wengshunkuen
08-30-2005, 06:12 PM
The truth about Shaolin Kung Fu- Grandmaster Prof. Rien Bul
At present I am studying the history and (cultural-)contexts of the Chinese Kung Fu. I do so because in my opinion insight in the contexts of Kung Fu is essential for practising it. One can only fully understand the art if one has a full understanding of its core and aims. No matter if the Chinese people like it or not, I keep coming up with the conclusion that the true history of Kung Fu differs somewhat from what they would have liked it to be. There is hardly any version of Kung Fu in existance that hasn't been depending on the so called 'triads' for its survival and its transferance to modern times. These 'triads' originally were secret societies, aiming to bring down the Qing (say 'Tsjing') dynasty. One could say they were a kind of ' terrorists ' avant la lettre who applied guerilla-tactics. Since carrying weapons was prohibited they sought ways of forging the body into weapon. Because these societies trained in secrecy they developed their own symbolism and ways of communicating to be able to recognise oneanother. For a long time they were permitted to train freely and to experiment with their methods in the Buddhist 'Shaolin' (Cant. 'Siu Lum'), until the government decided to burn them down.
If triad-member visited a strange city he would roll up his left sleeve. It would not take long then before someone came over to have a, seemingly innocent, chat with him and casually ask him where he came from. The answer was "From Shaolin", to indicate one was initialised. Almost every triad member practised some 'Shaolin ' (a system practised by the triads) art or another. Therefore the misconception soon arose that every style literally came from Shaolin. In reality the original Shaolin martial arts haven't had as big an influence as is widely assumed. The original, pre-rebel, Shaolin Kung Fu, consisted of fighting with sticks and long-poles. This was a speciality of the Shaolin monks that they were particularly proficient at. When Japanes pirates terrorised the coasts of South-East China for some time the monks of the Fujian temple decided to end the suffering of the people. Armed with nothing but their staves and poles the monks taught the pirates a lesson that kept them away from the shores for a hundred yeras. That was TRUE Shaolin Kung Fu! All the rest is myth. Mere triad lore.
It is still unclear at present if the' hall of eternal spring ' in the Southern Shaolin temple is based on historic fact. But it seems more and more likely. According to legend this was a special hall where the 'secret teachings of Shaolin' were taught. Please note that what we are talking about here means 'the secret ways of training devised by the rebels who were allowed to train at the Shaolin monastaries'. A large part of their knowledge came probably from a whole other temple altogether; a Daoïst temple in the Wudang mountains. It has been proven that, even many centuries before Shaolin even came into existance, in the Daoïst temples people were examining the most efficient manners of overcoming a larger, stronger opponent by using knowledge, logic and proficiëncy aquired by systematic training. This has been at the heart of Chinese Kung Fu ever since.
The Qing dynasty was preceded by a far more popular dynasty; the Ming. Many military men from that were involved in the rebellion that aimed to overthrow the Qing. They possessed an enormous knowledge of warfare they had gathrered over the centuries. It is a proven fact that the early versions of Kung Fu as they had been developed in Wudang had a massive influence on Ming warfare. But even before the anti-Qing rebellion could test their newest developments, they were betrayed and the temples burned. How many really escaped noone knows, but as from that moment on 'the knowledge from Shaolin' spread over China.
The rebels recruited new insurrectionists and founded the Triads . It was mostly through the Triads that the knowledge of Kung Fu spread. I dare even state that without the Triads probably nobody would be able even to perform any kind of authentic Kung Fu today. Everything in the current world of the martial arts that calls itself Chu or Ng refers by means of an onetime consciously carried out distortion to Wu (red) and to its link with the so called ' red family '. When one joined the triads by means of the ' red flower ' ritual, one left his old identity behind and was incorporated in the ' red family ' from that moment on. As a sign of membership of the ' brotherhood ' one conducted the symbol of the red plumflower. This ' brotherhood of the red plumflower' made itself heard of especially during the Taiping rebellion and the so-called ' boxer insurrection '. A lot of current Kung Fu styles still carry references to red (Wu, Ng, Chu etc.) or the plumflower in the name of their style, name of a form in their style and/or in their logo. All this originates from the typical Triade codes/lore and symbolism.
In the Northern Chinese styles one especially frequently hears the reference to the plumflower. There are styles with names like May Hua Quan Shu (Plumflower style), Ng mui Pai (five plums/red plum - style) and several references to plumflowers in the several versions of TaiJi Quan. In southeast China and taiwan the tendencies are more geared toward referring to 'red' than to the actual plumflower. As a result, the references seem further remote than they are in reality.
First Bruce Lee's 'Enter the Dragon' and the televisonseries 'Kung Fu' made Shaolin into a household name . Then Jet Li made the temple extremely popular in mainland China itself with his film 'Shaolin Temple'. The Chinese government jumped on the chance by rebuilding the most famous temple in the Honan district and making it into a tourist attraction. The next problem was; which form of Kung Fu had to be practised there? The styles that had spread from the temple had evolved enormously in the course of time. Not one were there call more 'authentic', aside from the fact that, aside from pole-fighting, there had never been a 'Shaolin Kung Fu style'.
To 'repair' Shaolin Kung Fu the re-creators particularly focused on the best known aspect of the style: the animal forms. They especially 'borrowed' heavily from the style that is widely known for its five animal forms AND claims to descend from Shaolin; Hung Gar Kuen. Hung Gar Kuen (red family fist) is a Southern Chinese style which goes by that name for some hundred years or so. Before that it was known by many different names, probably most notably 'Orthodox Shaolin'.
Hung Gar Kuen was created by Hung Hei Gung, a red-junk rebel and Weng Shun Kuen practitioner who, despite of having very little information, tried to re-create Shaolin five animal fist. He sort of re-invented the wheel a second time by creating a Dragon, Tiger, Leopard, Snake and Crane-form according to his best knowledge and intentions. Nvertheless he created a completely other style than the original had been. Later on the style was completely revised by its most famous practitioner, Wong Fei Hung. One can imagine how much modern Hung Gar Kuen has in common with the style that was once practised by the rebels in the Shaolin temple.
To get at least a bit of an idea of what the style of the early rebels looked like, I think we would best look toward Chu Gar Kuen and its relatives, such as Lung Ying, Sae Ying Kuen, Bak Mei and Weng Shun Kuen.
Copyright Rien Bul 2005
At present I am studying the history and (cultural-)contexts of the Chinese Kung Fu. I do so because in my opinion insight in the contexts of Kung Fu is essential for practising it. One can only fully understand the art if one has a full understanding of its core and aims. No matter if the Chinese people like it or not, I keep coming up with the conclusion that the true history of Kung Fu differs somewhat from what they would have liked it to be. There is hardly any version of Kung Fu in existance that hasn't been depending on the so called 'triads' for its survival and its transferance to modern times. These 'triads' originally were secret societies, aiming to bring down the Qing (say 'Tsjing') dynasty. One could say they were a kind of ' terrorists ' avant la lettre who applied guerilla-tactics. Since carrying weapons was prohibited they sought ways of forging the body into weapon. Because these societies trained in secrecy they developed their own symbolism and ways of communicating to be able to recognise oneanother. For a long time they were permitted to train freely and to experiment with their methods in the Buddhist 'Shaolin' (Cant. 'Siu Lum'), until the government decided to burn them down.
If triad-member visited a strange city he would roll up his left sleeve. It would not take long then before someone came over to have a, seemingly innocent, chat with him and casually ask him where he came from. The answer was "From Shaolin", to indicate one was initialised. Almost every triad member practised some 'Shaolin ' (a system practised by the triads) art or another. Therefore the misconception soon arose that every style literally came from Shaolin. In reality the original Shaolin martial arts haven't had as big an influence as is widely assumed. The original, pre-rebel, Shaolin Kung Fu, consisted of fighting with sticks and long-poles. This was a speciality of the Shaolin monks that they were particularly proficient at. When Japanes pirates terrorised the coasts of South-East China for some time the monks of the Fujian temple decided to end the suffering of the people. Armed with nothing but their staves and poles the monks taught the pirates a lesson that kept them away from the shores for a hundred yeras. That was TRUE Shaolin Kung Fu! All the rest is myth. Mere triad lore.
It is still unclear at present if the' hall of eternal spring ' in the Southern Shaolin temple is based on historic fact. But it seems more and more likely. According to legend this was a special hall where the 'secret teachings of Shaolin' were taught. Please note that what we are talking about here means 'the secret ways of training devised by the rebels who were allowed to train at the Shaolin monastaries'. A large part of their knowledge came probably from a whole other temple altogether; a Daoïst temple in the Wudang mountains. It has been proven that, even many centuries before Shaolin even came into existance, in the Daoïst temples people were examining the most efficient manners of overcoming a larger, stronger opponent by using knowledge, logic and proficiëncy aquired by systematic training. This has been at the heart of Chinese Kung Fu ever since.
The Qing dynasty was preceded by a far more popular dynasty; the Ming. Many military men from that were involved in the rebellion that aimed to overthrow the Qing. They possessed an enormous knowledge of warfare they had gathrered over the centuries. It is a proven fact that the early versions of Kung Fu as they had been developed in Wudang had a massive influence on Ming warfare. But even before the anti-Qing rebellion could test their newest developments, they were betrayed and the temples burned. How many really escaped noone knows, but as from that moment on 'the knowledge from Shaolin' spread over China.
The rebels recruited new insurrectionists and founded the Triads . It was mostly through the Triads that the knowledge of Kung Fu spread. I dare even state that without the Triads probably nobody would be able even to perform any kind of authentic Kung Fu today. Everything in the current world of the martial arts that calls itself Chu or Ng refers by means of an onetime consciously carried out distortion to Wu (red) and to its link with the so called ' red family '. When one joined the triads by means of the ' red flower ' ritual, one left his old identity behind and was incorporated in the ' red family ' from that moment on. As a sign of membership of the ' brotherhood ' one conducted the symbol of the red plumflower. This ' brotherhood of the red plumflower' made itself heard of especially during the Taiping rebellion and the so-called ' boxer insurrection '. A lot of current Kung Fu styles still carry references to red (Wu, Ng, Chu etc.) or the plumflower in the name of their style, name of a form in their style and/or in their logo. All this originates from the typical Triade codes/lore and symbolism.
In the Northern Chinese styles one especially frequently hears the reference to the plumflower. There are styles with names like May Hua Quan Shu (Plumflower style), Ng mui Pai (five plums/red plum - style) and several references to plumflowers in the several versions of TaiJi Quan. In southeast China and taiwan the tendencies are more geared toward referring to 'red' than to the actual plumflower. As a result, the references seem further remote than they are in reality.
First Bruce Lee's 'Enter the Dragon' and the televisonseries 'Kung Fu' made Shaolin into a household name . Then Jet Li made the temple extremely popular in mainland China itself with his film 'Shaolin Temple'. The Chinese government jumped on the chance by rebuilding the most famous temple in the Honan district and making it into a tourist attraction. The next problem was; which form of Kung Fu had to be practised there? The styles that had spread from the temple had evolved enormously in the course of time. Not one were there call more 'authentic', aside from the fact that, aside from pole-fighting, there had never been a 'Shaolin Kung Fu style'.
To 'repair' Shaolin Kung Fu the re-creators particularly focused on the best known aspect of the style: the animal forms. They especially 'borrowed' heavily from the style that is widely known for its five animal forms AND claims to descend from Shaolin; Hung Gar Kuen. Hung Gar Kuen (red family fist) is a Southern Chinese style which goes by that name for some hundred years or so. Before that it was known by many different names, probably most notably 'Orthodox Shaolin'.
Hung Gar Kuen was created by Hung Hei Gung, a red-junk rebel and Weng Shun Kuen practitioner who, despite of having very little information, tried to re-create Shaolin five animal fist. He sort of re-invented the wheel a second time by creating a Dragon, Tiger, Leopard, Snake and Crane-form according to his best knowledge and intentions. Nvertheless he created a completely other style than the original had been. Later on the style was completely revised by its most famous practitioner, Wong Fei Hung. One can imagine how much modern Hung Gar Kuen has in common with the style that was once practised by the rebels in the Shaolin temple.
To get at least a bit of an idea of what the style of the early rebels looked like, I think we would best look toward Chu Gar Kuen and its relatives, such as Lung Ying, Sae Ying Kuen, Bak Mei and Weng Shun Kuen.
Copyright Rien Bul 2005