heres some monkey kung fu info

[blaze78_9]

THE MONKEY

 

The Art Of monkey Kung Fu as it is better known, is considered one of the most unusual and effective styles in Kung Fu. Its deceiving and unorthodox techniques make it an awesome and strange sight to behold.

 

Though many Kung Fu styles are based on the characteristics of animals, such as the Shaolin five animals, the art of Tai shing pek kwar, which is based on the antics of the monkeys, is set apart from the other animal styles. To master this art, the practitioner must become a monkey – mentally – rather than just imitating one. Monkey Kung Fu is made up of two separate and complete arts, Tai shing (monkey), which was founded by Master Kou Sze and pek kwar (axe fist), which was founded by Ma Chi Ho.

 

The Art of Pek Kwar

 

Master Ma Chi Ho, who lived in Shantung province, founded the art of pek kwar over 2000 years ago. He based this particular style of pek kwar Kung Fu on axe-fist techniques, which use circular long arm, and free-swinging movements, low stances, and the internal energy of chi. It is not a pretty or flashy style, but it's filled with quick and powerful movements of sudden blows and strikes. This style uses circular patterns and angular strikes, resembling those made by a man swinging an axe in each hand.

 

While Ma Chi Ho was quite young, he lived down the road from a Taoist temple. Out of the kindness of his heart, young Ma would gather and chop wood for the priests who lived in that temple. One day, one of the priests from the temple approached Ma and said to him, "Metal may conquer wood, but the spirit is stronger". Then the priest walked away without giving an explanation. Though Ma was puzzled, he still continued his chore of providing wood for the priests.

 

With an axe in each hand, which helped double the results, he chopped at the limbs of every tree he could reach. Later, when Ma decided he had gathered enough wood for the temple that day, he slowly set both his axes down. Then the priest's saying suddenly came to mind. "Metal may conquer wood, but the spirit is stronger". Ma sat down on a log and studied the saying. "Metal", thought Ma to him, "must mean the axe in my hand and the conquering of wood must be my chopping off branches. The spirit must mean me, or the inner me, which is stronger".

 

 

 

Ma then took one of the axes in his hand and swung it at one of the branches of the tree, chopping it off. He set down the axe and walked up to the tree. After angling his arm and his fist, as if he were using an axe, he swung at the branch. To his amazement, the limb broke off. Through this realization, that he could wield his strength and inner spirit like an axe, Ma later perfected a new type of swinging motion. Ma combined these motions with several of the northern Kung Fu styles that he knew into a brand new style.

 

Ma Chi Ho later passed on this art to his protégé Ken Ming Kwai, who passed it to his son, Ken Yung Kwai, who then, passed it on to his son, Ken Tak Hoi.

 

Tai Shing

 

The history of Tai shing Kung Fu begins at the turn of the century, near the end of the Ching Dynasty (1644-1911), when a short-tempered fighter from northern China named Kou Sze was arrested for killing a fellow villager. The punishment for such a crime was either death or life imprisonment. To save Kou Sze from either penalty, several of his closest and influential friends got together and managed to bribe the judge to reduce Kou Sze's sentence to only eight years in prison. Kou Sze was placed in solitary confinement to serve out his eight-year term. To pass the time Kou Sze trained intensively in some of the northern Kung Fu styles he had learned, particularly in tei tong (great earth style) named for its ground fighting techniques. The prison in which Kou Sze was held was located in a forest on the outskirts of town. By a strange fate, the cell window faced a grove of tall trees inhabited by a colony of chattering monkeys frolicking and swinging from tree to tree. Fascinated by the monkeys' playful antics among the branches, Kou Sze spent hours observing the little animals. Soon he began to analyze every action of the monkeys.

 

He discovered that not all monkeys were alike. Each had a different personality and different characteristics. Each responded differently to different situations. Playful monkeys, for instance, behaved quite differently when playfully fighting with one another than when actually fighting other animals.

 

 

 

Kou Sze realized that these monkeys' antics were compatible with the tei tong style he had learned from childhood. After intensively studying every movement and action of each of the monkeys, and incorporating these movements with the tei tong style, Kou Sze founded a new and unusual fighting method he called tai shing (great sage), so named in honor of Sun Wu Kung, the monkey king in the Chinese folktale "Journey to the West".

 

Through careful study, Kou Sze was able to break down all of the monkeys' reactions and categorize them into five different personality types. Thereby he founded five different forms: the tall monkey, the lost monkey, the drunken monkey, the wooden monkey and the stone monkey forms. These five forms make up the Tai shing art.

 

Unlike other systems of Kung Fu, Tai shing has its own principles of maneuvering; including grabbing, falling, lunging and light art jumping and turning. In addition, there are five principles of mental attitude that must be cultivated in this art. They include deviousness, elusiveness, unpredictability, sneakiness and destructiveness. Each of these is employed in each of the five monkey forms. However, each monkey has a unique method of fighting.

 

HISTORY OF THE DRUNKEN MONKEY

 

Who is a Pretty Monkey King? It is the chief figure in the story book "Journey To the West" (translated into English as "The Monkey King"), a supernatural fiction written in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) by Wu Cheng En, by making references from the records of Buddhist master Tripetika of the Tang Dynasty (618-907) on his journey to India to learn Buddhism and bring back hundreds of Buddhist sutras. It was Master Tripetika's recording of what he saw, what he heard and how he overcome doubly-repeated difficulties on his journey, that was taken account of, and made the fiction famous and attractive.

 

The "Pretty Monkey king" was a figure created in the story, carrying out duties to protect Master Tripetika, of whom it was one of the three disciples. Master Tripetika's other two disciples were the "Enlightened swine", a spiritualized swine, and the "Unshaven Monk", a spirit skilled in swimming and diving. It is the author's intention that these three tonsured disciples are meant to be images for the various lusts of the human mind. The "Pretty Monkey King" represents the unstable emotion of a man, and faith. That is why the author also calls the Pretty Monkey King as the "Ape of the Mind". (He also calls Master Tripetika's horse, a horse transformed from a dragon, as the Horse of Intention", and image for the strong will of a man). The "Enlightened Swine" represents idleness, greed, fear for hardship and sexual lust of a man. The "Unshaven Monk", on the other hand stands for the personality of an honest common guy. A man's actions are controlled by his intention and thought. That is why the Pretty Monkey King is described as being exceptionally active and distinct in character, thus leaving a deep, long-lasting impression in the mind of Chinese readers. Nowadays, there are lots of women and children who really believe in the existence of the Pretty Monkey King!

 

In legend, Master Tripetika gave his disciple a name- Suen Wu Kung (literally meaning the monkey understanding everything is void). But in the fiction "Journey to the West", he is given the names of the "Stone Monkey", "The Pretty Monkey" and "The Monkey King" In this fiction, it proclaims itself the "Heavenly Saint"! In fiction, it is said that the Monkey King was derived from a large piece of rock, which had for a long time absorbed the essence of the sun and the moon. That is why the Monkey King is described in the book as an active, strong, and clever animal. It has the physical form and character of a monkey, but it also has the wisdom and kind heart of a man. Ever since it was adopted disciple of Tripetika, it showed great faith to its master, though its master had for several times misunderstood him on the journey.

 

At first the Stone Monkey, as described, was a common monkey. But later, with its courage and strong will it became the king of all monkeys of the "Mountain of Flowers and Fruit". It became skilful and learned in martial arts, and the power of magic for seventy-two changes. With one somersault it could reach the distance of one hundred and eight thousand miles. It could also transform itself to become as tall as the height of the sky from the earth- that is the reason why it proclaimed itself as the "Heavenly Saint". But at other movements it could reduce itself to the size of a fly, so that it could fly into the cave of its enemy to search for secrets, or to fly playfully into the stomach of its enemy to make a mess of it.

 

The weapon used by the Monkey King was a golden cudgel. It was originally a huge spiritual needle placed on the bottom of the Eastern Sea to tranquillize wind and waves there. Having possessed this weapon, it applied magic on it so that it could be transformed in size- to become a fighting cudgel or a needle that could be placed inside its ear.

 

The bad nature of a monkey caused the Monkey King to make troubles everywhere. It is not only stole and ate all the peaches of the spiritual peach tree of the Heaven King Mother, but also emptied all the wine that was reserved for fairies and immortals that were invited to come to the birthday party of the Heavenly King Mother. That caused the Heavenly King to become enraged. Besides, it also made a mess of the Heavenly Palace after having had a fight with all its might and magic power against numerous warriors of Heaven.

 

At last, Buddha Yu-Lei subdued it.

 

FROM MAN INTO MONKEY

 

Monkey kung fu, famous throughout Northern China for its tumbling and rolling techniques, the confusing and constantly changing footwork and its deadly accuracy, was founded by a martial artist with a short temper. As the legends have it, that same short temper put Kao Tze behind bars in ancient China for killing a fellow villager in a fight. The prison had two exit gates: the first guarded by a group of chattering monkeys and the second by human jailers. Kao Tze observed that any prisoner attempting an escape had to get through the gate guarded by the monkeys first. Not only was no one successful at this venture, but also the monkeys were fierce fighters and in each case severely injured the escapees.

 

So impressed was Kao Tze that he carefully studied the monkeys at play and while fighting. He noticed that each primate had his own style of fighting, which made it impossible for the escaping prisoner to defend against the monkeys' onslaught. Kao Tze broke these separate styles down into five basic monkey-fighting patterns.

 

When his prison term ended and he had returned to freedom, Kao Tze set about revising that Tai sing or monkey style kung fu system.

 

One of Kao Tze most renowned students was Gung Da Hoi, who combined Tai Sing Kung Fu with the Pap Kar Kung Fu system and founded the Tai Sing Pap Kar Moon system. Gung Da Hoi was the Sifu of Chan Sau Chung of Hong Kong, the world famous Monkey King. Chan Sau Chung is known throughout the world for his monkey kung fu.

 

Tai Sing Pap Kar Moon is broken down into the five original monkey types. There is a form among these five that will fit any monkey practitioner.

 

The first is the "Drunken Monkey". Monkeys can become intoxicated when they drink. When the monkey appears to be drunk, his enemies attack, thinking to take advantage of his condition. But the monkey is very elusive and hard to catch. He hides, and then counterattacks with deadly precision. His footwork consists of low stances and tricky acrobatics, giving the appearance of drunkenness.

 

The drunken money is the hardest of the five types to learn, but it is the most powerful of the five. In this form, the monkey must squat, roll and tumble more than in the others. The movements are combinations of hard and soft power, designed to develop the chi or internal energy. Although the monkey seems unstable and out of control, when he moves he concentrates his energy into whatever part of his body he wishes. This can be the monkey practitioner's shoulder, waist, hip, arms etc. Wherever he touches his opponent, the chi energy leaves the monkey's body and can cause serious injury to his opposition. Everything seems relaxed, without hard external power, but upon contact powerful internal energy is released.

 

The "Stone Monkey" uses more physical force than the drunken monkey and is a much more external form. The Stone Monkey is well suited to a physically strong person. All of the movements use force against force. This monkey practitioner trains his body to be very resilient to blows, like a rock. He can exchange punches on a one to one basis with feeling his opponent's blows. This form also contains many falling and rolling techniques.

 

The " Lost Monkey" has lost his way, and looks innocent and confused. This is just a fraud, for the lost monkey is tricky, and deceiving, fooling his opponent at every opportunity. This money trains for extremely light footwork. He's quick to move, and each movement (both fist and foot) is hard for the opposition to predict and follow. Sometimes he seems to fake a move, but then it turns out to be real, and visa versa.

 

The lost monkey changes his footwork frequently. His opposition doesn't know where the monkey is moving next. The same is true of his hands. The hands and the footwork change suddenly and without warning.

 

The "Standing Monkey" doesn't fall and roll around as much as the others, and uses more conventional stances. It is a long-arm form, which is well suited for tall people.

 

The "Wooden Monkey" is a very aggressive fighter. He is relentless in his attack, and never fears his opponent. The wooden monkey uses quiet, controlled movements. He's always looking for an opening in his opponent's defenses. When he attacks, he attacks so aggressively that his enemy finds it practically impossible to defend himself. This monkey is opposite of the playful appearing drunken monkey.

 

There are five principles describing the monkey personality that are the essence of the monkey fighting.

 

He must be sly and tricky.

 

He must be poison to his adversary, like a poisonous snake.

 

He must be able to destroy the opponent's attack.

 

He must be good a bluffing his adversary.

 

He must be devilish and unpredictable.

 

The student of Monkey Gungfu incorporates these five principles into his own personality while performing or fighting.

[cross]

That was very interesting blaze78_9. Took ages to read, but still very interesting.

 

nice work.

[blaze78_9]

thanks but i dindnt type. i found it on https://www.shaolin-society.co.uk

[cross]

No problems, still a good read. I might check out some other articles on that site.

[SaiFightsMS]

Okay, it is a good bit of information but please in the future cite the source of any article in the original post. There could be copywrite issues here. Please don't just copy and paste. Give the source proper credit.

[White Warlock]

Could be?!? I would say definitely. The entire write was copied verbatim. To handle presentation of other people's works, either obtain their permission or copy a portion of a paragraph and then provide a link to the rest of it, and/or summarize the rest of it in your own words. I agree, as well, to cite your sources, lest you be smacked down with plagiarism.

 

When posting on the net, always consider copyright infringement and plagiarism. You definitely don't want the headaches.

[Draven Chen Zhen]

Nice post , and a very good site !!