Appledog

If you look deep into the history and read widely what you will find is that the Shaolin Temple was a sort of nexus point for martial arts; a hub. But it was not the only one. A lot of places were like smaller Shaolin temples. What would happen is travelers would visit Shaolin, and other similar places and would share their martial arts in exchange for learning. The temple martial arts would then be disseminated, albeit slowly, among the local villages. Then you will find that the fall of the Ming dynasty aroused a sort of panic and "monks" began travelling into the population and spreading martial arts. For whaever reason, let's leave that aside for now It is for this reason however that there is an explosion in martial arts knowledge in the 1600s. You will find this again in the 1800s as the Qing begins to fall. Thus, what Shaolin is, is what it was; an ecclectic system of evolving theories and practices. It's difficult to put a finger on everything. There were different parts of it that even contained different groups. If you want to know what was taught in Shaolin there are a few reflections of it that you can take a look at. One famous example is Five Animals Hung Gar. Another is White Crane (ex. Feeding Crane in Taiwan). The problem is that what it was, was so large and fluid that it was more about being there or being around there, at the time, than it being packaged into something saleable. What was passed down today was merely a snapshot of one person's training -- a reflection -- a memory. If you go to something like hung gar your looking at five animals shaolin, for example. Thats old technology, but not as ancient as 72 methods. Praying mantis would be a relatively newer development after this, as would eagle claw, so both of those frequently include tantui as a beginner's form. (IIRC sometime in the 1700s Muslim 10 roads Tantui got adopted by Shaolin as a beginner's form). If you wanted to try and reconstruct it, I would almost give up hope. All roads lead "somewhere" here, so just pick some art like praying mantis which appeals to you and learn the snapshot of the prevailing trends of that era. Since praying mantis is relatively late, 1800s, and still retains the main ideas in the same vein (in general) it might be a good place to start. Hung Gar is another great shining star. But there are so many. I chose Chen Tai Chi. A little further off the beaten path but it's still a pencil.

Hi, I live in Taiwan for 20 years and I am a student of Kung Fu and Tai Chi. Our famliy style includes Bajiquan, Xingyiquan, Xinyi Liuhe and Chen style. Our style of Bajiquan is a family system from Wang Ziping and is not the same as others (but that only means it's different, not better). Additionally Taiwan is well-known for baji instruction and I know several local places where you can dig deep into Bajiquan if what I have isn't to your liking. What our family system did is integrate Bajiquan, Xinyi/Xingyi and Chen style so that they operate in unison. Another branch of our family does Baguazhang but I didn't learn it (the arts I do know are already a lot, for me, anyways). I can talk to you more about Bagua in DM if your interested. Depending on what you want to learn I can either teach you directly or point you in the right direction. Taiwan where I live is a very peaceful place and is a great place to come to learn because the cost of living is very cheap. Your extra benefit is that I'm an English Canadian and my lineage is very famous. Send me a DM and we can talk about what you need, but in all honesty this will be somewhat expensive. I am a professional teacher so my cost is relatively low, but the living expenses here will be something like $12,000 USD for one year. That will give you an awesome apartment, clothing, cellphone, tv internet, all the food you can eat, and a bike or scooter to get around.. as well as any incidentals I suppose. You would be joining an in-door class with family members and we train 2 hours in the morning from 5am, then between 2 and 4 hours again in the afternoon and evening. I've actually been meaning to extend these sessions and if someone else serious was to join we might go 3 or 4 hours in the morning. But if you are not able to do this it can hurt you. The weather is great too, never too cold. If you're interested send me a message and the worst that can happen is I can tell you about all the other schools you might be interested in. I live in the south end of Taiwan, in the country, but very close to Tainan city, so it is the best of both worlds. If you are serious there is nothing stopping you from getting lineage in this system, is there?