There is differents version about the origins of kung fu and shaolin kung fu.
One of them said that a monk from India Da Mo (called Bodhidarma) arrived in China during the Wei dynasty, he sat in a cave for
9 years practisong Ch'an (called Zen in Japan) meditation. He invented Kung fu to protect himself from wild animals.
And Taught it to the monks in the temple so their body would be stronger enough to sustain long meditation.
The Shaolin temple has a stone to prove it with the imprint of Da Mo body.
Other say that the monks created that story , but invented kung fu. Some of the lower ranking monks knew already martial arts before entering
the temple. And they improved their wushu skills when they helped the king of Qin to get rid of the emperor of Zheng. Then they were awarded army
title and they developped and army of monk soldier, becoming great wushu warrior between the Ming and Qing dynasty.
Other states that wushu was simply invented to fight against animal, when men were fighting for food, they studied the animals and created wushu,
the weapons come form the 1st wars, they were just everyday weapons to kill and clean animal humans improved them to have weapons for war, and then used them in martial arts.
Like all the great story, it is difficult to pinpoint the real origin of Chinese Martial Arts.
However what we do know is that in China 35 towns are called Wushu towns.
This is an excellent descriptions of Shaolin Kung fu (as described in old manuals):
"In Shaolin forms advance is like lightning. Retreat is like the wind. The head moves like the waves. The body looks as steady as a mountain. The body flows like a flying dragon. The hands move like shooting stars. All movements spring forth from the human mind and nature. Attacks are hard and strong but not excessive; they can bend like the reed in the wind, changing from one type of attack to another. Soft punches are like breezes delicately caressing willow twigs; hard blows are like lightening and thunderstorms.The attacks contain fakes and surprising strikes combined to react to your enemies' defense. In Shaolin style, defence is like a gentle girl, soft but not weak. Attacks are tiger like, violent and appropriate. Kung Fu practitioners can master various offence and defence techniques for self defence through a great number of training exercises."
"It is the long tradition of Chinese Wushu to have correct guiding thoughts and noble morality, stress civilization and manners, and learn hard to improve one's skills and cultivate moral character.
Etiquette means a salute or greeting before a martial arts routine. A Wushu performer greets the audience or opponent before commencing actual routines."
"Palms joining is a basic greeting form mainly taken by Buddhists, and Buddhist followers, but is also popular among Wushu performers due to the influence of the Shaolin school. The performer puts his palms together vertically in front of his breast, bows his head a little, closes his eyes, bends over in a standing position or crosses his knees while sitting, as an expression of sincerity.
For standardizing Wushu greetings, the Chinese Wushu Association has set the fist-holding greeting as the official greeting form for both Wushu masters and pupils in competitions, training and performance."
"A fist holding greeting is executed as follows: Make a fist with the right hand, put it against the center of the left palm with the left thumb bent and the four other fingers of the left hand stretched, push the two hands forward with the palms facing those greeted, arms in an embracing position and shoulders dropped down. The greeting should be done with ease and confidence.
The bent left thumb indicates that the performer is not arrogant; the left hand's four fingers coming together means integrity of moral, intellectual, physical and aesthetic education, a must for a Wushu performer to be noble-minded. The right fist indicates valour and vigor; the fist is stopped by the left palm which means being brave but not wishing to make trouble or breaking the rules. Learning Wushu does not necessarily mean fighting or violence. In executing a fist-holding greeting, one should pay special attention to its inner meaning."
This is how the manuals explain the martial art etiquette.
In Kung fu there is also the weapons, the most know are:
Sword, sabre, spear, cudgel or stick, then less known are:
Dagger- axe, halberd, whip, iron staff, mace, hammer, hook, axe and battle axe, trident halberd, fork, lance, claw, rake, ring, meteor hammer, and the hidden weapons:
Iron brush, dragon beard hook, throwing arrow, coin, emei prick.
For a demonstration of spear, stick and double whip form go to the video section.
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Gou Shou |
Quan |
Zhang |
But you have more mantis, snake, tiger... have all distinctive hand positions.
We always start by the simpliest and basic form Wu bu quan (5 steps form).
This a little demonstration.
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Ti xi chong quan |
ma bu jia da |
ti xi xia an |
xie bu chong quan |
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Ti xi chuan zhang |
pu bu chuan zhang |
zhi li jia zhang |
xu bu liang zhang |
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ma bu an zhang |
Shou shi to finish! |
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We put the name of the stances in Pinyin, ma bu is horse stance...