another person.
Chinese Northern Styles
Since the history of Martial Arts began with the Shao Lin temple being the birthplace of fighting principles, Shaolin Kung Fu would conceivably be the first Martial Arts style. Since the original temple was built in the northern area of China, Martial Arts here came to be known as Northern Shaolin.
Many characteristics set Northern Shaolin apart from styles developing in other areas of China due mainly to geographic conditions. Because of the mountainous terrain and the type of strenuous tasks that needed to be performed in order to live in northern China, people from these areas developed stronger legs and lengthier bodies. These body types reflected the development of northern Chinese Martial Arts, which incorporate many long reach skills and flamboyant kicks. Fast, whipping hand techniques, thrusting and spinning kicks, high jumping techniques, acrobatics and ground techniques are all indicative of Northern Shaolin.
Dozens of different variations of Northern Shaolin exist with Chang Chuan (Long Fist), Mai Jong Lw Horn and the extremely acrobatic Di Tang Chuan (Ground Fist) being among them.
Patterns of techniques began to develop as well. These "forms" ran length-wise, complimenting the areas utilized for Martial Arts practice, such as riverbanks and forest floors. The techniques in these forms began evolving into extremely difficult maneuvers used for fighting, which took many years to learn. Simple moves such as spinning kicks or sweeps allowed practitioners to build up momentum for flying spinning kicks, falling kicks and eventually flips. As the temple researched and developed techniques for controlling and directing chi (internal energy), these more advanced techniques and combinations turned into extraordinary feats of physical ability. After the basic grounds were laid for developing fighting systems, a vast array of styles emerged from Shaolin.
Chinese Southern Styles
Resulting from the Shaolin monks' display of incredible Martial Arts skill at the battle towards the end of the Tang Dynasty was the Ming Dynasty which placed a huge emphasis on spreading Shaolin through all parts of China. Throughout the Ming Dynasty, a total of 10 Shaolin temples were built across China and a universal thought began developing that Chinese Martial Arts could be classified into 4 different categories. These categories are the Internal styles, which concentrate on controlling chi, the External styles, which place an emphasis on shear physical ability, and the Northern or Southern styles, which then are either termed Internal or External depending on the system. Like mentioned before, Northern and Southern styles differ due to geographical conditions. In southern China, the climate for Martial Arts practice was very different, where the population was much larger and overcrowding was a problem. People tended to be confined to smaller space, so styles evolved that made use of the available area. Southern Martial Arts practitioners also developed extremely low and stable stances. This development occurred because a lot of the time spent in practice was during breaks from their work on small fish boats. Strong stances were needed to stabilize themselves from the rocking boats.
From the Fukien Shaolin Temple in 1734 came Hung Gar. The abbot Gee Shim Sim See created this style after studying the original 18 lohan and Foo Jow. The Hung Gar system consists of Tiger and Crane techniques along with a 5 Animal Form. Many styles from the southern area of China are derivatives of this style.
Choy Lay Fut, another southern style, is a synthesis of three men's knowledge. Chan Yuen Wu first demonstrated Martial Arts at the King Mui village in the Sun Wui district in 1813. He taught his nephew, Chan Heung, these authentic techniques which included iron palm, Fut Gar and weapons. Chan Heung's impressive Martial Arts ability was discovered and he was sent to Lay Yaw Sam and then to Choy Fook to train in various aspects of the Martial Arts. When he came back to his village he started the Hung Sing School in support of the Tung Moon, or Triad (animal sets, open hand techniques and weapons training). He named his new style Choy Lay Fut in reference to the maneuvers that he learned from Choy Fook, the techniques, which he learned from Lay Yaw Sam and the Fut Gar he learned from his uncle.
Wing Chun is another Southern style which makes excellent use of the confined space of southern Chinese city living. This style is often termed a trapping style because the system is designed to entangle an attacker's limbs with little energy and return the attack with an undefendable barrage of straight-line punches and kicks. Along with these three very popular Southern styles many more fighting systems with similar properties. Indicative of many Southern styles is the use of firm stances, effective body movement, powerful hand techniques and low kicks.
Chinese Weaponry
Included in almost every Chinese Martial Arts style is the use of weaponry. Many styles have created their own weapons, specialized in traditional weapons or have amassed an armory of both. The 18 traditional weapons included in general Shaolin styles are the staff, spear, straight sword, broad sword, double daggers, double broadswords, double hookswords, double spear, double ax, 2-section staff, 3-section staff, 9-section chain, Kwan Dao, pitchfork, double bladed spear, long ax, monkey staff and snake spear. Many styles use combinations and pairs of the above mentioned weapons or practice untraditional weapons fashioned for different applications. From the simplest to the most complicated, all of these weapons require a great amount of skill to master. Fighting with an unfamiliar weapon or with techniques not designed for a specific weapon could result in very unwanted results.
Japanese Styles
Martial Arts came about in Japan because Chen Yuan Yen, a Shao Lin monk, spent time there during the Ming Dynasty. He taught his "soft technique", or throwing skills, to followers there which later Dr. Kano helped evolve into the more commonly known Judo. Evolving from Judo are Aikido (Spirit Meeting Way, grappling based on chi) founded by Ueshiba, and Jiu Jitsu, developed on the battlefield, which employ similar skills along with joint manipulations. Many subdivisions then branch from these three main styles encompassing the majority of "grappling". The famous Ninjitsu is also of Japanese heritage. Stylists of this art practice everything from herbal remedy to weapons techniques and from striking to throwing. Much of the style is based on stealth, for Ninjitsu is of a militant respect. Bushido, used by the Samurai, and Kyudo, Japanese archery, are the weapon arts developed. Also branching from Kung Fu-Wu Su is another more popular art termed Karate. The emphasis of Karate styles is mainly on the kicking, punching and Chi Kung (ki, as termed by the Japanese) sections of Kung Fu. The focus of Karate is more on the "one hit, one kill" theory, which may not work in many cases (i.e., armed or multiple attackers). The general term "Karate" has to deal with a vast multitude of very similar, "hard", Japanese styles of Martial Arts including Shotokan, Karate Do, and Shito Ryu.
Korean Styles
The majority of Korea's Martial Arts theories and concepts are derived from Japanese "hard styles". The more sport oriented, and very popular, Tae Kwon Do is a result of Tang Soo Do, which has its origins in Japan, and therefore from China. Tae Kwon Do, or the "Way of the Hand and Foot", deals mostly with high and fast kicks and quick hand techniques. . Hap Ki Do, another Korean style; is very similar to Tae Kwon Do in respect to kicking techniques. This style also employs many Japanese style throws and joint manipulations. Kuk Sool Won, yet another Korean kicking and throwing style, incorporates the use of many weapons including the bo and sword, both Japanese weapons.
Okinawan Styles
The little known Okinawan fighting arts indeed show a closer resemblance to Kung Fu. Although these Karate styles are quite deliberate, like Japanese Karate and Korean Martial Arts, they employ more "tools" in self defense. Taught in these styles, such as Goju Ryu, Isshin Ryu, and Okinawan Kempo, are knee strikes, elbow strikes, jumps, and animal techniques. A vast array of weapons has also originated from this area. Because weapons were outlawed, many farming instruments were implemented as self defense tools. A few of these weapons are the bo, kama, nunchaku, sai, jo, and tonfa. Several Japanese and Korean styles began using these practical devices as well.
Thai Styles
What Thailand is known for the most is probably spicy food and Muay Thai, a viscous style of fighting. Encompassing all ranges of fighting, practicing this style means practicing elbow strikes, knee strikes, punches, kicks, head butts, and throws. Conditioning is of the utmost importance to the Thai boxer, whose whole body can be compared with steel. When executed properly, this art can be lethal.