The truth about Shaolin Kung Fu- Grandmaster Prof. Rien Bul
FongSiuChing
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 of Zhu (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 could still be called
'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. Nevertheless
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