Animal Styles in Chinese Martial Arts (Kungfu Panda?)

After watching a recent funny animated movie , I would like to go into the topic talking about animal styles in Chinese Martial Arts.

One of the most interesting and exotic traits of Chinese Kungfu is the imitation of animal styles a.k.a xiang xing quan in chinese (象形拳). As the chinese characters imply, xiang xing quan is the direct manipulation and imitation of animal movements, i.e. feeding, preying, fleeing, feinting, resting, fighting, or roaring etc., for real combat and self-defense.

Famous styles that incorporate imitation of animals directly include Hung Gar (洪家), Choy Li Fut (蔡李佛), Shaolin Five Animals (少林五形), Five Ancestor Fists (五祖拳), Eagle Tumbling Style (鹰爪翻子派), Mantis Style (螳螂派), and Ground Tumbling Boxing (地趟拳). For the various styles mentioned earlier, I will go into more details for each styles for later articles.

Why imitate the animals?

Humans are created weakest in terms of physiological and physical aspects. Compared to various animals species, humans are relatively the weakest of all.

An ant can carry more than ten times its own weight, but a human can only carry load about two to three times his weight. A cheetah can reach about 110km per hour, but a human can only splint about fastest 27.6km per hour (for 100m short splint Olympic athlete). A chimpanzee is naturally able to control its arms and legs for climbing and acrobatic moves, but a human cannot do it naturally.

However, our strength lies in our intelligence and brainpower. That was why our ancestors understood that if we imitate the combat movements of these animals, we will build up stronger physique and anatomy. This leads to the imitation of animal styles in Chinese Kungfu.

But imitation of animal styles is not an easy training process. One needs to develop very strong anatomical weapons through hard body training or hard chi gong training. In simple terms, you must make your knuckles smash through bricks, your fingers dig through concrete, your feet uprooting tree trunks, and your body as hard as steel. Steel? Yes, invulnerable to attacks with iron clubs or steel baseball bats.

Only after months and even years of daily routine training in hard body conditioning will allow you in the perfection of using deadly claw attacks or even a deadly shoulder nudge. This is because when chinese kungfu masters say the weapon and body become one, they really mean it.

After this hard body kungfu conditioning, the techniques of animal movements will set in (In some styles, hard body conditioning comes concurrent with technique training). In partner training, single shadow boxing, or even attacking of wooden dummies/ sandbag targets, the practitioners of animal styles will train their speed, power, and precision with these animal style sets. These traditional style sets do not contain anything that are very 'flashy', because the main aim of these style sets is to train them into deadly fighters with real application of striking, tearing, uprooting, drilling, pounding, crushing opponents bones, joints, and vital organs/points.

Yes, animal style practitioners are deadly fighters just as animals in the wild fight for survive of the fittest.

Finally, to answer one query: Is there PANDA style?

Erm... not to my knowledge yet. I only know there is Bear Style and Bear style is more a pounding and wrestling style, with good crushing bear hugs. Panda... a bit too gentle to fight, so I do not think there is any panda style in Chinese martial arts. =)

'Hard' and 'Soft'，Internal & External.

People who came across martial arts would have heard about the word 'hard' 刚 and 'soft' 柔, internal 内 or external 外.

So what is this all about? In the chinese martial arts, based on the nature of the techniques, the different clans or forms of chinese martial arts are categorised into two types: Internal Boxing and External Boxing.

Internal Boxing or 内家拳 is fundamentally refering to chinese martials that emphasise internal energy or qi flow over external strength. Emphasising internal energy does not mean neglecting the external strengthening and conditioning, just that majority of the techniques are derived or applied with strong focus on qi flow. However, internal boxing is not a distinct clan on its own; it only refers to the category of the 'softer' form of chinese martial arts. The three main types are Taiji, Xinyi, and Bagua.

External Boxing or 外家拳 is refering to chinese martial arts that is characterised by agility, speed, and strength. Emphasis of external arts primarily focus on a lot of strength training, bone, ligament, and muscle development, and reflexes training. External arts also has focus on some softer training to do with breathing or qi and mental training or shen. This training helps to supplement the explosive and powerful moves. As the saying goes, form without qi is like an empty shell, qi without form is like a bodyless soul. Only when form combines with qi, that is the true chinese kungfu. One famous form of external arts is Shaolin.

Ultimately in chinese martial arts, there is neither 100% soft art nor 100% hard art. The Northern style is about 30% hard, 70% soft, while the Southern style is about 50% soft, 50% hard. Softness refers to breathing and relaxation of muscles to flow or withdraw in the an attack, while hardness refer to the stiffening of the muscles and use of explosive power in an attack. Soft also refers to cyclic moves that are intended at redirecting the strikes away with minimal force while hard refers to linear moves that intercept strikes directly.

Understanding Chinese Martial Arts

Most people have a lot of misconceptions when it comes to chinese martial arts. I hope this can help clear some of your questions.

Firstly, chinese martial art in the form of wushu is not just for 'show'. Today most wushu routines and patterns you see in competitions or performances are usually contemporary or competitive routine. This means that the main focus has shifted from practicality to aesthetic. However, please do not generalise wushu as just a performance display. Wushu is a wide branch encompassing both traditional and contemporary routines. Traditional training of wushu involves mainly kungfu conditioning and kempo drilling just like how the boxers will train to hit sandbags and train some freestyle shadow-boxing. Contemporary wushu has many flashy kicks and acrobatic moves to appeal to the audience; primary aim is to entertain, but the essence of some combat techniques are still hidden within these aesthetic moves. Finally, in terms of speed and agility, contemporary wushu exponents are among the fastest relative to these high-level, difficult moves. Therefore, contemporary wushu is not useless. It is a relatively good conditioning for speed, reflexes, and range extensions.

Secondly, chinese martial art is not an invincible martial art. Do not be misled by those kungfu kickass moves or some elusive 'dragonball' style energy blast (if humans can generate power, why we still need power generators?). These are all exaggerated fictions on chinese martial arts. However, please do not be dishearten by my words. Wushu is not all invincible but if you train hard under the right masters, facing off a ten or twenty hooligans in your way would not be much of a problem to you. The secret is patience and self-awareness, willing to accept your flaws and not satisfied over your strengths. Ultimately, it is about morals. Power without Morals is Tranny; Morals without Power is Futility.

Thirdly, 'Chi' or 'qi' in chinese martial arts is not as fantastic as it seems in the movies. That does not mean 'qi' do not exist in the real-life application. In actual fact, qi is the generation of internal energy within the body to add the extra punch or to block the extra damage. Qi is part of breathing exercise, emphasising air as the key to internal power. If this needs to be proven in the form of western science, qi is formless. However as much as you say it do not exist, you still see some people able to break stones or metal bars with qi conditioning. To those who are still sceptical about this mystical energy source, let me ask you a simple question: did the present day biologists provide a detailed evidence on how energy is used by the human body? Since modern science could not prove to this detail yet, it would not be fair to say the 'qi' do not exist.

"How long a human can live?" a master asked his students.

"Eight years," one student replied

"No."

"Seventy years," another student said

"Nope."

"Sixty years."

"Nah."

"So master, what is the answer?"

"Life is as long as You BREATHE," the Master replied with a smile. "So remember when any situation gets too tough to handle, don't forget to Breathe."

So if you say qi don't exist, why are you alive today?

Last but not least, chinese martial art is about keeping your body fit and healthy, and that all life is precious. Chinese martial art has a set of forbidden techniques that is only passed on to those who are chosen and believed to have morals. A good fighter do not deliver direct murderous attack, he gauge his opponent and use minimal force to subdue him. Mercy before injuring, injure before maiming, Maim before killing, kill only when there is no other options. Most kungfu experts are deadly just as they are merciful. That is the philosophy of chinese martial art.

So what is Kempo? What is Kungfu?

I myself am not any expert. I am just here like anyone else, still learning and exploring the world of martial arts through my passion. So if any part of this information may be inaccurate in your perspective please feel free to politely express your critiques.

Alright, I believe the first query that most people will have is what is KEMPO? Kempo is the translation for the chinese word: 拳法, in case for non-chinese, kempo just means 'fighting techniques', equivalent to kata in Karate, Mai in Muay Thai, Jogo in Capoeria etc. Yes, Kempo is in fact a set of chinese fighting techniques that are practised in the most traditional way either individually, with a sparring partner, or one against two or more other sparring partners.

Some of you might ask so if kempo is the fighting technique of the Chinese, so what is wushu then? Yes, Wushu means martial arts in chinese words. In fact, wushu is the big umbrella over all styles of chinese kungfu or kempo, just like the word 'martial arts' is to represent Taekwondo, Aikido, Sambo, Savate etc. I hope this helps to clear some doubt about these complicated chinese words.

" There is No BEST martial arts/ techniques in the world; it is the fighter that made the martial arts invincible."

Above is an extract of a quote from a famous chinese kungfu expert, Huo YuanJia, who is the creator of the Jing Wu Association around the world. This quote tells you that it is the practitioners not the techniques that is the key idea to success. Yes, given just a single straight jab or cross. If you train it again and again, in the process of understanding the meaning of 'throwing soft, hitting hard', how must strength to use, how fast you can punch, how you can use it as a strike and also as an intercepting technique etc., you will soon realise that as simple as a punch, but the types of skill (speed, accuracy, strength, agility, and impact) you need to develop over time.

This leads to the next question: What is Kungfu? The word Kungfu is a direct translation from the chinese word: 功夫. It means Achievement through Effort. Yes, Kungfu is the conditioning or skill training in Chinese martial arts. It is analogous to water penetrating the rocks over the year by a single word: perseverance. This is the key philosophy that all martial artists, be it a boxer, a fighter, a grappler etc., if you persevere in your training, you will succeed to be the best.

"Don't blame the sword is blunt, blame the swordsman can't slash."

Apply this in your life, not just in martial arts and you will succeed in every aspect of life. Put on a mirror, look back at yourself.

Stay tune for more posts.