Northern Shaolin (martial art)

In its broadest sense, Northern Shaolin (Chinese: 北少林; pinyin: Běishàolín; Cantonese Yale: Bak-siu-làhm) refers to the external (as opposed to internal) martial arts of Northern China referring to those styles from the Northern Shaolin Monastery in Henan.

At its most specific, Northern Shaolin refers to a style called Northern Shaolin Boxing School (Chinese: 北少林拳門; Cantonese Yale: Bak-siu-làhm Kyun-mun ^[1]), disseminated by Gu Yu-jeung (1894–1952; also known as Ku Yu-cheung or, in Pinyin, Gu Ruzhang).

Northern styles

Manchu banner soldier, a caste of professional martial artists active in Chinese society as recently as a hundred years ago

Northern styles/Běi pài (北派) feature deeply extended postures—such as the horse, bow, drop, and dragon stances—connected by quick fluid transitions, able to quickly change the direction in which force is issued.^[2][3][4]

The group of Northern martial arts includes many illustrious styles such as Baguazhang, Bajiquan, Chāquán, Chuojiao, Eagle Claw, Northern Praying Mantis and Taijiquan. Chángquán is often identified as the representative Northern style and forms a separate division in modern Wushu curriculum.

Northern styles exhibit a distinctively different flavor from the martial arts practiced in the South. In general, the training characteristics of northern styles put more focus on legwork, kicking and acrobatics. The influence of Northern styles can be found in traditional Korean martial arts and their emphasis on high-level kicks.^[5]

It has been suggested that the presence of high kicks and flying kicks found in Southern styles, in Okinawan martial arts, and hence in modern non-Chinese styles such as karate and taekwondo (and by extension modern kickboxing) are due to influence from northern styles during the first half of the 20th century.^[6]

Characteristics

The Northern Shaolin style of kung fu is one of the most prominent traditional northern styles of Chinese martial arts. The northern styles of kung-fu generally emphasize long range techniques, quick advances and retreats, wide stances, kicking and leaping techniques, whirling circular blocks, quickness, agility, and aggressive attacks.

The system teaches empty-hand techniques and weaponry through predetermined combinations, known as forms, routines, or movement of sets. The students learn the basics by practicing the routines until the movements in the routines can be executed naturally based on instinct. Then, two or multiple man sets are practiced to train responses and applications of techniques learned from the sets. The practice sets/routines are not only practical in applications but are also graceful and artistic in nature. The fluidness of the movements combined with acrobatic techniques are trademarks of the Northern Shaolin sets.

The Northern Shaolin style was made famous by the late Gu Yu-jeung. Many legends tell of Gu's feats; according to tales related by his close students, Gu's father was an accomplished exponent of the Tan Tui ("springing leg") form. When he was young, Gu traveled throughout Northern China to learn all the northern kung fu systems. He was renowned for his Iron Palm techniques and the application of the long spear. He organized all his learnings into what is today's Northern Shaolin style.^[7]

History

The monastery in Henan is the original Shaolin Monastery. The monks began to practice military weapons sometime around the Tang Dynasty and became famous for aiding the future Emperor Li Shimin in struggles against rebellious forces. The monks were primarily known for their spear and staff techniques until the Ming-Qing transition when they began to specialize in unarmed combat. As the reputation of the Shaolin martial arts grew during the following centuries, its name became synonymous with martial arts, regardless of whether an individual art traced its origins to the Shaolin Monastery in Henan or not.^[8] As a result, the "Shaolin" moniker was applied to other Buddhist temples with strong reputations for martial arts. The characteristics of the martial arts taught at each temple were so different from each other that they became identified with their place of origin.

The Origin of Shaolin Taizu Chang Quan – Grand Ancestor of all Shaolin Boxing

Song era Fu-Ju was a military monk trainer. Before Yuan era Abbot Fu Yu's time there were many different sects operating out of Shaolin. Fu Ju was commissioned by Emperor Zhao Kuangyin to create a standardized set of material to prove that a person had been trained at Shaolin. A group of men had been arrested for impersonating Shaolin monks and their kung fu was poor, as they had been easily beaten up. Newly seated Song Emperor Zhao Kuangyin, being much interested in the martial arts, offered to send his best military experts to consult Shaolin (being that he had just retired all his generals). Most likely, Zhao was eager to keep them busy so that they were preoccupied from planning any possible military coup against him.

Zhao sent over a group of his best military men to help Fu-Ju develop a test. Zhao appointed General Gao Huailiang to reside in the temple to teach and learn. It was decided that in order to weed out imposters, and to prove that one had graduating from Shaolin as a martial monk, a set of specific martial art routines would be created. Before this time, there were not any specific routines, just strings of techniques or even single techniques practiced over and over until they became a skill. These routines would be combining these skilled techniques into special routines that only someone that really studied in Shaolin would know. (Note: Emperor Taizu's inner guards, his Nei Deng Zi - 内等字 (internal rank personnel), were from Sichuan (四川 ) province, and were versed in a local style from Emei Mountain ( 峨嵋山 ). The Shaolin monks recorded the routines and techniques into a library that was kept at Shaolin.

The first routine that they developed was named ‘Taizu Chang Quan', Great Ancestor Long Fist, in honor of Emperor Zhao. Another name for this long fist set is ‘32 Duanda' ( 三十二 短打 ) – ‘32 Short Strikes'. Many people assume that the movements in this routine were “created” by Zhao himself, and this idea has perpetuated over many generations and areas of the world, but this is not the case. Zhao Kuangyin's family martial art has always been the Da Hong Quan (even today his descendents in various parts of China all practice different versions of Hong Quan).

This routine was the base one from which all other Shaolin martial routines were developed from; it is the ‘ancestral' routine. The input to the creation of this routine came from two core sources, one was the military weapons and martial training from the masters outside of Shaolin, and the other was the Neigong - 内功 (“internal exercises”) that Shaolin monks practiced (which was the only thing they knew really), which used special body mechanics to move and transfer energy in the body.^[9]

The Northern Shaolin curriculum of Gu Ru Zhang (Ku Yu Cheung)

The Northern Shaolin (北少林 denotes Henan 河南崇山少林寺 temple) style associated with Gu Ruzhang was first taught to a lay disciple, the celebrated 18th century master Gan Fengchi of Jiangsu Province, by a Shaolin monk named Zhao Yuan, born Zhu Fu, a member of the Ming royal family who joined the sangha after the Ming was overthrown by the Qing in 1644. (Gan is also remembered for founding the martial art Huāquán 花拳, literally "flower fist", about which he wrote the book Introduction to Huāquán.) Gan in turn taught Wan Bangcai, who taught Yan Degong, who taught Yan Sansen, who taught Yan Jiwen, who taught his nephew Gu Ruzhang.

Generation 1-7

1. 朝元 和尚 (Monk Zhāo Yuán)
2. 甘鳳池 (Gān Fèngchí)
3. 萬邦才 (Wàn Bāngcái)
4. 嚴徳功 (Yán Dégōng)
5. 嚴三省 (Yán Sānxǐng)
6. 嚴機(繼)溫 (Yán Jīwēn)
7. 顧汝章 (Gù Rǔzhāng)

Yán Jīwēn also taught Gu the skills of Iron Body and Iron Palm. On a famous occasion in 1931, Gu is said to have demonstrated the latter on a horse.

Among the martial artists who gathered at the Central National Martial Arts Institute in Nanjing in 1928, Gu placed in the top fifteen and was included—alongside Fu Zhensong, Li Xianwu, Wan Laimin, Wan Laisheng, and Wong Shao Chou (on other accounts, Wan Laiping)—in the Five Southbound Tigers (五虎下江南, Pinyin Wǔhǔ Xià Jiāngnán; literally, "five tigers heading south of the great river"), five masters of the Northern Chinese martial arts sent to Guangzhou (Canton) to organize another National Martial Arts Institute. In Guangzhou, the name "Shaolin" 南少林寺福建省(refer to South Shaolin temple in Fukian province—being sub temple from the Northern one) was already associated with Hung Gar and other styles, so Gu's style came to be known by the name Northern Shaolin.

The Northern Shaolin curriculum of Gu Ru Zhang (Ku Yu Cheung)

Translated Name	Chinese	Mandarin Pinyin	Cantonese Yale	Comments
Open the Door	開門	Kāimén	Hoi-mun	Essential entry/basic skills.
Lead the Way	領路	Lǐnglù	Ling-lou	Lead the opponent around to his defeat.
Mount the Horse	坐馬	Zuòmǎ	Jo-ma	Counter-attacks.
Pierce the Heart	穿心	Chuānxīn	Chyun-sam	Attacks up the solar plexus.
Martial Skill	武藝	Wǔyì	Mo-ngai	Combat techniques.
Close Combat	短打	Duǎndǎ	Dyun-da	Close-encounter combinations.
Plum Blossom	梅花	Méihuā	Mui-fa	Breaking an ambush.
Uprooting Step	拔歩	Bábù	Bat-bou	Open-space fighting combinations.
Chain of Rings	連環	Liánhuán	Lin-waan	Chained multiple strikes.
Standard Form/Method of the System	式法	Shìfǎ	Sik-faat	The essence of the style.

Note that some heirs to Gu's tradition teach these routines in a different order, particularly those under 陳國偉.

These are the 10 forms as standardized by Gu, comprising the core of the system, sometimes known as the Ten Classical Forms. They are standard in all of Gu's Northern Shaolin Kung Fu lineages. However, as mentioned above, they are sometimes taught or learned in differing orders. As with many different martial arts, from lineage to lineage, one may find slight differences in the way the movements are expressed.

Students learning this style usually do not only learn the 10 core forms however. There are often additional teachings such as introductory material and forms, weapons forms, qigong, etc.^[10]

In popular culture

• Northern Shaolin is the basis for firebending in Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra.

External links

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References

1. "Academia Sino-Brasileira de Kung Fu". Retrieved 2010-04-15.
2. Jwing Ming Yang and Jeffery A. Bolt (1981), Shaolin Long Fist Kung Fu, Unique Publications, ISBN 0-86568-020-5
3. Brian Klingborg (1999), The Secrets of Northern Shaolin Kung-Fu, Tuttle Pub, ISBN 0-8048-3164-5
4. Jeffery A. Bolt and Jwing-Ming Yang (2000), Northern Shaolin Sword: Form, Techniques & Applications, YMAA Publication Center, ISBN 1-886969-85-X
5. Stanly E. Henning (2000), "Chinese Influences on Korean Martial Arts" in Martial arts of the world: an encyclopedia, edited by Thomas A. Green, Published by ABC-CLIO, 2001, page 299, ISBN 1-886969-85-X
6. William Durbin Mastering Kempo, 2001 ISBN 978-0-7360-0350-6 p. 11.
7. Content provided by Sifu Kenneth Hui of the Northern Shaolim Kung Fu Association
8. Shahar, Meir. The Shaolin Monastery: History, Religion, and the Chinese Martial Arts. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2008 (ISBN 0824831101)
9. Sal Canzonieri (2010), The Origin of Shaolin Taizu Chang Quan – Grand Ancestor of all Shaolin Boxing
10. "Northern Shaolin curriculum".