Five Ancestors
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Five Ancestors
Five Ancestor Boxing (''Wuzuquan'' or ''Ngo-cho Kun'') is a Southern Chinese martial art that consists of principles and techniques from five styles: * the breathing methods and iron body of Bodhidharma (達尊拳) * the posture and dynamic power of Luohan (羅漢拳) * the precision and efficient movement of Emperor Taizu (太祖拳) * the hand techniques and the complementary softness and hardness of Fujian White Crane (白鶴拳) * the agility and footwork of Monkey (猴拳)Han Jin Yuan: ''Fundamentals of Nan Shaolin Wuzuquan, Vol. 1'', page 32, 2002. These five styles and their characteristic techniques were combined during the creation of the Five Ancestor System. They were consolidated by a sixth influence, Xuan Nu, also known as Hian Loo (玄女拳) and "The Lady in the Green Dress", who introduced the most deadly of its techniques, Dim Mak—lethal strikes to the pressure points of the body. History The original concept of Wu Zu Quan has its origin in the early ...
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Strike (attack)
A strike is a directed physical attack with either a part of the human body or with an inanimate object (such as a weapon) intended to cause blunt trauma or penetrating trauma upon an opponent. There are many different varieties of strikes. A strike with the hand closed into a fist is called a punch, a strike with the leg or foot is referred to as a kick and a strike with the head is called a headbutt. There are also other variations employed in martial arts and combat sports. "Buffet" or "beat" refer to repeatedly and violently striking an opponent; this is also commonly referred to as a combination, or combo, especially in boxing or fighting video games. Usage Strikes are the key focus of several sports and arts, including boxing, savate, karate, Muay Lao, taekwondo and wing chun. Some martial arts also use the fingertips, wrists, forearms, shoulders, back and hips to strike an opponent as well as the more conventional fists, palms, elbows, knees and feet that are commo ...
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Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by area in Oceania and the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, sixth-largest country. Australia is the oldest, flattest, and driest inhabited continent, with the least fertile soils. It is a Megadiverse countries, megadiverse country, and its size gives it a wide variety of landscapes and climates, with Deserts of Australia, deserts in the centre, tropical Forests of Australia, rainforests in the north-east, and List of mountains in Australia, mountain ranges in the south-east. The ancestors of Aboriginal Australians began arriving from south east Asia approximately Early human migrations#Nearby Oceania, 65,000 years ago, during the Last Glacial Period, last i ...
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Hung Kuen
Hung Ga (), Hung Kuen (), or Hung Ga Kuen () is a southern Chinese martial art belonging to the southern Shaolin styles. The hallmarks of Hung Ga are strong stances, notably the horse stance, or "si ping ma" (), and strong hand techniques, notably the bridge hand and the versatile tiger claw. Traditionally, students spent anywhere from several months to three years in stance training, often sitting only in horse stance from half an hour to several hours at a time, before learning any forms. Each form could then take a year or so to learn, with weapons learned last. In current times, this mode of instruction is generally considered impractical for students, who have other concerns beyond practicing kung fu. However, some instructors still follow traditional guidelines and make stance training the majority of their beginner training. Hung Ga is sometimes mischaracterized as solely external—that is, reliant on brute physical force rather than the cultivation of qi—even thou ...
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Five Animals
In Chinese martial arts, there are fighting styles that are modeled after animals. In Southern styles, especially those associated with Guangdong and Fujian provinces, there are five traditional animal styles known as Ng Ying Kung Fu (Chinese: 五形功夫) )—Tiger, Crane, Leopard, Snake, and Dragon. The five animal martial arts styles supposedly originated from the Henan Shaolin Temple, which is north of the Yangtze River, even though imagery of these particular five animals ''as a distinct set'' (i.e. in the absence of other animals such as the horse or the monkey as in T'ai chi ch'uan or Xíngyìquán) is either rare in Northern Shaolin martial arts—and Northern Chinese martial arts in general—or recent (cf. wǔxíngbāfǎquán; 五形八法拳; "Five Form Eight Method Fist"). An alternate selection which is also widely used is the crane, the tiger, the monkey, the snake, and the mantis. In Mandarin, "wǔxíng" is the pronunciation not only of "five animals", but al ...
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North China And South China
Northern China () and Southern China () are two approximate regions within China. The exact boundary between these two regions is not precisely defined and only serve to depict where there appears to be regional differences between the climates and localities of northern regions of China vs southern regions of China. Nevertheless, regional differences in culture and language have historically fostered a number of local identities. Extent Often used as the geographical dividing line between northern and southern China is the Qinling–Huaihe Line (lit. Qin Mountains–Huai River Line). This line approximates the 0 °C January isotherm and the isohyet in China. Culturally, however, the division is more ambiguous. In the eastern provinces like Jiangsu and Anhui, the Yangtze River may instead be perceived as the north–south boundary instead of the Huai River, but this is a recent development. There is an ambiguous area, the region around Nanyang, Henan, that lies in the ...
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Shaolin Temple
Shaolin Monastery (少林寺 ''Shàolínsì''), also known as Shaolin Temple, is a renowned monastic institution recognized as the birthplace of Chan Buddhism and the cradle of Shaolin Kung Fu. It is located at the foot of Wuru Peak of the Songshan mountain range in Dengfeng County, Henan Province, China. The name reflects its location in the ancient grove (林 lín) of Mount Shaoshi, in the hinterland of the Songshan mountains. Mount Song occupied a prominent position among Chinese sacred mountains as early as the 1st century BC, when it was proclaimed one of the Five Holy Peaks (五岳 wǔyuè). It is located some thirty miles (about forty-eight kilometers) southeast of Luoyang, the former capital of the Northern Wei Dynasty (386–534), and forty-five miles (about seventy-two kilometers) southwest of Zhengzhou, the modern capital of Henan Province.Shahar 2008 As the first Shaolin abbot, Batuo devoted himself to translating Buddhist scriptures and to preaching doctrines to ...
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Henan
Henan (; or ; ; alternatively Honan) is a landlocked province of China, in the central part of the country. Henan is often referred to as Zhongyuan or Zhongzhou (), which literally means "central plain" or "midland", although the name is also applied to the entirety of China proper. Henan is a birthplace of Han Chinese civilization, with over 3,200 years of recorded history and remained China's cultural, economic and political center until approximately 1,000 years ago. Henan Province is home to many heritage sites, including the ruins of Shang dynasty capital city Yin and the Shaolin Temple. Four of the Eight Great Ancient Capitals of China, Luoyang, Anyang, Kaifeng and Zhengzhou, are in Henan. The practice of tai chi also began here in Chen Jia Gou Village (Chen style), as did the later Yang and Wu styles. Although the name of the province () means "south of the ellowriver.", approximately a quarter of the province lies north of the Yellow River, also known as the Hu ...
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Xuan Nu
Xuan () may refer to: * Xuancheng, formerly Xuan Prefecture (Xuanzhou), Anhui, China ** Xuanzhou District, seat of Xuancheng and Xuan Prefecture ** Xuan paper, from Xuan Prefecture * Xuan (surname), Chinese surname * Xuan (given name) Chinese rulers posthumously named Xuan * King Xuan (other) * Emperor Xuan (other) * Duke Xuan (other) * Marquis Xuan of Cai Marquis Xuan of Cai (蔡宣侯) (?–715 BC), born Ji Cuòfu (姬措父), was the eleventh ruler of the State of Cai from 750 BC to 715 BC. He was the only known son of Marquis Dai of Cai (蔡戴侯), his predecessor. His reign for 35 years. He ...
(died 715 BC), ruler of the State of Cai {{disambiguation ...
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Hard And Soft Techniques
In martial arts, the terms hard and soft technique denote how forcefully a defender martial artist counters the force of an attack in armed and unarmed combat. In the East Asian martial arts, the corresponding hard technique and soft technique terms are 硬 (Japanese: , ) and 柔 (Japanese: , ), hence Goju-ryu (hard-soft school), Shorinji Kempo principles of ''go-ho'' ("hard method") and ''ju-ho'' ("soft method"), Jujutsu ("art of softness") and Judo ("gentle way"). Regardless of origins and styles, "hard and soft" can be seen as simply ''firm/unyielding'' in opposition or complementary to ''pliant/yielding''; each has its application and must be used in its own way, and each makes use of specific principles of timing and biomechanics. In addition to describing a physical technique applied with minimal force, "soft" also sometimes refers to elements of a discipline which are viewed as less purely physical; for example, martial arts that are said to be "internal styles" are some ...
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Bodhidharma
Bodhidharma was a semi-legendary Buddhist monk who lived during the 5th or 6th century CE. He is traditionally credited as the transmitter of Chan Buddhism to China, and regarded as its first Chinese patriarch. According to a 17th century apocryphal story found in a manual called Yijin Jing, he began the physical training of the monks of Shaolin Monastery that led to the creation of Shaolin kungfu. He is known as Dámó in China and as Daruma in Japan. His name means "''dharma'' of awakening ( bodhi)" in Sanskrit. Little contemporary biographical information on Bodhidharma is extant, and subsequent accounts became layered with legend and unreliable details. According to the principal Chinese sources, Bodhidharma came from the Western Regions, which typically refers to Central Asia but can also include the Indian subcontinent, and is described as either a "Persian Central Asian" or a "South Indian ..the third son of a great Indian king." Throughout Buddhist art, Bodhidharma ...
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Iron Shirt
Iron Shirt (; Cantonese: tit1 saam3) is a form of hard style martial art exercise believed to help protect the human body from impacts in a fight. This is one of the 72 arts of the Shaolin Temple. Some martial arts are based on the belief that a correctly trained body can withstand more damage than one that is untrained. Iron Shirt is said to be a series of exercises using many post stances, herbs, qigong and body movements to cause the body's natural energy ( qi) to reinforce its structural strength. Practitioners believe that directing energy to parts of the body can reinforce these parts of the body to take blows against them. In the Shaolin version of Iron Shirt, the practitioner would do things such as lying on a stump or supporting tablets of granite on the chest with the goal of toughening the body. Famous practitioners According to 13th generation lineage ''Tai He'' ("Great Harmony") Wudangquan Master ''Fan Ke Ping'' (), a collector of rare Kung fu manuals, Zhou Tong, t ...
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Chinese Martial Arts
Chinese martial arts, often called by the umbrella terms Kung fu (term), kung fu (; ), kuoshu () or wushu (sport), wushu (), are Styles of Chinese martial arts, multiple fighting styles that have developed over the centuries in Greater China. These fighting styles are often classified according to common traits, identified as "families" of martial arts. Examples of such traits include ''Shaolin kung fu, Shaolinquan'' () physical exercises involving Five Animals, All Other Animals () mimicry or training methods inspired by Chinese philosophies, Old Chinese philosophies, religions and legends. Styles that focus on qi manipulation are called ''Internal martial arts, internal'' (; ), while others that concentrate on improving muscle and cardiovascular fitness are called ''Styles of Chinese martial arts#External styles, external'' (; ). Geographical association, as in ''northern'' (; ) and ''southern'' (; ), is another popular classification method. Terminology ''Kung fu'' and ''wu ...
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