MARTIAL ARTS
EXPLORER
KUNG-FU
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Martial arts was first recorded to be used in China in 2852 B.C. by the
emperor Fu Hsi who is recorded to have taught his army fighting movements
to be used against the enemy, although it is said that the birth place
of Kung-Fu is high in the Songshan Mountains, in the northern Chinese
province of Honan, there lies the famous Shaolin Temple where Buddhism
began. The Kung-Fu styles developed in the Shaolin Temple were based on
five animals, the tiger, leopard, snake, crane and the dragon, more animals
were studied as time went on, probably the best known to be the praying
mantis. Today there are literally hundreds of different Kung-Fu styles,
they are all classified as either being soft or hard, internal or external,
long or short and northern or southern.
Hard includes, a forceful block to deal with a forceful attack and a blow
which is seen to be powerful and results in bruises and broken bones.
Soft includes, turning a forceful aside by using a non-forceful means.
External includes, conditioning the body and training the most obvious
forms of strength.
Internal includes, training the mind, training the internal organs and
improving and circulating the chi.
Long includes, fully stretched movements.
Short includes, tight movements and blows that move short distances.
Northern refers to the origin of the style, North China and also means
styles that emphasize kicking and tumbling routines.
Southern refers to origin of the style, South China and also means styles
that use low stances and hand movements.
To view details on a style click on the style below
CHANG CHUAN
CHOY-LI-FUT
EAGLE CLAW
HSING-I
HUNG GAR
IRON PALM
MONKEY
PA KWA
PRAYING MANTIS
QUIN NA
TAI CHI CHUAN
WHITE CRANE
WING CHUN
Chang Chuan literally means Long Fist or long boxing, it
is said by some to be the original style of Kung -Fu, it is reported to
have been developed in AD 960-976 in the Sung dynasty when Tai Tzu was
the first emperor of that time.
Chang Chuan is a Northern stile and its characteristics are its wide open
sweeping arms, low stances and high kicks, although these are usually
only used for training as in a combat situation they are often below the
waist. As the late Bruce Lee once said practice high kicks, for if you
can kick high and fast then you can kick low faster and higher. Because
of the flowing acrobatic type forms, which Chang Chuan has many, the Chang
Chuan system is often seen in Chinese opera.
The system is excellent to promote good health and fitness as it encourages
strong stances and straight backs with a relaxed and subtle body. Most
the Chinese weapons are practiced in Chang Chuan and these to are often
circular and beautiful to watch like the rest of the style.
Choy-Li-Fut is one of the most powerful kung-Fu styles which has a combination of both hard and soft techniques.The style began as a secret combat training method for forming the Chinese rebels into a fighting force during the Opium wars of the 19th century, and was formed in 1836 by Chan Heung, it was named Chan-Li-Fut in honor of Chan Heungs teacher.
Eagle Claw was founded over 850 years ago by Ouk Fay who
was a Chinese general. Eagle Claw practicioners use their arms to mimic
the eagles wings to counter and block a aponent, their hands mimic the
eagles claws to latch onto one of the 108 presure points.The practitioner
of Eagle Claw uses the claw hand to catch and control the attacker by
using these 108 pressure points to their advantage. Of these 108 points
only 36 are lethal the other 72 are used to immobilise the opponent.
Traditional methods for strengthening the eagle claw are to catch tree
branches that are snapped back towards them, eagle claw students also
train for speed which is vital, to do this they often practise grabbing
objects in the air such as peices of cloth or feathers.
Hsing-I was founded by a kung-fu master called chi Chi-Ki
who was from the Shansi province in about 1640AD near the beginning of
the Ching dynasty.
Hsing-I can be translated as a number of things, one of these being "shape
of mind." The styles philosophy is that a fight should be ended as
quickly as it is started, so the practitioners tend to use direct and
simple techniques instead of some of the more flowery acrobatic type moves
found in some other kung-fu systems. Hsing-I also practises a very high
standard of internal kung-fu.
Although Hsing-I is a style of kung-fu there are also three styles of
Hsing-I. The original school of Hsing-I is called the Shansi style and
is mostly a soft internal style which is seldom seen today as there are
few teachers today who have the knowledge of the art. As with many schools
of kung-fu the shansi school branched out to form the Honan style which
was founded by Ma Hsueh-Li and the Hopei style formed by Li Neng-jang.
There are many forms in Hsing-I, these consist of twelve animal forms
Which are the dragon, tiger, snake, tai bird, monkey, bear, lizard, swallow,
eagle, chicken, falcon and horse. There are also forms for the Chinese
five elements which are earth, metal, wood and fire.
The weapons used in Hsing-I are very simple and practical as with the
rest of the style, these include the spear, broadsword, staff and double-edged
sword.
Hun gar is a strong hard kung-Fu style which is an adaption of the Shaolin
tiger system and some aspects of White Crane style.It uses low wide stances
called the horse stance, or ma pu
Because of the use of low wide stances it produces strong legs and strong
powerfull punches which they mainain always results in a knockout punch
Its founder, Hung Hei Gune learned the art from a Shaolin monk called
Gee Shimn Sien See who's system was the tiger fist(fu jao)
Hung Gar uses all the weapons commonly found in Southern Chinese styles
including the butterfly knife, double chain whip, trident, spear, kwon
do and broadsword.
Little is known about the history of Iron Palm
kung fu as it's secret was kept to a small few for many a year and until
recently is becoming known to people in the west.
The idea of a true Iron Palm practitioner is to strengthen the muscles,
skin and bones in the hand so as to leave no scars, bruises or deformities,
when the hand is used to break solid objects such as bone, wood and even
concrete. To make the hand a deadlier weapon than most other martial arts
a long series of conditioning exercises are used, a special Chinese liniment
called dit da jow is rubbed into the hands before conditioning exercises
begin. These exercises actually strengthen the muscles and bones, the
pores in the skin draw tighter to give a tougher and denser skin. The
right technique of striking with the palm is required as damage to the
heart is inevitable if done incorrectly, this is a reason why a student
must be taught by a well qualified instuctor.
There are five original Monkey styles of kung fu Drunken Monkey, Stone Monkey, Lost Monkey, Standing Monkey and Wooden Monkey. Tai sing or Monkey kung fu is famous in North China; it uses tumbling and rolling manoeuvres with constantly changing footwork. The founder of this deadly accurate style was Kao Tze, who legend says was put in prison in ancient China after killing a villager in a fight. The prison had two gates to walk through to get out; the first gate was guarded by monkeys, which must be crossed before you walk through the gate guarded by humans. The monkeys were vicious and fierce fighters, anyone trying to escape were severely injured or killed.
Kao Tze studied the monkeys while in prison and noticed each monkey had its own style of fighting which made it difficult for escaping prisoners to defend themselves against. It was when Kao Tze was released from prison that he began to develop the monkey style. Gung Da Hoi was one of Kao Tze's better students and combined his style of pap kar kung fu with tai sing kung fu (monkey style) and founded the tai sing pap kar moon system.
Drunken monkey is probably the best known monkey style and is the hardest of the five types to learn. The style is based upon a monkey that is intoxicated. The monkey seems to be out of control and unstable on his feet, but can control his energy into whatever part of his body he wishes. There is a high level of chi involved in this style as every thing seems so relaxed with no external power, only powerful internal energy being released.
The lost monkey looks innocent and confused as though he has lost his way, but this is a trick as he is very deceiving and wishes to fool his enemy. He is very light on his feet, his movements are very quick making it extremely hard for his enemy to follow what is going to happen next. He uses a lot of faints to fool the enemy, so you never know if he is faking a move or really executing a sharp fast attack.
The wooden monkey is the opposite to the playful drunken monkey, as he is very aggressive, so aggressive that when he attacks his enemy finds it very difficult if not impossible to defend themselves.
The stone monkey is mostly external and better suited to a strong physical type person. The stone monkey like the name suggests trains his body to be as hard as stone so as to withstand the enemies blows. There are many falling and rolling techniques in this style of monkey.
The standing monkey is better suited for tall people as
it uses long arm techniques. Unlike the other styles of monkey they use
conventional stances and few rolls and tumbles.
Pa Kwa means eight directions or eight different angles of attack. It was founded near the end of the Ching dynasty around 1900 by a martial artist named Hai Chuan Tung. It is one of the three internal styles of kung fu close to Tai Chi Chuan and Hsing-I.
It is said that 90% of the hand techniques while training are with the palms and 80% palms in a fighting situation. Pa Kwa as with many kung fu styles believe that making a fist automatically tightens the whole arm, so that slowing down a punch. For this reason Pa Kwa prefer an open hand. The kicks in Pa Kwa are all low and practical so as not to lose balance, so low strong stances are not used as they are in many other styles as the Pa Kwa practitioner needs to remain more upright in order to use his foot work and attack from any angle.
Pa Kwa train in all four major traditional Chinese weapons, the staff, broadsword, double edged sword and the spear. Other weapons are also used in this system such as the deer horn knife (Lu jyau do) which is two crescent shaped knife blades which are crossed with the grip on one side; and pun gung bi which is a four to six inch long needle, sharp at both ends. This is attached to the middle finger by a ring. These two weapons are considered to be Pa Kwa weapons wich are used in close up fighting as they can be easily concealed.
Pa Kwa also have a wooden dummy as a training aid to perfect
many techniques, although this looks more like a wooden post than a dummy.
Praying mantis was founded towards the end of the Ming dynasty. The Ming dynasty was a time of martial arts rebuilding as martial arts in China became vague and dance like, possibly due to the influence of the Mongol invaders. Legend says that Praying Mantis was founded by Master Wong Long in the East Shan-Tung province. It is said that Master Wong Long studied insects fighting and named his style after the praying mantis with its claw that has a grabbing motion, with all the power from the wrist and forearm.
The praying mantis is a very ferocious system with rapid
movements. The practitioner would block and pull his enemy of balance
with the same hand while simultaneously strike with three to five fast
movements. The theory of the lightning attacks, one after the other is
that once hit with the first strike the opponents guard is down so the
other strikes are intended to totally disable them.
SORRY INFORMATION IS CURRENTLY BEING UPDATED
Tai Chi is often seen by the general public as a yoga type
exercise, but it is much more than this. Tai Chi incorporates chi kung
exercises and in the beginning of training it can be misleading. As a
martial art as it is soft relaxed and slow and is only in the last stages
that the higher levels are taught, which combines the soft flowing strength
with hard fast power to produce a fighting art.
The term Tai Chi refers to the ying yang symbol and the tem Chuan refers
to a boxing method. Tai Chi Chuan is often translated into English as
"the supreme ultimate fist".
As with many kung fu systems the roots of Tai Chi Chuan is lost in time.
The most popular legend refers to a Taoist priest called Jang San Feng
who was born in 1247 in the Yuan dynasty, as being the originator of Tai
Chi Chuan. Jang began his studies in martial arts in the famous Shaolin
temple, he then travelled to the Wutang Mountains, a region that Taoist
hermits populated. The legend says that whilst in these mountains Jang
saw a snake and a stork engaged in a fight. He was so impressed to see
the movements of both animals fluidity of their movements and the ability
of both to evade and attack simultaneously. The bird was sometimes soft
and gentle and sometimes soft and hard, but always quick. The snake was
similar, sometimes slow sometimes quick but always a combination of soft
and hard power with relaxed breathing. From this observation Tai Chi Chuan
was born.
Tai Chi Chaun includes Punches, kicks, locks, throws and open handed techniques,
the weapons used as well as the traditional Chinese weapons are the sword,
broadsword, staff and spear.
SORRY INFORMATION IS CURRENTLY BEING
UPDATED
Wing Chun roughly translated means "beautiful spring
time and is the only kung-fu system believed to be founded by a woman.
The style was given its name by a Shaolin nun called Ng Mui who taught
martial arts to a young girl of fifteen years old named Yim Wing Chun.
Ng Mui was so impressed with the girl's desire and ability to learn martial
arts that it was named after her, "Wing Chun."
Because Wing Chun was originally intended for women, tactics and techniques
play a greater role than brute strength. There are several different types
of Wing Chun, the type that Yim Wing chun learned consisted of three hand
forms and one wooden dummy (mook jong) instead of the ten or more taught
by other shaolin systems, there is the slant body style which is the most
popular style practised today and was the style the famous Bruce Lee learned
from he's teacher Yip Man. There is also the side body style developed
by sifu Fong Sun and pao fa lein Wing Chun which was founded by Liu Ta-Sheng
which has ten hand forms and four wooden dummy forms. The object of Wing
Chun is to guard and attack the centre line where all the vital organs
are located.The punches are straight, direct and very fast and powerful
with the bottom three knuckles being used instead of the normal first
two of most other martial arts styles. Few weapons are used in Wing Chun,
the butterfly knives are the best known but the staff is also used. In
pao fa lein wing chun many more weapons are used including the trident
and broadsword.
The wooden dummy or (mook jong) is unique to Wing Chun. The design of this impresive looking peice of training equipment is meant to be a replica of the human body to enable the wing chun practicioner to practice striking and blocking techneques and also to condition the body.
These are the regulations and commandments prescribed by the monk Chueh Yuan, a priest of the shaolin temple who lived and taught in the early part of the 16th century during the Ming dynasty. Although some of the commandments are from Chueh Yuan's Buddhist beliefs, there are perhaps some good sound advice for students of any martial art.
1st Commandment: A student must practise without interruption.
2nd Commandment: Boxing must be used only for legitimate self-defence.
3rd commandment: courtesy and prudence must be shown to all teachers
and elders.
4th Commandment: A student must be forever kind, honest and friendly
to all his colleagues.
5th Commandment: In travelling, a boxer should refrain from showing
his art to the common people, even to the extent of refusing challenges.
6th Commandment: A boxer must never be bellicose.
7th Commandment: Wine and meat must never be tasted.
8th Commandment: Sexual desire cannot be permitted.
9th Commandment: Boxing should be taught rashly to non-Buddhists lest it produce harm. It can only be transmitted to one who is gentle and merciful.
10th Commandment: A boxer must eschew aggressiveness, greed and boasting.