Hello Which of the two names of this martial art is correct: Lung Ying or Lung Xing? The first meaning Dragon's Shadow, the second meaning Dragon's Shape.
I'm not sure the exact wording is that important but I was taught Dragon Shadow. Why are you concerned? LFD
On Southern Dragon Kung Fu wikipedia page, the "dragon shape rubbing bridges" is roughly translated from "lóng xíng mó qiáo", while throughout the rest of the page (and incidentally saying in other sources as well), it is referred to as lung ying.
The Wikipedia pages for most southern styles will start by giving the name in both Putonghua and Cantonese.
Its not rubbing bridges. Its "Demon's Bridge" 魔 = Demon / Evil Spirit (well, part of the whole word anyway)
If you are getting all your information about lung Ying from wikipedia then... Personally id worry less about how its spelt inline and just simply go train
According to every dictionary i can find demon is 恶魔 bizarrely "evil rubbing" 魔 is the verb to rub unless there's an idiomatic contraction in HK Cantonese? I will happily bow to your superior knowledge if that's the case, although it doesn't help with naming the style.
Sometimes I wonder with some of the older styles if we really know what they're called. Widespread literacy is recent in China and lot's of words are phonically the same. I love how wing chun people get really hung up on 詠春 and 永春 "it's obviously a different style, the names COMPLETELY different. They're pronounced with one different vowel sound and one is written with an extra radical!"
Actually wikipedia is one of the best sources in almost every field, since it's constantly updated and checked for mistakes. I have recently purchased a quantum physics book written by an acknowledged autor, and the first thing that caught my eye were two cardinal mistakes in Maxwell's equations. Even though the book was checked before being published. People should stop bashing wikipedia just because it is written anyonymously.
People don't bash it because it's written anonymously, they bash it because it has no editorial oversight, no peer review and the moderation is arbitrary. Articles are frequently biased or factually inaccurate and can be maliciously altered. The Lung Ying page is a case in point, it even tells you at the top that there are multiple issues with it.
Wikipedia pages can't be "maliciously altered" without thousands of people knowing that. Try to change something on a random page to an utter nonsense, then check back again after a few weeks. Let's end this subject though, it's not this thread's purpose.
Rubbing and Demon do sound similar...both pronouced like more However rubbing sounds like you pronounce more like a question and then suddenly stop. Canto has about 8 tones and Mando has around 5, so it gets very confusing. Pronounce the word "shoe" wrong and it can sound just like one of the most vilest swear words you can think of. (i have a funny story about that, but you have to be at the MAP meet for me to tell it) In regards to how its spelt in a Roman way, it's simply just phonetic. So the OP is not wrong (nor is wikipedia) technically.
I am bashing it as you say because generally hakka teachers dont write much about their arts and oral history varies greatly between teachers, so for martial historical purposes using wikipedia as your main source of information and asking questions about a style on a forum when you have someone actually teaching it near to you is a bit strange, if you are that interested why not simply go train the system and ask the teacher how they pronounce it?
