Plum Blossom

[Scarlet Mist]

Ok, so why is Plum Blossom Kung Fu called plum blossom Kung fu. I mean, they call the crane the crane because it was supposedly an imitation of the crane. Is the plum blossom an imitation of the plum blossom? Siu Mui Fa sure doesn't look like a small plum blossom. Why do they call plum blossom plum blossom?

[jroe52]

do a google search on its history...

maybe because of its footwork or true beauty? i donno

[Mo Lung]

There's a long and a short answer to that question! I can only be bothered with the short one at this stage.

The Moi Fa style of fighting is based primarily on two things. One is the footwork that moves in five directions like the five petals on the plum blossom. There are other movement patterns, like sup ji. In Cantonese, sup ji means "ten character". In other words, the Chinese character for the word "ten". This character is a simple +, so sup ji forms travel in four directions like a cross, follwowing the compass points. Then there is the 5 directional movement of moi fa and the eight directions of ba gwa.

The other thing, which relates directly to the siu moi fa form in CLF and other similar taolu, is that when a plum blossom falls from a tree, it flutters to the ground, switching from side to side. It's light and moves quickly from side to side - this is the energy that should be employed in the sui moi fa form, with fast strikes coming from different directions, never being still for too long. This differs from, for example, the jit fu kuen, which employs the grounded energy of the tiger and is more solid.

The practitioner needs to understand the different energies at play in the forms so that they can employ the techniques correctly. Yin versus yang, etc.

And that's the short answer!

[jroe52]

i wonder if this is where william cheung got the idea? he applied the plum footwork i think to his traditional style of wing chun. i haven't ever really practied my footwork lol, so maybe i should

http://www.wingchunkwoon.com/form.asp#top

look at the bottom