Does anyone have information about this style? A friend of mine who learned under a teacher at UC Irvine showed me their forms, which seemed mostly Jing Wu in flavor- gongliquan, jiequan, dazhanquan, and a form that looked like Hung Gar fuhuquan (fuk fu kyun).
I know that Huo Yuanjia practiced Mizong and created the Jing Wu association. I was wondering if gongliquan and jiequan are actually important Mizong forms.
If you do a search on Mi Tsung Lo Han, i think you’ll find some info that was already posted.
First, Mi Tsung Lo Lan (Mizong Lo han) is not the same as Mi Tsung that Huo Yuen Chia (Huo Yuanjia) taught at the Jing Mo schools. Mi Tsung Lo Hon can be traced back to Yip Yee Ting (Cantonese) who learned it from his uncle. It is said that his ancestors combined two styles, Mi Tsung with Lo han to create MTLH.
Now gongliquan, jiequan, and dazhanquan are part of the standard 10 basic Jing Mo curriculum but these sets are not part of Mi Tsung nor MTLH. The 10 standard Jing Mo sets was not developed by HYC but by Chao Lin Ho after HYC passed away in 1909. CLH’s background was in BSL, Tan Tui (12 row), Shaolin Battle sets and Mi Tsung. The style, Mi Tsung incooperated these three sets into their curriculum and hence CLH did the same for Jing Mo.
If you do a search on gongliquan, you’ll find that Mantis 108 wrote gongliquan can be traced back to the 1700’s to a man name Luo.
Jiequan is not the original name but was changed some time in the late 1800’s. The original name of this set was Flying Swallow Fist and was incooperated into Mi Tsung’s curriculum in the 1800’s. Very popular set in the Hebei province.
Dazhanquan is one of five sets within a style called Northern Shaolin Battle sets and has its origin to the Yellow River area. Again very popular style in the 1800’s in Hebei province.
But to answer your original question, yes these sets are important because it builds a strong foundation for the northern style that your friend is learning. Your friend’s roots can be traced back to Yip Yee Ting and after he learned his village style, MTLH, he went to Jing Mo and learned from CLH. Hence, gongliquan, Jiequan and dazhanquan were again reinforced onto YYT so that why it is in the MTLH’s curriculum. But if you’re able to see the upper level sets in the MTLH’s curriculum, you’ll see that MTLH has its own flavor.
Looks like all the other mizongquan in Hebei…lots of practitioners fairly common.
Huo’s Mizong is as per his family. Founding master Huo Xuwu who learnt Mizongquan or Yanqingquan from Sun Tong. As practiced around Cangzhou regions/districts such as Qing county, Jinghai county, Cang county etc…
Recently my wife and I began taking a Kung Fu class here in Shreveport, La. Mizong Luohan is the style we’re learning. Apparantly it’s not a common style, from what I’m able to gather.
FWIW, we feel rejuvinated after each class. I sure wish I’d have discovered this back when Master Johnny Lee was still teaching it here!
So I bumped into my Sifu for the first time in over a year. He’s started doing informal private lessons in his garage on Fridays.
It’s the first time I’ve done Kung Fu in about a year, and MAN was I sore the next morning. I thought I was keeping in decent shape the past year or so, going to the gym about 4 times a week, lots of cardio, weight lifting, etc. but after a year without doing the kind of hardcore stretching we did at the kung fu school, that stuff HURT.
But this Northern Chinese stuff, man… you don’t realize how little you really use your hips until you do the crazy ballistic stretches, the crescent kicks, the punches with full extension. Can’t wait till this Friday.
Indeed. My sifu had that on the school’s page before the school was closed down. I think an Aikido school is in the place where he and my other sifu’s taught. I haven’t had cause to drive there since the place closed down.
Only class I ever went to where there was a 1:4 student-sifu ratio (1:5 at one time- at it’s peak there were about 23 students, not counting the kid’s class.)
I’m just glad to be training again for a reason besides just “being healthy and getting in shape” which is a nebulous goal at best.