Legendary Roots of White Crane Kung Fu
By
George W. Alexander, Ph.D.
”If your hand speed is fast– so fast that you can’t
see the shadow-your techniques can’t be blocked.”
Grand Master Su Ying Han
(11th Generation Headmaster Yong Chun White Crane)
On a recent visit to China I had the opportunity to
visit with a true inheritor of a martial arts tradition that dates back
many centuries. A Chinese friend of mine and martial arts master, Mr.
Chi Ching Wei and I were on our way to visit the Nine Lotus Temple in
Fujian Province located in southern China. This was part of a trip to
China to make a documentary film called “In Search of Shaolin.” Mr. Chi
said to me, “I‘ve noticed the white crane karate kata you perform. I
have someone I’d like you to meet.” We then took a side trip to
Yong Chun Village birthplace of the white crane style. The buildings on
the way to this village were a bizarre mixture of old and new. All the
houses were made of stone. As the trees have all been harvested long
ago. The countryside seemed ancient. Dotted by rice paddies, water
buffalo, banana trees and bamboo. Villagers were working in the rice
fields doing what they have done for centuries. I thought, “This is an
ancient society.”
When we approached Yong Chun Village there was a
large obelisk in the town square with massive cranes sculpted into it. I
figured this must be the place. Mr. Chi explained to me that Yong Chun
means continuous flow as in the continuous flow of a stream or river.
Soon we arrived at Mr. Su Ying Han’s house for a visit and a workout. To
my surprise we were meeting with the eleventh generation headmaster of
the Yong Chun Village white crane style (See Bubishi Martial Art Spirit,
Alexander & Penland, 1993). Mr. Ben Asuncion from Los angels who was
part of our party served as interpreter. As soon as I walked into Mr.
Su’s living room I knew I was in a special place. The walls were covered
with paintings of cranes and old photos of past masters of this martial
arts tradition. Mr. Su, who is a chiropractor by trade, greeted us and
was very open and friendly. He was born in 1945 and in 1984 was
appointed by the Chinese government as the head of the research society
for Yong Chun Peiho (White Crane). In 1986 he was recognized as the
senior master on Yong Chun White Crane Kung Fu. During his martial arts
career he competed in many competitions and won numerous gold medals in
national competition. He learned from Pan Lui Tang (1903-1976) who was
born in Yong Chun Village and was the headmaster of the school.
Mr. Su offered me some tea as is the Chinese custom
and we discussed the history of Yong Chun white crane and the other
crane styles that have evolved from it. We compared techniques and
forms. Interestingly, the forms and body conditioning drills of my white
crane style of karate derived from Okinawa varied little from Mr. Su’s
original Yong Chun village tradition. Although one aspect, which didn’t
survive the style’s migration to Okinawa was the peculiar facial
contortions required when performing their white crane forms. This
devilish frown is somewhat disturbing if you aren’t prepared for it. It
seems as though the orthodox way of demonstrating a form includes a
facial contortion where the lips are retracted while tensing the facial
and neck muscles with the eyes held wide open. My understanding of the
reasoning behind this is twofold. One is to assume the look of a crane
and the other is to frighten the opponent by assuming the “look of a
beast ready to devour its prey.” I have seen this done in Okinawa before
and thought it was an eccentricity of the fellow performing the kata.
Mr. Iken Tokashiki of Gohakukai performs a very powerful tensho kata in
which he uses this facial expression. He has also studied Yong Chun
White Crane.
Later Mr. Su explained to me that white crane masters
in the Chinese tradition are selective about whom they teach and that
once selected students must adhere to the principles and philosophy of
their school and headmaster. He said a student of the crane style has to
have discipline and patience. He further stated, “We are talking about
years not months!” Mr. Su also explained to me that the white crane
style started in Yong Chun Village and was created by a woman named Fang
Chi Liang. The style then migrated from Yong Chun Village to Fuzhou and
then to Okinawa. A white crane master by the name of Iwah traveled to
Okinawa and taught there in the 1860s. Later another white crane boxing
master named Ryuryuko (Xie Zhongxiang, 1852-1930) taught several
Okinawans in Fuzhou who later returned to the Ryukyu Islands and
influenced styles such as Goju Ryu and Ryuei Ryu karate. Finally, he
knew the exact history of a Chinese tea merchant named Gokenki (Wu
[Wong] Hsien Huei, 1886-1940) who immigrated to Okinawa in 1910 and
taught many Okinawans the white crane style that influenced numerous
karate styles. Gokenki, who later changed his name to Yosekawa and took
an Okinawan wife, taught the forms sam chien, nepai and
paipuren. The white crane martial art village tradition dates back
almost four hundred years and no doubt influenced the southern Shaolin
fighting tradition as well.
After our meeting Mr. Su invited me outside to a
courtyard in the back of his house for a training session. I noticed
rubber pads on the trees. This is used for limb knocking or arm
conditioning. In addition to using trees, they practice body
conditioning or “limb knocking” as they call it by banging arms and legs
together to toughen themselves. This is called wu zhi drill or
five limbs drill. When I performed my kata for him he commented that he
liked the forty-five degree shifts in my form and clearly saw the
connection to his white crane style. He then performed an advanced form
with a lot of yao in it. This is a move which uses an accentuated
hip twist with a chop delivered horizontally about lower abdomen height.
At the end of the form he delivered two quick slaps to his chest
followed by a flicking motion with the wrist. He later explained that
this was a distraction technique coupled with an attack using the
fingers to flick the eyes. This movement is based on the flapping of a
crane’s wing.
White Crane Techniques:
Mr. Su said you have to start with good basics and
good stances. The stance used in the sam chien form is the basic
front stance and it is called bu teng bu ba. This means parallel
foot stance. The front foot is not turned inward as it is in Goju Ryu
but rather it is kept front facing. The stance is done with thirty
percent of the weight on the forward leg and seventy percent on the rear
leg. This is to facilitate front leg kicking. Mr. Su further explained
that speed is the most important element in white crane kung fu. He
said, ”If your hand speed is fast– so fast that you can’t see the
shadow-your techniques can’t be blocked.” In addition, the white crane
specialty kicking technique is the front snap kick. He said it has to be
used in combination with the hand techniques. To be most effective the
kick has to be fast but not hard. Quickness is more important. He said,
“You must start with the hands first and then kick. Make sure you have
groin protection first before you kick.” All kicks are done with the
front leg, because this is faster. He said, “This way it is difficult to
block.” A specialty combination used within Yong Chun Peiho is to front
kick with the lead leg and then shuffle forward and kick again with the
same leg.
Mr. Su has twenty hand forms in his art of peiho
or white crane and a number of weapon forms as well. The basic hand form
is called sam chien and is considered to be the mother of all
forms. It means three battles or three conflicts and is often equated to
mean the unification of body, mind and spirit. The sam chien form
is quite simple, it moves forward with three steps and then backwards
with three steps. According to Mr. Su it is easy to learn but difficult
to master. It develops the entire body and it helps you maintain
balance. I noticed when his students performed a form or set each move
was done with full power. Obviously this is an important element in
their style. Additionally, each form starts with the basic sam chien
movement.
During my visit with Mr. Su I noticed there was more
than a coincidental similarity to certain karate principles. For
instance, Yong Chun white crane sam chien form teaches that your
head must be held erect, back straight and the shoulder has to be down
when punching. Basically, this means having your shoulder locked down by
contracting the lat muscles and deltoids. This is exactly the same as
karate. Also, when punching one must withdraw the opposite hand with
equal force as the punching hand. Sound familiar? The foot is held so
that the heel and the ball of the foot grip the surface without using
the toes to sustain the grip and the buttocks is tightened. Stepping is
performed by either sliding or stepping, lifting the foot like a crane.
Mr. Su also told me that in the old days they used to put bricks down on
the ground and practice stepping. If your footwork was not precise you
would miss stepping on top of a brick and you would lose your balance.
These simplistic yet efficient training methods date back centuries in
this ancient village and to Fang Chi Liang’s time. A time when fighting
prowess meant survival. It was a time when out of necessity a young
maiden learned fighting methods from an unassuming yet elegant
animal--the white crane.
Visiting grand master Su Ying Han was an enlightening
experience. It was a real pleasure to spend time with this pleasant man
and to learn more about the legendary roots of white crane kung fu. I
hope to return to Yong Chun Village soon to learn more and train with a
legendary grand master and the highest authority on white crane kung fu,
Mr. Su Ying Han.
About the author: George W. Alexander, Ph.D. is a
ninth-degree black belt and president of the International Shorin Ryu
Karate Kobudo Federation and Okinawa Hakutsuru Kenpo Association. He is
the author of Okinawa: Island of Karate, The Bubishi Martial Art Spirit,
The Japanese Martial Arts Dictionary and Warrior Jujitsu. To contact him
write to ISKKF Honbu Dojo, 180 Yellow Jacket Drive, Reliance, TN. 37369.
Or email to
alexyama@mindspring.com
Side Bar
White Crane Folklore
The folklore of China indicates that a woman
established the white crane or peiho
style. One version of this legend states that her name was Fang
Chi Liang. When she was a young girl, she was very rough and was
known as a tomboy. She practiced Tai zu,
a form of kung fu with her father. Her father had been betrayed by
the local townspeople in a battle over the control of their village and
was seriously injured. When Fang Chi Liang heard of what had taken
place and what had happened to her father, she became very angry and
vowed to take revenge.
She realized that being a woman without strong enough
kung fu, she did not have the means to avenge her father. Then one day,
as she was lying in her room thinking of her father and what had
happened to him, she was distracted by a disturbance outside.
Suddenly, she heard a loud screeching noise from the yard.
Fang sprang to her feet and rushed to the window just
in time to see two large white cranes fighting furiously. She
watched intently as they battled each other. She paid close
attention to their movements. As they fought, they jumped up and
down, spreading and flapping their wings. They pecked and poked at
each other with their long beaks.
Fang finally ran outside and picked up a long bamboo
pole lying there. She swung the pole at the birds, trying to drive
them away. Each time she swung the pole at one of the cranes, it
merely dodged her swing by retreating backward while lifting one leg.
Then the cranes immediately charged forward at Fang, flapping their
wings furiously. She then tried to poke or thrust at them using
the pole as a spear. The cranes simply jumped to the side each
time and pecked at the pole.
Eventually, Fang became tired and gave up. The
cranes simply flew away. As she sat resting in her yard trying to
catch her breath, she pondered her experience with the cranes. She
thought for some time about what had taken place. After long hours
of meditation, she came to realize that if a human being could fight in
the same way as the cranes, especially herself, than she could avenge
her father.
For the next three years, Fang practiced daily and
thought of only what the cranes had done in battle. She realized
the value of yielding to the force of strength. She also
recognized the natural law of constant change in battle, of strong
changing to yielding, and yielding changing to strong (Yin and Yang,
opposing negative and positive forces in nature). Fang came to
understand the combative value and efficiency of continuous movement in
blocking and countering. After she gained this knowledge and
developed the skill and courage to use it, she avenged herself and her
father. She became the heroine of Yong Chun Village and the teacher of
the White Crane Fist Style.
The legend of Fang Chi Liang and the beginning of
the white crane style is a pleasant story and believable in many
respects. Regardless of folklore, the white crane or
Hakutsuru style as it is called in Japanese
did come to Okinawa and was blended with Okinawan karate in numerous
ways. Oral traditions of Okinawa indicate Chinese immigrants
brought the style to Kumermura, a suburb of Naha, Okinawa as early as
the 1600’s and taught it to the native Okinawans. Additionally, the
white crane style in Fujian Province China continued to evolve
throughout its long history there. It eventually developed into five
different crane styles, Flying Crane, Jumping Crane, Sleeping Crane,
Feeding Crane and Whooping Crane.