Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Origins of Shaolin forms

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Origins of Shaolin forms

    I have been doing research for 20 years on the history of CHinese martial arts and their forms (da lu)
    If you don't know me, I was a writer for a long time at Wushu Chi Gung Kung Fu magazine and for the han Wei newsletter.

    I would like to further my research and discuss the origins of Shaolin forms here and hope to maybe learn some new information.

    I begin:

    Shaolin forms were developed during big blocks of time periods

    1- Around the development of Lohan forms over 1,500 years ago.
    Lohan as forms seem to be made from mixture of Shaui Jiao and Chinese Boxing.
    Hence Lohan has throws, takedowns, joint locks, trips, kicks, and punches and can
    be done in various levels of sophistication.

    Shaolin was a center for martial arts (fist and staff) by the Tang Dynasty and was world renowned.

    Parallel to Shaolin Lohan in China, the Moslem/Chinese martial arts were being developed.
    Many moslems were part of the Chinese armies.
    When Emperor Sun Tai Tzu studied martial arts, when he was in the army, he studied Lohan Shaolin
    and from other soldiers/generals he learned Moslem MA.
    Eventually he mixed them to create Sun Tai Tzu style, which his Red Fist (Hung Quan) forms spread through
    the north amongst common people.

    2 - Over the centuries, as buddhism went in and out of favor politically, Shaolin lost much of its arts.
    Army generals had to come there to re-teach the monks.
    By the Sung dynasty, much was lost. Abbott Fu Yu around the year 1,000 or so
    called together 18 masters from 18 styles and developed a load of forms.
    These were made into a book.
    More about this even later.

    3 - eventually Shaolin died out again.
    During the Yuen dynasty (after 1279), Monk Juen rediscovered the 18 Lohan forms and developed them into a new form (which somewhere still exists on paper).
    He wasn't satisfied and traveled around, met Li Su, who took him to meet Bai Yu Feng, who together
    they all developed and reordered the moves in Shaolin with new stuff learned on the road and created
    12 animals forms. Bai Yu Feng had brought Monk Juen to LOYANG to meet his own master, with the surname of Ma, who then told Monk Juen that Shaolin was too external now and lost the internal aspects and he taught
    Monk Juen the internal martial arts that were once done at Shaolin and were not there anymore.
    So, with this info and together with Li Su and Bai Yu Feng, these 12 animal forms which were internal and external were developed.


    4 - by Ming Dynasty many new martial arts style developed that came out of Shaolin. Big Wutang influence came to Shaolin martial arts.

    5 - during the Ching dynasty Shaolin was closed down and the Southern Shaolin traditions came out of it.

    I'll elborate on issues from each time period later.

    Right now my big ponderings are on WHO this Ma family person was from Loyang that taught Monk Juen the
    original internal arts that had become lost.
    Because there might be a heavy correlation between the Ma family of Loyang that developed Xing Yi during the Ching dynasty and a root of the Xing Yi 12 animals with the ones that Monk Yuen and friiends developed at Shaolin during the Yuan dynasty?

  • #2
    Now that was very interesting, Were did you get that information?

    Comment


    • #3
      Ma Family

      Sal,

      as usual great information.

      This link might get you a little further in your research.


      http://www.3kingdoms.net/forum/showt...&postid=169540

      Uwe

      Comment


      • #4
        Originally posted by Sal Canzonieri
        Right now my big ponderings are on WHO this Ma family person was from Loyang that taught Monk Juen the
        original internal arts that had become lost.
        Because there might be a heavy correlation between the Ma family of Loyang that developed Xing Yi during the Ching dynasty and a root of the Xing Yi 12 animals with the ones that Monk Yuen and friiends developed at Shaolin during the Yuan dynasty?
        Funny. I was just reading about Ma Xueli (xinyi liuhe) from louyang but he was around a bit later (about 1714-1790)

        Comment

        Working...
        X