Shaolin

Shaolin Kungfu & Six Harmonious School

Master William Geng Ye – Advisor of Canada Chinese Kungfu Association
Chinese Kung Fu is an abundant and profound martial art, it is not only a self-defense skill, but also a training method to strengthen yourself physically and mind. There so many different Chinese Kungfu styles, but the foundations is the same with some minor differences. Generally, Kungfu could be sorted by its different practicing ways as Fist, Weapons, Hidden Weapons and Training Methods.

History tells that Shaolin martial arts is an inheritance of Damocles, who left two secret books for offsprings. One of them is Xi Shui Scripture, which was inherited by Hui Ke but not been known in public; and the other one is Yi Jin Scripture, which was inherited by Shaolin and spread so far. Yi Jin scripture tells the secret how to strengthern the constitution of body and make it be more stronger while Xishui Scripture is more focus on the nature cultivation. According to the recordation, Shao Lin Fists is divided into around 360 kinds schools and being sorted as 5 major factions as E’Mei Shaolin, WuDang Shaolin, Fujian Shaolin, Guangdong Shaolin and Henan Shaolin.

HeNan Shaolin is known as Songshan Shaolin, and it splits to 3 major departments, the first one is Red Shaolin, major in power, we say Hardness Department; The second one is KongJia Shaloin, which more focus on flexibility, and the third is Yujia Shaolin, it combines power and flexibility together, which is also the resource of LuoHan Fists. Luohan Fists is devided into 4 major departments which are: Da Sheng School (Commonly known as Monkey Fists), Er lang School, Luohan Schoo, Weituo School. And this four major departments are splited to various smaller departments and all have their own traits. Although Shaolin Kungfu is a kind of extrinsic Kungfu, it still pays attention to the internal practice, but it is different from Wudang internal skill. Shaolin Fists split to 5 kinds by animals’name as “Dragon” “Tiger” “Leopard” “Snake”and “Crane”. Although the name, schools has different name, but they all belong to Shaolin, and the method of use are the same when under many kinds of circumstances. Shaolin has the most many of factions and Wudan has less.

Meantime,Shaolin is splited to Southern Faction and Northern Faction and Southern Shaolin is more focus on hands and specialize in close tussle while northern faction more focus on legs and specialize in non-close tussle. It is always better to practice the both factions and take the advantages of them as we know southern faction is short of “Qi” and the norther faction isn’t good enough to protect yourself.

Southern people likes to practise “horse stance” as a start when they begin to learn fists but not for northern people. Physically speaking, it’s better to learn Northern fists firstly and then Southern Fists.