White Crane books and DVDs

Discussion in 'Kung Fu' started by Sandy, Jul 7, 2016.

  1. The Iron Fist

    The Iron Fist Banned Banned

    Another thing before I forget, I need to question why anyone would outright dismiss the most obvious (if difficult to prove) pieces of the Hung Gar-Fujian Crane puzzle:

    The legendary founder of the first Hung gar system was from Fujian, and according to oral tradition, he not only married a Fujian White Crane master, he specifically sought out that woman/system. So from it's inception, Hung Gar and Fujian Crane are said to come from the same source (notwithstanding the lack of hard evidence OTHER than surviving kuen sets and training, this is the origin myth of the entire art form of Hung gar...it's right in the origin).

    I'll even do something I promised I wouldn't, and quote Wikipedia (which I disdain as a good source for martial arts history). Just more proof I'm not making things up or 'propositioning', something that I've been accused of unfairly.

    Ben, there's the Three Battles right there in the Tiger Crane Paired Fist of Hung gar (thus regardless of whatever Wong Fei Hung learned of Lion's Roar, the foundation of Tiger Crane in Hung Gar is Fujianese).

    Here's the same oral tradition from a completely unrelated, non-Wiki source:

    Now, bits of this version of the tale are clearly legend (Ng Mui), but bits are real and that helps explain the Hung gar-Fujian Crane connection. What evidence is there, if any, that the foundation of Hung gar doesn't contain Fujian White Crane? None. And keep in mind, ALL the evidence of Lion's Roar introduction to Hung gar curriculum would not change the facts or origins of the style that have been passed on since the Qing Dynasty. From Wong Fei Hung's point of view he learned parts of Fujian Crane as a result of learning Hung gar, and then learned different Crane from Lion's Roar, and still more Crane from Tid Kiu Sam and Lam Fook Sing, and also from his time in Fujian itself, took whatever was present in the area at the time, and all of this material was preserved in his system (and largely by Lam Sai Wing's by extension). What this means is that the Fujianese roots will be lost in some Hung Kuen lineages, preserved in others, but especially preserved by the most scholarly progenitor of Hung gar there ever was (Wong Fei Hung), and why today in any Hung gar school, Fujian is considered the 'home' of Hung gar (where Hung Hei Gun was from to begin with...not Guangdong, or Qinghai).

    Now, say all you want about legend, myth and so on being unreliable (and I would agree)... but this IS the standing oral tradition of Hung gar (not something I personally invented, guys!!! :) please stop treating it that way), and again all the evidence aligns with this simple statement, that Hung Hei Gun's system is said to have not only incorporated Fujian Crane and other Shaolin animal styles, but that Wong Fei Hung, no matter what else he learned of Qinghai's Crane Style, would have already learned a great deal of Fujian Crane style from older Hung gar material.

    Whatever between Lion's Roar and Fujian Crane is 'shared material', would seem nearly identical and so to one observer, is "Lion's Roar", to another "Fujian White Crane", and to still another, "both/neither".

    Again we can rely on very basic visual tests, without even getting into written historical record.

    Show 'Single Leg Flying Crane', 'Golden Cockerel on One Leg' or 'Reincarnation of the Rejuvenated Crane', three distinctive Fujian Crane elements, in Lion's Roar. I've already pointed to numerous examples in the Hung Gar Tiger Crane Paired Fist. I humbly ask if you're going to claim ALL these Crane elements come from Qinghai instead of Fujian, you provide evidence of this material in Lion's Roar. Somehow, you need to point to the style of Lion's Roar specifically and prove that the three Fujian techniques I just mentioned come from Lama. But, if you start going through the entire Tiger Crane set, you'll find that one Crane technique...is from Fujian. The next comes from Qinghai. And if there are any that appear in both, what does that mean? It simply means they blended at some point, culturally. It's certainly a mistake to toss out Fujian from the equation unless you can somehow prove it's all Lama material.

    Here, I will get us started. This is Lam Sai Wing performing Lion's Roar Crane technique from Wong Yan Lam, Pok Yik Sau.

    This is clearly Lion's Roar Crane, in Hung gar. There is no Fujianese equivalent I can find (maybe someone else can).

    [​IMG]

    This is clearly Fujian White Crane, in Hung gar (I cannot find any reference to the technique, its classic and familiar pose, or the distinctive hanzi of it's name, in any source related to Lion's Roar).

    [​IMG]

    I wish at least one person would admit this is clear evidence that Hung gar contains BOTH Fujian Crane and Lama Pai roots, as it pertains to "White Crane", and even further, the Fujian White Crane links appear earlier in the Hung gar oral tradition than Lama (otherwise how did it get into the Hung Hei Gun tales before Wong Fei Hung was even born?). The father of Hung gar was from Fujian and brought styles from Fujian like Tiger, he's said to have then mastered Fujian White Crane (not Tibetan Crane), and then years later when Wong Fei Hung learned Tibetan Crane, he merely added it to his personal expansive repertoire, which became his curriculum (a massive system combining elements from all over China, including Henan and Qinghai). And to this day, Fujian names/elements are still all over the forms, and he oral tradition, and even the written tradition (the hanzi of techniques, which is likely where most of the legitimate Hung gar and Fujian Crane sifus agree the connection between arts is ultimately proven, not in 'top-down' lineage trees claiming "X trained Y, so all Y must come from X").
     
    Last edited: Aug 15, 2016
  2. huoxingyang

    huoxingyang Valued Member

    Why is this thread even about Hung Gar!? :p

    It is generally accepted as far as I know that Hung Gar does contain both Tibetan White Crane content and Fujianese White Crane content, but then I have only heard that from sources within the Hung Gar world and I have never studied either White Crane style, so I couldn't be so certain (though in my opinion I feel the truth of the matter falls somewhere between the opposing claims in this thread).

    I do think it's a stretch to suggest that Wong Fei Hung knew about some other stuff claimed in this thread though, such as Taijiquan, or so-called Northern systems in general. Pretty much all Hung Gar I've ever seen, no matter the lineage, seems pretty distinctly Southern to me. Even the Lam family today manage to make Northern sets look Southern :p

    Also interesting to note that Ang Lian Huat's Tiger Crane style is mentioned in this thread. I know that this style is nothing to do with Hung Gar, and is pretty much a version of Fujianese White Crane. That their mythology shares common threads with Hung Gar mythology says nothing to me except that stories travel far and wide.
     
  3. The Iron Fist

    The Iron Fist Banned Banned

    Because of the OP, who asked questions about "tiger-crane" in general. In response I started talking about the clear connection between Fujian crane styles, Okinawan kara-te, old Hung Kuen, and modern Hung Kuen via the Wong Fei Hung lineage (which combines multiple Crane elements from all over China into Fei Hung's vast system of Animals/Elements/Bridges, which is practically a pan-Chinese survey of martial styles both 'external' and 'internal'). I'll keep defending this thread, because I know I'm right. :D

    Read the thread again and you'll see the same thing echoed by White Crane world, and read on for new surprises.

    Your comment makes no sense. It's as if you're suggesting Tai Chi was unknown to southern China, when in fact, it was known to all four corners of China for half a millennium or more. The internal nei gong of Tai Chi was most certainly known to not only Wong Fei Hung, but generations of Shaolin practitioners before him. How else did the Immortals and other Taoist elements make their way into Hung gar? Not to mention brother there is plenty more to discuss than just the 'pillar' sets. What about the Fu Jow Gong? In other words, there is a lot more than just the Tiger Crane Paired Fist..

    And what is "distinctly Southern" exactly? Horse stance? Sei ping daih ma bo is as 'Northern' Shaolin as kung fu gets. It's not a "southern" thing at all, brother. Please please please...don't start giving me a lot of talk about 'low stances' and so forth, if you've truly trained and learned the arts, you shouldn't... Clearly, even if you've been trained this way...'Northern/Southern' is really a false dichotomy, easily disproven. By the time we reach the 18th-19th centuries most of these arts are amalgamations of numerous Chinese arts...from remote reaches of northwesternmost Qinghai to the southern provinces. They are all rolling snowballs..collections upon collections. Tai Chi and Shaolin are not distinct matters either, they have an intimately linked history (for evidence see Shahar's work...arts that grow up near each other in China had a tendency to borrow and copy to a great degree, meaning Tai Chi, Shaolin, Fujian, and Guangdong arts are interwined.

    Well then you're in for a shock because the surprised I mentioned before is that Ang Lian Huat credits his ENTIRE Tiger-Crane element to Hung gar. I noted that above, and here it is again in the Nam Yang biography link below. He credits Hung Ee Kan's "Tiger Crane" specifically, which if you can decipher the various romanizations, is the same name as the founder of Hung gar. So where can you possibly get the 'nothing to do with' claim? Where's your evidence?????

    http://www.namyang.co.uk/about-nam-yang/people-masters-students/master-ang-lian-huat

    There are few styles more "Tiger Crane" and connected to Fujian than Hung gar. The evidence I've posted in the thread would be more than enough to convince most people, but I'm willing to discuss specific techniques, stances, and terminology if anybody is interested....I've put together some puzzle pieces that, while obvious to White Crane and Hung gar sifus, is still in need of pointing out to various disciples...as it was pointed out to me.
     
    Last edited: Aug 24, 2016
  4. El Medico

    El Medico Valued Member

    Your comment makes no sense,bro.I don't know where you get half a millennium. As the earliest we can trace TC is Yang's study w/Chen, Chang-hsing we're talking 1700s for Chen system and Zhao Bao.That adds up to something over 200 years. Even if they were around much earlier they weren't known of outside the area until Yang and his students.

    It wouldn't be that Wong knew TC's gungs,just that he knew such types of training,which weren't exactly rare.

    P.S.-there's nothing especially "Taoist" about TC's nei-gungs.I'm not talking about breathing exercises,I'm speaking of physical things which are about as cosmological as a push up.
     
  5. huoxingyang

    huoxingyang Valued Member

    I wasn't being entirely serious with that comment... though I do happen to be of the opinion that this thread really wasn't meant to be a discussion about Hung Gar. But here we are.

    I'm suggesting that I doubt Wong Fei Hung knew Tai Chi or had anything to do with it, as far as anyone really knows. I also don't think it's relevant to anything as it really doesn't appear to have had any direct influence on the martial arts he taught. I'm also going to suggest that Tai Chi was not known to all four corners of China for half a millenium or anything close to that.

    I find it highly unlikely that any of these ideas originated with Tai Chi, so they didn't need to "make their way into Hung Gar" via it. I would suggest it is much more likely that martial artists explained and categorised stuff based on the popular world view at the time.

    You are right that "Northern" and "Southern" are somewhat artificial and arbitrary categorisations. Nevertheless they are useful terms when generalising about the general character of things that can't really be distinguished by any one characteristic, but can be broadly grouped based on how they appear overall. In China, the North/South dichotomy is often used to categorise all manner of things like that... regional cuisines, accents, temperaments, etc. There's nothing scientific about it, but as a distinction it just kinda works, hence why people use it.


    So they share some stories. I don't think that really makes them related as martial arts. Also, have you seen Nam Yang's kung fu before? I'm not sure I really need to provide any evidence that they are not connected, it would be more revealing to see something to substantiate the idea that they are!
     
  6. The Iron Fist

    The Iron Fist Banned Banned

    Tai Chi Chuan as a named art dates to the late 16th century, which is Ming Dynasty, and the legendary period runs from the late 1500's until the time period you are describing, but obviously comes from an earlier time. Tai ji principles in China run the last thousand years plus, their integration with martial arts..roughly 500 years. If you want to discuss specific trace-able lineages, that's your 200 years.

    My point was very simple, Wong Fei Hung was around at a much later date, he had 400-500 years of Tai Chi's martial influence across China to work with (not to mention the 1,000+ years of philosophical tradition).

    Well that's a philosophical conversation for another thread, perhaps, not one on Crane technique, unless we want to start talking about immortality, endurance. Taoism influences all things Chinese, including martial arts.

    I'd prefer to talk about "Reincarnation of the Rejuvenated Crane" et al. :D The thread is about Fujian White Crane after all.
     
    Last edited: Aug 26, 2016
  7. The Iron Fist

    The Iron Fist Banned Banned

    Not stories, he said he learned Hung Kuen style of Fujian White Crane..(Hung Hei Gun's Shaolin Tiger and Crane Style). It does make them related as martial arts. There is a lot in common between Nam Yang and Hung gar in empty forms as well as training and weapons. If you want examples go search for 'Nam Yang tiger crane' and watch how much Hung gar 'stuff' pops up.
     
  8. El Medico

    El Medico Valued Member

    No it doesn't.The Name "T'ai Chi Ch'uan" is not given to it until Yang,L-c is making his rep in the 1800s.Chen system was P'ao Chui,--and there are theories that what Yang's teacher was doing something different,or at least training methods were different,than the home system.So possibly Chen was taught to integrate things into his home system,or was teaching a different system-(maybe!).I remember one of the older guys (non-Chen)- some years ago saying that Chen just added Tong Bei to their stuff.Interesting,and possible,idea. There has been more than one individual from the Yang descended systems who has voiced the opinion that Chen is not "TCC",but something else with its own identity. Looking at different mechanics and other things that may well be accurate.
    Legendary periods are just that. Especially when they're written hundreds of years after the supposed events.So Chen,Wang-ting wrote about practicing boxing.But we don't know what he was doing.
    What does? A specific system,or training methods/systems which people add into their own systems which makes a new product?
    Well,depending on what is meant we can go back earlier than that,but so what?
    Which principles? Anyway,because some of these things are just common worldviews in the culture it's more than likely they were applied simply as everyday methods of explanation/reference in systems for who knows how long.They are in cooking.
    Without those,the rest is silence.
    If you mean the conceptual stuff,ok.And as I said,actually longer.If you mean things from what we now know as TCC,these local systems not known outside their immediate area weren't influencing any systems.
    Nothing philosophical in what I was speaking of. Which was my point.
    Well then,don't make what are at heart fictional and or HIGHLY speculative statements about who knew TC or TC's supposed influence across the martial landscape for 500 years,etc.

    Have a good weekend!
     
  9. The Iron Fist

    The Iron Fist Banned Banned

    What you wrote is accurate, but let me re-phrase what I meant because I think we're in agreement but just differing on nomenclature. By 'named art' I don't just refer to combining Taiji with Quan and calling it 太極拳, I'm referring to the full history which goes well back beyond the modern, colloquial usage. Internal boxing, zhan quan, soft boxing, and so forth. General Chen Wangting was not legendary figure, he was a real person who lived in the 16th century. If he learned his martial art from Wang Zongyue, a pseudo-legendary figure, then we're somewhere in the 14th-16th centuries with at least some verifiable evidence. So, yes going back all the way to 13th century Zhang Sanfeng and ascribing his as a "Tai Chi Chuan boxer" is likely errant. At some point, disciples of Zhang Sanfeng transmitted their Taiji teachings to Wang Zongyue, who in turn instructed Chen Wangting, who in turn began to develop what was eventually by the 1800's referred to as "Taiji boxing", simply because the Taiji influences were apparent to everyone, especially the scholars of the Imperial Court. Prior to that though, it existed just under other names, or was referred to by conceptual qualities as opposed to specific names (e.g. "nei jia boxing"), or places like Mount Wudang or Shaolin Si. And bringing it back to southern Hung gar scholars, they had to be intimately familiar with both Shaolin and Wudang iconography, because the modern Hung gar schools contain both types of methods, and a lot of references to both. Even some of the training methods are similar between Tai Chi and Hung gar, as I've written below. My own Hung gar sifu was also a Tai Chi sifu, so he explained/showed me the similarities and differences. While Hung gar was his 'chosen art', he had a great fondness for Tai Chi Chuan.

    To your point about Tongbeiquan, related styles, and Chen Tai Chi I couldn't agree more, and here's a video that I think illustrates the connection. What starts very soft and internal becomes hard and external in this set, so I sometimes show it to Tai Chi students who claim they only train "internal". It should be obvious in this video what Tai Chi Chuan really implies in the use of Taiji iconography, is the interplay between soft and hard and back again, the never-ending cycle of the Taijitu. I think this helps illustrate my point, how the names of styles often makes people forget that it's just a name, and in many cases, just the latest name for something. You can dig very far back and find things well beyond the latter day names for things, to a time when it had a different one. What is now Tai Chi Chuan was once just 'internal boxing' and prior to that, little more than concepts like "soft within hard" ascribed to general practice. "Soft power" and "hard power" go so far back into Chinese history, and even today, these terms are used in not just martial arts, but even politics and statesmanship.

    [ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Y_GULVhJmM"]Chen Taiji Master Ren Guang Yi - Compact Cannon Fist ll - YouTube[/ame]

    Stanley Henning's work "Ignorance, Legend and Taijiquan" attributes the following phases to this history, is which is how I get my numbers. So basically, attribution and names we use today (1800+) is just the tip of the iceberg, there's an ample amount of "proto-Taijichuan" history that pre-dates the village systems. Yes, the boxing elements were posthumously attributed to Zhang Sanfeng much later (similar to how Bodhidharma was only posthumously awarded the honorific of being the Shaolinquan patriarch, when in fact it appeared centuries later).

    Both really, along with the philosophical tropes which in Chinese culture become inseparable from the systems and training methods over time. Tai chi's tropes are Neo-Confucian so are a mix of Chan Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism. Without these it wouldn't really be Tai Chi Chuan, or earlier names, "Internal boxing", "soft within hard".

    Principles of internal boxing, as opposed to what else came before. Yes, absolutely cooking is a great illustration.

    Whether it's called one name or another, the chicken dish named after General Zuo Zongtang is not really local to Hunan, his home. Likewise, calling it Tai Chi Chuan allows you to link it to recent (Ching+) historical records, but there's an older history there that while murky and difficult to explore, is still there to explore. This is why the Taoist Immortal legends are embedded in the fabric of not only Tai Chi Chuan but also Hung gar. The 8 Immortals came to Hung gar by way of Taiji philosophy and religious artifacts. This process took hundreds of years, from the early days of Taoist philosophy, through the development of various 'external' and 'internal' schools, and eventually to the Ming/Ching dynasty period where they became interwined, so that by the late Ching, you had styles with specific names, but the styles themselves contained a great deal of the same exact materials (not just physical training, but history/philosophy).

    Arguable, because being able to document a person-to-person lineage related to things called "Tai Chi Chuan" is only possible going back a couple of centuries, but there are certainly older bloodlines if you will...they go back much further to the first "internal" schools, to Shaolin Temple and its role in the development of not only Tai Chi Chuan but Neo-Confucianist ideals as a whole, and so on. So it's fairly easy to take many things in Tai Chi Chuan, and find prototypical elements in earlier arts with different names, which if you read Shahar's work you'll see there is a lot of evidence for. That's my point with the "500 years". The relics and archaeology of what is today called Tai Chi Chuan come from a much earlier time than the more substantiated documentation we can rely on today when discussing Tai Chi. So of course you're right that recent evidence is the "best evidence" to rely anything on. But we can't just throw out the preceding centuries or assume it was all fictional, in the same way that Greek mythology is largely fictional. We're not talking the prehistoric ages in China, we're actually talking about an age well past the development of reading and writing and written history. So retracing steps will first lead us to the 19th century "farms" where Tai Chi Chuan, or "Hands holding Taiji" type styles became well known, but that did not develop in a vacuum. Retracing earlier brings us back to Ming and early Ching dynasty martial principles, and eventually back to the Song dynasty development of the rudimentary philosophies that later on, by the 19th century, were evident in Tai Chi. In the 1500-1600's, even when "Tai Chi" was not the name of the arts, they still existed, and that is likely why Zhang Senfang eventually became their "legendary creator", even if he likely wasn't a boxer himself (but who really knows if a 12th century man could fight or not...)

    I prefer the term "pseudohistorical" because rather than being fictional or speculative, it's more like a hodgepodge of known fact, literature (in which even fictional writing can be based on actual events as is often the case), recording on stele and so on.

    Yes what I meant was not that Wong Fei Hung was intimately familiar with, say, Chen Tai Chi Chuan. What he was familiar with was the prototypical martial arts, philosophy and iconography of what nurtured those styles. It's splitting hairs but the important thing to note is that where the various styles differ in practicum, they use the same taxonomies, root concepts, and so on. The inter-relatedness of all the martial arts in China is the direct result of the interplay between various martial 'celebrities', including monks and generals. Fei Hung was just a latter age scholar of all of that, but he certainly knew of Zhang Sanfeng and the history that extended from him (how could he not? Most schooling in China involved reading and learning the Neo-Confucian classics, so Fei Hung would have been well educated in Taoist, Buddhism, Confucianism, as well as the various martial arts attributed to them, even if he never learned a bit of Chen style Tai Chi or another family style, he certainly was no stranger to what they contained).

    If you want to compare actual techniques/fist sets, the Hung gar Iron Wire has much in common with Tai Chi Chuan. The same dynamic tension, breathing, mindfulness, balance elements are all there in both styles. In a way, Hung gar training puts "soft in hard" training like Tai Chi on a pedestal as the ultimate level of achievement, after 'external' boxing is established. This of course isn't the work of just Wong Fei Hung (who more or less just formalized a curriculum as opposed to invented one). Leung Kwan the "Third Iron Bridge" was well known as master of "internal" Shaolin boxing, and that internal boxing refers to same Ming era influences that helped shape Tai Chi Chuan.

    Sorry, I guess I've created a derail. Have a good weekend yourself.
     
    Last edited: Aug 26, 2016
  10. huoxingyang

    huoxingyang Valued Member

    Iron Fist, I don't entirely disagree with you and see where you're coming from, but in the end I have trouble with your argument in the same way I'd struggle with any claim that I know Latin as evidenced by the fact that I know English, since contains words and grammar inherited from the former.
     
  11. huoxingyang

    huoxingyang Valued Member

    Maybe this is like Christians seeing images of Jesus on their toast... I've seen Nam Yang tiger and tiger/crane sets, and what I saw bore very little resemblance to Hung Gar... However it does look pretty much indistinguishable from Fujianese crane stuff. Of course, I am no student of Nam Yang or Fujianese crane styles, so I can only judge with the eyes of an outsider.
     
  12. Sandy

    Sandy Valued Member

    PlumPub.com videos

    Has anyone seen any of the PlumPub.com DVDs about White Crane? What do you think?
     
  13. Ben Gash CLF

    Ben Gash CLF Valued Member

    Have a look on YouTube, you'll be able to see what they're about. From a forms perspective they're very good.
     
  14. Tom bayley

    Tom bayley Valued Member

    just to add to the constructive debate.

    There is plenty of evidence to support the idea that karate or Chinese hand is a derivation of kungfu. :hat:
     
  15. Tom bayley

    Tom bayley Valued Member

    About 12 years ago I was fortunate to attend an invitation forms competition held at white crane club in Epsom surrey. I believe it was this teachers club. I was lucky to see several forms demonstrated, including the one below.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUUrYwdkGvw

    As a southern shoulin / hung ga practitioner I personally saw a lot of overlap and similarity between the mechanics and expression in white crane and Hung ga.
     
    Last edited: Jan 18, 2017
  16. martin watts

    martin watts Martin Watts

    Last edited by a moderator: Nov 25, 2017
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  17. Geoffrey Allen

    Geoffrey Allen New Member

    Sandy, those two books (YJM & Bernard's) is from Fujian White Crane (FWC). All Southern White Crane Kung Fu originated from FWC and they have the five animals of southern shaolin: 1. Dragon 2. Snake 3. Crane 4. Tiger 5. Leopard. FWC is the mother or great grandmother of all Southern Kung Fu styles. This is why FWC, Hung Gar, Wing Chun, Southern Mantis, etc have a similar mother form. In FWC we call it Sanzhanerbu or Babulian (Taiwanese & Fujian language), but basically in English it means the 3 battles or wars. It's just that the same movements are repeated three times.

    If I was you I wouldn't waste your time reading too many books or look at too many videos of people practicing different styles on YouTube about FWC, because it will only confuse you, but find yourself an old FWC teacher, if possible (they're rarer than hen's teeth, now) and just listen to & practice what he teaches you, most of the books are written by people who don't know that much. It's too intellectual, with lots of controversial opinions. My old FWC master said to me "Just Practice more, listen to what I teach you, learn less and don't waste your time reading too many books because this will only confuse you". FWC has a standard, familiar characteristic to its style and unfortunately most of the people on YouTube don't understand what it is.

    Here's an eyeopener most people say I practice ming he (calling crane) or zong he (shaking crane), etc. The four features of FWC are 1. calling crane (ming he), 2. shaking crane (zong he), 3. flying crane (fei he), 4. eating crane (shi he) . But here's the point all these people are talking rubbish because in FWC you are practicing all these four crane characteristics when practicing your forms. So if a zong he students says, I only practice shaking crane this is nonsense. All FWC styles practice these four aspects together. If you disagree with me, then tell me one FWC style that doesn't practice all of these four aspects together. Look at movies of the white crane bird it just has these characteristics; jumping, eating, flying and shaking water off its body, singing or calling, etc.

    In the beginning, there was only one FWC, then humans being humans focused on different things. For example, my FWC focuses on how the hands use and adapt the five elements of Fire, Earth, Metal and Wood in performing the movements, sensing hands and hitting hands, etc. Hung gar uses the tiger and crane. Chow gar uses the leopard fist a lot. Wing chun the python, snake is the main animal of shaolin. Actually, FWC uses the crane beak not that much, but the other parts of the crane's body more, for example the crane's wings and sides of the open palm, etc.
     

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